At a club: How much of a song do you typically play?

[3heads]

A lot of songs progress throughout the track and most music is based around repetition, and consonant phrasing. So to deny a track much air time means that it ultimately loses impact.

Nicely said!

[StevieDee'j]

I think it is too. I usually tend to let the track have it's way as to prolong the vibe I intend to set.
On average you could say I'd take 4 to 5 songs in 20 minutes.

+ 1

[keithace]

till the needle hits the paper...

[bobbylight]

I much prefer letting an entire song (or at least the majority of it) play out. There's a club in SF that my friends have dragged me to and the dj's spin only top 40/rap/hip-hop current hits and they barely even play half of the song and sometimes they play the same part of a song twice or three times later in their sets. This drives me crazy because they just slam tracks back to back and very rarely do they actually mix and blend the end of a song and the beginning of the next.

[DJ Nada]

It depends if the crowd is feeling the track or not. If it's a lukewarm reaction, mix out after the first verse! If it's a banger, let it play out. Simple, right?

If there's a DJ you want to impress/embarrass, mix as fast as humanly possible lol.

[eubruin]

Some really good advice to newcomers in this thread. Too often I see young guys up in the booth trying to make their live sets sound like a laidback luke mix-tape; I too have been guilty of that and didn't really like the response I got.

It appears that letting a song fully 'develop' is an important part of a successful live DJ set. In my experience, letting the chorus come back a second time also allows the crowd to sing along even if they don't know the song... nothing like a bit of repetition combined with alcohol to create an instant sing-along classic.

[padi_04]

Depends on crowd reaction really but I don't like fast transitioning, it doesn't give time for the people to catch up.

[Jester]

start mixing 3 minutes from end.

[guiltyblade]

depends on the song, crowd, session, and genre of music. I play trance and prog and I allow most trance songs to play out because most are working towards a build up and such. That being said most trance trances have about 2 mins or the 7 mins of the trance allotted for mixing. So really the only substance is about 5 mins of music, As I rulle of thumb I mix about the first min of two tracks together for smooth transition. Jumping around drives me nuts listening, but i can understand it as a DJ. You get bored and want to change it up based on the crowd. But a lot of time you are taking away an opportunity for a track to develop if you do it too quick, or pul away from a track when its really hot.

I mean I do the same thing, only its not track jumping its using too many effects, filters, etc, when sometimes a song should play for a few mins. At least for trance, prog, etc.

[jdog667jkt]

I mean I do the same thing, only its not track jumping its using too many effects, filters, etc, when sometimes a song should play for a few mins. At least for trance, prog, etc.

I am so freaking guilty of doing this.. far too often I get bored during a set and wanna mess around with effects and craziness and what not... i should know that a gig is not the ideal time to experiment with new effect combos

but a few times it's worked out really nicely.. one time i discovered the peak filter in traktor during a gig at a great moment