Preparing a Techno Set

[mostapha]

Yeah, but that happens naturally when you play enough. It's not the kind of thing you need to take notes on.

[Goingvinyl123]

Practice, Practice, Practice, and know your tunes in and out. I think thats the best way to prepare a set you you'll know what you got in your collection and can determine whats appropriate to play when......just my two cents

[LanceBlaise]

I fucking wing it.

[cheef]

Once I've purchased techno tracks they're keyed, rated along a scale of 1 to 5, and dropped into my techno playlist, sorted by Date Added. Newest being at the top.

A rating of "1" being techno of a smooth, simple atmospheric quality and lower BPM value to start a set off the right way, right through to "5" being +/- 130bpm and absolute set-ending fire.

So when scrolling through my techno playlist, I'm just looking for rating only. That tells me all I need to know.

There's a two hour set in my signature link below that'll qualify this as an example.

[Kwal]

I fucking wing it.

Same. Literally.

[Chris Lange]

I find knowing your tracks really well, and having things properly keyed, and gridded, will open up a huge amount of creative freedom. I never prepare set-specific playlists, I just feel the set out as I go from the mood I establish in the intro.

[ConnectControl]

Sometimes i'll plan out the first two or three tracks just to get things going, but generally after that I just cue a lot and wing it. Definitely make sure you know your tracks first though, what does and doesn't work together. Nothing worse than inadvertently changing the mood of a mix by dropping a track that just doesn't fit.

[031999]

If you know your tunes, you will start to behave almost as a member of the crowd, and you will "feel" the next song that should come in.

[mostapha]

I fucking wing it.

That sounds remarkably familiar.

All the organization and commenting and playlists and searching....and, yeah....scroll through until "oh, I think i remember that song...let's try that".

[teknik1200]

Same. Literally.

yup, the folks listening are going to play a big role in where my set goes and it can go any number of ways. with techno a lot of it is similar and working in waves of intensity tends to keep things interesting.