Need help retaining my sanity, PART 2.

[ctrld]

So the lessons i learned from tonight:
NEVER play techno @ a top 40 nightclub

or rather:

NEVER PLAY @ A TOP40 NIGHTCLUB

if you want to retain your sanity, that is.

I feel for you... but most of us went through similar shit one time or the other (I have a couple of seriously weird stories of my own, but I don't want to hijack your thread). swallow hard, back down, try again - preferably somewhere else.

[photojojo]

Learning from your mistakes is the best way to get better.

[Dj Solus]

yeah i need to start hitting up real nightclubs. i realize though that i wasnt exactly the best @ mixing either. ive been only doing this for about 6 months and i realize my "spontaneous" mxing was a little lax. any way to get better? i was thinking maybe record myself and just have random mix sessions where i can do stuff and listen to myself later & see what works and what doesnt. also i need to learn how to get my APC 40 w/ Ableton Live 8 & my Xponent with Torq to work together, could anyone shoot me in the right direction for that? i think it could in the long run really help out my performances (even though i was pretty busy up on the decks last night between the mixing and requests and such i really didnt have much time to pay attention to the crowd, also i held my head down purposefully a lot too so that probably didnt help lol i was so ashamed)

[photojojo]

any way to get better?

Practice, practice, practice. recording is a good idea. And when you screw up on something don't stop and start over. Run with it, fix it and keep going like you would in a club.

[DJ Nada]

Hey, sounds like you might live kind of close to me! If that Top 40 club is near me, I'll take that gig off your hands. I have no problem beatmatching thug music.

But seriously, sorry to hear you didn't rock the place. It's a good experience though. I've had nights where the amp kept hard clipping me, my laptop wouldn't work, broken mixers, I didn't have enough of the right kind of music, etc. It all makes you a better DJ. Or just pissed off.

My advice to you is be flexible! Be able to play multiple genres of music. For example, I have a lot of reggae and latin dance music. (salsa, bachata) I can play all the stuff the other DJ's have, but I can take the crowd on a quick journey to Jamaica or Puerto Rico or Colombia. Once you've gained the floor's trust, you can take them anywhere.
For you, it'd probably be more European electro, but you get where I'm going with this. Maybe throw some Japanese music in there? Indian or Arabic music? I think you'll find more success if you don't get stuck in the "I'm a *insert genre* DJ" Why didn't you have any top 40 remixes? You knew you were going to be in a top 40 club and they might not have been feeling the electro... Play what the people want to hear, not what you want to hear. I only play what I want to hear when I'm pissed at the crowd because they won't dance lol! They want to experience your amazing mind reading skills. "How did you know I wanted to hear that song!?" Play to your crowd, make them happy.

I suggest making mixtapes to try to get better. Don't just make them, give them to pretty girls you're trying to impress. Nothing would crush my ego more than someone telling me my mixtape sucks, so some of my best work goes into them, and those learned skills translate to my live mixing. Hearing yourself mix live (in the company of said pretty girl you're trying to impress) makes every glitch and mistake sound huge.

[Dj Solus]

Hey, sounds like you might live kind of close to me! If that Top 40 club is near me, I'll take that gig off your hands. I have no problem beatmatching thug music

haha i live in Mountain View & the club's in Palo Alto lol i could get you the hookup i think. them ghetto folks is annoying though expect an assload of horribles requests (teach me how to dougie ghetto bootay remix? fuckk that homes)

But seriously, sorry to hear you didn't rock the place. It's a good experience though. I've had nights where the amp kept hard clipping me, my laptop wouldn't work, broken mixers, I didn't have enough of the right kind of music, etc. It all makes you a better DJ. Or just pissed off.

yeah well ive been kinda losing a bit of my enthusiasm lately when trying to get this event together, first trying to get enough people to go but now after last sunday im just worried about the music & mixing being appreciated by the crowd.

My advice to you is be flexible! Be able to play multiple genres of music......For you, it'd probably be more European electro, but you get where I'm going with this. Maybe throw some Japanese music in there? Indian or Arabic music? I think you'll find more success if you don't get stuck in the "I'm a *insert genre* DJ"..... Play what the people want to hear, not what you want to hear. I only play what I want to hear when I'm pissed at the crowd because they won't dance lol! They want to experience your amazing mind reading skills. "How did you know I wanted to hear that song!?" Play to your crowd, make them happy."

haha i getcha, i have a couple japanese, straight rave, electro/hip hop hybrids & some other miscellaneous stuff on standby. Ill keep those as backup for next saturday if things go sour (which they wont, but knowing these retarded tweens i have no idea how crap could go at this point. the best im hoping for is that they go in knowing its an electro themed event and dont start thinking at some point "why has 143 not been played yet?!?!?")

I suggest making mixtapes to try to get better. Don't just make them, give them to pretty girls you're trying to impress. Nothing would crush my ego more than someone telling me my mixtape sucks, so some of my best work goes into them, and those learned skills translate to my live mixing. Hearing yourself mix live (in the company of said pretty girl you're trying to impress) makes every glitch and mistake sound huge.

This i will most defenitely do. i have a DnB, an electronica/indie, and a electro mix all in the works with a hard trance one just being started. hopefully ill get a few of them done sometime soon. i also wanna try some spontaneous mixes and see if i can get that to help me mix on the fly a little bit better

not to get homoerotic DJ Nada, but i could kiss you