Musical Journey - Need Your Opinion
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  1. #1
    Tech Mentor EYENSEE's Avatar
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    Default Musical Journey - Need Your Opinion

    I've seen some of the videos over at djtutor.com about building your set in a way where you take your audience through a 'musical journey'.

    (reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YagrgsYao-o)

    The basic idea I guess is to build, by starting off deep and mellow then bringing your audience to a climax by playing uplifting type tracks where the audience just goes 'apeshit' :P . A dj can do this buildup process to the climaxes many times in a night. (if they were playing for like +4 hours)

    In your opinion, if you had an hour and half timeslot, is it worth it (even possible?) to bring your audience to a 'climax' 3-4 times?

    or

    just take the whole hour and a half, building up to one big climax?

  2. #2
    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    When I have 90 minute sets I try to succeed in that climax once. Usually the first three songs will be used to build the energy, create an idea of where I'm going, get the adrenaline pumping, then I lower the energy (sometimes drastically) for people to get some more drinks, and I pump it up from there. Two or three songs later, when the adrenaline kicks in, mixed with the few drinks they've had, the journey really begins.

    It comes down to the event, though. I have a friend that has done sets in 4 song chunks. Every 4 songs in a new genre, a new journey, and it's worked. I've done 90 minute sets of nothing but hard electronics (gabber/hardstyle/powernoise) and the crowd goes nuts the whole set. For me the universal answer applies to this question: read your crowd.
    It's the FAQ. Read it.

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  3. #3
    Tech Guru B33SON's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DvlsAdvct View Post
    read your crowd.
    You said it! I can make a great podcast sitting at home and selecting exactly the tracks that go together, but when you get out and play that same strategy hardly ever works. Unless you've got a really short time frame and you know who is playing before and after you.... and the crowd turns out to be who you thought it was and in the mood you expected.

    ...see where I'm going with this? There's a lot of variables. It's hard to anticipate what it'll be like when you're sitting at home. You have to read your crowd and be prepared to react. The best way to prepare is to have your music well organized by style, genre and energy level. I sort music till I'm blue in the face so I can quickly go in a direction I think works for the crowd. My best sets always end up being put together live, but that doesn't mean I went hunting for each track in my collection, but I built it live using pieces that I already know work together.
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  4. #4
    DJTT Ninja Mod tekki's Avatar
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    As DvlsAdvct preaches: "Read the crowd".

    The only thing that counts for a DJ, read to the crowd and respond accordingly.
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  5. #5
    Dr. Bento BentoSan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tekki View Post
    As DvlsAdvct preaches: "Read the crowd".

    The only thing that counts for a DJ, read to the crowd and respond accordingly.
    Yeah thats why humans mix and not computers

  6. #6
    Tech Mentor djxsquizet's Avatar
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    i try to read the crowd but usally when i am doing my house parties i either play something i like, or i think if i am drunk and dancing "put song here" would be the ish.

    i do read the crowd on dancing like when the song starts off they are into grinding all hard and jumping but then like halfway through the song the slow down then i usally mix into the next song to get them going agian.
    www.myspace.com/djxsquizet
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    2x vestax pdx, numark dxm09, m-audio x session pro, and ableton live 6.

    I spin hip hop/electro/top 40

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  7. #7
    Tech Mentor EYENSEE's Avatar
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    do any of you guys play at big raves? and think that 'reading the crowd' is even necessary?

    I've heard/read that most, not all DJ's at these big raves have a pre-planned set to take you on this musical journey.

    Maybe raves are the exception when it comes to not having to read the crowd?

    -thoughts?

  8. #8
    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    Well, here's the thing, though. I don't have a pre-planned set. I haven't spun to a lot of people in a while (I think my cap has been 100, so maybe I'm not even qualified to discuss this ;-) ) but you don't need to preplan your sets to take your crowd on a journey. You just need to know your music.

    So... read your crowd and know your music... in fact, in this article I'm drafting I have another one, that is know your gear.

    Hey look, I don't have to write it anymore
    It's the FAQ. Read it.

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  9. #9
    DJTT Ninja Mod tekki's Avatar
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    LoLz! Nice one D, but you're right!

    No matter if you have _only_ spun for 100, it might even proof to be harder than the big crowds.
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  10. #10
    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    Oh my god it sucks. Spinning to 10, 15 people is awful to keep them dancing. I hate it. They are so controlled by each other. When one person leaves the dance floor it is SO empty. And then you scramble and fuck up a mix and then they leave and you are left crying into your beer (or in my case your bottle of vodka) and play something no one likes cause you need to feel better

    heh
    It's the FAQ. Read it.

    My Mixes, Mashups and Rants

    Divided we stand
    United we fall

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