new kid on the block
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  1. #1
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    hey whats up. i'm currently saving up money for the 100se. i'm on a low budget so i will prob get it by june or before and then start practicing.

    i listen to the same minimal house track songs which are the ones i purchased of from beatport. and i also listen to music on beatport and take notes on songs i like. i purchase one song from beatport weekly to add to my collection. my goals are to become as professional and spin like richie hawtin (but not the same music) within 8-10 years. i'm 24yr. now, so i'm hoping that in 8-10 yrs i will be as good as richie hawtin at re-spinning minimal tracks and maybe with that skill i will be able to spin non-minimal house like tribal, tech and prog house. and then after 8-10yrs of practicin then maybe start making demos and giving them out to clubs and can i do all this with the 100se ?;]? rather than the xone 4d. if thats possible.

    i would like

    to ask YOU, since i don't have a mixer right now or anything that i can start practicing with. is there anything i can do right now with the tracks I'm constantly listening to? which would benefit towards becoming a pro-dj? (something that will help me climb up the ladder)
    Last edited by cutflow; 02-13-2010 at 06:45 PM.

  2. #2
    DJTT Moderator Dude Jester's Avatar
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    Welcome mate. Do you own a program such as Traktor at the moment? there is nothing stopping you getting in some practise until you can afford the VCI, shoot, there are quite a few guys in here that still use the mouse and keyboard to mix with, no problem.
    Forget about that 8-10 year idea mate. 6-12 Months of practise and you could be right up there. Minimal will be long gone in 10 years anyway *wink*
    Get yourself a copy of traktor and start mixing right now dude.
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  3. #3
    Tech Guru jakeintox's Avatar
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    Wow, nice to see someone with a plan. Sounds like you're off to a good start by studying your music the way you do. I wouldn't worry so much about achieving that 'pro' status just yet. Until you have the tools to start mixing, think about songs that will compliment each other and how crowds may react. Start talking to people in clubs and bars and find out what they like to dance to. Go see lots of different styles of DJs to see how they spin different types of music. Go see what works, and what doesn't. IMHO, learning to read a crowd is the most important part of spinning a club.

    And, hey, have fun! If you look at this like a job with set plans and goals you could burn yourself out. There are lots of people spinning in their bedrooms having just as rewarding of an experience as the big famous guys.

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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by JesterNZDJ View Post
    Welcome mate. Do you own a program such as Traktor at the moment? there is nothing stopping you getting in some practise until you can afford the VCI, shoot, there are quite a few guys in here that still use the mouse and keyboard to mix with, no problem.
    Forget about that 8-10 year idea mate. 6-12 Months of practise and you could be right up there. Minimal will be long gone in 10 years anyway *wink*
    Get yourself a copy of traktor and start mixing right now dude.
    I could get virtual dj for free. or maybe the demo of traktor or trial of traktor but i wouldn't spend any money on traktor since the LE will be included with the 100se.

    but for me to start mixing i would need to like bind all those keys to my keyboard and figure out the layout of a mixer in kb of scrambled letters, i mean it would be real tough at first to be honest lol damn. is it called "mapping my keyboard keys to the program so my kb functions like a mixer?"

    my opinion on minimal is that sure, i believe there arent too many minimal dj's. but there will be a certain amount of people , a crowd that if they have a favorite dj that they like just because he spins good minimal they like then those people know that w/e party he spins at will be important to go to since you dont hear minimal much. but once i master spinning minimal, then i would move on to other genres like tribal, progressive, tech house (non-minimal) and ii would like to do minimal too. so thats 6 genre of music. but for now i dont mind putting tech,tribal,progressive and a lil latin in minimal. since i'm a newbie.

    well if it gonna take me 1 year they that sounds great, i would need to make lots of videos/sets and get opinions over and over on mistakes and once it comes out perfect to the point where its worth 20-30 bucks to go to the club and listen to, then thats when i know i will be rdy. usually people say 7-10yrs it takes to be a pro. but we'll see.

    Quote Originally Posted by jakeintox View Post
    Wow, nice to see someone with a plan. Sounds like you're off to a good start by studying your music the way you do. I wouldn't worry so much about achieving that 'pro' status just yet. Until you have the tools to start mixing, think about songs that will compliment each other and how crowds may react. Start talking to people in clubs and bars and find out what they like to dance to. Go see lots of different styles of DJs to see how they spin different types of music. Go see what works, and what doesn't. IMHO, learning to read a crowd is the most important part of spinning a club.

    And, hey, have fun! If you look at this like a job with set plans and goals you could burn yourself out. There are lots of people spinning in their bedrooms having just as rewarding of an experience as the big famous guys.
    when you say "think about songs that will compliment each other"

    do you mean like how are they connected, or like how do they talk to each other, or something like that, maybe with similiar like sounds?

    yeah i watch a lot of 1hr sets on dancetripping. so its like going to the club ;D

    i wonder what step in beginning to dj would reading a crowd come in? =?= my friend told me this, when a dj is spinning, he'll play some tech house, and after 10-20min he'll see how they react to that, if poorly , he'll change from tech to tribal and see if there is an increase or decrease in crowds-reaction. if the dj is still not convinced after 10-30min or maybe even 5min. then he'll move on to latin, progressive house and etc w/e genres he can do or likes to spin. is this what you mean?

    yeah i want to be known as a pro dj in 15yrs hopefully or less. w/e long it takes. and i also go to school to get a degree then work when i get my degree. i live in NYC and sometimes you need two jobs to make a living. so doing something fun like spinning music and getting pay for it, sounds real good. for like twice a month or so maybe. i don't want to dj every weekend, cuz i don't want people to feel like "well this guy is always there, so whenever we have money we'll go and see him". i want people to know me as "well this dj doesnt play to offen but hes playing there this friday so that will be worth my money for this weekend rather than the other clubs we all debated to go to". i want people to feel me as a tease, meaning i dont spin regularly so they know they had 2-3 shitty weekends but they know on the 4th weekend, i'm goin to spin somewhere, so they want their money worths and they'll come and see me. this is how i want my dj future to be like. spin at a club 1-3 a month.

    if i was to work at a club every weekend, fri & sat , always spinning. then the customers can debate if they should come see me or go to any of the other clubs, why would they debate? because they know that i always spin fri/sat at this club, so they will compare that against other events/people who don't regularly spin, who offen you don't hear spin. point being i don't want people to compare me with other banging parties and be stuck on which one they should go. i want a high percentage to easily say "nah you no what, forget that, lets go see cutflow instead" like instantly they dont need to decide if they should come to the party/club where i'm.


    now i can protect myself later in that age of year or life in 10yrs or whenever by.........spinning specific genre's of house music, = tribal, progressive, tech, latin, minimal.... i only like those.


    IM VERY HIGH RITE NOW LOL THATS WHY I TYPED SO MUCH


    THANK YOUOO
    Last edited by cutflow; 02-13-2010 at 09:11 PM.

  5. #5
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    best advice i can give is this.

    play every day. at least an hour. just play, and have as much fun as possible. you know what you like, you know what sounds good, so just try to have as much fun as possible and play every day. practice makes perfect, but dont make it "practice". just have fun with it, every day. youll be amazed how good you can get, and how fast that can happen with that work ethic and mentality
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  6. #6
    Tech Guru jakeintox's Avatar
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    I'm not sure exactly what the scene is like in NY, but I know when I first started out I didn't have much choice in where or what I got to play. I'm lucky to live in a small town and make a living as a DJ, but to get this far I've had to play a lot of music I didn't like. Spinning top 40 in bars has paid my rent for years, and funded most of my gear. I can now drop my own mixes and play more to my own taste because the crowd is there for me, but at first I was there for the crowd, and if you don't keep them dancing, you don't get re-hired.

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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by jakeintox View Post
    I'm not sure exactly what the scene is like in NY, but I know when I first started out I didn't have much choice in where or what I got to play. I'm lucky to live in a small town and make a living as a DJ, but to get this far I've had to play a lot of music I didn't like. Spinning top 40 in bars has paid my rent for years, and funded most of my gear. I can now drop my own mixes and play more to my own taste because the crowd is there for me, but at first I was there for the crowd, and if you don't keep them dancing, you don't get re-hired.
    yeah thats so true. well let me tell you, the scene here in nyc is very big. NY has a 19 million population (2006 fact) idk how much now. and there are HUNDREDS of clubs. so my point being is that YOU SPIN what you like, and what you like only. and then there will be a club out there that is all about your latin house, or all about ur tech house or all about ur minimal house. SO YOU WILL make it. i'm not worried about that all. i believe dj's who spin the top 40s are the ghetto or unskilled/unexperienced dj's out there. because honestly if you look at the pro's like for example, sven, hawtin, luciano, roger sanchez, mark knight, tom novy and i can go on....these dj's play a specific genre of house music and a certain club looks for the genre. so you would definitely love nyc if you were to move from your small town. it doesn't matter what you spin, there will be a crowd who listens to it. although to rephrase what i said in the beginning about me considering top40 ghetto/unexperience is the incorrect words. the definition for dj's who re-spin house music w/ hiphop or top40, the genre name is "commerial house" which is the lowest level/genre of house music. meaning the newbie dancers/crowd. and that has the biggest population here in nyc that listen to that. commerial house. now parties that feature music like tech house, progressive house, tribal house. these parties would require a more experience crowd to dance to this too. where your commerial-house party poopers wouldn't enjoy it as much. and then theres minimal-house which is a lot more mature than tribal,tech and prog house. minimal-house parties consist of mature people/ mature audience. there is 3 levels of house music, 3 types of club people. and the 1st one is more popular. just because you have all those people who favor the genre hiphop, r/b, rock n roll. and that population that like genres like those would enjoy commerial house 10x more than 2nd & 3rd level of house music (2= strictly tribal or electro house/ 3= minimal, as an example) but all these level 1 dj's don't really make as much money as level 2/3 djs. although in some cases it all may vary.

    but yeah what i have just explained to you, is how it works down here in NY. and again there are hundreds of clubs, if you wan't to get a feeling of it, check out these sites that are good sources of clubs out here, you can even filter the type of music!!! that you like and you'll be surprised how many clubs you would find.

    http://www.clubplanet.com/Venues/Ven...?Category=Club

    just that link, thats the site i would use when i think i'm rdy to spin @ a club. then i would find clubs through that website, and will end up with quite a few to send demos too or simply just email them a site with my videos on instead.

    so yeah, you and your commerial house music and w/e else you like. can find a good living here. there are parties every single day. and there are a few clubs who are open mon-thursday for parties. so i mean if u have like 2-3 different clubs you can spin. you can rly work like 7 days a week. honestly and dependin on the type of music, they have clubs/parties that go from 8-10pm on tuesday all the way till 11am on wednesday. meaning the party is almost 12-15 hours long. and the crowd is still there. so yeah u wud make a good living here with what you know

    and no i wont get a burn out cuz dj would be a 2nd job which i would like to spin like 2-3 times a month. and if i do different duties/tasks like minimal house, tribal house the next party, and then progressive house the 3rd party then i think that would help more towards fighting burn outs. but that doesnt matter since this wud be a 2nd job and my 1st job will be based on a college degree.

    bro look at that link, and click on "venue type" and just look at the number of clubs we have at the end of each keyword. so yeah in nyc. ANY MUSIC IS WELCOME. you can use the "music type" as well which will show you what clubs play your genre. theres 103 clubs that are strictly top 40. damn lol. anyways take a look at it, u might find it interesting. i wanna see tho how far i can get with the vci100se. although i dont mind adding more gear later in a few yrs when i start feeling limited
    Last edited by cutflow; 02-13-2010 at 11:50 PM.

  8. #8
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    build a collection, learn to produce, steal your freinds equitment, steal their programs!

  9. #9
    Tech Guru jakeintox's Avatar
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    Cutflow, your a lucky guy to have a scene like that! Practice your ass off! Once you get your gear sorted I bet you can get out there faster than you think.

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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by jakeintox View Post
    Cutflow, your a lucky guy to have a scene like that! Practice your ass off! Once you get your gear sorted I bet you can get out there faster than you think.
    alright but first i have to wait for that cash to afford the vci100se and i made another thread in the support section to see if anyone can tell me what else do i need to buy with the 100se to get it to work. i'm rly patient about getting it. but i found some dj video tutorials - http://www.djtutor.com/index.php - if you put u click "the dj tutor" and then put your mouse over mixing, there are so many videos on little things that can be done. effects and styles and so forth. so once i master all those videos then i'd prob make my first set and hopefully get lots of comments on mistakes i did and fix them then make another set. and keep going and going and when the mistakes are minimized then i will make my own website. and have pages on my site that would show videos of me spinning a certain genre of house music, tech, prog, tribal, latin house etc and then just email clubs my website and say hey all my videos are on my website organized by genre.

    hey we're just talking about it right now. and im just planning stuff out. planning how i want my future to be in the dj scene.

    i'm an asst' manager at costco so i'm a leader & planner. but i'm stepping down to a regular employee so i can finish school quicker and get my bachelor degree then make some money. funny thing is, last time i gotten pussy was in december which was a 6hr fuck. and last time i gotten a very hot gf was like back in 2006. so right now for the next 6 months i'm not even gonna waste money on girls or even take girls out. ima save money for that 100se and maybe in a few yrs or less i'd be taking out the 100se out on dates LOL. but yeah i'm chilled right now w/ the girls cause i know the girls will come and ill just be happy with one rly lol.
    Last edited by cutflow; 02-14-2010 at 11:18 AM.

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