First gig coming up soon, many questions...
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  1. #1
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    Default First gig coming up soon, many questions...

    I have got an opportunity to DJ at a nightclub in North Wales soon (On a thursday and probably for an hour) as I know a DJ that DJs there and he said there's a slot. Thing is, all they play is house and cheese and I'm more of a DnB/Trance guy, so if I play at say 9-10 with banging drum and bass and then they come on and play house, wont everyone be like 'meh'.

    I also have a few questions...
    I only have a X1 and Mixtrack, so I'd need to buy a soundcard, but I'm embarrassed to go and play a gig with them, I mean a mixtrack come on, is this something to worry about or am I being stupid? It's not exactly the most reliable piece of kit ever and it looks like a toy.
    Let's say I get an hour slot, should I build it up and have 'cold spots' where I play less heavy stuff or just play bangers for the whole hour?
    I don't know how to say this but I don't know how to 'get better' at Dj'ing as mixing tracks at the breakdowns is getting boring, I do have points where I layer tracks and get a really good mix going but most of the time it's just TRACK A>fade out to TRACK B in some way.

    Should I prepare my mix beforehand or just pick songs randomly? I'm thinking I need to prepare a playlist at least.
    How do I keep focused on the mix and not get distracted because I'm nervous?

    I'm sure there are many other questions that I've left out.
    It would also help if you told your 'first gig' story.

    Thanks in advance,
    Dan (Vendetta)

  2. #2
    Tech Mentor kidcolt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DJWilliams View Post
    I have got an opportunity to DJ at a nightclub in North Wales soon (On a thursday and probably for an hour) as I know a DJ that DJs there and he said there's a slot. Thing is, all they play is house and cheese and I'm more of a DnB/Trance guy, so if I play at say 9-10 with banging drum and bass and then they come on and play house, wont everyone be like 'meh'.

    I also have a few questions...
    I only have a X1 and Mixtrack, so I'd need to buy a soundcard, but I'm embarrassed to go and play a gig with them, I mean a mixtrack come on, is this something to worry about or am I being stupid? It's not exactly the most reliable piece of kit ever and it looks like a toy.
    Let's say I get an hour slot, should I build it up and have 'cold spots' where I play less heavy stuff or just play bangers for the whole hour?
    I don't know how to say this but I don't know how to 'get better' at Dj'ing as mixing tracks at the breakdowns is getting boring, I do have points where I layer tracks and get a really good mix going but most of the time it's just TRACK A>fade out to TRACK B in some way.

    Should I prepare my mix beforehand or just pick songs randomly? I'm thinking I need to prepare a playlist at least.
    How do I keep focused on the mix and not get distracted because I'm nervous?

    I'm sure there are many other questions that I've left out.
    It would also help if you told your 'first gig' story.

    Thanks in advance,
    Dan (Vendetta)
    Ok hi, ill give you my piece of cents

    first of all, dont be ashamed of your equipment, its not about your equipment but about what you do with it.

    second: jeah probably rent/lend a soundcard as i heard the mixtracks isnt that good.

    third: as you said you play 9-10, id rather go slow, 9-10 is not exactly the time where the dancefloors banging but rather the time people heat up and drink and stuff. so dont go too hard.

    forth: as its more a house club i guess the crowd wont be really keen on hardcore dnb so try to go with some lighter dnb and mix it with house, i surely know id hate to hear dubstep or sth when i go to a club for electro.
    dnb is not everyones favorite, so be carefull

    as for mixing techniques: go to youtube theres a vid of ean golden that shows '5 basic transitions' ( or sth like that :P ) its pretty good and shows easy, yet cool transitions.

    So far, thats all i can tell you from my experience

    edit:

    Quote Originally Posted by DJWilliams View Post

    Should I prepare my mix beforehand or just pick songs randomly? I'm thinking I need to prepare a playlist at least.
    How do I keep focused on the mix and not get distracted because I'm nervous?
    From my experience i feel its good to have a neat selection of songs you prepare, like 100-150 songs, in a playlist and pick from these, fitting to how the crowd goes, if there doing nothing you might want to dish out a banger everyone knows thatll make people dance, so save these and dont line em all up.

    but ofc bring all your music as people might have request or you might need a song thats not in your list
    Last edited by kidcolt; 12-01-2010 at 07:30 AM.

  3. #3
    Tech Guru lethal_pizzle's Avatar
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    If it's a house club I wouldn't play any d&b at all... however:

    You need to talk to the owner/manager and find out what they want.
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by kidcolt View Post
    Ok hi, ill give you my piece of cents

    first of all, dont be ashamed of your equipment, its not about your equipment but about what you do with it.

    I know that, but I don't want people to see it and think haha what's that/he must be a shit DJ etc

    second: jeah probably rent/lend a soundcard as i heard the mixtracks isnt that good.

    third: as you said you play 9-10, id rather go slow, 9-10 is not exactly the time where the dancefloors banging but rather the time people heat up and drink and stuff. so dont go too hard.

    This is a big problem, the songs I play are very energetic peak-of-the-night stuff if you know what I mean, mostly trancey dnb so I have no idea what I'm gonna do, people wont really be drunk at 9/10 so they wont be dancing much and this will piss me off

    forth: as its more a house club i guess the crowd wont be really keen on hardcore dnb so try to go with some lighter dnb and mix it with house, i surely know id hate to hear dubstep or sth when i go to a club for electro.
    dnb is not everyones favorite, so be carefull

    Read above, I play lighter, trancey dnb not stuff like spor (although I really like some of his tracks) or current value.


    as for mixing techniques: go to youtube theres a vid of ean golden that shows '5 basic transitions' ( or sth like that :P ) its pretty good and shows easy, yet cool transitions.

    Yeah, I've seen that, it just seems that I've nearly reached the pinnacle and there's nothing else I can do (I'm not for one second saying I'm amazing, I just mean in terms of what I know/could do) I might push myself and try harder transitions (vocal layering etc) but it's very hard with dnb

    So far, thats all i can tell you from my experience
    Thanks!

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by lethal_pizzle View Post
    If it's a house club I wouldn't play any d&b at all... however:

    You need to talk to the owner/manager and find out what they want.
    It's not a 'house club' it's just mostly house is played there, I was thinking a bit of DnB would freshen things up? seeing as there isn't a local DnB DJ around

  6. #6
    Tech Mentor kidcolt's Avatar
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    well, do you by chance have access to some house music? like a friend/ friend dj with an extensive house collection? you might ask him to ''lend'' *cough* you some of his tracks, maybe do that 100-150 song playlist with him. IF you do that, you might want to listen these tracks as much as possible until your gig so you learn them, what i also do with new tracks i dont know good: i set markers for good mixing points on them in traktor, that helps alot in the nervous parts.

    if you get some house, you can drop some light trancey dnb or trance in and see how people react, if they like it you can play some more ( but not entirely the mix does it! ) if they dont like it, just stop it

    edit: oh and if you say youve reached the pinnacle of whats possible for you atm youll wonder what a crowd makes you do, believe me. mixing with people banging to your music just puts it to another level, and as we say in germany '' man wächst mit der aufgabe'' youll grow with the task

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    you don´t have to be ashamed about your setup man! i started doing club gigs with just a keyboard and a fast track pro! and i know a lot of people who just use a x1 and a soundcard. don´t worry! proof for me doing clubgig with keyboard:
    I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by kidcolt View Post
    well, do you by chance have access to some house music? like a friend/ friend dj with an extensive house collection? you might ask him to ''lend'' *cough* you some of his tracks, maybe do that 100-150 song playlist with him. IF you do that, you might want to listen these tracks as much as possible until your gig so you learn them, what i also do with new tracks i dont know good: i set markers for good mixing points on them in traktor, that helps alot in the nervous parts.

    if you get some house, you can drop some light trancey dnb or trance in and see how people react, if they like it you can play some more ( but not entirely the mix does it! ) if they dont like it, just stop it

    edit: oh and if you say youve reached the pinnacle of whats possible for you atm youll wonder what a crowd makes you do, believe me. mixing with people banging to your music just puts it to another level, and as we say in germany '' man wächst mit der aufgabe'' youll grow with the task
    There's a big problem, I despise house music, so that's not an option I'm afraid

  9. #9
    Tech Mentor kidcolt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DJWilliams View Post
    There's a big problem, I despise house music, so that's not an option I'm afraid
    oooook, well theres 2 possibilities:

    1. You give a sheet what the people want to hear / what they play at the club.
    or
    2. You just play house.

    As its your first gig, id advise version 2. because you have to think, that this gig is what puts you on the screen. You can either be the nice opening dj or the 'idiot that played some shit nobody wanted to hear'. you have to think about the people talking about it later

  10. #10
    Tech Mentor kidcolt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by earl panda View Post
    you don´t have to be ashamed about your setup man! i started doing club gigs with just a keyboard and a fast track pro! and i know a lot of people who just use a x1 and a soundcard. don´t worry! proof for me doing clubgig with keyboard:
    sexy tattoo jeah but u see: its cool you can do everything you want to aslong as its cool

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