Thoughts from a young Dj

[Erniemater]

Hello everyone,

As this is my first post on these forums, i will start with introducing myself. I am Ernest, 16 years old and i have been Dj'ing for lets say half a year. I have a (legal) copy of traktor pro, A hercules Rmx and a Traktor X1. Currently i am hoping to buy a S4 once. I do not consider myself a super dj, but not a bad one asswel. My dad ( who used to be a Dj asswel) says i am pretty good, so i guess that counts for something Feel free to check out my soundcloud, i have some older mixes there ( IMo they suck) . http://soundcloud.com/dj-erniemater. While i used to use Auto-Sync all the time, i have stepped of from it. I believe that a real Dj does not need such features and has to be able to Dj without it.

Now after this short introduction is over, i can tell you about the purpose of this thread. I want to share you guys some thought that i have regarding modern day dj'ing. I will try to keep this frequently updated.

I would like to talk about a small Gig i did for my school party ( 12-14 year old). This was my first and for now only Gig. Now i had been informed that there would be another Dj asswel, so I contacted him well before. He would bring all the gear necessary, so that part was covered. On the day of the Gig about 3 hours before the party, we met in the party hall. He has a lot of lights and equipment. Although we had plenty of time, he was very nervous and afraid we woudn't be ready in time. It seemed to me that he thought all the fancy lights were more important then the actual performance. After setting everything up, the kids started to pour in. I started of with some basic electro, and then it struck me that i had no music at all to play for little children. Luckely the other dj had that cheap Rnb/rap trash that they like..

So He played for a while and i noticed that he Sucked monkey balls. He never even touched his external mixer. All he did was sit behind his laptop pushing the play button when a song was finished. What amazed me even more, is that he told me that he Dj'ed reguraly at these sorts of parties. Do people really care so less about mixing song smooth? In my opinion that Dj was just a Jukebox. He was constanly playing requests from the children and the exotic times he tried to beatmatch it was trainwrecked all the way. Also every time i beatmatched to transition from his track to mine, he was utterly amazed, While i was like "dude this is basic".

Anyways im off since its already late, and i think this post is long enough already. I hope you guys like this sort of post, and il surely post thoughts if you guys like it.

[kidcolt]

Hi

First of all ill tell you that your not the only one with this kind of experiences, these 'press-play' djs are all around smaller town partys, its a shame.

2nd: I liked your elektro house 10min mix, nothing fancy but all in all its ok not fucked up like many 'dj's like to do their 'mixes'.

Only i at about 4:45 when the synth of the new song comes into the still playing old synth, i think it doesnt fit that well. Aswell at the point where Handguns ends it doesnt fit that well into that deadmau5 or gartner track playing ( not sure which one it is ).

and try to get handguns and the deadmau5/gartner track in better quality, as the sound quality made a big difference on these

so far kidcolt. keep going and dont be afraid to do harsher mixes. my mix style was pretty much like yours, until i started to try to mix in key and layer and do quick cuts and stuff, it makes it more interessting to listen and more fun to play

edit: oh and playing with cued vocals into vocal-less tracks is a cool thing to do too

[completej]

I believe the other dj was also responsible for this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxYsM3cSkeI

[Ed Paris]

hm...you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

[kidcolt]

hm...you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

like its hard to keep 14 y.o dancing. top 40 and your sure to have them dance.

kids like to dance to stuff they hear on radio/ see on tv. you can drop your hotest shit, they wont care unless its been on 'the dome'.

[MrPopinjay]

Avoid regular club nights and play at music based nights where people actually notice the music rather than see it as background noise to their attempts at pulling. Problem solved?

[kidcolt]

Avoid regular club nights and play at music based nights where people actually notice the music rather than see it as background noise to their attempts at pulling. Problem solved?

qft. quoted for truth.

[MrPopinjay]

Thank you good sir.

[photojojo]

I believe that a real Dj does not need such features and has to be able to Dj without it.

I use sync, but I'm 40 years old and could care less what other people think about me.

It seemed to me that he thought all the fancy lights were more important then the actual performance.

If lights weren't important DJ's wouldn't pay $1000's for them. Part of what they are paying him to do is put on a dance. The lights and the ambience he introduces to the night with his lights is pretty important.

I started of with some basic electro, and then it struck me that i had no music at all to play for little children. Luckely the other dj had that cheap Rnb/rap trash that they like.

He was prepared and you weren't sound like he saved your ass.

So He played for a while and i noticed that he Sucked monkey balls. He never even touched his external mixer. All he did was sit behind his laptop pushing the play button when a song was finished. What amazed me even more, is that he told me that he Dj'ed reguraly at these sorts of parties. Do people really care so less about mixing song smooth? In my opinion that Dj was just a Jukebox. He was constanly playing requests from the children and the exotic times he tried to beatmatch it was trainwrecked all the way. Also every time i beatmatched to transition from his track to mine, he was utterly amazed, While i was like "dude this is basic".

You can pull off the most amazing mixes in the world, but chances are nobody will even know, or care, that you just did. Except of course all the other wannabe DJ's in the room, but they don't count because they could have done it better anyway.

They key is being able to read the floor and select the tracks to make the night flow well. if you can do that and mix well you will be a success. And btw, middle school dances are not what I consider a success.

Oh, and welcome to the site.

[djfrogstar]

hm...you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

Beatmatching doesnt mean anything for certain styles.. thats the point of djing.. is to make songs work together.. So if your into the smooth layered track kind of mixing.. then beatmatching is a good thing to learn if you dont use training wheels to do it.. but in the same breath if your into constant eq manipulation and fx and other cool trix than the SYNC is a good thing. It doesnt matter either way.. as long as the music is grabbing people and giving them a good time.
I personally am cutting and layering beatless tracks or fx into the song that is playing. I can do this all night long without risking a trainwreck from a mis calculated beatmatch.

I wouldnt judge too harshly on how some people can get to the same goal with or without sync. All the rules are changing anyways.. which gives a whole new definition to breaking the old rules. Even 15 years ago I would hit pause on the denon cd player which would catch the sound and repeat it.. and then some quick pitch shifting tricks into some sampler to only slow down the captured loop role would create a low end version of all these nice loop roll fx that people use today... Alot of the time other vinyl djs back then would scoff but still wonder how I pulled it off.. ok so I was djing gabber/hardcore/jungle so it didnt matter.
my advice is to find what works... Have some tracks for autosync and others not.. but dont limit yourself to what your dad may think as cheating. Because even the best beatmatchers will never be able to reach the same level of deeper control because they have to worry the whole time that things drop out of sync.