Performing live, and you 've got nothing to do

[MyUsername]

When I said performing live, I didn't mean with a drummer or anything but here 's my question:

So whenever I'm performing my set in front of an audience with my S4 and my MBP, an awkward moment occurs from time to time. I 've made my last transition, and the current tune is one the crowd wants to hear for 3 minutes, they 'd be pissed if I mixed another one in after a minute, and I got my next transition already good to go.

So basicly my hands have got nothing to do for about 2 minutes or longer. It feels awkward when the crowd that is only 5 feet away sees the DJ doing absolutely nothing. What do I do ?

I could use effects, but I only use them occasionally for a cool transition or once in a while when I feel that they add to a song.

I could dance, wich I do all the time, if I like the tune, but what if I play a track for the audience, and it's one I personally don't like, it would be strange to dance to that.

[wongaling]

you can either
a) do what skrillex does at his live shows and chain smoke so it looks like he's always doing something
b) push the boundaries of how you mix with this free time, download the trial version of Ableton Live and sync it and traktor up.

[MyUsername]

you can either
a) do what skrillex does at his live shows and chain smoke so it looks like he's always doing something
b) push the boundaries of how you mix with this free time, download the trial version of Ableton Live and sync it and traktor up.

I think I'm not ready for ableton during a set, so I'll take the sxrillex approach, press play,stage dive, repeat, ????, profit

But in all seriousness, my question remains unawnsered

[DJSigma]

Personally, I don't see what the problem is. Good tunes do need time to breath and thinking "but people might look and see me doing fuck all!" can lead to an excess of pointless knob twiddling, effect use and so on. Basically, don't worry about it.

[synthet1c]

learn to beatmatch, it'll give you something to do, and a rush that pressing sync will never give you, because something could go wrong if you don't get it cued in time, so mixing is more involved, and your listening twice as much..

[3IJ]

+1

digging through my record box and then beatmatching the next record and cueing it up used to occupy most of my time.

additionally you could cue your tracks manually (no saved cue points), mess with the EQs, have your mates/girls in the booth and talk to them....

or just enjoy yourself and dance around behind the mixer while the track plays....nothing wrong with that

[funke]

I have a friend who owns a very successful mobile dj business, and it's kind of besides the point because he doesn't beatmatch, but the dude will usually set up his gear with a preselected track list, hit play and dissapear for an hour or more or just go sit at the bar. And he gets gigs ALL THE TIME. The fact that your there reading the crowd and selecting track by track.. I wouldn't worry about having nothing to do for a minute.

[MyUsername]

+1

digging through my record box and then beatmatching the next record and cueing it up used to occupy most of my time.

additionally you could cue your tracks manually (no saved cue points), mess with the EQs, have your mates/girls in the booth and talk to them....

or just enjoy yourself and dance around behind the mixer while the track plays....nothing wrong with that

Yeah, but the thing is, my record box is digital, I load a new track at the press of a button, and I make certain combos of songs at home, so I am sure I got some awesome transitions, so I already know wich song to play next.

And beatmatching yes, I already beatmatch "manually" I still look at my laptop screen though so thats hardly challenging, let alone time consuming.

I hope these situations are a thing of the past when I add some Wheels of steel to my set up ! But thats not gonna happen for at least a month...

Also +1 for adding girls to the booth, but I don't know anyone at the party I 'll be DJing, so I'll need to dust off my casanova skills

[Towner]

Dancing and moving the eq's slightly for no purpose will increase crowd pleasure by14.62%....please dont ask for calculations

[Steve Zorilow]

Call me a dick if you want, but I think people just don't give a shit (at least that much) about what the DJ's doing in the booth. They're way to busy looking people 'round, having a drink or twelve and having good time with the music they hear. 2-3 minutes per track is nothing... people will prefer hearing the whole track rather than having all of them cut after 2 minutes... do you prefer a complete blowjob or not?

Get request, talk with people, read people, enjoy the night try to find the worst dancer the ugliest douche whatever floats your boat