How organized are you with your sets?

[shookstar]

Hello DJTT,

Just wanted to get your opinions on how much effort you put into prepping for a gig or set. I know personally I try to make it as live as possible. By this I mean, knowing my songs and putting them in a folder, but I try to read the crowd and play throughout the folder. Not This songs here, and this is next, etc etc.

So how do you play? Pre-recorded, or to the extreme of purely winging it.

[Bassline Brine]

I have my songs in folders by genre mostly. I also have other playlists of random stuff, some I've just thrown in groups or some on days I've bought music. (iTunes smart playlists ftw).

I usually just go with my genre folder... and wing it. Because some of the best combinations I've found have been from digging deep, and mixing stuff that's both old and new, and I might not think about unless it's right there in front of me.

Really though, I'm honestly terrible with song names unless I see it right there in front of my face. I know some folks are amazing with them, but I generally listen to music on shuffle. So while I may KNOW all the songs, I don't always know the name off the top of my head. I'm usually pretty good about making the connection if it's right there in-front of me though :P (Just an honest truth. I know some folks are masters of the memory game, I am not one of them)

[Patch]

Organisation is everything. But you have to make it completely personal. Everyone's organisation technique is different.

Winging it/playing it by ear - it's all just an excuse for not putting in the up front effort of getting organised. Preparation is where all of the hard work is - good preparation pays dividends.

[JasonBay]

As long as your organized, you should be able to show up, read the crowd, pull up the correct folder or playlists, and go to town.

[3heads]

Well, I have to admit, I'm not as organized as I want to be (but in the end: who is?). I have 2 big "crate playlists" according to a subjective feel of the tracks (actually, I've just started a third one and others could follow, just depends if I get a clear idea how to categorize further) and I try to fit the tracks I buy into those (of course any given track could also be placed in both). All in all those two playlists probably contain around 550 tracks at the moment. Then before a gig I try to create a specific "crate playlist" for that gig with a reasonable amount of tracks for the timeframe I have to play, I usually aim for 5-6 times the number of tracks I'm likely to play (approximately 150 tracks for a 2h set), but most times I can't really reach that aim and end up with like 250 tracks or so (maybe some more time for the "distillation process" would help, but I usually waste that time beforehand looking for new tracks on Beatport) - but that's still somehow managable. And even then I sometimes find myself falling back on the big playlists. But all in all this system works for me, of course I could be more rigid in the process, but there always will be room for improvement (if there isn't, you're doing something rome), therefore I'm quite content with my workflow at the moment.

[teambama]

As long as your organized, you should be able to show up, read the crowd, pull up the correct folder or playlists, and go to town.

I agree 100%


I've been trying something new, organizing playlists by BPM lately. Seems to be working nice for me. It's nice to see some different styles in the same folder that mix well. I played some remix disco last Thursday & everyone loved it. I would have never pulled that folder up in the past.

[Toastmaster]

I do 2 hour Livestream DJ sets every week, so taking the time to plan out a set while working (I have a job that requires me away from the computer constantly), practicing general DJ techniques (still relatively new) and barely living is a pain. For those sets, I usually have 15 new tunes from beatport each week and try to use these throughout the set. Even so, I usually dive in to my regular playlist as well as I progress. Most of the time though, I don't plan out which tracks to play; I plan my first and second track and see how the mood progresses and harmonics flow.

For live sets, I usually build a playlist with the tunes I think I'll play or tunes that might be requested or are big crowd pleasers. Most of the time its overstocked and I still dive back into the entire library due to an inspirational moment during the set. Even so, usually just the first and second track is planned and I progress from there.

Finally for in-house mixes or demos, I take planning to the extreme. I find each song I want to play, determine good mixing points, ensure harmonics mix well, and plan the few FX I will use. I practice the mix 2-3 times, fix any discrepancies and then play it for real. Perfection is required for these types of mixes (I believe).

[brian_johnstone]

my crates are unvelievably organised, i have a crate for every year since 1989 for house, 90's onwards for hip hop etc... main floor fillers, general time fillers, loads of warm up folders etc... BUT when it comes to actual live organisation, nothing beats reading the crowd, yes all of my tracks are categorised but that has very little to do with my actual set, it just makes things easier to find, 99% of my live set is crowd reading

[dkokkos]

I have my crates as well...

HOT <- anything that is hot right now and a must play for the younger people
Medium/Slow <- hot tracks as of now that are a little slower
Intros/Special <- tracks that I start my set with, special tracks like happy birthday etc..
Promo <- I got a lot of friends in the hip hop game that are up and coming artists so I throw all their stuff there so I can squeze some of their tracks on my sets

Those playlists I edit them all the time... stuff gets imported or deleted from there

after that I have playlists by music gernes that all my colleciton is there

[squidot]

i'm fairly new to traktor and i am currently working on prepping a bunch of deep house cuts of various vibes. what i am going to have in the end is semi genre specific playlists that contain a spectrum of sounds (ie electro/progressive/breaks, deep sounds, etc) that can work well together over the course of a set. i have them all sorted by key and then bpm. i am in the process of making sure grids are correct and while i'm doing that i rate the song as well as use a 1-5 system for energy level (which i write into the catalog field i believe). i add cue points in songs (with notes) to show where major events happen or where a loop can be used when it's not obvious. i use cues to cut out portions of songs that are too long or have bits i don't like. i also add little modifiers to the genre field to breakdown the vibe even further. so if i have a deep house track thats funky i'll throw an F in there to signify this, or P for progressive, T for tech, etc. if i find songs that work very well together i will also put in a comment so i know i can fall back on any number of tracks that work...i just have to pick the direction the crowd and i are feeling at that moment. Like Bassline Brine i am not very good with memory so having notes is very helpful for me.

this system does take me some time to prep but it works very well for me when i'm currently practicing live. i can play tracks completely on the fly and will be able to work with crowd reaction while still feeling very comfortable since i have many helpful tools and notes in place.