First off merry christmas and holiday cheer to all!
I am a little lost. I have been mixing for nearly a year, and have gotten some good playing time in bars etc. And while I consider myself good at the basics: fading in and out, eqing, beatmatching and good song selection. I think I have a really boring style. And in multiple places I have seen DJs talking about ādo whatever suits your style.ā This brings me to my problem, I donāt want to have a boring style!
Now Iām not asking you to help me make a style or whatever, but what do you consider makes a DJs style? Is it the set list or song selection? Cue-point Juggling? Long fades?
Iām just confused on what would go into this and when I will get my own gd style!
two things that ive noticed are helping me with my āstyleā
what i do between transitions, both mentally for working on the current track or preparing the next track, and physically while trying not to stand still,
and my interest in my own productions, in regards to what music im hearing in my head when i sit in front of a blank ableton slate.
i also feel like i have a boring style, and while im somewhat of a boring person, im pretty creative and i like to joke around. ive been dropping tracks that have funny vocal samples, putting together songs that might make someone laugh if they realize the track names go together, or that the lyrics might go with something that is occurring in the venue at that time.
perhaps dont concern yourself with how you think it might appear? my thinking is you might end up mentally preventing yourself from doing something cool in the heat of the momentā¦
Do what feels right I know this sounds like every other run of the mill advice but honestly I put together way better mixes when I just go by what I think will work. The mixes tend to gel more and actually feel like they go together.
I would say donāt worry about it at all. As you gain more experience, youāll naturally develop your own way of mixing tracks. As long as it sounds good, itās all good!
The best antidote to sound boring, in my opinion, it is improvise. Sometimes I go to the club with nothing in mind, at the beginning it is kind of stressful but maybe ones of my best nights happened it in that way. It keeps you in your style because it is the kind of music and transitions you make but then you take more risk, being driven by the crowd and take chances in mixes you have not doing it before. I am not saying it is the best and you end up very tired but sometimes that refresh your style
I think a lot of āstyleā comes mostly with song selection. This is really dependent a lot on how much free reign you are given on a given night playing.
As far as other elements are concerned, itās really up to where you really enjoy pushing your own limits. Taking the time and playing around with different ways to do transitions and such.
Personally Iām not of a mindset of improvising completely. Because I like knowing something is going to sound sweet in advance, which basically requires practicing it beforehandā¦ hearing too many wonky transitions in the past just playing around with things I thought at the time was cool have made me wary.
Really though, itās all about just doing what you will think will sound best. If you were in your own crowd, what else would you want to hear? Sometimes I think people (esp. in the digital age) think too much about crazy transitions with FX and whatnot, and just playing songs is overlooked.
bingo. most of my good mixes and whatnot are shit i just try and throw together and make sound goodā¦ most of the time it doesnt, but sometimes i get a gem and cant stop jumping around because im so stoked except most of the time theres no one around to hear itā¦
i started recording everything, even when im just goofing off. my harddrive hates me right now.
play the music that you are afraid to tell people you like.
be aware of trends but donāt follow them.
challenge yourself by emulating techniques that you are not comfortable with yet, then modify them and experiment with them until youāve tweaked it to be your own.
follow those 3 basic guidelines long enough and youāll realize your own unique vision which is way more valuable then just getting good at copying other peopleās style.
I love that advice. Iām in the same boat you are as a new DJ. Play the music that you love, and if your friends or people you know donāt like it, who cares. Yeah making people dance and entertaining the crowd is important, but you have to love what youāre doing, otherwise why do it?
maybe i just need better timing 