So, I have been ‘dj’ing’ for about a year now and doing some re-edit’s/learning music theory and I finally got my first paid gig.
I’ve done probably 2 house parties a month since I started and I have a good sense of what 18-25 year olds like to dance to…outside of that I can only guess from watching other dj’s, so should I just stick to the music I know gets ‘my crowd’ going?
About the spotlight…So this new club opened up in our small college town (10,000) people. Its legit too, I’ve been to some bigger clubs in the twin cities and chicago and this is right up there, lighting is awesome, all new EV powered speakers throughout and its st. paddy’s day weekend. My set is 11pm-2pm friday.
So I’m closing on my opening set, either I’ll exceed everyones expectations or fail but I’ve been practicing a set list which I normally don’t do so knowing almost every fade in/out point should help right?
I’ve finished a bunch of my edited mashups too so atleast I don’t have to do those live, you can check them out.
In a small town like that, the crowd you’re played for at those house parties is likely to be similar in this new club, so i would just play what you’re comfortable with to start, and if you really want to try cranking it up a notch, do that from 12:00 -1:30.
11 o clock start time shouldnt need that much warming up. but yea, playing somethign youre comfortable with to warm yourself up and build confidence minus bangers.
It’s just your nerves… relax. and kill your set. i’m ALWAYS nervous until about the time i mix in my 3rd song. after that i’m so far into the music nothing else effects me. I’m sure its similar with others. If you made a list use it as guidance and as soon as you get in your rhythm, just rock it.
hope all goes well with it.
my experience with college towns is that they go crazy for some mainstream dub step but they will come up and buy you drinks after when you kill some throwbacks in the mix. I dropped love comes again by tiesto into Marcel woods-3stortion and they go crazy then another one is take me home tonight by bassjackers. and i closed with glad you came by bass jackers as well.
you’ll do great you sound well headed and like you’ve practiced a lot.
might need to add some bassjackers…i think it will feel like a houseparty because its just a bigger environment with more ppl but this place has been open 3 weeks and they had capacity all but 2 nights…so like 800.
See why I started prepping a week early haha.
Also, i thought my new laptop would handle traktor fine but i heard one pop during my practice sessions and i think it was because I was analyzing a new track…im still gonna tune it a little more, my old laptop was a pile but optimized to the max and it never popped.
What are ppl with windows running their latency at?
Just wanted to give an update on the night…it went great.
I can admit that I messed up a few times, i doubt any drunk ppl really noticed and it was due to trying to comprehend foreign language request.
Anyways, I basically let loose and just played bangers for the last hour…which I think is what the club owner wanted me to do.
I was surprised at the reaction to dubstep I got, I loooovvveee dubstep but try to avoid it usually, I will rethink avoiding it next time. Internet friends and unisom (knife party remix) were big hits.
So yeah 3 hr gig, had ppl dancing the whole time, had enough big tunes to keep the ppl going haha
Knowing your tracks will definitively help, but don’t hold on too tightly to those mix points, be open to changes and improvisation if the crowd isn’t feeling it. Don’t think too much and have fun, that generally helps a lot to get the people dancing.