First Gig tips?
I’m Djing at my friends party on the 17th and I have been DJing for a Year and belive I am quite good (Check out my youtube in signiture if you want) I just wanted to know if there are any tips i should know before the party
BTW I have prepared a 3 hour mix to play live at the party
whistle
Enjoy it!
Thats my advice.
defo enjoy it and dont put too much pressure on yourself its a friends party after all so dont worry too much if u make a mistake or two
Thats sound like great advice, Thanks Man 
When you say you prepared a 3 hour mix, do you mean you prerecorded a 3 hour mix that you plan on playing or that you have practiced mixing the same set over and over again that is 3 hours long and you plan on mixing that again? In all honesty, and IMO anything more than having a playlist of music you want to play is TOOOO much preparation. Any experienced DJ will tell you that planning every single aspect of your mix takes the fun out of the entire Dj experience because unless you are practicing the same 3 hour mix to eventually record it, your mix should never sound the same way twice. Plus when you are DJing most events and especially at a friends party, you will get requests and you will get a lot of pissed off people if you don’t play their requests. You have to remember, you are there for the them, they are not there for you, don’t get caught up in your own agenda that you have to play this song after that song because thats the way you practiced it. A good DJ needs to play for the crowd and to be able to adapt. You may have a 3 hour deep house set and they want to hear gangnam style, now what are you going to do? Tell them that you can’t play it because thats not how your practiced 3 hour set is supposed to be?
turn off the music and leave?
on a serious note tho, this advice is spot on, don’t have a planned set, u should no what tracks work well together and what tunes work well early etc but u need to be very flexible.
Dont worry too much if u havent played a track with another before, just have a listen in ya headphones and see if they work etc just use your mixing skills and have fun, its much more fun pulling off a mix live that u havent done before than mixing two tracks u did 50 times in ya bedroom.
Definitely not. Having your loops, cues, beatgrids, markers, and comments set up on your main tracks can really take your mix to the next level and only improves your ability to be spontaneous.
I feel more comfortable playing a prepared mix so I know what song I should play next. I haven’t recorded the mix I plan on mixing live.
If its a friends party I wouldn’t worry all that much just try to relax and enjoy it, if you make a mistake and everyone looks at you, smile, laugh and give yourself a clap then get back to business. At a party ppl will generally just laugh along with you!
Really it just comes down to digging deep, and having fun. If you’re enjoying yourself, it’ll carry over to the crowd and your friends, and just have a blast with it. Stick to your guns and hope people like what you do
Personally I’ve tried putting together set playlists, and I just can’t do it. After playing out live, it’s something I enjoy and something that shouldn’t be overlooked really; watching the audience and responding to them. I’ve not gotten it down all the time by any means, but it totally changes my choices for playing certain tracks vs what I might choose to play at home to no audience.
You’ll find your own methods of playing live really. I usually set up a playlist of 100 songs or so (this is just for an hour set btw) and usually won’t make it through most of them, but I find strength in limiting what I will play, and then going off the cuff with the designated playlist.
If you haven’t given mixed in key or harmonic mixing a chance, I really suggest that highly as well. It’s not perfect, and you can’t always adhere to it, but it’s something else I’ve come to enjoy while mixing.
Really though it’s about having fun, and don’t sweat a couple technical mistakes / issues if they come up
I can agree with that because for me, loops, cues, beatgrids, markers, etc. is still within the confines of that particular track. I am not saying its not good to know what tracks work well together but to have 3 hours of music meticulously planned out is not much further than setting up a playlist in an ipod. I realize it is your first gig and can understand the nerves and I don’t mean to sound harsh or not encouraging. We have the tools available to where you can mix together almost anything and I will tell you that there is nothing better than having someone request a song and within a min you are mixing that song in with whatever was playing when they made the request. Part of being a good DJ is reading the crowd and playing to that. I would practice by taking your song list and mixing it differently evertime you practice or just start playing with no plan in sight and just mix. Again, I know its your first gig but the most important thing is to be relaxed and have fun.
A preprepared set at a house party is just asking for trouble. You will get requests, you will have an eclectic crowd, you will get pissed off people. You gotta be flexible.
Playlists are cool, cue markers, loop markers, a general idea of what works together but jesus 3 hours of tunes preprepared?
Absolute worse case scenario you screw up a mix or two, who cares, nobody notices at house parties, heck you’re using Traktor, there is a sync button. I had a mate take over from me at a party a few weeks back, never DJ’d in his life, was killing it after 10-15 minutes of practice just rocking the sync button and a well organised and tagged playlist…
mind your levels…
You should post your playlist so we can really dissect your mix before you play it. I mean how can we really give you tips on a pre arranged set unless you give us more info? Actuallty it might be better if you recorded what you intend to play and then we can help you out with mix techniques and FX use. Really dial it in, you know?
Because mixing as a DJ is an art, there is no right or wrong way to go about it. There are general guidelines for beginners though
A DJ’s job is to entertain a crowd so having a pre-planed setlist is probably not the way to go. The exception, imo, would be if you are a producer/DJ and you are getting booked to play your music. OP, this obviously is not the case for you.
Everyone already said it, so I won’t repeat, but a well prepared and well rounded library is key. I think for gig’s like this it’s important to be flexible and responsive to the crowd when choosing your songs.
The other night was slow at the bar, and the only group of people dancing said they wanted to hear trap. On a normal night I wouldn’t play more than a few trap songs because it isn’t what majority of the people are into. Luckily I have a whole trap folder that I mixed for the last hour of the night. I mix trap a lot on my own, so I did it well and these guys loved it. They actually got everyone else in the bar going too.
Sirreal, Tara506 was a bot mate 
A bot that did copy what the OP said in an earlier post however.
Now I don’t feel so bad about taking a piss. 
bring a flashlight