How do you create your set list??
As a new DJ to the dance scene, I was wonder what process people go thru to create a set for the nigh. Is it that you go thru and pick out a group of tracks that you want to play and figure out how to put them together. So input on this would be awsome, I have been practicing at home for over a year, and I want to try to start to get out and play for a croud.
i usually have a playlist in itunes i call set. i go through all my music and add which songs would be good to play depending on what time i’m playing and what type of party it is. i usually know the first two or three songs to play and maybe the last one, but i dont really plan in between.
in reality i almost never actually end up playing just from the list. but it makes it easier to pick good songs looking through a list of 30-40 instead of 300-400 songs. I like this because it lets you give your set a certain theme or feel rather than playing random jumble of songs without having to plan your entire set song for song.
Pretty much this - I aim for enough tracks to fill 3-4 times the slot I’m playing, and I like to have a feel for the first couple I’m going to play - though often I only decide that in 10 minutes before I start. There are a few set moves I tend to make if the mood is right (scratching samples and acapellas from the next track I’m playing over the one thats currently on etc)
When I’m doing the radio show I tend to plan a set a lot more rigorously, and as I keep these setlists, I can sometimes refer to them when I’m playing live for transitions I know work …
Ten I just freestyle it …
previously on djtechtools.com
[ame=“Google Search”]site:djtechtools.com planning set - Google Search[/ame]
Great use of google advanced search tools 
I hope sometime we can ask the Siri: “Search for planning set therm on the djtechtools.com website” and the Siri do like you did:
site:djtechtools.com planning set
Or someday “Siri, please search the tunes I’ve played last night between 0h and 5h AM”
Siri could make a temporary smart playlist on itunes and show us the tracks
Thanks everybody for the feed back!!! My biggest problem is the only place that I can get a spot to play in in my small town is a 30 min set. I have played there yet, mainly cause I cant come with sets I am happy with in that sort time. I keep coming up with a lot of build ups and downs. I anyone has any comments on how they would aproach such a short set, I’d love to hear it. Here in east texas, any sort of techno has not really got a good hold yet. I people dont reconize the song, they dont like it. The club is trying to push dub step and other electro music so I am lost a little bit.. If I get to play I want you to dance.
If you want to play you have to adapt to where you can play. After they get comfortable with you then you can slowly add some other things and experiment to see where you can go. But you probably won’t be able to go very far in east Texas. Where are you anyway?
i put tracks that fit well together on the same cd and burn them two times.
so i can mix from and to every track (even do a remix because i have every track two times ;D)
and i take to “one set” 4-5 of this CDs(2x) so i can switch between 2-3 different styles and have enough from every style to play the time without an style-change 
its a pretty safe bet this way =)
about 3 beers does it.
Correct..
On a more serious note, to places i play all the time i know what to expect so have 2 warm up MP3 CDs, 2 Main set MP3 CDs and 2 ‘back ups’ or 2 ‘classics’
If i don’t know the place i just bring my wallet 
Sorted.
Im in Tyler, I am going to work on this today. I’ll try to get something to soundcloud later.
I have some experience playing in the East Texas area.
Usually there, it’s all out all the time; it doesn’t matter if you’re opening or closing, you play whatever hits you want during your set. There’s never a real “warm up” or “closing”, it’s just constant Electro and Dubstep.
If I were you (and I have been), I would just play your big guns and mix them well for thirty minutes. Those East Texas ravers don’t take any sort of breaks
Also, I’d love to hear your stuff when you post it up via Soundcloud.