Right now I usually plan out quick 30 minute sets in Traktor by setting up a playlist and setting points where I’ll mix in and out. This is usually tedious and takes me about an hour or two to pick the songs, find a good order and determine good mix in and out points. I then practice it a few times over a week and then record it.
How do legit DJs do this? Do they preplan their live sets or do they do it all on the fly and wing it? I’m guessing it’s a mix of both but can someone describe their experiences. And how would you be able to just wing it? I would have trouble making everything flow and sound good. Thanks guys.
Pretty much. When I use CDJ’s, I walk in with a general idea of what I’m gonna do, and I also choose specific tracks which will be either highlights, transitional pieces (low tier to medium tier energy level), whatever is in between is improvised. I often find that over thinking removes not only spontaneity, but also will induce “writers block” since you’re worried about what to do, where to go, etc.
It’s a developed skill in my opinion, and it comes naturally after a while with enough practice. First and foremost though, digital medium or not, it’s all about knowing your tracks without wave forms, cue markers, etc. Knowing your tracks inside and out is what it’s all about.
Also forgot to mention that using harmonic mixing principles will also allow you to work off an abstract guideline, where it will help narrow down which tracks would harmonically sound best with whatever is playing. This is a subject all in itself, but basically harmonic mixing will help considerably with establishing a “flow” so to speak.
depends who you talk to. some people preplan their shit, some don’t. some people are somewhere in the middle as they’ll use chunks of preplanned elements and chunks of improvised elements.
we use ableton so it can be difficult to ‘wing it.’ we usually preplan a few things like setting some loops that we like and some songs we definitely want to play. in the end we stand there and we talk to each other, “people loved this; this song has the same type of energy. do it!” lol.
i go about it by first setting up all my tracks with basic cue points. first one is always an alignment cue. just to set it up ready to play. next one is usualy when the bass line drops. the other two are more for show. so this gives me a fast visual cue of where those bass drops are. next best tool is playlists. best advice there is keep them 3-5 songs long. no longer than 5. the reason for this is when your in a club, as much as your guiding the music, so is the crowd. youll notice when your big distortion song isnt working, and if your next song doesnt cut it, its hard to get them back into the mood. basicaly, you dont want to get locked into a long 90minute rountine. from there, just practice and practice. and love the music your spinning
i suppose we all do it differently tho. interested in hearing anyone elses techniques
I just put together a new mix of Minimal and Techno, my first one since restarting, all I did was grid said purchases and play them all once from start to finish, then decided to start the mix minimal’ish then basically move into Techno and end with a dark track, rarely do i ever use beat markers or actually select tracks, sometimes i might use harmonic mixing as i do run all my tracks via mik, but generally i go for the feeling of tracks rather then any other order of play.
honestly depends on your style i prefer on the fly mixing
yeah I usually go in with a set running order of tracks but will change that order if it doesn’t match the mood of the crowd. As for the cue points, I have chunks where there are complex mixes so I need the cues so I can get it right. Other parts I kind of just know the mixes and other parts I just do whatever I want right there live.
But at the end of the day, i reckon if it sounds good, who cares how you do it!
You’ll find after you spend some time practicing and placing cue points the whole process will be quicker. You’ll probably start using less cue points and will recognize where to mix in and out of faster. For example when I first got back into it it I bought some music, picked five songs to put in a mix, then spent two or three days working on what ended up being a 15 minute mix. Granted a lot of that time was spent learning hardware and software, but now I can buy 10 songs, grid them, set a few cue points at important parts, and do a mix with those songs all in a day.
As far as pre planning a set I think playlists with similar music is a good idea. Having the key in all of the songs can help combine some songs that you might not think about putting together. All in all though these computers that make everything so much easier also create more work creating and organizing playlists and all of the other things that go a long with digital DJ’ing. Someone said on here that for every hour of music they played there was two hour of prep involved, not sure who that was though.
When using CDJ’s, i go into a set with the general idea for all of it (house, prog house, all that jazz) and get all my CD’s burnt with music i know, then mix around when I get there..
I gotta make sure to know most of details about the songs though so when I go into it, i know what i’m doing
i do pretty meticulous planning before hand, i chock it up to my mild OCD haha.
any improvisation i do is mostly to do with how and when i mix in/out of songs, but i’ve also made changes to my playlist on the spot if it needs to be done to accomodate the energy of the audience or the time constraints.
the idea of experimenting outside of the bedroom just doesn’t sit with me well, so i try to keep the improv to a minimum unless it really needs to be done.
I used to have these “Go To” mixes that I’d drop from time to time. Since I was playing to a Top 40 crowd, it helped the night go by a little faster till I got to the 1AM mark and just closed the club with House.
I think it depends on where you’re playing. If it’s a gig where you were hired for your style (performance), then sometimes you have no choice BUT to pre-plan, as this may be one of many routines you’ve got set up in your crates. If it’s a gig at a venue that says “DJ EVERY SAT NITE” on a sign outside, then perhaps you should read the crowd first before dropping some Plastikman.
just got a gig where the club wanted to see me play some soulful house, which i haven’t ever really been into so i’ve been listening up on it the last week and i’ve had to do a lot of preplanning and such
I don’t really plan everything, but I put some tracks, which I really wanna play, aside in advance. And then of course when I got these, I also think about tracks that would fit nicely with them. But in fact you can say that for me only around 30 minutes of a 2 1/2 hour set are preplanned. And these 30 minutes are not necessarily all together. (More like “Okay, now track A, then of course Track B. What to play now? Hmmm, oh yeah, why not this one. [20 minutes later] Now I could finally drop Track C.” And so on)
I personally have mini sets of 15 minutes for different situations(Audiences). And go off the crowd to see which they respond to. Then A lot off the fly.. Those 2 hours you put into that one set isnt a waste tho, you will be reaping the rewards of that diligence later. make like a xcel song list of what songs mix well together and then if you are ever in a pinch you can look to that.
i figured this was the case. which is why i wonder why not very many intermediate level djs practice this as well (or at least don’t admit to it). the reason i always hear is that you have to read the crowd to know what to play next, i’ve never fully agreed with this sentiment personally. i think if you know what kind of audience you’re playing for and what kind of djs you’re playing after and before, are mindful of the timeslot - there shouldn’t be that much room for modifying you’re approach if you have a fine tuned and thoughtfully arranged set prepared.
I am not a famous DJ so when I get booked, people do that because they know what general style I play, but they don’t book me for a trademark stardom set that is full of unreleased dubplates. They want me to fill the dancefloor, but also to give the crowd a few less exciting moments so they can get to the bar and buy drinks. A pre-planned set might have two effects in that situation. Either it is perfect and the crowd rocks so hard that people don’t have time to spend their money on drinks, or they don’t like it at all and leave early and spend their money elsewhere - ergo: Risk of dissatisfied club owner. So for me, a fully pre-planed set is usually a no-go.
If you’re good enough on the technical side of DJing, the most important thing in my opinion is (yeah, nothing new) watching the crowd, judge it’s feedback and react to that. To be able to do that, you also have to know your collection of music very well. It doesn’t help to have 10000 tunes if you basically only know an few of them. So listen to your collection extensively, get to know as many tracks as possible. And then you probably don’t even have to plan your sets to make them sound good. A method that works for me is to listen to tracks that I just bought for a few times, try to come up with a few other tunes that they might work with, try that and if I succeed, try to memorize that. Over a bunch of years, maybe 5 or 6, my digital collection grew to nothing more than around 2000, and I don’t claim to know them all inside out, but I usually get along quite well that way.
I love doing back2back-sets with other DJs, just for the challenge of coming up with a good and working tune to follow up what someone else has chosen to play. You should try it with some mates, It’s fun, it’s a challenge and it’s a great way to practice.
BTW, for recorded mixes, I also plan my sets, sure. But let’s be honest: Almost everybody can do that, right?
(Listening to recorded, but unplanned sets is also a good way to learn what you might have done wrong, what works and what doesn’t.)
