Self Declaration

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Self Declaration

I thought I should say this, and I hope it’s okay by Forum rules and whatever else.

As you can tell, I am new to this forum and essentially new to DJ’ing. I am in high school- however, my goal is to be the opposite of the “teen DJ” stereotype. I am inexperienced, don’t have hardware yet, and I am not looking for any serious shows soon, but I know that and acknowledge that.

I am into DJ’ing because it is fun. Right now I am practicing as best I can with my laptop, and everyday I am building my skills.

I know a bit about DJ’ing, however I can’t back up anything I know, and shan’t have any strong opinions until I have done multiple official shows, gigs or whatever your choice of word.

I wanted to say this so that anybody who reads this has reality with where I am coming from.

Thank you for your time,

Kasey

2

read/watch youtube
dig for tunes
practice

It doesn’t matter how many gig’s you’ve done or how many controllers you have, it’s about setting goals and dedicating yourself

As long as you’re having a good time, nothing else really matters

welcome to the forums :+1:

3

Thanks- That’s exactly the attitude I have. The reason I want a controller is only to make it easier to do the techniques. Qwerty isn’t a DJ’s best friend… :wink:

4

I don’t get it.

5

How can I help, dope?

6

Welcome to the forums and DJing in general. A refreshing and thought out post there too, makes a change from tell me this, give me that, entitlement type posts. From what you’ve said you have the right starting attitude to me, the rest will follow on as you say.

What would you like to know? I think your approach is a good one to learn the software however I know what you’re saying it will probably be a good move to get a controller to learn further. I’d also suggest developing your own taste of music, buy tracks you like not just because a certain genre is fashionable, also listen to as many mixes as possible to get an idea of how DJ sets can be put together, the Essential Mix is particularly good for this IMO.

7

I guess my weak points are beatmatching by ear, which is natural for beginning, and transferring to a song out of key. Also, just practice. :slight_smile: I know I’m not ready for a show yet, and I know that. However, lots of my friends/fellow students are expecting a show in the first month or two of school. So, I am practicing my hardest, and reading another teen thread, will be practicing two-hour sets most days.

8

Don’t think feel… and another cliche… practice…practice…practice.

Been playing out since 1992… in clubs, illegal raves, dope music bars and so on. I still practice everyday for a leat 30 mins.

Keeps you fresh and new tracks are comming in everyday… so its good to keep it all check.

9

Stay away from Trance and Dubstep

10

and why again?

11

Cos they are poop :stuck_out_tongue:!

12

Fixed that for ya. :wink:

That is NOT a weak point - that is the strongest point you can possibly be at. Everything is a learning point from here on in.

Don’t worry about what ANYONE says. The best thing you can do is ASK QUESTIONS! Use the search function, but I for one am happy to answer a noob - especially if I can get to the thread before the dicks turn up, trying to prove that they know the tiniest iota more than you, while still knowing nothing.

Best of luck to you Kasey - just remember to have fun along the way.

[P.S - you’ll learn more through trial and error (ie - just MIXING for a couple of hours a day) than you will from hanging out on forums!]

13

Welcome to the Forums. Don’t worry, DJs with bad attitudes are nothing new, it’s not your generation’s fault. Good to see that you, on the other hand, have the right outlook.

what style do you spin?

14

woah dude! like everyone said, very intelligent and refreshing. you’re doing EVERYTHING right so far, thank you for the breath of fresh air. It’s already kind of hard not to be spiteful of new DJs, when soooo many kids are becoming DJs and we feel like our art is being cheapened, but then the amount of obnoxious and entitled they always act makes it worse. thank you for breaking all of those stereotypes and returning some faith to some of us.

dont worry about key so much. everying actually gets super easy when you find out about the rest of the system. Besides just +1 and -1, there are i believe 7 different movements you can make that will work harmonically, so its pretty easy. im on my mobile right now so i cant post a link to the real table, but google it.

as far as beatmatching goes, ill save you the couple months or so that it took me to figure this out, as i taught myself as well. beatmatching is insanely easy if you have a tempo reader, like traktor does. all you have to do is this:

load the new track, move the pitch fader until it matches the tempo of the currently playing track exactly, and then put the playhead at the beginning of a measure. as you feel the end of a measure coming of the currently playing track, tap out the last 8 or 4 beats with the cue command, and then press play on the 5th/9th. then nudge with your jogwheels to correct for your timing being slightly off, as well as latency. if you dont have jogwheels, you CAN do it with a laptop, just bind a pair of keys to nudge forward/back.

the most important part is matching the tempos BEFORE you hit play. If you try to tempomatch by ear while you’re new, youre gonna have a bad time. it honestly doesnt take much practice to be acceptable at doing it the way i just outlined once you know that part. all the old schoolers saying beatmatching is a difficult art are talking about vinyl, since you dont have tempo readers… or they’re just assholes.

good luck man! please use this for good, not evil. (Dont play trap at EDM events, and dont play dubstep or moombah for more than a couple tracks at a time). ok, /biased asshole time

15

dripsteps tips:

-Practice
-Read EVERYTHING here
-Ask questions
-Practice
-Do your research
-Don’t send BFLY your mixes if they are trance and dubstep. He doesn’t like those.

16

80% of what I’ve learned has been out there on the stage… Wish there were more avenues for new DJs but one way is to create avenues instead of complaining there are none.

17

Don’t do something because it is popular, do something that feels right to you, that makes you feel high without drinking/smoking anything.

Don’t think feel as Tommi Bass stated above.

18

Welcome:slight_smile:

I’m in High school too! Shoot me a pm man if you ever want to talk or have any questions!

19

Precisely! :+1:

20

@Tommi Bass- I work on all three of those every day. Today I did a 45min-1hr mix, and it went well. Thus, I need more practice. :slight_smile:

@BFLY- Trance, eh, I can do without. But sorry, dubstep is more my style.

@Patch- Thanks, Patch. One can never know everything. Thus I will keep on asking questions as long as I am alive.

@MWanger- I like complex electro, dubstep, electro house, basically EDM. I don’t like the more minimal genres.

@Saurus- I wanted to remove myself from that group, as I didn’t want to get communications that were undue just because I am young.

But that technique, yes I’ve been practicing it. A few weeks after using “Sync,” my first weeks DJ’ing, I started to figure that out.

@Dripstep- Cool, thanks for the tips :wink:

@ksandvik- Yes, there are so many people going for so few spaces.

@Maven- Aye, I don’t plan on anything of the sort. Only the high of life.

@DJKyleHughes- Thanks. And if I need anybody to talk to, I’ll come to you.