I will start by saying hello, this is my first post on here, though I have lurked around the forums for a while. This is an excellent site.
(since this ended up as a large post I made a tl;dr below)
This weekend I was at a club with some friends. About half an hour before closing time I ended up alone, my friends having gone somewhere else, so I decided I would watch the DJ playing in the lounge as I thought I might learn something from it. I get into a conversation with him, introducing myself and explaining why I have been staring in his direction for the past 15 minutes. He turns out to be one of the guys responsible for the largest DJ group in the city! All of a sudden I am asked if I want some work as a DJ. I say yes, of course, and he gives me his mail and tells me to send him a mix of mine. Very happy with this unexpected turn of events I return to my friends with a big smile on my face.
Now, after a couple days, I am sitting at home and trying to create the mix which might be my first step into getting bigger gigs. It is going slow though, so I thought I would ask here if you have any tips for an amateur DJ wanting to get his first paid club gig ( I have played for free at student night clubs with 200 people or so, but this feels different since I would get paid! It would also sponsor my awaiting purchase of the VCI-100SE :eek: ).
So, what I want is advice on how to make this kind of mix. Should it be as technically difficult as possible in order to show my “skill” as a DJ, or should I put an emphasis on showing him the music I play? Maybe both? Any idea on how long the mix should be? Sending him a full four hour set sounds a bit too much, so I was thinking of around 30-60 mins. I am most likely going to focus on electro house on this mix, but I guess that sticking to only one genre would make the mix sound a bit dull..?
Since this is something that might generate some much needed income for me (students don’t have the best economical situation and I don’t have a job during the summer ) and would be something really exciting to try I am more serious than usual, so I will take my time making this mix. All advice is appreciated!
tl;dr
I need to make a mix in order to get a paid gig at a club, which is new to me. Advice on how to produce this mix is very appreciated!
I would say don’t try to do anything too crazy with your mix, just make it smooth, focus on the flow and song selections and keeping the energy levels of the music properly ordered (i.e. phrasing). That is going to sound best. Depending on your skill level do what advanced stuff you feel comfortable with, but make sure that the above things I mentioned are always #1, because it is better to have a really smooth easy too listen to mix than a mix with lots of tricks, and some mistakes. So above all minimize all mistakes at the cost of frills. No one wants to hear crazy effects if it is at the expensive of a badly timed drop.
Definitely.. I am not capable of doing much advanced stuff yet so I am going to stick to mixing good songs and build up the energy. I reread the tutorials on here to see if there’s anything I have missed, but as of now I am searching through my songs to see what fits together.. I can’t distinguish the key of a song by ear and I don’t really know what keys that work great together so I am just going by what feels right.
Since I am inexperienced I feel like it will take a week or even longer making this.. Gah I want to be an expert already!
Honestly, pro’s take months to put mixes together. You don’t need to worry about that.
I think all you should do is spin. Right now you need to show what you can do with what you got. Pick your songs, those songs you know, make a mix out of em. Take a week to do it, that’s fine. Try to throw in some tricks (loops, effects, cue jumps, beat jumps) to at least make it as smooth as possible, but in the end your main concern should be making a good, solid and awesome mix.
I will definitely share it , since I am learning some critique would be great.. Don’t expect a masterpiece though!
Hopefully it will be good enough to get any of the night clubs or DJ groups playing there’s attention, if not I guess I will wait a bit and make another one after I have become more experienced! It is really nice to have the student club to DJ at, there’s generally a lot of people and I know a lot of them, but I want to DJ at more places.
I should be thankful to the guy at the club, this has made me concentrate a lot more on playing with Traktor at home, looking for music etc. I have a lot of spare time now since there aren’t any courses during the summer, so it is perfectly timed, really.
That’s the best way things can work. Just keep practicing and putting together something you can be proud of. Hell, practice it at the student club so you can have a mix that works both listening and dancing
) and would be something really exciting to try I am more serious than usual, so I will take my time making this mix. All advice is appreciated!