Thoughts from a young Dj

[Erniemater]

Thoughts from a young Dj

Hello everyone,

As this is my first post on these forums, i will start with introducing myself. I am Ernest, 16 years old and i have been Dj’ing for lets say half a year. I have a (legal) copy of traktor pro, A hercules Rmx and a Traktor X1. Currently i am hoping to buy a S4 once. I do not consider myself a super dj, but not a bad one asswel. My dad ( who used to be a Dj asswel) says i am pretty good, so i guess that counts for something Feel free to check out my soundcloud, i have some older mixes there ( IMo they suck) .

https://soundcloud.com/dj-erniemater.

While i used to use Auto-Sync all the time, i have stepped of from it. I believe that a real Dj does not need such features and has to be able to Dj without it.

Now after this short introduction is over, i can tell you about the purpose of this thread. I want to share you guys some thought that i have regarding modern day dj’ing. I will try to keep this frequently updated.

I would like to talk about a small Gig i did for my school party ( 12-14 year old). This was my first and for now only Gig. Now i had been informed that there would be another Dj asswel, so I contacted him well before. He would bring all the gear necessary, so that part was covered. On the day of the Gig about 3 hours before the party, we met in the party hall. He has a lot of lights and equipment. Although we had plenty of time, he was very nervous and afraid we woudn’t be ready in time. It seemed to me that he thought all the fancy lights were more important then the actual performance. After setting everything up, the kids started to pour in. I started of with some basic electro, and then it struck me that i had no music at all to play for little children. Luckely the other dj had that cheap Rnb/rap trash that they like..

So He played for a while and i noticed that he Sucked monkey balls. He never even touched his external mixer. All he did was sit behind his laptop pushing the play button when a song was finished. What amazed me even more, is that he told me that he Dj’ed reguraly at these sorts of parties. Do people really care so less about mixing song smooth? In my opinion that Dj was just a Jukebox. He was constanly playing requests from the children and the exotic times he tried to beatmatch it was trainwrecked all the way. Also every time i beatmatched to transition from his track to mine, he was utterly amazed, While i was like “dude this is basic”.

Anyways im off since its already late, and i think this post is long enough already. I hope you guys like this sort of post, and il surely post thoughts if you guys like it.

[kidcolt]

Hi

First of all ill tell you that your not the only one with this kind of experiences, these ‘press-play’ djs are all around smaller town partys, its a shame.

2nd: I liked your elektro house 10min mix, nothing fancy but all in all its ok not fucked up like many 'dj’s like to do their ‘mixes’.

Only i at about 4:45 when the synth of the new song comes into the still playing old synth, i think it doesnt fit that well. Aswell at the point where Handguns ends it doesnt fit that well into that deadmau5 or gartner track playing ( not sure which one it is ).

and try to get handguns and the deadmau5/gartner track in better quality, as the sound quality made a big difference on these

so far kidcolt. keep going and dont be afraid to do harsher mixes. my mix style was pretty much like yours, until i started to try to mix in key and layer and do quick cuts and stuff, it makes it more interessting to listen and more fun to play

edit: oh and playing with cued vocals into vocal-less tracks is a cool thing to do too

[completej]

I believe the other dj was also responsible for this video

A Message To All The Wanna Be DJ's and Club Owners

[Ed_Paris]

hm…you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

[kidcolt]

hm…you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

like its hard to keep 14 y.o dancing. top 40 and your sure to have them dance.

kids like to dance to stuff they hear on radio/ see on tv. you can drop your hotest shit, they wont care unless its been on ‘the dome’.

[MrPopinjay]

Avoid regular club nights and play at music based nights where people actually notice the music rather than see it as background noise to their attempts at pulling. Problem solved?

[kidcolt]

@MrPopinjay

Avoid regular club nights and play at music based nights where people actually notice the music rather than see it as background noise to their attempts at pulling. Problem solved?

qft. quoted for truth.

[MrPopinjay]

Thank you good sir.

[photojojo]

@Erniemater

I believe that a real Dj does not need such features and has to be able to Dj without it.

I use sync, but I’m 40 years old and could care less what other people think about me.

@Erniemater

It seemed to me that he thought all the fancy lights were more important then the actual performance.

If lights weren’t important DJ’s wouldn’t pay $1000’s for them. Part of what they are paying him to do is put on a dance. The lights and the ambience he introduces to the night with his lights is pretty important.

@Erniemater

I started of with some basic electro, and then it struck me that i had no music at all to play for little children. Luckely the other dj had that cheap Rnb/rap trash that they like.

He was prepared and you weren’t sound like he saved your ass.

@Erniemater

So He played for a while and i noticed that he Sucked monkey balls. He never even touched his external mixer. All he did was sit behind his laptop pushing the play button when a song was finished. What amazed me even more, is that he told me that he Dj’ed reguraly at these sorts of parties. Do people really care so less about mixing song smooth? In my opinion that Dj was just a Jukebox. He was constanly playing requests from the children and the exotic times he tried to beatmatch it was trainwrecked all the way. Also every time i beatmatched to transition from his track to mine, he was utterly amazed, While i was like “dude this is basic”.

You can pull off the most amazing mixes in the world, but chances are nobody will even know, or care, that you just did. Except of course all the other wannabe DJ’s in the room, but they don’t count because they could have done it better anyway.

They key is being able to read the floor and select the tracks to make the night flow well. if you can do that and mix well you will be a success. And btw, middle school dances are not what I consider a success.

Oh, and welcome to the site.

[djfrogstar]

hm…you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

Beatmatching doesnt mean anything for certain styles.. thats the point of djing.. is to make songs work together.. So if your into the smooth layered track kind of mixing.. then beatmatching is a good thing to learn if you dont use training wheels to do it.. but in the same breath if your into constant eq manipulation and fx and other cool trix than the SYNC is a good thing. It doesnt matter either way.. as long as the music is grabbing people and giving them a good time.
I personally am cutting and layering beatless tracks or fx into the song that is playing. I can do this all night long without risking a trainwreck from a mis calculated beatmatch.

I wouldnt judge too harshly on how some people can get to the same goal with or without sync. All the rules are changing anyways.. which gives a whole new definition to breaking the old rules. Even 15 years ago I would hit pause on the denon cd player which would catch the sound and repeat it.. and then some quick pitch shifting tricks into some sampler to only slow down the captured loop role would create a low end version of all these nice loop roll fx that people use today… Alot of the time other vinyl djs back then would scoff but still wonder how I pulled it off.. ok so I was djing gabber/hardcore/jungle so it didnt matter.
my advice is to find what works… Have some tracks for autosync and others not.. but dont limit yourself to what your dad may think as cheating. Because even the best beatmatchers will never be able to reach the same level of deeper control because they have to worry the whole time that things drop out of sync.

[Buddha-DJ]

Good 10 min mix,from italy
What is the name of the song at 1.50?? Thx

[DJ_Nada]

@Erniemater

I started of with some basic electro, and then it struck me that i had no music at all to play for little children. Luckely the other dj had that cheap Rnb/rap trash that they like..

So He played for a while and i noticed that he Sucked monkey balls. He never even touched his external mixer.

Dude, show a little respect. First off, he saved your ass that night. You thought you were going to play electro, which if you did, nobody would have danced to it. Has it occurred that there are people out there that don’t even like electro but like to dance? (A lot of people actually.) You would have sucked giant monkey balls if you were the only DJ there that night. I guarantee it. You might be able to mix a little and do some tricks, but the MOST IMPORTANT DJ skill is track selection. Write that on a post-it and put it on your bathroom mirror. The most important skill is track selection, got it?

Cheap R&B/Rap trash? You need serious musical education my friend. Expand your musical world. Add some good hip-hop, latin, reggaton, r&b, rock, and country songs to your library. You’ll be a better DJ for it. Electro is easy as hell to mix.

As for him not mixing, it was a 12 year-old’s dance party. They probably wouldn’t have known the difference. He might know how to mix, but didn’t think little kids would appreciate the art. He was hired to be a jukebox, and he did that job well.

[padi_04]

hm…you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

Fatboy Slim comes into my mind…

Kids will ask for top40, but i’ve managed to get them pumping with some quality house music , just stay away from any harsh tunes and keep it vocal/melodic.

Like photo said, that dude saved your arse, a good dj must be ready to please any crowd he has been paid to entertain.

lights (and visuals) are very important to get the “party mood” going, otherwise it feels like you are mixing in your bedroom. it’s not about throwing in some random lights, that too requires planning and fine tunning to fit the room if you do things the right way.

you need to put your ego aside and a lot of things before even considering judging another dj (no offense, but the crowd and years of experience give you those 2 letters before your aka).

[Erniemater]

Thanks for the responses guys,

But first of all i am not saying that you can’t use sync. I used it often myseld, but thesedays im trying/learning to beatmatch by hand. Because i think its a good skill to have.

@DJ_Nada

Cheap R&B/Rap trash? You need serious musical education my friend. Expand your musical world. Add some good hip-hop, latin, reggaton, r&b, rock, and country songs to your library. You’ll be a better DJ for it. Electro is easy as hell to mix.

With all to respect but i personannly think that most of the top-40 music thesedays is just reclyclage of the same stuff . I do listen to other gengre’s in my free time, and i also like them. I just like to mix electronic things.

Now what i learned from that party, is that i do not want to be a mobil Dj playing for weddings, etc. Perhaps later, but not right now. I would rather go dj somewhere were i can play my music style and the croud also wants to hear that sort of music. So if they would ask me to do it again next year, i think i would say no. Not because my ego is so big that i think school dances are to low for me. But because i think that the children will have more fun with another dj who plays the Top-40 and has cool lights. I guess he and me are just different types of Dj’s?.

[Djtom420]

@Erniemater

Thanks for the responses guys,

With all to respect but i personannly think that most of the top-40 music thesedays is just reclyclage of the same stuff .

Preach on Brother, Todays Music SUcks!!! with a capital S… Piracy hasnt killed the industry Crappy music has, Ke$ha, britiny, Usher, American Idol idiots and all the other idiots should drive off a short cliff.

@Erniemater

Now what i learned from that party, is that i do not want to be a mobil Dj playing for weddings, etc. Perhaps later, but not right now. I would rather go dj somewhere were i can play my music style and the croud also wants to hear that sort of music. So if they would ask me to do it again next year, i think i would say no. Not because my ego is so big that i think school dances are to low for me. But because i think that the children will have more fun with another dj who plays the Top-40 and has cool lights. I guess he and me are just different types of Dj’s?.

I belive this is one of the confusing things about DJTT. Sometimes the things seemed aimed at the club/rave DJ and other times seems to be aimed at the mobile DJ crowed.

Not dissing the mobile crowed, but its tru u guys are just jukeboxs:

Expand your musical world. Add some good hip-hop, latin, reggaton, r&b, rock, and country songs to your library. You’ll be a better DJ for it. Electro is easy as hell to mix.

Country??? seriously??? were u joking??? Like really??? Kid dont listen to this guy, DONT EVER PLAY COUNTRY, just dont EVER EVER DO IT(unless ur in a hick bar in middle america). OMG and I read so fast I missed the Regatone part, Probably shoulndt play that either, ehhhh regatone…

And R&b/Rap trach, is just about right. Most of this hip hop crap out there now is either retard ripoffs of Marshal mathers or just brainless party hip hop, this a bunch of chicks and a dude rapping next to his pool… Hip hop hasnt been that great for the last 5 or years. some of the underground stuff is great, but the top 40 is just retarded. Still waiting for DETOX though, West Coast Represent!!!

This kid is looking to play more Clubs/raves that are aimed toward his type of music. Not the play top 40 crap crowed (idiots)… I dont think his ego is big at all hes just young and didnt understand the gig he was getting into.

I will tell u this Erniemater, when u tell people ur a dj and then they have an event and say hey Erniematers a dj ill get him. ALot of people dont relize there is a big differnce between DJS and mobile djs. U need to make this clear to the people that hire you, ur a DJ not a jukebox. U dont take request, u spin a certain genere or a certain set of generes. Make sure its ur kind of a gig, not a 14 yr olds party.

[Fyoog]

@Erniemater

Now what i learned from that party, is that i do not want to be a mobil Dj playing for weddings, etc. Perhaps later, but not right now. I would rather go dj somewhere were i can play my music style and the croud also wants to hear that sort of music. So if they would ask me to do it again next year, i think i would say no. Not because my ego is so big that i think school dances are to low for me. But because i think that the children will have more fun with another dj who plays the Top-40 and has cool lights. I guess he and me are just different types of Dj’s?.

Firstly, welcome mate. This site has been a great resource to me and the people here are brilliant. There are club DJ’s and mobile/ party DJ’s a like. Everyone has their own style of mixing and the mantra round here seems to be “it’s not how you do it, but it’s what you do with it that counts”. Beat matching is always a great skill to have as a back up but it’s by no means essential.

I think what you wrote above is true, it sounds as though you would be more at home pursuing a club type DJ career as you enjoy the EDM side of things more and people notice when you play what you love so stick with it and enjoy it becuase that’s what counts for you and the crowd. Maybe you will play the odd party again when you get a bit older as the people you play to will expand their musical horizons and enjoy your favoured style.

[photojojo]

@Djtom420

Country??? seriously??? were u joking??? Like really??? Kid dont listen to this guy, DONT EVER PLAY COUNTRY, just dont EVER EVER DO IT(unless ur in a hick bar in middle america). OMG and I read so fast I missed the Regatone part, Probably shoulndt play that either, ehhhh regatone…

I think he said Country just to expand the op’s knowledge of music in general and if you’re a mobile DJ you’ll need to have some Country on hand.

You do know that Reggaeton is not Reggae correct? I ask because you say don’t play Reggaeton, but then say play rap. Reggaeton is, for the most part, just latin flavored rap. Search Daddy Yankee, De La Ghetto, Don Omar and have a listen.

To the OP, just the fact that you’re on here is a testament to the fact that you want to be a better DJ.

[ponyboy]

hm…you can´t always judge a dj by his beatmatching skillz. i´ve been to a lot of parties where i´ve seen guys in the booth who had no plan how to make transitions, but what they had and that´s what i miss at a lot of dj´s these days is trackselection. so if he managed to keep the kids dancing who cares if he can beatmatch

This was a party for 12 year olds, they don’t know wtf beatmatching is, they just want to dance and mess about with their friends. I doubt kids that age care about upfront electro or house either, they want to listen to tracks they know.

What a weird thread.

[padi_04]

@photojojo

I think he said Country just to expand the op’s knowledge of music in general and if you’re a mobile DJ you’ll need to have some Country on hand.

You do know that Reggaeton is not Reggae correct? I ask because you say don’t play Reggaeton, but then say play rap. Reggaeton is, for the most part, just latin flavored rap. Search Daddy Yankee, De La Ghetto, Don Omar and have a listen.

To the OP, just the fact that you’re on here is a testament to the fact that you want to be a better DJ.

latin flavored cheap senseless rap. i get to play this crap at every non-electronic event i have for 2-3hours. top 40’s consist mainly of this and cumbia

[Buddha-DJ]

@Buddha-DJ

Good 10 min mix,from italy
What is the name of the song at 1.50?? Thx

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