Begginers: Career in Djing and Production

(oh and if I was you I’d buy something like this http://www.mixmag.net/tech/tech-features/tried-and-tested%3A-monika before you have tinnitus, that’s really annoying – but the choice is yours)

Hi Dan, start with which ever (DJing or producing) appeals to you more – nothing aids learning like enthusiasm, and you can’t teach keen.  Without question, producing music is a far broader topic than DJing – one could spend numerous lifetimes learning about it.  Xavier has offered excellent advice on how to go about educating yourself, I agree that the most productive means of learning is to ask specific questions eg/ “How can I make a bass sound like the one on ‘Dre Day’?”, “How can I make a (x)-style trance build?”, “How can I sidechain a synth sound from a kick drum?” and so on.  Just about every question a beginner could ask has been answered online before, it’s a matter of phrasing your searches in such a way that meaningful responses are returned.

For what it’s worth, I use Traktor for DJing, Ableton Live for remixes, edits, and MIDI sequencing and REAPER for multitrack recording and soundtrack work.  I prefer Traktor for DJing as it’s extremely powerful and flexible, it’s very stable, works with just about every controller ever made (unlike Serato) and is cheap (unlike VDJ).  Lots of people seem to like CrossDJ these days too, but I can’t comment as I have no first-hand experience with it.

Ableton is awesome, but the full version is ruinously expensive – not an investment to be taken lightly by someone just starting out.  REAPER remains, IMO, the best bargain to be had in music production:  stable, dirt-cheap, incredibly powerful, endlessly flexible, with an enthusiastic user base and standout support from the developer.  Some would say that the power comes at the cost of a steep learning curve, and for an absolute beginner I would be inclined to agree.. however, I came to it having used Pro Tools for a few years in a commercial studio and Cubase prior to that,  and it was everything I wished a DAW could be.  The only legitimate criticism I’ve heard leveled at it is that very few commercial studios use it and therefore bringing REAPER projects to a Pro Tools-only studio can be tricky depending on how they’ve been prepared.  That’s something you’re unlikely to have to think about at this stage though of course, and in time you’ll decide how important that is to you.

Sorry for the long-winded reply, but I’ll end with the best advice I feel I can offer:  Get started NOW, with whatever you have available.  All the best in your endeavors.

Start here:

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/03/how-to-succeed-at-djing-part-1-what-type-of-dj-do-you-want-to-be/

In a house party or clubs, do djs have to play there own remixes that they have created or  can djs just play a set of original song/tracks?

You’re the dj, you play what you want. I guess it’s always better when you play a good remix instead of the original of a famous track, people may be surprised but if they love the original, they’ll love the remix too. It doesn’t matter who made the remix, if it’s good, it’s good.

Playing your own tracks and remixes sounds really cool (and it is) but be careful : clubs have special sound systems, not earphones. If there is anything wrong with eq, compression, panning or something like that in your track, you and the crowd are going to have a bad time.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+mix+and+master+electro

Sometimes producers talk about how they make their tracks, that’s very interesting too :

I'm Madeon, let's talk production !
byu/ItsMadeon inedmproduction

http://www.facebook.com/notes/max-vangeli/house-producers-ask-me-questions-here/393281753978

which is the best software to create a remix of a song., for example pick a song and add your own beats and so on to the song to create a remix?

I’m using Logic Pro (Mac OS) and a few vsts, especially Sylenth1. If you’re a Windows user you should download the demo version of Ableton Live or FL Studio and play with it and then you’ll know what program you want to use… Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, Cubase, … it doesn’t really matter I think, since you can make the same things with these (Avicii=FL Studio, deadmau5= FL Studio and Ableton Live I think, Steve Angello=Logic Pro).

I hope you understand me lol, I’m french :p

Wow, long or short answer? Never mind, I don’t have time for the long answer right now, lol.

Monitor speakers are made to reproduce every sound exactly as it was recorded. They are brutally honest and frankly can be tiresome to listen to when playing regular music for a long time.

PA speakers are made to get as many dB’s out of each Watt of amp power. They are ment to provide large spaces and numbers of people with high sound pressure levels.

Also studio monitors are usually pretty fragile (build wise), no protection in front of the speaker cones (as this could negatively impact the sound) and usually the cases are not really roadworthy either.

PA speakers on the other hand are built to handle the rigors of the road, meaning day in day out in/out truck, on/off speaker stands or stacks, dropping, falling over, being bumped into. You get the idea.

Hope that helps.

By the way, we like it if you tell us not only your question, but also the reason behind them. Gives us a bit of insight and might even improve the quality of the answers you get.