Help!!! I need advice

when i do my mixes, i try to develop a theme. think of it as a movie with an intro, back story, plot, climax, and an end. think of q-berts wave twisters, it tells a story with out using words. is your mix for rocking out in the car, chillin at home, or house party? this will help set the tone and give you a better idea of your track selection complete with build ups and come downs etc. try plotting you mix like that with a theme in mind and you might find yourself surprised at what you come up with.

mix wasn’t bad but heres some constructive criticism:
– too much filter at times :p

– overall transitions were pretty good

– song choice is a point where you can improve imo. You have some pretty cool tunes, I really liked that shake it out remix, I haven’t heard it before. but at least like half of your songs are owned by every second individual on the planet. If you want to play music that everyone knows at the bar thats fine, but for online material, why would someone listen to your mix if they’ve already heard every song in there and you aren’t doing anything to change them up (sorry if I sound mean, not my intention at all, I’m just trying to help 🙂 )

– another reason you might feel that your stuck against a wall is because theres a lack of technicality in your mix. Some people believe that its important to just do basic a to b mixing and that doing technical stuff ruins the song. thats fine if thats your philosophy, but imo, it really adds on and I think you should look into developing some technical skills. Howard Stern mentioned that he hates seeing big name djs just stand there play song after song (with some basic mixing in the between). Hes not a edm mastermind by any accord but he has a point, its not hard to do that, and honestly you could teach anyone to play like that in a few weeks. what takes time and effort to learn is great song selection and great technical ability, you don’t want to be the type of dj he was dishin out.

again, I’m not trying to be discouraging at all, these are all things that take years to get good at (and by no means am I good at all of these things myself), but I think if you start developing your song choice and technical skills (cutting, faster transitions, mash ups, etc.) you’ll find yourself having more fun with djing and becoming a better dj over all.

First I wanna say cool mix…I love alot of these songs. But maybe your not feeling that specific spark because alot of these songs are now aged…great songs indeed, however few are 3+ months old and some others are 3+ years old lol…Theres one more thing, and I hate being the guy saying it because people used to tell me similar things…your transitions need work. Not so much the fade/filter ones (Those are actually quite well done), but the beat matching transitions. I noticed on the first two beatmatched style transitions you weren’t starting it on the 32nd, 16th, or 8th outro/intro bar of the songs, and they seemed kind of just randomly placed. Perfect timing and ending/starting on the 1/1 is important. IMO 16 bars (64 beats) is the perfect length to beatmatch a 125-130 bpm track. When Im down to 8 bars left I usually reverse the bass on both EQs, with 4 bars left I switch the remaining mids and trebles. Overall I can def see some potential for some solid mixing skills/song choice so I went ahead and followed you via mixcloud. If youd like to get an idea of what I was saying above, check out just the first 3 song transitions on my latest mix, pacha sessions 2. There is also no effects used similar to yours, but I feel the proper transitions, song selection, and track order are the most important things to have in a successful mix.

Apart of your DJing skills leaves the equipment here. The ability to find those new tracks before the mainstream, that you know will blow up, that people will be listening to 10 years down the road is a great feeling. So try to find them first and include them in your mix. Personally, unless I dedicate myself to making a classic songs mix, I only mix new songs from the current month. This way I can learn all of the best new tracks from the month and see how they work together.

shr3dder, post: 16334, member: 1473 wrote: Restricting yourself to new music is a terrible idea.

Release date really shouldn’t matter that much. Good music is good music regardless of when it came out.

Then again some people seem to love playing the latest top 10 from Beatport like 5 million other DJs

My point is: I make mixes with new music just to keep up with it. I get to know newer tracks much better and get more experienced with them before playing them live. Making a mix with classics is fine, but you wont get that same energy, than when you use something fresh, because you already know those those tracks inside and out.

Another counterpoint to your comment: I agree choosing every song off the top 10 is a DJ sin. however, my mixes tend to be with new music before they get on the charts, or even on Beatport for that matter. (if you were talking about my mix, you’ll notice its 2 weeks old, and now some of the songs have now charted, while others are being released later this month) Ive noticed that it usually takes a few days after the release of a track for it to get on Beatport. It also takes a few more days to become popular and land in the top 10 of that genre. Sure, some of the newer songs you may select may be popular already, but its nice when you choose a group of songs that aren’t available on Beatport at that date, yet chart 2-4 weeks later.

2SHAE!, post: 16283, member: 1459 wrote: I love alot of these songs. But maybe your not feeling that specific spark because alot of these songs are now aged…great songs indeed, however few are 3+ months old and some others are 3+ years old lol…

It was this comment I really objected too.

3 months old.. the ability to pull out older (3 months is not old) tunes can really define you as a DJ.

I’m all for new tunes and educating… (I play a lot of tech house so there’s not as many “big songs” compared to the more commercial (avicii, shm, alesso etc) end of house your talking about)

I just find it hard to fathom someone criticizing someone elses mix for having a tune 3 months old on it, especially when I’d hardly call someone finding a new Ingrosso/Alesso/Avicii etc tune unique, I’d guarantee a million other DJs would’ve also found that tune, not having a crack but seriously those guys are probably some of the biggest DJs in the world. Everyone follows their new tunes.

Like your sig says, At the end of the day its all about the music. Not the release date.