Setting up cue points for all songs? How do freestyle DJs do it?

Hey GJ,

Well, what you call freestyling, I call DJ-ing 😀 . I know I am not the only DJ out there not working with a fixed set playlist. One of the things that is good to do is to make mini-playlists though, 3-4 tracks that fit well together. Even “freestyling” it’s often easier to string mini-playlists together than it is single tracks.

As for cueing up tracks, yes, having all significant tracks in your collection prepared correctly (track beginning, waveform, cues, loops) is pretty much a must to not having to worry about stuff live. It’s one of the reasons why we advocate not falling into the “digital DJ trap” of loading any and every piece of music you find into your DJ collection. Limiting your collection to a fixed number gives you a couple of advantages.
A) You collection, once it reached its max. number of tracks, will become a 1-in/1-out system, not growing over the limit, forcing you to clean up the less(er) used tracks. Eventually this means your collection will get better and better over the years as only the best tracks remain in the collection.
B) You force yourself to think, rethink and re-rethink every track before proceeding to buy it and add it to your collection.
C) Because you will only be adding limited numbers of new tracks at a time, it’s very easy to prepare them upon entering them into your DJ software.
D) With a limited size (say 1.000 – 2.000) collection, it’s totally feasible (and necessary) to know all your tracks intimately. The process of preparing tracks will help there, as it means you will be listening closely to the way the track is composed.
E) Let’s say it takes you about 5 minutes to prep a track (on average), even with 2.000 tracks it will take you less than 5 months of 1 hour a day and 2 a day in the weekends to have them all done! Not simple and it takes some discipline, but the pay-off is awesome.
F) A limited size 1-in/1-out collection will ensure that your collection always holds the high potential new tunes and the best of the past. Over the years it will even out nicely in that you will have tracks covering a nice time period in the (sub)genres you use.

The Mixed in Key thing is interesting, but according to first reports not quite there yet (or no there at all – according to some). And while a nice tool, I’d always want to review them before finally committing the track to the DJ collection.

Hope that helps.

I have not been impressed with MIK’s auto-cue-points.

I am marker crazy myself.

My pleasure.

It’s worth pointing out – MIK’s other functionality is unsurpassed (much to my moral dismay), so it will probably only be a matter of time before it is good… and your mileage may also vary, as I think I tend to put my markers in odd places sometimes.

Also, if the song I’m mixing in is one that hasn’t been ‘processed’ (cue point & beat gridded correctly) yet and the beat is not too complex or variable, I’ll set some cue points or adjust the beat grid using my controller after adjusting the gain and previewing the potential mix in my headphones. Sometimes I find it actually helps me from rushing through the songs too quickly.

GJ FUKIT…to piggyback off of Danzik’s, Deathy’s, Dizzle’s, and DJ Vintage’s comments. I would like to add that you should have a firm grasp and understanding of musical phrases if you’re going to juggle (or beat match) between or within a song using cue points–it’s definitely something one must practice to master.

In fact, I practice this skill at least two to three times a week for at least one hour, after I’m warmed up from doing beat juggling, blends, and beat matching for at least 30 minutes each. I try to have the mix (beat matched, scratched, or dropped on the one) done by the end of the first verse or chorus (hook). And make sure the songs’ key match (to me it’s a must) since you’re transitioning between songs so fast usually less than two minutes; there’s more of a chance the musical phrases will sound diatonic (musically pleasing) because they’re in the key (a little music theory there–but definitely! worth mentioning.)

I randomly select songs using the chord progression I want to practice. For example, for a C Major progression, I start with a song(s) in the “key of C Major, “ followed by a song(s) in the key of “a-minor,” followed by a song(s) in the key of “F-Major,” followed by a song(s) in the key of “d-minor,” followed by a song in the key of “G Major” and finally back to a song in the key of “C Major” thus completing the chord progression, then I repeat the process in a different Key.

I hope this helps.

Respectfully,

DJ Nivekone a.k.a DJ Nivek1