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Do you read the crowd or prepare a complete set?

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  • August 3, 2012 at 10:38 am #1009157
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    I prepare a set not like: I play these songs in exactly that order.
    What I do prepare is a set crate/playlist that contains aprox. double the songs that I would need for the time I have.
    I order that playlist by my “energy rating” and secondly “popularity” and try to have an even spread throughout the “camelot scale”. However I take all of this only as pointers and do not follow it as a religion.
    When I am mixing I have a general idea of the order I want, read the crowd and adjust accordingly.
    If things really go bad, like you wipe the complete dancefloor etc. I have 2 “recovery” playlists that I have labled “>genre> chartbreaker” which I absolutely know will fill any dancefloor and make people go “yeah baby”. I use those only under extreme conditions 😉

    August 3, 2012 at 12:44 pm #1009165
    indamix
    Member

    +1 Terry

    before a gig , i decide wuts im going to play to what kind of a crowd , then i make playlists
    and absolutely i have to know all my tracks , and tracks names are very important
    i never prepare my set track by track and order , for me i should only know what i brought with me to gig , i dont mean m whole music collection , but the playlist and the amount i’v choosen for the gig
    then i play it all improvised , of course some songs i know they work with what because of expirence with them in mixes that i record

    G-Bee, post: 25265, member: 2829 wrote: something is wrong, but other than that it’s very hard (if not impossible) to see what’s going on. So I say: don’t waste your time trying to figure out what the crowd is thinking. Use that time to hype things up and keep your mix going.

    about crowd reading , actually the crowd dont think in the dance floor , they only have fun 🙂
    and the way i read the crowd , is not about witch song exactly , but witch mood and witch energy they need, i can spot that fast and easy for me , then this last give me an idea about the next track ( to make a good decision every time u SHOULD KNOW THE TRACKS U BRING WITH YOU TO GIG and actually liking them is better )
    so i have my playlists that change and gets modified through time

    August 3, 2012 at 3:21 pm #1009170
    Hee Won Jung
    Participant

    My DJ group and I do things a little differently…We all spin different genres of music and only book gigs that will work with the genre of music we play. With that said…we do plan our sets…but not in the conventional sense. During our practice time we come up with “showcase” pieces which are usually 3-5 songs that really bang out together well..doing extended mixing and live remixing. We then string our showcase’s together with 1 or 2 filler songs to connect the showcases in key.

    We all play high energy music within our genre…ie Really bouncing house, or banging electro, or grimey dubstep…it doesnt matter…all songs can have high energy if mixed right with other tracks.

    The mentallity that we have is…you can mix any 2 songs together and make it sound banging…just a matter of how you mix and the way you are able to use effects and eq properly to mix the tracks. (Within the same genre of course)

    August 4, 2012 at 8:53 am #1009198
    Stazbumpa
    Participant

    I make it up as I’m going. I have playlists for different genres and/or stuff I know will work, but that’s about all the planning I do. I played an hour slot on an internet radio station last week and even then I only knew for sure what I would play first, the rest of it was made up on the spot.

    August 4, 2012 at 5:26 pm #1009208
    gullum
    Participant

    I’ve made some playlists in diferent geners the I have also playlist separating the kind of remixes like straied remixes and more crazy mixes that way I know all songs. I also keep the UK Top 40 up to date in a playlist because the club I play most at is a open format club. But I never play a set playlist I put on a song then take it from there the playlists are only there to help me find songs fast.

    August 4, 2012 at 6:39 pm #1009212
    VinnyBlanc
    Participant

    +1 Hee Won Jung. This is exactly what I do. I think we’ve discussed this before.

    @G-Bee a few things…

    1) Do you refuse requests? Does this style of set prep. leave you no flexibility in the mix?

    2) You are getting ready to drop your hottest song of the night…and the dance floor is fairly empty…Do you play it anyway because ‘its next’ and will throw off the the rest of the set/routine if you don’t?

    These are shortcomings I encountered when first starting to play out with a fixed setlist which steered me to the groups of 3-5 song blocks as described above. I could then build/adapt the set in any particular order as the night progresses without constantly stressing about what song is going to be next. This allows me to pop a request in and then get right back on track without having my predetermined set sound like this (if even taking requests at all)

    Electro House Track
    Electro House Track
    Salt N Pepa – Push it (request)
    Electro House Track
    Electro House Track
    etc….

    This is all positive criticism by the way and my experiences in DJing thus far.

    Take a listen to my 2 hour live recording from last night (a majority of the Latin tracks I dropped in were requests from this group of fly Spanish chicks who kept the dance floor moving all night.

    https://www.facebook.com/VinnyBlanc/app_178091127385

    PS I don’t claim to be a super star DJ / effect / sample masher…but I have no problem with keeping the dance floor going. Song selection > 90% of DJing.

    https://www.facebook.com/VinnyBlanc/app_178091127385

    August 7, 2012 at 9:06 am #25290
    G-Bee
    Member

    VinnyBlanc, post: 25330, member: 737 wrote:
    @G-Bee a few things…

    1) Do you refuse requests? Does this style of set prep. leave you no flexibility in the mix?

    2) You are getting ready to drop your hottest song of the night…and the dance floor is fairly empty…Do you play it anyway because ‘its next’ and will throw off the the rest of the set/routine if you don’t?

    1) It depends on the type of party. When I play a EDM gig (in my case DnB/Breaks/House/Dubstep), yeah I usually refuse requests, but then again it’s not usual that people come up with requests.

    When I play a top-40 gig or a wedding/birthday then of course I am prepared for requests.

    2) Yeah I drop the tune, but that might just cause the dance floor to fill up, so I don’t see a problem there. When I’m at a party and the venue is fairly empty, I wouldn’t want the dj to hold back, would you?

    August 8, 2012 at 8:00 am #1009323
    G-Bee
    Member

    Steelo, post: 25455, member: 1368 wrote: Take it how you want but consider what I said and try thinking outside the box…
    I do believe you posted on a DJ-related forum and asked for opinions so you must prepare for people to disagree and/or flame you.

    No, I don’t expect people to flame me because I ask for their opinion.

    Steelo, post: 25455, member: 1368 wrote:
    I’m not familiar with the crowds you are playing to so I can’t really comment on them but you are right that certain audiences don’t give a crap what or how you play so if that works for your set then you’re not doing the wrong thing and I commend you on standing by your opinion.

    I never said the audience doesn’t give a crap what I play. What I meant is that the audience doesn’t care if my set is improvised on the spot or if it’s the result of many practice sessions.

    Steelo, post: 25455, member: 1368 wrote:
    You may at some point encounter an audience who cares significantly more about the music and actually have an attention span, who may be less than impressed and want something different. Perhaps you are delivering this with your sets so then all is not lost. Please forgive me for having a little faith that some people still care.

    Again, your assumption that my audiences don’t care about the music is wrong. I don’t know where you got that idea, since you’ve never even heard a mix of mine, let alone saw me dj at a party.

    August 8, 2012 at 7:38 pm #1009366
    D-Jam
    Participant

    The most preparation I do is to move a bunch of files into a spot that I might want to play or think will work.

    I’ll also keep more mainstream stuff as a backup when you realize that while the promoter wanted you to play underground music, the floor is empty and the crowd keeps begging you for something else.

    August 8, 2012 at 7:47 pm #1009368
    Hee Won Jung
    Participant

    One quick thing i want to add to this…is the venue and genre you are mixing has a huge impact as to how you prepare your sets.

    The things i mentioned above are more for the underground music where i am creating my own sound using underground/semi-underground songs.

    When you are doing other styles such as top40/commercial stuff there really isnt my prep i do…well thats cuz i also rarely EVER play gigs like this and i always ask for premium dollar for them…i will…but i usually just have a list of all the top club bangers/remixes of bangers and play what i feel like when i feel like…by feel like i mean reading the crowd…how many women are on the dance floor and what songs i have already played…IE if lots of women on the dance floor and i havent played a track with a lot of vocals ill drop a vocal track cuz…well Ladies love the vocals.

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