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Preparing A Set

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  • August 22, 2012 at 8:54 pm #26169
    Lj Stevens
    Participant

    My personal opinion is you should be prepared a bit but only to the extent of knowing what mixes well into what and how many bars in is the break. Ive always fed off the crowd and there reaction, so i know when to tease them a bit more with the track they want to hear then drop it when they are least expecting it!

    August 23, 2012 at 1:38 am #1010106
    J. Gatsby
    Member

    Personally, I create rotating “playlists” on a regular basis- I use one Ableton project with anywhere from 30-200 tunes preloaded and warped correctly, and then build from that “database” so to speak as the night goes on. This way I have the safety and accuracy of the playlist with the spontaneity of on-the-fly. I delete old tunes and add new ones in whenever I feel like it.

    August 23, 2012 at 6:48 am #26192
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    There have been a few threads and at least 2 blog entries about preparation …. do a little digging and you will find them.

    August 23, 2012 at 7:23 am #1010118
    backtothefront
    Participant

    sketosomania, post: 26300, member: 2642 wrote: When in a bar or club do you prepare your set and then thrown in a mix or perform it totally live?
    For Ex I cannot play tracks untill I have prepared a set for myself and know when to mix and drop.I can certainly mix but I tend to use many edits in a track to make my set better. Ex dropping when the main vocals hit etc.

    Is it wrong to pre-prepare and then mix ?
    Also I know I can’t take requests when I am prepared

    Everyone is different, so whatever work flow works for you is fine IMHO. However I don’t really plan/prepare sets or pre analyse tracks in Traktor etc. I have a folder which acts as my current crate and swap tunes in/out every couple of weeks. I tend to know what the first 2 tunes will be, then the rest of the set is on the fly, it allows flexibility to adjust to the crowd, previous/next DJ etc. The trick is to know your tunes fairly well.

    As an aside, I DJ’d at a festival last weekend and decided to take some vinyl as a backup in case any thing went wrong with Traktor/S4; I had to chuckle, it took a good few hours to get all the digital kit prepared, check cables, check laptop, ensure TP2.5.1. was still stable, copy across tunes etc etc. Picking a box of 50 tunes on vinyl took 10 minutes!! 😉

    August 27, 2012 at 2:04 am #1011075
    Steelo
    Participant

    This is a pretty big (and exhausted) argument in the DJ world at the moment.

    September 3, 2012 at 9:59 pm #1011495
    Phil Morse
    Keymaster

    Here’s an article that may help you – look in the “further reading” at the end, too: It links to two opposing arguments (playlist vs freestyle!)

    http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/04/7-set-planning-secrets-of-pro-djs/

    September 4, 2012 at 2:40 am #1011509
    Lewis Fraser
    Member

    I’m always taking notes and planning when I’m practicing at home, looking out for what beats go with others etc. Nothing wrong with planning at all imo, if its going to give your audience a great night due to your creativity and ideas then why not?After all you’ll still need to mix in a live environment on point and without mistakes. It also helps me to practice my mixing, and has really improved me as a DJ. Of course feedback from the audience plays a major part in how successful your set will be, so that’s another reason I plan, so that I’m ready for every eventuality and can mix out and in to any genre stylishly, but I never plan a whole 4 hour mix for a 4 hour club night say, I have to leave room for playing and mixing songs at the spur of the moment that feel right for the audience type, as well as good requests (If you ever get anyone with a good enough request to play of course!), that way you can surprise the audience, and even yourself at the songs pumping through the speakers! Having said that, accomplishing a whole unplanned set is a thrill in itself, and is totally worth a shot, usually by knowing your tracks well enough and having good mixing skills you can pull it off. If it doesn’t work out, then you’ve always got your mixes that you’ve practiced beforehand to help you out of any sticky situations!

    September 4, 2012 at 9:43 am #1011533
    gullum
    Participant

    My planing goes into what I put on my laptop. I download music to my iMac then listen throughoutly through the songs and what I feel I might play gets on my laptop. SO I only have the most likely songs to play in any style on my laptop. I have around 4000 songs on my laptop rainging from old 70 disco to now. So I’m prepeard if the crowed turns out to be my age or older I can still play what they like. But if someone my age starts dancing to Rhianna the I see it as an insult if I would change to 80 pop just because of their age and might make give them the impression that I think their to old for this shit 😀

    I do have some playlists in Traktor based on club bangers and usely use them as a preferance when I play but I’ve never pland a whole set and never will, I just have some songs sorted that I know are cool and freestyle from them.

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