Prepped Setlists vs. Improv
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- This topic has 30 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 7 months ago by
DJ Vintage.
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August 4, 2014 at 9:27 am #2047696
deathy
ParticipantEasier, yeah… but I enjoy inventing the better mousetrap.
However, much lower priority than my VST work.
August 6, 2014 at 10:05 pm #2048051ParticipantWith regard to setting up, I’ve started to also tag my songs so that comment one will say something like “Beat In,” “Beat Out,” our “Beat In/Out” if the song begins or ends with only a beat so that I know which songs are good for starting or ending a miniset with if I’m going to transition harmonically.
August 6, 2014 at 11:42 pm #2048060Alex Moschopoulos
ParticipantI’d go with a fully prepped set when this is some performance or something where you know you’ll do well no matter what…like a superstar playing a headlining set for a big crowd.
For the rest of us, we have a 50/50 chance of a good crowd in front of us…thus why you should keep your set flexible in case you need to change.
When I first started using digital DJing setups, the factor of having a variety of music saved my life many times…as I’d be booked to play deep house or trance, but end up with a crowd only wanting pop, rap, and R&B.
August 7, 2014 at 1:07 am #2048069Isaiah Furrow
Participantgreat info….. I’m working on my crates, and hoping to put together some smaller crates that are tracks I’ll use for small, practiced performances, short routines to add into my sets…. does anybody have any sort of “routines” that they practice and add into their sets where appropriate, or do you generally “freestyle” when you’re mixing and decide to spice things up for a bit…?
August 7, 2014 at 9:26 am #2048084ParticipantD-Jam – Reminds me of the Blues Brothers playing Bob’s Country Bunker… a very valid point.
Right at this moment, I’m still focused more on just getting my lists together, but I am starting to pay attention to the pop charts (for the first time in my life, actually) so that I will be prepared to play that if/when I need to.
August 7, 2014 at 10:16 am #2048112Lamid45G
Participant@santa : the only routines i did when i set my playlist, is to practiced them out, by then I know, ow man this song A is too mellow to be in the middle sets, welp lets move this ahead,
Or you can record it while you practiced it and then listened to it in your car, then making notes adjustment like I did above,
When it comes to the gig it self yeap, Freestyle, altough i try my best to stick to just that one crate/playlist i made before hand so my mind dont go wonders off to other crates@deathy : Pop charts is a nitemare eh ? i know the feeling man, but it helps me (a LOT) enhancing my sets in front of live crowds, by lookin to the pop charts I know it in the instant whats hot whats not tracks it helped with my playlist set-up
August 7, 2014 at 11:19 pm #2048150Charles Sue-Wah-Sing
ParticipantI’ve learned to create folders or crates of music in iTunes in sets of 3-10. That way I have room to play with similar songs. I like the mini-playlist idea because once I’m done with 3 of 4 songs in a list I can get a sense if people are happy. If they are I can continue my list or move to another set.
I’ve also built up over time lists I know I can rely on and then add or minus tracks as I go. I also have a list of new or tracks I must play for that night.
I know there are iTune haters a plenty. I can’t say I love it either. But to create and manage sets and have it appear in Traktor is seamless for me now. I do cringe whenever Apple makes an update – just in case they do something to mess up my workflow 🙂
August 8, 2014 at 8:49 am #2048171Participantrizki – Honestly, my biggest complaint about pop these days is that the engineering is TERRIBLE! I know that it’s deliberate, and that the engineers they’re employing are actually some of the best in the world, but dear lord the compression and levels just make me want to bite my arm off.
August 8, 2014 at 3:17 pm #2048232DJ Vintage
ModeratorLOL … welcome to the loudness wars!
August 8, 2014 at 3:17 pm #2048233ModeratorLOL … welcome to the loudness war
p.s. biting off your arm is not a good plan, you just invested in a TWO deck controller.
August 8, 2014 at 3:21 pm #2048234ParticipantThis forum needs like/+1 buttons so we can laugh/agree without making a full post.
I sure as heck won’t be able to scratch AND flick the crossfader with only one arm. Thanks, you have saved me from serious problems in the future!
August 8, 2014 at 3:23 pm #2048236ModeratorYou know us, always ready to lend a helping hand (in case you bit of one of yours)
August 11, 2014 at 9:28 am #2048322ParticipantYou know us, always ready to lend a helping hand
In certain degree that is …
August 16, 2014 at 9:12 am #2048748Randall Colelli
ParticipantTo jump back halfway into this conversation, I am just wondering how many tracks you all have in your actively used folders and what size events you usually play/length of your sets are in relation.
For my last gig, I had about 200 tracks ready to go, but it was a heavy request crowd at this 4-hour private event gig and I was happy to have ContentUnlimited under my belt (the Netflix of tracks through Virtual DJ, which I plan to use until I solidify a mixture of tracks I like and tracks I find to be popular with a mixture of types of crowds for the types of events I am booking for this fall), or else I’d have had to say no to about 20 people that night. Of the 100 people there, those were my main dance crowd with about 40 other people coming off and on throughout the night.
I like the idea of keeping a clean list, but I also like the idea of being prepared for anything. Before picking up VDJ software, I was using Ableton Live and an APC 40 since I produce non-DJ music as well, and I miss being able to color-code and columnize (to make up a word) my tracks by energy level on a temperature-type scale of blue to red. I am now experimenting with labeling folders in various ways to achieve a similar method of organizing my tracks. Please chime in on whether or not you like doing this and your approach to it if you do.
August 16, 2014 at 9:37 am #2048750ModeratorUnfortunately the two don’t mix well, a clean list and being prepared for anything. Not inside one program or tool anyway, imho.
4 hours = 80 tracks tops x 2 = 160 tracks. So although a little over that, 200 tracks wasn’t too bad.
There is sooooo much music about (even if you were to stick to popular pop and chart stuff) that it really is impossible to have it all. The thing to be weary about with requests is, is it a personal request, or does it make sense in the grander scheme of things. If it does, the likelihood of you having the track grows exponentially. If you do your homework and you are aware of what works on the dancefloor right now, you’ll have those tracks in collection. The alternative is to let the requestee down easy. If you get a few requests of tracks you don’t have, but which all point in a certain direction, you CAN take a cue from that and use the tracks you DO have to move in that direction.
One tip from the Masterclass for those of us (and many of us do) that use iTunes is to use the rating system for energy levels, 1 start being background/lounge/dinner or just very low energy in general to 5 stars being high-energy floor fillers. There is really no need to have the rating system in use for actual track rating. If you don’t rate a track at 5 stars (as in totally love the song and/or know your audience totally loves the song), it shouldn’t be in your (DJ) collection anyway.
Hope that helps a bit.
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