Arthur Kokanov
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Arthur Kokanov
ParticipantWoooo residency gig working out well!
so its been my third time playing at my saturday night bar Crown and Tiger. This time wasent that great for me to be honest but thats ok its all part of the learning process. Its funny that i have a difficult night right after reading about difficult nights on DJ tips lol http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2012/09/djing-is-hard/. I dont know what it was but i just felt insecure and low energy… I got into it after i started bringing out the big bangers but it still wasent the same :/ the entire time i felt like i could of done better. The funny and strange thing is… ppl were going off the hook! i had girls dancing on tables guys going crazy and i got many compliments. One amazing thing that i took away from this is that even though i was having a bad night… i did not want to leave. I just wanted to keep going. It was amazing. I cannot express how much i love doing this.
I’ve been practecing my scratching and beatmatching recently and its slowly getting better. Il be playing around with effects and loops more also.
I want to give a shout out to this guy before i go http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2012/09/djing-is-hard/
Party hard!
Participantim currently learning scratching with my ns6 and thats when i have to do all three. its difficult but im slowly getting used to it. The reason i have to look at my screen is because i use the markers i set on my music which i cant set on the makeshift vinyl + i do not have a sample board atm either.
ParticipantWhen i do my weekly gig at a bar i i start out with low lounge music for a while and get myself into a mood. Once i see ppl fill up on drinks then i slowly raise the volume on my tracks and start pushing energy with heavy dance beats. This get people to buy more drinks. Then i end my night off with soft electro / house / top40. My heavy energy time only lasts around 30 minutes or so then il start turning it back down.
Participantif you are not back in uni for learning go back to it for promoting (if its not that far). Put up posters and talk to the event ppl or w/e find the popular kids and you’ll get their house 😛
Participantgood luck tomorow night! Keep up the good work and watch your back ima catch up quickfast 😉
Participantyour best bet would prolly try to join and work for an existing one and learn from them. it usually takes years to become successful in something and best way to learn is to work for someone who already has something good going.
ParticipantThat was incredible! Just fantastic! holy f**k
ParticipantI pick a theme and then pick the songs that represent that most. Then I spend a week preparing cue points and find which songs mix best together then I spend a day to record over and over until i get all the cue point spot on. I always record my live sets and never mix in ableton or so on… I want to work on my skills first.
ParticipantThank you Phil! It means alot. Only thing I regret at the moment is not watching your vids more, I bought the course but havent gotten around to it. I promice I will start tonight and make this my most productive month yet! 😀
ParticipantWoaw Woaw Wwwwooooaaaaawww….. I’ve been gone for quite a bit lol. But I’m back!
And let me tell you its been such a fun ride so far! I’ve been having crazy amount of fun doing mixes and searching for gigs. I can’t even describe how much I love all this… That is mainly why I havent been posting on these forums, just not enough time to do everything I want. Neways there are so many lessons and experiances I must share. I will do that over the coming weeks but for now here is the breakdown.
First – I ordered a new laptop 2 months ago and the screen broke within 2 weeks. I’ve been waiting for it to get fixed for 1 1/2 months now and im finally getting it back tomorow.
2nd – I went to the Veld Festival in toronto for two days and let me tell you it was a crazy crazy experiance! I had so much fun there. I also got 2 tickets free by mistake and got to invite two friends that sunday EPIC! I now see why ppl love Deadmou5 so much his sound live is amazing! But he wasent my favorite… Steve angelo, Steve Aoki and AN21 were epic along with Avichii. Check out the pics here! http://www.facebook.com/#!/D.J.Manhattan
3rd – Promotion, Sunday at veld I brought 250 of my biz cards. I then took pictures of all the hottest girls (My gf is awesome and helped me!) then I gave them my card to check out veld pics… its sooo easy and so much fun :D. I only got a couple of new likes but w/e thats an extra few people who see where im playing. and I made a promo friend.4th – Crown and tiger. My friend plays at this bar and couldent make it one friday night. I went out and killed it. There was roughly 200ppl. they liked me so much that they want me to do their Satudays every week. Kick ass!!!!
Now some importaint lessons I learned.– Preparation is soooo importaint. I started this new thing where I set up 30 min mixes. I order the music from 1 – 10 or so and then i cue the points where i mix in and out. Then i play that out live. Not only does that give me a good idea where to start and were to go but also good ‘Focused’ practice. Very importaint is that I dont play any premixes because I can switch music up at any point. Check out the two mixes I have up now here: http://www.mixcloud.com/djmanhattan/
– Playing out live is crazy fun and you should start as soon as possible. Fuck… Knock on as many doors as possible this will be crazy amounts of work. You must put your foot in the door somewhere. And it very true what many ppl say, you will never be fully ready. I spent a full week preparing a play list for a friday night only to freakout at start of the night because of some cables then didint know which music i should play. Once i got comfortable i rocked it pretty hard. Rule of thumb is that if you practice at home on the regular you will do fine in front of a crowd even if you dont feel your good enough because…
– mistakes happen and honstly many ppl dont even knotice. Yes… I admit it… I made a few mistakes. Nobody cared! (except my dj friends gf who is with him all the time and has an ear for it). Everybody loved it.
– Music selections is super importaint. I will go with music selection and basic mixing as the most top two importaint steps to a live gig. fancy stuff comes after you are used to those.
– Have fun! Dance and party with the crowd! Enjoy what you are doing!
– My last importaint lesson that I learned is that I love this… I love doing this so much… And nothing is a chore for me. finding music, editing, sitting at home for hours working on your line up… playing out… Everything I love this so much… so much that i am having trouble balancing my gf (who i love just as much) with this.. but i manage and she is super supportive.
Last but not least I want to switch my name to something else and i am stuck between two. Arthur Gold or Arthur Vega. Story behind this is that I want to use my first name but i really dont like my last name at all esp because of my dad and personal reasons. So il pick either gold or Vega and use that as a stage name for a while before i switch my actual last name.
ParticipantAs much as you want to only play your select list it wont be possible until you are a star or have a very strong following. Most club goers want top 40, so my advice is to put your own spin on some of the songs or just pick the ones you really like. My main set is a mix between top 40 and the stuff i like and they work really well together. Ppl want to dance to stuff they are familliar with, esp the mainstream crowd. If you are on and people leave the dancefloor you may want to rethink what you are playing or how you are playing it.
ParticipantI love using loops to mix two tracks. I find that intros and outros are kinda redundant since I usually look for a nice place to loop a beat in the upcoming song and just add that in when its apropriate. then i shut off the bass to the song that I am already playing. I usually loop right next to a change to a beat or right next to vocals so that I can just shut off the loop and it will kick into vocals right away. I don’t like looping vocals though, sometimes I do it but rarely.
ParticipantI’ve heard people quoteing him from that article but i havent read it yet, thanks! Although I find his writing a bit difficult to read, I think he could use an editor lol.
ParticipantIts time for the monday update.
I have to come clean. I didint do much this week and its my fault. I didint post a 30 min mix anywhere, I didin’t practice much either nor watch any vids… I did select 30 minutes worth of good music. But if I am to get good and start playing in places on the regular I must pust 110%… My case is coming in this weekened and then a week after my new laptop thats designed for djing.
Week#2
Day Goals:
– 30 minutes of new music.
– an hour of practice.Week Goals:
– Post a 30 minute (or more) up on the internet.
– Post first Video Blog.
– Add another 30 minutes of music to my main crate.ParticipantThanks this is really inspirational!
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