backtothefront

Just to add a little balance to the conversation; I’ve seen floors cleared in moments after a DJ plays more commercial, top40 remix type tracks, when the crowd is expecting a more underground experience. As always it’s horses for courses.

Interestingly has anyone else picked up on the ladder filter is slightly different between Traktor 2 and 2.5? I much prefer the ramp curve on TP2, 2.5’s seems to be more sharp.

Judojerry, post: 23133, member: 535 wrote: Garageband or Audacity are both capable of doing what you want for free, so I would start there, sink at least 15-20 hours into one of them before you even think about upgrading, so that you know exactly what tools you need above the basic stuff. Once you know what those programs can’t do, then you can start looking at the more featured DAWs.

If you’re a windows user, then check out Fruity Loops, it’s one of the most astonishing pieces of free software ever made, and people have made millions (Literally) with productions coming out of it. However, being free, it does lack features, and in order to make productions of the kind that many people get out of it, you have to buy (or steal if you’re Avicii :p) expensive plugins.

If you’re on a mac, there isn’t really a cost free upgrade path, with Reason, Logic and Ableton all amazing programs that can fulfil most of your needs. Reason is great for a dynamic workflow with a quick start due to the astonishing number of instruments included, however, mastering Reason can take some time, as complex patching is required. Logic is a professional piece of equipment, and probably a logical path if you’ve spent some time in garageband, it’s great for getting things to audiophilic precision and for polishing, however, it can be a bit dense when you first approach it. Ableton Live is the logical stop for a DJ, it’s set up so that things can be chopped up and synced to a beat really fast, but the included instruments in Live leave many people unsatisfied. It can also be hard to get a handle on the workflow of the software when starting out.

Both Ableton and Reason are cross platform applications.

I’m personally an Ableton Live user, although I’m thinking about incorporating Reason into my setup.

If you’re not looking for such in depth programs, although I’d recommend learning one of the above in case you decide to get into production, then the programs mentioned above, mixmeister and (possibly) Virtual DJ 8 will suit you just fine.

This, exactly, very well explained. Totally agree, Audacity is a great program, I use it to extract/breakdown large bits of audio and with a little effort you can create/edit all the loops/audio you want to in it.

D-Jam, post: 22550, member: 3 wrote: This was the first tune someone showed me that he deemed “dubstep”. I’m sure some will argue now on that, but if I saw more stuff like this, I’d be a dubstep DJ.

[media=youtube]WhBoR_tgXCI[/media]

Hey D-Jam, good post, nice tune. I’d definitely put this in the D&B bracket, BPM up around the 160-170 mark (not that this necessarily dictates the genre).

As an aside, I was rummaging through my vinyl earlier and found this, great tune:

http://www.discogs.com/Soundman–Don-Lloydie-Greater-Love/release/1148689 – this is the 12″ I have but sounds like:

[media=youtube]RVVrCFMU1cI[/media]

longmover, post: 22349, member: 1361 wrote: i’ll give you that pruely for steady the buffs

🙂 😉

longmover, post: 22342, member: 1361 wrote: yes it is a fad and a shit one as well.

also see drum and bass.

woah, woah, woah and woah 😉 Steady the Buffs, old chap, Drum & Bass a passing fad?!! Each to their own and all that but I wouldn’t say D&B has been/is a fad, not many mainstream pop releases over the years I would say, great popularity at points but never the mainstream pop takeup that Dubstep is currently having I wager.

If by fad, we mean entering mainstream, pop music, particularly in the US, then I agree Dubstep is a sort of fad. Although bear in mind Dubstep has been around for around a decade-ish from it’s birthplace in London, UK, it’s not new (it’s a sub-genre developed out of UK Garage). Also Drum and Bass is still huge as an underground sound as well as having a large mainstream audience – again, in the UK, from where it originates (from around 1993-94, possibly earlier as sped up breaks were used in hardcore in the very early 90’s).

Both of these genres have developed over time and as others have said, continue to do so; along the way a sub-genre may break out and create it’s own underground scene, which has always been the evolution of dance music, in fact, all music.

Tony Youll, post: 22135, member: 577 wrote: I’ve DJ’ing for about six month and have a few mixes up on my Soundcloud page. I’ve recently upped the ante abit as far as personal promotion is concerned.

I know that the best place to start is with your friends on Facebook/Twitter, so I keep plugging my page/latest mix on there, although, I worry that too much plugging will lead to people getting annoyed and not want to listen.

I’ve recently got in contact with some local DJ’s/Club night promoters and asked them to have a listen, but so far I’ve heard nothing back in terms of feedback which is understandable considering they probably get around 20/30 soundcloud links a day.

All I want to know is what the best method for promotion is? Whats the easiest way to get my name out there with such a small fan base?

Best advice I can give is, go to the clubs/nights you’d like to play at, meet the DJ’s/Promoters, support their efforts, try and strike up some form a familiarity with them, build a friendly relationship basically. If possible try and start your own night, keep it small and work at it, it won’t happen overnight. Despite the influx of social media and general internet promotion, getting involved face to face at a local level will always work best IMHO, besides there is a massive glut (as you say) of online promotion going on by lots of other people, so I would argue the ‘old fashioned’ way will actually stand out.

Best of luck to you.

Cheers.