Dirty Hippie
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Dirty Hippie
MemberOne way is to put the tempo of the track you are trying to mix in way up. That way you know you need to go down, at least until the fine tuning part. Then when you drop the track in, you can tell how quickly it goes out and make adjustments, drop it again, rinse and repeat. Some of the people how taught me have done it this way for decades to prevent having to go back and forth (i.e. up and down in speed). Hope this helps.
MemberOne of the best tricks I have seen is taking a really popular song and teasing it, but not playing it. I saw a four hour set in Knoxville in 2000 and every time people would start to walk off the floor, he would play one or two bars of “Sandstorm” and all the kiddies would come running back, but then he wouldn’t play it. At the end of the night he finally played it and the place went crazy.
MemberI should clarify that I do not repeat tracks in the same night, but from party to party.
MemberChuck gave excellent advice there! I play my own house party series with pretty much the same people there every time (maybe only 10-20 new people each time). I do this every other week through the summer and as I do not make money (although I gain a lot of beer) I do not buy tons of new tracks for these. I have learned what people really like and I do my normal shopping of about 15 bucks a week. I generally play 4-6 hours and no one ever minds that there are repeats. I use these as practice sessions to find new ways to mix faves together and ways to fit a new tracks into the things I really like to play.
MemberDefining success is the hardest part of this question. I switched to digital after owning 1200’s for 8 years and never playing for anyone. 1 year later I have created a successful house party series (75-100 people in a town of 3000) and have a monthly spot at a club that I get paid for. I consider myself a success because I get to do what I love, I created new fans of the music I love, and I have a regular paying gig.
If you consider success in a different way, I still don’t think it is ever too late. People go back to college in their 30’s 40’s or 50’s and change careers, and become successful, Why should DJing/producing be any different? I heard someone say once that if you do what you love, that is the thing you would do if money was no concern, you will eventually become a master and and get paid for it. The trick is hard work, marketing, and persistence, all the while keeping your love for sharing what you love with other people.
MemberI was on this very board, asking this very question about a year ago. First of all, these people are great, secondly, they told me to go with what I felt. I went Digital, started with a Kontrol S2 and F1 combo along with a $200 laptop off eBay, a year later I have a regular paying club night, and have had a few shows regionally. I have not questioned my decision. I was mostly worried about appearances (i.e. will people see me as less professional), but those worries went away as I gained experience with the gear and improved through practice.
MemberIs it both play buttons? I find it hard to believe it would be a hardware issue of both sides go out at same time. If resetting the mappings to default did not help, do a reinstall. How long have you had it?
MemberI actually enjoy going to my local Guitar Center. The people in the pro audio room, where they keep the DJ gear and lighting, are awesome. They will get anything out for you, hook it up, let you play with it, make recomendations, and are really knowledgible. Someone said it best though, it comes down to management hiring the right people. The reason this store is the way it is is because the manager hires people who love what they are selling. Mostly college students who are probably like a lot of people on this board. In fact, it was that store that got me into digital djing at all.
MemberI know what you mean with the mainstreamy stuff. Just to let you know, I am trying to build a following in a town where electronic music is neither heard nor played by 99% of the population. I have started a successful house party series, but I have to “pop” it up a little bit to get people listening. Thank you for the feedback.
December 10, 2012 at 11:18 pm in reply to: How many times should you play certain tunes at a party? #33399MemberI agree with what everyone said here. I even hate it when different DJs play the same song at an event. Although they may not have been there the whole night so they can’t always avoid it. Last year I went to a Christmas event in Atlanta and heard 412384704 different versions of “Crush on you” I wanted to puke by like the 3rd time….
… could have been the beer though.
MemberAlso, you can check out my artist page on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/dirtyhippiemusicI would appreciate the likes to help spread the word.
MemberI watch all of Mad Zach’s stuff… I unfortunately do not have/cannot afford Maschine atm, but really enjoy the F1, I just think it is cool the artists are supporting it as well to give another option. I am looking forward to the next part of Mas Zach’s tutorial so I can pick up some tips for the remix decks which he is doing next week.
MemberBeatport can be overwhelming I agree. I shop weekly and only get 2-3 new tracks, but the first place I look is the weekly “must hear” list for each genre I really like. I find they put more odd remixes and very genre defined stuff in those lists and it is way more fun than shopping the top 100.
MemberThank you for all of the advice. I actually picked up a keyboard with more keys and started taking some piano lessons online. I already see the difference. I have the advantage of good technical knowledge, so I am focusing on learning music theory. I am noticing an improvement in my DJing as a result. And Mike, it is interesting that you brought up “having an ear”. I always thought that I did, and perhaps I do because as I learn on the piano I hear the music differently as far as the song elements complimenting each other, how build ups lead into the drop by going up or down in scale, etc.
I am trying to make bad news into a good thing. I am losing my job in early December. Our contract ends and we have very little work. Thankfully my wife is willing to be my sugar mamma for a bit and allow me time to pursue other options with my DJing and during the week I will really be focusing on making tracks between practice sessions. I am thinking about blogging my progress as I go, so I will post info when that comes if anyone is interested in reading about a production noob’s journey.
MemberEffects are fun, but I know what you mean about over using one effect. I don’t know what controller you use, but I use an S2 with the Buea Bright mapping and the jog effects are really good and add a lot of variety. There is also a echo freeze effect that works good with loops.
As far as your BPM, when you analyze the track it asks you to choose a BPM range. If you are analyzing multiple genres at once, you need a huge range so you often get half/double BPMs. You can fix this in two ways:
1. Analyze songs of the same genre/similar BPMs together and choose the appropriate range.
2. Manually fix this yourself. When you are beat gridding your tracks and you use the advanced view there is a little tab for “grid”. If the song analyzed at 1/2 BPM (like your example above) you simply click the x2 next to the bottom BPM readout. This will double the BPM number without changing tempo of the track.I prefer method 2 because I am going to beat grid all of my tracks manually anyway and it is only 1 click to fix it. I spin dubstep sometimes and my tracks analyze at 70 BPM most of the time. I like to mix with the normal electro house I play and I use sync frequently so I always double them up to 140 so I can more easily match up with 126-132 BMP tracks.
I hope this helps.
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