DJ GRE

Q-bert is my favorite scratcher/turntablist no doubt! but “DJ” dj would be diplo – I love how he’s at the forefront of really interesting sounds and mixes them into current hits to really make them stand out to the crowd and create an all new sensation… really that’s the dream isn’t it?

No it’s not possible to remember all your songs – and I think that this is where being a bedroom DJ kind of wears down… a crowd response is unlike anything else you will get and that feedback comes from them knowing you are mixing live and will make the occasional mistake. I think the part you are missing might be the crowd. It seems like you have your labeling down so organization is not your problem – it’s recollection, really that’s our job is to have this immense library and adjust accordingly wether it be to the crowd, the venue, the style, the current song playing, finding a bridge etc. – I would say listen to live sets by other DJs and see how they do it – it’s rare for a DJ to play a live set and not make any errors, I’m sure they’re not always perfectly happy with it but what’s important is just keep spinning.

On a side note – some nights when the crowd is in the zone and perfectly in sync with you and you get that perfect song on and everyone goes nuts… from that moment on I am pretty much playing with blinders on, dead set on the crowd and barely look at my DJ software.

Hey Paul, definitely fixed the EQ problems on the other mix. Great job, looking forward to these weekly mixes. I know when I miss the cue for the next song I mini-panic and start running through the rest of the song in my mind like, “where’s the next out.” – usually this makes me wait for the outro section as usually those are designed to be mixed with.

Good to hear Paul – I think that is still one of the most important aspects of being a DJ is being able to read a crowd properly. Because, as in this case, they sometimes don’t really know what they want to hear. I played a graduation party and when I asked them what to play they said country…. I played some at the start but set it off with some old school hip hop after their HUGE reaction to regulators.

traktor has a beatslicer effect – not sure if it’s the same as the serato version. it’s pretty fun to use but you have to be carefully to use it wisely – it can get irritating really quick to the average listener.

I think that “sell out” is a weird term anyway – I mean it’s really just when fans feel they can’t call that thing theirs anymore, you know? really I mean as an artist you just have to do you, you have to grow and who’s to say the artists don’t want to try a new sound they heard and loved – at some point we’ve all changed our tastes right? … if people don’t like it well thats just a risk you have to decide you want to take or not and risk is really what it’s all about. I mean you could be AC/DC and stick with the same formula all the time, I mean they are brilliant at it why not? …… but, if you experiment and branch out Rolling Stones style you could be bigger than you were before (a few alienated fans not withstanding).

Glad to see you’re liking the Scs 3! yeah I think scratching is an ok effect once in a while and in fact, truthfully, people still expect to hear it from a DJ and it can work but you just have to be tasteful with it – obviously if you’re the next incarnation of qbert then go nuts but it really depends I think that scratching is one of those things that vinyl still has the advantage on – it’s the one place I can tell wether i’m listening to a CDJ/midi or actual vinyl.