DJimC
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DJimC
ParticipantSo how about we set ourselves a deadline? I’d think it would be reasonable enough to expect a mix from all contestants before the end of october, i.e. sunday 28 oct? When all mixes are in we could schedule a listening/judging period for 2 weeks.
Seeing as this thread hasn’t exploded with people wanting to join I’d start with just one general category. If participation gets really high, you could always split the mixes into multiple categories.
One implementation issue that I can’t find a good solution to is a listening/judging thread layout. If we just post list of mixes there, the first couple of mixes will be listened to most and the last mix will be listened to only by some die-hard judges. That’s something for a later time though, first let’s collect some mixes! If we can agree to a length of max +/- 30 minutes, then I’m certainly in with a DnB mix.
ParticipantI’ve used recuva (http://www.piriform.com/recuva) once with good results when I deleted most of the contents of an external hard disk before copying them to my computer… Might work for you too
ParticipantThis is one from my last party. More a poster than a flyer though, for the next event we’re making a flyer which is adapted from this one with the DJ names also included.
@G-Bee: nice to see another DnB party in Holland, is it a regular party or just a one-off? 🙂
ParticipantI would also be more interested in both joining and actually listening too all the mixes if the length was cut down to +/- 30 minutes. Having to listen and judge multiple 60-minute-long mixes is a bit too much to ask anybody.
September 18, 2012 at 7:47 pm in reply to: Novation Launchpad as a Mixing unit. feat APC-40 #1012317ParticipantThis looks like a really nice mapping for the launchpad:
ParticipantWhat do you want your software to do? Do you want your song to go 1 2 3 4 1 1 3 4 when you loop the first beat? I think that would be the only way to keep multiple songs aligned when you only loop one of the songs.
I’m not sure how to do this in traktor, but I think you would need a custom mapping (something like: count number of loops and jump that much forward when the loop ends) or a special loop effect plugin to achieve this.
ParticipantIt depends a bit on the opening and closing times for the overall night. Is your room the only one open that night or is there another party in one of the other rooms that’ll last until 4am?
In any case I would probably start with some more unknown tunes, but throw one or two recognisable tunes in the mix during the first hour. Then slowly increase the number of big tunes until you’re mixing more or less only bangers at the end of your set.
ParticipantI’ve seen this done before and if it works it sounds really nice. Never done it myself though, but I can try to give you some tips:
– use music which is not too crowded with many different melodies/vocals. You need to leave some space for the sax to fill. Some (deep) house or chilled out breakbeat would be good.
– try to mix harmonically, this also makes it easier for the sax player to follow you, since he’ll need to match your key. Also, try to play a couple of songs in the same key before switching to another one.
– don’t mix too fast, it’s okay for a song to be playing for a while as the sax will (hopefully) keep people interested. If you switch songs too often he’ll find it difficult to get a good feel for the song, which he’ll need for improvisation.Good luck and have fun
August 22, 2012 at 11:23 am in reply to: Anybody else get extremely nervous or have self doubt?! #1010078ParticipantFirst of all, congrats on your first ‘big’ gig!
As for nerves, just prepare the best you can and then enjoy yourself during the evening. You’ve already stated that the girl throwing the party likes your selection of music (considering she likes you mixes), so the worst you could do is play many songs they’ll like with a couple of mistakes while mixing the songs. Trust me, most people won’t even notice small glitches (they are focussed on the party, not the music) and bigger mistakes will also soon be forgotten as people will continue dancing/talking/etc.
I would also advise you to make sure you have enough music available. I tend to have tracks with a total length of at least 5 times the length of the set with me so I can play many different tracks and still have plenty to choose from at the end of the night.
If you are worried about a loss of inspiration while DJ’ing, you could always have a prebuilt setlist to which you can fall back. Even better would be to have a couple of short (20 min) playlists with different themes/genre’s/energy levels so you can pick the one which suits the mood at that moment.
Most importantly, just do it. It might be scary at first, the first couple of songs might be nerve-wracking, but when people are dancing to your beats it will be a great feeling and most of the stress will disappear. Have fun!
ParticipantThanks for the help, but is it really necessary to used multiple buttons to achieve this effect? Ideally I would like to query the current (= last used?) cue point, add 1 and go to that cue point and play. Might be a bit tricky though.
For now I’ve just mapped the pause_stop command because I will be using this buttion mostly to find the right cue point before starting the track. Unfortunately this command puts you back at the start of the track everytime you use it after playing part of the song to check if you got the right cue point. It’s workable, but not perfect 🙂
ParticipantYes, D-flat is the same as C-sharp etc (at least for the purposes of DJ’ing and key recognition software).
There is a theoretical difference, but only few instruments (mostly string instruments) and musicians are able to make a distinction between a D-flat and C-sharp note.
ParticipantI usually find that I’m using songs which total at 2,5-3 times the length of my set. So for a set which would last 2,5 hours I would use approximately 7 hours worth of music. If you want to be flexible, you would still need to follow Terry’s advice and double that to 14 hours of music in your crate.
It all depends a bit on your mixing style though, especially on your tracks/hour ratio.
ParticipantIf you’re planning on buying the full VDJ pro package, it should be no problem using it with the Mixtrack. However, you will not get a discount like you would if you have bought the Mixtrack with VDJ LE. This is a cheapish controller, so I don’t think the discount would be very much.
I’m using the Mixtrack Pro with VDJ Pro myself and I can tell you that it’s a good set to start DJ’ing with.
ParticipantIt’s a nice selection of tracks, but please try to limit the amount of flanger and filters in your mixes. In my opinion it doesn’t add too much to a mix and I would rather focus on making a smooth transition than trying to spice up songs with a flanger.
Still, I liked the songs. Keep mixing!
ParticipantIf I would be asking someone to DJ at my bar I’d probably ask for a demo. This gives me at least a basic idea of his capabilities (even though a mixtape can be polished to get a better result than the live thing).
Furthermore I like to ask DJ’s for a couple of songs they would play in their set if I would book them in a certain timeslot. It’s my experience that people tend to call-out many sub-genres when asked what kind of music they play. Howevere, these genre classifications seem to differ quite a bit between people, so I’d rather have some examples of song they would play.
Of course, the best thing would be if you were able to go to another event where they will be playing. This only works with DJ’s that have at least some gigs already. If you don’t have time to do this, I agree with Hee Wong Jung that it’s always an option to contact an established promotor to get some tips.
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