Fluxdeep

Based on your description, i like that bar already 🙂

Welcome back 🙂

I’ve done some rock sets now and it’s great fun! To begin with, what kind of rock do you have in mind? Rock classics, indie, post-punk, softer, harder?

Most rock sets i do are “designed” for a specific public, since in my area people who are into stuff like Arcade Fire, The Killers, Muse, Editors and so on couldn’t care less about Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Motörhead, Deep Purple and others; and of course, probably people that are into Slipknot, System Of A Down, Devildriver or Marilyn Manson are another different tribe;

So my first advise would be to make sure that you understand the mind of the people there; rock fans (I am definitely one) tend to be tolerant until a point, but they only will really enjoy the music if you are spinning tunes from the bands that they know the lyrics inside out, went several times to seem them live, bought the t-shirts and so on. Also (remember I can only comment based on my own reality and environment) i would advise you not to try to blend too much different styles in a 3 or 4 hours gig; if you do, probably most people will get to enjoy several songs, but also probably most people will not enjoy the night as a whole; so choose and commit, and then build a set as dynamic and intense as you can.

On mixing, forget the “latest Rihanna hit at 128 BPM in A flat over 2 and a half minutes” followed by pitch pitch pitch “latest J-LO hit at 129 BPM in E flat over 2 and half minutes” followed by some flanger effect and so on. Rock fans want to ear the music they love, and they couldn’t care less about if it’s mixed or not. For a quick example, do you know the Rage Against The Machine anthem “Killing In The Name”? The thing about that tune is the last 6 notes (2 groups of 3, i think it’s called triplets?); it’s out of question for a fan not to ear them because the DJ changed the music; it would just ruin the vibe of the music. The usual way of mixing doesn’t apply here, one cannot just trim away pieces of the music, if they are meaningful for the fans; Muse didn’t composed “Hysteria” so that the last minute is just some basic rhythm to facilitate mixing; and that last riff IS important, and Muse fans DO want to ear it. I always have this in mind, I think it really helps.

So i guess the fun thing here is to find a way to combine/blend/mix tunes without removing any significant part, and yet having fun while doing it. Most times in my rock sets i spent hours and hours looking for tunes that somehow work well together; it’s not a matter of Key or BPM, it’s a matter of musical affinity; try this for example: spin The Killers “Somebody told me” followed by The Hives “Tick Tick Boom”. Nevermind the BPM, just place cue marks so that you can start the second song in the exact moment, just about when the Killers one is finishing. Of course this is just my opinion, but i do think that it works well. After Tick Tick Boom, try to use “Rock and roll debaser” (Oasis vs Pixies Mashup), for example. Once again, I like it. With practice, you will not need the cue marks anymore, but it’s a great help in the beggining, since they speed up the memorizing process.

Of course there are a ton of rock tunes waiting to be mixed; for example, try the +-80 BPM range: spin Empty Room By Arcade Fire, a bit before the fade out of the music at the end beatmatch and start 2012 by Gossip (crossfade into it, and just let the previous tune fade out and stop; then, when 2012 comes to an abrupt end, start Boycott Everything by Bonaparte, once again beatmatched for better effect. This are all just suggestions, based on stuff I did before, and people around liked it.

Now if you have a crowd that are not into this kind of more recent, hyped bands, but yet prefer older stuff, you may always use tunes that mix well; Try for instance to mix Walk This Way By Aerosmith/Run DMC with Butterfly by Crazy Town with Sure Shot by Beastie Boys With Body movin’ (Fatboy Slim remix of Beastie Boys). After, maybe Looser by Beck or Give It Away Now By Red Hot Chili Peppers? All this tunes mix really well, so well that you can do live mashups of the tunes. And if you spent your time studying the natural compatibility between songs and marking cue points, you can do some really cool and creative stuff.

Another thing is that you can successfully blend rock with electronic music (even very danceable tunes) depending on the tunes you choose; It’s not that hard to mix different styles (both old and new stuff) like The Bloody Beetroots, Waxdolls, The Whip, Pixies, Dead Rock Machine, all that ultra cool Madchester anthems (love them!), Chicks On Speed, The Wombats, old Placebo stuff, Two Door Cinema, really old Sonic Youth, Trash Fashion and so on…. I’ll bet that with these kind of music you can at any time drop “I Like the Way” By The BodyRockers and most people will honestly enjoy it. Have you ever seen a floor where half the people are dancing and the other half are almost head banging? That’s just an amazing thing to watch!

In the meanwhile, I of course got carried away with this and ended up with a a giant post, sorry 🙂 Anyway, if i can in any way help you with your rock set, just let me know, i’ll be more than happy to help 🙂

First of all D-Jam, let me say that your constant input in this forum have been something priceless to me; I’m still just a novice, but i’m sure that I would not know half I know about this craft if it weren’t for you, Phil of course, and other people around here. So thank you, i’m really grateful for everything that you keep sharing here 🙂

On topic, I think that everything goes as long as things are kept real and honest. In the last concert I’ve went (Moonspell, Portuguese goth metal band) the guys used pre recordset samples and intros in some songs, and I don’t have any problem with that; they could just play the songs, and yet they did some stuff to improve the show. But they were playing their instruments, it was all real. For me, there is not much difference between a DJ who uses some minutes of pre recorded music IF NECESSARY to enhance a show and a rock band using pre recordset stuff for the same purpose.

SO i would say that “it’s ok for a DJ to have pre-arranged stuff and thus mime a bit because of a visual show” if that is an total exception during the gig’s length, and the audience is not being cheated. Did the DJ 99% of the time actually mixed? If so, it’s fine by me.

Also i find really interesting to see (no sarcasm here) that apparently music gets more and more secondary as the DJ’s name gets bigger and bigger; over the late 80’s / 90’s, several friends told me how much did they enjoy going to Pink Floyd’s gigs because of stage apparatus and visual show; and i always asked them how much did they loved the music, and the answer was always the same: mot much, but the show is amazing. Despite all that being plain weird for me, truth is that many people apparently went to a rock concert mainly to see lights, lasers and so on. Music was just a detail. So, as eventually with Pink Floyd and others some years ago, maybe nowadays superstar DJ’s will be indeed “pulled away from being DJs and instead now making them totally the same as let’s say Katy Perry and Britney Spears”.

Point is: as a DJ, one is supposed to (also) give people the music they expect; apparently, as a superstar DJ, one is supposed to (also) give people the multimedia show they expect. I like that as much as I like 95% of Top 40, but anyway that’s just how it goes, unfortunately. Anyway, every one of us haves the freedom to choose between money, creative integrity or a balance between both, so it’s not some kind of lost battle.

P.S.: DJ’s and superstar DJ’s are probably as different as theater actors and Hollywood Superstars; sure, it’s all acting, and yet it’s two very different realities, different values and goals, and first of all, different audiences.

Sadly, I often feel that nowadays a deaf person haves everything needed to evaluate the DJ skills:

Mac Pro? Check!
Traktor? Check!
CDJ-2000? Check!
Smart ass attitude? Check check check!

Boy, what a damn good DJ!

I must tell you that now and then I get a bit frustrated with that; probably the main lesson to be taken from all you guys here is a very simple one: focus yourself on music; sure, use the best tools you can get, but still the main issue here is music, not kit. And day after day I spent hours just doing that. But then, it seems that what’s expected from me is to show up in a gig and use the best tools available to play Top 40 the same way as they are being played in another 10.000 places that exact moment, because this is not even a popularity question anymore, is a gear contest. Basically, the DJ is expected to impress visually, while music is a secondary question.

What next? Plastic surgery? Celebrities train wrecks? Topless Playboy models? Hummm…. OK, forget the last paragraph 😀

I understand and agree with Michael viewpoint, namely that Mac is a very reliable tool; if i could, i would get one myself and it would be money well spent. Looks great also 🙂

But i don’t accept the dogmatic, black and white viewpoint that mac is the only option out there, or even worst, the concept that if one isn’t using a Mac, then that means anything at all by itself. I guess it’s the difference between “best” and “good enough”.

Anyway:

– No self-respecting DJ would use a computer anyway, so why mention it? Only vinyl, or if possible any even older medium.

– No self-respecting DJ would spin that cheesy tune. There’s a list of official “allowed to spin” tunes, period.

– No self-respecting DJ would use an audio interface under 500 bucks. Actually, forget anything under 500 bucks, and that includes 3 feet long jack mono to RCA cables, like Crystal Cable. Anything less than that means inaudible sound. Honest!

By the way, what is THE brand of underwear that self-respecting DJ’s use?

Bad Santa Claus, post: 4479 wrote: Would you recommend samsung then? 1000 dollars with i5 second generation, 4gb RAM…..

I have a Samsung for over a year now, i5 – 4 GB RAM – Win 7 64b, and i would recommend it to anyone. It was a pain to tweak it for latency, but now Latency Checker gives me a stable 150 -170 milliseconds, with peaks of maybe 250; I’m sure that other laptops can do better than this, but it’s more than enough to work smoothly. The system is very stable, no hangs, blue screens or whatever.