Stephen C Koller
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Stephen C Koller
ParticipantBshidoHEAT, post: 43294, member: 13775 wrote: …I also like to imagine how a crowd would react to the next track, put yourself in their position, but that’s less practice, more mentality I guess.
Recording my mixes really helps get me in a listener / dancer mentality and try to feel the flow of the music outside of the DJ mindset.
ParticipantThanks for the feedback, everybody!
Personally, I usually spend a certain amount of time just mixing between songs on the fly, spending extra time with new tracks, occasionally putting in a hot cue at good mixing points. If I’m prepping for a more important set, I’ll record several versions of a mix with roughly the same songs to choose from and try to bring a different style or energy to each mix.
Here are a few other perspectives on practice:
On focusing on individual techniques:
http://blog.dubspot.com/dj-school-101-p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e-practice-practice/More focused on scratching, but the importance of focus within a practice session, as well as recording your mixes:
http://kwotemusic.com/scratchdjconfusion.htmlSolid feedback from other blog visitors/forum members:
http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2013/06/over-to-you-what-do-you-do-in-your-dj-practice-sessions/And finally, this great article:
http://blog.dubspot.com/dj-tips-techniques-to-improve-your-live-sets-performances/I think I’m going to try the method of “Planning in Threes” described in the article above and see how it goes.
I’ve been listening a TON to the mixes of DJs I really admire and I’m learning a lot more about programming a set and the push/pull of energy within a set. This will help me form both an intuition and an analytical understanding of what makes these sets so great.
About to start a new thread on favorite DJ mixes to listen to. 🙂
Participantdjrizki, post: 43283, member: 11983 wrote: Big name producer huh ? Nice man ! Names? or top secret? lol
Just make sure in your set, you don’t play any of his tunes that he produced, LOLHah, yeah I’m opening for Excision on Sept 4.
Not playing his tunes is a given for sure. They (not sure if the club or his manager) want specifically a non-dubstep opener, so I’m playing a dirty house / dark techno set leading up to his set.Read a good article about how there’s more crossover between the genres these days on RA: http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1539
ParticipantRight on. I’m currently prepping a set to open for a big-name producer coming to town. I’m still collecting music that I enjoy that I think fits the sound I’m going for, then I’ll probably do several practice mixes to see how it flows and listen back to the recordings…set cue points, get real comfortable with the songs, then when the day comes I can enjoy myself and engage the crowd instead of getting nervous for lack of preparation and staring at my decks/screen the whole time.
I might practice with a friend’s CDJ setup to get the feel of it, but I’ve played this club before and they were cool with my S4 controller in the booth.
ParticipantThanks for your responses!
Rizki, do you generally play your songs in the same order that you initially burned them? Or do you mix it up on the fly?I’m not judging either way, just curious.
Terry, that’s usually what I do, but I’m thinking about starting to tag groups of songs and practice different transition options. I’m not sure if that will mean more or less freedom, but hopefully it will reduce the occasional scramble for a new song when I’ve been chatting with a friend too long. 😀
ParticipantIt meanders through some moombahton & funk as well. I know the last transition was pretty rough, and at one point I went to mix in a new song and didn’t like how it blended so I cut it back out. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with it.
ParticipantOverall, I thought the song selection and progression was appropriate; transitions were smooth and felt natural.
I think the only real negative I have is the sound quality. It sounds as if the recording was initially in mono and then somehow expanded to stereo, or something was up with the software/hardware recording it. I can hear the kicks and snares (normally panned to center) primarily in the left channel but not in the right. It’s also lacking a lot of the low end. Compared with your 2nd mix on the page, there’s a clear difference.
Props on the solid mixing, if you have a better quality version I’d gladly listen again.
Cheers!
-
AuthorPosts