bob6397

When it comes to key’s, there is a little music theory going on here.

For instance, a song will (normally) go well with either it’s relative minor or its perfect 4th or perfect 5th.

Example: The key of C will go with A minor (relative minor), F (Perfect 4th) and G (Perfect 5th). This means that you can transfer between keys with relative ease – you don’t need all the tracks in your collection to be in C and A Minor – once you have tranferred to G (From C), G then has a whole new set of Relative Minor, Perfect 4th and Perfect 5th.

A different way of expressing all this is through the Camelot system – this gives each key a number and a letter which somehow tells you how it relates to the other keys. I don’t understand it (I’ve never tried though – I am musically trained and prefer the traditional system) but it is apparently a saviour for many people who aren’t musically trained.

Your questions:

1) The little “note symbol” I assume is keylock – this will mean that when you change the pitch (Tempo) of a track, the key stays the same. This makes mixing in key and beat matching a lot easier – traditionally, if you speed something up, then it will also increase the pitch of it. If you want a track to stay in the key it was written in, keep it lit. I never turn mine off 🙂

2) I assume (I don’t use DJay Pro) that it colours the tracks according to the key. If you use the buttons to change the key, then it should change the colour.. (Not 100% sure on this one.. Happy to be corrected..)

3) If you go down a tone from C, you get to B Flat. I suspect this is what the software is doing – why would it go up 5 tones when you click “+1” ?? Again, I don’t (And can’t as I use Windows) use DJay Pro – so I am happy to be corrected on this one.)

Hopefully this helps – try using the search function on the blog as well as I am sure I have seen some articles relating to this at some point..

As I said, I am not a DJay Pro user, but the vast majority of this stuff is completely transferable between all software and so should be relevant 🙂

bob6397

There have only been a few times when I have needed to follow anyone on soundcloud/like their facebook page (although there are ways round on facebook – there is always a “skip” button..

My solution is that I have 2 email addresses (Essentially – I have more than 1 personal one but that’s for different reasons). One is for all my normal, personal email.. The other is for when I need to sign up for things so that my normal email doesn’t get filled up with tons of unwanted emails.. I only receive the personal one on my phone and check the other one every couple of days in case there is something important in there.

On soundcloud, I only have 1 account but I only use it for music discovery – IE I don’t mind if I have to follow anything as that’s what the account is for..

If I like the track, I’ll do what I have to do to get hold of it.. 🙂

bob6397

lol.. Where I play, people take their own breaks – and I don’t work for the venue, I work for a company who hire out the venue. So if I can keep people on the floor all night long, I will 🙂

And you may have misunderstood me.. With a room with 35 people in it, I can expect 30 to be on the floor at any one time.. In a room with 200, I would expect around 150-180 to be on the floor… 🙂

People attend the nights I DJ at with the intention of dancing.. If they don’t dance, I have failed.. 🙂 If I was playing for a venue (Eg in a club), then I would take a different approach..

bob6397

I like that idea Todd.. I reckon I could charge more than double what I would spend going out though.. By quite a lot.. I’m just sorting out a quote for NYE and no way could I spend that much on a night out.. 🙂

bob6397

Here in the UK, it’s normal for a mobile DJ to charge around double their normal rate for NYE.. Or if they are expensive to start with, just their normal rate.. Most put their prices up though.

I wouldn’t comment on a number as they 1) Get lost when talking about multiple currencies and 2) Are meaningless anyway as we are all in different economic areas, different venues, different types of events..

bob6397

Your issue is that the music is no longer in the place that iTunes and VDJ expect it to be…

Do the tracks that don’t play in VDJ play in iTunes? If they don’t, it should give you a box which allows you to tell it where the tracks now are.. Are you using the same iTunes library as before but copied over or are you using a different one??

I rebuilt my PC a couple of weeks ago and it all just worked because I kept all the file paths identical 🙂

bob6397

That looks fine for most DJ software..

You should be able to run most software fairly easily on that – although if you start either doing a lot of sampling/effects or playing a lot of tracks at once, you may find that either you run out of RAM – unlikely but not impossible – or that you max out your CPU. As your CPU runs at quite a low speed (Presumably it does that so it doesn’t use much power?), it may max out quite easily but you should be fine..

You can have an awful lot worse than that….

bob6397

I started DJing about a year ago on a weekly basis for a local dance class – they accept anyone inside over 16 so I was fine.. Through that, people at school learnt I was DJing (I DJ’d all the school Disco’s for the last 3 years..) and through that I have now done a few private parties (I did a 50th last week), just from people at school recommending me/booking me.. I have done no advertising (yet), nor do I have a website (under construction).. But I have a regular gig, earn money, and have managed to avoid trying to DJ in clubs until I am 18 – which I am now.

Besides, where I live there is only 1 club and I wouldn’t want to tarnish my reputation my DJing there.. It has been voted one of the worst clubs in Europe – let alone the UK… 🙂

I’m moving soon though – to a bigger city with lots of clubs.. Time for some promo and a few house parties I think.. 🙂

bob6397