signal_lost
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
signal_lost
MemberDepends on the atmosphere you want to create.
I personally prefer to stick with one genre for a few tunes : otherwise, the crowd would think you just mix everything all over the place. I get them to enjoy a certain genre for a while, and switch to something else when I feel the atmosphere needs a mood shift.
Switching genres can be used to increase the energy of the crowd, decrease it, create dramatic effects, etc.
Of course seamless transitions are often better, unless you want to create a certain effect. But when switching genres, it can be hard to have beatmatched transitions if your music’s tempo really varies. Solutions are finding similar sounds, commonities, and use them as a mix point. There is also the traditional echo out effect, filtering, EQing, etc. than can help make the transition better. (No matter which of those you use, don’t abuse your software’s effects, or the mix will sound amateurish).Anyways, it will work better if the songs you mix are the same or of a fitting key (harmonic mixing).
That being said, mobile and wedding DJs don’t always mix tunes. This is understandable since they might be asked to play a 60’s song, a pop one, a rock one, etc. Plus, they often have MCing to do, etc. Considering all this, it does not leave the DJ lots of time for making a transition.
November 10, 2011 at 2:26 pm in reply to: How much time do you spend each week looking for new tracks? #9627MemberI spend too much time looking for new tracks.
Used to browse the latest additions on Beatport every day. But the fact that more than a hundred tracks get released on Beatport each day had me losing many precious hours…
Now I use a record pool, so this allows me to have a chosen selection of the latest tracks but also the popular ones. I still go on Beatport from time to time though, but way less than before.
Plus, I am an organisation freak, so the new tracks proper tagging part is also time consuming!
(I guess I should really do a huge clean up of my collection. Just saw iTunes had a “Last played” column… Gonna be useful to find tunes I’ve never listened to or some old things I can prune.).MemberAlso thought about developing this kind of skills.
But the complicated thing is that Metal and Hard Rock have a very wide variety of sounds and each song has a different BPM.
But I guess with time it can be mastered : there’s that Metal bar in my area, where the DJ seamlessly mixes tunes. I went there once and kept wondering how he was doing this it since I’m not able of mixing metal!
But I am sure there is a market for this, because very few people do it. Many rock and metal bars over here just put CDs in their radio and let them play through the night. I guess a DJ could put some more life at those places 🙂
MemberIndeed. Both of your arguments were valid.
In my opinion, each DJ has his own style and uses his own gear that he’s accustomed to.
Wether it’s vinyl, CDs, or controllers, if someone can put up a good show, and make the crowd enjoy their night and have a great time, I’ll believe he’s a good DJ.The thing is : some people prefer it old school (which is OK), but some among them tend to underestimate colleagues that DJ differently or with different gear. This can be somewhat understandable, since techniques that took years to master using vinyl (beatmatching, pitch chasing, phrasing, etc.), can be done in seconds with software.
However, you have to live with your times! Modern technology opens a whole bunch of possibilities that were unthinkable a few years ago. Some prefer not to follow evolution, some will.But from a crowd standpoint, what’s the difference? If the music is good and people have a great time, what’s the point in whining about the gear used? I’ve seen DJs doing as much of a good (if not better) show using a controller than DJs using vinyl!
By reading articles in here, I’ve realized there are many aspects to DJing that get more important when using controllers. Since the beatmatching job can be done quickly, a DJ can focus on many other technicalities such as mixing techniques, crowd reading, track selection. In other words, when your mind is not busy beatmatching, it has more time to focus on other things.
MemberYup.
But considering that a Kontrol S4 offers endless live remixing possibilities, 4 sample decks, many more effects than a DJM-2000, quantizes / syncs everything if you want, this becomes an awesome tool for live performances, at a fraction of the price that CDJs and DJM would cost.
It depends on your style, but I think buying CDJs just to be club-ready is a bit of an overkill. At that point, a DDJ-T1 would offer roughly the same layout and buttons, and cost half the price of a single CDJ-2000. So that leaves extra money for good speakers, a sub, better headphones, etc.
Also, if you are a mobile DJ, a controller is the best option for portability.
But anyways, if you have the budget, go for the CDJs, they are good products. But there are also very good alternatives on the controller market!
-
AuthorPosts