Terry_42
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Terry_42
KeymasterIMHO 50 songs a week added you will in NO WAY be able to know all your music well enough to put it on the plate. You will be constantly looking for the next song to play and be a random generator.
Yes there can be weeks where I add like 20 (if I buy an Album then I select which of those to add to my library and which only to the archive…) but there are also weeks where I add none. I also do simple digging into the music I already have to always be familiar with the tunes in my arsenal. So if I need to know a song well enough to drop it as a mega buildup with multi-FX loop transition to fill up the dance floor and for people to go totally mental… I can.KeymasterYou have a DJ setup beside your locker? Now that is cool, great enthusiasm and I guess the unit loves you.
Oh and whatever you hear, also we Europeans appreciate that you guys put your lives on the line there and are truly grateful.KeymasterI think you cannot use it with Itch right away, as itch is not midi mappable. But you can probably use Mitch (Midi-to-Itch) as a bridge, but that is not really easy…
KeymasterYes I did. There is no other way: Listen to music wherever you can. Take mixcloud, soundcloud, youtube and beatport with you on the road with an iPad or whatever you can. Listen to mixcloud sets of DJs you favour, then dig dig dig dig dig dig dig….
Also: It is about hearing as much as you can, but selecting only the few tracks that you really dig. Quality >>> QuantityKeymasterHey Max,
The most professional way to go about it here (or what is looked upon as professional) is to go to the club/bar/venue and ask for an appointment. Do not ask to talk to the owner upfront, but ask for an appointment, you want to introduce yourself and possible leave a demo (many do not understand mixtape, they talk about demos). Many times you will not wait to make an appointment and the owner will talk to you right away, but it is perceived as more polite to ask that way. Also show up in good clothing, with your business card and use big words by still being humble. Especially the Croatians and Slovenians like the US people as they still look at them as “those who freed us in the balkan war”, but they also made bad experiences with “bully type” marines, so being humble is especially important if you are from the US. (Humble without trying to kiss ass, as they do not like that).
Then you should not have problems.The classic payment rippoff is more common the more south you go. Especially Austria and down including Zagreb, I have rarely encountered anyone who wanted to rip me off or even not pay me. Once or twice you encouter someone that had a really bad day (like another venue had a special party and the audience was there…) and they try to convince you that it was really bad and make up for it next time… etc. But even that is very very rare.
Further south and in Italy if you are not Italian they can be more tricky. What I do however is: I have prepared a small form, where I neatly have some basic stuff, like when will the gig be, what the owner has to provide (like permits etc.) and of course the cash I want. I fill that out together with the owner and let him sign it and give him a copy. Never fails me.
This is especially important in Italy where you can get a visit from their music licensing thingy, they will look if your music is legal and if you or the venue have the right permits. If you show them the small contract they will immediately ask the owner and you are safe.
You should definitely look into that jungle of permits and stuff here in Europe it is a nightmare in some countries…Hope that helps you a bit buddy 😉
KeymasterHah you are near my region (Austria) so I can comment:
The people in Slovenia and Croatia are very very open minded and generally have a great deal of fun at parties even when the DJ does not deliver 🙂
That has good and bad sides. The good is, that you can easily throw in tunes that nobody expects or are not the expected genre and they will decide if the tune is good or not and not judge you first hand. So you have a real chance there.
However the downside is, that the competition is very hard, as there are many that call themselves DJs, have no idea what they are doing and play a gig for 50 or 100 bucks. I would no let that get in the way though, especially Zagreb is big enough for all of us hehe Just make some mixes and send it to club owners, or even better show up and try to talk to them. To them “style” is very important, so try to look like you have your own clothing style and use big words…As for DJ pool, I saw that zipdj has lots and lots of music. I have no idea if it really floats your boat though. But you can get a test license, where you cannot download, but explore the whole catalogue.
KeymasterAwesome post D-Jam!
Also love this perspective of Iceman 🙂 he is always a bit angry but has nice perspective 😉
[media=youtube]wEz52GQasFo[/media]KeymasterLooks cool, I am kinda in AAAHHH mode by the fact alone, that the iPad does deliver the processing to actually do this.
I own a 27” 2011 iMac (i7) and use FinalCut for my videos and on the fly rendering takes my machine to the limit with the live previews… now I know that this does a lot less intensive stuff, but nonetheless very impressive stuff…KeymasterWell I think the best thing you can do (and I totally agree with you) is to listen to as much music as you can, but be very picky and selective on what you add to your collection.
This helped me broaden my horizon for many genres, but some people give me feedback that they know when I am mixing be it a Dance Club where I play specific genre(s) or a wedding where I have to play anthing, but stick to my collection as good as I can.
And yeah 200 tunes a week? Hell never.
Also I tend to throw out tunes that I feel are “played off”, I stick them in an archive crate, but they are no longer part of my active collection.So in the end: Quality over Quantity, where you have to decide on what Quality is for your style.
So basically I wrote a lot, just to say I totally agree heheKeymasterAs Oddity says: Be prepared to play all night long Top40 etc. if the crowd stays in or you will wipe the dancefloor clean.
The whole raggae, soca etc. deal is actually quite fun and easy to mix, just practice a bit to downmix a fast Top40 song into a slow chill raggae. As raggae has a very distinctive beat line that is quite different from most other stuff you can easily try to cutdown a loop at the raggae intro depending on your software cut this loop in double time and crossmix it with the faster tune, where you cut the bass EQ and fade over.
You can also look up several youtube videos on how to mix from a fast to a slow tune, I think DJ Iceman has a good example on his feed and there are several others.But the biggest thing is: PREPARE your songs, know your cue points and where to loop for blending. When in doubt try to cutover a mistake by a heavy flanger and practice making mistakes.
Just remember: Never stop, never surrender. Mistakes happen, just make the best of it and don’t freeze up and you will be fine.KeymasterMy setup did run Traktor with an S4 until I threw out the S4 the other week. I had chain effects, sample players loaded etc. etc. and sometimes Ableton in parallel with my launchpad to experiment. No problemo.
The question becomes, do you want a Windows Machine or a Mac?
Like I said: A used MacBook pro from 4 years ago will do and can be had for 500 bucks or less.
But steelo is right: I have 4 gigs RAM and I think that is about sufficient, you should not go below that.
Also my Windows knowledge is limited, since I use Macs for ages now… but steelo might be right, that you prolly need a better Windows machine than a Mac.KeymasterIf you do not do heavy VJing or have many programs running in parallel it does not matter at all.
Any entry laptop will do.
More important is you have a system that won’t crash. I use a 4 year old MacBook pro and I guess it will do another 2 years before I replace it. It runs all DJ programs with ease and I can even have Ableton running in parallel if I wish.June 4, 2012 at 9:00 pm in reply to: Would you find a guide to using CDJs & "pro" gear useful? #1005618KeymasterComing from the other side and went digital later I can say: If you actually CAN mix properly on a controller and are able to beatmatch etc. then you should have no difficulty DJing on CDJs (theoretically).
However the thing why most that started digital fail IMHO is the simple fact that CDJs and full blown DJ mixers look a lot more intimidating. Especially if you have high-end gear in the booth, say CDJ 2ks and god forbid a DJM 2000 and you will have no clue what to touch and what not. Even a DDJ cannot prepare you for that experience. To be honest, I do not see how a guide can prepare you for this overwhelming experience, if you do not have at least gear 2 notches below that to train on, which is a major investment. But then I have been proven wrong before hehe
Then there is the thing that many new clubs invest in different things, I know there have been times when every club that had a decent name had the standard CDJs at least and the bigger ones added Technics for the the vinyl guys. However these days I have been playing lately in one club that does not even have any CDJ, they have mostly controller DJs and they expect you to bring your laptop and controller and plug it into their PA. Another club has a SSL setup there, they expect you to show up with a laptop with a matching Serato library or your own setup, another has only cheap CDJ wannabes and a crap mixer for those that do not bring a controller etc. etc. etc. I don’t know about your end of the world but here in central europe that seems to be a trend in clubs, not really easy for a DJ…
KeymasterIndeed. Make up your mind what software to use first, then come back to us 😉
KeymasterIzzo van Zand
Abbreviation IvZ (spoken you can try to get it to Ivy Zand) also makes for nice Logo combinations and just never put DJ or MC infront of it. -
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