How do you DJ?

[RenDnB]

I've been DJing since I got my first decks in 96, and reading over and like a couple other remember those days. In my eyes it was Fatboy Slim who brought the showboating to the masses, and I'm not going to knock him for it. By his own admission he was not a technically good DJ and would "showboat" with the faders and EQs to put a performance on for the crowd.

Others over the years have copied and now it has become the norm for the big DJs and now 1000s of kids getting into it. Thing is though, I honestly feel there was more to watch and learn when DJs played on vinyl. Watching DJs on controllers or CDJs (and i'll even include DVS for the most part) doesn't interest me at all, watching a DJ mix on vinyl is far more interesting because you know it's all manual. I'd much rather watch Carl Cox keeping 3 decks going and just bouncing behind the decks, than the sweedish house mafia pushing buttons and sticking hands up.

My own style, I've always preferred long mixes and blending tracks over time. I got my new headphones today and was made up playing with them this afternoon and the Dicers I got for Christmas. I'm playing on DVS, no sync, easy to loop and keep the mixes between each track going for a few minutes, extending both the outro of one and the intro of the next. I've got HP & LP filters and Delays mapped to my Novation Nocturn knobs and now I'm very satisfied with my setup.

My ultimate mixer to keep complete my set up is the A&H DB4 which I'm aiming to get before the end of 2018, I'd not bother with the Nocturn or the Serato effects then, and possibly never bother going to a club ever again

I'd love to work with a DVS setup, but I simply don't have the room right now =(. I'm like you, and always enjoyed watching DJ's mix with vinyl. Sure was interesting watching DJ's on 3 decks keeping everything beatmatched, mixing and phasing between the tracks. CDJ's and controllers didn't interest me until they became my only option. Started off on CDJ's, and now I'm on a controller. I do however like the technology thats gone into things, but I can see where its becoming overly complicated, and the complexities of computer issues just add to things.

I don't use auto-sync, and treat my controller like its a pair of turntables. I'll babysit my beatmatching but thats just how I've always done it. Sure, the software shows me the BPM's and what not, but it amazes me how the software can't keep the beats perfectly together unless you use auto-sync. While my controller has a nice platter of effects, I barely use them lol and just roll with the HPF's and LPF's. I used to be a turntable snob lol, but then having to take care of my family.... music in the form of files and a space/cost saving controller became VERY appealing.

Also, I watched the Red Bull DJ Championships (or something like that) recently. The DJ's were all using a DVS setup which was cool, and they did some pretty interesting stuff. However, I still remember watching my first DMC championship video with Q-Bert and MixMaster Mike. That Red Bull competition while cool, still doesn't come close watching those turntablists use straight pure vinyl with tape as the cue points! Oh well... for better or worse, its progress.

[RenDnB]

Thought I'd post this link... might drum up some good memories for some of us =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7pVbJClzuc

[ZSquared]

It all depends on the genre. For example, a trance dj isn't going to swap songs every drop since the ideology behind trance is the beauty of the long build ups. A trap musc/bass music dj is going to want to "wow" the crowd with unique drops, so they aren't going to let a song play out as long and will more than likely be cutting songs with other intros and drops.

[Not Applicable]

I play all kinds of genres - breaks, trance, dnb, house, downtempo

The way I mix depends on the genre.

My first love was breaks. I love to tease in a new track and pull back right before the drop. I also love to cut between tracks and even cutting the tracks volume altogether for a second of silence right at the end of a build. Then when the track(s) return, they have much more of an impact.

Dnb is mostly just blending with a few cuts here and there. The music is really to dense to do much in terms of teasing and such.

House is made for long transitions, so I usually just blend with that.

Trance is long transitions, but also enough energy to pull of some cuts and teasers.

Downtempo is just a free for all. Anything goes with this genre.

[flavioemr]

Hey all!

I recently took private Djing lessons from a professional who's been doing that for 20+ years. He's a master of tech and deep house so he mixes intro to outro and that's what he teaches.

I've been to many EDM concerts and festivals where most DJs switch tracks after every drop. Of course I've seen this mostly in Future/Bass/Electro/Progressive House, Dubstep & Trap.

I can understand DJs who do it this way since crowds usually don't want to hear 5 minute songs and the same drop twice. It feels like in this over-saturated music industry and consumer society that people get bored after 8 bars of one drop.

I don't have much experience in the concert/club/festival world and wanted to hear from some who can tell me what way of spinning works best with crowds nowadays.

Of course this will differ across different genres and locations but say I would go for that Bass House vibe, what are people expecting? I don't want to bore them with long 4-7 minute songs and long transitions.

I may be worrying too much but I want to give the crowd what they expect.


Thank you!

It's a matter of taste and feeling at the time imo