DJing Any suggestions?

[federicocharles]

I need some advice, I have been Djing for 1 year, in reality ive been mixing on my own mostly, and have played in some parties with friends nothing big, music is my passion and there is nothing I love the most than to play the music that really gives me a buzz and transmit the buzz to the crowd whatever size it is. Im having no problems with beatmatching and Ive improved a lot with an advice I saw you gave in a thread were you suggested to keep in mind the 8-16-32-64 beat thing while mixing and it gives you a diferent dimension while mixing. My problem is that I feel perfectly comfortable mixing with my own gear, its very basic kind of old, but gets the job done, I have a numark 2 channel mixer with kaoss pad and some denon DN-1800F, my probelm began when i started playing in diferent parties and with diferent kinds of gear, I really got very used to my 1800?s, on time I played with some poineer 1000s and I was completely lost, the pitch bending was diferent, i played afwul. Can anyone out there relate to this, and give me some advice, I know that the main answer is to practice and simply play in diferent parties with diferent gear, but are there any specific tips with this, how did you guys out there overcome this kind of feeling, I feel Im starting from zero when this happens to me.

I want to thank the comunity and specially the people who are in charge of this website, its been an incredible experience, I think its valuable what you do in here, it helps us keep the clubbing culture alive. I really felt lost when I started my djing journey and since I joined the website I use it for reference a lot, keep up the good work!

[jeffrey collins]

Re: Any suggestions?

The only thing I CAN tell you, is number one...you need to get some better equiptment. There are places on the net when you can buy a refurbed cdj-1000 for around $600. I have a friend of mine who got one and loves it, he wanted to get it because he knew that he was going to be playing gigs with cdj's as the decks and wanted to learn them.

Get with some of your friends who have better equiptment than you and ask if you can sit in with them when they are just at home spinning. That'll help ya out a LOT.

It really does help to become proficient on many different types of equiptment. I spun in Pittsburgh back in the winter and had only spun on cdj-1000's one time before and was to play a gig with them and a xone-92, well I was lucky enough to get some before time and just practiced to get the hang of it. Then I played the best set of my life...so far that night.

Just keep at it bro. You'll get the hang of it all.

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot for the advice, I´m checking some factory refurbed equiped right now, got to keep practicing!!

[jeffrey collins]

Re: Any suggestions?

wish I had some equiptment to practice on. Sold all of mine a couple months ago. Luckily I still remember how to do most of it...as a lot of the technical aspect of dj'ing is really just math.

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

I have heard that a lot lately, that notion improved my quality a lot, it even gives you a chance to be more creative play with the compasses, and timing. What other things do you consider to be important during the transition from song to song, how much do you play with bass, treb, etc.?

[hambino21]

Re: Any suggestions?

one thing to keep in mind at a party or whatever is the set up and availablity of monitors. If the speakers are set up in the room in different places and both aren't at the same distance from you that could casue a huge problem with beat matching. make sure you have monitors and make sure you can hear them over the actual program speakers.

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

Thats true, this past saturday I went to mix at a friends bar, and forgot that "little" detail, I didn´t ask for a monitor I thought the booth had one, when I got there I realized there was no monitor at all but there was no time nor the resorces to provide one, the beatmatching was almost imposible!! I think next tome I wont take nothing for granted and double check every aspect....

[dante_k]

Re: Any suggestions?

You my friend are learning the best way anyone starting out can. I learned on some of the crapiest equipment there is. As Jeff already said, it's best to just keep practiceing on anything and everything you can get your hands on, good or bad, cheap or expensive. In the long run the more familiar you become with diferent equipment the more comfortable you will be when faced with some obscure gear. The suprise is part of the DJing adventure. I learned to spin on some cheapo Stanton direct drive decks and a Next mixer. When thrown in front of a Vastex rotory and some Technic 1200's I was lost. That was my first real club gig. Getting CDJ 1000's would be a great move though. Almost every club has them as the standard house gear. As a matter of fact I'm still learning some of the awsome features that those decks have. Moral of the story is, your doing the right thing, just keep at it, save your $$$$, and keep upgrading. A good DJ can spin on the best gear, an awsome DJ can spin on anything you throw at them and make it sound good!

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

Thats a great angle to look at it, I feel I am practicing with a VW Bug(old denons), cant wait to get my hands on a Aston Martin(CDJ 1000)... But first I need to learn how to drive it.... But the process has been incredible.. Thanks alot

[jeffrey collins]

Re: Any suggestions?

Any time i have a problem with no monitors, i simply go into mixing solely into my headphones. It stinks but i usually do that anyway in clubs.

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

I agree it stinks, but when you've got nothing else available it gets the job done to some extent. When I first started mixing I used to do that alot trying to beatmatch

[jeffrey collins]

Re: Any suggestions?

just remember...people like JD use their headphones for mixing, and that guy plays on the best systems in the world.

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

Great reference, I didn't know he mixed like that!

[FM]

Re: Any suggestions?

mixing in headphones is the best way to beatmatch as it's the closest the sound is to your ears. With monitors, if they aren't properly placed you can get a bit of a clash between them and the house system as the sound bounces around.

The best way always was mentioned above to try and get your hands on other pieces of equipment to learn how they work: eventually you get "good" enough where any changeup in equipment might take a couple of minutes to warm up to, but then you're fine. If you can get to said club earlier/before the gig to see what they have setup, the better.

If you can purchase 1 CDJ-1000 w/o killing your bank, it may be wise...you can learn good off of that to start.

keep in mind the 8-16-32-64 beat thing while mixing and it gives you a diferent dimension while mixing

It's only that way because many people don't actively feel or know the beat, it's mostly passive. Tracks are written in 32-beat sections, and even mixing on in 64 (doubling it up) can create those seamless, long, smooth, flowing mixes.

[federicocharles]

Re: Any suggestions?

You re right about mixing in 64, it makes the transition flow like a river, but you know what happens to me, if I choose to fx the tune up I loose the 64 beat thing, and when I try to id when to start counting again I can´t, how do you ID when to start counting???