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Learning to DJ?
cloudkj asks: "Being a geek and a music fan, I've played with various applications for creating and mixing music. DJing has always been an interest of mine, but I've never had the time nor the resources to take it up as a hobby. Now that I've left college and started working, I have the time and the funds to allow me to explore DJing. What are the best ways to start learning how to DJ? Are there any spectacular pieces of digital DJ software out there that a aspiring DJ needs to have? How does a DJ transition from digital to the real thing?"
Is it just me that thinks this one is odd, or should this have been posted to slashdj.org
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I would go find a DJ I like locally and ask him that same question. Talk to EVERY DJ you can, and ask him what you have to ask. Having somebody real in front of you is way more valuable than all of Slashdot. No offense, dear reader.
You can get practical software solutions, practical hardware solutions, and really get a lot of comprehensive feedback where a Google search will fail you. And if you're lucky/friendly and find a DJ who's interested in YOU, you could get actual feedback on your performance. Sometimes, a Pro will let you touch their gear, and that's thrilling, too.
Good luck!
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Are you trying to Dj in clubs, art galleries and hip bars? Make some cool friends, preferably those who promote events. There's really no other way in, it's a popularity contest and DJ slots are highly coveted. If you don't have any friends and/or people don't think you're "cool" you're probably SOL, no matter how much you know about music (and by the way, there are a LOT of people who know a lot about music, and almost all of them are cooler than you. For starters they don't go to Slashdot looking for advice on breaking into the DJ business.)
Are you trying to DJ weddings, corporate parties and proms? Start a business. Align yourself with professional event planners. Haunt Craigslist looking for "DJ wanted" ads. Be aware that you're going to be playing primarily Top 40 (past and present) and Kool-in-the-Gang's "Celebrate" over and over and there is little room for you to inject your own taste and style. Also be aware that the only groupies you'll get are drunk fortysomething divorcees.
Do you just want to do it for fun? Every time you hear someone you know is having a party, even if it's twenty people in an apartment, offer to DJ. If you're good enough they'll start asking you to do it again and maybe you'll get some referrals. If you stick with it and are halfway decent it might work out. Of course there's no money in this (in fact it will cost you money), but you will get invited to a lot of parties.
Finally, own the proverbial two turntables and a microphone... And fancy headphones and a LOT of vinyl. Learn to make a show of playing records-- using CDs and digital files is acceptable some of the time, but real DJs play vinyl. A DJ is a performer and they want to see you look and act the part-- if you're just sitting there with an iPod they're going to wonder why they couldn't just do that themselves.
Oh... And you'll probably have to own your own sound system, too (and not a home stereo.) Most places (especially house parties) won't have adequate sound, or it will be just a mess trying to figure out their system.
My advice to you is as follows. This is coming from someone who has DJ'd around the world, supported big acts like the Prodigy, had residencies.
Your first step is to learn to play music that people want to hear. Don't worry about beatmixing, cutting, scartching, all that can come later. If you want to be popular, the kind of Dj that gets asked to play regularly and has a good following (regardless of whether it's underground or mainstream), learn first to read the crowd and play music that you think they will like. Some of the world's best DJ's are technically awful. But they play upfront tracks.
Then, when you're ready, buy some turntables. They don't have to be Technics - in fact I recommend some rubbish old ones first. They will improve your technique.
Then practice, practice, practice.
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
A DJ is someone who plays music for people, this means only two things:
-Access to a suitable music collection.
-Knowledge of the crowd or listeners you're playing to.
Nothing else.
Now... depending on the style of music you're playing to people this might mean picking up some technical skills, but these are not really mandatory, if you can read the crowd and play just the right tune you'll be alright.
Skills you might need:
-Beatmatching
-Harmonic matching
-Needle dropping
-Scratching
-Doing voice overs (for instance, in radio work)
-Putting on a show, in the visual sense, might mean video screens or maybe costumes, maybe even (shudder) dancing
Listen to some mixtapes, radio shows etc. of suitable variety to see what you're aiming to. Talk to people: DJ's, listeners, music geeks, partygoers, the list goes on. Once you're aware of what you're trying to do, just practice. As much as you need to. Also, if you're a DJ of the bedroom variety,and have no other feedback: record your sessions/sets, and listen after some time to hear all the mistakes you've made. It's painful but there's no way around it. Maybe play them to people who might give some insightful comments.
Again, in my opinion, what you're aiming for is entertainment, something that is seamless and builds up to a cohesive whole. Something that keeps people dancing, listening, tapping their toes and nodding their heads. Tell a story, you can line up your records by tempo, theme, artist, melody, intensity etc. To do this you need to know your music well. Listen.
Don't let your ego rule your thing, people aren't going to be there to watch you (unless you dress up in drag and do spastic dancing for show), they're there to dance or listen to music, make it worth their while. Audience comes first.
Hmmh, but then again... maybe i've got it all wrong. Plus I'm slightly drunk. Take this with a grain or two of salt.
How to DJ Right by Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster is easily the best text I have read about DJing. I had been DJing for quite a few years when I read this book and there was a lot of information which I found very useful.
My advice would be that if you are serious about learning, buy yourself some good second-hand technics decks. They have excellent re-sale value because they are built to last for years. I have some old second-hand 1200 Mk2s which I bought when I was living in England, and they have been moved around countless times and still are as good as the day I bought them. Even if you buy a cheaper mixer to start with, get the turntables right.
I'd also advise to get in with an online community of people that play the same sort of music as you want to. Not only is it handy for finding gems which you might not know about, when you get confident enough to start hosting your mixes online you will get some useful advise and criticism of your mixes.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
Maybe there is even software that can help you in learning to find the right beats in a song?
Just start tapping your foot when you're listening. That's the beat.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
The real meat of DJing is records. If you're serious, you'll be spending tens of hours and hundreds of dollars a month shopping for records - much more time if you play obscure stuff, much more money if you do contemporary pop or commercial dance. The DJ is the lord of the meta; acting as a metafilter and selecting the best of the kind of music the audience wants to hear and arranging it across the length of a set, forming a metanarrative for maximum emotional impact. Learn about music, about classical composition, about artistic lineage and the history of movements and styles. See the connections that no-one else sees, hear the subtext that no-one else hears and make them obvious to an audience. In short, be the guy who always finds cool new music and play it to people.
Any DJ following your plan would bore the hell out of me.
The first step, obviously, is learning to beat match.
The first step is to buy some decent records, otherwise the question's answer is, "Why ask? Any bonehead can DJ with an iPod or some off-the-shelf software your BestBuy salesperson will point you to." Beat matching usually creates a seemingly interminable section of music without any hook or chorus. The music is faceless, just some FruityLoops, Logic or ProTools BS with poorly chosen pads and drum samples.
I know I'm being presumptuous with the above. I think that any decent DJ should be able to rock a house party with some fun pop records, and mixing the beat and key of a couple of dull pseudodisco tracks should come pretty late in his education, well after learning to cue the best part of a song or making a decent transition.
And DJs should stop playing MP3s. Even when the audience doesn't notice specifically, their crappy sound makes the listener unknowingly uneasy the same way any unpleasant ambient sound would.
Segway indeed.
Here are some things I wish someone had told me when I learned to DJ:
1. Do not spend your money on mixtapes/cds or DVDs made by other DJs.
2. Do not spend your money on music you can't use in a set.
3. Do not spend your money on drugs. It bears repeating: do not spend your money on drugs.
In fact, maybe you should just forget about ever having money for anything but records ever again. Records are always going to be an expensive addiction. It's kind of like a puzzle that never really ends -- some records work well with some but not others -- so you're always going to be searching for new stuff that has the sound (hopefully your sound) that you're trying to play. The drugs thing should be obvious, but I've seen so many people for whom it's not that I think it's worth mentioning.
4. Do not spend your money on cheap equipment.
5. Do not spend your money on more equipment than you need.
6. Extra equipment will not make you suck less.
Cheap equipment won't work as well (turntables with too little torque, etc), won't last very long, and will have no resale value whatsoever. If that means waiting six months to save up the money, so be it. Also, you do not need anything but two turntables (or CD decks, if you're one of those people), a mixer, and some cables. If you find yourself looking at samplers, drum machines, DAWs, MIDI stuff, effects boxes and so on (and you will), walk out of the store or turn off the computer and go practice instead.
7. Practice every day. Not every other day. Not when you feel like it. Every day.
8. You are not going to get laid because you DJ.
9. You might actually get laid less because you DJ.
Practice is really the most valuable part, but it's the only one you can't buy. Books and DVDs won't really help you much, so don't waste too much money on them. You need to know what to practice, but there isn't much that one book will tell you that another won't. A lot of how-to DVDs are actually just an hour of showing off with maybe ten minutes of instruction: fun to watch, but useless for learning.
8 and 9 will spare you some potential embarrassment. These days you can throw a rock and hit a DJ (please do!), so as a general rule people are not going to be impressed by that fact alone. If you want to learn to DJ because you want people to be impressed by you (and there's no shame in that, it's only natural), you're going to be disappointed.
10. Stop doing it when it stops being fun.
This applies to just about everything.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
Try the dj audio player called Atomixmp3 with a Pioneer skin. AtomixMP3 provides instant bpm beat matching, live recording, dual soundcard output, master tempo and plugins.
http://www.atomixmp3.com/
The poster is specifically asking for applications and tools, obviously it pertains to technology and computers.
As a computer and music geek myself, I would like to see more articles related to how technology is used in creating music.
Just because you aren't interested in the topic, doesn't mean others aren't.
And DJs should stop playing MP3s
I'd rather say: And DJs should stop playing bad MP3s. You know, it's like the 'digital quality' crap, an MP3 is as good as the one who encoded it made it to be.
Just because you haven't heard of a good MP3 yet just doesn't mean that they don't exist.
Write boring code, not shiny code!