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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?"
I'm sure there are lots of people out there that are going to dissagree with me, but one of the easiest ways to get into digital music creation is with Garageband on a Mac. It's pretty damn good, and if you play around with it for awhile, you'll have no worries moving up to logic or logic express.
There's enough decent advice upthread on the learning part that I'll just dive into little chestnuts and nonobvious things without pretending to give you a comprehensive tutorial.
(A) You'll want one good vinyl turntable, even if you plan on spinning vinyl. Here's why: lots of releases for DJs are still vinyl-only, so despite the best efforts of the p2p ripping squad restricting yourself to mp3s and CDs will restrict your ability to use good music in your sets; furthermore, if you start buying up older classics, etc., it wasn't that long ago that ALL of the releases for DJs were released on vinyl, and without a turntable you'll be unable to use those. So no matter what, you'll eventually want to pick up regular turntable...and if you're just planning on ripping stuff to CD or mp3 I'd recommend one of the newer Numarks (like the ttx1) with direct digital output.
(B) p2p mp3s are great for house parties and practicing but unsuitable for even semi-pro use, even setting aside the legal aspects -- on good sound equipment anything encoded at less than 256kbs is going to be noticeable, especially if it's being mixed into something much cleaner-sounding...you might get away with it in an entirely mp3 set or on substandard sound equipment, but not on good equipment or mixed in with uncompressed sound.
(C) Record every practice session and listen to it at least once, probably twice -- once right away, once the next day. You don't have to archive these for posterity, but this is the fastest way to hear what you're doing wrong.
(D) At some point you'll need to develop an understanding of response curves on speaker equipment, and you'll want your home setup to have as flat a response curve as possible (ie, you'll want to buy studio monitors, or at least adjust your stereo's eq to get as flat a curve as possible). Most home and car stereos boost the bass a lot and the treble a bit, and most consumer cds have been mastered to sound good on that setup, but most live sound setups will be much closer to flat -- if your recorded sessions (you've been recording, right?) sound good in someone else's car without adjusting the eq, it probably means it'll sound whack on a real PA setup. Conversely, recognizing that the system at your gig is weak in the treble and midrange -- and adjusting your signal accordingly -- can do wonders.
(E) The versatility of your music collection grows as n^2, with the caveat that for that to hold the music has to be compatible: 20 records of funk and 20 records of techno is a much less versatile setup than 40 of techno, unless you're jeff mills.
(F) Laptops and software is the future in djing, but a lot of the 'digital dj' stuff is terrible -- once you've got the fundamentals down I'd suggest jumping straight to Ableton Live and some vstis, especially if your ambitions are more artistic than career-oriented.
(G) Take breaks -- a few weeks of not touching the decks after a year of practicing the same stuff every day and you'll come back with a passion, and ideas that'd never have materialized if you'd ground away at it. When people tell you to practice every day they're correct, too, but only up to a point.
(H) Last bit: the crossfader is overrated. I'd recommend keeping it in the middle and manually adjusting the volume on individual sound sources...if you rely on the crossfader to make this smooth you'll be handicapped a bit when you're trying to mix lots of channels at once, and your transitions will all sound pretty similar...
Well, I went to a club in New York City two weeks ago to hear hip hop mega producer Just Blaze and wouldn't ya know it he showed up with a powerbook and didn't play a single vinyl record. imho the scratching software makes a rather tricky thing too easy to overuse. scratching should be used intelligently, not just to scratch the shit out of every mix. a subtle blend or dramatic cut is in order if you are rocking a dance floor, djing is not just doing a scratch competition. as is popular with many quick mix dj's, Blaze would play maybe two verses and a chorus then scratch into a new track. it seemed frenzied and like he was trying to cover too much ground musically. it was impressive what he could do though. of note most of the clubgoers that night were trainspotters, and not very many people danced...
A good dj makes his set a journey, works with the crowd, and hopefully if they are a creative dj, tries to express a certain feeling or distinguishable style. Good transitions are what people notice most about dj's. Your mixes and transitions will make or break you. There is nothing more painful to hear than a botched mix. Learning to mix well takes practice, and you should record your practice sessions and listen to them a bit later to gain some objectivity. you will hear what worked and what didn't, and can give yourself something to work on. It isn't something you can learn overnight, and takes dedication.
-dj dave trouble
dj since 1991
vinyl only
music lover since 1969
I'm a hobby DJ myself and do a monthly (former weekly) event for about four years now together with a friend of mine who has about seven or eight years of DJ experience, and this is my opinion on this topic (I'll first rant about DJ'ing itself and then about the software/hardware we use):
I think the most important thing for DJ'ing is to know your music. You must know the bands and names of your songs and vice versa you must know how your songs sound like when you hear their names. And you must learn how to combine them. The bigger your reportoire the better. Be prepared to buy a lot of CDs over time... my collection is currently about 400 CDs right now and that's not very much, IMHO: other DJs I know have more, some have MUCH more. Most DJs I know could have bought a car with the money they've spent into CDs. (Yes, there are P2P nets, bla bla, but I like to hold something in my hand; and I also know some DJs which still only use vinyl)
We do a gothic event and that means to know a lot of different music genres, from medieval to gothic rock to 80's pop and wave to industrial. In short: all kind of different rock and electronic genres from the 80's to now. DJ'ing for those events is probably different from DJ'ing a techno or hip hop event, but you haven't said which music you're into so I just assume my opinion could be useful for you ;-)
Our concept is to do blocks of one genre and try to slide into another genre and only sometimes do "breaks" where we change e.g. from noise into "heavenly voices" from one song to another. That means if I play a song from some band I have to come up with songs of other bands that fit in the same genre and are good follow-ups to former song. Other DJs have other concepts, for example another good DJ I know normally only plays songs one or two songs of the same genre and then breaks into a completely different genre. Those concepts depend on a few things, e.g. how many guests you have, how many people fit on the dance floor at one time and also your target audience, just to name a few.
Whatever your concept is doesn't matter though, what matters is that you can come up with songs that fit your concept and that people like, and that means you really have to know your song reportoire. And to do that you don't need any fancy software for that. I personally normally work with CDs, I need the inspiration from seeing the CD backs in my DJ cases. A simple list of songs is not very inspiring for me... other DJs think otherwise, like my co-DJ.
But my co-DJ used AtomixMP3 and now the successor (AFAIK) Virtual DJ. Both are very easy to use and affordable. While I rarely use the computer for DJ'ing myself I think they're very good. They also have automatic beat mixing and stuff which may be more important to DJs for electronic music (for non-electronic stuff beat mixing and effect are quite useless, IMHO...).
We also have a console for Virtual DJ which includes a sound card and generally makes the software usable like DJ CD players. It's very nice, IIRC we paid 200 Euro for the console including the software but it's much cheaper now, I think 100 Euro or something. Together with an USB 2.0 harddisk and a notebook you're set.
Ah, and some other important advises: Have fun ! Don't let others stress you. Especially don't listen to song requests from annoying guests, you'll see that the dance floor will be empty when you play that damn song and the annoying guest is nowhere to be seen. And remember that a DJ creates trends, if you only play the songs on the current top 100 you'll probably bore your guests...
...some advice from someone who DJ'ed for fun. Part of the fun of DJing is the exhibitionism that comes with it. You want to show off your music taste while keeping your audience entertained. The two might clash if you're not careful!
I'd say don't worry too much about the technical ability at first, just play stuff you like at parties and such. Create a podcast or whatever they call them these days. Or create radio shows and have them hosted online. Publicize your creations! Get your mom, your friends, your neighbors or whoever else to tune in and listen. If they like what you do they'll brag about it. If you're good and/or having fun there should be some following, and at the same time you've built up a small portfolio. Now head to some small trendy new bar that is compatible with your taste and style, and show them what you have. Like every other job it's the experience that'll get you hired. From there you can make your way up if that's what you want, and that'll give you plenty of time to hone your craft in the meantime. But in my case, this is as far as I got, and I was happy that way.
I started by DJing at friends' parties (well, as the resident nerd I wasn't gonna flirt with the chicks the straighforward way, so I had to find a way not to get bored at parties, while playing the music I liked and maybe getting some attention). Later on I headed to the local community radio station, got a regular gig there, and finally got a regular gig at a local bar (psychedelic music, indie rock and some trip-hop in my case, no scratching or crazy mixing involved). That was a blast, I earned some pocket money and free beer and yes I even managed to score once that way! Once I finished my studies I had to get a real job and that was it as far as I was concerned (well I did a bit of internet radio for a while, but I just didn't have the time and motivation anymore). Good memories...
Anyway, my point is, don't let the other posters here freak you out. You can DJ with a laptop and a cheap MP3 player if that's all you got (all the software you need can be found for free). Just start with a small audience and as you get better your audience will grow and so will your budget and equipment. That's the DIY ethic I would have expected the slashdotters to show you.
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."