Begginer DJ help

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Soundtech98

25 posts

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#143796 27-Apr-2014 16:58

Hello, I hope I have posted this in the right forum.

I would like to get into DJing for high school dance parties and later on, expand to "bigger" gigs such as weddings and so on.
However, for now lets stick with school discos.

My Question is, how do I know what songs to choose in order to fill the dance floor, where do I start and how do I maintain the vibe while building up the beats?
I know that the music needs to be something that the people can sing and dance to, and latest music releases would probably do nicely.
Because there is so much variety (in keys and BPM) in the recently released tracks, how do I know what songs are suitable to be mixed together and most importantly, as mentioned before, how do you lay down one track after the other to maintain a good vibe and build up the beat?
I want to make a good impression and leave them with a big WOW (which is most likely not going to happen at my first gig).

I appreciate your help here
Thanks.

Coil

6614 posts

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#1032112 27-Apr-2014 17:04

When im in charge of the noise its just George FM :)
http://www.djingtips.com/skills/mixing-basics

Andib

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#1032115 27-Apr-2014 17:13

Beg, Borrow, Buy some Pioneer CDjs and learn to beat match on them. They are the industry standard and what you'll be expect to use in any real club environment.

For school discos & weddings you'll be fine with just using a laptop as no one really cares / wants beat matching but when you get to club gigs you will typically be expected to play on their equipment (9/10 Pioneer CDj 1000 or 2000s) and they won't have the room or slots on the mixer left for you to be mucking around with a laptop.

In saying that If you do go down the laptop route I'd suggest looking into either Serato (I use this for when I DJing at weddings or places that only have CDJ 1000s) or Tracktor

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Soundtech98

25 posts

Geek

#1032149 27-Apr-2014 18:20

Thanks guys, but that wasn't the answer I was looking for.
I will probably buy a Numark Mixtrack Pro 2 which will be using serato dj intro (I guess that's fine).
At the moment I don't have a lot of money to spend on CDJs and to be honest, for now I prefer to use a digital library on the computer instead of messing around with CDs. I know that CDs unlike laptops are basically fail safe, however at the moment a software controller like the Mixtrack Pro 2 will do with a laptop (I hope) as I can easily have a nice big overview of all my tracks and don't have to search a CD deck for that desired song. :)

I would be really helpful if you could go over and answer my questions from my first post in this forum.
Thanks again.

Andib

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#1032155 27-Apr-2014 18:39

FYI CDJ 2000's use USB / SD cards. MUCH easier and more reliable than carry around a wallet filled with scratched CDs

My Question is, how do I know what songs to choose in order to fill the dance floor?

You just do, Picking the right song is a skill you will only pick up with experience.

Where do I start and how do I maintain the vibe while building up the beats?

Typically with less upbeat tracks, building up to the Hits. You don't want to be repeating songs or playing your best songs in the first part of your track

I know that the music needs to be something that the people can sing and dance to, and latest music releases would probably do nicely.
Because there is so much variety (in keys and BPM) in the recently released tracks, how do I know what songs are suitable to be mixed together and most importantly, as mentioned before, how do you lay down one track after the other to maintain a good vibe and build up the beat?

Songs in the same Key mix the best, BPM is not too much of a worry as, As long as you know how to beatmatch you can control the mix easily.

In short Beatmixing is how you maintain a goodvibe between each song.

<#
.DISCLAIMER
Anything I post is my own and not the views of my past/present/future employer.
#>

floydie

474 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1032711 28-Apr-2014 17:37

wow its a big ask...done a few weddings myself and its HARD WORK.
this may sound silly but go hang out in clubs and take notes on whats playing. (even use "track id" on your phone to find out what it is).

and then try to work out how long your "set " will be, and try to work out a playlist that will last that long and build up to an earth shattering awe inspiring epic set list of doom! (sorry might have got a bit carried away there>) :) seriously though, knowing how long you need to play for and actually having enough (good) songs to last the distance is the first step....even do a dry test run by having a party of your own and playing the setlist

if you can mix properly on the panasonics then the wholy grail is mixing a classic like "summer of 69" with a new beat etc...

good luck!

ScuL

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#1041230 10-May-2014 04:08

I've been DJ-ing semi-professionally (with international gigs) for 10 years - notably being a club DJ is very different from being a highschool/wedding DJ

I started in 2004 when buying some of my favourite tunes at the time on vinyl. My dad's first turntable still worked and I bought a new element for it and tried to play with it.. obviously that was difficult due to a very unstable pitch setting.
A few months later I bought two vinyl decks (AA HTD4.5) and my first mixer (Numark DXM06) which I'm still using to this day.
It works well enough. Transitioned to Pioneer CDJ sometime in 2006 when I stared having my first gigs.

In my opinion:
- if you want to BE a DJ you need to be able to beatmatch and master pitch control
- beatmatching is best learnt with vinyl or on a CDJ (serato is an ok intermediate)
- despite its awesome feeling it doesn't make sense to start with vinyl any more, too expensive and too much hassle (I dreaded boarding flights with 20kg of records)
- beatmatching has a very large physical dependency therefore I do not consider "PC-mixing" with a beatmatch button to be DJ-ing
- once you've mastered beatmatching you will ALWAYS benefit from it and it's impossible to forget how to do it (just like learning how to swim or how to ride a bike)
- in order to beatmatch properly you need similar style tunage. Top 40 charts stuff generally doesn't work (unless you are mixing David Guetta with Calvin Harris)
- you need to have a natural feeling for "flow", knowing when to build and how to arrange tunes in an order so they become one
- DJ's that jump from one tune to another without "bridging" the mix and atmosphere will lose the crowd
- at any time whilst mixing you need to stay aware of the crowd and their state of mind, this will be VERY hard on the first few performances as you need all your attention to mix properly
- use molded hearing protection (I mix with them in and it has saved my hearing)

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.