jokorvalde
Member
Is there any DJs on NS? Share tunes, tips and experiences
The DJ thread
- Thread starter jokorvalde
- Start date
Deluge
Active member
GavinTHEgrAPE
Member
supp I'm a DJ in nyc and Serato is my life.. best experience in my DJ career so far was doing a private gig at a club for a nude party. I've also opened up for 3LAU which was pretty cool.
Heres a link to some mixes I recorded:
soundcloud.com/gavooo
Heres a link to some mixes I recorded:
soundcloud.com/gavooo
alvy.
Active member
I have been dabbling with some traktor DJing as well. Pretty fun stuff, and as I like to make music on ableton as well, the two would go hand in hand (duh). I am probably going to get a traktor s4 soon, but I'm wondering if starting on vinyl would be better so I can learn where it all started? Idk if it's necessary, insight would be nice.
panojibber.
Active member
If I were you I'd just get an APC 400 and play out of ableton, way more control over your performances. Takes a bit more prep work but ableton's live capabilities are really unmatched.
Vinyl is expensive and difficult, unless you have someone to teach you I'd just start out with traktor to get the basic concepts down.
Vinyl is expensive and difficult, unless you have someone to teach you I'd just start out with traktor to get the basic concepts down.
ALMIGHTYSOSA
Active member
do this. Vinyl can be really hard to learn if you have no experiences in DJ'ing.
$line$
Member
Let's get real, we would all love to spin vinyl, but it's so expensive! I can't afford to pay like 20 bucks for a record with one track I'll play out. Digital is just so much easier. Here is a link so sound cloud with a couple mixes. A little sloppy but no sync button and tasty, funky mid tempo tracks.
https://soundcloud.com/the-great-lake/tigers-dont-lose-sleep-over
https://soundcloud.com/the-great-lake/tigers-dont-lose-sleep-over
BeefiestExpert
Active member
Well the only thing I dont like about digital is you never get that original and creative scratch. With a turntable is just unlimited but with digital you can only do so much with scrathcing
ALMIGHTYSOSA
Active member
traktor scratch is sick. I love how you can connect your turntables and mixer to the audio interface and you can just use your audio files. So no need for buying new vinyl records and dealing with them.
MikeVicksTOPDOG
Member
my friend what city are you out of? nice song by the way i like it
DILLINGER
Member
BUMP
https://soundcloud.com/lervais/hostmiks
Mixing is mad fun, hadn't done it for a long while but I had my first proper club set at a halloween and it was ridiculously fun. Just quickly did this to send to promoters who are on the fence about booking me for a few things.
K+ if anyone can embed this for me, couldn't get it to work.
And yes, i know I fucked up a few of the transitions.
https://soundcloud.com/lervais/hostmiks
Mixing is mad fun, hadn't done it for a long while but I had my first proper club set at a halloween and it was ridiculously fun. Just quickly did this to send to promoters who are on the fence about booking me for a few things.
K+ if anyone can embed this for me, couldn't get it to work.
And yes, i know I fucked up a few of the transitions.
theBearJew
Active member
Every now and then I do enjoy dildo kicking.
corona
Active member
and it's sad the total lack of skill for 9/10 of 'DJ's' these days. Honestly 8/9 venues with a DJ just have some dude playing songs off itunes. It really takes a minimum amount of skill, and on top of that a large portion of them suck at it too. I doubt 7/8 of them even know how to play vinyl let alone dj using vinyl. itunes jockeys. all of them.
DILLINGER
Member
Agree and disagree at the same time. There's a fucking ridiculous amount of Djs where I live, and I'm not claiming to be any better than the next. The one thing that I've noticed is that due to the high amount of DJs, shit gets slightly competitive. It doesnt bother me, its just small things (Everybody always criticising each other's mixes, hating on people for not beatmatching or not using CDJs, etc).
I personally think that everybody around here is focusing on the wrong thing. What good is beatmatching manually when you could be taking advantage of sync technology and doing stuff that DJs couldnt dream of doing 30 years ago. Dont get me wrong, I think DJs should be able to beatmatch because you never know what could go wrong with your gear and you should pay a little respect to the history. I just get annoyed by people thinking that people will dance more due to them beatmatching the old way. What the fuck guys.
At the end of the day, I DJ because it's a blast and the feeling of connecting to people through the music you play (sounds lame, but whatevs).
/rant sorry about that
I personally think that everybody around here is focusing on the wrong thing. What good is beatmatching manually when you could be taking advantage of sync technology and doing stuff that DJs couldnt dream of doing 30 years ago. Dont get me wrong, I think DJs should be able to beatmatch because you never know what could go wrong with your gear and you should pay a little respect to the history. I just get annoyed by people thinking that people will dance more due to them beatmatching the old way. What the fuck guys.
At the end of the day, I DJ because it's a blast and the feeling of connecting to people through the music you play (sounds lame, but whatevs).
/rant sorry about that
There are some really really sick programs you can use, and then there are a ton of garbage ones.
I haven't fucked with anything in 5 or 6 years though. Never was very good but had fun.
I haven't fucked with anything in 5 or 6 years though. Never was very good but had fun.
People who call themselves DJ's and press play on itunes should be beaten.
The old school ways are dying out. Every once in a while I'll come across somebody sick spinnin some old school hip hop. But generally I hear DJ assume the worst.
All these famous DJ's and their computers.
The old school ways are dying out. Every once in a while I'll come across somebody sick spinnin some old school hip hop. But generally I hear DJ assume the worst.
All these famous DJ's and their computers.
Look at the studio her dad bought her
She plays the most whack songs
She plays the most whack songs
Ben.
Active member
I love how beatmatching is like the end-all be-all of djing to so many people. Dont get me wrong, I can see how the sync button is cheating, but its also not at all hard to beatmatch. Especially for the digital folks, bpm is on the damn screen, you really dont even have to listen to get the same bpm, and then if you cant nudge the record to get it to match up you are just a moron.
Kitzrow
Member
Simply matching serato's digital BPM readouts and matching the numbers does not count as beatmatching (In real life..I guess technically, by definition, it is matching beats though). Matching numbers is no different that just pressing sync, other than giving people the illusion that you're "one of those DJs that doesn't use sync!"
In terms of beatmatching not being the end of all DJing, that's very true, but to dismiss it as an antiquated skill is retarded. I almost guarantee that if you can't beatmatch by ear, you cannot be involved enough in the music to produce spontaneous, crowd rocking mixes. Sure, you can mix without beatmatching, but it's less a particular skill, and more a sign of practice, experience, and control over your equipment. I'm gonna make a loose analogy between skiing and DJing. If you went right to the park, you might be able to throw 7s and have a decent rail game, but without real mountain experience, your tricks simply do not have that flair, that style, that sense of control. Rather, if you learned to ski the rest of the mountain (manual beatmatching), no matter what you, you'll have strong foundations and a much deeper understanding of the things you're doing..
inb4 "mate you don't know how well I DJ on my NS4"
In terms of beatmatching not being the end of all DJing, that's very true, but to dismiss it as an antiquated skill is retarded. I almost guarantee that if you can't beatmatch by ear, you cannot be involved enough in the music to produce spontaneous, crowd rocking mixes. Sure, you can mix without beatmatching, but it's less a particular skill, and more a sign of practice, experience, and control over your equipment. I'm gonna make a loose analogy between skiing and DJing. If you went right to the park, you might be able to throw 7s and have a decent rail game, but without real mountain experience, your tricks simply do not have that flair, that style, that sense of control. Rather, if you learned to ski the rest of the mountain (manual beatmatching), no matter what you, you'll have strong foundations and a much deeper understanding of the things you're doing..
inb4 "mate you don't know how well I DJ on my NS4"
Kitzrow
Member
It is no mystical power, true, but it does tend to separate the newcomers from real DJs. And, while it's not HARD per se, it's definitely not easy. Like I said, it's not just matching numbers. That's visual sync. Beatmatching is a learned skill in which you can listen to two tracks simultaneously, evaluate which track is ahead of behind, and then adjust pitch accordingly.
Bottom line, as much as technology makes beatmatching a non-ESSENTIAL skill, you're not much of a DJ without it.
Bottom line, as much as technology makes beatmatching a non-ESSENTIAL skill, you're not much of a DJ without it.
act.resist
Active member
Derek Jeter?
he's cool i guess
he's cool i guess
Backyard.Skier
Active member
If you don't know who he is or what makes this photos so dope you should probably quit being a DJ
Dan.
Active member
played a 4 hour long vinyl-only set last night. that was fun, and got me 6 more bookings through the end of the year, hooray easy money.
I honestly wouldn't recommend getting turntables. Find some friends who have software and controllers, try out different shit like ableton and traktor, figure out what works for you, then commit to what works best and expand from that point. if you strictly want to mix others music, I suggest traktor. If you want to make your own shit then ableton. Traktors remix decks work well for sampling and shit, so if you just want to introduce one-hits and quick samples into mixes, traktor is still more user-friendly than ableton.
Also no promoter or venue cares if you can beat match or if you make good music or if you have good taste in others music, they care if you can draw a crowd, and you can draw a big crowd by playing aviici off your ipod and knowing hot girls that'll show up...
oh and if you do decide to go the vinyl route, institute a 'not playing real records for less than 400 a night' policy and thank me later.
I honestly wouldn't recommend getting turntables. Find some friends who have software and controllers, try out different shit like ableton and traktor, figure out what works for you, then commit to what works best and expand from that point. if you strictly want to mix others music, I suggest traktor. If you want to make your own shit then ableton. Traktors remix decks work well for sampling and shit, so if you just want to introduce one-hits and quick samples into mixes, traktor is still more user-friendly than ableton.
Also no promoter or venue cares if you can beat match or if you make good music or if you have good taste in others music, they care if you can draw a crowd, and you can draw a big crowd by playing aviici off your ipod and knowing hot girls that'll show up...
oh and if you do decide to go the vinyl route, institute a 'not playing real records for less than 400 a night' policy and thank me later.
Backyard.Skier
Active member
nope
Dan.
Active member
last night tech 12 mk5s into a djm800.
usually traktor to tech 12 mk5s into djm800 and an ipad running touch osc with my own layout that basically controls looping and onboard effects as an auxiliary controller,
or if I'm lazy/not getting paid
two channels out of traktor directly into mixer with the ipad as controller.
usually traktor to tech 12 mk5s into djm800 and an ipad running touch osc with my own layout that basically controls looping and onboard effects as an auxiliary controller,
or if I'm lazy/not getting paid
two channels out of traktor directly into mixer with the ipad as controller.
Dan.
Active member
some nights traktor and timecode vinyl and regular records interchangeably (no way in hell am I dropping 10$ on 7" singles, and good luck finding most modern singles if you don't live in NY or Paris), some nights just records, some nights just traktor with an ipad as a controller and a mixer. all depends on where I'm playing, what kind of music the event dictates, and how much I'm getting paid. If I'm getting paid to play a hipstery store opening, then it's a vinyl night, because nerds appreciate that shit and it's worth my time(money) to make a good impression by going the extra mile and crating around records. If it's a shitty event like a wedding, even if I'm getting paid a ton, it's going to be exclusively timecode, no real records. the people pay more for the presence of a turntable, but don't actually care that the tracks are getting transcoded from a computer. It's the equivalent of attaching a mattebox without any filters in it to your camera to impress clients and charge more. If it's a house party and the only goal is to get a crowd going, then it's a controller only night. easy to transport, less equipment to fuck up.
I love controllers, they make life easier and more features that make traktor/ableton so great accessible at the touch of a button.
if you do plan on learning the old school way, go out and buy two copies of a record, or burn two CDs with the same song, and play them side by side and get the phrasing to match. when you have that down, find a similar sounding track and try it with that. when you have that down, start trying any song you can find. should take about a month of an hour a night practice to get it down.
OR
if you plan on doing the new school thing and using the sync button. go through and import every single track you ever plan on playing, and make sure that the grid lines up perfectly and doesn't drift, and then go into settings and change the sync option to beat sync, not tempo sync, and don't rely on the sync button to sync your tracks without you doing the prep work on each first.
I love controllers, they make life easier and more features that make traktor/ableton so great accessible at the touch of a button.
if you do plan on learning the old school way, go out and buy two copies of a record, or burn two CDs with the same song, and play them side by side and get the phrasing to match. when you have that down, find a similar sounding track and try it with that. when you have that down, start trying any song you can find. should take about a month of an hour a night practice to get it down.
OR
if you plan on doing the new school thing and using the sync button. go through and import every single track you ever plan on playing, and make sure that the grid lines up perfectly and doesn't drift, and then go into settings and change the sync option to beat sync, not tempo sync, and don't rely on the sync button to sync your tracks without you doing the prep work on each first.
Ben.
Active member
Cool!
Im looking into getting a controller (probably an s2/s4), I simply cannot afford vinyl, nor the massive startup costs of a two turntable + mixer setup right now, and honestly I'm mostly just looking to make mixes in the comfort of my own home.
As of now Ive just been messing around with VirtualDJ, but I basically built my own keyboard map, so I can at least do a few things like I would with a controller.
I definitely appreciate vinyl though, I saw Mala play in Chicago a few months ago, and there really is just something special about a dude mixing real vinyl, and having actual dubs cut, not just some file someone emailed across the world. Gonna see VIVEK and Joe Nice next week, again, excited to see vinyl and dubs and "real" djing.
Im looking into getting a controller (probably an s2/s4), I simply cannot afford vinyl, nor the massive startup costs of a two turntable + mixer setup right now, and honestly I'm mostly just looking to make mixes in the comfort of my own home.
As of now Ive just been messing around with VirtualDJ, but I basically built my own keyboard map, so I can at least do a few things like I would with a controller.
I definitely appreciate vinyl though, I saw Mala play in Chicago a few months ago, and there really is just something special about a dude mixing real vinyl, and having actual dubs cut, not just some file someone emailed across the world. Gonna see VIVEK and Joe Nice next week, again, excited to see vinyl and dubs and "real" djing.