SA DJs: You got that tik tok g6 mash up remix by dubstep in your serato?

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > SA DJs: You got that tik tok g6 mash up remix by dubstep in your serato?

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Yesterday ordered 2 CDJ 900s, and one Allen & Heath xone:22 to use with my laptop and Traktor Scratch. I'm pretty excited.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2011 18:36

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 20:46

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

That Wicked Walrus posted:

This is stupid.

DJing is, for the most part, playing dance/club music for drunk people. Nobody on the floor knows or cares how you're playing music, they want to dance and take drugs and hopefully get laid at the end of the night. You're there to play music and as long as the output sounds good then you're doing a good job. If you play for the Real Dudes on the floor who know about DJing then you're doing it wrong, unless you're Qbert or something.

I don't care what equipment any DJ uses. I've played with people using every single kind, from controllers to Serato/Traktor to vinyl to Ableton to CDJs and everything in between. You can kill it with any of the above, and you can be terrible with any of the above.

Seriously, if you want some laughs go ask any of your non-DJ friends about DJ equipment (club girls are best for this). I asked a friend what she thinks is going on when a DJ has a laptop on stage and she had literally zero clue. Nobody gives a gently caress, use any equipment you want, just play good songs and mix them well and you're cool.

I play drum and bass in the UK, and I can loving tell you, people give a gigantic poo poo about how you're playing. It's part of the appeal. It's FUN to see someone smash it up with a proper hands-on approach, in the same sense that I'd rather see someone do incredible gymnastics than watch an animation do things that are physically impossible (to give a slightly weird example. whatever). Maybe if you play scene-crunk, electro-house and brostep to people in clubs with 'VIP booths' then your post applies. Not at a real dance music event.

p.s. I have nothing against laptop DJs. Some of the things people do with Ableton Live are incredible, when they get really stuck in.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2011 22:06

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

That Wicked Walrus posted:

To that DnB dude, I saw Frankie Knuckles a couple of weeks ago... he played off of those new CDJs that take memory sticks. He moved very, very little during his 4-hour set... and it was the single best set I've ever experienced, bar none. Nobody cared that he wasn't moving, or that he was playing off CDJs, because he loving destroyed it musically and to me that's all that matters.

I play off those as it happens. That's still beatmatching and mixing properly with a hands-on approach. Slightly off-topic, but I hate DJs who just stand still with no expression on their face. To all DJs in this thread, PLEASE try to look like you're enjoying it!

# ¿ Mar 7, 2011 22:42

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

That Wicked Walrus posted:

I'm not really sure why manual beatmatching gets you guys off but to each his own, I suppose.

Gonna go 'head and quote THE GOD Richie Hawtin here:

I think you're missing the point that no one is hating on people who do stuff like Richie Hawtin (which is fantastic), but the derision is being aimed at people who do sets that are just 'timing two records together'...except they're getting Ableton/Traktor to do that for them. And they're doing nothing else.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2011 23:53

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

I personally try and dance harder than anyone in the crowd. It 'leads' the crowd to dance harder and enjoy your set, and also it helps in just enjoying the music (hell, you're at a club and it is literally playing YOUR FAVOURITE MUSIC, you should be dancing like a maniac) which is really useful in loosening up and relaxing.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 00:39

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

OG KUSH BLUNTS posted:

I always throw in random rock songs in my dubsteps like RATM - Testify, Rammstein - Du Hast, AC/DC - Thunderstruck, and you can never go wrong with dropping a thriller/billie jean/any mj song at random in any set. In my house sets I always like to throw in cheese like Venga Boys - Boom!BoomBoom!, Deejay Alice - Better Off Alone, DJ Jean - The Launch and it always goes over well.

I can't imagine anything worse for a sunrise set at Burning Man :gonk:

As far as suggestions go, I would say your best bet is, like slimfast said, pretty and moody stuff, but sort of moody-uplifting if you know what I mean? Epic breakdowns are good, but not so much with the epic drops.

Anae fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Aug 4, 2011

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 09:54

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

vanilla slimfast posted:

helpful stuff about showing beats/bars etc in traktor

Do you know if there's any way to show how many bars you will jump when clicking on the waveform while a track isn't playing? They had it in Traktor Pro, but took it out for Traktor 2 for no reason I can see.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2011 20:22

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Splinter posted:

Does Traktor's new BPM and tempo detection engine support a grid that changes tempo yet?

Oh God I hope so. It really can't be that hard.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2012 16:42

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Oredun posted some great stuff, but I'd just like to point out that if you are in the UK you should take it with a pinch of salt - while I assume what he posted is true for the US, over here the 'underground' is much more popular and getting moreso literally every day. The two nights I play at are always full every week, and the audience is always at least 50% girls too.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2012 18:32

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Good God, he played 10 minutes of Levels?

# ¿ May 10, 2012 17:04

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Shovelbearer posted:

I'm pretty happy with the Allen & Heath Xone:22.. good solid build, nice faders, etc, won't break the bank, simple to use, and if you don't know why you'd need 4 tracks then you probably don't need 4 tracks.

Seconding this, I love my :22. Perfect 2-channel mixer without too much extra gubbins, plus some nice filters. Plus I just love using A&H mixers, they're designed really well.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2012 11:55

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Solus posted:

So I'm making my ~first ever setlist~

I'm still not entirely sure what I can do with Either Traktor or Virtual DJ other than firing off a track, applying random effects and playing around with buttons and then crossfading into the next track when the cue I put there rolls around.

What else can I actually do while I'm playing music?

Depends on what sort of music you're playing really.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2012 12:21

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

keevo posted:

Ugh. Wasn't Beatport supposed to be the cheaper and higher quality alternative to iTunes?

Was that really the original thing they were going for? That's pretty funny.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 21:15

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

vanilla slimfast posted:

Why would you do this? Most people go the opposite direction (cdjs/turntables -> controller+laptop)

Seems like a waste of money if you're already invested with a controller and laptop

Not sure where he is, but in the UK, you never, ever see someone taking a controller to a 'proper' club (can't think of a better term). You'd get laughed at. So if you want to graduate to playing clubs etc, you want to learn how to use CDJs or turntables, whether that's through CDs, vinyl, timecode, whatever.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2012 23:44

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Solus posted:

http://www.mixtrax-global.com/en/index.html

Lock the thread, we're done here.

we aren't actually done here

I'm amazed this has anything to do with Pioneer.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2013 04:28

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

CDJ2000s are becoming fairly standard over here in UK/Europe. What's it like in the U.S.? I know lots of people who can tour just carrying round a USB stick or something.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2013 12:31

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

reichsten posted:

Been waiting for this Joy O track for months and months, ever since I heard it on his RA podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-aioJYp4zE

Shadow Child did that poo poo too, his Troupe mix had like 8 unreleased tracks, and then over the following 6 months he released them slowly.

I follow DJs I like, then find tracks in their sets that I love, and then follow those artists and labels on Beatport. I check Beatport every week and load my cart until I have like 40 or 50 bucks worth, then buy the chunk. Keep doing this until you die.

By the way, if you're liking that kind of music, you'd do well to keep tabs on Boomkat and Juno as well as Beatport. Possibly moreso.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2013 00:28

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

reichsten posted:

I do check Juno, and also I check specific labels on Surus regularly. That's all for UK specific stuff though, most releases in the US get on Beatport

Nice one - sorry if that came across as preachy or condescending or anything, was just letting you know in case it was helpful

# ¿ Mar 11, 2013 22:55

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

oredun posted:

DJing is a social science, when you realize this your opportunities will loving EXPLODE. Our job is to play what people want and to make them happy.

There's two types of DJs - those whose job it is to be the above, and then there's those that have has spent time and effort curating a music taste and collection, and whose job it is to showcase that taste and collections.

Not many people are the latter.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 01:24

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

oredun posted:

Yea, but id argue you wont be very good at the 2nd without being good at the first. Sure, theres some exceptions, but by and large producers that never DJed are pretty bad and put on a poor show. While on the other hand, producers that cut their teeth DJing tend to be a much higher quality show.

And if youre just talking DJs that showcase taste and collections without being producers, i would say that doesnt really exist beyond maybe 5 people.

Yeah definitely agree with the first statement.

As for the second statement about 5 people - I have no idea about where you live, of course, but where I live there's plenty of local DJs who do that, do it well, and people respect them for it. I mean, the chances of them ever breaking out nationally are slim-to-none, but that's not really their goal. Kind of irrelevant though because most DJs are producers at some level anyway these days.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 10:25

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Styliferous posted:

Just wanna take a minute to gloat, but becoming a curator has led to me going from no bookings a year ago to having had my first out of town gig in Baltimore two months ago, and I'm making my Washington DC debut a week from now.

Curate them tracks guys, everyone can download that blog post and have the same tunes as you. Dig deep, and find those killers that'll make 'em come back for more.

What do you mean by becoming a curator by the way? Never heard that term used in connection with DJing.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2013 13:10

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

oredun posted:

P.s. SELL ALCHOL AND YOU WILL GET GIGS, nobody cares about your music.

Ignore if you aren't DJing in a certain type of club, obviously. Otherwise, yeah. Should be fairly clear which kind of club you're in.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2013 19:46

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

an skeleton posted:

Yah this is basically what I want to do. I want to also mix Usher's "Climax" in somewhere in there. If anyone knows a good housey rendition of that track, bonus points.

I got your back.

http://soundcloud.com/justkiddin/usher-climax-just-kiddin-remix

Although the original is so good - and mixable - that I went through a long phase of playing it in otherwise fairly underground sets.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 15:09

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

cname posted:

I gotta admit, I forgot how good Reddit is (strictly) for music.

This reminds me. If any of you on here are into proper headsy house music, /r/truehouse is an unbelievably amazing resource of absolute gold.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 19:24

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

I guess I'd say that as a DJ, it's more important to be able to recognise when something is distorting to gently caress than it is to be able to make loops that get smaller and smaller.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2014 16:06

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

Mapping a knob to do a stutter effect isn't gonna "move the crowd".

This is the bit that bothers me. It's so rare for someone to actually do something worthwhile. Most of the time they're just making the track slightly more poo poo and patting themselves on the back for putting in the effort.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 16:50

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 20:46

Anae: Apr 23, 2008

Taking a PC to a gig is the best DJing-related thing I've heard all year. Congrats on sneaking in one week before the deadline.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2014 18:24

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > SA DJs: You got that tik tok g6 mash up remix by dubstep in your serato?