How do you prepare your DJ set? or do you?

Pontus

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How do you guys do? Spending a long time to find right tracks, putting out cue points etc etc ? Or mostly just play by random with tracks that your not familiar with? Im kinda new into DJ so im curios how others prepare when they have a set coming up or just gonna record a set.
 
My life is one long time finding tracks.

The deal with being a dj is that if you think that you are the sort of person who would like to be called a 'dj' then you should be able to choose decent music to play. So in this respect the dancefloor, or whathaveyou, should be irrelevant as if you consider yourself a dj then the tracks you choose to play will work. Otherwise you arent a dj you are just someone putting music on. The dj is there not as a servant to the punters, the dj is there to show the punters what they need to listen too. Huge proportions of what wishes to be called underground music has their ontology all skewed. If you wish to listen to a jukebox then fuck off to some mainstream pub. If you wish to really be part of the undergound then you must be prepared to have your assumptions blown by the music on offer. Anything other than this is the same as having a big hug from your mum whilst she coos some shit about 'everything will be ok' in your ear.

Everything will not be ok. The light at the end of the tunnel is that of another train approaching at full speed. Life is the skipped heartbeat.
In this we may interpret the arbitrariness of a skipped heartbeat as also the irregularity of unusual experience. Furthermore, this glitch is the bedrock of life itself. The comfort of a cardiac rhythm is a false one as it is not the shear face of true experience. We must strive for the peculiar which in itself is inexplicably applicable. And, insomuch, we must be open and ready for the challenge, as a challenge it will be.

Other than that, cue points come in handy.
 
I totally agree what you saying.. What do up mix on. Even tho i know tons of tracks i still find hard to fint those who fit good together so it sounds nice haha. Even if i cue songs up i already forgot why i put the cue there haha
 
i now use traktor, but started on vinyl, then moved to cdjs. Now im old and lazy i find traktor the best form for me.

The only way to find out which tracks go with which is to practice. There are no short cuts here.

re cue points. My guess would be you cued up a track at a particular point because thats where you think the start of the mix should be?
 
I would love more for sure, i have tons of music which i know inside and out but still when i mix the mid's very often it sounds just shit. I dont know if my self criticism is to high, or i just need to be better.. I definitely can here when the transition is not good, but i can here when its good too. I dont know, i feel kinda stuck. I watched youtube tutorial videos but cant find any better that explains more in terms of how i should think etc. i know i need practice more, FOR SURE hehe.. but anything that can help me in right way i would appriciate.
 
the track you are bringing in should have lower levels and as you mix across you swap the levels of the tracks. If you see what i mean. If you drop the incoming track with full levels it will sound a bit hot in the mix

Each track you cue up will generally have to be mixed in a slightly different way. So the way to practise is to work out how each track needs to be mixed as a general rule. Once you know how each track will generally need to be mixed you can then tinker with the details of this to suit the particular mix of track you aim to perform.
 
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thanks for useful info man! yeah i need to practice more for sure. And so many tracks that i like peak at the very end of the track, which i dont want to leave out of the mix. So thats a really challenge for me. And early Goa is so tricky to.

But when i record a set, then i usually sit down and listen to it again. I know i listen more actively then vast majority of people would do on a party etc. But this self criticism bothers me, because i hear so much errors.. You never get that feeling? Its like i dont know if its good or im to hard on myself.. Few people leave feedback aswell, and i dont know many who even listen to psytrance. I live in a city where Kareoke is the shit, literally.

You may not like talamasca but i put some of his song together, if you have time over some day i'd be blessed if you wanted to have a quick look, just fast forward to the transitions and let me know what i should think of or what i could do better etc. I know its up to me to practise more ofcourse but im thankful for all help i can get. Or if you know any good guide for beginners etc?

 


any good to you?

Personally I would question the logic behind doing a mix of just one producers music. The only people who will want to listen to that will be uber-fans of talamasca. You are reducing your audience base quite considerably before they have even listened to your mix. PLus a whole hour of talamasca cannot be anything other than massively repetitive on the ears. So if you want as many people as possible to listen you need to broaden your range of tunes. Especially if ,as you say, you have loads of tunes that you want to mix.
 
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Ok talamasca was just for me to listen during a trip so other use by doing like that.

take this instead

And its mostly the transitions i wanna improve
 
This really isnt my sort of music but from a brief listen it just sounds like you doing fine.

Perhaps a bit of fine tuning on the levels are needed, but its hard to tell the difference tween soundcloud compressing your mix levels over what is what you are doing.
 
You wana be a dj, you have a long road of learning and skill crafting to do buddy...you have to put in a lot of work, practice, dedication and passion. I suggest you pick up a pair of pioneer cdj 100s and a simple 2 chanel mixer burn your tracks to cd's and learn how to perform a 2hour set without visual ques and bpm counters flawlessly... learn how to mix by ear...organizing your tracks by genre, bpm and key to cd's will help you progress quicker. Use your ears...stay up to date with new releases from your favourite artists, have variety...practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice........
 
i suggest buying my old dexs and mixer off me for £500. No dj worth their salt would not do this immediately
 
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