song selection importance?

[Karlos Santos]

@Kaon i agree 100%

Ive seen a DJ in UK called Norman Jay and hes an awesome DJ.
Ive seen him mixing his arse off and picking amazing tunes.
But ive also seen him sat behind a pair of cdjs just fading tunes in and out and not bothering to mix but his song selection was so unbelievably good no-one cared about the mixing.

It is definitely situational.

[JesC]

i guess that makes it rather situational

yes it is koan. and it boils down to are you a club dj or a showcase dj. you can be both, but you need to know how to switch rolls when you play live.

[miyuru]

After rocking a crowd using >2 deck mixing (sometimes having 3 decks playing to the master at once, and rarely with all 4), a girl came up to me after my show and said it was great because I spun the kinds of songs she likes.

I guess she didn't notice anything else I was doing

The point of the story is, the average club-goer is not a DJ. I don't care how good your mixing skills are, if the crowd can't relate to the songs you're playing you won't have much effect on them. I'm the same way when I'm in the crowd, if I get into enough, even I start to care less and less about the DJ's technical skills and more and more about the song selection.

[midian]

All true, but in saying that the mixing skills shouldnt be seen as 'showing off' and separated into a different thing, for me the mixing skills is what allows you to craft the set into a journey.

Someone just fade tracks into each other limits what you can do to control the crowd. Mixing skills give you more tools to be able to manipulate the crowd in whatever way you want and so helps in that sense.

The track selection I'd say is more important, but with 'live' sets and more crazy stuff being done I think its going to become less focused track selection and more about doing crazy shit that fucks with the crowd.

[Kaon]

All true, but in saying that the mixing skills shouldnt be seen as 'showing off' and separated into a different thing, for me the mixing skills is what allows you to craft the set into a journey.

Someone just fade tracks into each other limits what you can do to control the crowd. Mixing skills give you more tools to be able to manipulate the crowd in whatever way you want and so helps in that sense.

The track selection I'd say is more important, but with 'live' sets and more crazy stuff being done I think its going to become less focused track selection and more about doing crazy shit that fucks with the crowd.

well that brings up the convo from earlier about is it DJing if its live etc

[alien2k]

I could not give a general answer. The crowd for each type of music is diferent, and for what i consider crowd I exlude the djs because they will never listen any mix as the performing dj is intending to be listened. Unless they focus on listening with crowd mind.
Sayed that I can tell you that obvioulsy the track selection is the spinal cord of any set. You can't create the atmospehere or feeling you want to transmit with just any track of the same genre. Or with mixing tricks.... I don't like mixing in another song just because they run nicely together, I like to create an atmospehere with each song. And having the ability to take the crowd mood and bring in your atmospehere together is what the ultimate DJ is able to do(I hope to get there someday).

A wrong track selection will always give you a bad name, much more that one trainwreck in the middle of your set.

You must also consider (unless you are a superstar) the club owner's expectations, It s great when they ask you to play a genre and you really have a nice selection of tracks, plus some signature tracks (tracks that you play often for people to remember you), and you are able to add some of your personal style. It shows that you really know your music and that you are professional.

You must know the music, and find a omeaning to each track, that is what I really admire. And of course: if you are able to put them together in a nice order, and mix them correctly, plus add some tricks , effects, cuts and moves = DJ I LIKE

Ex: Listen to R. Villalobos, nobody knows the tracks except him (and a few geeks), still he is pure atmosphere and considered one of the gratest (the gratest for me) because he really know what each track transmits.

The same could be sayed of djs superstars as Tiesto or Armin... They do not have any special skill with mixing (I mean they are good, but they are no Jeff Mills), just track selection+ profesional Dj moves

[autonic]

I think that the question is asked in the wrong way.... I don't think that song selection ever could be replaced with nice loops or cool fx - if you're not providing the dance floor with beats they want nothing else matters.
Let's say you pull off a really fancy fx/loop-move, hooray.
Compare that to hitting just the right spot with a song you chose.
They don't compare in my opinion. 10 awesome fx-moves won't stand a chance against a killer tune in the right place. Not even a 100.

Instead, I'd like to think that controllerism makes it easier for you to offer the audience unheard, fresh beats... and hence creating your own unique sound.
Let's imagine if you try something out that just isn't hitting the floor the way you hoped it would, with controllerism, you could be out of that jam in less than 20 seconds and perhaps even make it sound just like a transition to the next track, using all the bells and whistles working for you.

This creative freedom let's you try out a lot more stuff during a night than you would have been able to with a couple of 1210's or CDJ's. Hence, allowing you to develop your musical/dj skills in a much faster pace than the DJ's of decades past (no pun intended) - if you use the bells and whistles with good judgement.

[olafmol]

i wise man once told good DJing is about %90 song selection %10 mixing
this would only be relevant to vinyl mixing and the guy came from an oldschool funk background.

does anyone have any thoughts on this? i see that as the past but i wonder if this philosophy could be applied to controllerism?

eh, why would it have anything to do with the medium you're using? DJ'ing imho is ALL about music selection and sequencing. Of course certain genres like minimal, techno etc lend themselves more to play around with loops and layers and effects than others like house with a more classical song-structure, but in the end no technical tricks can compensate for crappy musical selection and sequencing.

[lsmith]

After rocking a crowd using >2 deck mixing (sometimes having 3 decks playing to the master at once, and rarely with all 4), a girl came up to me after my show and said it was great because I spun the kinds of songs she likes.

I guess she didn't notice anything else I was doing

The point of the story is, the average club-goer is not a DJ. I don't care how good your mixing skills are, if the crowd can't relate to the songs you're playing you won't have much effect on them. I'm the same way when I'm in the crowd, if I get into enough, even I start to care less and less about the DJ's technical skills and more and more about the song selection.

i guess you didnt read the chick magnet blog entry. she was just trying to get your number

[MisterMoleyMole]

ya i agree too. you could be the most skilled mixer in the world but if youre gonna play nursury rhymes you aint got shit

But well effected nursury rhymes with a fat breakbeat behind would be kind of cool This is now easier to do with beatgrids and the like