song selection importance?

[tekki]

@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.

Agrees 100%. There are a few dutch DJ called Steve Rachmad and Dimitri. Their mixing skills are not always spot on, but they more than make up for it with their record selection and reading of the crowd.

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.

QFT!

[DvlsAdvct]

yay, I get to throw my two cents in! wooooo

I think with what we're working with now the song selection is just as important. The thing is that the mix isn't what that 10% is anymore. It's what you do with it. It's the loops, EQ's, effects, mashes, etc.. Sometimes doing nothing will be just as potent as the most complicated beat juggle and effect drop.

But, in the end, it comes down to the type of crowd you have. Mixing back and fourth, two decks at a time, nothing special, could make everyone really happy, song selection being the key.

so yeah

[cjs]

I'm a soundguy in a club. I mix the live rock bands. Up until recently I have been playing my ipod when the bands take a break. I recently got traktor and a controller and "microwaved" myself!

I have found that the basics of mixing, beat matching, bringing in a song before the last one fades, avoiding dead air is very important. I had a big improvement on the dance floor right away! Before It was rare to keep people on the floor for more than the biggest hits. If there was a pause between songs people would clear the floor fast even if the next song was a popular one I would loose the floor.

So now I know if the dance floor clears it is because I picked the wrong song.

I consider myself fortunate being able to learn to dj in a club full of people.
the downside is I only get 2 half hour slots. The good thing about that is that if I do mess up the band will be back on soon and people will not leave the club because of me. It will always be better than just using an ipod.

In the area where I work most of the dj's are just meat jukeboxes that just bang in the next song. So the fact that I am actually mixing is getting noticed.

[JesC]

...In the area where I work most of the dj's are just meat jukeboxes that just bang in the next song...

We call them Human iPods! What kills me about those djs is they cue up tracks as if they were beatmatching.

[wrong chris]

i personally rate the importance of song selection over mixing technique. but that's not to say mixing is irrelevent because that couldn't be further from the truth.

mixing is super important but it's a skill that can be learned and fine-tuned with practice much more easily than song selection. Song selection on the other hand is a skill that can be improve upon with practice, but at the end of the day it's one of those things that you either have or you don't have; I find that it defines the DJ much more than their technical mixing ability because it demands/showcases your personal style, originality/creativity and imagination much more than mixing.

Think of it this way you can take the mixing out of a club night and still have the songs, but you can't take the songs out of the club night and just leave the mixing; ultimately it's the songs that really sell a DJ.

[cjs]

We call them Human iPods! What kills me about those djs is they cue up tracks as if they were beatmatching.

I think they get all their music from a subscription service too. They just play obvious radio hits.

Even when I was just playing an ipod at least I searched hard for music. I would frequently get people asking me "what was that last song you just played?"
In a cover band only mainstream club.

[JesC]

Cover Band Club, where do you stay at CJS?

[cjs]

Cover Band Club, where do you stay at CJS?

It's in Frederick MD. The bar will not hire bands that play original music.
So the crowd is not the type of people that are usually interested in hearing new stuff.

[Lambox]

Can I just say that 95% of the people listening to whatever music your playing most likely don't care how your doing it, but just that you are doing it.

It's like if a painter painted a picture. Most people don't want to hear about brush sizes and paint type. Some will. But most won't. They just wanna see the painting.

[midian]

To continue the analogy... different techniques & tools allows you to be able to make different types of & more awesome paintings that will blow peoples minds even more, as well as creating new styles and artworks that couldn't exist without these new techniques and tools.

lol