i think theres only so much practice can be put in. i think youve got to have a natural ear with music.
e.g i was taught guitar for years when i was younger, could i fuck remember how to play any of it now. and i wasnt great at the time. - my sister learned to play the keyboard and then picked up a guitar and self taught herself to a level far superior to mine with no lessons.
reached for the secret too soon, cried for the moon.
Its piss mate once you get the idea and yeah Gav that book is good for the basics, Bill Brewster is a top Dj and fella too, Harmonious mixing in key is where its at and you need to know your notes, Beat mixing once picked up will never leave you, but for me becomes monotinous, Cds aint that bad but nothing beats the feel of vinyl for me, the sound is different too, I can spend many a 5/6 hours downstairs lost in the mix/zone and come out thinking I only been a couple of hours, It becomes spontainious. There is nothing better than having a crowd of people in the palm of your hand knowing that when you drop or tease with a certain song you will destroy the dancefloor, the key is to build anticipation and make it a journey, speak with your music, when that happens you mastered it.....
As Ja says, its not all about mixing 2 tracks together. Once you get the hang of that, it becomes 2nd nature. Its all about reacting to the crowd, building them up, and dropping something you know will go down well. I used practice my mixes constantly before a gig, almost becoming a robot. When I do play these days (Rarely at the minute) I take probably 50/60 randonmish records with me and see what direction the atmosphere takes me...
[quote="maclufc"]fade in, fade out, always worked for me....[/quote]
Ive done that before at a club night I used to play at. I was too fucking hammered to do anything, so got on the mic before hand and said "A DJ has dropped out and been replaced with..... DJ Volume". Just keep fading in and out for about 3 tracks worth before I got asked politely to step down
[quote="Gelse"]In which form J? Proper (Vinyl) or Fake button pressing (CDJ's)
G.[/quote]
It take's as much execution on CDJ'S as Vinyl imho, I used to play on 3 stanton deck's, had it all set up in my living room, 3 decks in sequence set in wood with all my vinyl underneath, loved it, but then when we had Leila It was unfair to keep it all in the living room just for us, so I had to downscale, get my vinyl to wav/mp3 and I brought Vestax cdrj's and moved my gear upstair's, it's no different really, you still have to do everything the same, I really miss the authentic scratching but on the other hand my samples are endless now without having to keep changing records and mixing tool's
[/quote]I really miss the authentic scratching but on the other hand my samples are endless now without having to keep changing records and mixing tool's[/quote]
Thats half the fun im my opinion mate.
Im a purist at heart. Something really rewarding using vinyl.
I do have a CDJ, purely because some stuff I wanna play is only available on this format. Did flirt with buying a vinyl cutter, but just dont play often enough to shell out that kind of dollar.
[quote="Gelse"][/quote]I really miss the authentic scratching but on the other hand my samples are endless now without having to keep changing records and mixing tool's[/quote]
Thats half the fun im my opinion mate.
Im a purist at heart. Something really rewarding using vinyl.
I do have a CDJ, purely because some stuff I wanna play is only available on this format. Did flirt with buying a vinyl cutter, but just dont play often enough to shell out that kind of dollar.
G, [/quote]
I don't disagree with you in regard's to playing/listening to records compared to digital, I love the crackle's/fuzz but with DJ'ing I was just evolving, everything's the same, beat matching, samples, music etc except it's in different format, we have big plan's though and were trying to get it all together for us, which to be fair mean's being as up top on what's out there as possible, something which will leave you lacking with vinyl, wanting certain records that will take you month's to get, I had 3 tracks the weekend in my set that took the roof off, and if I was playing vinyl I probably wouldn't have had them, I'm just trying to further myself and aside from cost I can build a new set up weekly with new track's I get hold of
This sounds sad but I learnt to beatmatch by getting two copies of the same record and playing them at totally different speeds then gradually blending them together. Bit of an odd concept but seems to have served me well so far. Once you get into beatmatching the fun really starts though - vocal manipulation, sample cutting, looping etc. It all takes a lot of time with vinyl but I find it really rewarding regardles
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Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:51 pm
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made me smile though
