New DJ: The Road to....?

To anyone that has reached the dizzying heights of 'not in the bedroom',

I'm a beginner DJ looking to break out of little box I’ve been working in. I really don’t know where to go or what to do, however. I’ve been playing with Traktor Pro and a Numark Stealth Control. I’m kind of nervous about what to do next. I have a potential ‘gig’ at a mates 21st in May and I don’t know if I’m ready... any advice/tips/guidance would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t know if this is the right place to post a message like this either, if you know of a portal more appropriate that would also be appreciated.
What I think I really need is a ‘mentor’, someone with a little bit of experience in the DJ world, but I don’t know if that is easy to come by or something that ‘doesn’t happen’. I don’t know many people in the industry or in my local scene. I look up to artists like deadmau5, Van She, B33SON etc.

Any comments appreciated.

Thanks

 

Dude, just go for it. Expect to make a booboo here and there if you know you normally make them while in the bedroom, but have fun, that's all that matters.

For the most part, I use Traktor in the bedroom. I like putting together mixes that I'll take with me in the car, cause that's my favorite place to listen to music.

At the same time, i get to play house parties here and there, and although I'm sometimes prone to make a mistake or four in my set (going off beat, not mixing on time, or on the wrong beat), I still usually have tons of fun, and for the most part, no one notices when I make a mistake.

Play good tunes and don't get too hard on yourself if you make an audible mistake. I've been to small parties where i hear no mistakes, and I've been to clubs and have heard big mistakes, made by big time DJ's. Sure maybe someone will call you out on it, but I doubt a few bad mixes are going to kill anyone's entire night.

Just go out and have fun. If you can record your set, do it, listen to it later, as that is a great way to learn more about yourself.

 

Remeber you are playing to a room full off people , they matter, your friend nagging for that odd B-side by some unknown artist does not matter.
Don't listen to your annoying mate.
Trust your own judgement and try to judge the crowd.
There are no prizes for playing 2 hours of obscure clever music if no-one is enjoying it or dancing.
Don't be affraid to play that HUGE track when the floor is rammed. There are prizes for a full dancefloor going nuts all at once , it makes you look great !

Pull out a few suprises . We all love it when the DJ plays a track we haven't heard in ages and ages.

Have a drink and relax but don't get sh*tfaced.

And as Chilly would advise, take a sh*t before your set.

HAVE FUN or there is no point in doing it .

 

Another advice: make some playlists. And especially, make a 'soft/chill' playlist, a 'party' playlist, and a 'totally nuts, crazy hard ****' playlist.

It will give you much more control over the night. People often don't appreciate it when the night is young and they're not drunk yet and only want to talk a bit and you are there playing heavy party beats. It's way better to start with some warm funky tunes to get the people in a good mood. Once they start moving (getting drunk...) you can simply start picking songs out of a 'harder' playlist with the same bpm and make a perfect mix...

EDIT: if you get to the 'totally nuts, crazy hard ****' playlist: after a few songs, take a moment to check if the crowd is still going as wild as you are
I think I'm not only talking for myself if I say that Dj's tend to get a bit lost in the flow when they start mixing the crazy poopoo

Greetz,
NLS

 

I just did my mates girlfriends surprise 21st birthday disco this saturday just gone, so here's from fresh useful tips.

If you can, find out what your target audience are into. It was easy for me as the majority were young females so the typical requests I got included britney or lady gaga. Far from ideal but the cash payment was a great incentive.

Play a mixture of old & new. some folk like chart stuff, others like oldies, you'll never completely statisfy both parties so to stop either of em getting bored, change genres and eras each track or two, unless one specific genre really gets the place rocking, then you can stick with that for a bit until experimenting with alternative styles.

As mentioned, dont be too nervous about making mistakes. As long as the music keeps playing, the odds are that no one will notice your minor mishaps.

Be prepared for strange requests! I was ALREADY playing what i would class as proper CHEEZY tunes, when some lass asks for me to find some cheezy tunes...? Probably only achievable by finding an Aqua album in the depths of my itunes collection, although what she actually meant without realising, was she wanted some older instantly recognisable sing along dancy tracks, well that was what made her and her previously miserable posse of 2 get up and dance anyway... Basically, ignore the hardfaced miserable ones, they were having a crap night regardless of your music choice, even if they then choose you as the person to blame for it.

As much as possible, dont play yours & everyone elses favourite tracks at the start of the night, it's best to save those killer choons for when people are slightly more lubricated with booze, making them tap their feet, nod their heads and finally get up for a boogie.

Think about volume levels. the initial volume needs to be low enough for peeps to chat away. Yes they could and prob should be talking loudly, but dont have the music so loud so that they have to repeat themselves, that just encourages people to go outside where they can still hear the music but talk easily. later on you can increase the levels when conversation is less and dancing is more.

Think about EQ and sound quality in general. Take a walk while a track is playing so you can judge how loud the music is around the venue, where everyone else is and where they aren't; is that because it's too loud or too quiet? If you only have big coned speakers, are the highs coming thru ok? Is the bass loud enough to make people "feel" it? If possible, have seperate speakers for highs (on stands) and speakers for bass (on the ground) so that melodys hit their ears and bass goes up thru their legs, it's a winning combination.

Make a playlist that will play over twice as long as your scheduled set; if you're playing for 5 hours, try and get 10 hours of music. This isn't crucial as you might be taking requests and just scanning for random music, but believe me 5 hours of random track hunting is soul destroying and like I say 10 hours of music is soon shortened when you factor in crossfade times, cutting tracks short becasue the outro is huge or that track is killing the dance floor, missing out intros and cueing to the good bits so that everyone knows the track as soon as its brought in, deleting whole swaythes of music on realising that nobody actually likes cheesey remixes of 80's songs, for example.

Try and have a good time! If the DJ aint enjoyin themselves, it will make a difference to everyone elses mood, so have a few drinks but not quite as many as everyone else, I've found its surprisingly inportant to be on a similar level as everyone there but never on a higher one; there's u thinking that playing house of pains jump around for a third time is an excellent idea while everyone's reaching for their phone to get the first taxi to anywhere the DJ CAN remember what tracks they've already played...

 

Thank you kindly for all the time and effort you guys put into your replies. You filled me with confidence and gave me some invaluable tips on how to make the night run smoothly that I hadn't accounted for.

Most importantly the ideas that its 'ok' to make a mistake and how to be prepared for the night really helped. Always for the enjoyment of music as well

I might make a post where I accumulate some of these bullet points into a "out of the bedroom bible" for my fellow den dwelling fans.

Thank you so much.

P.S. Thank you to which ever mod threw this into general DJ discussion, complete oversight on my behalf.

EDIT: Of course I'll tell you guys how the gig goes... good or bad

 

Loads of good tips here - I'd also say get to the venue and set up in plenty of time - preferably well before people start turning up.
Be carefull and methodical when you're setting up - you want to be concentrating on the music when you're playing not messing about re-wiring stuff or trying to find out where that buzzing is coming from.
If you got time knock yourself up a backdrop or two - Rasterbator is your friend - beg/steal/borrow/improvise some lights. Generally decorate the venue or recruit someone to do it for you - it adds to the atmos and gets people in the mood to have a good time. You can also give people clues as to what kind of music to expect - an obvious example, if the place is decked out in red, gold and green it's a fair bet the DJ will be playing some reggae.

As everyone else says, most importantly, have fun!