TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE YOURSELF AS A DJ
DECIDE IF YOU "DJ" IN THE TITLE OR NOT
If you call yourself “DJ…”, that’s what you’ll always be thought of. What if you end up wanting to produce music?
MAKE SURE YOUR NAME PASSES THE "RADIO TEST"
If your name was read out on the radio, would the presenter be able to pronounce it properly from the way it is written?
PRACTICE AND PREPARE
Practice makes for much
better DJ sets than a free-form approach to the craft. Having only a
vague idea of what you are going to play usually makes for a halfhearted DJ
set. You’ll find that accomplished turntablists and groove-riders alike have
all spent countless hours perfecting their sets. We don’t necessarily recommend
pre-planning the entire set, either, but you should get to know your options
before you show up to perform. Spend time to find tracks that mix well and make
playlists of those tunes for future use. Make different kinds of playlists for
different kinds of gigs. Finding tracks that work well together takes time and
it rarely happens spontaneously at the gig.
BE FLEXIBLE
As a professional DJ you don’t necessarily have to take requests, you can stand by your own style and selection. However, playing more than one specific style of music is a great way to gain more opportunities for performance.
PLAN IN THREES
This is a method of organizing
music for DJ performance that I’ve found to work extremely well in my own
experience. When planning a set I like to find three records that mix
well together at a time. Optimally these three records can all be
played together at once or they can transition into one another. Next I find
another set of three. Then another. Eventually I have a stack of records that
are organized by how they mix together, and I start to organize those sets of
three into a flow of slow to fast / mellow to banging. I like to have 60 tracks
selected for an hour of performance. I won’t play all 60 (I usually play around
20 tracks per hour) and I won’t always play those exact mixes (spontaneity is
still important in a DJ set), but I have options that go in every direction and
I know that I can find my way from one type of sound to another while staying
deep in the mix the whole way. Knowing this allows me to be much more
experimental on-the-fly and it always works better than if I don’t plan.
IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
Identify your audience before you perform. This doesn’t just mean to find out what they like and play it — you need to know the size of the room you’ll be playing in, the number of people who may be there, and the general musical vibe for the evening. Know your time slot and what frame of mind people will be in when you are playing. Part of being a DJ is sonic empathy: take time to know your audience and identify what sort of sounds they might connect with.
PLAY APPROPRIATELY FOR YOUR TIME SLOT
A-list DJs all
delivered a very similar sentiment — don’t try to blow up the dancefloor at the
wrong time. There is an arc of energy that events hope to achieve and
promoters usually book DJs to fill these different time slots hoping that they
will bring the proper energy for that time slot. Many beginner DJs are so eager
to play “their sound” and impress their audience that they end up playing
inappropriately for their time slot (usually an opening slot for up and coming
DJs). The best thing you can do during an early slot is lay down an
even-keeled, in-the-pocket vibe that doesn’t give up too much energy too early.
PROGRAMMING
Programming is probably the most
important aspect of a DJ’s set. A perfect technical mix with no soul is
never as good as a less-technical mix with lots of vibe. The music is
what moves your audience and the flow of music from one track to another can
truly create a journey if you take the time to plan that journey. Many DJs lose
sight of the journey when the excitement of crowd response is happening and
they slip away from the journey and into musical instant gratification. A
seasoned DJ will never go the route of instant gratification, it’s a short-term
fix and a crowd will burn out quickly on this vibe.
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PUSH AND PULL
The best DJs I’ve ever heard all
taught me a similar method in how to approach programming a DJ set. Some call
this “the push and pull” — giving the crowd just enough energy to dance
and be excited, but never giving it all up until the right moment.
KEEP YOUR LEVELS OUT OF THE RED
To achieve the best sound quality
during a DJ performance or recorded mix, make sure you are getting a good
strong signal both in and out of the mixer, but always take care not to
push any of your levels into the red. This is a simple rule but one
that most DJs are guilty of breaking from time to time. When the mix is hot and
people are jumping, most DJs want to pump up the volume. But boosting the
channel gain or master volume into the red will distort your signal, making the
music sound degraded and killing the vibe. In addition to this, most venues
have a master limiter at the final stage of the signal before it goes to the
house system, so turning up your mixer past 0db will most likely not have an
effect on your overall volume anyway, it will just make your music sound
squashed. So always remember: watch your master volume throughout your set, and
make sure to keep the meters from going into the red by turning down your
levels and/or EQ controls.
PROPER USE OF EQ
The three- (or four-) band
equalizer on each channel of the DJ mixer is your most valuable tool for
professional DJ performances. There are a couple of basic rules to keep in mind
when using EQ; these can be applied to DJ mixers as well as music production.
The first rule is — keep
your EQ at 12:00 as a default, unless you are making a particular adjustment.
That is to say, the EQ sounds best at unity gain, so keep your EQ at 0db
whenever possible.
The second rule is — cut (don’t boost) the signal. This
requires thinking backwards through your process a bit. For instance, if you
are inclined to turn up the bass, turn down the mids and highs a bit instead
and turn up the channel gain if needed.Another good rule of thumb to follow when DJing is — only use one sub-bass source at a time. Generally speaking, playing two tracks with heavy sub-bass at the same time will create a muddy mix and won’t sound good on a large sound system. EQ is your best friend in these situations — simply turn down the bass of one the tracks when you’re mixing them together to keep the overall sound punchy and tight. You can swap the bass lines back and forth with the EQ knobs or use the crossfader to mix between the two tracks, just remember to only use one bass source at a time for optimum sound quality and crowd response.
DON’T OVERDO THE EFFECTS
While the use of effects is an
artistic choice, and in some cases the basis of a DJ’s sound, I’d recommend
that you don’t OVERdo it with effects. Many DJs use effects to help transitions
from one record to another and to enhance their DJ performance.
BRING BACKUP
You never know what could
go wrong at the club or event where you’ll be performing. For this
reason it’s always a good idea to bring backup music in different formats. If
you play vinyl, bring CDs. If you play CDs, bring records or a couple flash
drives of MP3s. If you use a laptop, bring CDs and/or vinyl as backup. An iPod
full of your latest tunes is another option for emergency situations where one
of your sources dies mid-performance.
