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10 DJ Tips & Tricks from Dubspot Instructors: Shiftee, Endo, Badawi,Shadetekby admin on Jul 25, 2011

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DJ Shiftee, 2X DMC Champion and Dubspot Instructor

What makes a great DJ? There is no single answer to this question. At Dubspot, we want to help you figure outand achieve what great DJing means to you. The goal of our DJ program is to make that choice as well-informedas possible. The journey will be extremely rewarding. We can’t wait to take it with you! In the meantime, hereare some tips from our talented instructors to get you started.

1. Thorough preparation is very valuable, especially with the constant barrage of new music DJs must face on adaily basis. I generally won’t play a track in a live set until I’ve: Beat Gridded it, Run it through Mixed In Key,Marked every key section of the song with Cue Points, Set strategic loops on cool parts and vocal phrases, Writtenappropriate notes in the comments field of my browser, and Organized it into all the appropriate playlists. This wayeven if a song is brand new, I can play it as if I’ve known it for years. - DJ Shiftee

2. If you are a warm up DJ don’t play banging stuff. Warm up the crowd properly. Nothing will get you notinvited back worse than coming on to an empty room and playing every banging hit track. It won’t work and youwill piss off the promoter and the people playing afterward. Feel it out and warm up to a peak. The party will gowell and people will want to book you again. - Matt Shadetek


Audio workstation

Audio workstation

DJ Endo, Dubspot Instructor and Native Instrument DJ Product Specialist

3. Check out the latest evolution of DJ Technology with Traktor’s new Sample Decks. While it’s possible to dropyour own loops and one shots into Traktor’s sample decks and play them in perfect sync with what your DJing, Ifind it most intriguing that you can actually create your OWN samples, grabbing the favorite parts of all of yourtracks and building your own library of samples made out of tracks that you own. – DJ Endo

4. There are 2 kinds of DJ’s – Ones who take requests and ones who don’t. Be the latter. Also: Practice withoutheadphones and you can master beat matching. - Raz Mesiani / Badawi

DJ Shiftee, in action!

5. If the DJ booth is visible to the crowd, you are performing whether you like it or not. Visibly acting like you areenjoying/engaged with what youare doing goes a long way. Energy is contagious. - DJ Shiftee

6. Always be prepared. Even if the spot claims to guarantee turntables, CDJs, controllers, slip mats, needles, and orbuilt in interfaces… BRING YOUR OWN! You don’t want to be unpleasantly surprised at the venue. Also –always bring a line in cable. If everything is just plain wrong at the gig but you still have to play something… that


line in will plug to your laptop, ipod or phone. That will be your gig saver. - Mike Rivera / OneMic

7. When blending tracks together, lower/cut the bass on one of the tracks to create room for the other track. If youcut the bass on the track you’re blending into, the vocals & other mid-range sounds will still be audible (but you’llbe hearing them with the old bass line!). if there’s vocals on the old track, consider lowering the mids to save sonicspace for the new vocals. Alternately – if you cut the bass on the track you’re leaving, it creates a smoothertransition to the new track because the heaviest elements of the old song will be gone drawing attention &emphasis to the new track. - Sean Clements

8. Develop a knowledge of tempo, especially if you play music within a wide range of genres. If you’re a digitalDJ, make sure all your music is tagged with the accurate BPM. Even when you’re just doing recreational listening,make sure the BPM column in your iTunes (or other music library program) is visible, and make a mental note ofthe BPM of the song as you’re hearing it. You can go through each song and manually add the BPM, or use aprogram like Mixed in Key to analyze batches of music identifying BPM and key of songs (for harmonic mixing).If you’re using vinyl, use mailing labels or masking tape to make notes about BPM and breaks on the albumsleeves of songs. - Martin Perna

9. Know your tunes. Develop your musical memory by playing tunes over and over, until you can sing them inyour head. If you can hum the tune when you look at the album cover, it’s yours. - JP Solis

10. When you are performing live and find yourself confused in a mix – turn your headphones and monitor down tore-gain control of your ears (and the mix.) Your ears fatigue from high volume levels and you need to give them abreak to perform well. Often when DJs feel “lost” in the mix it’s a matter of the headphones or monitor (or both)being too loud. Make a habit of turning down your headphones and monitor between mixes to give your ears achance to bounce back and work properly. - Michael Walsh

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Our instructors are more than talented musicians, more than human software manuals and more than insightfulcritics; they are mentors, genuinely interested in seeing students develop and grow as artists. Their collectiveexperience spans many fields, continents and years. They are the heart of your Dubspot experience. For moreinformation on our talented staff please check out our Instructors page to learn more about the unique people whowork for Dubspot. For information on classes at Dubspot please check our NYC Courses and Online School forcourse listings.


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Comments

18

Miah7/25/2011

“4. There are 2 kinds of DJ’s – Ones who take requests and ones who don’t. Be the latter. Also: Practice withoutheadphones and you can master beat matching. – Raz Mesiani / Badawi”

Why not? If you have it and it fits in your set, play it. This seems effete to me. This whole response seems off thecuff and without context as to what it means. Less this guy, more Shiftee as he seems to have a grip on this.

Michael Walsh7/25/2011

It’s an opinionated tip, for sure. But it comes from someone who has carved their own sound into the face of music– which is an awesome and noble thing. The bigger suggestion here is to build a sound that is your own – becausewithout that it’s very hard to move into the professional dj arena. This tip is directed at DJs who want to be playingthe bigger gigs with your name on the marquee. (I don’t think Shiftee takes requests either, btw.)

Badawi (Raz):http://www.discogs.com/artist/Badawihttp://www.razmesinai.com/http://www.theagriculture.com/badawi.html

dennis parrott7/25/2011

I think requests depend on the type of DJ you happen to be, plain and simple.

If you are a headliner with a unique sound and all that lah-dee-dah, people generally won’t be asking you to playstuff because they came to hear your unique musical sound. Badawi has built that and he can say, NO.

Guys like me who are mobile, play parties, weddings and so on, we get paid to make crowds happy. They probablywon’t know some of the stuff I might play for them if I were to head out on the “unique sound tip”. They want tohear songs they know, songs they like, songs they want to dance to… Once I build some trust between us, I can slipin some of the more musically unique stuff. The average wedding crowd isn’t into the latest thing to hit the NewYork or London dance floors. There might be one or two people at a 300 person wedding who would even knowthat stuff….

You know what? I like playing requests. Most of the music I play is stuff I’d listen to anyway and often times thetrack someone really wants to hear is a good (maybe great) track. So why not make them happy? Aren’t we there tomake the crowd forget what’s going on for a while and let them dance? Or are we there to inflate our own egos?

No matter which sort of DJ you want to be we all need to remember that we all need the support of the audience tomake it work. We need that support tonight to make the gig work and we need it in the future to keep working. Noaudience = no gigs.


dennis

Steven Lee Moya7/25/2011

As a mobile or professional DJ. I believe it is very important to stay true to what you want to convey musically as aDJ. You can never make everyone happy, which is why I do not take requests.

This is not to inflate my ego, but once you start taking requests, it becomes a bad habit. The whole purpose ofselecting music is artistic & musical expression, YOUR OWN THAT IS! I would never walk into a restaurant &tell a chef what to cook me. I would never walk into a painters gallery & tell him what to paint. Catch my drift?

We are all artists conveying our own message. Anyone can play requests, but you have to train your respectivecrowd to what YOU think they should be listening to. At the end of the night, you’re still pushing the play/startbutton, you’re selecting the tracks, you’ve got your fingers on the fader & you’re still the DJ!

Cheers. SLM

slk7/25/2011

“4. There are 2 kinds of DJ’s – Ones who take requests and ones who don’t. Be the latter. Also: Practice withoutheadphones and you can master beat matching. – Raz Mesiani / Badawi”

I just loved this statement. When Dj’s start to take requests they stop being music selectors and start become humanJuke Boxes. I don’t think its wrong to take requests, I think its a choice about what sort of Dj you want to be. Itsalso a choice about your audience as well. Do you want to play to people who expect you to forfill their requests ordo you want to play to people who respect your musical choices.

Re: Playing without headphones. I love doing this, if the system and setup is right and you know you tunes it canbe an amazing liberating experience to just play.

This article is the best 10 Tips I have ever read. Cheers

Turntill7/25/2011

There are 2 kinds of DJ’s – Ones who take requests and ones who don’t. Be the latter.simple and right! If ya not a jukebox ;-)

Peez from switzerland, would love to see this skool!

5 Ableton Live Tips from Dubspot Instructors – Pt 1: Thavius, DJ Kiva, Hatsis, Cellitti, DJ Ceiba | DubspotBlog7/25/2011

[...] room to improve. In the spirit of constant improvement and sharing, we’re continuing our free tips fromdubspot instructors series. In the first installment of our new 5 Ableton Live Tips from [...]

Dawitchdoctor7/25/2011

If you’re doing a good job people won’t ask for requests anyway, you need to know how to control a crowd. thatsthe most important thing – reading a crowd.

Gilo7/25/2011


4. There are 2 kinds of DJ’s – Ones who take requests and ones who don’t. Be the latter.

I was against taking requests in the past but now I take it as a challenge to see if I can mix whatever track I getasked on the fly.

The track has to fit in the set though or else no chance.

ChayD7/25/2011

A thing I’ve learnt from working clubs for a while, the crowd aren’t there specifically to listen to you, they’re thereto socialise and dance and have a fun time. Don’t let your position go to your head and go in there with gunsblazing, banging out all the big hits first thing. If the crowd aren’t up for it, the dancefloor will become empty, andyou would have used up your arsenal of good tunes, and burnt off a ton of adrenalin. Reading the crowd is (in myhumble opinions) more important than mixing techniques, there’s no point in being able to do a perfect mix ifthere’s no one to play it to!

iEventCloud7/25/2011

[...] 10 DJ Tips & Tricks from Dubspot Instructors: Shiftee, Endo, Badawi, Shadetek | Dubspot Blog Bookmark thepermalink. Previous Post 4wordz: Some people are hay-‘n, saying “today’s Hip Hop sucks”. My questionis…which part of Hip Hop are you referring to? Again, on opinion here, one may think what he wants and allopinions welcomed. I’ll speak mine: I love the 90’s Era in Hip Hop. “Hip Hop” means so much more than justmusic or… [...]

Linkversorgung | Mics&Beats7/25/2011

[...] 10 Tips für DJ’s. (Link) [...]

WooDz7/25/2011

I don’t know how long some of you have been DJing for but ultimately it’s irrelevant.I know Djs who have worked for years and still don’t understand how to react to different settings.The one rule every DJ should remember; there’s only a time not to take a request. The rest of the time you takethem.I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Yeah, and that’s every time.”One commenter mentioned they are a mobile DJ and the guests are there to hear what that DJ will play.So if they don’t like what the DJ is playing at their wedding then that’s tough luck? This DJ uses the excuse thatthey cannot please everyone so there’s no need to take a request. I cannot stress this enough.. This has to be theworse excuse to piss a crowd off I’ve ever heard. The commenter goes on the explain that you don’t go torestaurant and tell the chef what to cook. Unfortunately this analogy has been explained wrong because we do gointo a restaurant and tell the chef what to cook. You order from a menu granted but when you order a 300g steak‘well done’ you’ll be pretty pissed if you’re served a stuffed potato and spare ribs; heck you’d be just as annoyed ifyou’re did get a steak but as you stick the fork in the meat, blood pisses out all over the plate. The true thing we cancompare in the restaurant analogy is that like a DJ the chef takes our request. What the DJ doesn’t need, nor thechef is to be told how it should be mixed, prepared and served. Whilst we’re on the subject of food though, anothergood comparison would be programming. Programming is the most important factor of any gig. Just as in a multi-course menu the starter comes at the beginning and dessert at the end and your musical culinary skills shouldfollow suit; your programming should flow just as good as your mixing. The DJ is there for the guests at 95% ofmobile gigs, club, open-air and concert gigs are a different ball game and many factors are at play so I’ll leave thatfor some other time but if you’re a mobile DJ and the guests have access to your booth then take that request,program it into your gig, make your guests happy and you may even be surprised that a song you’ve never thoughtof playing, may just turn out to be a song you end up adding to your playlist.


DJAshE7/25/2011

thanks , really helpful advice

Silky7/25/2011

Always have a back up plan.My tip for this is if you have the luxery of owning a pacemaker mp3 system bring it toyour gig with you along with the cables thatcome with the unit.Make sure your pacemaker is patched to your mixer or pa system via the supplied cables thatcame with the unit.Also make sure you have the units battery fully charged.Have the unit on stand by incase yourlaptop goes down or any other disater happens.Now you have yourself a plan b and should be able to mix with thatif all else fails.I never leave home without mine.If you can shell out the money for one just do it.Trust me it is alifesaver…plus you also have the ability to practice your set on your way to a gig.

Endo7/25/2011

Kind of a random off topic thing that just came to mind, but now you can find any song you want on youtube. Forall of you mobile DJs it might be time to start requesting internet access at your gigs so you can have any song atyour fingertips.

Aidan7/25/2011

I do not dj myself but I have been considering picking it up since I have been producing electro house and dubstepfor a little while now and wanted to put on a show. This is definitely a helpful and friendly article! I will come backand re read once I have learned the basics of traktor

10 DJ Tips & Tricks from the Dubspot Staff: Adam Freeland, Mike Huckaby, DJ Shiftee + | Dubspot Blog7/25/2011

[...] makes a great DJ? We addressed this question with our staff last year and the article became one of our mostpopular posts of 2011. We’ve decided to follow up with [...]

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