• Music

  • DJ setups/Mixer porn/New toys thread...

Im amazed at how many people spend time building mixes on software.

Not in the sense that I’m looking down on it. I just thought I was the odd one out planning streams to free up time for any technical issues / chatting to people.

So many people seem to have the opinion that you shouldn’t plan (and, apart from at the beginning, I haven’t planned the sequence with live club performances) - but it often makes for a much more thought through set and I’m pretty happy with most of mine so I can see why more do it.

    NasserAlazzawi …purely a time issue for me. Time messing about on the decks is intermittent and tends to be more experimental, sorting out what goes with what, where you want to start and to end up.

    At a party with a few people listening, or even DJ’ing b2b with people, I could play for as long as you want me to (love a long set or a graveyard slot!), but on my own I struggle to be inspired to play for extended periods these days.

    Have a template set-up purely for DJ mixes on the computer and am pretty quick at assembling them now…. love the fact that I can revisit a set over 3 or 4 days, listen back, tweak it or whatever. Working this way has inspired most of my ideas for edits/mashups/productions too.

      IndustryStandard …10 Suite, will move to 11 at some point, but the basic app should do you just fine.

      Understand how daunting warping can be at first, but honestly, esp with dance tracks, it’s a piece of piss.

        I have Live 11 Lite looking at my Ableton account. Is that bobbins? Will that do the trick?

        Motivation an issue for me too, just stuck behind my decks for 2/3hrs at a time doing a mix or doing a radio show, If I crank up my light show, projector and all that mumbo jumbo its a bit more of a show but dry its a bit dull.

        Being able to pull tracks in, move them about, see what works etc in a template for when I have a spare 30min works be great.

          NasserAlazzawi
          Time Nass, I’m still nowhere near a 2 hour set I need to do. Whilst Iliad prefer to just knock it out that’s not realistic over an extended period > 1 hour.

          Without a decent planning system it’s difficult to plan with just the odd ½ hour on the decks.

          Every time is like back to square one.

          Might just be I’m a disorganised lazy fucker though 🤔

              Mad_Cyril sometimes there isn’t enough good new music. Don’t be worried about throwing a classic or 5 in there 😅. We’re not all drowning in promos (I certainly ain’t). More often than not I find the classics in a set more interesting than the 5/10 promo, especially when they’re well placed. But just my thoughts..

                  NasserAlazzawi my rekordbox library is in a right state. No organisation at all. When I’m playing I just filter by bpm and/or related key. A shit solution but I don’t have the time or the desire to tag a few thousand tracks.

                      NasserAlazzawi

                      I use Itunes for playlists and general organisation. Been doing so for years and as Denon Prime/Traktor have playlist syncing , all good. A few glitches though. I use the Genre in Itunes to classify, adding my own crazy narratives, but if I update these post import into DDJ/Traktor the comments do not update. Plus you need to ensure you keep your HQ files on your main computer you use for DJing or SD exporting. Itunes match will sync accross all your devices, but if you have the actual HQ file on another computer Itunes will only let you download a 256 kps version.

                      Smart playlists in Itunes are also good, filter by Genre/Star Rating/ file type and quality etc etc

                      Will give Ableton Live Lite 11 a go then…….wormhole here I come !

                        IndustryStandard …to be honest, I’d need to look at the limitations of the lite version to know if it’s any cop, not sure if it has a cap on the numbers of tracks (I generally use 6 for DJ mixes), or whether you can save and revisit projects.

                        This is a little long-winded at the start, and is I think is Live 10, but the principle remains the same, set the first marker correctly and get the tempo right, and you really shouldn’t need loads of warp markers on a track, especially a digital one (if you do, you’re probably doing it wrong!)..

                          Organizising digital tunes? I have yearly then monthly folders with everything I buy there. Then I add them to Rekordbox and Traktor, where I have identical tracklists, current (everything new, usually about 100 tracks, in order from ambient to Zach techno), and two back catalogue playlists (old and really old) which are in no order at all. I do a monthly back up from the music laptop to two external hard drives, and after that I do a clean up of the current playlist, when I usually prune about 50 tunes I no longer play.

                          If I have a gig I make a new playlist for it from those three playlists, usually double the amount of tracks I have time to play. Exactly like I packed a record bag in the vinyl days. I play several hours most weeks at home, so when I’m making a mix that’s not “live in the livingroom” I go through my histories to see what worked together.

                          This has been my method for about 10 years now.

                          I’m thinking of dipping my toe in the digital water.

                          Has anyone got any experience of using the Pioneer XDJ-RX3 controller?

                          There seems to be a lot of choice but this one jumped out at me, aesthetically I like it .

                            gcw
                            Think either Grant or Nass use one of them.

                            You need to prepare yourself for the heady world of electronic file management too!!

                              I would be the typical ‘all the gear and no idea’ guy so if I did go ahead, I’d need to do some serious homework on how to actually use it!

                                gcw typical ‘all the gear and no idea’ guy

                                Oi. That’s my job!!