Calling all Dj's

[topher]

Hey
Im looking for people who have experience in the field of DJ'ing here. Particularly im looking at Lordnikon, as i know he used to play somewhere in melbourne i think 3d?

Anyway,

I want to start djing, as i have a passion for trance/electro and would like to start making my own music and mixing. I am fairly serious about this aswell, and would persue it to play in clubs etc. I would like to know what sort of gear you guys recommend. I know your going to say technics decks right? If so how much would i be looking at and what models should i be looking at? Also ive been told its better to get good decks first off and a average mixer. Is this the way i should go? Anyway i would like to know what sort of gear you use and recommend. Also any tips for a beginning Dj.

Cheers
Topher

 

[Pete J]

The best tip is that once you get your decks, just practice practice practice!!
There are 1 billion and 1 dj's out there and the way you'll make a name for yourself is if you have got skills. Learn not only how to beat-mix but also how to combine tracks to keep the flow going. Have an idea of where you want to go with a set and do it well. Also try and find a niche that fires your passion, trance/electro is a huge genre and you really gotta be specific these days. How about something on the psy-trance front, you could at least send me some mixes if no one else is interested.
If yo are going to make some music try a program like fruity loops or that one starting with r..... (stupid bad memory!! )
1200's are the way to go first off and any half decent mixer will do for a beginner.

I can't say that i have any skills myself but i am a damn picky listener!

 

[projectsplat]

It pains me to say this, after spinning for the last 10 years, and having dumped thousands into my vinyl collection, but......

buy yourself some CDJ's. The Pioneer CDJ200's are a solid piece of kit, and the most useable/reliable at that price range.

It is getting harder and harder to get access to the tunes on vinyl without spending a) lots of cash and b) lots of time looking for them. Maybe I got lazy. The last lot of vinyl I bought was out of London via the web, and that just started to get into the too much effort basket. Then again, I am not playing out anymore. The other side is that with the accessability of rare and interesting tunes via the internet (both pay and bodgy download) the economics of vinyl just don't stack up.

Most clubs/outdoor parties will have CDJ's onsite these days, and if not, they are small enough that you can carry your own easily.

- A friend and I played Falls Creek last year (he has a residency there) and we turned up early evening, without oversnow access. We had to lug decks, mixer, 5 crates, amp and speakers 150 metres up the hill through foot deep snow. Not fun. We did it again with CDJ's a few weeks back, and it was no problem.

In terms of mixers, have a look at what Behringer have to offer. High quality gear for not a lot of cash. I recently picked up the VMX 200 brand new for $150 off ebay. CC's light and sound were dumping stock.
http://www.behringer.com/VMX200/index.cfm?lang=ENG
Great simple mixer that will not set you back a fortune.

Please don't get me wrong, I love vinyl. If I ever want to have fun mixing, I will always mix vinyl. It is just becoming less and less practical. If you are just starting out, you could probably start with CD's and never know the difference.

The other option is checking out laptop mixing via apps like Ableton Live, Traktor & MegaSeg. There are quite a few of the international DJ's who have switched completely to laptop. I saw JunkieXL do a complete set of laptop about 2 years back. Phil K did his CD launch last year off his Powerbook on Ableton and someone mentioned that Kid Kenobi had picked up a Powerbook recently too. (unconfirmed).

Maybe I am just old and jaded.....

Cheers

Al

 

[Bodin]

Lord Nikon's more worried about having his fireplace stolen than playing shows these days...

 

[gravelclimber]

It pains me to say this, after spinning for the last 10 years, and having dumped thousands into my vinyl collection, but......

buy yourself some CDJ's. The Pioneer CDJ200's are a solid piece of kit, and the most useable/reliable at that price range.

Fully agree. I've got a CDJ-200 and CDJ-800. Love 'em. Playing trance you'd only need 200's. Awesome bits of kit for the money. JB HiFi usually have 'em pretty cheap.

 

[LordNikon]

Personally I'm not a fan of CD's, I've also spent thousands on vinyl. It costs around $2-300 per week to keep up with new stuff in 1 genre if you're playing out every week. It's not a profitable exercise to play 1 or 2 gigs a week, you need to be doing 3 or 4 per night.

But if you want to get into it just for the fun of it then get yourself a pair of Technics 1200's (doesn't matter which ones, they're all pretty much the same except for a couple of minor improvements with the later ones).

To begin with I'd recommend a basic mixer. You could spend heaps on a flashy DJM 600 or something but you wont learn to mix properly that way, you'll have too many tricky sound effects to cover up your bad mixing. Once you've learnt to mix, these mixers are great though.

The way I learnt was to borrow a friend's gear when he'd go on holidays etc, then once I'd started getting gigs etc I bought a second hand set of SL-1200's off a mate and that's all she wrote. I think it's a very good idea to learn how to do it before you spend the $$$, some people are just not capable of mixing.

Also, while you're learning it's very helpful to record everything, then you'll be able to listen back to it and see where you went wrong. That, and you'll have CD's to give people copies of.

So there you have it, that's my story. Short version:
- Don't buy CD's if you want to be a 'real' DJ.
- Learn with a basic mixer (Pioneer DJM-300 is a good option)
- Learn to mix before you spend the cash on the gear if you can.
- Record everything.

Good luck!

oh and btw... you're right, I was a resident at 3D for a while, played the closing set.

 

[cheese]

Wooo more trance fans

Good thing about using software is you dont actualy have to buy anything to try it out, though I guess it doesnt have anywhere near the same feel as vinyl or even CD's. 'Pick up' a copy of ableton or traktor and have a go, a basic computer should be able to run it fine for just mixing. Ableton even has a nice tutorial on how to DJ within the program. If you decide you like it grab yourself an audio interface (m-audio,roland,behringer,ect..) so you can take it a bit further. Ive never tried a hand at real physical mixing (though ide like to) so ive got nothing to add there.

Where you say "making your own music" you would want some sort of software like ableton live or cubase and a midi keyboard (ozone, evolution) (you can get keyboards pretty cheap from ebay)

Anyway good luck with dj'ing or producing, it takes alot of practice to get good!

PS- Go the psy like Pete said! I imagine a steady 140bpm kick couldnt be too hard to beatmatch for a beginner

 

[technoboy]

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[spewyogrady]

It's been a long time between proverbial dances for me, but here we go...

I agree with Lordnikon on not spending the money up front..try and find way to beg or borrow equipment. Back in the day, mid-early eighties, I was lucky enough to stumble upon an underused University Radio Station, two studios, 5 SL1200's reel to reel, the whole bit, we could spend all night undisturbed.
This however was prior to the current DJ'ing craze.

Most important thing, the Tunes, there's no point being able to mix 10 crap records seamlessly, they are still 10 crap records.

Try not to get too self indulgent...remember what is a big hit at 2am in your bedroom may not translate too well in a club.

Don't get stuck in one genre, be as eclectic as you like, most of the current styles of "dance" music have derived from similar beginnings so it not too hard to make connections.

Forget all the PC/bedroom wanking stuff, theres no point putting together hours of beautiful mixes of tunes that won't move a crowd or ring that proverbial 'bell' on the dancefloor. The best people I have ever heard play, just play the records one after another, if theres too much cheering and whistling in between tracks to worry about how they are mixed together then you are doing the right thing. Don't want to get too detailed here but try googling David Mancuso, Larry levan, Shep Pettibone..and the pommie connection who are regular visitors to Aus such as Norman Jay.

advice about getting started...

Do it yourself. If you have a peer group who are as interested as you are, are at Uni, Tafe, whatever, involved in a youth group/community centre. Start from the ground up. Approach a crap bowling club, scout hall, failing Jazz Club that has a quiet night on a Tuesday or Wednesday, start your own night, no one comes, who cares, hire the equipment, borrow the money off your mum,fail, try again, tell the club owner they can have all the money from the Bar and you'll keep the door money, fill it with your mates, create a buzz, make it happen, spend all night flyposting comical homemade flyers all over town. Why not?

In 1984, for a laugh, and to avoid washing up jobs or working in MacDonalds, we started a crap student night at a really crap Brighton (england) grab a granny dive that ran every Wednesday night for 3 years.

anyway, good luck and heres a few links to keep you busy

http://www.compost-records.com/
http://www.bbemusic.com/
http://www.discogs.com/
www.kraftwerk.com/
http://www.kooldjredalert.com
http://www.grandmasterflash.com/
http://www.ninjatune.net/solidsteel/playlist.php?play=1

Have a listen to the Solid Steel / Ninja Tune radio broadcasts....

 

[topher]

Thanks for all the replies so far, much more than i thought. Well id be wanting to go into trance. I was thinking kai tracid type trance, just something hard and fast. Yes i know kai tracid isnt that fast compared to rotterdamn terror corpse and the like.

Would i be best off picking up a second hand mixer and set of sl1200's? As i dont want to go out and splash big cash on new gear. Also where in melbourne would be the best place to buy vinyls from?

Cheers
Chris