What does a DJ on stage?
category: music [glöplog]
I would say: download some dj-software and try it out yourself :)
- Knowing from memory which tracks blend in together nicely due to similar key & tempo and knowing different alternatives for each tracks by memory.
- Live matching of tempo and key and live positioning when to start/stop a transition using turntables/mixer/software.
- Reading the crowd to fing fitting tracks to amplify or steer the mood in the room.
- Staying concentrated for a long time in an extremly loud and messy/stressfull atmosphere.
- Live matching of tempo and key and live positioning when to start/stop a transition using turntables/mixer/software.
- Reading the crowd to fing fitting tracks to amplify or steer the mood in the room.
- Staying concentrated for a long time in an extremly loud and messy/stressfull atmosphere.
Quote:
but I was always wondering what exactly does a DJ when turning buttons during liveshows
Well, if you're a purist to the craft -- that is, spinning the real vinyl w/o any tracking software -- you'll be pretty damn busy picking and beat matching the next tune, i.e. you apply pitch and "manhandle" the record, nudging it to match current speed. The few "knob twisting" mostly is taking down bass from current tune and ramping up bass of next tune during transmission.
If you're really fucking good, you've got "time" to play around with volume on the line faders and twist an FX-knob for good measure.
... and then there are these people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8upuZmh3Rls
Jori Hulkkonen with 3 Technics in '97
Beat matching takes only a little time if you have a good rhythm head so to say.
egend: cool photo, real deal. i've checked other sun jpgs too ;) love photos from 90s parties.
nowadays, even jeff mills plays from cds.
nowadays, even jeff mills plays from cds.
More of a convinience me thinks but still has that physical touch to it. Last time I played it was vinyls, but that was in what, 2014..
At best, a DJs one and only task is invite you to dance.
To me, it's also the most demanding and fun task demanding a rapid gunfire of decision making, staying in touch with people, predicting the future and managing the energy of a crowd.
It doesn't look like it, but it's like juggling 4 balls whilst reading a book to an audience. For hours.
To me, it's also the most demanding and fun task demanding a rapid gunfire of decision making, staying in touch with people, predicting the future and managing the energy of a crowd.
It doesn't look like it, but it's like juggling 4 balls whilst reading a book to an audience. For hours.
Hint:
If you can't make any sense at all of what a DJ seems to do with his setup, while being busy waving hands in the air, you're probably listening to an idiot.
If you can't make any sense at all of what a DJ seems to do with his setup, while being busy waving hands in the air, you're probably listening to an idiot.
I don't completely understand why fake DJing is a problem. I mean I was once at a Scooter concert and they pretended to make live techno using a two keyboards and a guy on a microphone. The crowd went wild. Everybody knew it was fake and it didn't matter. It's all about the audience and the mood, not how you get there, right?
skrebbel,
cause the sheer amount of shitty/fake DJs took over the public image and skewed the perception into questions like the one that started this thread.
cause the sheer amount of shitty/fake DJs took over the public image and skewed the perception into questions like the one that started this thread.
Quote:
Quote:better than snorting coke under the table like Gesaffelstein!
dude, if you're not snorting coke under the table you're doing it wrong.
And a DJ just plays awesome records and drinks beers and fiddles with buttons to make the awesome records even more awesome and they are awesome and my friends!
what okkie said.
The question didn't let me sleep, and I needed to find a better answer:
Imagine this:
You're attempting to run a marathon through traffic, juggling two balls while looking for directions.
The marathon distance equals the length of your set, the traffic is your crowd, juggling reflects both the level of multitasking as well as brain/muscle memory interaction. And at best, you do this while trying to figure out which way to go.
Experienced/great DJs pull this off - with style. They're able to maintain their energy to run the full distance, find the finishing line, not get hit by traffic, nor dropping too many balls. And make some jokes along the way.
It's easy to understand how much multitasking, decision making and awareness for one's surrounding is involved in this.
You need to read, anticipate and adjust to the traffic. Decide which way to go at any point. Is this road too busy, how about changing direction at the next crossroad? Does your traffic anticipation work in a way to let you flow with it?
If you keep the current pace, will you be able to make the full distance? How does running too fast impact your ability to anticipate the traffic? Can you still keep up juggling two balls? How about three or four? If you drop one, how fast can you pick it up and get into the juggling flow again? How much brain does it take you to adjust to that? Will you still keep traffic in check while doing so? Or maybe loose track? What then?
Pretty complex, right? As with everything, practice makes perfect.
The better you get at juggling, the more muscle memory will take over. Letting you concentrate more on the traffic and your direction. The more cities you've seen, the better your compass gets, the easier it'll become for you to navigate around. Along the way, you'll learn to predict how people drive their cars. It takes time, practice yet will reward you with confidence and a lot of skills.
So, what does a great DJ do on stage? Inviting the crowd to run the marathon along. Taking care about everybody’s energy. Guide the crowd safely through the traffic. While making it enjoy the scenery. Put a smile on their faces. Maybe make them laugh every now and them. Giving them a trip to remember. While making a shitload of decisions and commitments.
A GREAT DJ makes you:
- WANT TO DANCE
- WANT TO KEEP DANCING EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO PEE
- REGRET YOU WENT TO THE TOILET CAUSE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE MISSED SOMETHING
- CRY
- LAUGH
- WONDER
- HAVE GOOSEBUMPS
- FORGET TIME
- WANT TO SEE HIM/HER AGAIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
- LEAVE THE HOUSE FOR THE CLUB EVEN IF IT’S ALREADY LATE AND YOU HAD A SHITTY DAY
…
In case you have no idea what the heck that list was all about, I’m sorry for the DJs and clubs you attended so far. Choose more wisely.
Question:
Have you ever heard a great DJ or one striving for above reducing DJing merely to the ability of juggling balls? No? Me neither.
Think about it.
Imagine this:
You're attempting to run a marathon through traffic, juggling two balls while looking for directions.
The marathon distance equals the length of your set, the traffic is your crowd, juggling reflects both the level of multitasking as well as brain/muscle memory interaction. And at best, you do this while trying to figure out which way to go.
Experienced/great DJs pull this off - with style. They're able to maintain their energy to run the full distance, find the finishing line, not get hit by traffic, nor dropping too many balls. And make some jokes along the way.
It's easy to understand how much multitasking, decision making and awareness for one's surrounding is involved in this.
You need to read, anticipate and adjust to the traffic. Decide which way to go at any point. Is this road too busy, how about changing direction at the next crossroad? Does your traffic anticipation work in a way to let you flow with it?
If you keep the current pace, will you be able to make the full distance? How does running too fast impact your ability to anticipate the traffic? Can you still keep up juggling two balls? How about three or four? If you drop one, how fast can you pick it up and get into the juggling flow again? How much brain does it take you to adjust to that? Will you still keep traffic in check while doing so? Or maybe loose track? What then?
Pretty complex, right? As with everything, practice makes perfect.
The better you get at juggling, the more muscle memory will take over. Letting you concentrate more on the traffic and your direction. The more cities you've seen, the better your compass gets, the easier it'll become for you to navigate around. Along the way, you'll learn to predict how people drive their cars. It takes time, practice yet will reward you with confidence and a lot of skills.
So, what does a great DJ do on stage? Inviting the crowd to run the marathon along. Taking care about everybody’s energy. Guide the crowd safely through the traffic. While making it enjoy the scenery. Put a smile on their faces. Maybe make them laugh every now and them. Giving them a trip to remember. While making a shitload of decisions and commitments.
A GREAT DJ makes you:
- WANT TO DANCE
- WANT TO KEEP DANCING EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO PEE
- REGRET YOU WENT TO THE TOILET CAUSE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE MISSED SOMETHING
- CRY
- LAUGH
- WONDER
- HAVE GOOSEBUMPS
- FORGET TIME
- WANT TO SEE HIM/HER AGAIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
- LEAVE THE HOUSE FOR THE CLUB EVEN IF IT’S ALREADY LATE AND YOU HAD A SHITTY DAY
…
In case you have no idea what the heck that list was all about, I’m sorry for the DJs and clubs you attended so far. Choose more wisely.
Question:
Have you ever heard a great DJ or one striving for above reducing DJing merely to the ability of juggling balls? No? Me neither.
Think about it.
Quote:
The question didn't let me sleep, and I needed to find a better answer:
Imagine this:
You're attempting to run a marathon through traffic, juggling two balls while looking for directions.
The marathon distance equals the length of your set, the traffic is your crowd, juggling reflects both the level of multitasking as well as brain/muscle memory interaction. And at best, you do this while trying to figure out which way to go.
Experienced/great DJs pull this off - with style. They're able to maintain their energy to run the full distance, find the finishing line, not get hit by traffic, nor dropping too many balls. And make some jokes along the way.
It's easy to understand how much multitasking, decision making and awareness for one's surrounding is involved in this.
You need to read, anticipate and adjust to the traffic. Decide which way to go at any point. Is this road too busy, how about changing direction at the next crossroad? Does your traffic anticipation work in a way to let you flow with it?
If you keep the current pace, will you be able to make the full distance? How does running too fast impact your ability to anticipate the traffic? Can you still keep up juggling two balls? How about three or four? If you drop one, how fast can you pick it up and get into the juggling flow again? How much brain does it take you to adjust to that? Will you still keep traffic in check while doing so? Or maybe loose track? What then?
Pretty complex, right? As with everything, practice makes perfect.
The better you get at juggling, the more muscle memory will take over. Letting you concentrate more on the traffic and your direction. The more cities you've seen, the better your compass gets, the easier it'll become for you to navigate around. Along the way, you'll learn to predict how people drive their cars. It takes time, practice yet will reward you with confidence and a lot of skills.
So, what does a great DJ do on stage? Inviting the crowd to run the marathon along. Taking care about everybody’s energy. Guide the crowd safely through the traffic. While making it enjoy the scenery. Put a smile on their faces. Maybe make them laugh every now and them. Giving them a trip to remember. While making a shitload of decisions and commitments.
A GREAT DJ makes you:
- WANT TO DANCE
- WANT TO KEEP DANCING EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO PEE
- REGRET YOU WENT TO THE TOILET CAUSE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE MISSED SOMETHING
- CRY
- LAUGH
- WONDER
- HAVE GOOSEBUMPS
- FORGET TIME
- WANT TO SEE HIM/HER AGAIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
- LEAVE THE HOUSE FOR THE CLUB EVEN IF IT’S ALREADY LATE AND YOU HAD A SHITTY DAY
…
In case you have no idea what the heck that list was all about, I’m sorry for the DJs and clubs you attended so far. Choose more wisely.
Question:
Have you ever heard a great DJ or one striving for above reducing DJing merely to the ability of juggling balls? No? Me neither.
Think about it.
I like your marathon analogy.
I think the energy and safety aspect is especially true for larger crowds with a higher amount of people potentailly using psychedelics; supporting safer use (not: supporting their use) by providing enough variation to have a certain amount of fluctuation on the dancefloor so people are reminded to rest and rehydrate while not making the performance a mess or simply boring.
Basically it's arranging music. In more detail:
I'd say it depends on the type of gig and audience.
If you go to a 80s/90s pop music party the people WANT to hear things they already know and don't want the DJ to add too much artistic influence.
The DJ takes wishes from the crowd, tries to give them some more of what they want while keeping it entertaining. So just playing a pre-recorded set wouldn't do. Songs are mostly played in full with a little space before the next or hard fades into another. Record player, CDs, MP3s, Tapes or an app on your tablet or phone doesn't really matter much.
When going to an electronic music club tho ... say in Chicago or Berlin I'd expect a DJ to surprise the crowd with new, unheard sounds or interesting ways of blending known things. How that's done is a art for itself! And it developed in different directions. In these environments DJing even leaned a bit to the actual act of music making:
• From scratching vinyls over beats or raps and
• cutting/mixing in parts of sound sources, to
• fully arranging music completely live in many more layers than "just two" and
• tweaking effects on different sources ...
So imho: that's what a DJ does on a stage :)
and there is mixtures of everything here and there.
At best: YEAH: a DJ makes a crows wanna go wild!!
What's a shitty DJ is a different question. That all being said: Going super wild and creative on a wedding where they just expect pop is probably bad!
And playing a static set, or just throwing the old-school shit to the floor and your arms in the air ... might also be considered bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the end: If you're not arranging music live on stage: You're not doing any DJing. You're making a show. That's completely fine! But you're not a DJ.
I'd say it depends on the type of gig and audience.
If you go to a 80s/90s pop music party the people WANT to hear things they already know and don't want the DJ to add too much artistic influence.
The DJ takes wishes from the crowd, tries to give them some more of what they want while keeping it entertaining. So just playing a pre-recorded set wouldn't do. Songs are mostly played in full with a little space before the next or hard fades into another. Record player, CDs, MP3s, Tapes or an app on your tablet or phone doesn't really matter much.
When going to an electronic music club tho ... say in Chicago or Berlin I'd expect a DJ to surprise the crowd with new, unheard sounds or interesting ways of blending known things. How that's done is a art for itself! And it developed in different directions. In these environments DJing even leaned a bit to the actual act of music making:
• From scratching vinyls over beats or raps and
• cutting/mixing in parts of sound sources, to
• fully arranging music completely live in many more layers than "just two" and
• tweaking effects on different sources ...
So imho: that's what a DJ does on a stage :)
and there is mixtures of everything here and there.
At best: YEAH: a DJ makes a crows wanna go wild!!
What's a shitty DJ is a different question. That all being said: Going super wild and creative on a wedding where they just expect pop is probably bad!
And playing a static set, or just throwing the old-school shit to the floor and your arms in the air ... might also be considered bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the end: If you're not arranging music live on stage: You're not doing any DJing. You're making a show. That's completely fine! But you're not a DJ.
Hey girls
Hey boys
USB DJ's
Here we go!
Hey boys
USB DJ's
Here we go!
What indeed does a DJ on stage?
This thread got stuck in my head and made me want to answer it more thoroughly. So, I did this seminar at last years' Underground Conference:
What does a DJ do on stage? And what makes a great DJ? A measured response.
It's an unusual approach to the topic, less tech-involved, much more focused on the WHY. Hope it's useful for some of you!
What does a DJ do on stage? And what makes a great DJ? A measured response.
It's an unusual approach to the topic, less tech-involved, much more focused on the WHY. Hope it's useful for some of you!
Quote:
Danke.this seminar
<3
