Moving from the Bedroom Banger to the Club Resident

[BeatLeSS]

Okay guys, I definitely know I'm missing quite a bit when it comes to setting up for a good performance, my question is not so much about the mix itself, but more so the 'homework' side of things that really sets the good apart from the bad!;

What I want to know is what is involved, or what do YOU do behind the scenes of that final 'mixtape' that gets it to where you want it.

From organising your tunes into categories - What categories do you use? If by genre, what else do you find helps you quickly access what goes with what?

To finding those perfect spots in the track that work well - How often do you practice the same song/set list and what sort of things do you do when not on the decks to find that perfect tweak/starting point/etc?

It's all fine and dandy to jump on the decks for a few hours get into the swing and start recording. Sure I find myself beatmatching quite well etc, but theres definitely one, two, sometimes more absolute wrecks that when listening back, completely ruin the full hour (or more) for me - which when 8-32bars in length (not that long when in respect to an hour of listening) is so daunting to know!

Cheers in advance for the responses guys, I think a lot of people will get something out of these questions/answers - and hopefully help not just me, but others, break through the barrier to becoming a DJ.

[Cupe]

Great question and will turn out to be a really good thread.

[CBG]

cant answer this atm, at work. bump it again at 4 and i will tho

[Skank]

your gunna get so many different answers to this post but ill do the best i can with my experience

when making my mixtapes i think what makes them decent is that i do it over a few weeks i dont try and make it work like ill come back every day or so often ad add a lil move stuff around and tweak and eventually you come back and listein to it and realise this is the shit.

as for sorting out your tunes i spend alot of time on serato preping all my music filling each song with all the cues and creating loops for most of them, it akes a lot of time but i realised earlier on that if your playing a club and the guy plays pretty much all the tracks you were gunna play it can kill your set. so buy preping pretty much all your music with cues you dont have to be as familiar with the tunes and you can still push through a decent set

and lastly sorting out your tunes is hard as fuck but im happy with the system ive adopted i use a dvs but my cds are burnt in the same way

eg

hiphop 2010crate

Hip Hop (clean)

Hip Hop (dirty)

Hip Hop (old school)

Hip Hop (extendz)

Hip Hop (mashes)

Hip Hop (peakhour)

Hip Hop (warmup)

and so on for the other genres

hope it makes sence

[ill_spector]

write out set list

practice transitions only

then bam (record), hope for the best

[BeatLeSS]

There's no right or wrong answer here Skank, and you've definitely given me some ideas.

When you talk about coming back to your mix/set list every day or so, are you doing it on software, or recording live from decks? Just seems like it'd be a bit difficult to add/tweak a little segment of a full mix if i'm doing it live on the decks.

[CBG]

am i lucky in the fact my practice is actually playing and my set list is just wateva will sound gd? or is that just unorganized?

[Skank]

yer i was taliking about using soft ware like abelto or mixmeister. although if you release a working promo with software you have to be able to do the same when u play out

but with recording live mixes i agree with hearts grab some paper write a tracklist and only practice your transition write down cue points and notes

[BeatLeSS]

am i lucky in the fact my practice is actually playing and my set list is just wateva will sound gd? or is that just unorganized?

This is what I'm talking about. What I do is exactly that, but the as I also said, theres one, commonly two, or more mistakes I make which completely ruin the full recording. How do you find you overcome that?

[BeatLeSS]

but with recording live mixes i agree with hearts grab some paper write a tracklist and only practice your transition write down cue points and notes

Do you have any rule of thumbs that you follow for this? I.E; Do you start you're transition from a certain point (Have a cue point for that starting spot/enough time to get to where you start the other track)?

Or has that part for you become part and parcel of setting up those cue/loop points?

[Slippy]

yeah i do same as you CBG, ive been wanting to organise my cds better for a while.

that is a great post you summed it up perfectly i can definately relate nothing more frustrating when youve found a great set of songs to mix but every time you hit record something you lose it somewhere! but we cant learn without making mistakes

[Skank]

what id do is with the track that is playing have a cue time writen down that means i start the next tracks and also if you wanna polish it write note like -4bass or no high for 2 bars as well as what sort of cut your gunna do

then for the next tracks the same thing have a cuepoint and time for the start how you will have it eq'd and a cuepoint writen down for when it will exit

on serato i use red markers as where i start the track from

yellow for the first bar with vocals or some melody

and green and blue as a mixing out point like if i want a long mix out or short

i hope this helps