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[Chris Grimshaw]

Depending on the crowd, blending tracks may or may not matter at all.

Great lights (not the same look all night, stuff that changes and moves with the feel of the room) and bass first.

Reading to mood and picking the tracks that will pump things higher and higher.

Then the seamless transitions...

I've got bass covered - 8x top-end 15" subs, powered by a Crown MA12000i. Each one will do around 6dB more than a KW181 at 40Hz, but loses out by a couple of dB at 70Hz. Plenty of "grunt" at the bottom end, that's for sure.
Lights aren't something I've invested in yet, but they'll happen further down the line. I'll probably start out renting, although using a lighting desk while DJing would be interesting and probably something to practice extensively.

I'm not gonna get any DJing gigs any time soon - I'm thinking of offering it as a service starting next year, if I'm confident in my skills by then.

Chris

[Randy Pence]

It's arrived, and "jumping in" isn't happening.
I've got it playing music, and all the controls etc work just fine.

The problem is that there's gonna be a pretty serious learning curve. Transitioning well between two tracks is entirely luck at this point.

Practice, practice, practice...

Chris

I'd like to get back into it, having done hte vinyl thing a long time ago.  If I could buy a controller, that numark would be on my list of things to check out.

Mixxx is a quite usable open source Serato-like software package.

As far as beat-matching goes. Cue the incoming track to the start of the kick, release just before the live song's first kick in a pattern plays. Listen to the rhythm, not just the beating kick, when setting the tempo. Listen more and look at meters and numbers less when setting the tempo. As all the music is basically 4 beats to the measure, pay attention to the entire rhythm and groove and you will lock in more easily.

In the vinyl days, djs would play with the pitch fader, push or pull the record, and sometimes even try to manipulate the spindle, but I found that riding the pitch fader was fastest and most effective at setting tempo. This allowed me to cue, start, pitch, and then mix in records in one go, with obviously some practice, but djs typically spend silly amounts of time setting and resetting while cued up and further tweaking things live. I'm not sure how this translates into digital source playback, but I would probably only use the jog-platter for cueing purposes, not to adjust the syncing, and still rely on the pitch fader over tempo nudge buttons.

Something else which might help is to play doubles of a song to get you used to adjusting its tempo in order to sync it to another. The more things are off, the more it will cause a flange effect. When I stopped, I was playing techno and house music on 3 turntables simultaneously, sometimes adding a drum machine. I wasn't bothered to push for gigs and got more involved in sound reinforcement. If you enjoy listening to music, as every sound engineer should, you'll have fun on this journey. The new tools allow for a lot more creative options.

[Steve M Smith]

Don’t forget royalty licenses. If you play a real gig.

Is the DJ responsible for this in the US?

In the UK, it's the venue's responsibility.


Steve.

[Lance Hallmark]

Is the DJ responsible for this in the US?

In the UK, it's the venue's responsibility.


Steve.

Same here in the US. It is the venue's responsibility to have proper licensing through ASCAP, BMI, & SEASAC

[Richard Turner]

Pioneer is good stuff but be wary of used pieces, a lot of it is abused and parts arent cheap and techs arent readily available for them either. I cant lay my hand on the receipt right this minute but my DDJ-SX left platter went down and it took 130 days for a repair to be completed and thats with a national music store handling it and they said that was priority after warranty service. Up here in the frozen north our long mcquade stores offer pretty exceptional extended warranty programs at about 4% of new cost which covers the repair, freight and loaner gear. I think the total repair bill was about $225 on a piece worth $500 on a good day but they fixed it and loaned me a unit from rental dept.

You would be well advised to buy a subscription with a liscenced music provider to cover your music library and if in the US be aware ov BMI and ASCAP non member acts. just dont bother playing them. In canada we have the extra layer of weirdness between venue shaving to pay SOCAN and another quasi legal money grab called the AVLA that expects $300 per year per hard drive for the right to digitally copy music to the hard drive. only way out it to subscribe to a compliant music supply service or lug around crates of original CD's

As for mixing dont sweat it just leave a short spot between songs, fade the outro into intro or use the time to call out birthdays, drink specials etc. I get flack from the one long song mix dj's for being old and clueless but when I speak to venue owners gig in gig out the bar sales on nights I work are always higher per patron than the nights I work.

Keep an eye on the bar, if its slammed play the hits keep the floor filled and once they catch up and no ones lines up for beers play something different, a ballad, an old school hit, whatever it takes to clear half the floor and make them want to spend $$$ at the bar. if your on mobile beat website search soft floor turn. But don't ever do this at the top or bottom of the hour. if you do it at 1230 they might bar hop but half hour till close they are committed for the night. at 1am they might call it a night but 115 ppl will stay for another vodka... herd psycology is amazing

[AmyGill]

200 as a tip is not bad at all! I've been djing like ever since I was 15, and I was recently asked by a friend to perform at his wedding. I've never done that before, so I'm lowkey scared since I'm doing it only as a hobby. However, I have a vast musical knowledge of multiple styles, so I think I should be fine. The only problem is that they want to rent a
  [https://www.truesoundhire.co.uk/]Live sound hire[/url] system, and I'm nervous I might not be familiar with the mixing desk, the monitor system, etc. What would you recommend? Should I better tell him that I feel more comfortable with my stuff? Looking forward to hearing from you!

[Steve-White]

200 as a tip is not bad at all! I've been djing like ever since I was 15, and I was recently asked by a friend to perform at his wedding. I've never done that before, so I'm lowkey scared since I'm doing it only as a hobby. However, I have a vast musical knowledge of multiple styles, so I think I should be fine. The only problem is that they want to rent a
  [https://www.truesoundhire.co.uk/]Live sound hire[/url] system, and I'm nervous I might not be familiar with the mixing desk, the monitor system, etc. What would you recommend? Should I better tell him that I feel more comfortable with my stuff? Looking forward to hearing from you!

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