We’ve all been there… You’ve spent weeks preparing the perfect set list. All your gear is unpacked and you’re ready to hit PLAY. But no matter how prepared you are, there’s always the unpredictable: the things you forgot, the problems that could have been avoided, or the things that could have made your gig easier. It’s impossible to know it all. Anyone who claims they do, is just plain wrong.
I asked the team what their one piece of wisdom they’d impart on the gigging DJ, like a fortune cookie wearing headphones. After rattling off a huge list of suggestions between them, I finally got Mark, Ray, And Jared down to one each. Here’s what they said…
Mark:
Label up your power supplies when you get them.
Ray:
Make Friends With The Fucking Sound Engineer.
Jared:
Know how to set your shit up in the dark.
And my one bit of wisdom, that’s stuck with me for a long time?
Years ago, I was hiring a PA system from a local sound&light shop, with one of the staff helping to pack up all the speakers, amplifiers and cables. This guy was a grizzled DJ veteran. He’d been both a club and mobile DJ at times, and had been there, done that. I was stuffing one of the XLR cables into the boot of my car when he grabbed it, and started carefully coiling it up. He said:
“Look. The cables have a natural coil to them, and if you follow that while they aren’t in use, they’ll stay like that much easier, and last longer. Look after your cables, and they’ll look after you.”
That was over 10 years ago, and the advice has stuck with me. I might not always take the ultimate best care of my cables 24/7, but I’ve lived through five years with the same MacBook Pro MagSafe charger, numerous USB and MIDI cables, and countless kettle leads. Now, USB memory sticks on the other hand…
Your thoughts
What would be your one essential piece of advice for other DJs? It can be a cool little hack, or an important bit of kit you always keep with you, or even just something you do to mentally prepare for every gig.
Backups and backup solutions for anything that could wrong or break at gig.
Backups for the backups to your backups!
Simplicity sells. You can be very talented, have the best equipment, look the best and still lose… know what they want and give it to them.
For cdj gigs, always have an working cat 5 (with the lock on the RJ45 still there) cable and redundant USB sticks. For vinyl gigs, always have extra pick-up’s and bring your own slipmats. And finally, get a cable with angled plug on your headphones (if it has a detachable cable that is)
Why the angled cable?
All other things make total sense. I see way to many DJs relying on the fact that you’ll find a fine setup of CDJs everywhere.
It makes the cable less likely to break, especially on Pioneer mixers and other mixers with topmounted head phone connectors. In some booths the mixer/cdj’s are installed a bit higher than my preference, and especially in these cases it’s nice to get the jack out of the way. Just a tip, buddy ☺️
totally makes sense… thanks for sharing
I would agree with all of you, these are very important stuff for any gig.
And one mor from me: CABLE ADAPTERS! Loads of them!
Be a professional when things go wrong !!!!
With this i mean , don’t let it get to you but handle it so that the guests at the party can keep party’ing !!! Seen many dj’s lose it over a corrupt mp3 or wonky leads.
But ALWAYS come prepared
Green is good, red is bad. Push sound, not noise.
Wash your hands before you handle vinyl.
Cable ties, cable ties, cable ties.
The thing I’ve found most useful is just having a mental ‘minimums’ list – something I can quickly run over in my head to ensure I’ve packed the bare minimum to get everything working.
If using DVS- learn to decipher the scope views. It saves a hell of a lot of time when the signal starts playing up if you can glance at it and know the exact problem.
If you use ortofon carts, CLEAN YOUR TIMECODE.
You’ll save loads of money on both styli and replacement timecode.
Never heard this before, tell us more!
Ortofon styli (especially on concorde carts )deteriorate at a more rapid rate than say a shure m-447 or a stanton 810. Your time code accumulates dirt that exacerbates this process. Keeping you r tc (and your hands ) clean delays this process.
Don’t drink while spinning. So unprofessional.
Depends on venue / culture. For me the rule is one beer per hour. Don’t do mixed drinks.
I’m with you on this. I’ve played gigs where I’ve gotten hammered with the promoter and others where I’ve been completely sober all night. It completely depends on the situation you find yourself in.
Get all your gear together hours before you head out the door instead of at the last minute before you have to leave for your gig. It’s so easy to forget to bring stuff when you pack up in a rush.
And don’t update your DJ software the night before your gig.
You can update the evening before, but you’ll want 2+ hours of mix-time after you install to test it.
I’d suggest having at least a few hours under your belt with the new version, because programs have been shipped with memory leaks that crash software. It’s embarrassing when you crash during a set.
You should have a go bag, regardless. Everything you need for a gig stays in that bag. Don’t use any of that gear at home or in your studio.
Check your go bag just before you head out for lunch. If you’re missing something you can pull it from your studio, but you’ll also have time for an emergency run during lunch.
Don’t rely on other people to have stuff for you; be the person that others rely on when they forget a piece of gear.
what’s a noise attenuating power strip?
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SS6Block
Live wire brand has one for half the price. Same build and everything
KEEP IT OUT OF THE RED
Never be afraid to empty the dance floor. Play a song that you are not so sure about, but that you like a lot.
“Mix what you want to play, don’t play what you want to mix”
Know your equipment…
“Yellow is Red” most level meters go from green to yellow then to red for clipping. Pretend that yellow is your clip indicator. That way you’ll never over load your headroom and your sound will always be clean. Sound guys will love you. Most sound guys dread the DJ because we have the ability to turn it up as we get into the mix. Always check your level meters.
You’re not going to get paid what you thought. If at all. Where’s he gone anyway?
Carry a pocket torch, and gaffer tape. I used to carry a coin to stick on top of skippy carts too.
I take electrical tape rather than anything too heavy duty.
Always a torch.
I have two….
1. Learn to get over embarrassment and become a shameless self promoter. I was terrible at this and as a result never got many bookings to play. For example: I had a couple of my mixes played on BBC national radio and never told anyone about it, as I felt shy about boasting about it. If this is something you really want to do as a career, learn to be completely and utterly shameless about self promotion.
2. Learn to produce and do it regularly and to the highest standard you can achieve with the tech you can afford. I personally think it’s impossible nowadays to get work out of sheer DJ’ing talent alone (unless you are like a super heroic turntablist known for her/his skills alone). You need to have tunes out. In addition to the above, you need to promote the hell out of that music as well. There is little point in making something and keeping it to yourself. IF you manage to get a track or two into a Beatport chart or in a few established DJ’s record bags/pen drives, you need to promote the shit out of that and let the world know.
To be honest, sadly, if you want a career out of DJ’ing i’d say actually being able to DJ amazingly is number 3 on the list these days (obviously the music you put out there has to be good, but i’m talking purely about tips for how to make it as a DJ, and actually being able to physically do it is dropping down the list of importance these days and that’s pretty much fact. I don’t make the rules.
Preach reverend!
1. Know your gear, know ALL of the gear that you may encounter.
2. Read the crowd. Don’t keep playing the same stuff if the floor is empty.
3. Bring enough variety in case you DO clear the floor.
4. Try to make remixes or edits to work with your flow. Mashups are not fun for the audience 90% of the time so keep it familiar!
Ensure that the show can go on.
For the love of music!
If you want to stand out, be passionate about what youre doing. And if you can afford it, dont play gigs just because you want some sweet money to buy some random bullshit, and dont play tracks you feel like youre supposed to play just to impress that one person whos not into you anyway.
I only play music I love
Yeah. I’m doing a gig tonight where my time is sandwiched between load of UK bass and garage DJs. Even though I’m a techno DJ, I’ll be playing a journey through electro, old school breakbeat rave and drum & bass. It’s so far outside my comfort zone, but it’s all tunes I like and already have in my library.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
The DJ’s that make it look “natural” and “improvised” are almost always running off 1000’s of hours of muscle memory. For the rest of us, it’s totally okay to put time and effort into set lists, cue point stickers, writing BPM and keys onto the front covers of your records, whatever it takes to enable you to focus on the moment.
Do enough gigs with enough prep and you too will be able to just rock up and knock out a great set, but until then, as @ellaskins says, practice (and practice) and enjoy!
btw – this is my new favourite thread. Already ripped off a few great tips as well as the feel-good factor that comes from realising that you’re not the only person that thinks that way. “label your power adapters”, 100%!
I play very spontaneous sets. I honestly have little idea what I’m going to play next until it’s loaded into a deck. How can I get away with that? Tagging and sorting the absolute crap out of my library! I have a rough idea what sort of track it’s going to be even if I don’t remember what it is (lots of those in this era of highly forgettable music).
What looks like zero prep is actually knowing a few hundred (maybe more – I dread to think!) hours of prep was already done
Always have a back up plan for a kit failure – I had a turntable fail on me, nobody noticed me converting to an X1 to control the decks in Traktor, what was a mess ended up seamless.
If you are using somebodys else’s PA, always have a ground loop box. ART Audio DTi is a brilliant bit of kit – can also get you out of a cable connection hole.
Always have jack and xlr cables if connecting to a house system
Always have spare cables and two length options
I always carry a spare magsafe power block, never needed it but the day I don’t take it………
Always remember most audiences just want vanilla mixing of stuff they know. If you want to take them onto your journey build them up slowly before unleashing the 4 deck deep house onslaught ;)
Nothing wrong with playlists. I always make them and have alternative options if I’m dying.
Keep one separate playlist of fail safe tunes that work no matter what. Peoples attitudes change as they get drunker, the more pissed the crowd is the lower their musical integrity. You can have FUN with this mood change; don’t be aloof, go with the flow a bit and it can turn into a storming night playing stuff you would never deliberately choose.
I absolutely agree! I’ve had MacBook crash an hour before my gig and glad I have another older computer as my backup and not during my set.
I have to add that when you say back up plan, that includes all your gear that can fail and should be ready to a seamless transition without disappointing your clients and guests.
Know your gear. It’s been said on here already, but I’m baffled constantly by how little people seem to know the ins and outs of their equipment. I was fiddling around with my friend’s VCI-100 one night, and was stoked to discover the crosssfader curve and jog sensitivity adjustment dials on the back. Dude had owned the thing for years and never noticed. And no, it’s not just a controller thing; DJ’s in my crew who are 15 years my senior and who’ve owned CDJ 2000nxs for years had no idea that you could adjust loop length or engage slip mode on their hardware.
Know your gear. Live it. Sleep with it.
Best DJ advice I ever received (thanks to rrrruss): Do something that is uniquely YOU!
My best piece of DJ advice is/was to my Friend where i explained that if you need to adjust the record mid mix always try to pick the one with less High Freq sounds going on, that way you avoid the warping sound.. i know its pretty simple and ill get flamed for stating the obvious but for beginners its a great piece of advice.
Uhm, you adjust the one that isn’t doing the thump. Warping sound is ok, warping the dominant beat will throw off the groove and disrupt your dancers.
Mark – Sorry to hijack this thread but …. No thread about Serato 1.9.4 ?
I’ve been busy, but really didn’t feel like it needed one. It was just to bring the Reloop and Denon controllers to Serato DJ anyway.
“If the people don’t dance, it’s ALWAYS your fault”.
Instead of keep an eye on the front of the dance floor, watch the back, they are the people u need to watch, are more people joining the dance floor or is it tapering off. The people at the front lie to you, they will dance to your next track no matter what!