DJ Tutorial Course (need your input!)
Hey folks! I’m planning for my next set of tutorials to be an in-depth, multi-part series on everything about the process of DJing (since I’ve never touched on that before on the Patreon).
I’d love to grab some questions you all might have about ANY aspect of the process to include and answer within the videos and to ensure I’m covering as many bases as possible. I’m hoping once the series is finished it can be a practically complete guide for anyone wanting to learn how to mix Dubstep and adjacent genres.
Here are the videos I’m planning to be part of the course as of right now (these might change or split off into multiple videos):
Rekordbox Prep - sourcing music, using the software to prep tracks, fundamentals of what tracks will mix well, etc.
Building a Setlist - approaching the puzzle of fitting transitions together, moving around the harmonic mixing wheel, bridging everything between an opener and closer
Hands-on With Decks (Beginner) - what gear to use, fundamentals of all basic functions, getting you to a point where you can do simple transitions
Hands-on With Decks (Intermediate/Advanced) - generally more advanced stuff, chopping, reading a crowd, etc. (definitely more for me to flesh out here!)
Analysis of Tokyo Set - analysis of choices made during the making of the setlist AND live in the moment + explanations of what’s happening technically on the decks at points
DJ Etiquette - best practices, do’s and don’ts in a live environment
Lemme know your thoughts! Excited to do this again after however so many years when I first made those YouTube tutorials on a Numark Mixtrack that blew up back in the day 🥲
Comments (14)
How can a DJ make multiple songs sound unified or seamlessly connected when mixing? I listen various genres but no idea how to put together
How to balance out playing songs that are still within the enjoyable range for the crowd but still different enough for personal satisfaction and to stand out as a performing DJ? I understand each place expects different things too.
That's a good one! I can see my DJ Etiquette video branching out into more of the philosophical side like this
I have two but you can give yourself credit for one if you want! One, is it normal to make sets planned or is that abnormal for a “actual” DJ. Personally I do sets but plan 90% of them in my notes app on my phone, changing only for responding to the audience. Is DJing only the act of mixing songs unplanned? Or is it planning ahead and just making it suit the situation as best as possible? And two, how can a DJ implement a story in their set? Do they prioritise the song choice for the story/structure of the set, or the groove and getting people dancing? Or is there a way to somehow implement both into a full set? You can also condense these down since I’m terrible at summarising if need-be :3 Btw the Tokyo set was great! I can’t wait for whatever you have planned next!
Planned vs. improvised sets are definitely something I need to cover! I personally plan all of my sets out so I can really ensure I play everything I want to play and can ensure smooth, timely transitions. Most of the improvisation aspect comes from how long I'll play something out and having a few points where I choose one track over another or skip to fit the vibe of the audience
my personal biggest weakness is with actually building a set. do you plan your sets or improvise? either ways, how do you go about finding songs that work well together? perhaps i’m just missing practice but i find that i know how to dj but not what to dj
This is gonna be a big part of the "Building a Setlist" video!
Keep everything but add on a bit of mess up clips and explain what/how you messed up and how you recovered or fixed it.
Great idea!
Go for it, would be super useful to hear how someone else approaches set prep in particular
OH I AM SO HYPED FOR THIS! I've had Rekordbox installed for a bit but no proper decks to use it on so this is gonna be perfect for when I do end up gettin decks that work with Rekordbox
tempo change tricks maybe also crazy big changes like 150bpm to 175bpm or 90bpm to 120bpm and how you would approach this over the course of the set whether you would pick songs that are in between those speeds or do big sudden changes etc I imagine this sort of stuff would be covered in the Tokyo video tho :)
Nice! Yeah I feel like approaching big jumps in BPM would work great in the intermediate or advanced vids - added to my list 👌
YESSSS