First DJ comp

[Gandy]

howdy all, how are we on xmas eve. I have my very first DJ competition on boxing day and was wondering if any of the pros have some tips for me. Its hosted at the club i get guest sets at so im familiar with the setup equipment wise. I will be going up against a lot of my friends who have been doing it for 3-4 years so im hoping this time round i will do it for the experience and learn as much as i can.

our town is really into commercial and electro, so obviously i am basing my set around that, we also have a very strong alt rock/metal following here, so im thinking of dropping a big bomb like a du hast club mix or something similar and see how the crowd reacts i think they will go nuts.

ive been practising and memorising each track i have for the intros, the peaks, the outros so my mixing is as smooth as possible and had a quick 3 track practise run on friday to be doubly sure im used to the sound at the club.

Structuring a set is where i will need experience and what in looking to learn from the more experienced djs on the night.

so yea any tips would be mucho appreciated

[Gandy]

DVS is banned from the comp too (which i am a massive fan of)

[Jaz]

Make sure you know your Cue's (if you have them saved under CDJ memory) because if you drop a track at the intro when the Cue was meant to be at the chorus then your gonna have to do some confident covering up

just saying becuase if i was doing comps, Cue memory would be my main use i think...

[djarmed]

Firstly gandy good luck with it all.

i use to help judge a few dj competitions a few years ago so my advice would be to keep it simple as you're far less likely to fuck anything up. You get these people that come in trying to do something crazy and generally fuck up.

Secondly how long is your set?? 15 min? 30 min? if its 30 min or longer throw something in their that people will not expect, you'd be suprised how you can get some very postive reactions from a track that people haven't heard and breaks away from your genre for a short period of time, this actually stops your set from becoming boring.

The three main things i looked for when judging was your track selection, crowd reaction and how confident you'd appear behind the decks and obviously your transitions. Never do that spin back change song bullshit to me that appeared as though you couldn't mix.

One thing to remember is that the judges wont be pissed (most of the time) so your screw ups wont slip by them as it would for most of the people on the dance floor.

Most importantly have fun!! but dont forget to keep it simple.

Oh and dont throw effects on every 32 bars of every song.......TRUST ME

[Gandy]

cheers man thats some solid advice, +rep

sooo pumped!!!

[djarmed]

no dramas matey, good luck and have a great day

[andyman]

our town is really into commercial and electro

I'm the same mate.

Everything EDM is called 'techno', and they only ever play the latest Ministry of Sound CD at the local nightspots.

In saying that, good luck mate.

Be confident in your abilities, and dont be afraid to try something different. The couple of times I've played out, I've thrown something different at the crowd, so that they realise there are better songs out there than "Out my Bitch"

[JonnyB]

look up a remix of chop suey - SOAD its a heavy electro remix and metal heads love it, ive droped it before to a bunch of metal heads in a crowd and they moshed haha.

yep just practise your cue points.....if there is a 3rd deck, get a bunch of samples/acapellas (pon de flor drums, amillie backround vocal, vocal sample, acapella's) and if you know how to do it, time warp them in ableton so they are all at 130bpm....burn them to a cd....so when your playing you just have that sample cd sitting in the third deck so everynow and then you can drop an acpaella in or some cool sound or a littl vocal hook that no body will be expecting... makes you look more talented because your using 3 decks at once

[Gandy]

@johnnyb that was my other thought johnny if i couldnt find a good du hast one, is the chop suey mix cause its mad as well, also ther is a good linkin park one ive heard before too.

i like your idea with the 3rd deck although dont know/have alberton, i dont back myself to be able to do it but will def do it in future

@andyman haha our town used to call everything techno too until we rammed it down there throats with promo banners that our club plays electro and commercial. Seems to be the thing that if you want to play something thats not commercial you gotta go find niche clubs in the capitals, thats why i try to throw in something different everynow and then to hopefulyl slowly edcuate the masses

[Mattye]

Mate firstly GOOD LUCK

Also check out the latest Linkin Park album. I just aquired it the other day.

Check out "Blackout" and "Wretches and Kings". Both have a heavy feel. Expecially "Blackout", "Wretches and Kings" is more bassy/kinda hip hopy.

There deffs my favs on the new album, also theres alto of talking with not much music behind it. (Kinda Pendulum like) Would be cool to play durring a set to slow things down a bit, then drop something cool

Anywho again GOOD LUCK

[BeatLeSS]

Chew fu has some mad electro remixes, rocked out with him under my belt a few times. Frank sinatra WHATT!!?!?

[pulsebeat]

goodluck grandy!!

[CBG]

dont press eject on the deck that is playing

[ruggs]

roxanne disctech remix haha i drop it all the time works a treat but will also depend on your crowd age

[Gandy]

fuckin pummped!!!!

@cbg that would be some epic lol

[Hobberz]

Good luck Gandy.

[CBG]

i know a guy thats done it 5 times... lol

[Hobberz]

i know a guy thats done it 5 times... lol

I would have given up after the first 2 times.

[CBG]

yeah i know. what.a.douche!

I've nearly done it, heaps of times. but never actually done it.

I reckon if i was drunk id do it. Thats why i never drink much when im playing.

[Hobberz]

Im going to invent a shift lock button for CDJ's so people cant do this and I will make millions

EDIT: Fuck, shouldnt of told anyone

[BeatLeSS]

dont press eject on the deck that is playing

did this @ the step up to stereo comp. luckily lock was on! fkn kicked myself quietly for that.

[CBG]

fuck, that would have been one of those heart in throat moments.

[Hobberz]

dont press eject on the deck that is playing

did this @ the step up to stereo comp. luckily lock was on! fkn kicked myself quietly for that.

That is lucky.

I take it there is already a lock on some eject buttons then.

[JonnyB]

i pressed cue on the cdj that was playing 2 weeks ago....now THAT sucked haha

[Gandy]

haha woops!

didnt win and had the hardest time slot of the night (jumped on just as hour of mayhem started, which is $3 basics and midshelfs) so literally everyone on the dfloor fucked off to the bar and because it was so busy the line was like 8 ppl deep allaroudn the bar so that was a bit shit, judges said they didnt worry about it though because there was nothing i could of done.

i was by far and away the best amature of the nite, accidently bumped the loop button when i was doing an epic drop and it trainwrecked a transition was SOOOOOOOOO shitty after that especailly since i practiced that transition over and over and over.

awesome thing is either in jan or feb next year i get go in and have an entire nite to myself behind the decks which is awesome, while the winner is now one of the residents.

was an amazing experience learnt alot and cant wait to do more of in the future