This is the kind of content I love. No bullshit blabbering / mumbling. Efficient, and high quality presentation. No begging for likes, comments and subscribes. Just packed with relevant information and good visuals. Thanks for your decency!
I was DJing for about 15 years as a hobby. For the good chunk of the events I was a warmup performer. The early 2000's breakbeat tunes were perfect to set the energy from zero to the guest playing after me, usually a DJ I know personally and knew what his/her performance is going to be. My trickiest gig was when we maxed out the venue limit and packed 600 people together and was playing after the headliner, realizing the crowd were having a lot of fun and if I screw this up they lynch me🤣 I decided to play a 2-2, which is 2 high energy tune followed by 2 lower energy tunes building up for the drop of the next 2 higher energy songs. This turned out to be perfect. They didn't get bored, but the didn't get exhausted as well.
That jump from low to high... Was in a club, dance floor empty...next DJ comes on and BAM... There was like a boxing day sale rush to hit the dance floor..... Another club another night.... Energy ok, people on the floor decent... He threw in Snap Ive got the power... Instant emptying of the floor... And he kept the song going in its entirety and killed the mood and never got it back after and we left for another club. Those two moments have stayed with me for over 30 years.
@@ReallyChrisM This was the song that woke people from their lack of interest and flood the dancefloor instead. th-cam.com/video/GqvR7jDoj4o/w-d-xo.html No idea what he played second, I just remember this as the first song of his set and it got people going.
Tip I found incredibly useful to accomplish this: “code” your track titles. By that, I mean add a cue in the beginning of your track names that let you know the relative energy and the style. For example: 4TH (energy 4, tech house) 6DpT (energy 6, deep techno) 8Brk (8, breaks) And you can even play with that to hone it in to super specific cues. Like, a THDp would be mostly a tech house style, deep elements: as opposed to DpTH that’s a deep house track with a little tech house flair Benefit of all this is when you are scrolling through hundreds of tracks, you don’t have to entirely remember what it sounds like. You’ll know by looking at your coding if it should mesh well as far as energy and style goes. And it allows you to establish a smooth flow staying the Same, moving up and/or down energy over the span of several tracks and your set as a whole
I love this, thank you for the advice! I’m able to preview songs on my Denon controller but when I perform on CDJs at a club I lose that luxury and this would help immensely with understanding what the song sounds like. I had another new DJ tell me “real DJs memorize all the tracks they play” and that didn’t sit right with me. You could have a list of tracks that you’re very familiar with but a much larger collection that you could pull from depending on what you’re looking to change about the set as you monitor the room’s energy, for example having a flair from one genre to another to bend the set into a new space. Having those labels would make it so much easier to live mix!
In theory thats a great idea but I could accomplish the same relative thing with playlists and folders. Even a greater "house" folder with "tech house mainroom" for the big hitters and smaller unique playlists for the other stuff I would regularly play. A better example would be I've got a Warehouse, Acid and Peak playlists for techno since that's what I primarily play
I really enjoy your content. I feel like you are the first evidently knowledgeable DJ on TH-cam who creates videos for DJs who are no longer beginners but are a step above and actually have fairly large gigs. Often, I find it difficult to learn new tips and perspectives from other TH-camrs who talk about DJing as they typically cater to outright beginners. However, your content doesn't, and it's really nice to be able to progress further in my DJ process with your content.
I been djing for about 7 months now and I would say I’m familiar with the deck and controlling that itself. Then I hit a plateau and was wondering like what is it that I need to KEEP GOING UP because it is really my dream to become world class at this. The just a half hour ago I came across your channel. I know now this is what I needed. Not to keep watching “5 awesome mixing transitions” but rather what my brain should be thinking while I’m mixing, if that makes any sense, basically just through this video you really opened up my eyes that there’s a ton more to learn and I love it thankyou. If anyone is ever plateauing as well, this is the fucking guy right here. Lastly your explanations are on a different level. Even the visuals are perfect the way the abstract visuals just make sense in my head is crazy hahaha. You have been extremely helpful, can’t wait to watch more videos.
I’m a new dj and I was thinking about what I would do when my set is almost over. And my thoughts were bring it down towards the end to allow the next dj to shine.
@@DJTHRILLER It's not on you to make sure they shine. If you did so well that they look bad, it's on them to look better. They just failed if they can't match up to the standard you set. It's not your job to make them look good, it's to make you look good.
as a dj for over 15 years, i never stop and learn, and i knew alot of these things allready and you make valid points, but these days the tiktok and the instant gratification generation really is harder to take on a journey that a dj set to me is nowadays. That being said, it is much more rewarding when you do get that momentum going though hahaha. Overall i would say there is less patient for music, less openess to new or unknown music and faster boredom.
Hi Chris, I’d love to see one of your sets and how you implement all these amazing tutorials. Theory is impeccable, but putting this to practice and demonstrating any of the wisdom you share would be great!!
Thank u dude for this masterclass. Inspiring! I really struggle with the live set energy level stuff, love dj-ing but feel like i should give up since i suck so bad after years and yers but i still love doing it so im not finished yet :))
this friday night a mate came in the club abd asked if he could play in my timeframe, i was like sure, ill let you do the warmup, nice and easy, have fun... it didn't take him 15 mins and somehow he transitioned from rominimal to psytech, which is far more energetic. i had to do some real gimnastics to raise the leveos back to an appropriate level, but i managed to do it in 3 tunes and the people really enjoyed it don't be that guy, you are making other artist's time a lot harder
Really good advice and a great new channel, been mixing dnb at first and while I do like and mix other genres, I tend to mix them too fast! Anyways thanks for informative and quality content, will be looking forward to your next videos. Cheers from north Thailand!
Read the crowd. Simplest advice I could give! Literally look around and find the one guy that isn’t dancing/vibing … see if you can get him to bob his head. Beyond that organize your tracks based on energy. Have a intro category a filler category and a peak category.
High-end Controllers aren't handle bars 😂 yes decks give you a little more options, and let's you have more channels, but a handlebar would be a Traktor and ddj400. 1000, rx and above are hardly what you call a handle bar. Other than adding additional channels and networking they can do everything a cdj does. Also you don't need an audio card for them like you do with a cdj 😊
This is a bit more of an art than a science. I would go with your gut feel to start. If you play it out you can refine the rating once you put it in front of a crowd and see how they react :)
I take a look at the wave length on a record. They give you a big hint of the type of energy. Thats how I use to play. And know your crowd. Trance is not techno and house is not edm.
But what if you are a hard DJ/producer and u get booked in a local party somewhere, they book you to open or turn deck as second DJ, your style is hard and energetic.. Me as DJ/producer want to stand for one specific energy and not fluctuating between what the crowd wants. It happens a lot that the events not even know who they are booking for opening or second one,...
I saw Sasha in Jacksonville, FL some years back. The resident DJ went full tech house, about 135 bpm to 140... Shit by the time Sasha came on it was so teched out/ high pitched, we all were exhausted and no anthems, by the time Sasha shifted the beats and mellowed, that set was over. Ugh
I drop bangers when I play a set, cant help it, whether I'm 1st/2nd or 3rd, I get what you are saying though, but this ensures whoever's after me (if I'm 1st) better be on point!!
Crowd ? Usually it’s 40 DJs and 10 punters Gotta love Chicago lol Yea there some good parties but I’ve also seen some raves that had 30 DJs on the lineup with 30 min sets (all b2b sets of course so 2 guys playing 30 mins lol)
Biggest mistake warm up DJs make? = playing what they wish to play AS A HEADLINER. As if it's an advertisement for how much they'd crush at 2am. There's a local hero dnb dj in my area who warms up with the hardest dnb - it's a tragedy every time. He thinks it's getting the crowd hyped. It's not. It's 60 minutes of ear fatigue.
This way over complicating things! DJing is about expression, I’ll be dammed if another Dj or promoter will tell me how Dj or want to play, it’s a dj’s job to figure out the dance floor naturally, no dance floor is the same
This is the kind of content I love. No bullshit blabbering / mumbling. Efficient, and high quality presentation. No begging for likes, comments and subscribes. Just packed with relevant information and good visuals. Thanks for your decency!
I was DJing for about 15 years as a hobby. For the good chunk of the events I was a warmup performer. The early 2000's breakbeat tunes were perfect to set the energy from zero to the guest playing after me, usually a DJ I know personally and knew what his/her performance is going to be. My trickiest gig was when we maxed out the venue limit and packed 600 people together and was playing after the headliner, realizing the crowd were having a lot of fun and if I screw this up they lynch me🤣 I decided to play a 2-2, which is 2 high energy tune followed by 2 lower energy tunes building up for the drop of the next 2 higher energy songs. This turned out to be perfect. They didn't get bored, but the didn't get exhausted as well.
That jump from low to high... Was in a club, dance floor empty...next DJ comes on and BAM... There was like a boxing day sale rush to hit the dance floor..... Another club another night.... Energy ok, people on the floor decent... He threw in Snap Ive got the power... Instant emptying of the floor... And he kept the song going in its entirety and killed the mood and never got it back after and we left for another club. Those two moments have stayed with me for over 30 years.
Always interesting how one small decision from the DJ can affect so much
@@ReallyChrisM This was the song that woke people from their lack of interest and flood the dancefloor instead. th-cam.com/video/GqvR7jDoj4o/w-d-xo.html No idea what he played second, I just remember this as the first song of his set and it got people going.
Tip I found incredibly useful to accomplish this: “code” your track titles. By that, I mean add a cue in the beginning of your track names that let you know the relative energy and the style. For example:
4TH (energy 4, tech house)
6DpT (energy 6, deep techno)
8Brk (8, breaks)
And you can even play with that to hone it in to super specific cues. Like, a THDp would be mostly a tech house style, deep elements: as opposed to DpTH that’s a deep house track with a little tech house flair
Benefit of all this is when you are scrolling through hundreds of tracks, you don’t have to entirely remember what it sounds like. You’ll know by looking at your coding if it should mesh well as far as energy and style goes. And it allows you to establish a smooth flow staying the Same, moving up and/or down energy over the span of several tracks and your set as a whole
Super interesting! Haven’t seen this approach before 👌
I love this, thank you for the advice! I’m able to preview songs on my Denon controller but when I perform on CDJs at a club I lose that luxury and this would help immensely with understanding what the song sounds like. I had another new DJ tell me “real DJs memorize all the tracks they play” and that didn’t sit right with me. You could have a list of tracks that you’re very familiar with but a much larger collection that you could pull from depending on what you’re looking to change about the set as you monitor the room’s energy, for example having a flair from one genre to another to bend the set into a new space. Having those labels would make it so much easier to live mix!
In theory thats a great idea but I could accomplish the same relative thing with playlists and folders. Even a greater "house" folder with "tech house mainroom" for the big hitters and smaller unique playlists for the other stuff I would regularly play. A better example would be I've got a Warehouse, Acid and Peak playlists for techno since that's what I primarily play
@@ErikPelyukhno this is especially true when you play for groups who like/want different music than you're used to...
I really enjoy your content. I feel like you are the first evidently knowledgeable DJ on TH-cam who creates videos for DJs who are no longer beginners but are a step above and actually have fairly large gigs.
Often, I find it difficult to learn new tips and perspectives from other TH-camrs who talk about DJing as they typically cater to outright beginners. However, your content doesn't, and it's really nice to be able to progress further in my DJ process with your content.
Appreciate that! Glad it's helping :)
I been djing for about 7 months now and I would say I’m familiar with the deck and controlling that itself. Then I hit a plateau and was wondering like what is it that I need to KEEP GOING UP because it is really my dream to become world class at this. The just a half hour ago I came across your channel. I know now this is what I needed. Not to keep watching “5 awesome mixing transitions” but rather what my brain should be thinking while I’m mixing, if that makes any sense, basically just through this video you really opened up my eyes that there’s a ton more to learn and I love it thankyou. If anyone is ever plateauing as well, this is the fucking guy right here.
Lastly your explanations are on a different level. Even the visuals are perfect the way the abstract visuals just make sense in my head is crazy hahaha. You have been extremely helpful, can’t wait to watch more videos.
Amazing to hear! Good luck on the journey 💪
What kind of music do you like play'n Wesley?
So many DJs don't know what their job is. Had it last gig: the guy raised the level to the complete maximum before handing over. Gosh...
Oof hope you managed to recover
I’m a new dj and I was thinking about what I would do when my set is almost over. And my thoughts were bring it down towards the end to allow the next dj to shine.
@@DJTHRILLER It's not on you to make sure they shine. If you did so well that they look bad, it's on them to look better. They just failed if they can't match up to the standard you set. It's not your job to make them look good, it's to make you look good.
This is the standard in certain genres though, hardstyle sets almost always end with some higher-bpm hardcore or uptempo to end with a bang
If you can’t keep up that’s your fault
Thanks for the advise!
This is the level of abstraction I needed.
as a dj for over 15 years, i never stop and learn, and i knew alot of these things allready and you make valid points, but these days the tiktok and the instant gratification generation really is harder to take on a journey that a dj set to me is nowadays. That being said, it is much more rewarding when you do get that momentum going though hahaha. Overall i would say there is less patient for music, less openess to new or unknown music and faster boredom.
Hi Chris, I’d love to see one of your sets and how you implement all these amazing tutorials. Theory is impeccable, but putting this to practice and demonstrating any of the wisdom you share would be great!!
You can catch me spinning on twitch from time to time, link is in the description :)
Basically also the loudness war and dynamic range in pop digital music. More dynamic range more build up and reward.
That is top notch analysis
Thank u dude for this masterclass. Inspiring! I really struggle with the live set energy level stuff, love dj-ing but feel like i should give up since i suck so bad after years and yers but i still love doing it so im not finished yet :))
Some great advice here and as you say, all this should become intuitive with experience
Excellent video. Thank you!
Very useful, thank you Sir
Brilliant, thank you!
this friday night a mate came in the club abd asked if he could play in my timeframe, i was like sure, ill let you do the warmup, nice and easy, have fun...
it didn't take him 15 mins and somehow he transitioned from rominimal to psytech, which is far more energetic. i had to do some real gimnastics to raise the leveos back to an appropriate level, but i managed to do it in 3 tunes and the people really enjoyed it
don't be that guy, you are making other artist's time a lot harder
Well done for saving the vibe!
I wish more people would watch this!
Really good advice and a great new channel, been mixing dnb at first and while I do like and mix other genres, I tend to mix them too fast! Anyways thanks for informative and quality content, will be looking forward to your next videos. Cheers from north Thailand!
Read the crowd. Simplest advice I could give! Literally look around and find the one guy that isn’t dancing/vibing … see if you can get him to bob his head.
Beyond that organize your tracks based on energy. Have a intro category a filler category and a peak category.
I've been DJing for 6 months now without handlebars (a controller) and I am very proud of how my sets sound.
High-end Controllers aren't handle bars 😂 yes decks give you a little more options, and let's you have more channels, but a handlebar would be a Traktor and ddj400. 1000, rx and above are hardly what you call a handle bar. Other than adding additional channels and networking they can do everything a cdj does. Also you don't need an audio card for them like you do with a cdj 😊
@@DjghostyMusic High-end?
great work mate
Thank you
Your content is amazing, thank you.
Thanks for watching!
Dj moist 😂😂😂😂😂😂
One thing I don't like about being an opener is you have to your volume low
Love the nuance you're bringing to these videos!
Almost every video you post educates me on something. Fucking love it! Thanks 🙏
Very clear and excellent advice
Glad it was helpful!
LEARNED something very Important😀😀😀 GREETINGS from CABO VERDE ISLANDS🤩🤩🤩
Best dj channel love the content
🎉🎉🎉 Good Advice
Bloody good advice here, well played
I do find dropping Signal by Fresh to always really calm a crowd down :-p
Yeah that's a classic chill out track
Thanks
Nice.
Ha like my comment on your database deletion, the feeling of tracks works great for this “chewing face off” really is the high point 😂
How do I know if a song has high or medium or low energy level?
This is a bit more of an art than a science. I would go with your gut feel to start. If you play it out you can refine the rating once you put it in front of a crowd and see how they react :)
I take a look at the wave length on a record. They give you a big hint of the type of energy. Thats how I use to play. And know your crowd. Trance is not techno and house is not edm.
Exactly what I needed 👌🏽👌🏽
Glad it helped!
This is a Master Class! THANKS AGAIN
But what if you are a hard DJ/producer and u get booked in a local party somewhere, they book you to open or turn deck as second DJ, your style is hard and energetic.. Me as DJ/producer want to stand for one specific energy and not fluctuating between what the crowd wants. It happens a lot that the events not even know who they are booking for opening or second one,...
I am failing to find the energy level sorting video in the description.
th-cam.com/video/qWBmbW83V9U/w-d-xo.html
This is the one you are after :)
I saw Sasha in Jacksonville, FL some years back. The resident DJ went full tech house, about 135 bpm to 140... Shit by the time Sasha came on it was so teched out/ high pitched, we all were exhausted and no anthems, by the time Sasha shifted the beats and mellowed, that set was over. Ugh
Moooin :)
MO(63)IN!
reminds me on hardcore / breakbeat (luna-c, paul cronin eg. #kniteforce, #raveskool)
I drop bangers when I play a set, cant help it, whether I'm 1st/2nd or 3rd, I get what you are saying though, but this ensures whoever's after me (if I'm 1st) better be on point!!
It’s tough to treat bangeritus for sure
@@ReallyChrisM 😂
😂DJ Moist on the flyer
You better believe they are headlining every festival this summer
Crowd ?
Usually it’s 40 DJs and 10 punters
Gotta love Chicago lol
Yea there some good parties but I’ve also seen some raves that had 30 DJs on the lineup with 30 min sets (all b2b sets of course so 2 guys playing 30 mins lol)
Biggest mistake warm up DJs make? = playing what they wish to play AS A HEADLINER. As if it's an advertisement for how much they'd crush at 2am.
There's a local hero dnb dj in my area who warms up with the hardest dnb - it's a tragedy every time.
He thinks it's getting the crowd hyped. It's not. It's 60 minutes of ear fatigue.
oof...
DJ’ing may be an art, but you are going about it scientifically…
Guys obviously never been to a riddim show
Where's the videos of you actually DJing out? Or at home for that matter, but a set somewhere would be nice.
You can catch me on twitch every so often :) I don’t play out at gigs any more
Hey, have you ever been to a breakcore night?
I have not 🙃
a headliner who make 3000x more money then the warm up is not worth the money if he is wining abojt the warmup dj playing bangers....
Bad DJ's think they are controlling the crowd, good ones know the crowd should control you, to a certain level.
I think the ideal probably lies in the middle somewhere
i don’t agree, i think good Dj’s find a balance.
how ? MDMA ! ez
DJ MOIST :')
this dosent apply for dubstep and riddim lmao opener riddim djs be up there chopping 6 different edits of yasuo together at 6pm on a tuesday lol
Loser DJs accommodate. Good DJs play what they like.
you forgot to mention drugs. drugs will keep the dancefloor full no problem.
This way over complicating things! DJing is about expression, I’ll be dammed if another Dj or promoter will tell me how Dj or want to play, it’s a dj’s job to figure out the dance floor naturally, no dance floor is the same
The money you can make for building a following on YT . Sadly you are full of of it. Science is not clubland.