r/DJs

Hey guys and gals. Any recommendations on ripping my vinyl collection for my digital set up. I tried Audacity but not just couldn’t get the sound quality out of it. Is there a better user friendly alternative out there. Thanks for the help.

Im discovering the darker sound of techno some might have industrial kicks, dark punchy vibe. The tracks I get are mostly MP3 320kbps and cut off at 16khz with some peaking tails up to 18-20khz. To my ears it sounds okay but I’m not a professional, been only discovering real music recently. I did my research and it seems that the techno from 2010-2020 mostly uses the LAME filter cutoff that compresses it to 16khz. Some tracks have frequencies above 16khz but majority don’t. My question is would that be a real 320kbps or it’s upscaled and will it sound good on a big system? Please don’t say things like if you can’t tell the difference what does it matter, maybe I can’t now but in the future things can change and I don’t want to invest in my library to only then realize it was all upscaled files

I just booked a paid dj gig at a middle school dance lol. Never done this but anyone have any advice on how to approach this? I think they’re like 12-13 years old. Any advice helps

I'm the in-house lighting designer at a 600-cap club in Phoenix Tuesday-Saturday, 9pm to 3am. Sunday-Monday I do mobile DJ gigs, mostly weddings and the occasional corporate. Both pay rent. Neither uses the same gear philosophy and the venn diagram is way smaller than I expected when I started doing both.

A few things that don't carry over:

• Install vs portable. At the club we have 16x Chauvet Maverick MK2 Spot + 8x GLP impression X4 hung on permanent truss. The Mavericks alone run about $5,000 each. There is exactly zero version of "I'll throw this in the CR-V Saturday morning" that involves a Maverick.
• Cue density. Club night I'm running 90 cues over a 4-hour set, each one timed to the resident DJ's transitions. Wedding I'm running 4 cues (ceremony / dinner / dance / first-dance dim). Different brain mode.
• Cost of failure. Club: a fixture craps out, swap it next morning, move on. Wedding: a fixture craps out during processional, the bride remembers it forever. So the gear has to be more reliable per dollar, not necessarily nicer.
• What it has to look like in photos. Club LDs design for "feels good in the room." Mobile DJs design for "looks good on the wedding videographer's 4K." Different aesthetic. Saturated club gels look brown on camera.

Anyone else doing both? Curious how you reconcile gear budgets. I keep trying to bring club aesthetics to mobile and it doesn't work.

Context: I have been at least a bedroom DJ for 12 years, been doing regular (2-4 a month) gigs for about six months now. My sets are always received super well, but I’m resenting how much time it takes for me to prep.

By prep I mean:

1. Sourcing music as needed
2. Listening to and analyzing new songs
3. Arranging and practicing the set

If I had to guess, I have about a 1:1.5 ratio of set time:prep time. Sometimes more for complex themes. For several sets a month each lasting several hours, it starts to add up.

I use Traktor if that matters (and it would take a lot to convince me to leave it). Is this normal for y’all? If you’re able to prep faster, what’s your process like?

Greatly appreciate hearing your insights, I have no one locally to talk to about this!

Share your mixes, videos, music, routines etc here.

Promotion for events or livestreams will be removed.

I recently sold my old DJ controller but held onto its coffin case.

Has anyone here used a coffin for something else other than turntables or controllers etc?

I have heard a few DJs use this term to describe a certain type of song, but I don't exactly know what one sounds like. What are the most definitive chuggers of all time?

Been DJing for >3 years. Practice minimum 5 hours a week. Bought the v10. Can beat match three tracks by ear.

My passions are progressive house (pretty much all of it) , deep evil minimal stuff, dub techno, classic prog, classic progressive trance, trance (not cheeses euro dramatic stuff), hard groove, gettotech , and a lot of stuff in the 140-150 range.

I like all the diff genres because no two genres mix the same. All different skills.

However I think this is confusing for the local scene. I am not consistent with what I deliver, but rather deliver for the party and time slot I’m given.

If I’m opening for a techno party I play different than closing
Same for progressive.

Maybe I’m going for a dj Seinfeld or Ben ufo type of gig where I just am a selector but it seems like everyone else has their lane and I’m still finding mine.

Doing the same thing gets boring. And if I only ever played prog I’d be jealous of the guy who’s playing four deck techno juggling bass lines and layering frequencies because you can’t quite do that with such melodically strong tracks. At least , I haven’t reliably figured out how to.
But at its core, I don’t really know who I am and I seem to just drift off and practice for whatever I think I might want to play at the next gig and build up around that. (I don’t do preplanned set lists)

Any advice is appreciated . Hopefully this isn’t a beat match post cuz it’s more deeper question about identity for someone who’s getting booked and has thrown their own event already.

Genuine question for professional DJs. Have you actually earned enough through DJing to fully pay off / ROI your DJ setup?

I see some insanely expensive DJ rigs posted on Reddit and I’m curious how many are profitable investments vs passion purchases. Would love to hear timelines and what kind of gigs made the difference.

Do you know if there is a name for the style Egyptian Lover uses. Did he "invent" this and/or are there other Djs whos use this technique frequntly in their sets?

I've been asked to play a set at an event in a few months and was asked to provide a promo reel, and I realised I've been playing for a couple of years and never made one. Sure, I have plenty of clips of what I do and play and mixes I send out when requested.

Any idea what to include in one? Any idea what not to use? Does anyone have any examples they are willing to share?

I am in the need of a 4 channel mixer i want a good soundcard and not for it to be too expensive i was thinking of the xone 43c cuz i found one almost new (second hand) for a good price bit the thing is that I would like to have at least a decay and a flanger as well other than the 3 standard filters.

I would like also to be able to record easily a set via laptop or usb maybe.

What would you advice me?
edit I generally would like to employ a cdj the output of a flx4 and an elektron syntakt and maybe if i find some pedals

OK don't laugh. 7 years of mobile work, mostly weddings + the occasional school dance. My lighting has always been "plug in the GigBar, hit auto, pray." This past spring I picked up 2 cheaper movers as a starter pair because the fixed lighting was getting embarrassing on dance-floor video clips and clients started asking. Plan is to scale up to 4 once I figure out if these are keepers.

Now I have movers that absolutely do not look right in auto mode and I need to actually run DMX. Problem is every time I open a tutorial it's some lighting designer with a 64-channel grandMA console explaining cross-fade timing. I do not have a grandMA. I have a laptop and a USB DMX dongle.

What's the path of least resistance for someone like me? Specifically:

• I don't need to design 90-minute concert shows. I need 4 cues: dim wash for ceremony / warm wash for dinner / dance-floor chase 1 / dance-floor chase 2.
• I want to trigger them from my DJ software (Virtual DJ / Serato) ideally on song change, but manual button is fine.
• Free or cheap is good. I am not buying an Eos console for 6 weddings a year.

I've seen QLC+ mentioned a lot. Also SoundSwitch. Also some people say just buy a Behringer DMX controller and forget software. What actually works for the Wedding DJ use case where I need to be fast at 11pm?

Roast me if this question has been answered 100x, just point me to the answer.

Got a gig today and it’s been awhile so I’m a bit nervous and I’m working on the playlists too pull from right now

Recently got the numark scratch and installed the pnp 3 innofader. I’m just put off by the loud clicking noise it makes when the metal hits the face plate when cutting. Has anyone else experienced this and got any solutions ? Thanks