This second part of the two part series if pretty closely related to the first, and has already been touched on in some of the comments (here). Once you’ve sorted out your equipment, what makes a good set? There are plenty of Djs out there who are considered talented, but talent seems to vary from scene to scene.
I believe beat matching is the most important characteristic of any set. It’s like a ground rule that everything must flow from. You can’t have a ‘good’ dj if they don’t beat match. I’m pretty sure the consensus on this is in favour of my opinion, but that’s why I’m writing this article, to see what you think. With this ground rule in place, I’m not really sure what else is essential in a set but I’ll proceed with some things I think are important.
Song selection determines how the crowd reacts, so this is obviously important. The problem is; should it be driven by what the crowd wants? Within reason I think you have to get onto the same side as the crowd, but then the crowd should be paying to see you perform and if you want to ‘enlighten’ the crowd by playing something different then logically they should enjoy it (go here for a review of where it didn’t work so well). It doesn’t seem to work in favour of an experimental Dj very often!
Mixing style also has a lot to do with how a set flows, but this seems really variable from genre to genre. I love hearing choppy tracks that mix in and out of a whole set, and I don’t like to hear each track for very long. On top of that I love to see the dj throwing in effects and being constantly active in their set. I know this doesn’t work for all genres, certain kinds of music sound better with nice slow track changes and no effects.
So that’s two tiny points on what I think makes a good dj set, it’s not very conclusive, but that’s the idea! I’d love to know what you think makes a good set, so if you have an opinion put it below.
I hate seeing a DJ with his face down towards the decks the whole set. For me a good DJ needs to be watching the crowd, reading what works and building from the energy that they are creating.
Seeing the crowd should inform you what kind of music you should play, that doesn’t mean you can’t play something different but a good dj can find tracks that they want to play that the crowd will also like.
A great example was watching XXXchange and few other spankrock djs playing in NYC in support of Dizzee Rascall. The crowd there was mostly indie but the Spankrock DJs wanted to play BMore hip hop but the crowd just weren’t dancing. So the Spankrock DJs started dropping some indie friendly dance tracks to lure the kids onto the floor then started to do some crazy live mash ups with rap vocals then as the crowd was full into dance mode the could tear into the BMore stuff and this time the crowd kept dancing.
The moral of the story i guess is don’t play music you don’t like just to make the crowd happy, but find some kind of middle ground to win them over and lure them into the kind of music that you really want to play.
- some good points alex.
as you know, i don’t think beat-matching is the most important aspect of djing. sure it’s lovely to hear a beautifully mixed set but i would personally rate ‘knowing your crowd and music’ higher. ability in this department provides for good track selection and knowing what will work (and what won’t, and when).
secondly (as alex said), the energy you can bring to a set goes a long way to getting the crowd on your side. if you’re visibly enjoying yourself and keeping the pace of the music up (not necessarily the tempo), people will want to get into it.
if everything comes down to the beat-matching then you have nothing when you fuck up
(just my thoughts, don’t hate)
I’m with you on the beat-matching thing Will but I also don’t think the average clubber is too interested in if two tracks are mixed in smoothly. It makes me cringe when two tracks are mixed poorly but that’s just me. As long as the next track is a good one most people are just happy for a good new tune. (I think?)
Alternatively someone like Mr Oizo just sorta smashes tracks in (well of course) as opposed to starting a new tracks way before the old one has finished.
As for track selection know your crowd I guess.
This is all just coming from a wannabedj haha so I guess the pros know what they are doing that’s why they are playing gigs week in week out.
Yeah I agree with Alex about the head down thing that sucks. When i say an active dj i mean someone who is really into it, but still doing lots with the decks, not JUST jumping around.
I think your point jack about song selection is right too, it’s super important. I don’t think you can get away with not mixing tracks and a high level of djing, unless you are someone like Mr Oizo as Troy said. I think fuck ups are bound to happen, everyone has to have some, but it’s about hiding them by changing something else quickly or just pretending like nothin happened!
Don’t worry Troy I’m a wannabedj, but I agree with you! And I think you’re definitely right about the average clubber not knowing. But… from a level of easiness to dance to, as soon as you have any knowledge of beats the flow of a good set becomes aparent, so if you’re dancing and moving at 125 bpm and then suddenly it’s 100, you’re dancing gets thrown off, and you might not know that the dj didn’t beat match, but I can bet that lots of the crowd stops dancing and then goes to the bar. Subconsciously I think it throws people off, and that’s when you get the dancefloor that you can’t predict.
I think we should try this as an experiment! do some trials of people not beatmatching and see what happens. Trouble is controlling the third variable of song selection would be very difficult! Sorry I had to relate it back to psychology…
a clubbing experiment. i like it.
Yeah I think it’d be a pretty fun thing to do!
Depends what kind of gigs you are going to also.
If you are going to a weelky club night with your friends to have a good time, it is the music and entertainment that is the most important factor – where track selection and the DJ being able to entertain the crowd comes into play.
On the other side, if you are going to an event which you have specifically paid to see a certain DJ, then the other factors come into play are important to me such as beatmatching, entertaining etc as personally, when I pay money to see a DJ specifically, I’m not interested in them playing tunes that I know or tunes that I wanna hear – but more importantly, I want to see them play a solid set with no errors, do some cool things, entertain the crowd, and express their style of DJing through whatever tracks they choose to play.
Yeah I think I’m thinking the same as that Cam. Club nights are definitely a different thing to a touring artist. And you expect something pretty different from each.
A good dj is defff someone who finds a balance between playing what he wants to the right crowd that appreciates his music… that is the true goal for most dj’s. There is no point in having a great dj playing some real good beats at a club where all they wanna hear is some remixed song of the black eyed peas (hint to some).
A real good example is like if u really wanna hear so good underground techno, u go to a habitat or democracy night.
A good dj set is when the dj is feeding the crowd with energy from his tracks and in turn the crowd gives back this energy. Its the perfect balance.
Its just bullshit when people say you play for the crowd !
ITS ALL IN THE MUSIC !
Yeah I think that’s pretty true, if the crowd is there to see a certain dj play a certain type of music then they’re going to be more impressed by cool tracks they might know/or not know, from the genre they love. Rather than hearing some bullshit remix like you said!