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.
This is the first of a two part mini-article series focusing on the hardware/software dj’s use (Pt. I) and what makes a good dj set (Pt. II). This article is meant to be a starting point, I hope you put your comments on the bottom of the post. I’m going to start with the dj set up because there’s so much debate about what is and what isn’t okay to use, and of course it varies from person to person for whatever reasons.
I’m always told that using Serato or Ableton (or any other Ableton like program) takes the ’skill’ out of mixing. I’m a small time dj and before I started had never picked up an instrument in my life, had no idea what key or BPM was, yet I was able to learn how to mix two songs in the same key with similar BPMs. Is there really that much skill involved in basic mixing in the first place? If there are two vastly different BPMs, or two tracks that aren’t created electronically this can’t be used as an excuse not to mix properly. If a CDJ dj can’t mix properly it completely destroys the argument about the ’skill’ of mixing.
On the flip side, using Serato or Ableton to simply mix tracks does seem pretty poor, but just mixing between tracks on CDJs isn’t that great either. I think the technology we have available should be pushing for people to become more creative with their sets. No one wants to see the same tracks hashed up in the same way all the time. So a good dj, whether they use vinyl, CDJs, Serato or anything else, will be able to add something of their own the a set. I think the general punters appreciate someone who’s working hard. Even if they don’t notice little mistakes, they’ll still enjoy someone putting everything into a set.
Although I was only a kid when CDJs came into existence I do know the same debate occured between traditional vinyl Djs and CDJ djs, so maybe in time we can have something else for people to try and flex their ego over. Any thoughts?
