Dubstepforum.com

I used forum search and didn't find any thread dedicated to DJ talk, so I'm going to start one.

For the sake of discussion, here are some sample topics

What equipment do you use?
Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
What songs are you rinsing lately?
Have you DJed any large events?
What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
What is your most memorable experience?
Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
Do you mix in key?
Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?

Let's get a good conversation rolling.


Myself, I am extremely interested in DJing, but I don't know if it's for me. I am saving money to buy something to mix with, and I probably will buy a controller (lets please not let this devolve into a vinyl vs digital debate). I feel like a controller will allow me to test out DJing, to see if I enjoy doing it before I blow a huge wad of cash. If I enjoy it, I will seriously consider buying decks.

Dubstep is really the only dance music that I have a serious interest in. I can't stand the 4-to-the-floor beat of house, but I have listened to a bit of DnB and Jungle, and enjoy listening to those genres. By dubstep, I mean the proper stuff. There are some tearout tunes I enjoy (dubstep allstars 5 has a decent bit of what I would call tearout), but I can't really get into some of the extremely repetitive wobbles and screechiness of brostep.

this will have been covered, but it's a cool topic that i like speaking, so i'm going too answer anyway

What equipment do you use?
Currently, i have a cheapy stanton mixer, 3 channel, does the job for 2 channel mixing, 3 channel is a bit of an effort, but i've made it work.
I have 2 Pioneer CDJ200's (not 2000s) and 2 Stanton t.150 turntables

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
Mixer is definitely in schedule too get an upgrade, got a few idea's in mind, so it will happen in due time.
I want too have 4 CDJ's just because i do enjoy mixing cd's, but if i'm mixing CD's i want too be seen as someone who has taken extra time too hone my craft, nothing serious against DJ's who just use 2 CDJ's, it's just a personal thing, i'd also genuinely upgrade from CDJ200's because i want the scratch feature so i can actually reload tunes and have it sound better than it currently does.
Needles on my turntables, but that's about it, maybe get a 3rd-4th in the distant future, not at all a priority, but a passion of sorts.


What songs are you rinsing lately?
On my CDJ's, i've always found myself mixing a lot of 4x4/dancey tunes recently.. some tunes..
Dismantle - Computation+VIP/Word Dance/Detonate/Witch/Dots/Warp/Clone
Farkas - Tribal Dance
Giant - Punani
Zinc - Nexx
Redlight - Source 16

On Vinyl;
Coki - Marduk
Coki - Duppy Soursop
Compa - Dem A Talk
Coki - Goblin
Mala - Changes
Mensah - The Trailing Moons Of Saturn

those tracks almost always find themselves in a mix.


Have you DJed any large events?
Not yet, i can confidently say i'm ready to mix live, definitely CDJ, Vinyl i would be confident in going up in front of a crowd, but there might be a slight mistake or so.
I do plan to start doing clubs and stuff soon, but it's not a major priority in my life right at the moment

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
I know a few DJs in my area, but worked with none.

What is your most memorable experience?
With my lack of live experience i can only really say when i finally picked up solid beat-matching on vinyl, definitely a skill, not as much skill required on CDJ's (but it is still required, and takes time)

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
I've been producing for about 3-4 years now, it does take the front seat, more-so because i work generally 6 days a week, 10-12 hour days, so my time to myself is usually early hours of the morning, hard to enjoy mixing at 5db, so i produce

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
as stated above, not hit the clubs yet, but i'm always showing mates my dubs, and generally the response is getting better with time

Do you mix in key?
Sometimes, i know what harmonic mixing is, and went through a phase where i refused too mix anything that didn't fit harmonically, but i also think that mixing harmonically, whilst sounding good for the ears, tune selection takes a priority, especially if the dance isn't moving and your stuck in a key that really doesn't have much too offer the dance

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
i always enjoy mixing it up, not really doing full sets of other genres, but i like experimenting with tracks around 130-150 and mixing them into sets.
i do have big love for the sound Om Unit/Cosmic Bridge pushes, these days i tend too spend at least half of my time mixing, mixing this sound.

What equipment do you use?
2x Stanton T120, 1x DJM 400, Serato SL1.

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
I will shortly get my dream config : 2x Technics 1200 MK2, 1x Rane TTM56S, Novation Dicer.

What songs are you rinsing lately?
Sleeper & Disctrict - Terraformed
Biome - Scoundrel
Jay-Z & Kanye West - N***** In Paris
Caspa (feat. Subscape) - Geordie Racer
Radikal Guru (feat. Cian Finn) - Inilusion
Sukh Knight, Killawatt, Seven, The Bug, but also some Rusko, Magnetic Man, Emalkay, Dismantle... Big diversity.

Have you DJed any large events?
Only some (around) 400 people parties but I'll get a club residency from September

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
My local friends only

What is your most memorable experience?
We played in the street during the Music Festival (Fête de la Musique in France) and there were lots of people and great vibes from 6pm to 3am. Outside is better !!

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
I've been producing for a few months. I'm at the beginning of the road..

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
_

Do you mix in key?
Not intentionally.

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
I played some Glitch Hop sets occasionally, but I always add some Hip Hop and Dub in my Dubstep mixes

What equipment do you use?
2 x CDJ1000 MK3 - DJM 800 - Mackie MR8s

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
Ideally technics but not sure how id get vinyl here without the risk of damage

What songs are you rinsing lately?
Silkie - Tonight
Pheral - Residue
J. King + Benny Ill - Kosmic 78
J. King + Benny Ill - Lithium Soular
Consequence - Injunction
501 - Gist
Radikal Guru - Kali
Forgot about this: Truth Riskotheque Marchmellow-Dont Explain_Riskotheque Marchmellow Remix
Have you DJed any large events?
Working on it, dont think it would go down here tho.

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
Planning to, i just always seem to find other things to spend my money on.

Do you mix in key?
Not sure if thats necessary with dubstep

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
I mix Techy + Liquid dnb as much, if not more than dubstep and a bit of deep house sometimes.

What equipment do you use?
i play vinyl, but i don't own enough gear so i could play at home. i got one sl mk2 and a pioneer 500djm which i borrowed from a friend and he's never asked it back i'm planning on buying another technics so i can play at home. i DJ whenever there's gigs, so that's also the only practice i get i'm quite shit but i do have my moments. and it's all about the selection anyway innit

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
another sl mk2 and a pair of active monitors so i can practice at home

What songs are you rinsing lately?
i guess i've played julio bashmore's batty knee dance on every gig for the last year or so

Have you DJed any large events?
dunno what's considered large but i've played at a ton of events, some having even 300-400 ppl attending

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
i've got a friend i've played most of my gigs alongside with, he's ok and also a much better dj than me so it helps as well.

What is your most memorable experience?
this american rapper guy featured at our last (for now) night in a local club, i played out some tunes (joker - gully brook lane, arkist - fill your coffee) and he did a bit of a freestyle over them. the whole bar went absolutely mad and cheered like there was no tomorrow. i felt pretty good about it too.

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
yes i produce but i never play out my tracks, even though i've had the chance since some of my friends that i play with play digital and have my tunes

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
-
Do you mix in key?
unintentionally sometimes, i concenctrate on beatmatching and usually theres not much more than drums playing at the same time

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
not different sets or anything, but i play some house, techno, old school garage and some disco, hip hop or whatever i got in the crate

topmo3 wrote: i played out some tunes (joker - gully brook lane, arkist - fill your coffee) and he did a bit of a freestyle over them.

What equipment do you use?
Decks.

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
Nah, fuck it.

What songs are you rinsing lately?
No questions about my weapons.

Have you DJed any large events?
Nah, never got any further than a set in front of a 20 foot wall of lights

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
Sully, Be-1ne, both sound. Be-1ne arrived in a brand new Range, was just passing out courvoisier to everyone in the queue, Sully arrived via a gyrocopter landing on the roof (he flew it himself to arrive on time from spain where he was meeting with exiled crime lords).

What is your most memorable experience?
Probably when Wiley turned up and starting spitting over my set and we contemplated the wonders of the universe because he'd been watching a documentary

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
I'm all front seats bitch

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
2 bros died of mkat when I dropped this burial bootleg

Do you mix in key?
nah, in a club usually

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
I just play Haddaway - What Is Love on a 3 deck set every year for a treat.

What equipment do you use?
2 x technics 1210's an allen nd heath xone62 shure m447's and sony mv700 headphones (which are shit, i want a new pair of technics ones)

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
change headphones, loking at trying out some new cartiridges, perhaps shure m35c's ? decks need a service as well.

What songs are you rinsing lately?
A bunch of stuff from Niteshade inc
new 3rdeye tunes
Sam KDC tunes
and various records

Have you DJed any large events?
I supported the Orb as a tour DJ many moons ago and played a few venues round the UK as well as the solo dj stuff ive done, mostly around Birmingham, but have ventured more down south than up north for shows.

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
I havent worked with any (makes me think of making tunes) if you mean DJing on the same bill, Cyrus, Crises, Fused Forces, After Dark, Oneman & Asbo, Darkside, DCult, Wachs Lyrical, Alley Kat, Mind, Pangaea, Sully, Alex Patterson, Seanie -T, D-Styles, Ricci Rucker, Mike Boogie, cant remember any more LOL

What is your most memorable experience?
Having a sold out crowd at the Astoria cheering me for doing some scratching.

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
I make tunes and run a label

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
yes, and generally the deeper tunes not the banging ones. Always push it and try to take it very deep and the response is always good.

Do you mix in key?
yes, but by ear not by some stupid chart. that is properly lame.

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
all sorts, hip hop, leftfield beats, house d&B. I like music and if i think a tune is good i will pfind a way to include it in a set.

What equipment do you use?
Technics, Denon 1500S and ocasionally Traktor Scratch with some MIDI stuff.
Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
Kinda want a new mixer, either a A&H one for mixing, or a Vestax/Rane/Ecler for cutting, not sure which, wish I could have both. Oh, and I also want to trade my single 1200 for a 1210 (we all want matching pairs, no?)
What songs are you rinsing lately?
Haven't been able to play lately, my gear's stashed at my mate's place ever since I moved.
Have you DJed any large events?
Nope, don't play out.
What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
Just a bunch of mates
What is your most memorable experience?
One of the first times I managed to pull a good mix on 100% vinyl probably.
Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
Been kinda getting into dabbling a bit with producing, just recently downloaded the Reason Essentials demo, but nothing serious.
Do you mix in key?
In key? I mix what I think sounds good.
Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
As far as playing on my decks, it's virtually only Dubstep, but I do some House, DnB, Gabber and Psy mixes every now and then using Traktor. Also trying to learn scratching

What equipment do you use?
Technics, DJM 400, Traktor Scratch.

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
Hoping to upgrade my mixer.

What songs are you rinsing lately?
Stimming- Una Pena
Aphex Twin - Xtal
Consequence - Chamber Music
Hardwell - Spaceman
Skream - If You Know
Vicious Circle - Hibernation
Dillon Francis - Masta Blasta

Have you DJed any large events?
Nope, mostly house parties. Working on something locally, though.

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
One of my buddies who djs, that's it really.

What is your most memorable experience?
Dropping Request Line at a house party in college amongst some Electro House and it being wheeled up. Shock of a lifetime.

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
Just started. Trying to get my head around Ableton first.

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
Haven't got anything of that standard yet.

Do you mix in key?
Depends on genre.

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
Refer to list above. Anything from Hip-hop, house, dubstep, dnb etc. Makes it much more fun for me when I mix it up a bit.

[quote="PsycoCarrot"]I used forum search and didn't find any thread dedicated to DJ talk, so I'm going to start one.

For the sake of discussion, here are some sample topics

What equipment do you use?
my mixer is broken cause i spilt coffee on it

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
yes but only if your prepared to pay for it

What songs are you rinsing lately?

Alistairr August 2012 Top 10

Artist / Track title (remix) / Label (catnum) /
Jelly Llama
Reveries of Orange The Bohemian Club

2
Dr. Alex Paterson
Loving You Live Warp Records

3
The Field
Burned out Kompakt


4
Boreal Network
King of Currumpaw Retronym

5
Emanfari
All I got is Love The Bohemian Club

6
Wagawaga
Gnightss A B Trip Acroplane Recordings

7
Marcello Giordani
Chubby Rain ep
(Modus) Slow Motion
SLOMO 006

8
Automatic Tasty
Welcome Ohm Luv Lunar Disko Records
LDR_07

9
Sandoz
Digital lifeforms Mute Records

10
Pangaea
Memories Hessle Audio

Have you DJed any large events?
no, im too crap

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
Soap Company are amazing djs

What is your most memorable experience?
trainwrecking my first set

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
i used to produce, but i decided i cant be bothered to anymore so set up a label

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
huh?

Do you mix in key?
of course, dont u?

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
i dont really mix dubstep at all, see chart

here is a recent mix

Soundcloud

in fact i dont really mix tracks, just rely on track selection

sorry for the massif post

You can't really comment on mixing in key, if you're not actually mixing the tunes though?
Selection is fiyaa btw!

-I use Reloop decks and a Xone 22 mixer + Traktor.
-Looking to upgrade to Technics, the pitch on these things sucks.
-Biggest venue had a capacity of 400, but wasn't exactly full.
-I mainly produce, but I haven't played anything out yet.
-I mix it if it sounds good
-I don't mix (or listen) to dubstep. Mostly play 'underground' techno stuff, but there's always nights where people can't
handle it or it's a bit too early.

well it depends on how im feeling sometimes ill make a mix in ableton (usually house or techno) as my mixer is currently bust, or sometimes even garageband, that mix i posted was actually made on the latter. garageband is useful because tempo is not a varaible so u can literally go across genres easily and make a very enjoyable listening experience, whilst in ableton although u can vary the tempo in order to have a mix, the tempo is fixed, well its hard to explain but basically tempo is a vairable in ableton. Anyway the point of all this is that consquently i do know about mixing in key, or at least i think i do. Further ive had decks since i was 14, so i am aware at least of mixing in key. this wasnt meant to be a lengthy explanation/lecture just i tend to go on tangents easily.

thanks, if ur referring to me, for some reason that mix has stuck a chord with various types on soundcloud.

got a question to the vinyl djs:

do you bring your own systems/needles when you play out? and do you always check the adjustments of the decks (weight on the tone arm, anti skate) before playing?

What equipment do you use?
piece of shit numark belt drive turntables and a vestax pmc 05 pro mixer

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?
hopefully change my turntables/cartridges, but i always spend my money on vinyl

What songs are you rinsing lately?
Boddika - Basement
Dexter - Junofest
Kim English - Treat Me Right (Jon Cutler Remix)
French Fries - Yo Vogue (CVS Remix)
Michael Moog - That Sound
Trevino - Buried

Have you DJed any large events?
One time in my basement, huge crowd, like 3 spiders and a centipede

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
nope

What is your most memorable experience?
1st beatmatch

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
produce hip hop mostly and dj house so i dont really relate the 2 at all

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
hell yes

Do you mix in key?
try to

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
hardly ever mix dubstep lol, usually house/bass/disco/grime

this is le sort of shit i like to see on this forum

What equipment do you use?

2x Technic 1210s that i picked up on gumtree last year for only 200 smackers! deal and a fucking half right their no but seriously, always been a vinyl man possibly switch to serato one day. oh and i use a pioneer djm 800 that i *cough* found at a party

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?

may switch to serato one day but at the moment im happy collecting/playing vinyl

What songs are you rinsing lately?

1. Jack Sparrow - Afraid of Me
got sent this a few months ago and have been rinsing it since, so much so ive had to cut it twice
2. Kayze - The Message
this one a dub made by a friend of mine, hes too scared to put it up online but may i say wherever ive played it its been going off!
3. Boddika - Soul What
released a while back but this for me is an absoloutely timeless tune, wherever i play it i get a huge reaction and straight rewind
4. Loose Ends - Hangin' On a String
cheesey 80s track that i only just worked out the name of, heard loefah play it at staunch the other week and its litrally been on repeat
5. Digital Mystikz - Restructure 2 Rebuild
again timeless tune for me, perfect intro to any set

Have you DJed any large events?
played at various squat raves around london and various small events, biggest achievment was probably once at Brixton Jamm on a busy night, played to maybe 200 people?

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?
never really played with any notable DJ's but ive gone b2b many a time with close friends of mine Kayze and Sey G. Been friends for a couple years and this music shit has always been our dream really so to go b2b with them at our first club gig was memorable to say the least

What is your most memorable experience?
probably close friends of mine who usually hate anything that doesnt have lyrics in it come wid der pasty hands from the crowd and pullup my tunes during a set or that adrenaline you get when youve just played to an audience

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?
more recently ive been getting more and more into this producing thing but buying and playing records comes first in my book at the moment

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?
ive found that the tunes of mine that i have played have always gone down relatively well, no rewinds though. my friends tracks though inparticular kayze. his tunes are always straight backy wacky!

Do you mix in key?
im aware of the concept but never given it a go, mainly because i dont know the key of any of my tunes lol

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?
Djing came about through collecting records so yes you could say i do, im always one to throw in something unexpected. mainly dubstep ofc but im into all this 808 bass stuff aswell, i also have a big collection of grime,drum and bass and UK funky and bits of pieces of old 90s music and hiphop

Great responses in here. I'm enjoying reading about everyone's most memorable times, some good humor there.

Does anyone have a particular "vibe" that they like to play? Such as, Be-1ne tries to push the dance very deep.

It seems like decks are the major choice for this forum, and it's understandable why, given the dubplate culture of dubstep. For those of you that play out, do you bring your own decks, or do most clubs have house decks? If house decks, do you ever have issues that they aren't set up like your decks, or have inferior quality parts, or are broken? How many records do you normally bring to a gig?

What equipment do you use?

At home, I use a pair of 1210s and gemini CDJ600s, with a Behringer 750 mixer and the standard HD25s.

Any planned equipment upgrades/changes?

Upgrading to Pioneers as soon as my cash flow is somewhat sorted out.

What songs are you rinsing lately?

Alot of grime instrumental stuff, I'm usually with an MC/host so I like to make sure I have tracks that they can work with:
Teddy music - Park up
Sir Spyro - Joseph
Faze Miyake - Take off
I'm playing alot of 130ish darker beats as well, alongside some 2 step just to set a groove for the night. Productions from the likes of Happa, Trusta, Akkord etc. Redlight - Planet X is getting a good hammering lately as well.

Have you DJed any large events?

I'm fortunate enough to be a resident for Just Skank in Manchester, which means I get to DJ at big events fairly regularly. Most recently I warmed up for Tempa T, but I've DJd on label takeovers, including a DMZ takeover and a Deep Medi takeover.

What other DJ's have you worked alongside, and who was your favorite to work with?

Mostly friends that I've worked with, just arseing about having a back to back if we're feeling relaxed. "Worked with" wouldn't really be the best way of putting it, getting hammered and just playing tunes with your mates is more how I'd describe any 'work' I've done with other DJs.

What is your most memorable experience?

Playing mainstage in Sankeys and having Mensah run from half way across the room to jump from the floor, into the DJ booth, just so he could wheel up 138 trek.

Do you produce in addition to DJ, or does producing take a front seat to playing out?

I dabble in production, but my main focus is DJing. I dabble in production more so I have the additional knowledge about the music I'm playing and how it all works, rather than to make my own music to play out.

If you do produce, does the dance respond favorably to your tracks?

Never played my own productions out.

Do you mix in key?

Yes and no, depending on the situation. Sometimes keeping a nice consistent flow of harmonic blends is favourable, sometimes just mixing drop to drop to get people on their feet will work better. It depends who you're mixing for, who's after and before you, what they played, where you want to take a crowd etc. Flexibility is key in my opinion.

Do you DJ any other genres besides dubstep?

I started with dubstep, but now my tastes are becomingly increasingly varied by the week. Grime, 2 step, garage, some techno, house, breaks, anything roughly between 125 and 140 that I like the sound of.

Here's another one to add to the question list....

When mixing at home, do you play entirely in green lights, or into the yellows? Obviously for home listening its preferable to keep it green all the time, but I've never seen a club environment where you arn't forced to play in the high yellows. If DJing out consistently, it makes alot of sense to play in the yellow lines at home, as 2 tracks blending in green lines sounds entirely different to two tracks in the yellows, and that's the sound you will likely be playing out.

The crew in my city holds it down by bringing a nice set of decks and Shure needles to every gig even if its primarily being played by CDJ djs - vinyl is respected



I've been recently grabbing lots of '97 - 2001 UK garage off Discogs and rinsing that - playing an early set of entirely that vibe this weekend at a festival that Dieselboy is headlining - there will certainly be nuff other djs rinsing heavier stuff tho


got Technics 1200s mkII and mkV with an Ecler Nuo 2 - a super excellent and simple mixer

baddis98 wrote:do you bring your own systems/needles when you play out? and do you always check the adjustments of the decks (weight on the tone arm, anti skate) before playing?

It's never a bad idea to have your own carts spare.