The Most Terrifying Button In DJing 😱

And it's not the one you are thinking of..

Happy Monday Fader Flickers,

There’s a button that strikes fear into the hearts of DJs.

And it isn’t sync (for once).

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been DJing or how good your skills are. This button WILL make you mess up.

Last month I recorded my first guest mix in a very long time.

I can happily livestream and mix for hours in front of an audience of 100+ people without too many f*ck ups or stress.

But as soon as I had to hit record on this guest mix, it all fell apart. It was like I’d only been DJing for 20 minutes instead of 20 years.

Pressing the record button was like pressing the off-switch in my brain.

My transitions were ropey, my track selections didn’t flow and my palms were sweaty.

I had to re-record it 3 times.

But I learnt some valuable lessons along the way which I’d like to share with you today.

---

Be your own warm up DJ

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

Just like you should stretch before doing exercise, you should warm yourself up before recording a set.

On my 1st and 2nd attempts at recording I just went straight into the guest mix.

The results were stiff, and the first part of the mix stunk up the joint.

But on my 3rd attempt, I did something a little different. I pressed record and then purposefully played nonsense for 15 minutes.

I was just jamming.

This really helped loosen me up. After the warm up session I was able to go straight into recording the main guest mix.

I made far fewer mistakes and the tunes flowed much more freely.

All I had to do was delete the first 15 minutes from the recording after.

💡The Tip: Have fun before you get serious. Get some play time in before you record your main set.

---

Don’t be too structured

Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash

Normally I play non-time bound sets. If I’m streaming on Twitch I’ll just play until I need a wee.

That means I don’t have defined playlists ahead of time. I freestyle, mixing using tags and intelligent playlists instead and vibing off the viewers.

But this wasn’t always the case.

When I first started live streaming during the pandemic I planned EVERY track in advance.

This was mainly because I was so nervous about playing on this new medium, and there were lots of other things to think about that could go wrong.

Not only did it take ages, but the sets sounded really robotic.

I had the same problem on this guest mix.

Because it was only 30 minutes long I felt I had to carefully plan every minute and every track.

If a transition wasn’t flowing in the moment I had to stick to it because it was the next tune in the playlist.

God forbid I played something that wasn’t released in the last week, even if it’d work better.

By my 3rd attempt I knew I had to do something differently.

I decided to create a much looser playlist.

I selected a about 6-7 cornerstone tracks that I knew I wanted to include and then I left plenty of space for exploration in between.

Having the freedom to break out of that rigid structure made my 3rd go flow SO much better.

💡The Tip: Decide on a few key tracks to play. Rely on your intuition and library tagging to fill in the blanks.

---

Don’t show off (too much)

Photo by Matty Adame on Unsplash

A guest mix is the time to show how great your DJ skills are right?

I thought it’d be a great idea to open the set with a quad drop.

Anyone who has used dual layers on a controller to operate 4 channels knows what a mind melter it is. This opener took me about 8 attempts to pull off (don’t tell A.M.C.).

Annoyingly, after I listened back I realised it didn’t actually add anything to the set other than stroking my own ego.

As always, track selection is more important than any DJ trick.

In the final version of the guest mix I didn’t do anything more complicated than a standard 2 track transition to kick things off. And it was 100% better.

💡The Tip: Prioritise track selection. Most listeners don’t care about your DJ tricks. Only do them when they add to the music.

---

But what if I’m using Ableton?

Photo by Skyler Gerald on Unsplash

Most of what I’ve covered in today’s email relates to recording your mix live.

I’m not going to tell you whether mixing live or using a DAW like Ableton to prepare your mixes is better or worse. There are pros and cons to each.

I’ve tried both methods and for me the Ableton approach led to way too much overthinking and it took me AGES.

Because there is unlimited scope to tweak every last nanosecond of a set I was always tempted to over engineer the mix to the point it wasn’t actually reflective of my DJing.

For me getting something out there and being able to focus on something else that would add value to my DJing was more important.

💡The Tip: Decide on your priorities. Is it studio quality production, or being able to deliver more mixes faster? Are you looking to practice your live DJing at the same time? Do you have the extra time to invest in creating a software based mix?

---

So can I hear this thing or…?

If you’ve been watching the YouTube channel for a while you may have seen Pachelle (or her hands) pop up from time to time.

She is a Drum & Bass (I like to think I’m to blame for that) DJ from Toronto. She’s also been massively helpful behind the scenes doing research for some of the videos.

If you’ve ever got any value from the videos I’d love if you could head on over and listen to my guest mix on her show ‘Over The Moon’ on Data Transmission.

➡️ Lets help her break 1k listens for the first time ever 🔥

---

Other news

• We hit 1000+ HotCue DJ readers last week. Big love to everyone who has joined the family 🎉❤️

• I’ve been deep in the long and tedious process of transitioning from Tidal back to MP3s for my DJ library. 67 more tracks to go - wish me luck!

• I’ve been loving this Shogun sessions set by Lens. Best Baddadan switch up I’ve heard so far!

---

Have your say

My goal is for this to be the most valuable DJ newsletter in your inbox. Let me know how I’m doing 🙏

---

If you know any DJs you think would enjoy HotCue DJ I would love it if you’d share it with them 🥰