I started learning how to DJ in February, 2024. I’m using a Pioneer DDJ-400 with Rekordbox and Soundcloud.
My biggest blocker right now is lack of coverage, also, I’m not very good at mixing live and I need to build muscle memory before I can perform a smooth and well executed transition.
Goal
I want to be good enough to DJ at a bar.
Clips
Some heat
My Set1 Setlist
Order by song names (from top to bottom)
- Think you the sh— (Fart) - Ice Spice (LOL) maybe cut this now that i’ve done it once
- Heads will roll - Yeah yeah yeahs
- Down - Jay Sean
- Yeah 3X - Chris Brown
- Give me everything - Pitbull
- Only Girl - Rihanna
- Sexy B*tch - David Guetta
- Better off alone - Alan Walker (Start on lower volume)
- We found love - Rihanna (Start on lower volume)
- Starships - Nicki Minaj
- One More Time - Daft Punk
- Murder on the Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Start this with voice stems off to mix in @ A then quickly transition and turn them on)
- I gotta feeling - Black Eyed Peas
- Where you are - John Summit (Start with vocal stems off)
- Where have you been - Rihanna
- Unwritten x Intoxicated - Carter Walsh (Turn off voice stems on Rihanna on transition)
- Feel this moment - Pitbull
- Beauty and a beat - Justin Bieber (You need to go quick on the transition before the next verse comes in on Feel this moment)
- Stereo Love - Edward Maya (Cut JB after “all I need”) (mix out at H here)
- Shiver - John Summit
- Inject Lola Young “Messy” into shiver”
- The Days - Chrystal
- Still need to work on a transition point into this
- Inject Fergie “Fergalicious”
I would like my total mix time to be a couple of hours but that might take lots of practice free-styling
Hints
My “A” hotkeys are mix in points and my “B” hotkeys are mix out points
”H” hotkeys are points of interest (cut ins, cues, etc)
My First Set!
I played my first set on Saturday, July 6th 2024 where I played my ~1hr set list which went relatively smoothly. My transitions tend to distort at loud volumes which was a bit unfortunate but all in all it was a good experience!
After my setlist ran out I free-styled which went better than expected for another 2 hours or so.
Challenges
- Since my setlist was pre-prepared before hand, taking requests was a challenge.
- Some requests didn’t line up with the BPM of my setlist (for example I got many requests around ~80 BPM when I’m playing ~130 which makes mixing difficult)
- Navigating conversations while free-styling and trying to line up a transition was also a bit of a challenge