playing original songs live, help.
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- KVRist
- 41 posts since 18 Mar, 2012 from Pennsylvania
Hey, so I have enough material now to play a full hour set and then some. I've been asked by a friend, who set up a wiccan summer solstice fest, to DJ my jams. I have no experience playing live so I came here to get some help. Whenever I've gone to an edm show I've noticed DJs play half a each song then move onto the next one, is that a thing that everyone does to keep peoples attention? I want to play my whole songs but I'm worried the crowd will get bored mid song. Also, I was curious how you guys play your songs live. I use Ableton live and I have an apc 40 and a behringer rotary controller I can use. Any suggestion on how I can set my songs up to play them properly?
Create.
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an-electric-heart an-electric-heart https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=182734 - KVRAF
- 2513 posts since 13 Jun, 2008 from Napier,New Zealand
Normally you start by playing the intro of the first song, play it through till to the climax, then you cut to the next song, but you skip the intro of that next song, basically you just skip the intros and outros... but every 10-15 minutes people will need a rest so you put a songs beak-down in there... that's it... kind of. 
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- KVRAF
- 16905 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
Just a thought, the audience doesn't care about "live" playing, especially if you are really just djing. If you have an ipad, traktor DJ or whatever they call the ipad app, is fantastic and dead easy to use.Nihilis wrote:Hey, so I have enough material now to play a full hour set and then some. I've been asked by a friend, who set up a wiccan summer solstice fest, to DJ my jams. I have no experience playing live so I came here to get some help. Whenever I've gone to an edm show I've noticed DJs play half a each song then move onto the next one, is that a thing that everyone does to keep peoples attention? I want to play my whole songs but I'm worried the crowd will get bored mid song. Also, I was curious how you guys play your songs live. I use Ableton live and I have an apc 40 and a behringer rotary controller I can use. Any suggestion on how I can set my songs up to play them properly?
If you've never DJed before, and it sounds like you haven't, get some practice. People in that context generally don't want to hear your "whole song." If you do nothing else, make mixtapes of your own music, just chaining them end to end as if you're playing them, and listen to them in your car. The audience is going to get bored long before you do.
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- KVRian
- 1224 posts since 2 Dec, 2008 from Finland
I don't dj regularly, but a few months ago I did a set at this one dance. I play roots reggae, which effectively is more or less electronic dance music. I've dj-ed a number of times and even more than that, I've been a henchman in sound sessions.
The equipment I had of my own was an Ipod Touch and a cable to plug it into the main mixer, the rest of the stuff were my friend's, who runs a sound system. The mixer had a turntable, a computer and my Ipod connected to it. It has a silly sampler on it with sounds of gunshots and sirens etc. The output signal of this went to another mixer through Roland's RE-20 pedal (works in stereo). This another mixer then had a stereo channel with those sound sources and some channels for microphones and their effects (there were a few vocalists there). Somewhere along the line there was a crossover eq for playing the sound system (ensuring that the right amount of bass gets in to the right speakers). And from there forwards to the amplifiers, etc.
Or that's how I remember it right now, it might have been slightly different -- I didn't need to set it up myself. It was a quite typical underground lo-fi setup anyway. Cheap perhaps, yet full of vibes (half of the sound system was there, 5000 watts in a room that fits a hundred people).
Anyway, what I had for playing was ready-made mixes (with the Ipod's music player) and a few effects -- and I had a blast. And so did the audience, judging by the feedback I got afterwards. I played my own tunes but mainly tunes from a band/collective I used to be part of.
If you plan on using that APC controller for arranging on the fly, prepare for it to be taking a lot of time out of what you can do. I haven't done anything like that, but I'd assume you'd have to be keeping a mental count of how long you've been playing a part and if it's the right time to move on to the next part. With pre-arranged tunes you can just concentrate on the effects that go on top of it or between tunes, doing squeaky filters and such. It's obvious, but it'd be wise to set up the controllers you have to have coherent settings between the tunes, ie. a delay knob is always a delay knob and not a reverb on this one tune and a delay on the next one. The less looking at the screen, the better.
Having ready-made tracks is more comparable to a traditional disc jockey, who just plays a tune after another, while having performace controllers makes it more of an performance. I mean, dj-ing is a lot about performing, but it's different from arranging, mixing and perhaps playing an instrument on top of those. No one says you can't have a bit of both, though.
If you have the opportunity to go to a proper roots reggae dance, try and take it, even if you don't fancy the music too much. I think it can still be an educational experience to see how the soundman/selector/dj keeps the people dancing (or not). Some of it I think can very well translate to other genres and some of the ideas can be adapted.
Thing about a roots reggae dance is that the selector most often plays several versions of each tune. So if the tune/song is really good, fits the moment and the people are appreciating it, it can go on for several versions, even in to fifteen minutes per song. Say, a dub version emphasising drum and bass, a vocal version, a solo instrumental, a dub with someone chatting over it. All versions don't have to play entirely, but playing only short snippets is often considered bad style - they don't give enough time to the listener to get in to the mood before having to change the mood.
For instance, I remember I put on this one instrumental with a ska-ish drumbeat. Anything with a ska-feel always makes people jump and prance, put on their best moves. I had played it for a few minutes, and then just hit stop after a drum fill (which went to a lengthy delay from the RE-20). People were literally hit hard by the music ending so abruptly and started looking at me while making noises like "oooy!" and "unnnhh!". I just kept a cool face and lifted my index finger to show that wasn't all there was to it, and put on a vocal version of the same tune and people started dancing again with wide smiles on their faces. After that, I went for a year 3000 steppers tune (a four-on-the-floor drumbeat) and the people were feeling like dancing even more with a fast pace.
And as this post just keeps on getting longer and longer, here's more.
Some things to consider are:
- consider it from the dancer's perspective. What would keep you dancing through a set?
- build ups. Not just within a song but between the songs. An hour of just 144bpm is tiresome but twenty minutes of that can be ecstatic, if the dancer's blood is already pumped up.
- musical content. It doesn't take long for a listener to get to know a tune, so adding any differentations keep people interested - whatever a solo instrument coming in, vocals or snippets of vocals or some dub action (using the mixer as an instrument -- either already at the studio or on stage). If EDM djs only play half through a tune, is it because there isn't much more to those tunes? If you're afraid that people will get tired in the middle of your tune, start doing something at that point.
- contrast between minimal and detailed. A lot of instruments all the time can sound like instrumental wankery, while just minimal songs can sound like they don't have anything to them. There's a balance there somewhere.
- songs don't have to be beat-mixed. It can tire people, while having a bit of a pause between songs give the dancer some time to catch breath. These pauses don't have to be silent though; you can use samplers, sirens and effects to keep up an atmosphere or chat on the microphone.
- make the hardware settings easy for yourself.
- keep an eye on the people and make decisions about your selection based on how you think the people are feeling.
And before anything comes premeditation.
The equipment I had of my own was an Ipod Touch and a cable to plug it into the main mixer, the rest of the stuff were my friend's, who runs a sound system. The mixer had a turntable, a computer and my Ipod connected to it. It has a silly sampler on it with sounds of gunshots and sirens etc. The output signal of this went to another mixer through Roland's RE-20 pedal (works in stereo). This another mixer then had a stereo channel with those sound sources and some channels for microphones and their effects (there were a few vocalists there). Somewhere along the line there was a crossover eq for playing the sound system (ensuring that the right amount of bass gets in to the right speakers). And from there forwards to the amplifiers, etc.
Or that's how I remember it right now, it might have been slightly different -- I didn't need to set it up myself. It was a quite typical underground lo-fi setup anyway. Cheap perhaps, yet full of vibes (half of the sound system was there, 5000 watts in a room that fits a hundred people).
Anyway, what I had for playing was ready-made mixes (with the Ipod's music player) and a few effects -- and I had a blast. And so did the audience, judging by the feedback I got afterwards. I played my own tunes but mainly tunes from a band/collective I used to be part of.
If you plan on using that APC controller for arranging on the fly, prepare for it to be taking a lot of time out of what you can do. I haven't done anything like that, but I'd assume you'd have to be keeping a mental count of how long you've been playing a part and if it's the right time to move on to the next part. With pre-arranged tunes you can just concentrate on the effects that go on top of it or between tunes, doing squeaky filters and such. It's obvious, but it'd be wise to set up the controllers you have to have coherent settings between the tunes, ie. a delay knob is always a delay knob and not a reverb on this one tune and a delay on the next one. The less looking at the screen, the better.
Having ready-made tracks is more comparable to a traditional disc jockey, who just plays a tune after another, while having performace controllers makes it more of an performance. I mean, dj-ing is a lot about performing, but it's different from arranging, mixing and perhaps playing an instrument on top of those. No one says you can't have a bit of both, though.
If you have the opportunity to go to a proper roots reggae dance, try and take it, even if you don't fancy the music too much. I think it can still be an educational experience to see how the soundman/selector/dj keeps the people dancing (or not). Some of it I think can very well translate to other genres and some of the ideas can be adapted.
Thing about a roots reggae dance is that the selector most often plays several versions of each tune. So if the tune/song is really good, fits the moment and the people are appreciating it, it can go on for several versions, even in to fifteen minutes per song. Say, a dub version emphasising drum and bass, a vocal version, a solo instrumental, a dub with someone chatting over it. All versions don't have to play entirely, but playing only short snippets is often considered bad style - they don't give enough time to the listener to get in to the mood before having to change the mood.
For instance, I remember I put on this one instrumental with a ska-ish drumbeat. Anything with a ska-feel always makes people jump and prance, put on their best moves. I had played it for a few minutes, and then just hit stop after a drum fill (which went to a lengthy delay from the RE-20). People were literally hit hard by the music ending so abruptly and started looking at me while making noises like "oooy!" and "unnnhh!". I just kept a cool face and lifted my index finger to show that wasn't all there was to it, and put on a vocal version of the same tune and people started dancing again with wide smiles on their faces. After that, I went for a year 3000 steppers tune (a four-on-the-floor drumbeat) and the people were feeling like dancing even more with a fast pace.
And as this post just keeps on getting longer and longer, here's more.
Some things to consider are:
- consider it from the dancer's perspective. What would keep you dancing through a set?
- build ups. Not just within a song but between the songs. An hour of just 144bpm is tiresome but twenty minutes of that can be ecstatic, if the dancer's blood is already pumped up.
- musical content. It doesn't take long for a listener to get to know a tune, so adding any differentations keep people interested - whatever a solo instrument coming in, vocals or snippets of vocals or some dub action (using the mixer as an instrument -- either already at the studio or on stage). If EDM djs only play half through a tune, is it because there isn't much more to those tunes? If you're afraid that people will get tired in the middle of your tune, start doing something at that point.
- contrast between minimal and detailed. A lot of instruments all the time can sound like instrumental wankery, while just minimal songs can sound like they don't have anything to them. There's a balance there somewhere.
- songs don't have to be beat-mixed. It can tire people, while having a bit of a pause between songs give the dancer some time to catch breath. These pauses don't have to be silent though; you can use samplers, sirens and effects to keep up an atmosphere or chat on the microphone.
- make the hardware settings easy for yourself.
- keep an eye on the people and make decisions about your selection based on how you think the people are feeling.
And before anything comes premeditation.
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 37262 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from Scottish Borders
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- KVRAF
- 16905 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
Context is everything. Perhaps the OP could give us an idea of his style? For many styles, all of the ones that I like, in fact, sirens and chatting are most certainly frowned upon and wouldn't generally be welcome additions to a proper live set.ras.s wrote:you can use samplers, sirens and effects to keep up an atmosphere or chat on the microphone.
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Winstontaneous Winstontaneous https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=98336
- KVRAF
- 2598 posts since 15 Feb, 2006 from Another Green World
I've done gigs for many years and worked as a pro soundman for a bit. Whatever can go wrong, often does.
Be sure to:
- do a few practice runs -- setup your kit as quickly as possibly in an unfamiliar location and do a run-through
- contact the tech crew/sound person/stage manager in advance so you know what you're dealing with
- bring extras/backups of everything - power/USB/audio cables, etc. Even if you usually use an external interface, also bring a 1/8" to stereo RCA or 1/4" cable for your internal soundcard
- have a fully charged computer battery -- a lot of times generators put out considerably lower amps/volts than digital equipment needs to see, like a continual brownout. Even if the power is legit there may be ground issues that can only be solved by running on batteries
- have an emergency playlist burned to CD or on your phone/iPod just in case
- HAVE FUN -- "Wiccan summer solstice fest" sounds like a bunch of open-minded naked people high outta their gourds! Be sure to bring flyers with links to your stuff.
Be sure to:
- do a few practice runs -- setup your kit as quickly as possibly in an unfamiliar location and do a run-through
- contact the tech crew/sound person/stage manager in advance so you know what you're dealing with
- bring extras/backups of everything - power/USB/audio cables, etc. Even if you usually use an external interface, also bring a 1/8" to stereo RCA or 1/4" cable for your internal soundcard
- have a fully charged computer battery -- a lot of times generators put out considerably lower amps/volts than digital equipment needs to see, like a continual brownout. Even if the power is legit there may be ground issues that can only be solved by running on batteries
- have an emergency playlist burned to CD or on your phone/iPod just in case
- HAVE FUN -- "Wiccan summer solstice fest" sounds like a bunch of open-minded naked people high outta their gourds! Be sure to bring flyers with links to your stuff.
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- KVRAF
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
Even mid-song you can use the mic for encouragement if you think the crowd needs it. Just listen to how other vocalists do it live - maybe check some stuff on YouTube.ras.s wrote:you can use samplers, sirens and effects to keep up an atmosphere or chat on the microphone.