Tips on DJ basics

For Musicians
1

Hey all, haven’t DJed in about a decade. And when I say DJ, I mean cross fading from one CD to another.

Due to (niche) public demand, I’m returning to the arena. And doing my work Christmas party in a pub.

I’m guessing using Spotify won’t given me the sound quality I need to have this banging playlist deafen the room.

Any tips?

Is it still best to download mp3s onto a stick / laptop and DJ from there? Is there an easy way or plugin that lets you export your Spotify playlist as high quality files? Should I just be doing all this off a laptop in 2024 and not bothering with decks?

Thanks!

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2

Do you have any idea on what the room you’ll be playing in already has? Does it have decks and a proper PA or just the kind of speakers and an aux cable you’d get in a pub?

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3

Its a great bit imho turn up with a vinyl crate to pull a laptop out of

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4

Make sure you have a microphone so you can check with the crowd if they’re ready to party, just in case they aren’t

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5

Remember to check frequently. Several times per song. And check with the ladies - the sexy ones, all of them - particularly.

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6

It’s a downstairs sound proofed bar with speakers around the room. They’re used to people just plugging in laptops or decks and DJing apparently. Haven’t got much more info than that

They don’t have their own decks though

7

Do you have a copy of Traktor on your laptop?

Could you get a copy of it on your laptop?

For the purposes of mixing mp3s for a work DJ set, Traktor is easy to use and takes less than an hour to learn.

Otherwise, what’s wrong with a Spotify playlist? That way, you can add requests and sequence them on the fly.

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8

I just wasn’t sure it would be decent quality enough? I recall we had a party once where someone plugged their phone into a DJ mixer and it was barely audible.

Would traktor on a laptop solve that?

9

We have a bit of budget for tech too so I can fund some software or a device under £300

10

Interesting thread - was thinking of approaching a venue to do one of these “old gits afternoon discos” for late 80s / early 90s indie music. Had thought about streaming remotely, but the venue has no signal (but I guess they’d have Wi-Fi)

Anyway, had also come to the conclusion of a laptop / Mac and suitable mixing software. But then there’s the question of whether a headphone jack out is enough, or if modern laptops even have these.

11

I don’t know if DJ Basics is a great name, tbh. At least spell it with an x maybe for a little bit of gravitas.

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12

DJ Basics and MC Meagre back in town?

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DJ Basicx?

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Charli Basicxc

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DJ Basicsx

16

If you’re planning on anything more advanced than just playing one track from a playlist after another I’d get a controller of some description. Haven’t used Traktor but it looks very similar to Rekordbox which is what I use, which has a lot of functionality but is very fiddly on a laptop. A laptop is unlikely to have a separate audio output for headphones too if you’d want to use them.

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17

Does this count?

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image1440×2160 342 KB

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18

For a work party, and assuming you’re not blaring it out, a streaming service will suffice. If you wanna mix tracks, cut off long intros and outros, honestly all you need to do is slightly turn the volume down on the previous and then back up for the next.

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19

Oh you’ll also need this

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20

unbelievable

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