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Thread: Are we starting to overanalyse this....???

  1. #11
    Casual77's Avatar
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    I'm a big fan of Mixed in Key but I don't really worry about the keys of songs on the majority of my gigs. If you are doing a Mixed house or trance set with long blended transitions between tracks it is really useful to avoid horrendous sounding key clashes, but on most of my gigs I just do short cuts between tracks so harmonic mixing isn't all that necessary.

    I find the energy ratings handy on all my gigs though. All my songs are tagged by key and energy rating and it helps me minimise the risk of killing a busy dance floor by dropping a song with a big drop in energy or playing something too energetic when I'm supposed to be playing low-key background music.

  2. #12

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    My work is 95% weddings.

    I prefer to choose the music based on what I think will work best next for the crowd - not what 'mixes' well.

    Once I start to look at what mixes well, then I'm stuck with a certain bmp range, and as for the also mixing 'in key', it starts to really limit the number of songs that you can play next.

    I fear that following something like Mixed In Key, whilst your first few gigs might produce a very different order of songs to anything you've done before, you'd soon find your self limited to the same few sequences of music, due to the limited options available.

    I can totally get this for club work, but at a wedding, there's times where I intentionally want to rotate the dancefloor, and a big change between genre/tempo/style etc can help this happen. So I purposefully use songs that don't work well together to get people off the dancefloor, and that invites others who weren't dancing on to the dancefloor.

  3. #13
    ukpartydj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post
    My work is 95% weddings.

    I prefer to choose the music based on what I think will work best next for the crowd - not what 'mixes' well.

    Once I start to look at what mixes well, then I'm stuck with a certain bmp range, and as for the also mixing 'in key', it starts to really limit the number of songs that you can play next.

    I fear that following something like Mixed In Key, whilst your first few gigs might produce a very different order of songs to anything you've done before, you'd soon find your self limited to the same few sequences of music, due to the limited options available.

    I can totally get this for club work, but at a wedding, there's times where I intentionally want to rotate the dancefloor, and a big change between genre/tempo/style etc can help this happen. So I purposefully use songs that don't work well together to get people off the dancefloor, and that invites others who weren't dancing on to the dancefloor.
    At any one time there must be many, many songs which would be good choices to keep the dance floor going, if you pick one of those songs - well done. If you pick one of those songs and it mixes perfectly or if the melodic accompaniment is uplifting and you can repeat this throughout the night you're surely a better DJ for it?

    I don't use it so much for mixing anymore as I now mostly do weddings, but you can still use that information to create interesting transitions. Sometimes I would swap between a fast club style track to some mowtown or 60's by matching the key and finding the right break. It also allows me to chop a lengthy track which may bore the dancers and introduce another halfway without a jarring change.

    Also, we all at some point get a bit stuck as to what song to play next. When this happens I will often search my genres & most played tracks to throw up some ideas. Choosing to order by most played tracks in a compatible key (which you can do on Traktor) throws up a completely different selection of tracks in many genres with different BPMs which can help as well.

    Dorset DJ - Dorset based DJ service
    11:11 EVENTS LTD - 11:11 EVENTS LTD

  4. #14

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    Exactly. I say anything that gives us new programming ideas can only be a good thing.

    I sometimes wonder, when a guest comes up to request a track I've literally just cued up, whether I've just been ace at reading the crowd or I'm just that predictable This tends to happen at most gigs at least once. Spooky.

    As for the argument of 'I mostly play weddings so this doesn't apply...' I say pah & tish to you! Everything can have a role to play to greater or lesser degrees. Ignore a new. way at your peril.

  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by ukpartydj View Post
    At any one time there must be many, many songs which would be good choices to keep the dance floor going, if you pick one of those songs - well done. If you pick one of those songs and it mixes perfectly or if the melodic accompaniment is uplifting and you can repeat this throughout the night you're surely a better DJ for it?
    I don't think there's any such thing as the 'perfect DJ'. Just lots of different great DJs for different needs.

    If a DJ can beatmix through the evening, with seamless transitions, because everything is mixed in key, then that DJ should be promoting that, as there will be clients actively searching for that type of DJ.

    Another client may not have any interest in the music being mixed, but be more concerned about the 'order' of songs chosen - ie, whatever is best for the dancefloor, regardless of bpm and key.

    And that's just two examples.

    What DJs are bad at is detailing exactly what type of DJ they are in their marketing.

  6. #16
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post

    What DJs are bad at is detailing exactly what type of DJ they are in their marketing.
    I'm whatever type they want me to be.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    I'm whatever type they want me to be.
    I need you to come and sit in a room in deepest, darkest Berkshire with me one day!

  8. #18
    Resident Antagonist Benny Smyth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post
    I need you to come and sit in a room in deepest, darkest Berkshire with me one day!
    That is the worst Jack Bauer impression that I have ever witnessed.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    I'm whatever type they want me to be.
    BERKshire is no problem....I suspect our learn'd moustachioed friend from t'North would prefer Lakenheath though....they have their own particular brand of "cheese" there which is witnessed nowhere else on the entire planet!

    All jokes aside though....I, like Peter am whatever they want me to be (within reason). If they want cheese, so be it (grudgingly), if not....I'm all ears. So long as the party's flowing and bodies are on my dance floor, I'll do whatever it takes!

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