On Djing...

Radio Buena Vida online at 1pm UK time on Friday for those that are interested. I will mostly be playing ambient/chill post-punk/artists that sound like CS + Kreme. I also plan on playing some Kraftwerk because I fucking love Kraftwerk but you never hear them on the radio or in mixes. I'll be playing something from World Of Echo for the same reasons

Nice one paolo. Bump the thread before you hop on to remind me to tune in

excellent! boxedboyf has been doing irregular shows for them too but theyve offered him a scheduled bi-monthly show

YES TO MOAR KRAFTWERK

And paolo, radio is such a fun venue for DJing (as long as you have the privilege of programming the music selections yourself). It should be a lovely time if you can get past the jitters. Please lmk if there's any kind of advice that you think might to calm your nerves. I have quite a bit of noncommercial radio experience.

Thanks! I can't think of anything off the top of my head. My main concern was timing, whenever I've been DJing before I haven't had to stick to a time limit so I was worried I might have say one minute left and I'd need to either leave a bit of silence or play just one minute of a track (which would be a bit rubbish), but I went to meet one of the folk who runs the station and he told me not to stress about it. So that's good. I guess if you have any generic bits of radio DJing advice that'd be helpful :)

Generic bits of radio DJing advice:

– Don't be shy, baby: talk to your listeners! The format calls for a host's consistent presence—and not just through their track selection. Even the super obnoxious, over-the-top, nonstop-frantic fellow DJ who I can't stand maintains a strong and dedicated listenership. I eventually stopped using prerecorded station IDs, drops and sweepers in favor of checking in personally.
— You can hardly give your listeners too many reminders of what station they're hearing. (Although if you're doing it after every song or two, you might like to use those prerecorded carts for variety's sake.)
– Don't back announce your selections, except perhaps the last song you played. People are tuning in and out all the time, and you will lose many of them if you talk about stuff they didn't hear. Tell them what's coming instead of what's passed.
– Conversely, it's nice to tease what's coming up in the show. Keep 'em anticipating.
– It's good to address your audience in the first person, as "you," "dear listener" etc. Using things lie "everybody," "all y'all," "my audience" &c. has an impersonal quality that's subtly off-putting.
– Remember that the microphone amplifies your vocal performance in a similar way to how a close-up shot magnifies an actor's facial expressions. My preference is to pot up the volume enough that I can speak like the listener is standing right beside me. It can work just as well the other way, keeping the fader down and bringing up the energy in your voice. Remember to watch the levels if those are not squashed by processing to tame loudness and boost quiet speech.
– As for timing, it depends how strict your station enforces its scheduled traffic. Assuming you're not at a commercial station that programs their broadcasts to the second (which must be set up with software), it shouldn't be difficult to set yourself up for a smooth finish. Around 15-20 minutes before the end of the show, check what's left to be played and give yourself a few options to plan the last leg to time. It's fine to give the last track the ol' "gentlemans fade," or play an extra cart to fill the last minute or so if you're too short on time for the erstwhile last track.
— Dead air is the bane of radio, and in my opinion, unless you're a talk show or doing the news, speaking for more than a handful of seconds without music playing under you is almost dead.
– There's an art to judging the right time to get on the mic as a track begins or ends.
– For music shows, I find it's best to make frequent announcements and keep them short but sweet.
– Keep a selection of "beds" (unobtrusive music for talking breaks) ready to play when you have longer announcements to deliver. Keeping beds at the ready is a good use for a third CD deck or other media player, which every station oughta have.
– Mind the levels if there's not a talkover processor to automatically duck the volume of everything else that's playing when you're on the mic. It took me quite a while to understand how far I need to turn the music down when I'm announcing. It should be probably a quarter of the volume of your voice, especially when you're saying more than the station ID, last track, and what's coming up now.
— Don't worry if you fuck up and stammer or misspeak. This is normal. It's not helpful to call attention to minor errors in speech. Correct factual errors when necessary and plow forward.
— Generally, but especially for less widely familiar material, I think it's important to mention bits about where the music came from, why it's worth our time or why I value it personally. I'm not sure how much my listeners care about the artists and song titles of the more underground and obscure stuff that I air, but I suspect the interest is fairly low.

Ok wow, hopefully that's not too much info. Remember that, barring some egregious transgression, the listeners are on your side. They want to like you because they're already listening to you. You're gonna do great.

PS. Not keeping it all about the music is a thing too. Give yourself the liberty to go off randomly, snark, charm, surprise. And if someone calls to harass you, the best script I can recommend is: "Got it. Thanks. Goodbye." Click.

interesting, I don't do some of those things (30 years on live FM, remote since COVID) but that's solid advice in general, I don't ever bother with beds and just talk, if I have things to say abt a record it's definitely gonna be before I play it and not after

yr right, beds aren't a must. being an engaging announcer's much more important

– Don't back announce your selections, except perhaps the last song you played. People are tuning in and out all the time, and you will lose many of them if you talk about stuff they didn't hear. Tell them what's coming instead of what's passed.

i wish someone had told me this years ago as i am the worst for doing this. i shall change!

That is an amazing advice post, but I've definitely found myself dying for a track ID and counting the number of tracks after it, hoping the DJ will back-announce and I'll be able to figure it out.

After many years, back-announcing is a very hard habit for me to break and it stills feels weird when I dont do it. These days, my approach is that I still think its good to do if I'm going out over FM, since at least some portion of your audience is likely to be in a vehicle or otherwise not in front of a screen. But if I'm exclusively online I figure ppl have access to live playlists & whatnot on whatever device theyre using to listen, so theres no need to bother with it (unless you have something really relevant/interesting to say about what you played.)

I haven't been on air in years, but as a listener I often appreciate the back-announce, as long as it's very brief (the song or at most two songs prior to the current one, and nothing other than artist/title.) No one is able to keep track of a seven song back announce, it's why websites with playlists were invented.

yes I run through them very quickly on the backannounce if there's more than 3 or 4, I usually also remind people that they can go to Spinitron for more info/playlists

Yes, stations these days ought to be logging everything in real time via their website or Spinitron or w/e. When I'm playing underground weirdo shit, I'll mostly refer the listeners there and announce track info only sporadically.

Probably everyone has been in the same spot as Jordan, where they wish they'd known what that song was. Lol maybe the DJ did back-announce it right after they had to stop listening and switched off the radio, ahah. I've also gotten confused and missed the info even when the DJ gave it, where the announcement included more than a few of the last plays and I lost track the order of what I heard, counting backwards—or did the DJ say it was chronological?—probably while I was driving. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Several of the better recommendations from my earlier post were passed on to me in a workshop my station hosted. I forget the name of the guest who came in, but it was over a decade ago. Her advice stuck! I think my show got a good bit better as a result.

heh, so tonight i'm going in to train to DJ and host at a strip club here in Honolulu town. i spent the whole week digging for music, making playlists and doing lots of research via YouTube and podcasts. i am ready. time to check this off of the bucket list.

i will not use the strip club DJ puke voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie0qwD2FYmA

tell us how it goes. do the dancers have their own entrance songs?

I was wondering the same. Asked a few of the entertainers if they had a theme song and none had an answer on the spot. IDK what mine would be, either, to be fair... Thinking about it makes me want to collaborate with individual performers who might be open to developing up their acts, work to broaden the scope of programming beyond the industry-standard tvrnt/ratchet domain... Put the SHOW back in Show Club, y'know? But first I'll need to get more than just my foot in the door.

Anyway, tonight was chill. I've done a ton of research and taken copious notes, and I think I'm ready to handle DJ duties (80% of which are ops and stage management) on my own, now. If I didn't fuck it up tonight, then I'll soon (happily) be there on the slow nights of Sunday and Monday. Fingers crossed. This spot is the only titty bar in town where I'd be glad to DJ—clean, high ceilings, minimal-to-zero sleazy/creepy/scary elements. Fuck going back to the software/tech industry.

I made my radio debut yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Was super anxious beforehand (and had an anxiety dream the night before involving not being able to find my records before leaving my flat, missing the bus, calling a taxi and it getting lost etc etc) but was fine when I started, as predicted by the folk that run the station

The main thing that surprised me was how bloody difficult it is to speak on the mic. I had planned on amiably chatting away to my listeners, dispensing fascinating wee observations about the music in the style of John Peel, when it came to it I was more like 'so erm, this one's by Arthur Russell, erm yeah, I really like it'. Getting super self-conscious even though there was probably only about five people listening. So DJs who can chat on the mic and make it sound easy and natural have gone WAY up in my estimation

For me it got easier after the first 10 shows. It's best not to think about what you're going to say while you're on the air and just talk, but that's hard enough!

Where can we listen to your show?

Congrats on yr debut, paolo! Speaking to an unknown set of listeners who you can't see, who can't respond (without calling you) and aren't even in the room with you... it takes a while to get used to it. It's much easier with a co-host, too. It takes courage just to get on the mic at all. Give y'self a pat on the back.

I forget whether you mentioned if this is gonna be a regular thing, but if I could offer any more advice for future shows, then I'd recommend listening to yr show's recordings for the talking breaks, and remember to just be yourself. Yr something special, be yourself!

Thanks folks! I'll stick the audio up in the DJs post your mixes thread when it's on Soundcloud

I've been pondering putting together a few 30 minute excerpts of my mixes that are more stylistically focused as a way to give booking agents something compact to check out that will give them a good idea of what to expect from me. I already have a solid House sampler:

https://soundcloud.com/moodlesmix/trip-house-excerpt/

I'm considering adding another for Tech House and Melodic Techno, and one that covers Hard Techno and Trance.

Is this a good idea? What is the best way to focus these to grab someone's attention? I don't really have a good idea of what a booking agent is listening for or what they want to hear.

Is the SoundCloud mix you posted set to private? I'm getting a 404.

As I understand it, the top 3 considerations for ppl booking talent are: 1) will they draw a crowd, 2) how well will the crowd receive them, and 3) are they reliable/professional/trustworthy?

You can get a foot in the door if the people doing the booking are confident about at least two of the three. A mix can help with #2—they'd be listening to see if your sound is a good fit for them—but it can be hard to get 'em to listen to it in the first place.

The common wisdom is that you should include demos in an electronic press kit (EPK), along with a bio, photos, videos, etc. Making one is a pain in the ass, but it can make a good impression and help you be more convincing about #1 and #3.

I updated the name and link and created a set of genre-specific short mixes:

https://soundcloud.com/moodlesmix/sets/sample-dj-sets-by-genre

I definitely will need to consider how to get some kind of real press kit together, but that will probably take a while to heppen.

3rd party last night. the best one yet. we actually made a little bit of money.

i took the 2nd set this time and honestly knocked it out of the park. i got a lot of compliments. i haven't rocked a night like that in .. 3 years? felt great.

getting better with fx. still do a high pass filter a little too much, it's a tic. need one or two other go-tos. even low pass / drop-outs or something.

local king of the mountain dj / frienemy who is difficult to work with came. i can't stress how unfriendly and up his own ass the guy is. but he's a scene fixture (missing stair) and has been for 20 years so everyone has to work around him if they aren't lucky enough to fall in his favor (which only lasts for a year or two at most anyway, he's a fickle one).

not sure what to do next. i have it in mind that i'd like to get someone from out of town to headline one of these, chrissy comes to mind, but that's a few parties down the line i think. i've been pursuing a weekly gig with a gay bar, but the owner is being flaky about it. i thought a sunday afternoon tea dance type thing might be a hit but now it feels like a gamble. i have to talk to him tomorrow.

i dragged my poor boyfriend into working the door, so i'm going to treat him to dinner tonight (he refused to be paid). honestly just super happy it went off. such a special feeling on the floor. took a gamble and went emotional for a track or two but enough to cleanse and then brought back the party energy. i made the warm-up dj's year pretty much, he's just starting out. he kept thanking me over and over. it was really sweet.

oh, and the featured dj we had is this guy who has only lived here for a year or two but had quite the career in l.a. has opened up for the likes of tony humphries. connected with dave aju, lots of california people. international gigs etc. really nice guy. brought two l.a. friends in the "industry" whatever that means lmao. played an amazing set of true cult disco, the kind of thing where every song is an incredible jam you've never heard before. "real soul" type stuff, beautiful. poor guy was on my xdj-rx2, called it a unicycle lmao. he really needed turntables for his set but yknow my shit is still pretty bare-bones.

that’s awesome your party was a smash map! woulda gone for sure if i’d been in town :)

missing stair - glad to know there’s a term for this kind of personality, i have a hard time dealing w/ ppl like that and usually just avoid them if i can, it’s such a pain when they’re someone you sorta have to deal with

looks like i may be DJing again in early march at that happy hour i used to DJ for pre-panny, which is happening at a fairly bourgie spanish restaurant just up the street from my house. the new venue is honestly worse than the previous one - hardly any room to stand and mingle with other ppl let alone dance. plus I’m DJing inside, which I’m fine with but nearly all of my friends here are still too fidgety about doing any kind of indoor activity so i probably won’t have too big a turnout. still, i’m just happy to get back out there and do a thing! mixes at home are fine but i miss in-person energy hugely

that's great news. anything is better than nothing. best of luck.

really enjoying these updates

Yeah same. It's been really fun hearing ppl share their experiences.

I just took my first gig since prepanedmic spinning after some bands at a small club in a couple weeks. In normal times this is one of my favorite kinds of gigs bc its low-pressure (ppl arent there to see you) but still a nice crowd, and people are lubed up from drinking during the show, plus I can get a sense of the crowd over the course of the evening and guess at what they might be into, if they'll want to keep partying or wind down, etc. Over the last 9 months I've been extremely careful, other than going to the (mostly empty) movies a few times I dont think I've done any kind of open-to-the-public indoor activity whatsoever, so I've definitely got some anxiety about that aspect of it, but it seems like a good chance to experiment with stepping out of my comfort zone and see how it goes (gig will be vaxxed-only and fully masked, so I'm sure it'll be fine.) Despite the mild covid-worry, I'm looking forward to it, I think it'll be really good for my soul & mental health to get out & share some records with people again.

that sounds ideal. glad to hear you're going to try it.

finally DJ'd a small party a couple weeks ago at a friend's house and had so much fun. several people mixed, including a guy who i didn't even know could mix who played a really fun freestyle set for an hour. then a couple of my buds went b2b playing acid, one of whom i always encouraged b/c i knew he could but he was always cagey about actually putting together some music and playing it out, but he sounded great! then we had a deepish house set, then some 90's house and techno, and then i went on from 3am and closed it out in a nice foggy living room full of friends. it was so cool having a bunch of people play a variety of music, just a lovely night all around

Sounds perfect

whew, things heating up a little bit in small lake city. i got asked to do the same slopeside gig i did in 2020 right before shit hit the fan, this saturday. complicated setup but i've done it before so should be easier this time and they're paying me a decent amount.

i staked a claim for pride friday in june at the bar we are doing my parties at. lo and behold i get a message saying the local kings of the mountain want that friday and saturday at the bar. so i talked to them and was like that's fine if i can dj and they said i could have a decent slot and i don't have to do the setup work myself. i will be eye rolly if they drop me into a warmup. they make me uneasy, lots of ego at their functions, not ideal for my dj-ing where i'd rather be relaxed and kind of running the show even if it's more low-key. but i guess i'll try it again and see how it goes.

after the above happened i rescheduled our party for early may.

and now i've got to start working on this tea dance weekly starting in late march.

feeling a little tired tbh, but satisfied that things are happening.

Nice work map!

after almost a 2 year hiatus I will be returning to my monthly restaurant/bar gig on Sunday March 6th, I am psyched

$1 oysters y'all

Yessss

This thread makes me want to spin again. The last time I played, a gallery opening way pre-Covid, ended with dancers stripping to their skivvies (in a gallery!) so you can see where I might want to return.

I have now built up a healthy collection of dance 12"s in the 125-140bpm range and I'm keen to mix them together at some point. Being more of a digital DJ, I know the theory but I have very little practice of spinning vinyl. Can't really get my head around accounting for that split second of speed-up/slow-down when you let the platter go. I'm going to practice on my housemate's decks soon though

do u know how to slip-cue? that takes care of a lot of that

(just enough pressure on the record to keep it stationary, while the turntable still revolves under it)

not really. i don't have much experience of vinyl decks at all really. I've done sets on them before, but it tends to be more ecelctic stuff that doesn't really involve much beatmatching

just practice a bit! it's pretty easy to figure out and the record starts instantly with no speedup intro

(I learned it in radio but it comes in really handy for me if I need to cue up a track where there's no gap beforehand, I don't beat match)

just make sure you have a slipmat!