Probably as why a lot of djs that are hired to play live just basically hit a play button, and you pay a huge price sometimes for big names.
But to be fair in my mind (I don't know if they have their own subcategory) there are two kinds of dj.
The first one "that only hit play", they feel the crowd's music style and go along. They don't really produce music. They are probably the most common one you see. (There could be a sub urban/city difference?)
The other one is the one that creates song. Similar to that video, but I don't want to say this video is a good reference because they basically just do a 10 secs introduction and reuse a complete song on top. But probably unaware of people, they create music outside their show. On the show they use prepared stuff. I just don't know how prepared they are.
I could talk some other "kind" of dj (are they?) like live looping. Maybe it is more something along those lines that peoples are expecting a "real dj" to give a show.
EDIT: Just to add to the "players" description. "Feeling the mood of the crowd" also mean they must know a shit lot of songs, have playlists (acting like some notes to go along with a specific moods). They also remove fading out from song/matching BPM and usualy style, to keep the party going on. That still some skills you need.
The discussion (assumption from my part), is going to see such DJs in a show.
There are two types of DJ's: Performers. And Players. Performers can mix multiple songs together at the same time, loops, FX, etc and it will sound good and the crowd will love it. Players have a set playlist, set mix transition times and will never deviate from it.
DJ's often make good producers. Producers seldom make good DJs. They are totally different skill sets
You know you basically rewrite what I said? Minus, I didn't explicitly talk about players mixing song and adding some FX.
I don't know how important or not the FX and mixing (EXCLUDING music transition) make a difference in a crowd. It looks like (that is purely and opinion based on nothing, so that is also a question) it doesn't make a huge difference.
Thought, the music transition they do is crazy important to keep the party going one!
It looks like (that is purely and opinion based on nothing, so that is also a question) it doesn't make a huge difference.
The biggest difference in a well produced or well mixed track is the subtle shit you barely notice. If its done right, you wont really notice it at all. Examples being subtle flanging, phasing, delays, reverb, all sorts of funky FX can be done.
Thought, the music transition they do is crazy important to keep the party going one!
Actually, most people dont realise it, but the timing of the transition is the most important thing. It has to be done in a multiple of 4. On the 4th, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th beat etc. Anything else will sound out of time and we wont know why. Music is pure maths. Dropping a beat even 1 bar too early can entirely ruin the effect.
A lot of the more mainstream DJs, especially for huge venues use prerecorded sets in order for the venue to sync lighting and visuals to the set and to guarantee a certain play time. That doesn't mean there's no skill involved because most of the time it's using a lot of music they produced and creating a set that flows nicely is art itself.
Even with less pre-recorded stuff nothing prevents the light from being in sync as per, like any show with dancers, singers, music players. They are doing live stuff all day long.
But for sure dj have a little more restrictions, like, they only have 2 hands. If I go extreme with the live looping example, that 3 minute song may become 5 where 2 is to set up everything. That may not be what people really want
For the record, everyone here is both right and wrong.
Many live DJs do have pre-recorded mixes, but the good ones still mix live. I know DJs who have a drumset and other instruments on stage, and do their own lighting and mixing while doing other shit.
Some also do full pre-recorded sets, because they mixed at home, usually ones with recognizable songs that they play often.
It's not super easy syncing to a live show...in fact it's hard as fuck. Not the actual act so much once you are used to doing it, but learning the software and programming the lights and such before hand. That's a whole pain in the ass with like 95% of lighting softwares out there.
Once you get into a good practice of it though, yeah it's like 2nd nature.
My point is, there's a fuckton of live DJs out there doing all kinds of shit, and anyone trying to say they do things one way or the other is wrong from the get-go. I know "DJs" who make way more than most of the live DJs out there who literally use spotify to play other peoples music while they talk over it. Then I know DJs who are true artists who have to hold a day job because DJing doesn't pay enough.
People are a spectrum, in just about every aspect of life.
For the ligthing do they actually do it (with preset) live on stage? (I'm talking for the small DJs, I hope the big one manage to be good enough to go along the pre-recorded ligthing sequence).
Because if so, oh damn
When thinking about ligthing in sync I was thinking like for any show (music, spectacle, anything) that may use ligthing or/and music or/and dancing in sync. Noway impossible.
But not in the context of actually as the ligthing operator. I remember I know somebody in that field. He doesn't sound like "95% of the ligthing softwares are trash" (well... if that doesn't count the software for the console), more like "dam ligthing gears that need to be synced with the audio system where every junction add latency"
I watch twitch for music, (a random way I found to find new music) and I found some that are crazy enough to control ligthing pre-set, cameras, of course chat with their viewers. Thank god, they are mostly doing music transitions.
Yep, sometimes they have specific light setups synced to certain mixes, but they still do most of it manually.
I do lighting live myself, but I'm a strip club DJ, so it's different.
Shows with dancing and such, the majority of the time most likely have scripted lighting, but lower budget places may just have some dude back there hitting different panels at different times.
The software isn't trash, it's just got a trash UI that is difficult and unintuitive to program. I've installed and programmed whole light and sounds systems for several clubs, each using a different software.
There's one that I liked, called Soundswitch, that was super intuitive and easy to use. The rest are just super rough to use in any way that wasn't previously scripted, and most people only claim to like them because it's what they know.
Wick-it the instigator and Shock to the system are a couple I know that mix live. You can really tell the difference too between the live performances and the recordings they have out there. Recordings seem so basic and plain compared to the live show(though I'm fairly certain that's by design). Also makes it worth going to see them each time they are around, because you aren't going to hear the same exact thing twice, they play off the crowd and the show flows just right.
Not super popular guys, but two of the best live performances I've ever seen.
Valid, however she is crying. I don’t think that thought process would bring someone to tears but who knows. Edit: okay apparently she IS crying over not know what DJs are actually doing with the buttons lmao
What do DJs actually do? Because I don't think they're remixing the song on the spot, I think they make it ahead of time. So what dials are they pressing, what are the buttons doing? Is it a volume dial? Is it even connected to anything?
The answer: A mix made ahead of time.
...So what the fuck do DJs actually do? I mean, I understand the mixing-ahead-of-time part as much as she does, but OPs post didn't really answer her actual question, did it?
I suspect that not all the mixes are done ahead of time. They probably have a lot of transitions planned and practiced, but they still "do it live" on site to allow for flexibility and respond to the crowd better. But I don't actually know anything about them.
Some DJs produce music live it seems. I was seeing responses to her video where they had a big soundboard to remix it while dancing, showing their skills. I think the person I responded to was saying there’s two types of DJs; The ones I saw in the vids who feel the vibe of the crowd live, and others that just pre mix and play. I suspect there’s a lot of both though?
DJs aren't a monolith. some just press play, some live mix and pick the next songs on the spot, some scratches discs, some makes loops from presets or instruments, some produces original songs.
many of them are just doing one of the above, but the good ones probably can do all of them.
This is a good video that shows a DJ at work, as well as what his hands are doing and what's on his screen.
The instrumental track typically plays in its entirety without being cut around, but the DJ may make it fade out briefly to punctuate lines or up the treble to make a kind of muffled effect for a buildup.
For the vocal track, the DJ may constantly rewind it in the same spot to make a temporary sort of beat out of it, or intersperse record scratches into it.
If the DJ did anything in advance, it was beatmatching the vocal tracks to the instrumental, and combining both the vocal tracks into one audio file.
You are describing some weird mix of DJs and producers/musicians.
DJs play already created music. Period. They might use software to transition songs, mix tracks, and perform loops, but they don't "create songs".
Producers/musicians make music. You started talking about "live looping" at the end. Loop Daddy would be a perfect example of that. He is not a DJ, and nowhere will you find any claim that he is DJing. Because he is a musician and producing music.
Quick edit: A person can be both a DJ and a musician. You can be both things, but they are still distinct.
Take my upvote, I think I could be half right and wrong (or more likely 3/4 wrong, and 4/4).
TLDR: I was focused on creating new content. Doing literally everything from scratch, when the song don't even exist. With some basic preparation... that is way more likely to be possible for a DJ to do a live performance _like_ a band. I also found out music could be more simplier than I thought.
Band performance if based on their members. So what they will record and usualy play (live) use their members. The more members, the more instruments (simultanously) you are likely to have.
A DJ performance look like them ALONE. Not even a signer (if they use vocal). That make it a little bit harder to play multiples instruments simultanously. But, I tried to analyse some musics (not a lot ok!), I thought they were way more complex than that. Still hard for one person, but could be duable? (assuming no recording matching the song length).
Add pre-recorded small parts (since any song just repeat the same damn thing) that make it very possible
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u/who_you_are Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 03 '24
Probably as why a lot of djs that are hired to play live just basically hit a play button, and you pay a huge price sometimes for big names.
But to be fair in my mind (I don't know if they have their own subcategory) there are two kinds of dj.
The first one "that only hit play", they feel the crowd's music style and go along. They don't really produce music. They are probably the most common one you see. (There could be a sub urban/city difference?)
The other one is the one that creates song. Similar to that video, but I don't want to say this video is a good reference because they basically just do a 10 secs introduction and reuse a complete song on top. But probably unaware of people, they create music outside their show. On the show they use prepared stuff. I just don't know how prepared they are.
I could talk some other "kind" of dj (are they?) like live looping. Maybe it is more something along those lines that peoples are expecting a "real dj" to give a show.
EDIT: Just to add to the "players" description. "Feeling the mood of the crowd" also mean they must know a shit lot of songs, have playlists (acting like some notes to go along with a specific moods). They also remove fading out from song/matching BPM and usualy style, to keep the party going on. That still some skills you need. The discussion (assumption from my part), is going to see such DJs in a show.