The world of electronic dance music (EDM) is booming. The market for this music, and the reports related to it, is on a significant expansion trajectory. And it’s not limited to a single demographic, age group, generation, or geographic region. . The trend is global and almost universal.
To be clear, EDM is nothing new. It’s had its ups and downs since space music was introduced to Chicago in the early ’80s, in the wake of the disco revolution. The pandemic has played a role in the existing resurgence, as many have tried to pursue DJing and music production while sheltering in place, but there has been a huge push that has led to the Covid-19 crisis.
In 2023, at the age of 51, I will become a space DJ. It might sound old, but you deserve to know that some of today’s top DJs belong to this age group: Deadmau5 is 43 years old, Kaskade, who has become the first DJ to play at the Super Bowl this year, is 52 years old, and Tiësto is 55. Then there are newcomers Shaq. aka DJ Diesel (51) and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, aka DJ D-Sol, 62 and now semi-retired from DJ. It’s fair to say that this art form is open to everyone.
Personally, I enjoyed music enough to understand DJ work and, eventually, a car on stage. It reminds me of being a Formula 1 fan and not being able to drive a race car on a track to enjoy the game and the skills it requires. It’s an important component of my journey as DJ. Si you attend music festivals or go to nightclubs, having DJ skills complements those experiences as you get to better appreciate car exits and what happens in them. Plus, it’s a wonderful skill to have when hosting components, whether at home, on a boat, or at a family reception.
“Since DJing is more popular, many music lovers find the barrier to entry much less difficult than a traditional musical tool like the guitar or piano,” says Matt Pekmezian, vice president of sales and marketing for AlphaTheta Music Americas (parent corporation of Pioneer DJ). ). ” People in their 40s and 60s think DJing would produce musical effects faster than, say, learning to play guitar or piano later in life. “
In fact, what follows is the story of this adventure, as well as an advisor to finding a DJ at any age, but especially at an age when many might think they are too old to start.
It deserves to be overlooked, but you should enjoy the music you’re betting on. If you are young and need to pursue a career as a DJ, you may have to make sacrifices in this field. For example, you might be passionate about space music, but you also have to attend wedding concerts to pay the bills. It requires open-format DJ skills, where you play hip-hop, Top 40, vintage rock, and pretty much anything the consumer needs. In this case, you’re betting on the audience and not the audience. This is a key distinction. The latter is an audience that has come to see a DJ or a specific genre. That’s the kind of DJ delight and functionality I’m looking for.
Within the broader genre of space music, there are many subgenres, including tech space, melodic space, progressive space, bass space, deep space, and many more. Personally, I’ve turned to the tech space, whose popularity has gained in recent times. years thanks to prominent artists such as Fisher, John Summit, Dom Dolla, Peggy Gou and James Hype. . . as well as influential tech space manufacturers Wax Motif, Mau P, Max. Styler, Martin Ikin and others.
As the call suggests, tech space combines the center of space music with the stylistic characteristics of techno. It takes the bass beats and 126 BPM average that space music is known for and combines them with harder synth sounds and beats discovered in techno. This creates a more competitive club sound than the classic space and has a tendency to generate more power and excitement in the audience.
The selection of a genre will be tracked through the identification of a few key influences. In other words, locate artists that motivate your playlists, your DJ style, and in all likelihood, the music you produce if you end up being a DJ/producer. route. For me, Fisher and James Hype played that role. I appreciate Fisher’s level of talent, his background in board sports, his bucket hats, and how his music drives and even defines the tech space genre. I’m also motivated by James Hype’s technical DJ. skills and his ability to create live mixes with the biggest downfalls in the industry.
One of the most productive tactics for exploring genres is through the online music service Beatport. It’s Spotify for DJs. Beatport uniquely organizes music across all EDM subgenres with top 100 lists for each. I’ll explore this extra in the segment on building a music library.
There are dozens of DJ controllers to choose from, which you can simply plug a computer into and start learning the art of combining music. There are also all-in-one portable systems that are used via mobile DJs for events, etc. . But if you really want to be a DJ, it makes more sense to be informed and master Pioneer DJ’s popular club apparatus. What you necessarily build with the following is the ultimate DJ setup for a bedroom or living room, ideal for not only informing how to mix and play, but also creating content in support of your DJ brand.
Pioneer DJ CDJ-3000 Professional Media Player
The CDJ-3000 Virtual Club DJ Player
This is the professional-grade DJ controller/player you’ll find in almost any and all nightclubs and music festivals around the world. It has become a universal norm and for a clever reason. The CDJ-3000 allows DJs to create incredible sets by employing up to six decks at once to combine multiple tracks simultaneously in a way that was previously unimaginable. If you don’t use a CDJ-3000, you’re not exposed to everything that’s imaginable in today’s DJ age. And in fact, you may not be offered to play at the club when the opportunity arises.
The main feature of the CDJ-3000 is its nine-inch touchscreen. This is where you see tracks as they play, i. e. you see the visual representation of a track as a multi-colored waveform. This tells you exactly where you are on a track. and what’s to come. With multiple networked decks, you’ll also see a stacked waveform of tracks on top of each other with the goal of combining and mixing exact beats. In many ways, this reduces the need for headphones, as you can “see” the music before it’s live-streamed. . . assuming you’re already familiar with the piece.
The screen is also where you access your library, and this can require a lot of bureaucracy on the 3000. In most cases, you’ll have plugged in a USB flash drive that sells all of your music locally. When decks are networked, you can have a player compatible with the deck. This is convenient when multiple DJs are playing on a back-to-back stage. The 3000 also has several networking options. The first is a cloud-based edition of Pioneer DJ’s Rekordbox software. The following is a streaming edition of the music platform Beatport. Both require an Ethernet web connection to the turntables. I’ll move on to more detail in the music section. Library section.
Tone matching is one of the fundamental principles of DJing. It simply means that the two tracks combined are in a compatible pitch so that they sound smart together. Tone blending is a must for each and every transition, as it would be too limiting, but supported tones offer a lot of freedom as to how two tracks can be combined. The 3000 simplifies cleaning up your library and playlists via keys so you can temporarily identify key-compatible tracks on the fly. And it’s just a way to clear your library on the 3000, which makes the functionality more efficient.
There are too many features to list them all, but I’ll mention 3 others that I use in the extension. First, there are the quick signals. There are 8 of them on the back of the screen, from A to H. Each track in my library is properly encoded with instant cue points, so I can use them in other tactics to get in and out of a track.
Next up is the eight-beat loop button, new to the CDJ-3000. I think at most I start with an eight-beat loop and go back from there. In previous models, this meant starting with a four-beat loop. and click some other button to duplicate it. It just makes things less difficult and more consistent.
Finally, I’m a big user of the Beat Jump feature, just below the loop buttons. This allows you to move forward or backward through a set number of beats or bars while maintaining the rhythm of the track. It is preferable to the less exact. Fast-forward/fast-back buttons that I never use.
The first is successfully advancing to a live track (maybe it’s too redundant or you just need to move to the next track first) without the audience noticing. But most of the time, I use it to temporarily locate the ideal blending issues for a track I’m not very familiar with. I set the jump to 32 beats (eight bars), which is the length of a typical word. A word is a quick segment of an EDM track, for example, intro, build, break, drop, outro, and the most common transitions line up those words in a way that makes the combination feel as natural as possible. So you can match the tone, you can combine the word, and you can do both. The Beat Jump feature allows you to temporarily isolate those words so you can make fancy combinations on the fly without any prior knowledge of the track.
Pioneer DJ DJM-A9 4-Channel Standard Club Mixer
The DJM-A9 Club Level Four-Channel Mixer
The mixer is the center of any formula, and the new DJM-A9 is the ideal choice for an ultimate house formula comprising two or three CDJ-3000s and the RMX-1000 remixer (see below).
Personally, I prefer to have 3 CDJs, which will air on channels one, two, and 3. Then I reserve the fourth channel for Bluetooth, which allows me to play Spotify from my phone to the mixer when I’m not actively DJing. That’s why I don’t want a separate speaker formula to pay attention to music at home; That’s all.
In fact, the mixer is the place where the magic happens and where DJs demonstrate their technical skills. The A9 has a lot of innovations over past generations, adding greater control spacing and a few more effects, adding Mobius. One of the apparent maximum adjustments is in how you choose channels for rhythm effects. It used to be one button and now it’s more intuitive buttons for each of the 4 channels, as well as the master and microphone. There are two separate headphone jacks with corresponding signals, which happen to be designed to be played consecutively.
The sound color effects on the left side of the volume sliders are virtually unchanged, but the buttons now have a lock option. When activated, they will stop at 12 o’clock and require a planned push to get past it. This allows you to temporarily and as it should be, return them to the neutral position, with the theatrical prop that comes with drop effect.
Pioneer DJ RMX-1000 Mixing Station
The RMX-1000 Remix Station is a musical instrument
As the call suggests, the RMX-1000 allows you to remix your tracks and transitions. Personally, this device is a must-have for DJing, as it allows for a point of customization that makes a DJ set truly unique.
There are two main sets of features in the RMX. The Scene FX is an expanded edition of the Sound Color FX found in the mixer. These come with noise, reverb, echo, and a variety of other effects divided into high and low varieties. These use a giant knob and can be additionally adjusted with two other parameter knobs, so the odds are almost limitless.
Then there’s the X-Pad FX, which includes a set of non-unusual EDM percussion sounds: hi-hats, palms, snare, and kick drum. These can be set to rhythm using the Quantize feature, and you can take advantage of some freestyle beats. using the overdub knob. There are two knobs that control the volume and pitch of those drum sounds. The X-Pad FX creates more layers of sound in build-ups that can increase tension before a fall. When it’s done right, the audience can I don’t say what the original track is and what sounds are uploaded on the fly.
Pioneer DJ XPRS122 XPRS1152s Active Speaker & Subwoofer
Active speaker turns XPRS122 anywhere into a nightclub
This set of speakers and subwoofers is the ultimate home setup. . . which also includes enough strength for a small bar or club. Of course, you will have to take into account the length of your house and the situation of the neighbors. Otherwise, gambling through them is a real representation of what you’ll look like when you play in a nightclub. Notably, this pair of active subwoofers provides you with the floor-shaking low frequencies and thud that popular speakers will lack.
A rugged subwoofer, that’s what music feels like
The speakers and subwoofers are designed to be portable with handles and a sturdy design. They can be stacked on top of each other and you can get a speaker pole to give them some separation. The A9 mixer connects to the subwoofers (right and left) with XLR speaker cables, and then the subwoofers connect to the speakers in an XLR daisy chain configuration. The only challenge is that they emit a fairly loud hissing sound when turned on. Technically this challenge with a single force strip that controls the entire formula with a single on/off switch.
There are a few key elements to being a DJ. The first is to combine the tracks and master the material. Those are the technical facets. It’s like learning to play an instrument, because you need to know a series of mechanisms that then allow you to move from one track to another in many ways. While there’s a lot of creativity involved in combining, the most important aspect of DJing is settling down. in songs and creating playlists. At the end is the experience you create for your audience: where do you start?How will it progress? Where will you take them? Where will they end up?Every DJ set is a journey, and every track is a step along the way.
There are a number of other resources from which to build a DJ’s music library. Spoiler alert: Spotify isn’t one of them. While the music streaming giant would arguably be wonderful for searching and creating playlists, music can’t be exported in a format that DJs can use. Luckily, there is a Spotify-like platform that is designed and engineered for DJs. Beatport supports streaming and downloading high-quality music, among other features, making it my number one resource for organizing and building a music library.
The main feature of Beatport is its top hundred lists. There’s a global multi-genre list that more or less reflects the state of electronic music at any given time. Then there are the hundred most sensible lists for the tech space and each other. EDM genre/subgenre imaginable. These are updated daily as artists release new tracks. There are many other lists curated by manufacturers from across the EDM spectrum. And, of course, you can search the platform for clues you already know. they haven’t been purchased as a download yet (which is mandatory if you need to play them as a DJ).
It’s vital to identify a procedure for searching for and getting new music and then organize your library in such a way that the thousands of tracks you eventually have are readily available as you create your sets. Your library will live on Pioneer DJ’s Rekordbox software, which is an integral component of the Pioneer DJ system. It’s not just the position to organize your library, it’s also a position to “code” your tracks with cues, loops, etc. , to create your playlists and repeat transitions. Then you export, plug it into a USB stick, and take it to your DJ or gig setup.
In addition, the CDJ-3000 player (see above) is compatible with Rekordbox Cloud and Beatport Streaming. In other words, if your formula is connected to the web via an Ethernet cable, which typically requires a router connecting multiple decks and the mixer, you can stream the entire Beatport library to your formula. While this is rarely very convenient for betting on clubs, as most formulas are web-enabled, it allows you to create Beatport playlists and then practice with those tracks before making the decision to buy. they. This requires a subscription to Beatport streaming and then connects to Beatport directly from the CDJ-3000.
This is the shortest part of this story but the longest part of the journey, because the process of learning how to DJ and act never ends.
There are several online DJ courses, such as Crossfader, Pete Tong DJ Academy, Point Blank Music School, and others, that will teach you fundamental skills. For my procedure, I started with a few YouTube tutorials on equipment, as well as a few on how to get through the adjustment and make fundamental transitions. These can be obtained from various sources. From there, I explored on my own with the occasional help of DJ friends. Personally, I discovered the self-control procedure—Guided discovery and trial and error are the most productive way to stay informed. There were definitely key moments when watching other DJs play, where they would inform me about a new trick or strategy that would be a defining moment. Again, DJing adds intensity to the overall EDM experience. . . as well as the adoption of new DJ strategies.
Ideal for recording DJ sets with live audio
One of the key elements of my learning is recording my sets. I use the GoPro Hero 12 Black camera, where the audio is connected directly from the A9 mixer (see above) to the camera. Keep in mind that you want an RCA cable and a GoPro adapter. Then I look at my sets like a football coach looks at the tape of a game. It becomes a way to temporarily iterate and critique transitions well while honing your level skills in complete privacy. It becomes a procedure of failure as you experiment and push your own limits. without any consequences.
This led me to create a YouTube channel, where I can basically perform in public and start getting feedback from other people who didn’t know me, because the feedback you get from your friends and family will certainly be positive. That’s their role, among other things, and they’re probably not qualified to offer interesting commentary either. In fact, YouTube is one of the most valuable and perhaps underrated pieces of equipment for finding a space music DJ in their 40s, 50s, and beyond.