I think it's a compliment to them that it looks like a premade mix. Hours and hours of practice makes it look easy. Lots of them seem to use remixes that they themselves made. I'm suggesting that you pick 3 styles of music that you want to mix and practice, practice and practice.

I seen videos where they don't touch nothing and the song goes to a transition and another song.

lots of custom edits and lots of practice.

i was in the Red Bull 3style this year, i was about the only one in my region that touched the pitch. I used custom edits and some of the cuts I've been doing for years in there. I would have never been brave enough to enter without my years of practice.........

Although I have never gotten my shit together to enter a 3style proper, I've done a few comps that were trying to emulate the 3style.

How I made my mixes was that I sat down and worked out a mix like I would normally make one focusing on things like wordplay and clever mixes, and then systematically went through my tracks and edited them down, making a lot of acapella edits, and working out some scratch routines or tone play so that the whole thing would fit into the allotted time limit.

It was a lot of work, but I did come out of it with some edits and routines that I used for years afterwards.

Yeah I kinda did routines that I have been doing for years too, little shortened versions. My region was weird, Jaycee won it with zero toneplay and very little creativity. My set was quite creative for the amount of time I had to prepare. I had watched a million vids on Youtube that were hella creative but Headspin and Four Color Zack didn't judge that way. Eyecon made a great super creative and technical set, i thought he should have won really, even though I really respect Jaycee.

was this the ATL regional?

It was the Charlotte regional

Side question - how do they do/super impose the waveforms and Serato Circles for the videos...

Like eyecon's video here Watchwww.youtube.com

I know or assume it's a screen capture video of the serato screen and then it is super imposed over the other performance video and the audio is synced?

Is there a program or a app that makes all the magic come together and if so what is it called?

Not ready for all that yet but just want to know...


I was actually gonna post a video like the one above so you could see by the waveforms and Serato Circles that SOME actually do put in work!

Eyecon uses multiple GoPros and Final Cut to edit and sync the multiple videos.

I think toneplay is getting played out. It's like when it first came out everyone was amazed by it and then so many DJs tried to do it with mixed results. Now when it's done people are not as impressed.

I was in a Thre3style contest in DC in 2012. I'm not a scratch or battle DJ so I had no expectation on winning, but I honestly felt like I was solidly 4th place out 8 DJs. Which was surprising and kind of sad.

Some observations:
-I was one of two DJs to use headphones.
-I was one of two DJs to touch the pitch fader!
-I was one of two DJs who mixed individual songs! Most of the folks appeared to just be playing premixed mashups / mixes... that shit blew me away.
-The winners could legitimately scratch and beat juggle but the level of mixing and programing over all was sad. I was expecting to be blown away not better than some of these guys. Most of the routines didn't go anywhere. It was 15 minutes of the same thing.
-I'm not sure the other contestants even got the message about mixing styles or genres it was all the same tempo EDM-hip hop-trap fusion straight through for all but two of the sets. It was like watching the same boring set over and over and over...
-The winner had a huge crowd with him which gave him the edge over more technical & creative DJs and dropped some hometown tracks that the crowd loved.

Yup, I saw this guy win in NOLA in 2011 and I dont think his set would even be a good club set. To top it off I saw him the next year and it was worse, if i remember right dude trainwrecked twice and couldn't even finksh his set. Just walked off with like 3 minutes left.

youtu.be

They really, really stepped up their game this year. Every DJ had to send a video in and all the DJs in this region including myself had won multiple battles previously. I spoke with them at the show and they valued technical stuff highly. Anyway here's the video of my set, i used zero premade track, just cues and acapellas and the original tracks, i did edit out some of the fluff

youtu.be

Thats what I am saying it sounds cool but they don't seem to do much, like the other guy said they dont use headphones and they barely touch the pitch. So anyways can you guys give me any hints on how to do a little set.

practice

Pick some songs, learn them inside out and practice every day with them. You really have to devote a lot of time to something like that. Redbull sets are 15 minutes long and that may not sound like a long time but it is when you are the sole focus of attention on stage. If you are thinking about entering this year then I would say you are probably a little late. You might want to start working on a routine for next year.

Don't forget the long intro. Preferably a monologue from a movie. Make sure it talks about how awesome you are. Look into the camera and lip sync said monologue.

dubsmash style... lol

watch the threestyle routines on DJcityTV www.youtube.com

Charlotte, North Carolina??? Thats where I live!! I been trying to find someone I can learn from but can't find people so Ive been learning on my own. Hope to meet you one day!

I'm going to enter this year and I feel very confident in my creative skills and also my music selection. The only thing I really want to learn other than master scratching is tone play. Does any one have any suggestions on how to accomplish that?

yo, does anyone know if sampling/looping or something like that is allowed? thinking of creating a routine with shit like that

I think anything goes.... Just "Party Rock"!

Look at some of the routines on Youtube - pre-edits, acca in, acca outs

Main RULE is at least 3 different genres I think?

There used to be a "RULES PAGE" but coming up NOT FOUND

aight, thx. I'm not too sure if a little gimmick like that would get me far anyway lol

Wow, 8yrs ago you'd never see a question like this.

Use songs you absolutely know by heart im talking word for word beat for beat etc and use and pick the cues you like then let the dj ear skills do the rest

DJ Angelo's describes his process. I think this is what yu're looking for. djangelo.co.uk


"When creating a routine for performing on a DVS (like Serato or Traktor)‬, I firs‪t visualise the routine in my mind and start composing the routine in my head. I think long and hard about what I want to do on the turntables (i.e. scratch, juggle, what words I need etc.) and then I try and find the audio I need to do it.‬ ‪From here, I determine which of the audio needs to be on my left turntable and which need to be on the right.‬ ‪Then, I group the audio together and produce 2 different WAV files (one for each turntable) using a sequencer (like Acid Pro or Ableton) so that the sounds are all in the order that I need them to be on the vinyl for me to manipulate them. "

How I use side Chain in ableton to enhance my Serato DJ Sound Fx.
Enjoy

Watchwww.youtube.com

I think they plan the mix as was said earlier with all the edits and some are custom edits. But I also think they layout that parts they are going to use in order using a DAW into 2 MP3s. One for the left deck and one for the right deck. This way thy can play the 2 tracks in order and mix them and perform the tricks without having to load new tracks. You can also edit the tracks before laying them out to get the right bpm so you never touch the pitch also or very rarely touch it.

When I made a three style mix in the SSL days I just pulled together 40 odd songs and figured out the juicyist in and out points and then mixed it live. That’s probably why I didn’t win 😆.