yo! screw that cc bullshit. stay true to yourself, your own style and all will be good. no need to buy the microwave if you're already cooking with gas...

if your just filling in and thats what the crowds expecting then fuck it, its a job and all that really matter is the final product, the crowd most likley dosent give a shit if your mixing it live or if your using a preproduced track, as long as you arent up there acting like your doin the transitions live who cares. My advice is use them sparringly, every song dosent need to be a 20 BPM transition or a mashup

cc has changed a lot most are not mash ups just hype intros and most transitions will lose the floor taking a full 32 of going from 130 to say 99 kills the floor and confuses most.

These days normal people "not just djs" shop on cc and know that mashups are pre made maybe 5 years ago people did not know if the dj was blending but that ish came and went most people just want the ogr version with a lil hype . That said the dance floor could care less how they get hype they just want to be hype you should be fine!

p.s 85% of the ish up there sucks ass! But there is some dope hard to find ish to.

+1

just yell over the mic and you're there like cc.

Just hire Fatman Scoop, he'll improvise for you.

and 90 percent of the videos suck ass, cuz they have 85 percent garbage audio to choose from.

the percent u might ask thats good audio?

heres ur 15 percent
deville, diggz, rockit scientis(which they just killed their last mixtape), beatbreaker, And discotech....

the way i see it, is if you are playing 3 or 4 nights a week you have to keep fresh music, and who has the time to make 120 new remixes and mashups everyweek, so if you have a following in your town they will get tired of hearing the same stuff every day you play. that is the only thing i see good about those sites.

The key to using that shit is use it sparingly in your sets if you are a True DJ. I do rock some of the better Transition tracks to get from Uptempo back down to Rap. Also some of it can be placed right to enhance your set.

NYC DJ Ted Smooth posted a link to some of his blends/mashes here on the forum a while back, some of those are useful (can't find link, but here is his website for a listen www.djtedsmooth.com ) .vs paying for Crooklyn Clan remixes.

I say avoid cc or other mashups, party breaks as much as you can..use wisely..here and there should hype the crowd but if you drop them every other track your doomed for people to say "this dj sucks" ..be creative

Everytime I try to drop a mashup, people look at me like I'm crazy. And I feel crazy playing them. So I just play SOME of them in my opening set and leave it at that.

do your own transitions itll be a lot better

the problem with CC kind of stuff is...

once u play it, u feel like u have to have the new remix every week.. so u buy more n more(ur addicted) if u play a few here and there,, ur not expected to play it all the time, its good to switch it up, but if ur the kind of dj thats constantly playing that garbage ? then u get stuck

it sucks when ur consistently playin the same hyped up mashup, thats when people get bored. i seen it so mannny times.. and djs dont even know they are in that trap

we had a CC dj come to the club before.. he played the exact same mash ups as the nightly resident dj did.. people thought this guy sucked.. he should be better...hes from out of town.. nope. he sucked.. and he played the same garbage and his excuse was that hes a house dj in NY, but he puts all kinds of mash ups on CC. ha

how the fuck u gonna tell people that u can mix house music better than ur own mashups ? needless to say this guy wont be back...

personally i feel these tracks are kinda like that chick you wake up next to that was hot in the club but you wake up the next morning like WTF....ill be on the site and hear the preview and say oh wow that ones hot i can use that, ill buy it, then i either A) never run into the right situation to use it or B) use it and its not half as good as i remember it being when i bought it

thats true too bezzle.

this is acutually what im dealing with now, crack4djs is having one of their 99cent sales and im sitting here looking at like a 50 dollar batch and in my head im saying ill never use these tracks.......but their only 99 cents how can i pass that up.....they may come in handy someday you never know when youll need "heard it to the grapevine with fatman scoop hype"........i said that same thing about the last 50 tracks i never played that i bought.....decessions decessions

Another horrible trend i do with these is force them when their not necessary cause ill look in the crate and realise i spent money on them and never played the,

I see it like anything else people NEED variety...I dont play mashups or remixes of the new "IT" songs while they are still tier 1...if the original song gets them going crazy to begin with why are you changing it so earl??? I usually only play mashups or pre edits of songs that are like tier 3 or 4 maybe a 2 if it a ridiculously good version...

Other than that if Im in a venue that dosent want say slower hip hop I may drop the dance version to get around the limitiation but as a whole you dont NEED any of these..

If you rock the floor you can do it with old tracks, new tracks or remixes...but you have to spice things up...i thinks i play maybe 2 or 3 CC / Fatman Scoop tracks max and maybe 5-10 remixes... But never in the same night altogether...

Like everyone said just play how YOU play...we really give to much credit to our audience I have been to spots where the headlining dj doesnt beatmatch AT ALL...plays stale crap in the same order and the people still dance...

its funny cuz on the normal these guys charge more than the artists that originally made the song LOL

the reason most djs in my city buy this shit, is people actually think that ... that dj made the remix or is doing it live.. so they fakin the funk as much as they can.

thats another BIG reason why people pick up CC style mixes. cuz they suck themselves

I keep trying to remember this lol, after my gig sat night i was looking at my playlist and annalising my set and i was thinking to myself, wow i really dont think i did a good job building energy or building my set ect ect.....then i had to remember that the guy who im replacing was playing off winamp and the guy i used to open for from my last residency had used a total of like 6 funkymix cds to compose his entire library

wow u must be super good urself then.

Art payne gave the best advice can be given. Use them wisely in your sets... Dont overdo your set with mashups, You will only drive people away.

i mean if u opened up for these kind of guys...

i only opened up for one of em lol and that was a good while ago, ive come aloooooong way since then

and how i could tell how far ive come is i reently played a show with him and iwas like shit i used to think he was pretty good but now i can see a laundry list of what hes doin wrong

also i def give credit to this forum for my ability to advance past that level, had i not began learning all i can from the guys on here i would be still thinking these guys were doin things right lol

Thanks for all the input. I'll probably pick up a few tracks or transitions just to have them for the night in case I absolutely need them. Anyone have any favorites they would recommend?

I really like that Danny Diggz Jay-Z I just Wanna Love You - Reggae Chop mix. That's one of the few CC tracks I've bought in a few years.

im a huge fan of that shots through the heart transition

why are some people here completely against crooklyn clan? i know for a fact 95.99 percent of all of you have played a crooklyn clan heater at one point or another... just dont saturate the dancefloor with them and thats it... end of story!!! o and shots (trago remix) never dissapoints with my crowds...

Dag, I didn't even know the site was still up.

You do have a point. Alot of people who hate on Crooklyn or any remix sites dont object to obtain said tracks for free. LOL

SO TRUE

i've done that like ten fucking times

heres the meat and potatoes.

a bomb track is a bomb track.

I managed a record store for 4 years and used to watch the die-hard hiphop elite
avoid the Rmx service vinyl like the plauge...
like me, for years... it was give me 2 copies of this single.

now, in order to avoid the to use, or not to use RMX service debate
again.
a bomb track is a bomb track...sometimes the original is good, but needs a shot
of club worthy percussion, or maybe its lost its life and needs a remix.

either way, Im not going to decide whether or not its good FOR ME before
I listen to it? Thats just stupid.... I passed up on soooo many classic party-break
records and great mixes just becuase I wasnt gonna buy "Strictly for the dreads"
or "Acme tunes"...
sure enough CC & Crack for DJs have their fair share of "fluff"...
which in a perverted sense we have gone back to "digging", or virtual diggging.
actually... maybe its more "sifting"...
but I think all these sites have their fare share of good edits and such.
but there are a few different kinda of guys (just like on beatport)

*spend ours sifting, listening, knowing your music.
or
*just DL the top ten every week.

someone up there mentioned it, cc has DEF evolved.
they went from "oh...I dont want fatman scoop on everytrack" (which us in the know
know that wasnt the case)
to " everything is a rock/hiphop 80s/hiphop mashup" ...which for a while it seemed that way...

now they have ALOT of product, and their top remixers/editors have definatly got better...
for me personally, like Henry mentioned, I hate the "hype", its like putting an EXPIRATION DATE on the track...shits gonna go bad quick... and if perhaps u
did want to play 2 tracks back to back... people start giving you the stink-puss
when every transition has PUT YA FUCKING HANDS UP on it

I like the NO-HYPE versions. Probably the best thing to ever happen in the remix/refix/edit/smashington world.

+1

i like throwing those in once ina while while, but in reality.. all these mash-ups sounded liek ass. at least when there was video down to them... they made a little more sense.. and were a bit entertaining, not to play all the the time... but to throw in once in a while..

Also for energy sets, that stuff can't be beat compared to using regular songs AGAIN IF USED RIGHT) Back when Dj class was fire hot, that would peak my uptempo set - then discotech had a Independent Transition (128 - 88 bpm ruff Ryder anthem mixed with Webbie Independent) and drop into a peak hour Hood set. Worked every time.

Again Crooklyn Clan shit is a tool not a crutch.

I Agree with you guys on alot of points. I am guilty of dropping a Crooklyn Clan/Crack4DJs Transistion Mix or Mashup.

The key is to use it wisely, Don't saturate your set with them.

I will say this much. Alot of my friends have at one point been involved in some sort of remix site or are still on these sites (Crooklyn, Crack4DJs, Strictly Hits, YourRemix, Gigawax)... Myself Included, Ive been on Crack4DJs & StrictlyHits since 2008... I get alot of these remixes all the time sent to me by the artists and just like any other music I obtain, I go thru it to see if the tracks have a fit in the sets I play in the clubs. Some will work, Some wont. Its a process of elimination. For me, If you find a good break that works between different sets or a good segue, You go for it. Dont use these as a crutch. Be creative in every way possible.

its not about feeling guilty of using those types of tracks its about using them wisely and dont overplay those types of tracks... personally when i do a gig i dont use more then 3 CC or crack4dj's mashups or remixes... IMO 5 or more and your starting to saturate the dancefloor...

like regular songs... some transitions are just as good, you can knock out
2 requests with 1 track sometimes.
now, if you LIVE by the transition, just like said... a tool not a crutch.

some of us work in HARD rooms...the kind of room that one slip could kill your
floor for 10 minutes...nothing to do with how good/horrible you are.
somerooms require transitions.
lets face it, some people still think EVERYTHING @ 125bpms is techno.
and if u dont get there the old fashioned way...they are ghost (ie running
up the bpm ladder)
Ive certainly got a few transitions that have great floor impact, are well done &
really dont have a terribly short shelf life... they are few, but they exist.

See my problem is I'm a big fan of the "Party Intros" where there is like a break in during the intro.

But I'm scared to buy them because I don't wanna play a party break every other song lol.

well, thats the beauty of serato.

all my track that have the "hype" 2nd 32
I set my 2nd cue point right after it.
I can either hot cut right by the hype, but more often than not a quick
juggle is the easiest and most sublime way to get from the initial 32
and skip the 2nd 32 into the song...

^^ Exactly... It dont mean you will play it out the same each time. Just play a small piece and move on with the OG Bizness!!

That one is dope...

What is a NO-HYPE version? Don't tell me it's like a version where they take OUT the guy yelling Put Ya Hands In Da Air....

Tell me it aint' so...

This is pretty much the same conversation DJ's have had for a long time about remix services, going back to when Ultimix/Hot Tracks/Razormaid, etc. were vinyl-only.

Except that in 2010, Fatman Scoop has replaced stutter-edits as the over-used element.

In one of Michael Basics mixes he mixed Shots through the heart to lil John shots.
Is it from Crooklyn Clan? I really liked it and since there was wordplay in it I thought Mr. Basic did it himself?

i think theres a few versions out there so i dont know if thats what he used, he may have even done it live himself but that transition is on CC, i use it often

this is where the transitions work well for me, ill climb the ladder and be in 120-128 territory then get 50 gucci man and lil wayne requests, a quick down transition gets to what my people want quick

This is the absolute best post I've read all morning! And this is exactly what happens to me when I get a few of these tracks. That's why I mainly use them in opening sets (VERY sparingly).

I love the acapella vs instrumental aspect of mixing. Taking those 2 independently different arrangements and making something hot from it. Now add in the "hype", and extras to a track to bring it to life and that's even hotter (no fatman scoop overkill)...

I'm no production, ableton, cubase, mixmeister, etc cat who can sit there and make it happen like that... I do mine live, on the fly, win or lose, key clash or not, LOL.... Something that many of us "used" to do at the jammy jams(creating some hot "ish").

Seeing how there isn't a really legit, reliable source of studio acapellas (at least I don't know where it is) I've relaxed on making those joints (I'd love to make some though, please believe, LOL) I respect the time, effort, creativity, and skill YOU cats have who do this on a regular basis...

Some CC joints are fire and some are hot garbage... As has been stated, use wisely and not as the basis of your set and I'm sure they can come off the way intended...

playing a lot of transition tracks, mash-ups is always a TERRIBLE idea. just play good music that the crowd will like and you will win...

Pauly D should read this whole thread!! lol

lord help us if pauly D ever discovers mashups and premade transitions

bezzle i dont think he could get any worse then what he is alreeady...
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or CAN he? lol haha