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A Review: I opened for Michael Basic!
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A Review: I opened for Michael Basic!

aznchopstix 9:58 AM - 15 April, 2011
Today I opened for Michael Basic, another beloved forum member, and I have to say, he kicked ass!

As for me, not so much... LOL
It was my first time being in a club/bar type of setting...so a few things went wrong
1. It was dark -> I couldn't see shit
2. It was loud -> I couldn't hear shit
3. I was nervous with a lot of my close friends watching me and judging...

all in all, it wasn't a trainwreck night, but I sure expected a whole lot more out of myself...

Michael Basic on the other hand, was superb....great guy and super open and helped me alot and answered about every question I threw at him. (If your reading this, thanks so much man, you taught me alot)
-> he doesn't need keys because he knows all the keys by ears....thats fucking crazy
-> word play is off the hook

Overall, great first experience...but im definitely going to practice more...in a dark room because I felt like I was thrown into the deep end tonight.

One,
Joey
DJ Goober
Laz219 10:06 AM - 15 April, 2011
Not taking away respect from Micheal Basic, but it should be considered an important DJ skill to to be able to identify keys by ear without the need for them in tags. Of course use it as a tool but you should aim to understand it without something like MIK.

Anyway, good to hear your night went well. It may suprise you how much you do have to push your headphones in a club environment to get them to a reasonable level. I always try to keep mine as low as possible (that's still practical) but by the end of a night they are usually right up.
Don't worry about your friends, just think of them as one of the crowd.

Anyway, good to see someone openly giving credit where it's due. Too many DJs wouldn't go out of their way to give praise to someone who deserves it.
aznchopstix 10:28 AM - 15 April, 2011
Quote:
Not taking away respect from Micheal Basic, but it should be considered an important DJ skill to to be able to identify keys by ear without the need for them in tags. Of course use it as a tool but you should aim to understand it without something like MIK.

Anyway, good to hear your night went well. It may suprise you how much you do have to push your headphones in a club environment to get them to a reasonable level. I always try to keep mine as low as possible (that's still practical) but by the end of a night they are usually right up.
Don't worry about your friends, just think of them as one of the crowd.

Anyway, good to see someone openly giving credit where it's due. Too many DJs wouldn't go out of their way to give praise to someone who deserves it.


Oh yeah, for sure, but it was my first time in a club enviroment so u can imagine how hard it was for me...

Also, it was my first time on CDJs - not really used to a non-moving platter. Also, one of the CDJs was a little broken so I had to go internal mode on one of the decks and use instant doubles.
Laz219 10:34 AM - 15 April, 2011
Ah I know how that goes,

First time doing warm-up in a huge spot I'd been trying to get a spot at for a while. While on the way there I get a call "by the way, Don't use the FX on the mixer, or the booth monitor. Both will cause the mixer to totally drop out" First mixer I noticed the chan2 upfader was dodgy (needed to be shook to get full volume through it) and all the other channels were used so I didn't want to start pulling thing out.
So beat to shit mixer, also first time live on CDJs. That whole set was nothing short of a battle to just get everything to work correctly.
Mike_P 2:06 PM - 15 April, 2011
Did he try to touch you? It's ok you can tell us...we're all "friends" here.
Nater 6:44 PM - 15 April, 2011
Quote:
Did he try to touch you? It's ok you can tell us...we're all "friends" here.


He usually offers you candy before he does.
CMOS 6:54 PM - 15 April, 2011
Quote:
Quote:
Did he try to touch you? It's ok you can tell us...we're all "friends" here.




He usually offers you candy before he does.



He's Jewish he sells them the candy first.
dj_soo 11:09 PM - 15 April, 2011
Quote:
-> he doesn't need keys because he knows all the keys by ears....thats fucking crazy


yea - this should actually be a standard skill for all mix djs - sadly it is not...
djpuma_gemini 12:17 AM - 16 April, 2011
put yo put yo hands up.
eder 12:47 AM - 16 April, 2011
N HE MIXES!
DJ Michael Basic 3:24 AM - 16 April, 2011
Hey thanks for the kind words. Always a good time in Santa Barbara. You're doing everything right in my opinion. You clearly have a passion for DJing and want to learn things the right way, which means you're headed in the right direction.

As far as mixing in key, DJs not knowing how to mix in key is nothing new. DJs from the vinyl days didn't magically know music theory. They just didn't have the mixed in key software so a lot of them just didn't mix harmonically.
DJJorel 7:24 AM - 16 April, 2011
Quote:
As far as mixing in key, DJs not knowing how to mix in key is nothing new. DJs from the vinyl days didn't magically know music theory. They just didn't have the mixed in key software so a lot of them just didn't mix harmonically.


Yeah....harmonics in DJing did not appear until DVSs came around. It just came down to practicing and knowing your music. Knowing your music meant knowing things like where the breaks are on a 12-inch version of a song as opposed to the Radio Edit. And when you practiced, practiced, and then practiced more, you ended up just knowing what songs sounded well together.
DJ Prinvale` 10:20 AM - 16 April, 2011
MB is FTW!!!

Always rockin his mixes at the gym!
aznchopstix 11:40 AM - 16 April, 2011
Quote:
Hey thanks for the kind words. Always a good time in Santa Barbara. You're doing everything right in my opinion. You clearly have a passion for DJing and want to learn things the right way, which means you're headed in the right direction.

As far as mixing in key, DJs not knowing how to mix in key is nothing new. DJs from the vinyl days didn't magically know music theory. They just didn't have the mixed in key software so a lot of them just didn't mix harmonically.


oh yeah, and thanks man for giving me an insight of crate organization! I feel like its just as crucial to be able to find the music you want when you want it. Otherwise, if you can't find the song, its like not having that song at all in your library at all.
Dj-M.Bezzle 6:59 PM - 18 April, 2011
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Yeah....harmonics in DJing did not appear until DVSs came around.





.........huh???
DJJorel 3:12 AM - 19 April, 2011
Quote:
.........huh???


Well...I, for one, didn't sit around and try to figure out the key of every record I had...I don't know anybody else who did either...
sacrilicious 4:22 AM - 19 April, 2011
I think people that know (and remember) tunes in a key-based way (or even those bastards with perfect pitch) just picked which records to grab somewhat intuitively.

Ever heard a misc. industrial sound from a machine and thought it reminded you of a sound you've heard in a song, etc?

I remember mixing house tunes on wax and thinking "ooh, I bet X record would work with this" and it often was a beautiful harmonic mix.
dj_soo 4:23 AM - 19 April, 2011
Quote:
Quote:
.........huh???


Well...I, for one, didn't sit around and try to figure out the key of every record I had...I don't know anybody else who did either...


key marking didn't really become prominent till digital key lock was introduced, but a lot of DJs used their ears to discover harmonic blends and more importantly, used their ears to not do key-clashes.
DJ metaphor 5:24 AM - 19 April, 2011
Quote:
but a lot of DJs used their ears to discover harmonic blends and more importantly, used their ears to not do key-clashes.


I do that. I dont even own MIK. But alot of my mixes are in key, Guess I just have the ear for it... ya know?
aznchopstix 8:22 AM - 19 April, 2011
Quote:
Quote:
but a lot of DJs used their ears to discover harmonic blends and more importantly, used their ears to not do key-clashes.


I do that. I dont even own MIK. But alot of my mixes are in key, Guess I just have the ear for it... ya know?


yeah, no i definitely agree with u. I had the ability to make mixes harmonically before MIK too but it was like a painful process where I would have to try various different combinations before I would get the perfect mix. and plus, if you were to ask me what keys the two songs were in, i probably would not be talented enough to tell you like "F sharp"

yadadada..?
dj_soo 9:03 AM - 19 April, 2011
the sad part tho, is a ton of djs can't tell when something is in key or not.

You don't need MIK, perfect pitch or even an understanding of music harmony to mix melodically - you just need to listen to the mix and know when NOT to mix something.

To be honest I really miss the days when you would find that perfect harmonic mix in your collection after trying a bunch of records. Way more satisfying than having a program tell me what mixes or not...
BattleFunk 9:22 AM - 19 April, 2011
Quote:
Well...I, for one, didn't sit around and try to figure out the key of every record I had...I don't know anybody else who did either...


Sasha was doing it in the early 90's - it was pretty much his secret weapon

Anthony Papa is also known for mixing harmonically, also from the 90's

A lot of Hip Hop DJs would write down the bpm of the track inside the sleeve - the same as a lot of House guys would work out the key/pitch

Just because it wasn't (easily) available to the masses didn't mean it wasn't being done
DJ Remy USA 12:42 PM - 19 April, 2011
quote]

oh yeah, and thanks man for giving me an insight of crate organization! I feel like its just as crucial to be able to find the music you want when you want it. Otherwise, if you can't find the song, its like not having that song at all in your library at all.

this is imo the most important thing you can ever do to help your sets. Get organized you will find the more organized you are the better you can perform. The more specific you are about your music will help you organize better. There is a lot of cross genre stuff so I know its hard to keep everything organized