Heh heh! Reading all these posts again, I’ve decided I’m better than ever!
I have this party trick (for myself only, I’d never dare do this playing out) where I don’t do anything other than cue up, then pull up the level and set the mixer right in the middle and through the Powers of Jah just set the new track rolling as the first fades. It’s amazing how often it works.
The trick is to hit the play as the Spirit moves you. I used to audition the end of the outgoing track to help things along, but now I just trust the Spirit.
Of course, when it doesn’t work . . . Spirit took a break.
Never done it in a club setting but at many afters i’ll set an endless loop and see how long it takes for people to work it out. Think the record was 20mins once - “nah mate its a new Rominimal thing takes a bit of time to get going” Obvs depends how munted your afters gets
@Hawsey During the interval when we went to see The Horne Section, they put Ace’s How Long (Has This Been Going On) on the theatre PA. Went off to get some snacks and a drink. It was still playing when we got back to our seats. Once I started paying attention, it became apparent that at the conclusion of the last chorus they’d edited it so it looped back around, to play for the entire duration of the interval. Quite a splendid effort to sneak a single 15 minute yacht rock based joke into time they weren’t even on stage.
Don’t know if I’m better, but I’m certainly enjoying playing records more than ever. Over the past 10 years (Covid notwithstanding) I seem to have got into a rhythm of playing 4-5 things a year, mostly friends’ semi-regular parties and some ad hoc things and this is a fun amount with a small family and a non-music job. Putting together online mixes covering various different terrain in between keeps things ticking over. I went through a couple of phases where for various reasons I engaged with music and nightlife much less in my 20s. But my 30s have been much more fun in terms of discovering eye opening music, going to interesting nights, and also occasionally playing out. Hopefully the 40s will continue in the same spirit!
I’m not, but I’ll get there. I primarily did weddings for 5 years, which did improve my DJing in big ways. I can read a crowd well, I can turn around a bad night, I’m very composed and comfortable in front of big and even rude crowds. Like @GrimsbyRiviera said, you learn by playing terrible gigs.
I think on the technical side, I got worse though. I eventually realized that doing simple fades and the beginning and end of songs was the best transition for a lot of the music people wanted. I was only doing 5 real blends a night or so. My mixing is rusty.
In the background, I was still checking out dance and underground music. However I was just saving it to playlists instead of buying it. Now I’m refreshing my technical skills and buying some of my favorites from those playlists.
Obvs depends how munted your afters gets