To pause or not to pause, that is the ?

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Lars
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To pause or not to pause, that is the ?

#1 Post by Lars » Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:34 pm

I have heard that in some scenes the pause is not appreciated. That there is loss of momentum or something. I used to put in at least a 6 sec. pause to allow time to thank your partner or tell them to bugger off or whatever. It just seems polite to me. I heard that in Chicago (for example) the standard is to keep the dance-floor filled by playing with no pause between songs. What's happening elsewhere?
Last edited by Lars on Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mr Awesomer
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#2 Post by Mr Awesomer » Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:57 pm

Last time I went to Lindy Groove they played one song for the entire night. It was awesome.

::ducks::
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Matthew
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#3 Post by Matthew » Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:29 pm

Last week, I was spinning and using somebody's laptop for a few of the songs. I put a two-second, silent pause-track in the playlist, right after the song that was on, and right before "Jump, Jive, and Wail," which a newbie had requested (*shudder*). Something goofed up, and it played the pause track during the last two seconds of the track that was already playing, then slammed right into "JJW." It startled me, but the newbies seemed to love it, and it did kick the energy up. It taught me that a pause is just another tool that I can use in various ways.

That said, six seconds sounds to me like a long time to use as a standard pause between tracks. I might put in one or two seconds (if the laptop doesn't spaz out), maybe more at certain times, but I like to keep things moving.

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Bob the Builder
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#4 Post by Bob the Builder » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:33 pm

I personally think that to not to put in a silence between songs, or to put in a s silence for, 2,4, 8, or even 10 seconds between songs is a tool that we can really us to our advantage.

Some examples of how I us it.

I you have a lot of people at the venue and you want to work the floor (ie get dancers on the floor, and then get them all off and a new crowd on). If I want to keep the same dancers on the floor for two songs, have a very short gap between the songs.
Then when you want to get your new dancers on the floor, have a gap of 6 to 10 seconds.

If you want to have a high energy going, especially during jams, I would have virtually no gap between the songs.

If I am changing the genre from one song to another or a big step in BPM, I would have a longer time gap between songs.

After a very fast song, I like to give a long gap after the song.

With songs with long intros I like to bring it in as soon as possible.

These just the ones I’m thinking of. I really like to use the pause or no pause to my advantage.

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#5 Post by GemZombie » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:16 pm

GuruReuben wrote:Last time I went to Lindy Groove they played one song for the entire night. It was awesome.

::ducks::
They played the same song at the 9:20 when I went too!

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#6 Post by Nate Dogg » Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:56 am

Six seconds seems a bit long, 2 or 3 seconds is plenty. I think the gap should be long enough for people to feel that the song has ended. Similar to why our scene does not like fade outs.

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To pause or not to pause, that is the ?

#7 Post by Lars » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:28 pm

I think that actually I'm pausing in the 2-3 sec. range. When I used to DJ off of CDs I would use Nero for compilations and put in 6 sec. pause Now I use a lap-top and iTunes so it's whatever pause iTunes defaults to. My best guess is about 2-3 secs.
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#8 Post by Roy » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:52 pm

For me it depends, if I'm keeping an energy going from the previous song I will have about a 2 second pause if I a changing the enery I will delay about 5 or 6 seconds.

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#9 Post by jmatthew » Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:21 pm

Bob your brilliant. I've never even thought about the pauses. :) I love this place. :)

--J
I'm not an obsessive personality. I just happen to pick hobbies that seem to consume my life.

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#10 Post by Bob the Builder » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:16 am

jmatthew wrote:Bob your brilliant. I've never even thought about the pauses. :) I love this place. :)

--J
Thanks J.

Yes I find so many different ways of timing the pause between songs.
Make sure you are always looking at the floor during this period. They can tell you very quickly if they want a little more time or a new song.
I have found that if the dancers really diged the last song they often want to talk to their partner. If the song did not go down well, they will want a new song ASAP.

I always think there are so many little details in DJing for dancers that many DJ's just seem to ignore. It's these little details that can give the dancers a feeling that you are really DJing for them.

Brian :D
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#11 Post by JesseMiner » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:56 am

I've always approached the pause as an aesthetically pleasing artistic device for transitioning between songs. During every song, I ask myself these questions: "How will the next song sound coming directly after this one? And what sort of transition is needed to go from one to the other?"

No pause might be the way to go when you want to string a few songs together for effect (playing "Mistreated But Undefeated Blues" by Ray Brown followed directly by "Going To Chicago" by Ernestine Anderson comes to mind as a memorable late night Austin Exchange steal moment). Sometimes blending from applause out to applause in works best. A short pause might be all that is needed when a song has faded out, as the fade fools the ear into thinking there has been a longer pause. And yes, a longer pause can work nicely transitioning from a fast-and-furious classic swing tune into a mellow Oscar Peterson number, both for dancers to catch their breath and just to appropriately make that drastic change in feel. Sometimes one beat is all the pause you need, sometimes a few seconds sounds perfect. If the pause is noticed, it's gone on too long and dancers will suspect that the DJ is having technical issues. ;)

The pause is one of the many devices we have to work with as DJs, and I believe proper use of it in varying degrees is one of the many qualities that separates a good DJ from a great DJ.

For more on this topic, check out the discussion from 2002: Space between songs...

Jesse

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Lawrence
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#12 Post by Lawrence » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:34 pm

JesseMiner wrote:For more on this topic, check out the discussion from 2002: Space between songs...

Jesse
I still agree with what I wrote in that thread, especially the following:
There is no "rule" in my estimation other than to keep some sort of "flow" between songs. Usually that entails leaving no identifiable pause between songs when I DJ: "identifiable" being the operative word. If they notice the pause, it's generally too long; and most Swing DJs I have heard err on the wrong side of inserting too much of a pause.
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#13 Post by mousethief » Tue Feb 21, 2006 2:42 pm

Depends on how far the booze is from the deck.

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