Finding your voice as a DJ

[Nate Dogg]

Basso Profundo, I think.

Can a dj have a voice for a scene/city and a totally different voice for another scene/city ? If yes, does that dj not have a soul and is driven by dancer opinion polls or is it in keeping with the dj code to please the dancers?

I got my voice from doing about a years worth of research which involved liner notes, books and listening to copious amounts of jazz. Nathan Malone, Matt Jones, and Lawrence were instrumental in helping me find my voice. But I still had to go out and do the heavy lifting, so to speak, of research to find what I like and somehow have that intersect with the scene that I'm in. Not an easy prospect. Like I said, it took me about a year before I was even ready to ask Nathan for a slot in the dj rotation.

Edited

Nathan

[mousethief]

Can a dj have a voice for a scene/city and a totally different voice for another scene/city ? If yes, does that dj not have a soul and is driven by dancer opinion polls or is it in keeping with the dj code to please the dancers?

Yes, my local sets are entirely different than what I would play in Austin or Las Vegas.

For myself, I'm in sales and you match the customer as much as possible but you still have a bottom line to hit. You have to build rapport before you can present something unique. It's like being in a conversation with someone that won't stop talking - eventually you walk away.

Before I travel, I call ahead and ask local DJs and dancers to describe their scene. I ask what has been played out, what songs pack the floor. I avoid both types but keep notes just the same. I ask about traffic flow and peak hours. I structure my sets as closely to the crowd as possible. If I get a chance, I try to arrive a day early so I can dance in the town to get a sense of how the scene feels.

Oh, since Flying Home just came on Yehoodi Radio (thanks!), I ask what songs are going to force a line dance just by hitting "play." If my intent is to keep a jam going or build to tension, the last thing I want to do is play some Pavlovian response song.

Kalman

[gatorgal]

My goal for a DJ voice when I get the time is not just, "Oh, KitKat plays X music," but being a positive influence for X music.

Good luck and excellent point.

Can a dj have a voice for a scene/city and a totally different voice for another scene/city ? If yes, does that dj not have a soul and is driven by dancer opinion polls or is it in keeping with the dj code to please the dancers?

Yes... you can have two (or more) different voices depending where you're at mentally and geograpically.

It certainly means you have no soul. It means you're doing your best to keep in tune with what's going on in front of you. Or better stated... you change your dancing as you dance with different partners. I would hope you change your style, voice, whatever as you play to different crowds. It doesn't mean you have no soul.

For myself, I'm in sales and you match the customer as much as possible but you still have a bottom line to hit. You have to build rapport before you can present something unique. It's like being in a conversation with someone that won't stop talking - eventually you walk away.

Another great point.

Tina

[12bars]

i am a new dj. i have only recently even thought of djing.

i have a lot of music. alot of the music i have is not the stuff i hear all the time (lately i have been buying that stuff). i have music for lindy as well as for carolina shag. i have actually discovered some of the artists that work well for shag, also work for lindy. things i have never heard in a lindy context. i also love the blues, so ive got a lot, but most of it is not stuff i hear dancing.

ive been putting together mix tapes/cds since middle school. i feel i can put songs together well.

what im working on:
putting songs together well on the fly.
finding out what i have that people will dance to.
going through what i have.
reading the room.

because i have a lot of music i dont hear out all the time, im not to worried about sounding unique. i think my collection will take care of that.

[Ron]

Be careful playing new stuff. Sometimes there's a reason why you never hear them. Integrate them in with some more well-known songs and see how they go over.

[mousethief]

No doubt.

Most of us were guilty of playing the newest, greatest thing which sucked all life from the dance floor at one time. Well, maybe it was just Julius.

Kalman

[12bars]

ill keep an eye on it...thanks for the input. (yay for earl bostic)

[Bob the Builder]

So what are we now doing two years on?
Are we still playing is safe and spinning the same stuff as our fellow DJ’s or are we trying to sound different. Yes, we all have nights where we have to follow what some limited dancers want, but we do still get the opportunity some times to let fly.

So I suppose my big question is:

Do you sound like other DJ’s you know, or are you unique?

Brian

[Greg Avakian]

Great idea...
Different. I edit a lot of my music now. More than ever people ask me "what was that?" ...and I can't tewll them where they can get it.

The downside is that I want to play those songs all the time since they are unique. I think that my sets sound similar, but I've asked for specific feedback about this and nobody appears to have noticed other than DJs who know me really well.

[Haydn]

Different. I edit a lot of my music now.

Interesting. What do you actually mean by 'edit' your music?

[Greg Avakian]

I take a song that is really good but is (say) 8 minutes and make it 3-5 mins.

A really great song that I edited is the version of "work song" by Ernie Andrews. It's fantastic, but the intro sucks so no one plays it. I was honored when Steven Mitchell used it in a class I was in about a year after I gave it to him.

Another good example is "Classical in G" by Ray Brown. I missed appreciating it because I didn't listen to the whole song when I just quickly checked the album. It has a really long slow "classical" begining, a swinging middle section and then a return to the slow begining.
David Jacoby turned me on to it and was trying to figure out where to fade it out -but the problem is that even if you fade out, it's still a long song and most people don't like dancing to that long drawn out first theme (although I personally love it!). So I cut half of the first intro and I think the first or second piano solo and then faded the song during the really long ending. I have another version in which I made the cuts right to the faster part. I play my longer version when there are 'bluesier' dancers in the room.

[Matthew]

I edit things, from time to time. Would one of the moderators mind moving the editing-discussion to a new thread?

[Haydn]

I take a song that is really good but is (say) 8 minutes and make it 3-5 mins.

A really great song that I edited is the version of "work song" by Ernie Andrews. It's fantastic, but the intro sucks so no one plays it. I was honored when Steven Mitchell used it in a class I was in about a year after I gave it to him.

Thanks Greg. I've noticed quite a few great dance tracks have low-key intros. Examples are One O'Clock Jump and King Porter Stomp, both of which really kick in to a dance groove after about 30 or 40 seconds of relatively low-key introduction. Which tools do you use to edit songs?

[julius]

I can't help but mention that it pains me to hear that DJs edit songs. I feel, somehow, that it's disrespectful. Also, if the song has parts that aren't that great for dancing, would you think it was intended for dancing in the first place?

I certainly would feel a big loss if someone cut out sections of One O'Clock Jump or King Porter Stomp. Just as a good solo builds upon what has come before, a good song builds upon every bit of the preceding music. Stardust would not really be quite the same without the "introduction" a.k.a the verse. Ditto "Every Tub", which has a four measure introduction that isn't really "danceable". What about Monty Alexander's Battle Hymn of the Republic? How about the 43 second goof-around introduction to Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong doing "Now You Has Jazz"? blah blah blah

[Greg Avakian]

I can't help but mention that it pains me to hear that DJs edit songs. I feel, somehow, that it's disrespectful.

Disrespectful to what? An awful lot of the time the music you hear isn't as "real" as the artist wants you to believe. Disrespectful to the artist who wants to deceive you? The band leader is content to disrespect the soloist he cuts from the final version...or his/her own efforts when they are overdubbed 2 or 3 or more times.
(the exception is of course earlier swing music that was recorded in the 30s and 40s)
But I disagree with that train of thought anyway.
If god had wanted man to fly, he would have given him wings. That particular god can kiss my flying ass!

Also, if the song has parts that aren't that great for dancing, would you think it was intended for dancing in the first place?

Again ...wings.
I don't care whether or not "shiny stockings" was written as a dance tune; I love dancing to it. Why would I want someone to control that choice for me? If we acted that way in life, we would many opportunities to invent and inovate.

I certainly would feel a big loss if someone cut out sections of One O'Clock Jump or King Porter Stomp.

Without hearing the specific version, I can't say ...but for the versions I play, I personally agree with you. It's a matter for personal taste, but these are not the kinds of songs I would typically edit.

Just as a good solo builds upon what has come before, a good song builds upon every bit of the preceding music. Stardust would not really be quite the same without the "introduction" a.k.a the verse.

Every bit? I disagree.

Ditto "Every Tub", which has a four measure introduction that isn't really "danceable".

My version has an 8 measure intro -but it's only 7-8 seconds long, so who cares? That's almost as long as it takes to find someone to dance with

What about Monty Alexander's Battle Hymn of the Republic? How about the 43 second goof-around introduction to Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong doing "Now You Has Jazz"? blah blah blah

I love Monty Alexander, but (I think) "Battle hymn..." doesn't swing at all. Considering your comment about music that might not be great for dancing, I'm surprised you would present this as an example...but if you like dancing to it, that's your choice.

As for my 3 versions of "Now you has...", I wouldn't play the goofy bit about the good folks from Newport. It's hardly part of the song; isn't it a segue from dialog in a musical? Not that that matters much to me anyway, I've cut it and I think it's a good example of a great song with an unnecessary "intro".

So, just curious, did you listen to the songs I cited? The intro to the 7:25 "Classical in G" is 2:25. The intro to "work song" is 1:10.

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The software I use is "Goldwave"