Records: to sort or not to sort?

D

djspex

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2008
Location
Wales
So I have 11 days left to prepare for the biggest gig of my life.

I spent ages sorting my records so I can find stuff that goes together and easily find what I want, but it seems to have made my track selection a lot worse. Has anyone else had this problem? I think I work much better when my records are sorted randomly and I just flick through to find something I think will work.

:shrug:

Help!
 
I use comic book backing boards to label as tabs for artists and record labels. If I didn't I wouldn't be able to find shit when I needed to. As far as it making for a weaker mix, I don't think that's a problem. I keep notes and track lists for tunes I think go well together.
 
generally:

eps at back of the box
---
teases / some classics
---
general stuff i been feeling
---
brand new stuff at the front

seems to work, and always seem to have enough combos to draw on to take the vibe up or down.
 
riisu said:
generally:

eps at back of the box
---
teases / some classics
---
general stuff i been feeling
---
brand new stuff at the front

seems to work, and always seem to have enough combos to draw on to take the vibe up or down.
Click to expand...

EZ Ryhs,

You going to Shogun in a couple of weeks?

:)
 
I essentially have an OLD box and a NEW box, both in alphabetical order. New tunes stay at the front until they are learnt then go into the system thereafter.

... But "vinyls dead bruv, its all about MP3s!!"
 
Dont really play out so I dont box em up oftern, but I tend to keep them sorted by lable
 
At home i've got mine sorted as

Jump Up / Dance Floor
EPs / Albums
Singles
Bagged tunes

With the ones im playing the most at the front.
 
rob_del_terror said:
i sort mine from hard to light, but generally they're a mess. wrong cases/no cases floor/box/cabinet. scattered around.
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This...i own bout 3000 recs and they are fuckin all over the shop, i jus put all my mixes and double drops together, u cant prepare too much for a set, especially if you dont know who u are playin infront of, i jus bung a load in a bag and set off on my merry way.
 
I sorted mine into:

dubstep
liquid
floorfillers
ragga
white labels
remixes of popular tracks
chase & status
high contrast
metalheadz and fucked up stuff

In retrospect maybe that was a bit too complex.
 
I put good mixes together in the box, I have a current fresh box and a current old box... What that loosly translates too is one box of stuff up to date which I am playing and the classics and older tunes in another box, the other thousands of records are just stack up in meter long piles underneath my decks.

When I play out I often take both boxes (although havn't played for years). I do not plan a set I play out by any means, but I would probably say I have done 90% of the mixes before, but thats because I like to practice all angles. I find off the cusp mixes needs a huge amount of tunes, because the one that pops into your head at the time you will almost defo of left at home, hence why I usually take both boxes.

It aint about going through your box looking for a good choon to play... You should have in your head your next three mixes before you even got there... Like snooker man, gotta know if you play this track whats gonna go with the next one and the one afta... otherwise you loose the flow. ;)
 
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DJ COSHH said:
I put good mixes together in the box, I have a current fresh box and a current old box... What that loosly translates too is one box of stuff up to date which I am playing and the classics and older tunes in another box, the other thousands of records are just stack up in meter long piles underneath my decks.

When I play out I often take both boxes (although havn't played for years). I do not plan a set I play out by any means, but I would probably say I have done 90% of the mixes before, but thats because I like to practice all angles. I find off the cusp mixes needs a huge amount of tunes, because the one that pops into your head at the time you will almost defo of left at home, hence why I usually take both boxes.

It aint about going through your box looking for a good choon to play... You should have in your head your next three mixes before you even got there... Like snooker man, gotta know if you play this track whats gonna go with the next one and the one afta... otherwise you loose the flow. ;)
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Yeah, I've thought that before, but planning ahead doesn't seem to work for me. I prefer to feed off the crowd. Only when I'm absolutely sure what they want do I start to plan more than a couple of tracks ahead.

(This applies to non-dnb as my experience of playing out on vinyl is extremely limited.)
 
I find if things are placed in their strict catagories or sub-genres, sometimes you can get stuck in that sub-genre and stop playing tunes from other catagories.. so I think when playing out it's sometimes good to have them mixed up a bit (with good mixes next to each other)
 
djspex said:
Yeah, I've thought that before, but planning ahead doesn't seem to work for me. I prefer to feed off the crowd. Only when I'm absolutely sure what they want do I start to plan more than a couple of tracks ahead.

(This applies to non-dnb as my experience of playing out on vinyl is extremely limited.)
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I feed off the crowd, yet I have several routes I can take already in my head. I generally know exactly what is in my box so I have about 3 choices usually and those three choices have another three choices. So even though people may say I have planned rah rah, because I have done the mixes before, it is all crowd fed... and as diverse as my box will allow... I little diagrom below explains how my head thinks

trackexplanantion.jpg


I could take any of these routes, depending on where it felt the crowd wanting to go.. You can cross through sub-genres seemlessly as you can lead towards that route a few mixes before, that way there will be a flow to it. If your playing jump up but feeling the crowd wants to go a bit darker, then you can plan before hand to lead into that sort of sound, and arrange mixes to enable you too get there fluidly.
 
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As for playing out, at the moment I always plan my sets if I know i'm guna be judged on my mixing and mainly because i know exactly what the crowd want to hear as i've been playing at my own night more often then not. Every set that I have played recently has been rehersed and practised and Ive had nothing but amazing feedback, makes sense.

Imo I think unless you can kill it in your bedroom everytime without rehersing stuff, then don't go and play out off the cuff because you'll just be anthoer one of those DJs that comes and goes. Ive heard too many sets where people are just playing tune after tune with no real structure and (depending on the crowd & atmosphere of course) it just don't make you wana get up and rave.

I played upstairs in Dusk til Dawn in B'mouth for their first dub/dnb night and I swear it was the first time I've heard people clapping and cheering after a set with no MCs to jigg them up. Point proven?
 
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Sorry but I just can't see the same energy going into my set if I plan it. I'll practise a few mixes but I always seem to work better off the cuff, which I have been doing for the last 6 years...
 
djspex said:
Sorry but I just can't see the same energy going into my set if I plan it. I'll practise a few mixes but I always seem to work better off the cuff, which I have been doing for the last 6 years...
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if you mixin vinyl then tops records you can take is maybe 100 that's only 200 tunes.... surely you've mixed almost each tune with every other (the ones that go).......

if you know each and every tune anyways its easy to use the way I mentioned earlier because as you pic a tune you always know what will mix in your box regardless of what you took

where are you playing anyways, & too how many?
 
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DJ COSHH said:
I feed off the crowd, yet I have several routes I can take already in my head. I generally know exactly what is in my box so I have about 3 choices usually and those three choices have another three choices. So even though people may say I have planned rah rah, because I have done the mixes before, it is all crowd fed... and as diverse as my box will allow... I little diagrom below explains how my head thinks

trackexplanantion.jpg


I could take any of these routes, depending on where it felt the crowd wanting to go.. You can cross through sub-genres seemlessly as you can lead towards that route a few mixes before, that way there will be a flow to it. If your playing jump up but feeling the crowd wants to go a bit darker, then you can plan before hand to lead into that sort of sound, and arrange mixes to enable you too get there fluidly.
Click to expand...

Wise Words!
 
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