Taught or Self-Taught?

A friend of mine went to the ACM in Guildford (Academy of Contempory music) and did a DJing course. Also on the course they did music production etc like using logik etc. He said though it doesn't actually help what you play like live, just gives you a broader knowledge of how the industry works.

It depends what route you want to go down I guess. Would you like to get into producing your own tracks?
 
MC DONKEY DICK said:
Cheers for all the help again guys, finding some of it really useful. After seeing bestmidwestdj's post about starting at age 11, i was just curious at what age everyone else started mixing? And how long roughly do you think it took you to record a mix that you were actually happy with?
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Started mixing just coming up 2 years, was properly happy with my recordings after about 18months but I am a fucking geek when it comes to mixing. It has fully taken over my life striving for perfection, and i am embrace it with open arms lol!

Still I'm never 100% happy with my mixes, and I know thats the same for a lot of people, even people who have been DJin like 6-8 years!! Just need to find your style and be happy with it (y)
 
Ellrot said:
Oh and make sure you don't touch the tune that is going through the speakers. I hate hearing Dj's adjusting the current track coz you get pitch bends and they sound shit.
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You shouldnt be making adjustments that large that the pitch should be noticably altered to the audience. If you ever get so far out whilst in a mix which is live through the speakers, try smoothing the alteration by using both pitch faders. This means that the alteration that would of been made to one deck would be divided across the two meaning less noticable change.
 
with the whole thing about headphones. I have used 250$ ones and used 20$ sony ones.

its all about if the headphones play a flat eq.

I have found 20$ sony ones from walmart as good. they have to be the closed ear ones tho
 
i been using the same pair of sony headphones i bought for £30 from dixons about 4 yrs ago, they're currently being held together by some tape. I don't think it really matter how accurate they are for djing, so long as you can hear the beat in them.
 
dj_bmc said:
i been using the same pair of sony headphones i bought for £30 from dixons about 4 yrs ago, they're currently being held together by some tape. I don't think it really matter how accurate they are for djing, so long as you can hear the beat in them.
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To a certain extent yea. Hearing the beat will only get you in time though, wont help too much when it comes to EQ'ing the tracks nicely.

Then again its all about battered old headphones held together with tape, got a few sets of them!
 
I run these community classes for kids from ages ranging from 8-14 and to be honest, they learn more from each other than they do me. I told them the basics, showed them the tricks to beatmatching and when became ready, EQ'ing and I help them record their mixes, but aprt from that all I really do is make sure they don't fightover the decks! From their point of view they wouldn't have the money for decks and tunes and this gives them a chance to know if they want to do it before they (or their parents) invest. This is the only reason, to me, that justifies lessons, even still they don't pay for them.

I myself am a mixture of self sort, picking things up off mates, books ("Learn to DJ (Properly)" the best I've read) and the internet, mainly the tutorials and threads like these. Also as pretty much everyone else said, recording yourself, from the very first mix.

MC DONKEY DICK said:
So last night i was trying to get used to not nudging the platter and get my head around the pitch shifting technique. Didn't go too well, only done one mix i was just about happy with, but hey at least it's a start. I think half of my problem lies in telling the 2 beats apart from each other, which i've heard comes with a bit of practice. So hopefully i should crack it soon and be able to get a half decent mix up on here for you guys.
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As someone already mentioned, playing with the volume of the headphones help distinguish, but what I try and get my kids to do is listen to two songs at the same time (not necessarily beatmatched) and sing/clap one, then switch to following the other. It's something I did when starting out on the advice of someone else and to begin with it spins you out, but after a while you can hear both songs clearly, at the same time.

Russla-DJ said:
^^ Thats pretty ghetto, wish I started that young :(
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As I said above, one of the kids I work with is 8! he needs a box to stand on to reach the decks! His coordination is amazing and his beatmatching rivals some adult already. He doesn't even own his own decks either (something I want to sort out!).
 
motion audio said:
To a certain extent yea. Hearing the beat will only get you in time though, wont help too much when it comes to EQ'ing the tracks nicely.

Then again its all about battered old headphones held together with tape, got a few sets of them!
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lol, dun no the old skool heaphones! Still, i think if ur practising enuff, u kinda know what tunes need what eqing done to them from memory, i don't think u could accurately use headphones like monitors in a club situation.
 
I would always say teach yourself, keep going at it, you will eventually learn more and pick up your own style, imo if your shown then other mistakes can be picked up and can be quite standard. A years not that long, you can carry on learning for years and years or i have/am... safe!
 
when i get my decks i started doing it on my own without any knowledge of what i was supposed to be doing, then my pal came over and showed me how he learnt beatmatching, he was mainly a hip hop dj but loved his drums. i just kept practicing innit. im hopefully getting my first cdj next week and yet to use one of them so that should be an interesting experience but looking forward to clenching that and pulling off some 3 deck business. how hard can it be lol
 
jimchizz said:
when i get my decks i started doing it on my own without any knowledge of what i was supposed to be doing, then my pal came over and showed me how he learnt beatmatching, he was mainly a hip hop dj but loved his drums. i just kept practicing innit. im hopefully getting my first cdj next week and yet to use one of them so that should be an interesting experience but looking forward to clenching that and pulling off some 3 deck business. how hard can it be lol
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got the cdj just over a week ago, cdj800, lush bit of kit, was droppin some awful clangers at first but now i think i got the hang on it, it is heavy! hold tight
 
THERES NOSHUCH THING AS TUAGTH?EVERYTHING IS SELFTUAGHT?SOMEONE ELSECA N ONLY SHOW YOU BUT THEY CANNOTTECAYOU EANYHTING
 
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