DJ Frank Karmak

Whether you have CD’s, vinyl or mp3’s, have an index at hand, sorted by style, annotate with the BPM and marked with the ’sound-color’. This list should contain cross references between styles: ’switch to this style using this song’. On top of this style list, also have a full index by name available every time you play.Creating such a list takes time, a lot of time. You can easily spend months to create it, but when you have such a list it is your treasure. This will be half the money you make with DJ’ing. So never give this away.

When playing different kinds of popular music, the most important is to know what is popular with the audience. On top of this there are a number of rules.

Play every song between 2.0 - 2.5 minutes. If you play songs longer people will find it boring. If you play songs too short people will become irritated. Of course, a mistake in the ’short’ direction is not that bad.

Minimum 4 songs of the same style in a row.

Work your tempo down until you reach a suitable tempo for a slow.

Always play two slows. After the first not everybody has the girl/the boy he/she wants. After a slow, kick in a beat again. No point in messing around with a ‘good’ build-up. Some (lonely) people are waiting to dance, and the people slowing will leave the floor anyway when you switch to a non-slow.

In the beginning of the night choose your end style of music. After 3:00, 4:00 o’clock people go home when you switch style, so stay to the same style after that.

Playing music is not only using your intuition. The times you have an aha-erlebnis and you know what to play will be very small. If you play 300 songs overnight, 80% will be based on ratio. Only 20% on ‘feeling’. Especially in the beginning because you will be nervous and will need to fall back to your technical skills.

Do not expect everybody likes what you are playing. Often DJ’s are very explicit about the music they like and the music they don’t like. Don’t be like that. It is not because you are playing music, that other music is bad, also don’t insult somebody if he doesn’t like what you like. You are not the center from which music comes. (technically this is true, but it doesn’t go any further than that). There will be songs which you like, which nobody else will ever like, try to detect these and cut the crap, how painfully it might be to play a night without your favorite songs.

Learn different styles. New influences are absolutely welcome for a DJ.

For most DJ’s the following holds true: you are playing for the audience, the audience isn’t there for you. So, look at how people react to your music. You are playing music either for money, for personal reward or because nobody else wants to do it. In any case the result: ‘the audience stays and is happy’ is the most important.

So what are DJ record pools? These are an association of DJs, nightclub music directors, mobile DJs and radio stations. The purpose of records pools is to provide listeners with current music and in return the association provides feedback to the music industry, independent and corporate, as to what’s hot and what’s not.

Record pools do provide their services to regions of the country such as the Dixie Dance Kings who service the southeast region of the US. The reason why they can do this is because they are one of the oldest if not the oldest DJ record pools in the US.

DJ record pools serve multiple functions. They also provide a way for artists who would not normally get any play a chance to get their music heard at clubs and other functions.

They are also required to chart the music they play and feedback information weekly. Biannual reports are also produced listing all associates of DJ record pools and their qualifications and the category of where they play their music such as clubs or local radio.

Record labels use this data to find out which music they should push more and which ones they need to let go.

DJ record pools are not only responsible for launching the careers of artists but they are also responsible for making DJs famous because of getting the credit for making artists famous which is the biggest reason for joining.

Joining DJ records pools are not free. There is a membership fee. Some cost up to $200 up from to join which includes first months dues. Sometimes there are two separate costs. If you are local then your membership fees is cheaper because you have to pick up the records your self. If you are not local then your monthly membership will cost you more. But it’s well worth it.

If you’re a DJ in the market for some inexpensive home recording DJ equipment then you need to take into account your choices of a system that will meet your needs.

As DJ equipment evolved over the last 10 years or so it’s been the challenge of software programs to tap the market for the homebased recording studio.

Since most people don’t have a lot money to build their own recording studio in house but you now have a number of choices that will make you sound great without emptying your bank account.

But before you buy this overview will give you some products to consider when choosing different home recording studio software. Regardless of your computer of choice you need to keep in mind the things you need in order to get the most out of your system and DJ equipment.

Here are DJ equipment tips for beginners to build their own DJ sets from different manufacturers of DJ equipment.

For the beginner DJ it can be a bit much to take on the wild world of DJing when you don’t have a clue and even if you do you may be skeptical of spending so much money for something you may only do as a hobby. I put together some DJ gear tips to help ease your mind.

I can tell you from personal experience that you don’t have anything to worry about. These DJ tips will erase all second thoughts.

We will step aside from the “DJ in a box” stuff and get right into building a real DJ set with personally selected DJ equipment.