Design Your Set Based on the NRG the Tracks Give You CD Pool July Club 2018

0:00 I've got nine tracks, 1 to 9

Right, you have in front of you a piece of paper with numbers 1 to 9 on it. Why would I have a piece of paper with numbers 1 to 9 on it? Well, this is one way how you can construct some kind of set that's got a journey, that's taking people on this natural kind of flow. Now, I've got nine tracks, 1 to 9. First of all, what I'm going to do, I'm going to listen... Two snippets of every single track and try and work out myself. Now, this is a personal experience for you, for me, for anybody. So it's about how the track makes you feel. Now, first of all, what you've got to do, you've got to imagine a scale inside your mind. One could be very mellow fall asleep. 10 could be full on, in your face, hard, uplifting, euphoric kind of tune. So what I'm going to do, every track I play, I'm going to put a number next to it and that number could be 3, 5, 7, anything from 1 to 10. If you want to, you could do from 1 to 100, it doesn't really matter but it could be a little bit more confusing.

So let's start off with track number one. This is Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa, a track entitled One Kiss. Let's just have a quick listen. And again, I'm not going to listen to the whole track. I'm going to listen to sort of the beginning maybe. Now to me this is quite mellow. A little bit harder towards the end. It's got a bit more of a punch to it, admittedly. But you see, I don't think I'd be playing that main set during the night. That's not the sort of track. That you think, do you know what? The crowd are going ape. Let's bung that on and just take them to a new height. So I'm going to give that, I would say a four. So that's my number there. That's energy of four. Now based on the energy I've given that one, we need to now look at the next track. So let's do the same thing. Crazy Trippin'. This is Sandy Riviera and DJ Ray Club Mix. Alright, a little bit more vibe in here.

2:42 And this one could work really

So I'm going to give this one a 5, because I can see this one to be slightly more of an uplift to the other track. Okay, Gorgon City, a track entitled Go Deep. Now I'm going to give this a 5. Same kind of feel. Same kind of energy. So really, the last one and this one could work really well together. Next one is... The Kirtan remix, Nicky Jam and J Bolivian, track entitled X I believe. I'm going to give this a 4. You know we're not there in these full on vibey tracks in your face. Now could be a bad thing, could be a good thing. Again, this all depends on the set you're doing. You know, it's not just you going to a nightclub, you go to an event and you play a full banging set. You've also got to remember what the club wants as well, what the night wants. You know, the night may want this full-on intense in-your-face Gabba techno hardcore chuck it out there. Alternatively, they may want Ibiza chilled music.

4:45 Next track

So you see, even if you're playing full-on intense Gabba techno tracks, that doesn't mean to say that every single one of those will be a 10. Once you've got these full-on tracks, you've then got to say from 1 to 10 based on the full-on tracks you've got. Alternatively, if you're doing your chilled out Ibiza Sunset music, even those have got a 1 to 10. It's all based on the tracks that you've got, not about having a load of songs and saying, yeah, Gabba Techno is 10 and Chilled Out is 1. I hope you understand that. Alright, so let's go to the next track. Rhythm Players, track entitled Diamonds, the original mix. Oh, hold on. Let me give this a six. A little bit more uplift. Yeah, definitely got a little bit more. Stylo G, track entitled Powerful White and Third Remix. Next one here. We've got another six here, I think. It's just got that bit more of a punch to it.

You know, what I'm feeling here and seeing, I'm seeing the crowd give, you know, there's a bit more energy in this so I can see them moving a little bit more. You know, I'm trying to picture what's going to go on, so I'm going to give that a 6. Okay, track number 7, the next one in the selection I've got, a track entitled Booty Shake. Come on, we have definitely got more, definitely got more energy in this track. Right, based on all of these tracks, I'm going to give that an 8 because you've got... A lot more energy in that. You know, it just feels a little bit more intense. The next one is Todd Terry's Show Me How Ya with a double A. Definitely not as intense as the last one so we'll give this a 6. Or maybe even a 5 actually. Or no, no, a 6. Because it's got that baseline in the background there. Alright.

7:31 You haven't got a crowd to play back at you

The last one in the selection I've got is Berry Ray, BLK and Kid Ink. Track entitled Baby, the Ill Blue Remix. Alright, I'm going to give this a 5. Okay, so let's put that down. Alright, so what we've got here now is we have... I've got my tracks here, 1 to 9, and I've got my energy, my interpretation of the energy that the tracks give me. You know, we've got 4, 5, 4, 6, 6, 8, 6 and 5. Now, if you're going to do this, this is great, let's say, if you are making a set at home because there's no one in front of you. You haven't got a crowd to play back at you. You see, what you have to understand here, this is really important, is when you're in your room by yourself... And you're compiling this kind of set. You're making it by yourself with no one else around you. But if you've never played in front of a crowd, then you can't really design a set at home, play that in front of a crowd and expect them to go mad and nuts. Because at some point during that set, the crowd themselves may start to change the feel of the room.

Thank you for watching. See you next time. In front of the crowd. So what I'm going to do here now, I'm going to go, let's say, to track five on this side here. Five even there. And I'm going to go on the other side to track track number seven. So even though we've gone six to an eight. I don't think it matters that much actually. So, hold on, where are we now? Track 7, beg your pardon. Timmy Trumpets, so... Now, I'm not using any headphones at the moment because I'm just having an experiment, so... We've got a break. OK, I've just paused that up at the beginning of a new phrase and let's go to the track entitled Diamonds, the original mix, on the other side. What am I doing? Diamonds, there.

10:34 I'll always say if I'm looking at the BPM, you know?

Okay, I've set a cue point there and... Okay, so let's try this. Again, it's an experiment here. What I'm going to do, I'm going to cheat here. I'm looking at the BPM. I'll always say if I'm looking at the BPM, you know? So, if you think most of the time when I do a mix, yeah, you're looking at the BPM. I'm probably not. I do it 99% of the time by ear. But today, I'm going to look at the BPM because I'm not using headphones. 127. And we'll put that down to 127 as well. So, alright, sort of mix, it's sort of work but then I'm experimenting at the moment. This is the great thing about being at home in your own room and experimenting. Two tracks do not mix in one place, that's it. Two tracks can mix in a million different places. It's about you finding the best place. Let's have a listen to Diamonds a bit more.

12:04 We want a bridge from one hill to the other

This is flowing way too much there and I don't want that to happen because if I let this track flow away and then bring in the next one, I've got that dip. What I want to do is make sure that we don't get a dip, we have a nice steady flow, a bit like a bridge. We want a bridge from one hill to the other. We don't want to go down that dip. So let's skip it back. That's where I brought it in last time. Just going to do another hot cue here. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Maybe there. So let's try again. So I'll bring that one back. Just listen to that. Yeah, maybe there. Alright, so we'll try it. Okay, here we go. Yeah, that's slightly better.

Alright, so there we've got no kind of gap. If anything, from an energy point of view, what I've done, and again, picture these images in your mind. We've got a hill here, a hill on the other side, the hill on the, sorry, yeah that's right, I need to go from the right to the left. So the hill on the right hand side, which is the track we played to begin with, is say 10 foot high. We've got a bridge going to the next hill, which is 12 foot high, it's slightly higher. So what we've done, we've taken the listener, the people dancing, on a bridge. We've taken them over from one side to the other, but we've just lifted them up that little bit, alright? I hope this helps. Don't forget, check out the link in the description to CDPool where you can get more information on these tunes. These are the club releases, or some of the club releases should I say, from July 2018. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

Now this one's Timmy Trumpets by the way. Flip filter, bit of a spin back there using the slip mode as well. Practice and enjoy, thank you.

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