Peak Time in a Club Advise on What to Play and How to Set up Your Tunes Dance January 2019 CD Pool

0:00 Middle tracks, imagine, beginning

Right, so let's imagine it's the main part of the evening and the dance floor is bubbling. Now in a way you would want this to happen most of the evening anyway but let's just imagine that you've got a certain energy and vibe in the room where you're, you know, no alcohol, no drugs, nothing at all and you're just like this is amazing and you want to keep it like that. One of the worst things in the world you can do is a beginning and end mix where you've got that dip in the track at the end and you've got maybe the gradual rise of the track at the beginning of the next track that's coming in. At this point, and it could be any time during your set, it could be the beginning, the middle, the end, it could be the whole bloody set but it's about feeling

The vibe in the room. What you want to start doing is capturing the middle of tracks. So in this demonstration what I'm going to be doing is showing you where really to find the middle of the tracks and where's the best place. I mean, where is it? What is it? How do you do it? So let's for example listen to, we have Say My Name. By the way all these tunes I'm using are from Cedipool Dance January 2019. There is a link right down there. So let's play the beginning of Say My Name.

All right so if you imagine now dance floor is just rocking and you put this on. You know, what you've got, even though, alright it's okay but there'd be a dip. Okay even there you've got a bit of a vocal and then you've got the tiny break and then the bass line comes in. One, two, three. Now even there I would not start the track here. All right let's go forward a bit. Not even here because it's just it's too low.

2:11 Minutes, track listen, track bring

Okay let's just put a hot cue there so that's a good point maybe to start.

10:37 I've got rid of that complete break so we're keeping that energy

There we go. There, much better.

Much better. All right. That's where I would bring that track in. Okay so that's where I'd bring that track in and then let's have a listen maybe towards the end. Now some people would agree, some people would disagree but when you're at the peak of the night and the dance floor is bubbling do you want to keep a track playing for three or four minutes? It depends on if the track is very popular, if people like it, also if there's loads of dips and breaks. You know this is, this is one of those questions that can only be answered while you're there. It can't really be answered now because for example you know you could be looking at the dance floor and going do you know what they're starting to move away a little bit let's quickly

Take that track out bring the next one in. Alternatively you know they're loving this vibe, they're loving this tune let's carry on playing it for another minute and then bring the next one in. So you know this is kind of a random broad outlook on keeping the vibe and keeping the middle parts of the track going because what is a middle part of a track? If the song is five minutes long, is the middle part three minutes? Is it two? Is it one minute? Is it four and a half minutes? It's about the track itself and also about how much you want to play it to keep the energy that you've got going in the room. So important right so that's that track there. Let's have a listen towards the end.

See it's still going and now it's just lowering down a little bit.

But it's still up there.

4:15 You know what I did here I've already got a cue point here

It's still up there okay so let's try this just got paid.

You know what I did here I've already got a cue point here.

There, now prior to that have a listen if we go to sort of about here. Yeah we could bring that part in there. You see there it's quite low so if we had a track that was full on and I cued it up at that point it's just a bit too low but then I've put a cue point, I've put two three four one two three four. There, now even though there's no bass line and there's no beat that's a higher feel to the last part because it's just it's got more energy. I hope you understand where I'm coming from so that's where or even there no even better yeah four that's on the one one two three four one two three four. So again a good place to bring the track in. So let's speed it forward and let's have a listen towards the end.

6:50 I'd probably stop it bef

You know all right so we've done that let's have a listen to another track now hold on let's try that and let's see this one here now is A Spaceman Came Travelling the Franklin remix and don't forget every single track I play is on the website there's a small sound bite of every track and also all of the other tracks on the compilation. The compilation for January so all right now we're really low kind of I mean you know if you've got a monstrous vibe on that dance floor would you start off like that not at all no it's just a bit too like low and it's moody too moody there you go there you see now. That has captured that that sort of usual vibe. That euphoric you see I can see people as if you dropped the track in there more like

You to go instead of just drooling rolling kind of intro of like 16 bars of almost what's happening. So when you've got people really going for it the last thing you want to do is just bring them all the way back down again and then bring them back up. You want to keep them there for as long as you can based on how long that track will be at that level. Make sense? Hope so. So there right again Spaceman came traveling let's speed it forward a bit there so and we're back to a break. So I'd probably stop it before that break. Let's try another one here. This is Dreamer the Nicky Romero remix. Okay so let's maybe go to about there. Let's try that. You know you can even hear in the background that euphoric build.

A definite place to bring that track in. But after this I want to talk a little bit more about band and energy levels and keeping it there. Okay let's maybe skip it forward. Oh you see it's dropped. Alright so that's where it drops there when we come into the break and then moving it forward. And that's where the end of the break is. Okay let's go back there. Just listen to this a second. Alright so what happened there? All I did is where my thumb is now on, this is the XDJ-RX2, where my thumb is at the left hand side of my thumb is a hotkey. That's where the beginning of the break is and on the right hand side is where the end of the break is. So all I did, I just got rid of the entire break. Alright there's no real need to do a hotkey on the left hand side.

I've just put that there for I suppose visual purposes so I can see it. But the one on the right is there for a reason because it means that as soon as the break starts I can just press that hotkey and go straight to the drop. Completely getting rid of the break. So this is another way of keeping that euphoric vibe in the room. If you do have a track exactly like this, that's got that big energy and then it drops and then you've got the drop with the same feel of energy but you don't want that drop, sorry you don't want that break in the track, just set a hotkey. If I do that again for you so from here.

There we go. Okay we're coming to it. There. So I've got rid of that complete break so we're keeping that energy. Alright let's have a look and see what else we've got here. I'm just choosing a random track. Okay. So this one here is Dreamers, it's a club mix. Sorry the club mix. You know again if we want to keep that energy in the room would we start off there? No we wouldn't because you're just going to lose that sort of vibe and feel. No not even there let's forward a bit. Yeah there you go. Okay. So I am if I look at the time here, right so I'm into this track by 1 minute and 31 seconds alright. Remaining time is 2.20. So what I've done is I've got rid of all the beginning the niggly bits you know just the growing of that track

And I've gone to the drop.

Now this sort of, this kind of drop is very similar to the last track it's got that more of an euphoric feel. And then let's speed it forward a bit.

Coming to the break. Alright now this isn't too bad because it's still got a good feel even though there's no beat, there's no bass line, it's still got that good energy so I like this. This is good. Alright let's try one more. Don't forget as well the dance releases as I've said every single time they're more euphoric, handbaggy, loads of vocals. What I suppose you would also class as big room and big room tunes are they're big. The idea behind big room or I'm pretty sure the reason they call them big room tunes is because of the feel and the vibe and the energy you can get in the room that's euphoric it's like a lovey-dovey kind of feeling. Hands in the air, glitter flying everywhere, balloons you know.

Happy New Year, here we go. Right so let's try one more. This one here is Sold My Soul, The Division 4 and Me At. I presume that's it. Anyway but don't forget all of these tracks can be found on the website. Alright so let's press play.

13:55 I think the proof was saying a random track with the las

Alright this is a difficult one because it's sort of, it's a grow up but it doesn't give that high end like Joshua's high state of consciousness full on flavour in the middle. It's almost like a chug of it just grinds along quite nicely so maybe this isn't the sort of tune that you would be playing at peak of the night but it's still a good track. Alright I'm going to do one more I think we should do one more definitely. Let's have a look I'm just going to grab a random track here and I mean literally a random track. Okay let's try this. I think the proof was saying a random track with the last one here which was, you know I wouldn't have been playing that at the peak time of the night when everyone is going mad.

Right this one here is entitled With Me Extended Mix.

Same with this one really.

Okay but then we can hear some kind of build.

Yeah alright so alright fair enough this isn't the big room full on kind of you know 12 o'clock midnight party tune for New Year's Eve but it's definitely a point in the track where if you've got a similar track with a similar vibe and energy I'd be bringing it in here and not say at the beginning. So one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four, two. Let's do one more let's do one more why not.

Okay Creep On Me. Just pause that up.

16:12 Both are roughly about the same BPM

So.

Okay we're coming towards the break of this track so all I'm going to do, I'm just going to drop the next track in. Both are roughly about the same BPM. Well they are actually. So this is what it would be like if I didn't. There. That's what it would be like if I didn't drop the next track in. We've got the break. So let's go back and let's hear what it's like if now I will drop the next track in so hopefully we won't have that dip. Here we go.

Two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Good. There. Again, or not again but I didn't form a long transition it was just a chop from one to the other and quite often when you're forming transitions like this there's no real need to do like a four or even a one bar mix it's just chop one into the other bang, bang, bang you know just hit them. It's like throwing bottles at people. You don't throw two at a time. Don't throw bottles at people. All right. I hope that's been a help ladies and gentlemen. I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye ladies and gentlemen. What I will say as well is next week I'm going to be in Colchester at Get In The Mix. All right? I'll be traveling down Sunday and I'll be there Monday and Tuesday.

Also, there's an NADJ, National Association of Disc Jockeys meeting on the Monday and I will be there as well so that's the information that I'll give you in a moment but if you are in or around Colchester, go to Get In The Mix. mix come and say hello and let's have a cuppa together all right don't forget as well cd pool um link is in the description january dance releases

January 2019. practice and enjoy thank you

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