For bands who "DJ" their own break music...

[ckcondon]

Do you just make a playlist on the ipod and let it go, or do you go a little further? I'm thinking of pre-mixing more break music with better transitions and crossfades (More DJ-like)

Anyone else doing it this way? If so, how are you putting your mixes together?

 

Cheers,

CC

[Vito Corleone]

 

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ckcondon wrote:

 

 

Do you just make a playlist on the ipod and let it go, or do you go a little further? I'm thinking of pre-mixing more break music with better transitions and crossfades (More DJ-like)

 

Anyone else doing it this way? If so, how are you putting your mixes together?

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

CC

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I used to always do crossfades.   I've gotten lazy over the last year and just thrown together easy iTunes playlists of current dance hits we don't do and just let them run.   The crowds don't really seem to mind, but it bugs me as sounding amateur.  I think I'll go back to taking the time to crossfade.

 

[Red Hawk]

Are you guys talking about crossfading with beatmatching and all that?  If not, iTunes has a crossfade option.  Just click the crossfade button and call it good.  That's what we do.  We almost always have dancers through our breaks.

[mstreck]

We do what Dave does... No cross fading or beat matching... And we put our lights on a boring "auto cycle". No sense in making the breaks more fun than the band.

 

In all seriousness, I had considered actually DJing during our breaks, but then I 'd *never* get a break. Most venues want us to keep our breaks to 20 minutes, anyhow. That's not a lot of time. Plus, I think most audiences need a break, too.

[Vito Corleone]

One of our regular soundguys plays DJ during breaks sometimes from his laptop. 

[trevcda]

It depends. We look at adding a DJ (me) to the mix as a billable expense. For most bars and one-offs, an iPod with an appropriate playlist on cross-fade does just fine. But much of our work is corporate and wedding. That could mean DJing on breaks or it could be a split night where the band plays for a few hours and then I roll out a cart with a laptop and controller on it and work the crowd and take requests. That runs anywhere from a couple hundred for break DJ and up from there.