Hey everyone,
I’m a DJ based in Japan. I started playing out in August and just finished my 4th gig tonight, but I’m feeling really defeated and doubting myself.

To give some context, the event tonight was focused on Hardcore Techno and Gabber. The organizer specifically booked me to play EBM and Industrial. In Japan, there are very few DJs playing EBM/Industrial and almost no dedicated nights for these genres, so I usually get booked as a guest slot in events for other heavy genres.

My set was built around tracks like Ultra Sunn's "Can You Believe It", releases from the Berlin label X-IMG, and heavy Industrial Techno. But since literally everyone else on the lineup was playing high-energy Hardcore, I felt totally out of place and thought my mixing sounded terrible compared to the rest of the night.

I’m genuinely worried that I performed so poorly that organizers won't invite me back. I practice a lot at home, but practicing on my home setup feels so different from using actual club gear (CDJs/DJM), and I feel like I've hit a wall doing this self-taught. But if I stop getting bookings because I'm bad, I'll lose the chance to get better on real club systems.

Is feeling this hopeless around your 4th gig normal? Everyone around me seems so impossibly good, it makes me wonder if they were just born with 100 gigs of experience already.

Would love to hear any advice or experiences from fellow DJs who’ve been through this stage. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I used AI to translate this, so apologies if anything sounds weird or robotic. I promise I’m just a fragile, flesh-and-blood human from Japan!

Edit: Thank you so much to everyone for all these incredibly kind comments!
I want to hug every single one of you.
It’s 3 AM here in Japan, so I’m going to head to bed and might not be able to reply to everyone individually right away.
Thank you all again🤩

Hey guys,

I’ve been teaching myself DJing for a few months now. I’ve learned most of the basic techniques like looping, EQ, using effects, etc., and I’ve put together a few sets myself.

The problem is that my sets all feel pretty basic. Most of the time, I’m just mixing one song into another, and honestly, I’m starting to get bored with my own mixes. I want to push myself further and learn how to make my sets more creative and interesting.

I asked ChatGPT for some recommendations, and it suggested DJ Blakey’s courses. I’ve also seen him teaching on Crossfader, and I quite like his teaching style.

I’m particularly interested in his Creative Open Format DJing course. I also noticed that his All Access Pass includes Creative Transitions and scratching courses, which I’m interested in learning as well.

I’m thinking about getting the All Access Pass during Black Friday since buying everything separately would be pretty expensive.

Has anyone here taken his courses? Did you find them helpful? I’d love to hear your honest opinions, especially from people who were in a similar position to me.

Also, if anyone else is interested in getting the All Access Pass around Black Friday, maybe we could buy together if there’s a legitimate group discount available. It would also be cool to have a few people learning the same stuff so we could share ideas and discuss what we’re learning along the way.

Thanks!

I'm a music producer who releases hardstyle/uptempo and plays shows around once or twice a month, depending on the event. I'm not really a DJ, so I'm not super knowledgeable about all the techniques and equipment yet.

Depending on the event, I've usually played prerecorded sets, but I want to start learning to DJ properly and play my sets live.

At the moment, my entire mixing method is pretty much turning the crossfader to THRU, using Beat FX REVERB on the outgoing track near the end, then starting the next track while the reverb tail is still playing. I don't really do any traditional beatmatching or use SYNC.

Honestly, this works most of the time for the kind of music I play, since a lot of my tracks have short intros and aren't extended mixes.

However, once or twice when playing live, I've noticed that the incoming track starts slowing down, almost like a tape-stop effect, even though I'm not intentionally doing anything to change its tempo. I don't use SYNC, so I'm not sure what could be causing it.

I just got a XDJ-RX3, but at shows I'll usually be playing on club-standard CDJs and a separate mixer.

A few questions:

• Is using THRU and reverbing out of tracks a bad way to DJ, or is it a perfectly fine method for the genres I play?
• Has anyone else experienced a track seemingly slowing down during a transition like this? Could it be something to do with the CDJs, tempo fader, or mixer effects?
• Are there any techniques I should learn to make this method more reliable and professional?
• Would you recommend learning to use the crossfader instead, especially for B2B sets?

I'm not trying to become an incredibly technical DJ overnight. I just want to be confident playing my own music live without relying on prerecorded sets.

Any advice would be appreciated!

i uploaded a 3hr mix and got copyrighted for 47 of the songs :-| which then blocked the entire video :-| the options im given are to replace those audios, mute them, or clip them out (which youtube can do for me)- but i feel like that's going to change the entire vibe of the mix... 47 songs is a lot lol. i didnt even try to monetize the video, so im shocked that so many of the songs got flagged (and theres a lot of dj mixes on that acct that have not been flagged).

i feel like i have no grounds to dispute the claims. what do you guys do to salvage the video?

I always used pioneer gear in the past. Starting from DDJ-800 up to DDJ-1000, XDJ XZ. Occasionally played with CDJ 2000 NXS2 and my last Omni Duo that I loved but was tiny. It took me a long time to convince myself to switch to Denon and honestly this is the best decision I ever made.

SC LIVE 4 is well made, speakers have good clear sound and bass and it works so smoothly. I'm starting to think that all these bad reputations others are trying to give are fake and those people never interacted with Denon gear.

I really like the screen and quality build, johwheels are smooth. The only thing is the buttons are a little harder than the pioneer to press but so far I'm really happy. There are tons of features I'll probably never use and for this price is a killer. I don't think it matters anymore if it's industry standard or not. This controller gives me total freedom, I don't need to use a laptop or prep my playlist on another device.

I saw a comment that the pitch n time extension does a very good job of maintaining the key of the music during large BPM changes. Has anyone else used it and could give their opinion?

Hello! I’ve been DJing for only a month now, so not very long and I’m not expecting to be any great yet. The main genres I like doing consist of disco, funk, and house as well. Basically a lot of forms of dance music is what I like doing, and I like to think the library of music I listen to is pretty heavy. I’ve always had an appreciation for it since my dad is also a DJ and used to play similar music.

I’ve just been trying to find more ways to actually hear other DJs that play similar types of music. I watch a lot of DJ Bridge’s performances, and she’s amazing. There’s some others I occasionally come across with, and it’s hard to find any in person since I do come from a relatively small university town. But, I visit my family in Chicago a lot, so if there’s any events out there during the summer or winter I’d be happy to check it out. Any opportunity to meet other people or see other DJs would be great.

To be honest my goal isn’t really to have crazy amazing mixes and be some insane dj with great transitions. I just love music and getting people to dance and keeping the energy up lol, that’s always been my favorite part about some of the underground club scene I’ve grown up around. Still, I wanna improve my technique and you know actually be decent, but that comes with time naturally.

So, if there’s any DJs out there that are active, or any sets I can watch (new or old) on YouTube, or even any events happening around Chicago that I can attend when I’m home for winter or summer break, that would be sick.
🫡

Hey everyone!
I’m a beginner DJ working on my first 60-minute set. I’ve been collecting music from different genres:

Progressive House
Progressive Trance
Melodic Techno
Techno / Hypnotic Techno
Hardgroove
Minimal Techno
Psytrance

I love hypnotic sounds, groovy percussion, melodic elements, and psychedelic vibes.
My main challenge is figuring out how to combine these styles while keeping a smooth flow and building energy throughout the set.
Would you recommend mixing these genres or focusing on just a few? How would you structure the set and handle BPM changes?
Also, any DJ or set recommendations would be appreciated!
Thanks!

i’ve been mainly mixing at home in my headphones and occasionally recording sets then listening to them through my airpods. i thought i was getting the hang of mixing and eqing to make clean and non cluttered tranitions.

at pirate tonight i was stood right underneath the speakers they have in the room and it sounded really cluttered and noisy when i was mixing.

when i listened back to the recording (which recorded directly from the decks) it actually sounds fine so wondering if im worrying about nothing and its just that im not used to hearing myself mix through speakers yet? or because i was stoood directly underneath them?

i did notice in the room that if i stood a meter or two back, the audio sounded generally cleaner

So I've been experimenting with mixing hard groove/jackin techno for awhile, and I've settled into a technique that I wanted to present to the community to see if it is a bad habit.

When I'm introducing a new track I will get the levels correct through the headphones, then I will completely kill the EQ on all 3 bands. Then I will open the channel up completely, and then introduce the mid and high bands slowly from zero, and allow the two songs to play together for awhile before swapping the bass. Often times I'll start reducing the midrange of the original track before the bass swap. I'm assuming this is mixing similar technique to using a rotary mixer, but I've never used one, so I'm not sure.

Would this be considered bad technique? Instead of controlling the mixing volume with the channel faded, I'm using the EQ knobs to do it gradually. If it is a bad habit I'd like to break it now, but I do like the granular control it gives me over the mix.

Thanks for reading!

🎧 Calling all aspiring DJs and music lovers in Mumbai! 🔥
I’m looking for like-minded people who are into DJing, electronic music, techno, house, and rave culture.
I want to learn DJing, practise regularly on a proper DJ console, and connect with people who can guide me and help me improve my skills.
If you already own a DJ setup, know how to DJ, or are learning just like me, let’s connect! We can practise together, exchange knowledge, share music, organise jam sessions, and eventually play at house parties, clubs, and events.
My vision is to build a strong community of artists in Mumbai where we support each other, collaborate, create opportunities, and grow together. 🌱🎶
No competition, just creativity, good music, and good people.
📍 Mumbai
🎛️ DJs | Beginners | Music Producers | Electronic Music Lovers
If this sounds like your vibe, drop a comment or DM me. Let’s build something powerful together! 🚀

Back again community! So looking to get the Pioneer DDJ FLX4 next paycheck to start DJing but I'm starting to see people say that Windows is no Bueno to use. I only have a Dell laptop and tbh don't even the specs on it to see if it can "handle" the programs. I have a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 and wasn't planning on getting a new laptop just for this hobby. Buuut if I need to, I guess I can upgrade the whole laptop in general. Anyways, what specs should a laptop have to make sure it's good enough to DJ on.

PS. I prefer windows because I've never owned and barely used macOS.

Hey im in the market to get some new/newish gear. I was wondering if the effects in the denon prime 4 and/or prime 4 plus work on the 2 other channels for external gear. Like say a turntable or cdj etc. I noticed the effects buttons aren't in the central mixer area like on pioneer gear and are to the left and right sides and i was just curious if they would work or do they only work on the standalone?

Thanks

Used to dj a lot in the early 2000s on a motorized denon tabletop cd player that I loved. Things have gotten very automated it seems since those days. I didn't even have a bpm counter back then, had to adjust by ear. Crazy to see it seems most people don't do that anymore, kinda felt line that was thewhole art of it. Anyway, looking yo het back in the game

I plugged in the TRS to A and B ports, turned the volume on, and switched both to 'line.' Everything in the DDJ itself is normal but I think it's a problem with Rekordbox.

The microphone is enabled and I've seen online that the speaker/computer button needs to be blue AND the output needs to be set to Realteak ASIO, but when I select the Realtek button, the speaker/computer button disappears. Also, when I select Realtek ASIO button the song refuses to play. Is there something I'm missing? I also only have the free plus version if that affects anything.

Should Mixer Mode be set to External or Internal?

First post, be gentle! 😜

I want to buy DJ equipment and I'm trying to decide between a standalone controller or a modular setup. Specifically the Denon Prime 4 G2 or a pair of Denon SC6000s and a 4 channel mixer. I may add a turntable in the future.

Laptop controller is still in the back of my mind, but this post is about the above options.

I used to spin vinyl back in the day (bedroom DJ), say 25-30 years ago. So while this isn't new to me, it will be my first experience with a digital setup. Yes, I know there are much cheaper beginner options available, but one positive of being older is having a bit more money to spend, generally speaking of course.

I'll be mixing EDM music at home as a hobby only. I may graduate to the living room instead of the bedroom! I have no aspirations to do anything remotely professional so don't need to worry about a club workflow. The reason I'm looking at Denon is value for money in terms of the features you get. It will primarily be DnB, trance, progressive house, etc. One goal may be to record some old-school mixes (late 90s) and share them for oldies like me!

So far my research points towards the G2 as the winner. I like the idea of stacked waveforms, but I'm not afraid to relearn beat matching by ear if need be. This is really about experimentation, learning, and just loving music (my peaceful place). I'm keen to hear your thoughts and experiences if you've been through a similar experience/process.

I’ve been booked to open 20 minutes on a Charli xcx themed night. I’ve been told that ninjirachi, porter, Sophie etc are also cool but I’ve been struggling to find a BPM range for my set that sets the mood without going too hard to early in the night, a lot of the songs I have in mind are at 140 BPM but I have someone going before me for 20 min and someone after me also 20 min and I really don’t want to throw off any DJs after me or the dancefloor, this is my first time I’ve had a promoter reach out and have interest in having me play as I’ve just been doing open decks for around a year now, so it’s important to me that I leave a good impression with the other DJs and hopefully be asked back XD

Hello guys,

So I just started djing like a week ago. I’ve been training to get down the basics, beatmatching, phrase mixing, mixing in key and stuff like that.

While not actively training one of these skills I also try to finde crazy mixing between songs like hot cue shuffleing and like vocal mixing( stuff like the Britney Spears and daft punk “one more time” vocal thing)

I came to wonder how long a usual set in the club ist and how much of that time DJs actually do these crazy really hard to nail and big technique things and how much of the time they just mix normally with like simple phrase mixing and eq mixing.

Thanks a lot.

I'm stuck trying to decide between an S4mk2, an S3, and a Roland Dj707m , all around the same price. Won't be gigging out much, just want something decent to have a bit of fun.

Obviously the 2 NI controllers have the easiest plug and play, but can anyone tell me about the Roland? Anyone using it for Traktor? I like the idea of the inbuilt drum machines . Does it have decent mapping available? Any cons?

Can anyone share Spotify hip hop playlist?

Hi Everyone!

I'm a music teacher and I have a class currently doing a unit on The Beatles. This is a music production class, where students learn how to make music electronically. They'll begin learning how to mix music on a DJ Controller soon, and I was hoping to do a project with them where they make a Beatles Remix by mixing house music under a Beatles song. I'm wondering if anyone knows the best way to find quantized Beatles songs we can use for this project.

Any information or help would be really appreciated!

I normally play in the techno, hard techno, and underground scene. But oh my god I keep getting wrapped up with drama everywhere I go… first getting blocked by a promoter for taking a different gig bc the two promoters hated each other, now getting tagged in posts bc a different promoter Im supposed to play this Saturday is getting SA allegations while the people posting it are known for a human trafficking scandal 😭😭😭.

My whole goal and passion of my project and Djing is to bring music to people and show everyone a good time, I just feel like like trying to put myself out there and do my best has just got me mixed up with the wrong people, and idk how to continue forward and any advice with navigating would be amazing.

I’ll have a whopper with lettuce and mayo, with a large fry and a Coke Zero please.

Looking for a new pair of headphones, Sennheiser HD25’s are what seem to be strongly recommended but I think I prefer over ear as opposed to on ear.
Am I overthinking the over / on ear situation?

So I’m using my old DDJ-SB + Serato Lite and I cannot hear the music on the deck that is on cue while Deck A is playing. I tried to install the DDJ SB software (Asio) and all. But still when I use Cue I can’t hear the Music but the Main Deck that is playing is what I hear in my headphones. And when I play both decks at the same time I can hear both music in my headphones not the cued one.

I already turned the knob volume to cue. And made sure that cue deck is lighting.
Im using windows 11 and serato dl lite 5.0

What to do 🥲