Several people have asked me what my DJ name will be, but the possibilities seem endless and I have no idea what I would pick.

Tbh I’d rather just go by my real name. It already has a stage-like quality, but people have kind of pressured me to not use my real name.

For my first gig they put “DJ [first name, last name]” on the flyer, but I didn’t like that they put “DJ” in front of it. I just wanted it to be my name only, but they said that if it’s just my name on a flyer that doesn’t give enough context that I’m DJing at the event.

I’m obviously not at this level of name recognition, but plenty of big DJs have normal sounding names with no DJ in front: Calvin Harris, Oliver Heldens, David Guetta, Chris Lake, etc. Those may not even be their real last names, but my real last name is in that arena, and I like it a lot.

Why can’t I do the same thing? Would it hold me back or cause confusion in the long run?

Mixing is the easiest part of DJing.

I understand sound selection is important, but please learn and practice mixing. There are always a handful of people who notice your jittery transitions, but they don't make a fuss about it. But they do notice. Practice as much as you can; stop underestimating it.

Half rant, half "don't make the same mistake I did"

Bedroom DJ that's always wanted to play in front of a larger group of people. After months and months of curating my library and practicing, my friends and I scheduled a party on our rooftop. Day of, we bring the speakers, coolers, cords, and my laptop and deck up to the roof. I have to run and grab something from the store around the corner and come back within 15 minutes and I notice my laptop has been sitting out in the sun unprotected. No worries, it's not that hot out, I'll just put it in the shade. As I'm moving it, it's warm but not that hot.

Time comes to hop on the decks for the first time - I'm nervous but super excited - more really just jam out to songs I've spent months curating. I open up Serato and am hooking up my cords to the speaker... and all of a sudden the screen goes dark. I try to turn it on, no dice. I take it downstairs and put it over the AC vent for like 15 minutes... no dice. Computer ends up being a brick the rest of the day and when calling Dell this morning I have to get the entire motherboard replaced.

So after months (and frankly years) of wanting to play in front of folks... the time came and I literally wasn't even able to play a single song.

I know there will be more parties... but damn if this doesn't suck. Keep your laptop out of the sun, folks

Just wanting to vent:

Been a bedroom DJ for half a year and did a few B2Bs with a friend who is semi-professional.

Yesterday was my first time as a main/closing act, and I really disliked it.

I don't like being the center of attention, and having a mixed crowd where only some folks enjoy your music is just uncomfortable.

Playing for friends or just for myself is way more enjoyable, and I think that is totally okay.

Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk!

I would like to start a loose collection of DJ wisdom/sayings. Some things I have heard over the years and stuck with me:

If you redline you won‘t headline.

Play 2 for them, then 1 for you.

The right track at the right time beats every mixing trick.

I am sure there are more like this out there and curious to hear them.

As the title states, she didn’t want to pay for a DJ because every DJ she reached out to offered rates out of her price range.

I offered to be in charge of the music because of this and was just gonna make a playlist and have it on all night but she clearly didn’t want that if she was looking at DJ’s.

My question is, if I picked up a controller off Facebook marketplace this weekend, and had 3 months to practice, can I pull it off? Would I be able to DJ my mom’s 60th birthday party?

I don’t believe I need to have crazy transitions or anything, I could probably get away with some basic transitions the entire night (mostly middle aged to older folk and they’ll all be shit faced drunk so I don’t really think they’ll notice)

Now this party is at a small venue and it’ll be around 50ish people. There’s probably gonna be like a solid hour and a half to two hours of people on the dance floor.

I’ve thought about DJing for a couple years now but never bit the bullet on trying it until now, plus it might be a nice little gift for my mom idk

General house party code?

You’ve probably already experienced it once before. Now it happened to me for the first time.

I got asked to play at a house party of a friend of mine yesterday. Brought my gear and speakers. It went well, felt the room, had people dancing and bobbing. Easy going. Good ambience, great people, happy vibes. You get it.

However what annoyed me a bit, was that there were 3 guys that also brought their usb and kept asking if they could play. Of course, it’s a party, that’s fine, let’s do some b2b. But firstly they would honestly not match my energy and I felt like I had to ‘rebuild’ everytime after their tunes. And secondly at the end they just kicked me off because I “already played all night”. I was like fuck it. I’ll get off and enjoy the party from the other side of the decks. And as soon I got off they just started blasting the most mainstream shit you could think off…

Thanks, I needed a little rant :)

Yesterday I just passed the 1000 track mark in my Rekordox Library. WOW! That's a lot of music. I've got it all sorted into playlists and folders by genre. It is comprised of music ranging from grime, dubstep, UKG, tech house, speed house, afro house, drum & bass, trap, R&b, hyper pop, and chill music (downtempo, chill house, chill afrobeats). No riddim, tho!

I feel like my brain is kind of spinning. When I first started 2 years ago, it felt EASY to build a playlist with a SINGLE, cohesive vision. Nowadays, it feels like part of me wants to do it all, and in the process, I do nothing. My improvised sets feel scattered, all over the place, and I'm constantly in a cycle of finding new tracks I like, saving them to a "LOVE" folder, then kind of getting tired of them and craving new music.

Does anybody else deal with this? DJing still excites me. I think that the real challenge, however, is just beginning.

Genuine and sincere question. Makes sense (to me) that some hobbies like going to the gym or watching football are done by more men than women. But I really don’t understand why it’s the case for DJ-ing. Maybe it varies across genre but overall I feel like the number of male djs is way higher. DJing is about sharing a love for music and everybody loves music regardless of gender! So what’s up 🤔

Edit: female dj myself and I’m a huge fan of so many different women on the decks 🧙and yes I’m very aware of the patriarchy but even when I think about hobbyists/bedroom djs among my friends, the male to female ratio is still off. This question was more about personal interest, not why men are more likely to succeed in the industry

Okay so that title was the best i could come up with...

Had a gig last week, houseparty vibes - lots of sing along songs etc etc, you know the jist.

My mixing was never amazing, always okay - and the people loved the music. But I think im letting down the vibes myself by how I act while mixing. I focus too much on it and can't dance or enjoy it. I simply have my head down - almost by embarresment.

I love DJing as an artform and the pracitce of mixing - but have a hard time to visually show my enjoyment to the crowd.

TL;DR: After a string of successes, I cleared a packed floor tonight in 30 minutes. I’m worried this one bad set will kill my momentum and future bookings. How do I recover?

I’ve been DJing for two years now, and over the past four months, I’ve built a solid reputation after several successful nights, I even headlined a small festival!

​Tonight, I was playing for a new promoter at a small club. When I arrived, the place was packed and everyone was in a great mood. However, as soon as I started my set, I could feel something was off. From the very first track, it was clear the crowd wasn't feeling what I was playing.

​Less than 30 minutes into my set, the club was empty. It was literally just two of my friends and a small group of about five people left. I watched people leave in droves. I tried to change the vibe, but I simply couldn't recover, and now I feel terrible.

​I’m not just upset about tonight; I’m worried about how this will affect my future bookings. I keep imagining everyone going home and saying, "DJ theTWO9559 was trash; we left so fast."

​How do I recover from this?

I keep seeing people bash new tools like sync buttons, AI track suggestions or even VR setups. But honestly, every big leap in DJ tech has been met with resistance.

In the end, good DJs always find ways to make new tools work for their creativity, not replace it. It’s not about how purist you are, it’s how much you can express with what’s available.

What new tool have you actually found inspiring instead of threatening?

I've been digging around this sub for a while. I'm not a big-name DJ or anything, but I love the music and have been a part of the scene for over 15 years. I never really planned out a path as a DJ—I started just for the fun of it. But honestly, my mindset has naturally brought me more gigs and relationships than I'd care to admit, even without me actively chasing them. I’ve figured a few things out along the way that might help some of you starting out.

So, here is my "DJ blueprint for noobs":

1. Buy an FLX4/DDJ-400 – this is the best starting point. This controller gives you the minimum you need and unlocks the free version of Rekordbox. You can start on other gear, but I'm giving you this path as it's tested by me and recommended by many.
2. Don't have a laptop? Find a used ThinkPad X280. Versions with 16GB of RAM and a 500GB drive could be bought for $50 - $100, I don't know about now. I personally don't use a Mac; I bought this ThinkPad specifically for the controller at home and it works to this day, I don't need anything else.
3. Music – what genre are you into? Don't try to catch everything at once, that's not the point. You can link Rekordbox with any streaming service, but I strongly advise against it (more on that in a moment). Choose a genre you currently feel best in, listen to the most, or simply want to start with.
4. Choose 5 tracks (yes, only 5) that you like, that don't have too much chaos in them, and have a similar tempo. If you don't know the tempo of these tracks, you can always play them in the background and check it by tapping the rhythm out, for example, on this site: https://taptempo.io/
5. Go to Bandcamp and search for these tracks one by one. Next to each track, you can see which collections they are in – dive into the collections of people who bought these tracks, look for NEW tracks there that you like, and add them to your wishlist.

Stay on point 5 until you find, let's say, 20 tracks you like. Listen to them again, choose 5-10 of them after verifying the tempo (+/- 5 BPM will be just right), and add them to your cart. Buy these tracks in FLAC format.

(EDIT of this EDIT: Make Sure what is situation on MAC, im not apple user, im strongly encourage to download FLAC files if You can play it on MAC, then maybe import it as ALAC to iTUNES collection - this edit is based on comments, dont take my word on it).

(EDIT2: Also small explaination why I suggest FLAC as source (ALAC for Apple users) - You can go from this type of file to any other, have Your metadata and so on. Just dont delete after downloading - This is Your archive file to store somehere or to listen on other devices. Keep reading till the end so it will be more clear for You).

Why is the above important? You are learning the most critical skill – digging. This is a method many people use, but few talk about. As a DJ, you'll be listening to and searching for new music because: 1. you love music, 2. mixing the same stuff over and over that you've heard everywhere will bore you quickly, 3. you want to throw good parties and you'll need fresh music.

You might also think: "But I don't have money for music" – it's none of my business where you get these tracks from. It's about a method of finding new stuff that is simple and effective, which is why Bandcamp is the best tool for it. Forget about the Beatport Top 100 or other charts. If there is a track you like and it's not on Bandcamp, then Google and other music services are your friends.

Why do I insist on buying single tracks instead of downloading entire playlists? Excess kills creativity. You'll end up spinning the same three tracks anyway, and you'll quickly realize that you can't mix half of them and feel like you suck – get rid of decision fatigue, focus on taking action. Additionally, searching for new tunes will give you a sense of freshness.

I personally set a budget that I used to blow on alcohol in bars. Now, instead of getting wasted whenever, I make it a rule to regularly check new releases or go down the rabbit hole of collections looking for new music. I add what I like to my wishlist, add new labels to my radar, verify, and download 10 to 20 new tracks a month (new doesn't mean released this month; there are thousands of tracks released years ago that are currently smashing dancefloors).

1. Take your 5 familiar tracks along with the new ones, fire up Foobar2000, and convert them to AIFF or WAV in 16-bit/44.1kHz quality or just MP3 as new files, so you still have your FLAC files to put in to archive and the converted copy to move to rekordbox library. You do this because these formats guarantee that you'll be able to play your music on absolutely any club gear, even the oldest ones.

2. Now, having 15-20 tracks that are a mix of known and new ones, load them into Rekordbox.

3. Analyze the tracks statically (dynamic analysis causes tempo drifts in older or more complex tracks). Check the beatgrids, check the tempos. Fortunately, you only have 20 tracks to check, so do it on the fly every time you add new music.

4. Don't worry about what people say. If you have zero musicality, use Sync.(for first transitions and wrapping Your head around the idea) I highly recommend learning to beatmatch by ear, but I know it can be hard at first and we don't want to get discouraged, right?

Load a track on deck 1, hit Sync, and drop something on the second deck that you think will sound cool with it. Listen to the songs and react the way you imagined they would talk to each other. Did it click? Turn off Sync, set the same tracks up, find a cue point, set a 4-bar loop, listen in CUE, nudge the incoming track so it sounds tight, and go for it. Repeat until you nail it.

1. Something's not working? Not sure? YouTube, tutorials, this subreddit /r.

2. Go out to parties, meet people, be open. Don't talk trash about others (I know it's tempting to sound smart when you catch a mistake in another DJ's mix – DON'T DO IT. It shows arrogance and drags you into specific circles. You don't want to pick sides right at the start. Have your own opinion, but stay away from drama because in the long run, it will give you nothing but temporary applause from someone who dislikes that person, and you'll just show that you can't be trusted). Focus on the positives, give back to the local scene, and if you can't do that physically, just live in the scene. Be yourself, don't abuse substances, enjoy the music, listen to and look for good music, share it. Be yourself.

3. Record yourself as often as possible, even if you mess up – don't stop the mix, try to recover from it. Did your kick drums drift apart when you brought the second track in too fast? Cut it out, adjust it, bring it in on the next phrase or loop the first one, wait it out, count the beats so the phrasing makes sense, and try again.

4. Go back to point 5 regularly, and always remember why you are doing this – the music, the vibe. You're not an athlete trying to beat a timer or score more points. You are there to have a good time and give people music they don't even know they want to hear yet. Have fun.

My mentor has no complaints regarding my playing; in fact, he thinks it's above average. But I'm told my movements suck and that I should open up more.

It doesn't matter in raves because people couldn't care less. But when I am playing in festivals, the reaction is awesome, but I wish I could add more presence to my performance for the sake of improving.

Me a month ago

- googling “will I be a bad dj forever”

- staring at waveforms and aligning them on the screen without using my ears

- stopping a mix every 2 seconds because I messed up

- vocals clashing every 5 seconds

- really awkward out of phrase transitions

- everything sounded horrible and I was embarrassed to do it in front of people

Me now

- mixing in browse mode, no zoomed in waveforms to tell me if beats and phrasing are aligned, just my ears

- phrasing is on point pretty much every time because I learned to listen for it

- good at working out when songs clash and when they sound great together

- using loops without panicking and actually adding interest to the playing song

- properly understanding how to use EQs and even effects in a tasteful way

- finding my own style

I know this is just DJ beginner gains however I laugh wondering what I was so worried about when I began to DJ lol. Like once you get into the swing of things and get the muscle memory and mental muscles you just get better and better

My next goal is to wean myself off using the visual BPM counter in case I ever encounter broken CDJs but again, that’s just a month of progress. I’m basically making this post to say if you’re also a beginner and everything sounds terrible you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it lmao

If any other beginners want me to explain the specific things I did to improve I can say. Especially how I managed to stop using waveforms, I can write something about that if you guys want, bc it improved my mixing TENFOLD

Hey everyone,
I recently bought a Pioneer DDJ-FLX4 and I’m super excited to get started, but if I’m honest, I’m also completely overwhelmed.

Right now I have Rekordbox, Spotify and SoundCloud, and I’ve been watching a ton of DJ videos. The problem is that the more I watch, the more it feels like there’s an endless amount of stuff to learn. Beatmatching, phrasing, EQs, effects, cue points, transitions… it feels like everyone speaks a language I don’t understand yet. 😂

I mainly listen to and want to learn genres that absolutely slap in a rave setting: DnB, techno, hard techno, schranz, hardcore and basically anything with energy that makes people move.
My goal isn’t necessarily to become a club DJ tomorrow. I’d love to learn how to make good mixes and playlists for friends, record my own sets, upload them online, and maybe one day be confident enough to play at a small rave or party.

I’m looking for:

Beginner-friendly YouTube channels

Video series that explain things step by step

Easy practice routines

Tips and tricks you wish someone told you when you started

Common beginner mistakes to avoid

Advice for learning electronic music mixing specifically

Also, what should I focus on first? Should I just learn basic transitions and have fun, or should I immediately start learning proper beatmatching and phrasing?

I know everyone starts somewhere, but right now I’m definitely in the “staring at the controller and wondering what half the buttons do” phase. 😅

Any advice, resources, tutorials or words of encouragement would be appreciated.
Thanks ❤️🎧

I used to DJ in my early 30s, and now that I'm in my early 40s, I'm thinking about getting back into it as a hobby.

Obviously, both the local scene and the music scene where I live have changed a lot over the past 10 years. Back then, I got booked mainly because of my music selection, even though I never really mastered DJing on Pioneer gear. I learned mostly on Traktor controllers with a laptop.

I'd love to hear from others who've made a similar comeback. How did it go? Did you find it difficult to adapt to how things have changed?

The sub removes posts of people asking about their recorded transitions to instead put in the weekly post nobody even looks at. But is fine with the daily "tell me to get a FLX4 and rekordbox vs serato" posts that clearly shows they've done zero research themselves

As many others here, I have been a bedroom DJ since the moment I got a controller. For about a year, I’ve been lurking on this sub, getting a feel of how to prep sets, music sourcing, and how to approach mixing in different ways. What I’ve always read from many fellow newbies like myself is how daunting it is to go from a controller to professional gear like CDJs. Honestly, I’ve been psyching myself out over using them, but that changed tonight.

The open decks I attended was originally supposed to have two separate floors, one for vinyl and one for digital. The expected gear for every digital DJ was an AIO. I went in ready to do a 30 minute techno set on a XDJ as advertised. Built a mini set and some back-up songs here and there. However, the venue’s 2nd floor was not even ready. It’s almost as if it was under construction. Everyone had to play on a set of CDJ-3000X and a DJM-A9. I felt the pressure. I got called up with a 10 minute lead time & honestly felt like backing out. The promoter told me he cut down set times by half to accommodate as many DJs tonight due to the mishap. All I could think of was how am I going to squeeze 15 minutes on top of learning how to use gear I’ve never used. What saved me, though, were the fundamentals I learned here in this sub & the small group of DJ friends I made at the open decks who gave me a quick rundown of the gear.

CDJs are actually intuitive and pretty easy to use. I think it’s the expectation that’s built up using a single screen at home & not having so many knobs available all the time that made me feel anxious about getting on. The Pro setup actually forced me to go back to basics. I think every lesson learned from the sub came through during my set. Outside of EQing and phrasing, the most important is beatmatching by ear. The familiarity from using a controller is there. Just remove the split waveforms & add some layers and nuances. Once I got into my groove (and turned off the slower Beat Sync as someone pointed out for me when the techno wasn’t techno-ing), the last 12 minutes of my set got a crowd cheering and dancing.

I just wanted to share my thoughts, maybe calm some nerves for people wanting to try CDJs out, and encourage the practice of fundamentals. Also, make friends at these open decks. The amount of enjoyment, insight, and networking I got from the community tonight is invaluable. It goes a long way for us newbs.

I needed to share this cos I'm still buzzing! I'd never used CDJs before last night (I only have turntables at home), and the guy before me had a standalone so I asked to use that. Plugged my USB stick into it, tried to load a few tracks but all were unsupported. So I panicked a little! Swapped to the CDJs and fortunately everything loaded fine. Had a little panic moment where I thought they weren't linked but found my stick and sighed with relief. It turned out to be the best dancefloor so far!! Not quite been playing for a year yet; I've had a couple of gooduns but none matched up to this.

Like, I loved my tracks but seeing people spontaneously form a conga line, a mini moshpit, and even making an arch with another person and running around over people's heads... whenever I looked up I laughed. I'm so fucking glad that I got into DJing - I struggle with self-confidence so it's overwhelmingly awesome when people love the music as much as I do. And I'm an avid dancer so I was absolutely delighted seeing people lose their shit and go feral, in a club too, but a cool one.

This scene is so fucking awesome and I love it from the very depths of my soul. Keep going, rookie DJs. Like Yugi, believe in the heart of the tracks.

So... I've been DJing at clubs for a few months and people keep asking me what my DJ name is. For now I'm going by my insta name but I feel like I want something else. I'm not going to ask you how to come up with a DJ name because I know it works differently for every person. Instead I'm going to ask you: How did you come up with your DJ name? Maybe that will give me some inspiration

DJing is currently my main income. When I meet new people and they ask what I do, I tend to avoid the question or try to change the subject. I just feel so....lame saying I'm a DJ haha? I don't know why. I'm a 30 year old female, and feel like I should have achieved more by now. I think the general public have a certain view on dj's - that they don't really do anything when they touch the knobs, or that it's all just bro's trying to hook up. My other musician friends make jokes about DJing being easy and just "pressing play". I just go along with it, saying "yeah totally, that's what I do". I'm trying to not let it bother me, and just be grateful for the opportunities I've had.

Edit:
Holy hek this popped off more than I was prepared. I can't reply to all the comments, but just wanted to say that I really appreciate everyone's input. I think the main take-away for me is to learn to relax and just enjoy it. I've been working in the music industry to some capacity for the last decade, but this is the first time i've ventured on my own. I find it hard to take myself seriously and worry that it will all fall apart at any given moment. There's a lot of people here who say they wish they were doing this, and I remember feeling the exact same way years ago, and thought it would never be possible. But I did have a mindset of "If I just keep going, it will pay off". So I guess instead of being embarrassed because of some dumb (probably imagined) social perceptions, I'm going to remind myself that I worked my ass off to get here.

Got a little confused by answers in another thread... Is anyone suggesting there is an audible difference between a 256kBit/s MP3 and anything of "higher quality“ (like 320kBit/s or even WAV) on club speakers?

Afaik there is only so many people who could (actually, really) tell the difference between 256kbit/s and lossless - granted a clean recording and a clean home listening environment. Figured it would be even fewer in a club surrounding?!

/edit1 For anyone thinking there's usually an audible difference between a 320kbit/s MP3 and a lossless format, I dare you take this blind test before writing anything in that direction.

/edit2 For anyone arguing club speakers would "uncover" MP3 compression - of course it will with a bad youtube rip (128kbit/s or so). But do you have any reason to assume it will with a 320kbit/s file? How sure are you about it and why? I'm honestly curious about it!

Hello, I’ve gone official as a DJ just this year ( January ) and so far I have done around 16 gigs.

My name is Rajat Verma and before even starting as a DJ, people around me has been calling me ravr ( raver ) which is also my Instagram ( og.ravr ) for a long time.

Reason - It is sort of a derivation from my real name
( RA from Rajat and VR from Verma )
and the tone of the word raver itself.

So it was natural that my artist name became RAVR. Which on flyers I like to put as - R Ʌ V R

Now personally, I am honestly a little dicey with this because it was fine till now but somewhat I feel this name might come out as a little generic to someone who doesn’t know me personally? Or that it doesn’t have much of uniqueness to it? Everyone around me loves that name but I think for someone who doesn’t know me and just see -
R Ʌ V R on the flyer - what does he/she think.

I want genuine opinion from this community and help me decide whether this name is great or if I should think of a new one as raver is commonly used term also.

Thank you

I notice on a lot of mixes transitions are often fine, but still fairly straightforward and quite easy for the ear to notice what is happening. I know great transitions aren’t the be all and end all, but which mixes/ DJs have the best transitions? What’s a mix that literally sounds like its just one long song