1351 DJ advice required
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 20:04:51 +1200
From: "bob.ramsey-turner" <bob.ramsey-turner@QUICKSILVER.NET.NZ>
Subject: DJ advice required
Could someone help with some DJ advise?
I need to understand:
1 Basic typical set up to be used both with and without a computer.
2 The actual procedure for the activity
thanks Bob
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 19:33:29 -0400
From: WHITE 95 R <white95r@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: DJ advice required
Bob,
you need a decent laptop with a large hard drive and a good external sound
card (the built-in sound of the laptops is inadequate). Now you download
Musicmatch and use it to record all your tango music that you want to play
at milongas into MP3 format (be sure to record at high quality levels).
After you've done that, you can use the Musicmatch program to create
playlists and a music library from which you choose your music and play it
back through the sound card into a suitable PA system or other sound system.
It's not easy as the recording of the music is a laborious and time
consuming task. You'll probably make lots of mistakes and you'll have to
watch out for serious pitfalls such as truncated recordings, uneven sound
levels upon playback and others that you'll probably find and I'm not aware
of :-)
If you can, go to a milonga where the DJ uses the sytem and watch or ask
questions, he or she might be able to help you. If you come to Atlanta to
one of my milongas I'll be happy to take a few minutes to explain what I do,
but it probably will not take place of hands-on experience.
Anyway, I'll add that it's important to not confuse the computer and all the
other gizmos and technology with the real skills and requirements for being
a good DJ. First you need to really know the music and how to play it (what
, when, etc.) Secondly, you need a fairly vast collection of *good* tango
music of *good* sound quality.
The truth is, if you are already a good DJ and have the recorded music at
your disposal, the actual playback equipment is of not much consequence as
long as it produces decent sound at adeqaute levels.
Good luck,
Manuel
visit our webpage
www.tango-rio.com
----Original Message Follows----
From: "bob.ramsey-turner" <bob.ramsey-turner@QUICKSILVER.NET.NZ>
Reply-To: "bob.ramsey-turner" <bob.ramsey-turner@QUICKSILVER.NET.NZ>
To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: [TANGO-L] DJ advice required
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 02:43:31 +0200
From: "Kohlhaas, Bernhard" <bernhard.kohlhaas@SAP.COM>
Subject: Re: DJ advice required
Hello Bob,
I'm not entirely sure, what you all want to know, but your question touches
several areas, so let me try to cover a few of them:
1. The most important thing is to know the music, how to build tandas (sets of music)
and how to combine them in the flow of the evening and of good have lots of good
music available.
If you're new to this then Stephen Brown's website has an excellent introduction
to DJing as well as a list of tandas you can use.
See https://www.tejastango.com/milongas_djsrole.html
2. As far as playing equipment goes, most people I know either use burned CDs with
pre-compiled tandas or a laptop (or a combination of both).
If you only use CDs you'll probably need two CD players and a mixer that allows to
to play trough one CD player (and use the other CD player during that time to monitor
something you're considering to play).
If you go use a laptop, you should also have a set of backup CDs and a CD player
with you (What if the computer crashes and is not reviveable?)
I use a laptop under Windows with a USB soundcard that feeds the amplifier. I still can
use the headphone jack to monitor something I'm considering to play.
For me the Winamp software works best as the main player for DJing. Here's why:
- I can choose which soundcard to play through (no all players allow this)
My default soundcard in Windows is still the internal one (to use for monitoring), so
I just set Winamp to use the USB sound card. This way all the annoying Windows sounds won't
go through the main speakers.
- There are several good plugins (either free or cheap) for Winamp that I find very valuable,
such as a sound enhancer and (most important) an automatic gain controller to level the volume.
Without the latter you'll have to adjust the main volume much too often (I'd rather dance
than babysit the volume knob).
Beware of other "computer issues" that could be embarrasing.
I.e. if you double click on a sound file it shouln't use the main player, but the
secondary player (the one you use for monitoring).
Otherwise an accidental double click on a sound file will interrupt the current tanda and
start playing that file for all to hear.
3. And of course you need amplifying equipment of a resonable quality for the room you want to
DJ in (if it isn't build in already).
Once again, before you worry about all the equipment details, get to know the music.
The dancers don't care what equipment you use to produce the sound.
They only care about getting beautiful music at a pleasant volume in a well
designed sequence that inspires them to dance. The choice of playing equipment is to a
great degree about making the DJ's life easier and thus secondary.
Good luck,
Bernhard
Mountain View, CA
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bob.ramsey-turner [mailto:bob.ramsey-turner@QUICKSILVER.NET.NZ]
> Sent: DWed, Jun 04, 2003 1:05 AM
> To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: [TANGO-L] DJ advice required
>
>
> Could someone help with some DJ advise?
>
> I need to understand:
> 1 Basic typical set up to be used both with and without a computer.
> 2 The actual procedure for the activity
> thanks Bob
>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 22:48:34 -0700
From: John Tice <canaro99@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: DJ advice required
Another alternative is to consider using an iPod -- I use a 20 gig machine with close to 4,000 songs loaded and over ten different complete evenings of 5.5+ hours of music in each evening set. I arrange in tandas with cortinas (about 15 seconds long).
Software: I prefer Music Center 9 over MMJB. Besides its versatility over MMJB it loads my iPod much faster.
John Tice
John Tice <canaro99@yahoo.com> wrote:
Another alternative is to consider using an iPod -- I use a 20 gig machine with close to 4,000 songs loaded and over ten different complete evenings of 5.5+ hours of music in each evening set. I arrange in tandas with cortinas (about 15 seconds long).
Software: I prefer Music Center 9 over MMJB. Besides its versatility over MMJB it loads my iPod much faster.
John Tice
WHITE 95 R <white95r@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
Bob,
you need a decent laptop with a large hard drive and a good external sound
card (the built-in sound of the laptops is inadequate). Now you download
Musicmatch and use it to record all your tango music that you want to play
at milongas into MP3 format (be sure to record at high quality levels).
After you've done that, you can use the Musicmatch program to create
playlists and a music library from which you choose your music and play it
back through the sound card into a suitable PA system or other sound system.
It's not easy as the recording of the music is a laborious and time
consuming task. You'll probably make lots of mistakes and you'll have to
watch out for serious pitfalls such as truncated recordings, uneven sound
levels upon playback and others that you'll probably find and I'm not aware
of :-)
If you can, go to a milonga where the DJ uses the sytem and watch or ask
questions, he or she might be able to help you. If you come to Atlanta to
one of my milongas I'll be happy to take a few minutes to explain what I do,
but it probably will not take place of hands-on experience.
Anyway, I'll add that it's important to not confuse the computer and all the
other gizmos and technology with the real skills and requirements for being
a good DJ. First you need to really know the music and how to play it (what
, when, etc.) Secondly, you need a fairly vast collection of *good* tango
music of *good* sound quality.
The truth is, if you are already a good DJ and have the recorded music at
your disposal, the actual playback equipment is of not much consequence as
long as it produces decent sound at adeqaute levels.
Good luck,
Manuel
visit our webpage
www.tango-rio.com
----Original Message Follows----
From: "bob.ramsey-turner"
Reply-To: "bob.ramsey-turner"
To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: [TANGO-L] DJ advice required
