Hey Hackers! Which of these DJ tips was your favorite? Share your thoughts below, and don't forget to join Crate Hackers for 7 days of free crates! www.cratehackers.com/7daytrial 🔥📦
I’ve got 4~5 “slam mixes” of popular songs ready in Recordbox’s preparation list. If I’m stuck and the song runs out, I’ll go to that list. Always a saver!
I have a slightly different cue point assignment. I use custom named cue points using Mneumonics to define what's going on at each cue point. usually 1st beat, and then every 32 beats or sometimes 64 beats on older songs. The idea is that I can Type Letters to signify what is going on at each POI / Cue Point : This is just an example of how I might use my cue points. Not all songs need all 8 and some i use more if I am marking loop sections, samples etc. Below are also just a few examples of the naming conventions I use, I also use G for Guitar, S for Saxophone, C for Chords etc. Cue 1 : B (Beats) Cue 2 : B&M (Beats & Melody) Cue 3 : B&M Build Cue 4 : M&V Break (Beats, Melody and Vocal Drop) Then for the outgoing segment : Cue 5 : BM&V Cue 6 : B&M Cue 7 : B&M Brkdwn Cue 8 : B I have a couple of my controller buttons customised to skip forward and backwards 16 beats, so I can scan a song pretty quickly and get a feel for how many beats are leading up to points of interest. It's important to be listening when doing this as sometimes towards the end of the song, the phrasing has changed. maybe the producer was naughty and added in a 4 beat pause for example, or maybe the BPM was altered for a vocal break etc. Taking the time to listen to the song and set the cue points on the phrase divisions will also ensure you start your next track on the correct beat. This makes layering songs a breeze and you also don't have to spend as much time listening through your headphones when djing live as you can already visualise where everything is. Combined with this, I also assign the colour red to cue points when vocals start and green when vocals end. Some mashable songs, I have the entire song mapped out with start and stop points for each vocal area e.g. the old 90s classic Cotton Eye Joe has several short bursts of vocals with several short bursts of B&M in between. Mapping out the vocals allows me to choose other mashable vocal loops and fire them in between vocal bursts. This is fire!! Hope that helps a few of you to take cue pointing to the next level :-)
Great tips. I'm a Lifetime Member of Crate Hackers and realize I need to up my use of it to truly make it effective. I've kind of been behind the scenes, but as I'm setting up a new computer I'm realizing all the pieces I need to take time and do correctly.
Golden info here. And so many will let their ego just blow it off. It’s not concrete playlist for me. It just to have to options to have to brain fire off your own ideals. And I use cur points like crazy. Dang near 8 per track.
The different sites to check out song popularity and so forth is definitely an extra source of getting crates in better shape, and battle ready. I will surely cross reference charts, songs, etc among those sites. Other than that, I have been enjoying creating crates lately. Helping me to narrow down all my 80's and 90's Hip Hop hits vs having hundreds of songs that don't give that "AYE" feeling when the beat drop. Wish I would have got on with Crate Hackers when I first started. I library may be in much better shape today. LOL
Wow Aaron, have to say you are on fire at the moment. Clearly in a good place and very inspired. That was 30 min of non stop gems and nuggets. Thank you! I use many of the same practices as you, the #tags, similar cue point regime and so on. Currently undergoing a huge clean up in my library, tagging, setting cue points and getting rid of songs I don't need. Currently I tag about 30 songs a day and delete between 3 - 9 songs, from the library I don't use. Very satisfying.
I'm a nurse of 15 years, deep breaths are my number one tip for any professional, always plan out the next 3-4 steps to accomplish your tasks. cool to hear DJs have a the same mindset. Thank you for the mad tips
Hey Hackers! Which of these DJ tips was your favorite? Share your thoughts below, and don't forget to join Crate Hackers for 7 days of free crates! www.cratehackers.com/7daytrial 🔥📦
I would say my favorite was the Cue points. I've used Cue points obviously, but never been as consistent on how I set them up.
I’ve got 4~5 “slam mixes” of popular songs ready in Recordbox’s preparation list. If I’m stuck and the song runs out, I’ll go to that list. Always a saver!
I have a slightly different cue point assignment. I use custom named cue points using Mneumonics to define what's going on at each cue point. usually 1st beat, and then every 32 beats or sometimes 64 beats on older songs. The idea is that I can Type Letters to signify what is going on at each POI / Cue Point :
This is just an example of how I might use my cue points. Not all songs need all 8 and some i use more if I am marking loop sections, samples etc.
Below are also just a few examples of the naming conventions I use, I also use G for Guitar, S for Saxophone, C for Chords etc.
Cue 1 : B (Beats)
Cue 2 : B&M (Beats & Melody)
Cue 3 : B&M Build
Cue 4 : M&V Break (Beats, Melody and Vocal Drop)
Then for the outgoing segment :
Cue 5 : BM&V
Cue 6 : B&M
Cue 7 : B&M Brkdwn
Cue 8 : B
I have a couple of my controller buttons customised to skip forward and backwards 16 beats, so I can scan a song pretty quickly and get a feel for how many beats are leading up to points of interest. It's important to be listening when doing this as sometimes towards the end of the song, the phrasing has changed. maybe the producer was naughty and added in a 4 beat pause for example, or maybe the BPM was altered for a vocal break etc.
Taking the time to listen to the song and set the cue points on the phrase divisions will also ensure you start your next track on the correct beat.
This makes layering songs a breeze and you also don't have to spend as much time listening through your headphones when djing live as you can already visualise where everything is.
Combined with this, I also assign the colour red to cue points when vocals start and green when vocals end. Some mashable songs, I have the entire song mapped out with start and stop points for each vocal area e.g. the old 90s classic Cotton Eye Joe has several short bursts of vocals with several short bursts of B&M in between. Mapping out the vocals allows me to choose other mashable vocal loops and fire them in between vocal bursts. This is fire!!
Hope that helps a few of you to take cue pointing to the next level :-)
Very inspiring and full of gems! Crate Hackers philosophy totally changed my mindset 🤯🤯
Great tips. I'm a Lifetime Member of Crate Hackers and realize I need to up my use of it to truly make it effective. I've kind of been behind the scenes, but as I'm setting up a new computer I'm realizing all the pieces I need to take time and do correctly.
Golden info here. And so many will let their ego just blow it off. It’s not concrete playlist for me. It just to have to options to have to brain fire off your own ideals. And I use cur points like crazy. Dang near 8 per track.
Subscribed 😎
Rad! - Aaron
The different sites to check out song popularity and so forth is definitely an extra source of getting crates in better shape, and battle ready. I will surely cross reference charts, songs, etc among those sites. Other than that, I have been enjoying creating crates lately. Helping me to narrow down all my 80's and 90's Hip Hop hits vs having hundreds of songs that don't give that "AYE" feeling when the beat drop. Wish I would have got on with Crate Hackers when I first started. I library may be in much better shape today. LOL
Wow Aaron, have to say you are on fire at the moment. Clearly in a good place and very inspired. That was 30 min of non stop gems and nuggets. Thank you!
I use many of the same practices as you, the #tags, similar cue point regime and so on. Currently undergoing a huge clean up in my library, tagging, setting cue points and getting rid of songs I don't need. Currently I tag about 30 songs a day and delete between 3 - 9 songs, from the library I don't use. Very satisfying.
Thank you so much for these words of inspiration! Very encouraging. I’ll keep giving you all I got - Aaron
I'm a nurse of 15 years, deep breaths are my number one tip for any professional, always plan out the next 3-4 steps to accomplish your tasks. cool to hear DJs have a the same mindset. Thank you for the mad tips
Nurses have such a difficult task. I respect and admire anyone who walks in those shoes each day. - Aaron
So your saying a fat rail, shot of whiskey and redbull is not the way to start a set!
Good heavens, haha! Yeah, let’s NOT and start there. - Aaron