Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of ydhsu

July 1st, 2009 – I should qualify this post by saying that I am not a DJ. I may use DJ tools and skills to produce some of my music, but I have never made a living by rocking parties and clubs.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of great hip hop and electronic music producers have at one point been DJ’s? What is it about the turntables that makes DJ’s as equally suited to working in the studio as out on the stage? DJ’s have detractors consisting mostly of jealous traditional musicians who complain that DJ’s aren’t real artists, they just play other people’s music. This is short sighted.

DJ’s, unlike us studio types, mix music (albeit with considerably less tracks to deal with) live. The audience feeds off the DJ’s energy through the mix, and unlike in the studio, there is no undo button. The DJ must create a mix of songs that builds energy, continuously keeping the attention of the audience, and must have an excellent grasp of his gear. Being in the unique situation of absorbing what works with an audience immediately and what doesn’t, a DJ learns through trial and error, perfecting the mix with each successive performance. He receives immediate feedback, and a bad performance can end his career. This weeds out DJ’s who aren’t serious, and who don’t have the chops.

When a DJ has survived for a while, he is battle hardened from every performance he has given. Having learned what works and what doesn’t in the highly stressful live environment, he can apply this knowledge to his own songs and albums. As well, knowing what songs have been popular with his audience, he knows what will be successful when he sets about songwriting.

Because a DJ knows his gear very well, he has the mindset required to use studio gear. Think about how a DJ matches levels and adjusts EQ to make his mixes pop. A DJ is a live sound engineer who also gets to choose what plays. Just as live sound engineers have blazing speed in mixing a band (which can be downright scary to studio engineers sometimes), a DJ has an innate grasp of tools that transfer to the studio easily.

This is not to say that being a DJ automatically makes you a good songwriter or engineer. But for those DJ’s that understand music well, each performance is like running an intense focus group. Mixing music live means that you have to be technically skilled, and know your set up very well. DJ’s use the same tools (although usually less complex) as those available in the studio, so they already have experience when they get there.

DJ skills are helpful for producing certain types of music. That’s why I’m working on upping my own DJ skills, with the hopes that it will give me better insight into how to create music that will get a DJ excited to play my song. In today’s music market, you need all the help you can in getting the word out and DJ’s are excellent friends to have.

On completely separate topic, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day!