For the last 26 years. I've been rocking stages playing in clubs and having a lot of fun as a DJ and turntablist. And in that time I've seen and learned a lot now it's time for me to share that knowledge by answering the questions that can help. You become a better DJ. I'm DJ t11 and this is the share the knowledge podcaster DJs. One two one two, what's going on? Is your boy DJ T lamb and you're checking out episode 9 of this year than I was five cash for DJ's. This is my weekly Q&A show specifically made for DJ's now little caveat right there last week's episode was not a Q&A episode. It was basically a rant or just meet rambling for 3045 minutes about my current state of affairs and my current activities, but most of the episodes will definitely be Q&A episodes. But even if I go on a rant, it's going to be DJ related now today. I have a bunch of questions. Shit that came in through Instagram and I'm gonna get straight into it right now. I have about 30 minutes. I don't want to make sure I'm adding as much value as possible to your day. So thanks for tuning in advance. Make sure you follow me everywhere and just check out my info on djt. Alarm.com. So let's get into this question. This is all about music and when you should consider something old school. So the question is when is a song considered old school. I have a residency for an old school night and what I play at always wonder is music. I'm the early 2000s old school yet. And if not, when does something become old school? I really love this question. And I know the topic will have various opinions when you asked various people because I know some people only consider a certain era to be old school. And in my opinion that doesn't really make sense. Now, what is old school old school is something that is not from This time that is from a different generation different era. I started the DJ in the early 90s and most people now will call hip-hop from the 90s like old-school hip-hop when I started in the 90s that was new hip-hop. So that was an old school yet. If you were playing as a DJ in the early 90's oldschool probably be soul and Funk from the 70s maybe disco some stuff like that even like late 80s stuff, which would be considered. An old school now for sure was not old school when we were playing it in the early 90s. So that alone should tell you that this is an evolving genre. It's not even a genre but an evolving group of music. It's going to get bigger because more songs are going to turn old. So yes, I was playing in the 90s and 90s stuff was new at that time when I was playing in the 2000s the 90 stuff was considered to be The older / old school so mid 80s late 80s early 90s that was already starting to be old school when it was like 2002-2003 now we're in 2019. If you're playing a song out of 2002 that song is 17 years old. I consider that to be full. I don't know if I'd call it old school, but if I'm playing at an old school party a song out of 2002 now is definitely going to fit that in my opinion. So like I said certain people will not agree. They will only look at old school as being music from I don't know 70s 80s, maybe early 90s and anything after that is too new for them. But you have to imagine if you're a DJ and you're going to play at a club where there's a younger audience. Let's say anything between 18 and 25 if you're playing a song that 17 years old older song. 2002 some of them were one years old when that song came out. How is that not old school to them for me? It's a little bit different because as a 43-year old you look at time differently. So 10 years doesn't feel as that long to me. That's only like a quarter of my life. That's not that long. But if you're still 25 17 years that's more than half of your life. That's a long time. So to them that is definitely music from before their time. So yes, if you're playing an old school party right now something from the early 2000 in my opinion is definitely old school. You don't even have to label it old school, but it's definitely going to fit at a party where you're supposed to play all the music now, if you're ever unsure about this, you can always just talk about this with the promoter to organizer. This ask them. Like look you have this old school night. I love playing here. Make sure you Me know what you want me to play what you consider old school. Can I play stuff from the early 2000s. Now you have a residency there. I guess you haven't had complaints yet because you did not mention that so I assume everything is fine on that end. But if you're ever unsure just make sure you check with the promoter like hey, you booked me to complete your old school party. What do you want to play 90s 2000s? Let me know I can put all of that in there or You want to be more specific you want to make this like a throwback 90's party. Then I leave everything after 2000 out of it. That's a possibility then want to have like a 80s old school party and you need the 90s out of it as well. You could always ask but in my opinion if it's over 15 years old. Oh man that's old and a lot of the crowd will not know it unless you're playing for an older crowd. All right. I see a question that I also saw in my inbox in my email inbox and I have yet to answer because I need to Check this out. So I can't really answer this now, but I like to just throw that question out there. Anyway, what's the name of the scratch you're doing on your song show me at 42 seconds. I would see questions like this more often in this case. It's about a single I released in 2015 called show me I do some scratches in that single, but it also happens with some of my Saturday Sessions videos and I'll get a specific question and it'll have a timestamp to let me know like hey, what's the scratch you're doing at 10 seconds or at 1 minute 40 or this case at 42 seconds in 99.9 percent of the cases. I'll have to go and actually listen to the song and watch the video to check what it is that I'm doing and a lot of times I'm actually doing freestyle patterns that will consist of some times two or even three or four scratches following each other shortly. So I'll Give that a look and a listen and I'll make sure I'll try to answer that but in certain cases is going to be really hard because it's not just going to be that second. It's going to be like in this case. The question is 42 seconds or so. So it's around that time that I could be doing like a basic baby combined with a scribble and a cut or maybe it's something else, you know, or chirp. I have to go check a lot of times. It's going to be a combination of different scratches. So I love the questions, but it's really hard for me to answer until I go check it out. Out to see what actually did all right. So this question is about technology. I love talking about tech and this case it is about new tech replacing old Tech. The question is do you think rain twelves will replace turntables in nightclubs in the future and the second question is is there anything you do not like about the phase system? All right. So when Pioneer came out with the CDJ a 1000 a lot of these days here in the Netherlands. reached on vinyl to that particular player and some people said that that will be the end of turntables and clubs now they were partially right because yes in most of the clubs here cdjs became the standard now, of course nowadays, it's going to be CDJ 2000 Nexus to but in a lot of cases if you walk into DJ booth here in clubs in the Netherlands, they'll have a see DJ set and out of turn table set but most of the clubs still have their turntables and when I come out to play they can bring out the turntables for me. They're going to have them in the basement or the seller or they have just like separate storage where they do keep your equipment well preserved, but most of the club's still have turntables. It's just not the regular set up so they basically replace turntables till certain extent now the rain 12 and if you're watching the video clip while the right there in the back, I absolutely love the rain 12s. Is it going to replace turntables in nightclubs while here in the Netherlands for sure, I can say no, that's just because there are not enough DJ's using or requesting rain twelves for clubs to actually make that investment. If half of the DJ's were playing on that clubs might consider adding that to their standard setup or at least having those in the venue. But in this case, I don't see that happening. They're going to stick with cdjs and they'll keep some turntables around. So no, I don't see that happening here. I don't know how it is in the US. I do see a lot of DJ's using rainfalls, but overall, I don't know if enough DJ's are using and requesting them for Clubs to replace their turntables. So it's really hard for me to tell but unless all turntable DJ start using 12s. I don't see it happening. Now. Is there anything that I don't like about the phase system? I don't know yet. Mine are on the way. I don't have him yet. I've seen the videos. I've seen them in action. I've seen them in person. I had a gig with brain power last week two weeks ago. Ooh two weeks ago. I think and the DJ that was playing after our gig was using phase. So I got to see it in person. Those things are smaller than I thought they were by watching the videos. Those units are super small, but it looked great the DJ was very happy. They were really working. Well, I've heard a lot of good stories. I've seen some stories online people having trouble like having trouble syncing them or stuff like that. Now that could just be like the the thing that happens with me. Equipment that you're going to have some buggy situations. Hopefully those things can be solved with firmware upgrades that happens a lot of dates. So I haven't seen anything personally that has me worried, but I can't wait to get my hands on phase and to me it is still the biggest game changer of the last I don't know how many years I mean the rain twelves are definitely not the game changer. We've had moving platters for a long time the ns7 already did that great. Other players came out and had moving job wheels. So that's not new. They work great, but it's not like mind-blowing new tech. It's just a bigger version of a Visa 7v7 by Numark in my opinion love the rain to Al's but phase that is a game changer because it will allow all of us turntable DVS DJ's to stop worrying about faulty needles faulty tone arms you Name it now the cool thing is you can still have turntable sets that have the needles and everything on and you can switch between phase and normal vinyl or even just hook it up and still play DBS the normal way we Control vinyl but just having that option to know that I can bring a system that doesn't depend on the quality of the turntable that is available in that club. Like I said here in the Netherlands a lot of clubs will still have them but they have them in the basement or attic not all clubs here treat their turntables well and I've been in plenty situations where I come in and something is wrong with the turntable. Now, I've had problems with my needles. Yes. That's my responsibility. I bring extra needles I replace needles you name it, but sometimes you come in and one of the SLS has like bad faulty wiring. I can't change that especially with SL the wiring Camp. You can just put in a different RCA cable that wiring goes into that turntable. So if the wiring is off I can get a clear signal for my Yes that I have a problem and I've had to do gig but one turntable because the other one wasn't working phase fixes that problem for me. So to me, I'm amazed still even though I've never used it, but my my set is on the way so I should have that soon and I absolutely can't wait that's going to go with me everywhere everywhere I go I can me that I can bring my laptop and anyone who has a set I can just plug it in and we can play love it. So here we go. What is the best way to organize your music some tips on organizing them that this is one of the most requested topics and any time I talk about this. My answer is basically always the same. I haven't figured it out yet. I know that's still a pretty lame response but it is the truth. I still haven't figured out my system. I've tried different stuff over the years and I've met a lot of DJ's and a lot of them organize their music. Differently from myself and other DJs and that is because we all have our personal preference now. Let me just skip that for a second and I hope we can agree on that that a lot of us will have our personal preference. There are certain things that will help you out. When you start to organize your music number one is make sure you don't have too much music what I mean by that is you can have thousands and thousands of tracks in your library. I'm not saying you can only bring a couple hundred tracks, but make sure you're only putting music in those folders. That is actually DJ music. So don't put all of your albums from your Digital Collection in your crates just to have everything there because more is definitely not better. It's going to get cluttered just too many songs doesn't help in my opinion. I played where I was bringing an external drive. We like terabytes of music all it did was make me scroll and look longer than I would normally look so minimizing your collection. Your DJ collection can actually be a good thing. So start out by making sure you're not just adding anything you find in the DJ poles, but look for stuff that you're actually going to play when it comes to the music. You already have go through that music listen to songs. And just decide is this something I will play. If not, you can keep it in your collection at home, but don't have it in your DJ folders. So that's one. That's what I would do. I would eliminate a lot of the music that is not supposed to be in there. I still have to do that with a certain part of my music now. Secondly you want to make sure that your music is tagged correctly. So it's going to be easier to use Smart crates if you're not familiar with smart crates. Have them in DJ software Pioneer has a similar system for rekordbox DJ. So you could use it with cdjs as well. And basically with smart creates, you're not going to organize your music in advance in folders on your computer. Like I normally do but you're going to just tell your DJ software make this folder. And in this folder, I want to have only tracks that are between a certain BPM or only tracks that have a certain tag in there that attack could be related to the genre. It could be a tag related to the year. It could be a tag that's related to the energy level of the songs. I'm sorry about that. Let me fix this. He could have anything like that any type of data like that in the tags that you put in that smart Great rule after you put that in there. So let me just do a simple one to tracks with a BPM higher than a hundred and five. At lower than hundred and twelve if I do that in for instance Cerrado or in rekordbox that crate is going to go through everything that I've imported into the software and it's going to pick out all the tracks that are between the bpms. I just mentioned so they're going to be a hundred and five 212 anything with that Tempo is going to be in that fold. I like that as a nice range. I can basically makes anything in there with each other. So that's going to work if that Still too much. I can add an extra rule that's going to limit it to well a lot less. Let's say I'm going to add Jama to that that automatically brings it down a lot but I could also have a tag that is like I said based around energy. If you do that color coded or with bangers. I don't know a warm-up you could have whatever you want but terms like that can really help you out to find songs on the spot. So that is something I have added. It as part-time solution until I come up with the perfect way to create my folders because I do prefer to have the music already organized in folders instead of just having a organized by the software. That way I can always have my folders with me and know exactly what I have in each folder. So yeah making sure the right info is in the track track title and in the tags and eliminating a lot. Data, some of the first steps. I would take then I would start with the genres that I played the most and within those genres genres. I do make a selection based on not years but errors some DJ's have folders for each and every year within each and every genre and that turns into a lot of folders for them. It works for me that file structure is crazy. I could not do that. But I do have folders one folder is 81 folder is 90 is one folder is to thousands and now I have to make like a 2010 's folder as well for my hip hop and R&B at least not for all my music but I did that for hip-hop and R&B. I still have to add new songs Take songs out of that. But that alone already makes it a little bit easier for me to make sure that I don't have a folder in there that has like three decades of music when I'm only playing. At a party that is for specific decade with certain genres. I don't do that because I just don't have a lot of music from that genre that I just have everything in one folder. But maybe I'll have some tags in there that will allow me to when I'm playing organized by not BPM, but by something that I've used in the tags, so I hope that makes sense. But this is like a topic if you really want to break it down. You have to look at a lot of different things one day. I will do that, but that's just still haven't done that yet. All right, so I absolutely love this next question. And the question is tlm. When did you know you were ready to play bigger clubs / venues and when was the moment for you to say? Yes, I am a DJ. I have no recollection of that moment. That is the honest truth when it comes to my DJ career. I really just rolled into it it started as a Shin at home. I just love music. I really was infatuated by the turntable the fact that you could just hold it and Rewind it move it forward even before I understood scratching. I love that. I got my first set. I started to play music started to learn how to mix and scratch and that alone to me was having right there playing in clubs. I wasn't thinking about that at all. I was just having fun at home at that same time. I was not can't call it organizing but we were having like Freestyle sessions at my house. So I was rapping as well. I would have a couple of my buddies in here and only my Homies that wrap or try to wrap we're allowed to come or they had to get behind the decks and play instrumentals. And we would be mixing instrumentals freestyling over that it was all about that. And basically it was also because I wasn't really able to get into a lot of clubs same thing for my friends. Partially racial racial situations that was an issue with a lot of clubs. They would just not let us in with the lamest excuses ever like you see 25 people walking in then it's your turn to walk in and to tell you like, oh, sorry members only when you can clearly see no one else had to like identify or whatever and this would happen at more than a few clubs and the clubs that we did get into were playing music we weren't into So at a certain point you decide you don't really want to go out. I have my fun after that, but at that time clubs were not something I wanted to go to we were having fun on our own with our turntables and I was not thinking about parties now at a certain point. I was asked to come play at the local Youth Center at a party where they would have three DJ's one would do on be one with the dance hall and they wanted me to do hip-hop because they knew me from around the way they will come around sometime. Then you operate hip-hop mostly. And they asked me and I was like, yeah cool. I want to do that. Now. I have played a couple of birthday parties, but just not being booked as a DJ just within my own friend Circle. We would just bring turntables a lot of us will bring records and you play and even then I wasn't thinking about playing in clubs. It was just like this is what I love to do. Oh cool. We got a birthday party. They won't music. Oh cool. I can bring turntables and play music nice. So I got asked to play at the local Youth Center did that on a monthly basis that did spark something in me because that was like the first time I was playing in an actual venue, even though I'm calling it a youth center you Center that's what it was but it was a pretty decent situation. They had like an actual room that was made for events for party. So there was like a - for there was like a small stage with an actual DJ booth It had a nice system. So that was the first time I was playing a set and the speakers were actually like blasting the music once you experience that and you start playing songs that you have a crowd in front of you on a dash for not in a living room like with the birthday parties and you start to get some cheers when you play certain tracks. That changes the situation so it didn't spark something in me that I all of a sudden had a dream to play in clubs, but I just recognize that I really like the feeling of playing songs that I like loud and having a crowd respond to it. That was a new scenario that really got me going. So at that point I started to develop more of an interest but as I've said many times on my channel and even sometimes in the podcast Around that time. I also started to do the free weekly gig that I did at this bar / Club. Not that big because still hold like I don't know close to a hundred people and I really learned how to play in front of people there. So that just happened to me. I rolled into that did that for free for year best decision I ever made because that taught me a lot and I can't even really tell Oh how I went from that to bigger gigs anymore. That's the crazy part. I honestly can't remember what the first bigger gig was after that but it happened it just evolved naturally so there wasn't the aha moment but it just happened and clubs got bigger parties got bigger it evolve now. I don't know there was like a moment when I said to myself like yes, I'm a DJ but But it did occur to me more and more that I was just going to parties at a certain point. I did start to go out more as well. But also when I was playing somewhere and I saw and heard other DJs and I started to notice a lot of times that the DJ's weren't that good. and I was better so that did tell me like I can do this. I don't know if I said I told myself like yes, I'm a DJ but it was pretty clear to me. Like hey, I'm I got this I can do this. But yeah, man, it's a fun question because it makes me think back. I'm going to give this more thought because I might I might remember certain situations again. If I start to give this some more thought and I'll definitely talk about that in the near future when I do but yeah man for some We'll just have to come to a realization that you've done small parties for a long enough time that you've got enough experience. You feel the confidence and that's going to tell you like. Hey, I'm ready to try something bigger and for some of you you're just gonna get thrown into the deep without maybe even being ready or not. Knowing that you're ready. You never know. You could be doing small clubs or even just playing at home and all of a sudden you're getting this opportunity because someone you know has a slot open for you and they tell you hey, you can come play at this party is like 500 people. Are you just gonna go you might flop or you might rock it? You might not know that you're ready and you are and you're going to find out right then and there. All right. So this question is all about DJ techniques. And the question is what's the best way to learn how to beat match and know where to start the next track from? All right. I'm going to do this Shameless plug right here. If you're currently asking this question or you're not familiar with how this is supposed to be done. I'm working on the DJ course. You need right now. So yes, that's a Shameless plug. I'm working on my first DJ course right now. I'm putting together the whole curriculum and I'll be recording that soon and you're going to hear a lot more about it. But that first DJ course is going to be aimed specifically at people who are just starting out or people who feel that they're lacking the actual essential skills needed to become a great DJ. So this is a course for beginners covering all the basics that I feel absolutely necessary. I mean there's a lot more to comes into play when it comes to being a successful DJ but I want to make sure that you got the techniques the skills part covered. So just to answer a quickly. This is all about timing knowing how to count music. You need to learn how to count music so you can understand what beats bars and phrases are that's going to teach you the structure songs. Once you understand the structure of Things you will know or at least understand. What a correct mix looks like especially if we're talking about phrase mixing now if you have no clue what I'm talking about right now, that's understandable. If this is the first time you're hearing it now, my DJ course is not available yet, but you can go to my YouTube Channel DJ tlm TV right now and I have a short mix tutorial and that's going to teach you about beat-matching going to teach you about timing and I have a video in that playlist. That is all about Counting. It so you can definitely start there because if you don't how to count music, you don't know the structure of the songs, you're not going to understand understand when you're supposed to start the new track and what beat-matching is all about. So start there, so I'm going to do one more question right now and then I got to go because I got to leave the studio and I gotta go home real quick and put the kids to bed. It's a school day so they got to get to bed early because we got to wake up early again now last question. In is I got my first real gig coming up in a couple of weeks pretty sure I'm just opening but still super nervous got any tips to ease my mind. Yes, I do. All right. So one thing I want to make sure you take away from this is preparation is gonna put you at ease or at least is definitely going to ease your mind to a certain extent make sure you're fully prepared for this gig that starts with the Action the first thing you're telling me here is you're pretty sure you're just opening find out if you are actually opening. So make sure you know, what time slot you have. Are you the opener or even a second DJ or you claim prime time? I mean, I'm assuming not because your first gig but know what time you're playing because that's going to Define Your Role if you're the warm-up DJ, you're the first DJ playing that's a totally different role and if you're playing prime time, The first DJ you're there to just set a Vibe set a mood. It's not going to be all about high energy and you actually have a little bit more slap because it is not your job to just rock that crowd. So you don't really have to worry about that. Now, I don't mean it. You can just fail and not entertain that crowd you did a set the mood but it's a little bit different than if for your first gig you have to go on after two or three DJ's have already played the crowd is already at a In level, and now you have to maintain that level or take them higher that's a little extra stress. But even if that's the case you want to make sure you know in advance also, make sure you know, what type of music is expected of you. Don't just take that gig and go there with your music if that music maybe doesn't fit what is happening at that party. So is it a certain themed event? Are they going for a certain genre or certain genres of music? What type of people are attending old young if you know stuff like that that's going to enhance your chances of knowing what type of stuff you're going to play if it's a party and it's mainly kids between 16 and 20 that's a different type of event than if you're playing at a party where they're like 25 to 40. No, I mean it's a little bit different they like different type of stuff now same thing with the genres. You don't want to come there with techno and then you find out that it's like a trap event. I mean, I guess you already know but you want to make sure you know stuff like that now. Also, make sure you know, what type of equipment is going to be at the event. Is it equipment you play it on before? If not, make sure you check out online to see exactly where all the main features that you use are I'm talking about plays stop pitch cues. You name it? You want to make sure there are no surprises when you come in you want to know when you play what you're supposed to play what you're going to be playing on all of those things can ease your mind a bit because you know what to expect. If you walk in and you're not sure about all of these different things that are not as important as your actual performance, but you're already worrying about that. You don't know what type of people are coming. You don't know what they have. You don't want to worry about any of that. So by just checking all of that stuff out in advance, you're preparing yourself to know exactly what it is that you're going to do now once you know, you can make sure you prepare your music. I'm not saying you have to prepare your set. I don't know how you play. I don't know if you play Freestyle and read the Crowd or if you're actually going to prepare your mix that's up to you, but you can prepare your music. So make sure everything you do is ready. So if you use Q points and Loops, make sure everything is there if you want to make a folder specifically for that gig make a folder make sure all the music you want to play is in there again, once you know that that is covered. You can ease your mind a little bit more. So all of that stuff is going to help you out now most importantly and I always tell You do this when they do their first gig you're going to make mistakes. It's bound to happen. And that's okay. Keep that in mind. You're gonna make mistakes. It's bound to happen and - okay, so when it does happen and your transitions a little bit off or it's totally off which can happen to you just train wreck these two tracks move on. It's a train wreck. You move that fader. Next track is playing your shop for a second, but drop that thought and get a next track and move on the crowd might notice a part of the crowd will not notice. I've seen this happen plenty of time that the DJ is messing up and the crowd is not even really bothering unless the train wreck goes on for too long and then they might know this but don't worry about that. We all made mistakes and we still all make mistakes unless you're one of those DJ's who comes in with a prepared recorded set and it was just play backing then the set Perfect. But if you're playing live you're bound to make some mistakes and that's okay last thing I want to tell you besides make sure you have fun because that's the most important thing. You're going to play music you love loud. Like I said, I love that feeling. Hopefully you're going to have to little bit of interaction with the crowd. Maybe get a couple of responses. That's great as well. But make sure you tell yourself in advance like two days before the day before that morning. When you go over there, you tell yourself. I'm going to rock that Crown. I'm going to have a lot of fun. I want to ride that crowd. I'm going to have a lot of fun. I came prepared. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to ride that crowd. I'm going to have a lot of fun. It might sound crazy. But you want to make sure that you're setting yourself up for Success. You're letting yourself know you're going to do good. Even though I also told you you're going to make mistakes. That's fine. You can rock a crowd and have a good set while still making. A couple of mistakes, but just tell yourself that and have some fun think about having fun. Think about how lucky you are that you finally going to get to play in front of people and how great that is. Let us know what happened. I would love to hear that's it for episode 9 of this year than all these podcast with DJ's I have to go. I hope you enjoyed the episode. I hope it brought you some value. Thanks for tuning in. I'll be back next week. Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter if you haven't done that already. Go to DJ key lime.com / newsletter. So you can keep up to date with everything. I'm doing on all social media platforms. And also when it comes to the course, I'm making I'm about to make some new free content that's going to be only available through my website. So make sure you check that out. That's it for now. All the info is in the description box down below and I'll be back next week. Peace.
Welcome to season 2, episode 9. Subscribe to the DJ TLM TV newsletter https://www.djtlm.com/newsletter   In this q&a episode: * When is a song old-school? * Questions about specific scratches I do. * Will the Rane Twelve replace turntables in the clubs? * Any issues with the Phase system? * Tips to organize your music. * When did I know that I was ready for bigger clubs? * The best way to learn how to beat match. * How to know when you should start a transition. * My first DJ course. * Tips to make your first gig stress-free. Feel free to jump in the comment section and join the conversation when you see a question that you can answer. 