r/DJs • u/andymcleary • 12d ago
Do you plan your sets?
Hi, I’m currently getting back into DJing after a 30 year absence. I’m a vinyl only guy, not that I don’t respect other formats (it’s just what I grew up with).
I’ve seen loads of people talk about planning and preparing their sets, but I just play what I hear in my head from my limited collection.
Just wondered what other people do?
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u/DJFram3s 12d ago
Depends am i on direct support for a headliner? Then yes ill plan it out fairly thoroughly. Open format or 2 or 3 hour sets i got a few bigass folders full of music i scroll thru. Depends on the intention of the set for me. Million ways to skin a cat and all that
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u/Strong67 11d ago
I agree with you but I see it more in terms of “there’s only a certain number of ways you can skin a cat”. None of the views are wrong. Lol.
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u/andymcleary 12d ago
I’ve thought that, I’m only a YouTube DJ right now but if I was supporting another DJ I’d have to clear my set with them to make sure I’m not treading on their toes?
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u/DJFram3s 12d ago
You dont really need to clear your set with them tbh. its a good habit to look up their past sets and try to play stuff you think they wont play but will work for building the energy of the night. For instance i was opening for a large trap/dubstep dj so i played a set loaded with grime/dubstep/uk bass/140 and breaks. Kept energy high while being distinct from the headliner
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u/dj_soo 12d ago
Sometimes. Sometimes not.
Depends on the gig
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u/Filthymortal 11d ago
This. If it needs to be accurate and technical, I’ll plan it and do the mix a couple of times first. If it’s at a party or smthg, I’ll just wing it.
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u/Nonomomomo2 House music all night long 12d ago
Never. The only rare occasion is if I 'm doing a more festival style event with a 60 minute slot, for which I'll usually prep the first 10 or 15 minutes and then have a more curated playlist of things to improvise on after that.
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u/ForestDwellingKiwi 12d ago
I've never planned a set, as I always prefer to let the energy on the dancefloor set the tone for where to go with it. But the last few gigs I've played have been with a lot of DJ's who exclusively plan their sets. It seems quite foreign to me, as I learned a lot by jamming with mates, playing back to back so I got used to coming up with mixes on the fly. Perhaps this is more common amongst the dnb scene that I grew up with in NZ
I can see that there could be merit in planning sets for a specific event, but that's really not my jam. There might be a couple dodgy transitions through a set when winging it, but I'd much rather be able to adjust the energy as I deem fit for the crowd.
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u/AMJacker 12d ago
Not usually. I started early 90s and know my records. I don’t really play out anymore but I would feel the room and see what ppl react to them play more of that.
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u/Bellaire_Bandz 10d ago
Sets under 90 minutes where I’m on a lineup? Yes. Sets where I’m playing all night long? Also yes, to a lesser degree. Do I abandon the plan after 20 minutes of reading the room? Yes as well
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u/ziddyzoo House 12d ago
Mostly vinyl guy here too.
Vinyl planning = what 40-50 records am I gonna chuck in the bag tonight.
Digital planning = I’ve got 5,000 tunes on this stick, if I don’t at least do something like the equivalent of the above, I’ll be snowblind.
The only times I completely pre-plan is if I want to record a well-thought-through banger of a mixtape, either at home or live at a venue.
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u/Benjilator 11d ago
If I know the crowd is balls deep in an acid trip for my set I will definitely spend 20+ hours crafting an experience for them.
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u/thylacinequeen release the bats! 11d ago
Nope! I usually go in knowing what I’m opening/closing with (usually… lol), and have a few sort of “anchor moments” in my pocket depending on the genre for the night.
I tried to map things more meticulously when I first started doing digital sets after years of exclusively vinyl, and it just immediately went out the window every time—every night and every crowd is different, and I’m never gonna know what the flow of the evening is going to look like until I’m in it. Trying to force the vibe with a pre-planned set typically just results in square peg/round hole stuff.
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u/Inevitable-Fan-2634 11d ago
If you have a limited selection of vinyl then your set is basically picked for you. As for a planned/unplanned sets it always depends who you're playing for.
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u/Workity 11d ago
For vinyl I’ll plan a set I like for the time slot and crowd I’m playing, then put in two or three combos (2-3 records each) that I think I might also want to play depending on the vibe and people who show up.
That way I’m not lugging a crate and I’m not locked into anything, but I can also keep the records coming with a minimum of digging through my bag.
This is for hip hop.
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u/Commercial-Terrible 8d ago edited 8d ago
Im in a group of DJ friends who have parties together. We all go about it completely differently and it all sounds good. I meticulously plan my sets because I’m trying to tell a story. I want the absolute best songs for the occasion and I rely heavily on syncopated mashups and tricky, non-conventional transitions. Another DJ who is arguably better than me just wings it and rarely fails to impress. I think it comes down to knowing your audience. If you’re opening at a club you should be prepared to mix it up depending on the vibe, if you’re headlining a stage and the crowd is there to hear YOUR style then you can be more restrictive in your format.
I don’t see any problem with planning a set, but you should prepare a few different vibe pathways to choose in case your planned set isn’t landing with the crowd.
Edit- my sets are generally 1-1.5 hours long. If you’re doing long format sets then planning can be as hard as improvising so you may as well wing it.
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u/Any-Attention6817 11d ago
i djed clubs and festivals for 25 years moving from vinyl to cds ( much easier 2 mile walk back through mud with cds) back to vinyl now. I always made it up on the fly depending on the dance floor. Only bringing vinyl means you bring your best and hope your time slot fits. Or trust your tunes and taste. I played all sorts of gigs from commercial to underground warehouses via boats and forests . A few to get the girls dancing a few to move the energy then get the bangers on. Good luck
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u/ChinaWhite86 11d ago
I plan the fours three songs to get into it and set a direction and go from there.
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u/ssmtransgirl 11d ago
This is how I roll too I plan the first bit, and then once I'm comfortable I freestyle
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u/Pilesy 11d ago
You can plan a set meticulously, but the real skill of djing (to a live audience) is to be a sort of receiver of the crowds vibe and then transmit sound back at them to keep the vibe up.
Ie you could plan an amazing set but if it doesn’t land well for whatever reason, you’ve got to be able to adapt - the dj/crowd dynamic is a symbiotic relationship- both need each other.
I think a loose plan is ok but be prepared to change your plans, if required.
(I’m just returning now too after a 20 year break)
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u/MysteriousSuspect991 11d ago
Every track in my playlist has its perfect match right behind it. Ofc I jump over some tracks sometimes as I react to the crowds vibe, but there is tracks that match just perfect and it’s stupid not to play them after each in my opinion.
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u/Relative-Diamond9866 11d ago
it really depends on the music being played. some styles are much easier to improvise with, while others are nightmares. if you plan, you can avoid having clashing vocals, etc..
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u/dr-blaklite 11d ago
I find my best sets are seat of my pants. Just feeling the vibe and pushing with it. I'll start with a track or two pre-planned (as they set the vibe) and then just going from there :)
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u/smac79 11d ago
It's just cool to know there are other people getting back into DJing after such a long time. For me it had been about 20 years. I never did go digital, but I'm thinking about getting CDJs now. Back then I never planned my sets really. I had my records I liked to play first. From there I would be feeling out if I should go more house or more techno. I had tracks I thought were good to transition from one to the other. Then I would just work on building to a peak of my best bangers and then smoothly back down.
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u/Skrillamane 12d ago
If i’m doing a vinyl set then ya you gotta kinda plan. At least have some good blends and transitions locked in. But otherwise i never plan my sets. 90% of the time i have 1 idea of how the place i’m playing is going to be and the vibe doesn’t match or something like how i’m transitioning from the other dj to my set makes me start from a different place and it doesn’t make sense to do a full switch. Like if i’m ready to drop a DnB set but the guy before me is dropping some bangin trip hop that the crowd is loving.
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u/beardslap 11d ago
When I was playing vinyl I never planned, I just carried way too many records.
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u/Skrillamane 11d ago
Same but the only “planning” i did was knowing what records blended really well with eachother. So if i played one song i would know which 2 or 3 would mix perfectly with them.
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u/HungryEarsTiredEyes 11d ago
Depends on the set, crowd/ context and how long the set is. If you're playing to a receptive genre specific crowd for an hour or two you can plan it pretty well, if you're playing open format/ a more varied/ normie crowd for several hours you've got to be able to pivot very easily. Any plans can go different to expected. So even with a planned set, having some extra records to switch direction/ adjust the pacing really helps even if they don't change the plan too much.
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u/Miserable-Sense7836 11d ago
(Intentionally) amateur DJ.
I prepare for my sets primarily by having precisely one can of beer, then letting my intuition do the rest.
I'll probably know roughly where I want to end up at the end. The journey there, though ... that's a mystery even to me.
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u/dsaddons 11d ago
Depends on the situation. DJ competition or a really big moment, pre planned. Normal gig, I usually have the first 2-3 tracks in mind and then wing it from there. Might have an idea of what track I want to end with but also crowd dependent.
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u/Gnuhouse 11d ago
I’ll plan in that I’ll prepare some playlists to pull from during the night based on time and vibe, and maybe plan my first few and possibly closing track, but that’s the extent of it
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u/Common_Vagrant Open Format 11d ago
Hardly, I’ve been doing it for a while, but then again I’m not a vinyl DJ. I have my “tried and true” tracks that I almost always play. I just read the crowd and go from there for the most part.
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u/danby 11d ago
If I'm DJing at home, never, just grab whatever seems like it would work or be interesting
For gigs I'll build a playlist of about 2 or 3 times the number of tunes I need. I'll group them by vibes that I think will go together. And then I'll adlib the mixes on the night.
I never rehearse mixes
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u/GrandAshland 11d ago
Not in any literal way. A loose collection of tunes and see where the gig goes.
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u/WubLyfe 11d ago
Depends on the event. ~70% of the time I'll at least plan out a track list but be prepared to deviate if the crowd isn't feeling it. Rarely, if it's a more professional gig I'll run through it a few times and map out cue points where the transitions sounded good, and the rest of the time I just freestyle it.
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u/5bags2sodas 11d ago
Multiple playsets that account for the direction the crowd is going in. The worst thing you can do is enforce your choices onto a crowd that aren’t really vibing with it.
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u/UMPHMusic 11d ago
You always have your power mixes and get out of jails up your sleeve, but otherwise you have to roll with it
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u/ShottyMcOtterson 11d ago
I like to curate a folder or crate that has a certain vibe and it might be abstract like "valentines day". Then use BPM sort X Key sort to find the combinations and order that works on the fly.
No need to plan the order. But for shows that I am nervious about, I will pick the first 2 or 3 songs. That gets your legs under you and then you can flow with it.
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u/nick_minieri 11d ago
Never. Having your crates organized is one thing but pre-planning an entire set is a sure fire recipe for disaster, especially in open format situations. DJing is about reading the crowd and adapting in real time to control the energy of the room.
You have to think of every possible scenario as well: what if the room is empty? What if it's much busier than what you were expecting? What if there's more women in the room than men or vice versa? What if it's a younger vs a more seasoned crowd? All require different approaches.
The only exception to this rule is big name touring commercial EDM acts; their fanbases come to see them play very specific tracks that they made, and often times have to meticulously pre-plan every transition to compliment the visuals. But for the rest of us we have to serve our crowd even if it means making compromises at times.
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u/WaterIsGolden 11d ago
Beatmatch.
Even if some mod chose to force this as a green light post.
Beatmatch.
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u/Bitter-War5432 11d ago
if you know your track collection, the only plan should be to make your audience dance.
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u/Ok_Purchase854 11d ago
Depends on the gig and what they want but when mixing vinyl I tend to organize 3-4 track “chunks” of songs that mix well together and I can juggle the chunks around if I want to change things up. When I play digital with a controller I find it’s easier to select on the fly.
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u/ReggaeDelgado510 11d ago
The basics of actually DJing haven’t changed much in 30 years—the tech and social media aspects have changed dramatically, but the basics of playing good music to keep the attractive people dancing and the average people buying drinks is the same. However you prepared before should still work.
What I did when I was vinyl only was just have a few chunks within each set, as a California based open format DJ I’d plan to play a little Bay Area chunk, an r&b chunk, a reggae chunk etc with a few key tunes in mind but other tunes that would fit but got regularly rotated in and out the crates and would maybe get played or not depending on how the crowd reacted. That philosophy served me very well moving into digital, as smart crates make it easy to find songs that fit whatever I’m playing right at that moment. The most prep I do now besides the endless finding and tagging of new tracks is make a little playlist with 10-20 songs I’d like to play in a set that serve as anchor points to whatever genres I might dip in or out of, for both vinyl and digital gigs.
I’ve very carefully pre planned many many mixes back when selling mix cassettes and CDs was a good income stream but a live set like that would feel so sterile and not interest crowds I’d want to play for.
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u/lovesecretdomain 10d ago
If I make mixes, I plan them, if DJ out, I prefer to have absolutely zero plan, and just go with the vibes and see where it leads me
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u/Stantonbear Soft Cheesecore 10d ago
I don't believe many DJs I book or myself that are local/grassroots have a solid 1 hour set in them. This is from experience. It's way better to plan a 30 min set x2 or 4 x 15 min sets and go through the motions of an hour set in those segments.
You ever sat Through a local bands 1 hour long gig? Same thing, 30 min sets are tight and doable.
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u/Adrien0623 9d ago
Opening and closing tracks yes, then different playlists with different genres/energy/moods to adapt.
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u/Oily_Bee 9d ago
I don’t ever plan my sets but I do have sequences of few tracks intended to mix together and jump between those.
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u/skeptic9916 DnB 9d ago
Sometimes I plan them out meticulously, but most of the time I just go in with a solid framework of what I am going to play.
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u/EssentialDJsVancity 9d ago
Always plan. I make a roadmap for the night but always deviate from the plan.
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u/dgruetter 8d ago
I've run the gamut from vinyl to CDs to (cough) MiniDisc, and finally to MP3s.
I semi-prepare my sets, as I'm mostly an open-format DJ. It's all about intelligent playlists for me. I'll generally build a smart playlist of songs from a certain genre that have been played more than X number of times (Hot Motown, Hot Country, etc.). Sometimes if the list gets long I will add a manual rating constraint (3 stars and higher.)
I also have a smart playlist that pulls from any genre, where I'll sometimes filter out certain things. This gives me a great starting point that I can fall back on at any time.
But the real fun for me is mixing in requests and pulling songs off the top of my head that just feel right in the moment.
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u/Dukester350 7d ago
I usually play for 4-5 hour sets so sometimes I may make a playlist for the first hour and see how it goes with the crowd and then just wing it, I recently made some playlists with the energy in mind and I’m starting with that route.
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u/AdventurousGrass4868 7d ago
I've been mixing records for 30 years and have never had time or been organized enuff to plan out my sets and wing it and have had a great time producing only quality sets with some variance but no regrets except for at times I am feeling nostalgic and kinda wish that I had recorded at least some of the better parties I have done. Generally I find you get to know your muzak collection pretty well like the back of 2 hands and after having a few great sounding transitions and mixes I should remember groups of songs or sound that would go well together and would remember bunches of tacos that blend together so I can't say I haven't enjoyed myself !!!! I also have had u or do years without moving as I lost my records while being incarcerated which I am curious about as it did stop progress but I love music so much I am really keen to get back into it and especially with serato and some of the new equipment available I feel hopeful that I still may be able to recover old times into longer have .... I've been thinking of getting a rane mixer but I have a lot to learn and catch up on especially when it comes to stemmixing and other new tools technology and mixing styles.. Any recommendations on what mixer to get ...I am a big breakbeat fan and can't wait to get back into it with some new toys and noise. Times are really changing and I'm excited but also was wanting to find other artists to work with can't anybody give us any ideas on ways n means to connect with like minded people .... I see there anyone on the airwaves ?
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u/Dante_Elephante 7d ago
Both approaches work. I am part of a duo so our approach is we plan if we are getting paid (decently).
Learning to impromptu DJ has allowed me to be able to hop on the decks any time and b2b with anyone. The main goal there is making sure you’re meticulous with your folder organization and cue points.
The hybrid approach is to do impromptu, but have 10-20 minute “chunks” of songs that work together. That way you have the best of both worlds!
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u/SYSTEM-J 11d ago
Pre-planning a set is the opposite of DJing, in my opinion. If you're not reading the room you could be replaced by a Soundcloud link and an aux cable.
I practice for my sets. I'll jam two or three times in mid week and get an idea of what tracks I think I'll be playing at the gig. I usually have two or three opening gambits dependent on the situation when I come on, and a rough idea of which big tracks I want to build up to when the moment is right. And sometimes I throw all of that out as soon as I get on the decks and make it all up from scratch. Those are often the most fun gigs.
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u/andymcleary 12d ago
Is it more for digital sets? I’ve never used CDJ or DDJ but I’d love to have a go.
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u/jporter313 12d ago
Did you plan your vinyl sets before? Vinyl DJs I know generally don’t plan, but will pre load a crate with the records they think they might want to play. I don’t think this practice has changed a lot since you were playing before.
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u/Buster078 12d ago
i meticulously plan all my sets vinyl or digital & abandon that plan immediately a few minutes in when the creative part floods my brain with ideas that may or may not work