I recently posted about a private event that I was DJing and whether I should let tracks play out or mix quickly. Well, here are the results.

I arrived about an hour before I was set to play music. The venue is a restaurant/bar and they had their own controller, a DDJ-1000srt. I have been practicing on a FLX-4 and honestly, it was a bit intimidating. Anyway, I open my laptop up and launch Rekordbox, and nothing happens. I'm playing around with system settings before I ended up googling for help. Well, I found out right there that this controller is only compatible with Serato. Great.

I download Serato quickly and then connect the controller. Now It tells me I need a driver. Download the driver and then I kept getting an error message "Failed to connect to audio!" Great, another hiccup. Keep in mind, I'm using my wife's Mac, and I am not a mac user at all.

Anyway, finally figured out that issue and then came the next one. Since I just got started with DJing a few months ago, I stream my music from Spotify. Serato keeps telling me "Streaming server could not be reached." I closed Serato, reset the laptop a few times and kept getting this message. It's now about 15-20 minutes before I'm set to start. I'm sweating bullets.

I am so fortunate (and 1000% grateful) that my friend came by to check his laptop (he was going to be DJing the following day) with the controller. His worked perfectly fine, including Spotify streaming. He let me use his laptop for the evening. Thank goodness.

On to the set. I mentioned that I have been using Rekordbox, where all of my hot cues are programmed. Sooo basically I had zero cues and had to do a bit of improvising with tracks. Not going to lie, some of my transitions were messy, but you know what? No one noticed, because the music kept playing. I weaved in and out of hip hop, house/edm, and latin/reggaeton. People were vibing, and I only made quick transitions when I felt like the energy was changing. At times, the booth speaker would cut out randomly. I thought maybe it's because I didn't use a quarter inch jack for my headphones, although I'm not sure.

All in all, the event went well and I received positive feedback on the music I played. People were vibing, socializing, having an overall good time. I kept spinning afterwards for the afterparty, so I did 6 hours total. The last 15-20 minutes I played some afrohouse that was solely for me as a congratulations, but people seemed to enjoy that too!

I suppose my advice for other beginners is, be prepared to deal with technical issues. Also, in this particular setting, the music was more important than the transitions.

Take from this what you will, but thank you to this community for the support and insights!

curious how people actually do this. do you plan the order beforehand, or just pull a crate of 30-40 tracks and decide on the fly?

and if you do plan it, what do you go off first: energy, bpm, key, or just vibe? feels like everyone has their own system, keen to hear what works for you

I've always been curious how the big guys program a long set, so I pointed my data skills at Black Coffee's Burning Man 2025 set.

• First hour he flips the mood almost every record. Then he holds one dark sound for 52 minutes.
• Tempo creeps 120 to 122 by 1:31, then sits. You never feel it.
• Only 3 of 18 transitions in key.
• At 1:35:00 he cuts the bass through Tsa Ma Ndebele's break for 74 seconds, builds a noise sweep, chops the off-beats, then drops it all on the one at 1:36:19.

Made a short video of it here: Link

This is a creative outlet for me, hopefully you find it helpful!

For those who play background-to-party gigs in restaurants and bars: what did you have to unlearn from club mixing?

Longer blends, fewer drops, lower BPM, more vocals? Curious what actually made the difference for you.

I play RnB, hiphop, afrobeats, etc. (basically anything that isn’t house) and I struggled mixing it on a CDJ today at a gig because my mixing technique didn’t translate well (I have a FLX-10 that I own and practice with at home). My mixing technique is to swap the highs, swap the lows, and the seal it with swapping the mids (the mids on the incoming tracks are always at 9 o’clock) at the right moments. When I practice it at home, it sounds great (sometimes I’ll have to turn up the mids to the tracking playing because the highs suck out some of that element when I swap them). When I did it tonight, the first song fell super flat and led to moments where the music was lacking texture and thump when I was mixing. It was rough and noticeable to some fellow DJs.

Anyways, I’m feeling pretty ashamed with my performance. It was extremely humbling. I would appreciate some help with accepting what happened and moving forward (I am very hard on myself at times). Would also appreciate any insight as to why my technique sounded bad on the CDJ but fine on my FLX10. Also would love any mixing advice to improve my mixing and to hopefully avoid this from happening again.

Yall are the best. Appreciate it in advance!

Has anyone tried to use the new Claude Reverse Engineer Anything (REA) on the software that runs on XDJs? I feel like it would be nice to add a few features that they have no put out yet

I really need help finding the bpm of "2special" by Swimming Paul. Most of the internet says 82-83, beat port says 100, rekordbox says 87.

None of them fit the beat grid right.

Does anyone have advice?

It’s not my stylus, headshell, tonearm pins, connector socket, rca cables or anything with my turntables, it is 100% a mixer issue. You don’t even want to know how much time I’ve spent to figure this out. It’s definitely the mixer. So I’m assuming since I’ve sourced the issue to the mixer, specifically the right channel, that it’s an issue with either the rca jacks or the circuit board. Is this a fixable issue or should I just buy a new mixer? I have the xone 23 so it wasn’t really expensive so I don’t really give a crap honestly. If it was the tonearm I think I would have lost my mind, I’ve been looking for an excuse to upgrade my mixer anyways (I’ve only had it for a few months, bought it used). In the meantime while I save for a new mixer (dropped 1k on speakers, cables and records this week:/) is this potentially a fixable issue? Like temporary fix? It’s not bothering me to the point I won’t use my equipment but it’s pretty annoying.

Beginner bedroom dj of 6 months here who has just recently started DJing parties for the first time. I really want to start playing without having my laptop with me. I recently came across this attatchment for the FLX4 that acts like a screen and has a usb port.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these 3rd party attatchments that allows me to grt rid of the laptop or is it just worth upgrading my decks eventually

Beginner question here, can't find any solid info.

My friend is offering me this unit for cheap, and I'm looking to mix with headphones only as I don't have a lot of room for speakers in my dorm. I briefly had a Numark Mixtsream Pro before, where you were able to use split cue in either ears and then listen to the track all together, however I can't see this dial on this unit. Is this a function that is available? My main goal is to be able to mix with headphones only.

Thanks!

I did searches online and on reddit and couldn’t find any comprehensive information about DJ pop ups, so I really hope this helps and/or motivates you to make the move. It’s worth it to do at least once. Read whatever section you want, but reading the entire thing will put things in better context……..

Backstory:

Started the DJ hustle mid 2000’s. Reached my goals and stopped for a few years. Got back into the DJ mixing a few years ago. I had to start all over from almost zero. I’m not getting invited to the gigs, the clubs, nothing, but, this is 100% my fault. When I was single, I would go out to the events, clubs, etc., but now being married and still working weekend mornings, it’s not as easy. I believe if you have a passion for something, it can be done, but you must also realize that having a passion, doesn’t mean it will happen (got to be real). I realized that I need to create my own path, on my own timeline and hope that someone will open the door to other opportunities (but not expecting it) and if not, I still get to do what I want to do.

I’ve been wanting to do DJ pop ups since late 2000’s just to get out there and be seen (in front of metro stations, street corners, etc.), but the costs were too much (speakers, power generator, miscellaneous equipment, etc.). Discovered a few months ago about battery powered speakers (yes, I know they’ve been out for a while, so I’m late). Did some research and found out that I just need something to power my controller and computer. The barrier to entry was now more open, so I wanted to make a move.

The hustle:

For me, I consider a DJ pop up either something that has been or has not been given permission. Asked ChatGpt, “Give me a list of places with the contacts to do a DJ pop set”. I got plazas, parks, and venues that do music events, etc. Got a list of 20+ contacts (emails and phone numbers). Email/phoned all the contacts. Private property areas mostly didn’t respond/ignored and two wrote back that they don’t do stuff like my idea. Public parks/squares/plazas also mostly didn’t respond, and one said that they don’t do stuff like my idea. For all the emails I sent, the ones that didn’t respond, I don’t take as a “no “, so I don’t know if I’ll just set up and play in the future. I would send an initial email, wait a week and write back to follow up. One place finally responded. We communicated back and forth and they were willing to let me play, so now I realized that this is going to happen. Time to get the gear.

Gear:

• Two JBL Party Box 320’s (on sale at Best Buy) - $1000 People recommended Mackie, but after some research I found out they don’t have as much low end as the partyboxes. To get two Mackie speakers and a sub would just cost too much but more importantly would be too much gear which would affect my flexibility to be agile and setting this up.
• Jackey Power Generator: $200 (Walmart) This would power my controller and laptop.
• 6 foot folding table: $25 (Temu)
• Foldable dolly: $35 (Temu)
• Miscellaneous wires/cables $40 (Amazon)
• 10 x 10 canopy $60 (Walmart)
• Speaker stands: $50 (Amazon)
• Audio interface for live streaming $20 (Amazon)

I don’t count my controller, headphones, laptop, and music because if any DJ stuff happens (bedroom or wherever), you need that gear. Things really start to cost if you want to play out of the home.

Total cost, a little under $1500. Is it a lot of money? Yes, but I’ve been saving up for a while for a PS 5 and instead of getting it now, I’ll get it later. Wanted some new shoes, I’ll get it another time. I just saved, saved, and saved. Basically saved $250 for about six months and I have enough to do this thing. Also, worst case scenario, I can sell some stuff and hope to get at least 50% of what I paid. Any money that I’m out I would consider what it would have cost (almost) if I just rented everything.

Don’t get discouraged by what it cost me. I decided that I wanted to get all the gear upfront instead of building up. Bare bones, you would only need one speaker (smaller than I have?), table, power generator, and wires/cables. Total would be a little less that $500? If you think that’s too much, then you would need to reconsider if a pop up set is a good idea for you. The reality is that to do a pop up, you’ll need to spend some kind of money.

Preparation:

Setup time from unpacking the car to playing, about than 30 minutes (even less if I don’t use the canopy and just bring one speaker). Breakdown, less than 30.

Because there can be so many mistakes, two times I did mock set up’s at a public park. Packed my gear, went out, set up and figured out the most efficient work flow. Example, I would put the speakers on the stand before I checked the volume of the speakers. Realized they were too quiet and I couldn’t reach the top to adjust the volume, so I would need to take them down, adjust, then put back up. Another example, I would set the speakers on the stands only to realize that they were too close to the table and that they were so loud that it was a challenge to hear my cue in the headphones. Little things like that that I didn’t anticipate were learned.

The actual pop up:

I play only house music. Deep, soulful, underground. I have no interest (at least for now) in playing something else, so I put myself in a tight niche (and I know that I limit myself, but if I do something I don’t like, then it’ll become a job and I already have a job, so I don’t need another), but I also need to realize that I need to play what people might like in my genre. I played a lot of vocal stuff and didn’t go deep. The pop up was going to be for two hours.

The place was the Goose Creek Amphitheatre in Ashburn Va., a suburb 35 miles west of Washington DC. They do small live music events, but not a house music area. The flyer was created using AI. I gave it a couple of pictures and what I wanted said on the flyer. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2200257444152710&set=a.919629972215470

Scoped out the location on Google maps to figure out where to unpack and how to get to the spot efficiently. Didn’t need the canopy, so set up was about 20 minutes.

Two negative things happened……..First, even with all my preparation and mock set ups, I forgot the plug to my laptop. The laptop is old and the battery barely lasts for more than an hour. I was half hour away from home and no places close to get a plug. Totally sucks and I felt this was going to be a bust. I felt my heart sink to my stomach, I felt so f-ing sad…….I say to myself, “F it, I came this far and I’ll just have to figure something out”. I started playing.

Second, I was going to live stream. Set up the camera and connected to Twitch. After the set I realized that I didn’t connect the audio interface to the phone. Damn.

One person from my facebook showed up, another person from the neighborhood, and the contact person I spoke to about doing the pop up. A couple of other people from the neighborhood swung by, but it was mostly empty. I didn’t care. I played like it was a crowd of a thousand people. My goal was to play outside the house with the basslines and soulful sounds. I was going to enjoy the moment. The battery on the laptop was on my mind. Battery died about 45 minutes into the set. I had two choices, I tell the person who gave me permission that the pop up is over or I figure something out. I won’t lose, so I need to make it work. F this, I put in too much effort for this to fail. Went online with my phone, played my mixes to the partyboxes via Bluetooth and kept the event going until the two hours were up. Wrapped up the pop up after two hours.

Negatives and what I learned:

Even though I was throughout in preparation, I just need to be more vigilant. Got to check and double check. Don’t rush out of the house. Sit in the car and go over a mental (or make a physical) checklist to make sure I have everything.

Even if no one shows up. At least I’m outside the house. There are more chances with people passing by to hear my song selection than to somehow find me online. I just want to do something outside.

Positives and what I learned:

Even though there wasn’t a turn out, I still achieved goals. I was able to play out. I was able to set up with agility. The people that were there didn’t run away. They stayed for almost the entire two hours. When I was done with the set, the folks that were there clapped. There were people who passed by to look, but when I play again, I’m established. The people there said they liked what I played. One person said she preferred me to the small live events that are held at the amphitheater. My contact person wants me to get with them in January-February to do another pop up for next season.

What next:

I might just try to find a public park or plaza and just play. For little things like that, I just need a table, speaker and generator. I’ll put the speaker on the table unless I feel like bringing a speaker stand. I do like how I have two speakers though, it give me the flexibility if I want more sound.

What I recommend you to do if you’re thinking about a pop up set (and if you’re inclined to take my advice) ……………Just do it. Make it happen. You want to wait for the right time to get any of the gear needed or to contact/find a place? The right time won’t necessarily come. You just need to make it happen. When the right time come up, then something else will come up that you want/need to do. Watching tv or playing a video game? Turn it off and start the dj hustle. That tv show can be watched on demand or downloaded. That game can be played tomorrow. Everyday you put off doing the dj hustle is one less day in the year.

I hope this helped and if you do a pop up, let us know how it turned out. The costs. The issues. Etc. I’m curious to still learn and it can help others out also.

If you have any specific questions, please ask so I can pass on what I learned.

Links to what others have done to help motivate:

https://www.tiktok.com/@elevatedolivia/video/7493647130381258015

https://www.tiktok.com/@engineermeg/video/7679846272206900500

https://www.tiktok.com/@sahrfaiyah/video/7688488672068504846?cid=NzY4ODUyNTMwMzM5NzA0MDkwOQ

https://www.tiktok.com/@talideephd/video/7669650085201906975

https://www.tiktok.com/@wowlouiefrank/video/7551160689239313677

[tl;dr I've lost the habit of djing consistently and just enjoying mixing at home for its own sake without a mix or gig in mind. How are y'all staying motivated to just dj casually at home?]

I bought a ddj-400 four years ago just as we were coming out of the pandemic (many such cases, I imagine) and fell in love. I'd spend hours ripping tracks from SoundCloud and making random mixes at home. Music was always in my ears, and starting to dj totally changed how I listen to music. I became more attuned to song structure and phrasing, and was constantly thinking 'this would go well with that' or 'this song really contains elements of this other song.' My friends and I lived in this house with a really long basement/garage and we'd constantly dj parties down there. Over the years, I've recorded a handful of mixes and

Fast forward a few years and my taste in tracks has evolved significantly, but I feel like I've fallen off the horse when it comes to actually getting behind the decks. I still listen to a lot of new music, but I'm not mixing with any consistency. Part of that is I'm not in my early 20's anymore: life is busy and djing isn't my primary hobby, but I've found it difficult to get back into the habit of spinning casually at home without a goal or deadline in mind, i.e. an upcoming gig or a specific mix I'm working on. These days, I open RekordBox and feel overwhelmed/unexcited by my library; I don't know where to start, and what's in there isn't necessarily reflective of what I've most recently been listening to.

How are y'all keeping up the motivation to dj regularly, even just casually at home? I love playing parties and putting mixes together but I want to get back to just enjoying this for its own sake, and not with a particular 'outcome' in mind. For people who fell out of it, how did you get back in?

Hey guys, I just grabbed myself a DDJ-FLX4 after contemplating buying a controller for the last year and a half. I pulled it out and realized I have no idea what I’m doing and was wondering what FREE lessons you guys would recommend taking a look at for beginners to get somewhere where they can at least have a fun session at home! Let me know, and thank you for the help!

ALSO any tips and tricks would be wonderful! Thank you!

Hello! I just got home from my STRESSFUL set. The controller (XDJ-AZ) didn‘t find my playlist on my stick.

Fortunately, I got a backup stick with me, on which the controller found the playlist. On there about 50% of the tracks didn‘t have any of my cue points so i had to freestyle A LOT.

Also, I recently played on the CDJ-900 nexus without any issues. And I prepared my songs on rekordbox on my FLX-400.

I‘m very unsatisfied with my set rn because I failed so many transitions that I practiced so much the last few days. This was my third live set so I‘m rather inexperienced with different DJ gear, so:

Does anyone have any idea what the issue was? Was it my stick? Did I prepare my songs wrong? Because the other DJs didn’t have issues.

Thank you!

Edit: 50% of my tracks didn‘t have any or just my first hot cues. My set cue points were COMPLETELY gone on every track. What the hell??

My go to is SoundCloud and just starting stations on the tracks I love. But Ive recently hit a wall with that; running into the same tracks I saved. Help lol

What’s your favorite way to download music? I decided I need to commit to this so I can finally record a mix 😭

Also, thanks in advance everyone. Yall are always so helpful when I post in here. ❤️

Has this happened to anyone using Serato ? All the files disappeared even my streaming tracks

I am going to an open decks set soon, it’s a bit unusual as the sets are only 20 minutes long.

I’m this time it isn’t long enough to build a set etc, so I was thinking I will get through as many tracks as possible in the time. Otherwise it’s will be about 5 tracks and done.

What would you do?

Soy DJ principiante y en mi última práctica me pasó algo inesperado: varias canciones que amaba dejaron de convencerme cuando las escuché dentro de un set.
Por separado me parecían excelentes, pero al mezclarlas descubrí que tenían bajadas demasiado largas, poca percusión útil y momentos donde la energía desaparecía. El problema no era solamente hacer la transición: después de cada una sentía que debía reconstruir el set desde cero.
Comencé alrededor de 122 BPM y, en menos de una hora, terminé bastante más arriba. Cerca de 128 BPM encontré por primera vez una sensación de continuidad y comodidad. Lo curioso es que el profesor me felicitó, aunque yo salí pensando que mi criterio musical estaba cambiando por completo.
Ahora entiendo que BPM y energía no son lo mismo. Mi duda es más profunda: ¿cómo reconocen los DJs experimentados la diferencia entre una canción hermosa y una canción funcional dentro de un recorrido?
¿Una canción que derrumba la energía está mal elegida, o simplemente necesita otro momento y otra preparación? ¿Cómo construyen tensión y descansos sin que el set parezca planchado ni una carrera constante hacia BPM más altos?
Siento que estoy dejando de escuchar canciones aisladas y empezando a escuchar relaciones entre ellas. Me interesa saber si otros pasaron por este cambio y cómo transformó su manera de seleccionar música.

Hi everyone,

I’m a complete beginner using the Pioneer DDJ-FLX4 with Rekordbox on iOS, and I can’t hear any music through my headphones when I try to cue a track before playing it.

I want to preview the next track in my headphones while the master audio continues playing through my speakers.

Could someone please guide me on the correct settings and the best way to set this up on iOS?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Vancouver college student here, friend and I are going to learn how to DJ together what should we buy? Goal is to learn to play because A. I love edm + the community, I'm kind of a nerd, I love finding new music and being creative etc. and B. Musically goal is to get confident enough to play house parties, eventually frats and clubs who knows where this could go. And of course making a bit of chump change would be lovely though thats not the goal.

Second hand everything is first where I'm looking as my budget is low but split between my friend and I. I see a lot of the same controllers on marketplace as they are beginner ones and people seem to out grow them pretty quick so I'm wondering is it better to buy an intermediate more expensive to surpass that stage and annoyance or... All the research I've done has pointed me to Pioneer FLX-4. Also with software etc. I have a mac and I'm leaning towards Rekordbox and Pioneer since that is industry Standard. Not sure what does and doesn't matter. Please lmk ;)))

Going on a trip to asot with my friends who all like to mix for fun. Also going to be hanging out in the city for over a a week. I definitely want to bring something with me as it will get lots of use. I just use an flx 4 when I'm at home. I don't actually have a laptop that would work for it (my main computers are a gaming PC and a workstation) I was considering buying a Macbook, but I've been kind of feeling like I want a bit more than an flx4 lately. Should I buy a standalone unit instead of a Macbook? I'm feeling a bit torn tbh as I don't travel a massive amount and I'm not convinced about burning money on a macbook and still having to upgrade my controller eventually, but I need to bring something