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- 31 Secrets To Better Sound Pdf
- 31 Secrets To Better Sound
As part of our ongoing discussion of the art of DJing, we gathered a list of 12 DJ tips to raise your game to the next level. Figuring out the basics of DJing is one thing, but learning how to work a room with subtle changes in programming and sound is something else. While there are no real rules to DJing, what follows is a list of tips based on years of professional experience.
Tiger & Woods playing at Movement DEMF 2012
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Practice and Prepare
Practice makes for much better DJ sets than a free-form approach to the craft. Having only a vague idea of what you are going to play usually makes for a halfhearted DJ set. You’ll find that accomplished turntablists and groove-riders alike have all spent countless hours perfecting their sets. We don’t necessarily recommend pre-planning the entire set, either, but you should get to know your options before you show up to perform. Spend time to find tracks that mix well and make playlists of those tunes for future use. Make different kinds of playlists for different kinds of gigs. Finding tracks that work well together takes time, and it rarely happens spontaneously at the gig.
Be Flexible
As a professional DJ, you don’t necessarily have to take requests. You can stand by your own style and selection. However, playing more than one specific style of music is a great way to gain more opportunities for performance. There are many types of clubs and events, and different types of crowds. Try to find selections from your music collection that will work with these different groups.
“Don’t necessarily divide playlists by genre, but by mood (aggressive, melancholy, soulful, etc.) and energy (slow, medium, fast). If you practice enough and have good taste it will all come together naturally.” ~ Rx
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Salva playing at Movement DEMF 2012
Plan in Threes
This method of organizing music for DJ performance that I’ve found to work extremely well in my own experience. When planning a set, I like to find three records that mix well together at a time. Optimally these three records can all be played together at once, or they can transition into one another. Next I find another set of three. Then another. Eventually, I have a stack of records that are organized by how they mix together, and I start to organize those sets of three into a flow of slow to fast/mellow to banging. I like to have 60 tracks selected for an hour of performance. I won’t play all 60 (I usually play around 20 tracks per hour), and I won’t always play those exact mixes (spontaneity is still important in a DJ set). I have options that go in every direction, and I know that I can find my way from one type of sound to another while staying deep in the mix the whole way. Knowing this allows me to be much more experimental on-the-fly, and it always works better than if I don’t plan.
Identify Your Audience
Identify your audience before you perform. That statement doesn’t just mean to find out what they like and play it — you need to know the size of the room you’ll be playing in, the number of people who may be there, and the general musical vibe for the evening. Know your time slot and what frame of mind people will be in when you are playing. Part of being a DJ is sonic empathy: take the time to know your audience and identify what sort of sounds they might connect with to keep them engaged.
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Mike Huckaby playing at Movement DEMF 2012
“At every gig you play, there are usually 1-3 people in the crowd or on the dance floor that you need to pay attention to. These are the key individuals who set the tone of the night. They are usually the ones that set it off for everyone else. Everyone else is paying attention to them, but they would never admit it. These key people usually set the comfort zone and allow others to express themselves in ways that they would never do otherwise. They are also the first ones to dance, set the pace, and the tone of the night. If you study these key individuals during your set, and push their buttons, it will have a positive effect on you, others, and the whole night. It works every time.” ~ Mike Huckaby
Play Appropriately for your Time Slot
This thought has been a hot topic on our social media channels, culminating in our recent Tips for Opening DJs article where A-list DJs all delivered a very similar sentiment — don’t try to blow up the dancefloor at the wrong time. There is an arc of energy that events hope to achieve, and promoters usually book DJs to fill these different time slots hoping that they will bring the proper energy for that time slot. Many beginner DJs are so eager to play “their sound” and impress their audience that they end up playing inappropriately for their time slot (usually an opening slot for up and coming DJs). The best thing you can do during an early slot is lay down an even-keeled, in-the-pocket vibe that doesn’t give up too much energy too early.
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“The key to being a good DJ is knowing how to pace the energy of the night. I guarantee you will get way more compliments if you play appropriately to your time slot. The one mistake I see up and coming DJs do that is never cool is to bang the shit out of it before the headliner goes on—as if to impress that next DJ. That is not cool. If you really want to impress the next DJ and the crowd, play appropriately and sexy and let the night have a nice build.” ~ DJ Dan
Programming
Programming is probably the most important aspect of a DJ’s set. A perfect technical mix with no soul is never as good as a less-technical mix with lots of vibe. The music is what moves your audience, and the flow of music from one track to another can truly create a journey if you take the time to plan that journey. Many DJs lose sight of this when the excitement of crowd response is happening, and they slip away from the journey and into instant musical gratification. A seasoned DJ will never go the route of instant gratification because it’s a short-term fix, and a crowd will burn out quickly on this vibe.
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Push and Pull
The best DJs I’ve ever heard all taught me a similar method in how to approach programming a DJ set. Some call this “the push and pull,” giving the crowd just enough energy to dance and be excited, but never giving it all up until the right moment. Old school house DJs like Derrick Carter have mastered this method, with sets that build up into banging music and then down into something deep for a moment, pushing and pulling the energy of the set to make the crowd more excited. It’s amazing how well this method works, in a single DJ set and also over the course of an event. I remember visiting Turnmills in London a few years back when Mr. C and Carl Clarke were spinning, and I was totally blown away by the pacing these guys kept over the course of their set. From 10 PM until about 2 AM there were hardly any vocals and not very much melody; even the lighting was stark black and white. But as things warmed up around 2, they slowly started to give the crowd what they wanted, which resulted in hands-in-the-air response until 6am that morning.
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Keep Your Levels Out of the Red
To achieve the best sound quality during a DJ performance or recorded mix, make sure you are getting a good strong signal both in and out of the mixer, but always take care not to push any of your levels into the red. This is a simple rule but one that most DJs are guilty of breaking from time to time. When the mix is hot, and people are jumping, most DJs want to pump up the volume. But boosting the channel gain or master volume into the red will distort your signal, making the music sound degraded and killing the vibe. In addition to this, most venues have a master limiter at the final stage of the signal before it goes to the house system, so turning up your mixer past 0db will most likely not have an effect on your overall volume, it will just make your music sound squashed. So always remember: watch your master volume throughout your set, and make sure to keep the meters from going into the red by turning down your levels and/or EQ controls.
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“Louder does not necessarily equal better. Keep your volume at a reasonable level and give the front of house sound guy some headroom and he’ll make sure you sound good. Give him a distorted signal and there’s nothing he can do except turn you down.” ~ Adam Freeland
Proper use of EQ
The three (or four) band equalizer on each channel of the DJ mixer is your most valuable tool for professional DJ performances. There are a couple of basic rules to keep in mind when using EQ; these can be applied to DJ mixers as well as music production.
First Rule
Keep your EQ at 12:00 as a default, unless you are making a particular adjustment. That is to say, the EQ sounds best at unity gain, so keep your EQ at 0db whenever possible.
Second Rule
Cut (don’t boost) the signal. This approach requires thinking backwards through your process a bit. For instance, if you are inclined to turn up the bass, turn down the mids and highs a bit instead and turn up the channel gain if needed.
Another good rule of thumb to follow when DJing is, only use one sub-bass source at a time. Generally speaking, playing two tracks with heavy sub-bass at the same time will create a muddy mix and won’t sound good on a large sound system. EQ is your best friend in these situations — simply turn down the bass of one the tracks when you’re mixing them together to keep the overall sound punchy and tight. You can swap the bass lines back and forth with the EQ knobs or use the crossfader to mix between the two tracks, just remember to only use one bass source at a time for optimum sound quality and crowd response.
Don’t Overdo the Effects
While the use of effects is an artistic choice, and in some cases the basis of a DJ’s sound, I’d recommend that you don’t OVERdo it with effects. Many DJs use effects to help transitions from one record to another and to enhance their DJ performance. Neither of these things are bad, but they become a problem if you rely on them. Audiences have become familiar with Pioneer’s echo, Allen & Heath’s filter and Traktor’s stutter effects. Use your levels and EQ to create interest before turning to the effects, and then when you do drop that echo it will be something special instead of redundant or annoying.
Bring Backup
You never know what could go wrong at the club or event where you’ll be performing. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to bring backup music in different formats. If you play vinyl, bring CDs. If you play CDs, bring records or a couple flash drives of MP3s. If you use a laptop, bring CDs and/or vinyl as backup. An iPod full of your latest tunes is another option for emergency situations where one of your sources dies mid-performance.
DJ Extensive Program
Immerse yourself in the complete art of DJing: from the fundamentals of beatmatching and mixing to using effects and programming extended club sets. Whether you’re a beginner wanting to learn fundamentals or a seasoned pro looking to take your talent to the next level, our curriculum is designed to accommodate all skill levels and styles of music. This comprehensive DJ program covers everything from basic mixing to advanced digital DJing with both Serato and Traktor.
What’s Included
- DJ Level 1: Rookie Sessions | Essentials I
- DJ Level 2: Phrase Mixing | Essentials II
- DJ Level 3: Beyond The Blend | Intermediate Skills
- DJ Level 4: Preparation | DJ Psychology
- DJ Level 5: Classroom to the Club | Advanced Techniques I
- DJ Level 6: Club to the World | Advanced Techniques II
More start dates and information about payment plans can be found here.
If you have questions, please call 877.DUBSPOT or send us a message.
'Get better sound' - a book by Jim Smith
Reference set-up manual to get better sound from any home audio system
Product: 'Get better sound' - book
Author: Jim Smith - USA
Book details: ISBN 978-0-9820807-0-2 - Publ. 2008 by Quarter Note Press, 6445 Calamar Drive, Cumming, GA 30040, USA
Price: 44.50 USD
Reviewer: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT Italy
Reviewed: December, 2008
Getting a reasonably good sound at home isn't an easy task: purchasing expensive components is not strictly necessary nor sufficient. Taking care of the installation and of room acoustics influences more than the 50% of the final performance. HiFi mags give advices every now and then but if one needs a complete manual that addresses all the problems one may encounter when setting up a stereo set there's little hope to find something exhaustive and professionally written. The book I'm going to review claims to be the answer to these needs.
First, two words about the author. Jim Smith is a well respected 'pro' in the US high-end market hence US readers might not need an introduction. For us EU readers let me just say that Jim Smith's CV is quite long and impressive. He started in the early Seventies, working as customer service manager (and even in the sales & marketing department) at Audio Research Corporation (ARC). At that time he wrote the installation manuals for the Tympani 1D Magneplanar loudspeakers. Then he moved to Magnepan, for which he wrote the manuals for various Magneplanar models (MG1's and MG2's, for example). In 1979 he opened his own high-end shop, Audition, in Birmingham, Alabama. The shop soon became - for the high-end niche - one of the top-10 HiFi stores nationwide. In the meanwhile he got involved in producing live music recordings of excellent quality.
In 1993, unhappy of what the high-end scene was becoming, he left the audio industry. In 1999 he returned as the US distributor of Avantgarde loudspeakers. Despite the fact horns weren't much popular among high-enders, he won seven 'Best Sound of the Show' awards in five years, thanks to his accurate demos of Avantgarde speakers. At that time, he also wrote a small manual for Avantgarde customers.
Thanks to the extremely positive feedback he received, he decided to write a longer version of that (free) manual and ...here it is! A book with 202 tips in almost 300 pages, with very clear and nice drawings and set-up schemes.
The book comes with a Risk-Free Guarantee: try the tips in the book for 90 days, if you aren't satisfied with the results (getting better sound for peanuts, instead of purchasing a new HiFi component) you can return the manual and get a refund, including shipping costs!
The book is very easy to read, with clear and detailed advices, aided by simple drawings. It is not of the academic kind, since it is written with a friendly approach, by a Music lover to Music lovers. It is divided into 23 chapters but it can be read without a precise sequence. You can start from the very first page and go on or even jump to a more advanced subject that might interest you, provided you've already covered the basics.
The chapters are:
- Toolbox
- Your room
- Home Theater or two-channel?
- Multichannel systems
- Stereo system bass and subwoofers
- Thinking points
- Effects of rooms, room acoustics and room treatments
- Working with your room
- Additional speaker/room set-up tips
- Panel speakers
- Vinyl solution
- Getting rid on unnecessary sonic and electrical pollution
- Free or inexpensive set-up tools
- Things to know and to do before (and during) equipment comparisons
- Simple system enhancement for daily listening
- Compression
- The most common types of loudspeaker compression and their unmusical effects
- Controversy corner
- Bi-amplification
- Basic troubleshooting
- Semi-pro set-up tools
- The value of having a true reference recording for voicing systems to rooms
- Jim's personal CD reference list
Ok, where do I start? The 'Controversy corner' is extremely interesting, there I've found many of my own credos. For example, it is better to use long speakers cables in order to put the stereo rack far from the speakers (so to have NOTHING between and behind them). This is exactly what I did when building my new listening room and the improvement wasn't subtle, in terms of imaging and soundstaging.
Also, he states clear that cables and other tuning components make an insignificant difference when the set-up is wrong. First you should be concerned with the set-up and the acoustics of the room, then you can decide to try different cables, isolation devices or other fancy accessories.
The chapters devoted to room acoustics are extremely useful too as audiophiles tend to forget how big the difference between a 'good room' and a 'bad room' might be. For example, when TNT-Audio readers ask for some advice on which component to purchase, they - too often! - forget to describe the room, its size, the way the speakers are placed and the kind of furniture. The standard scenario is as follows: 'I have a very metallic and fatiguing sound, which component should I purchase to solve this problem?'
99.9% of the times the real culprit is the room, which is mostly empty of filled with highly reflecting surfaces.
'Get better sound' suggests the basic tips to get the fundamentals done right...and then investigates even a little bit further. Actually, the tips can be divided into two categories: basic stuff for beginners and advanced tips/tweaks for experts.
One of the aspects that I really enjoyed is what Jim writes about bass and subwoofers. Summarizing, when setting up a system, first of all concentrate on bass frequencies and try to get them sounding right. A system without bass produces Music without soul. In order to get the bass done right, DO NOT use tracks with lots of bass frequencies! Use some simple track with female voices, for example. Find the correct level of bass by monitoring how the voice is affected by bass frequencies: too much and it'll become chesty, not enough bass and the voice will sound thin.
Also, I appreciated his advice on installing subwoofers, which, according to Jim, must always be two and not just one!
Moreover, he is strongly against the audiophile paranoia of getting 'tight' bass! Quoting Jim 'This 'tightness' is a drying - a shriveling - of the very foundation of Music' and then adds 'Listen for realistic sounding bass, not artificially 'tight' bass'. How true!
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The final chapter is a list of hundreds of reference discs, which can be quite useful, since many of these aren't from audiophile labels. At the end of the book a quite complete glossary of audiophile words can prove to be extremely useful for the absolute beginner.
As a bonus, customers will receive 'Quarter Notes', a quarterly e-mail newsletter where Jim publishes new tips and ideas.
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Would I recommend this book to any audiophile? You bet! I'd also strongly recommend it to the vast majority of professionals who can't make their demo rooms sound acceptable (manufactuers, dealers etc.). They might learn something that could prove to be useful for their success at HiFi Shows, guaranteed.
31 Secrets To Better Sound Pdf
Conclusion
31 Secrets To Better Sound
It is hard to give you an idea, in a short review, of all the audio knowledge contained into the 300 pages of this extremely interesting book. It is a must-have for any beginner but not just that! Many audiophiles, even expert ones, might get better sound from their system by reading this book and applying some of Jim's tips.
Unfortunately many audiophiles, when looking for an 'upgrade', focus their attention on the next purchase. Jim Smith suggests to try focusing on system set-up instead. Revolutionary? No, just pure common sense (and vast knowledge) applied to audio.
I'm pretty sure Jim will be refuding very few 'unsatisfied' customers as this book is one of the best 'tweaks' you can apply to your HiFi system!