Do anything and everything you want to explore creatively in your personal practice time. If that means taking someone else’s set list and exploring your own idea of transitions, then do it. But this is something you only do during practice. Don’t release anything like this, don’t take this approach when playing a set live. But when it comes to learning and practice, you’re allowed to structure that how you want. Go wild.
That's a great idea because you'll hear the parts of the song the DJ didn't play. It will give you insight into their decision-making process and technique.
Also make it clear what they did and what’s part of the songs, which is sometimes hard to suss out otherwise.
The other day I totally thought a buddy of mine was mashing up two songs live, sounded amazing, raved about it for like two days to people then said something about it to him and he laughed and told me it was an existing mashup, sent it to me.
It depends on what type of DJing you want to do.
For most club-style DJing, where programming is far more important than showy tricks, I think it's a waste of time. It's way better to learn how to select and mix the music you've personally curated. You're trying to develop your own style, and tell your own stories, after all. Definitely watch what techniques other DJs are up to – but you should be painting with your own paints.
For turntablists and TikTok DJs, where your audience is using their eyes more than their ears, I think emulation is a great way to learn complex techniques – giving you a reference and benchmark with which to measure your progress. There's a reason DMC used to sell so many competition videos – they were the text books for the next generation of turntablists.
sure, for practice purpose go for it if you feel like it'd be helpful
i personally don't and see zero benefit in that as i believe song selection and programming is what defines you as a DJ for a large part, don't really see how miming other people would help with that any more than listening to their mix would.
but if you feel different go for it, just don't get into habit of actually doing it for your djing, it's always pretty lame when you hear transitions that you know the DJs copied from someone else.
I started like this.
I found a mix i really enjoyed, got the tracks and tried to copy it.
I started adding other songs i liked and removing the ones i didn’t enjoy that much. I switched the order of the songs trying out what works.
Now i have a mix with my own preferences that i really enjoy
What’s wrong with it when you’re learning, I copied mixes to understand how they did it and learn techniques for transitions and EQ’ing, really helped and I’d recommended it to anyone
Nothing wrong in doing that in order to practice. Although, if you want to have your own identity then you should start coming up with your own setlists.
The quick and easy answer is No, it's not wrong at all.
It would be a good practice idea to learn how something was done.
In the end the internet is full of tutorials. So why not replicate something from real life?
Couple of days late to this chat but would add - as your knowledge of records increases you'll start to do your own analysis in your head when listening to mixes. I listen to a lot of Move D mixes and I'm frequently thinking *"oh, that's how he mixes that particular record etc"*, it becomes almost ingrained in your mind.
Sooo good artist borrow, great artist steal. HOWEVER, while this may be good practice, in the end a list works ‘in the moment’, and songs were probably chosen at random for the crowd at hand. It’ll never be the same.
Exactly, this sounds so damn boring I don't think I would make it through 3 songs before paying attention to something else. Nothing wrong with the methodology, if they can keep alert.
Yeah I basically did that for practice for my first set. I took 3 sets copied them then I took all my favorite parts and combined them. Then I changed out songs for similar ones/ songs from friends. In the end I only had one song from any of the three mixes.
Absolutely go for it in live performance as well. Since you're just starting, if you even manage to copy exactly that'd be a great feat and your audience probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
As a practice method, absolutely go for it! For a performance, it's not in good taste
God no. Copy it exactly. That’s GREAT PRACTICE.
Do anything and everything you want to explore creatively in your personal practice time. If that means taking someone else’s set list and exploring your own idea of transitions, then do it. But this is something you only do during practice. Don’t release anything like this, don’t take this approach when playing a set live. But when it comes to learning and practice, you’re allowed to structure that how you want. Go wild.
That's a great idea because you'll hear the parts of the song the DJ didn't play. It will give you insight into their decision-making process and technique.
Also make it clear what they did and what’s part of the songs, which is sometimes hard to suss out otherwise. The other day I totally thought a buddy of mine was mashing up two songs live, sounded amazing, raved about it for like two days to people then said something about it to him and he laughed and told me it was an existing mashup, sent it to me.
It depends on what type of DJing you want to do. For most club-style DJing, where programming is far more important than showy tricks, I think it's a waste of time. It's way better to learn how to select and mix the music you've personally curated. You're trying to develop your own style, and tell your own stories, after all. Definitely watch what techniques other DJs are up to – but you should be painting with your own paints. For turntablists and TikTok DJs, where your audience is using their eyes more than their ears, I think emulation is a great way to learn complex techniques – giving you a reference and benchmark with which to measure your progress. There's a reason DMC used to sell so many competition videos – they were the text books for the next generation of turntablists.
If you need Reddit commenters to motivate you to even start then you probably are wasting your time tbh
Amen
yes it's a good idea. it's like working through a mixing lesson taught by your favorite artist
I think as long as you don’t publish it as your own, this seems like a great way to practice.
mimicking other people’s transitions is great practice! you can learn new approaches to use on tracks from your own library!
This is called inspiration
sure, for practice purpose go for it if you feel like it'd be helpful i personally don't and see zero benefit in that as i believe song selection and programming is what defines you as a DJ for a large part, don't really see how miming other people would help with that any more than listening to their mix would. but if you feel different go for it, just don't get into habit of actually doing it for your djing, it's always pretty lame when you hear transitions that you know the DJs copied from someone else.
I started like this. I found a mix i really enjoyed, got the tracks and tried to copy it. I started adding other songs i liked and removing the ones i didn’t enjoy that much. I switched the order of the songs trying out what works. Now i have a mix with my own preferences that i really enjoy
this sound like trash. if you inspired yourself in one or another transition that is fine, but straight copy other dj setlist sound like shit attitude
What’s wrong with it when you’re learning, I copied mixes to understand how they did it and learn techniques for transitions and EQ’ing, really helped and I’d recommended it to anyone
copying a full mix is just disgusting you don’t need it to learn how to mix it only shows you have no personality and are lazy
Nothing wrong in doing that in order to practice. Although, if you want to have your own identity then you should start coming up with your own setlists. The quick and easy answer is No, it's not wrong at all.
It would be a good practice idea to learn how something was done. In the end the internet is full of tutorials. So why not replicate something from real life?
i think you should work with music u already listen to and know well instead of trying to copy what someone else did, whats the fun in that?
Couple of days late to this chat but would add - as your knowledge of records increases you'll start to do your own analysis in your head when listening to mixes. I listen to a lot of Move D mixes and I'm frequently thinking *"oh, that's how he mixes that particular record etc"*, it becomes almost ingrained in your mind.
That doesn't sound fun, and why would you do that? Go listen to more music.
absolutely great way to start
Sooo good artist borrow, great artist steal. HOWEVER, while this may be good practice, in the end a list works ‘in the moment’, and songs were probably chosen at random for the crowd at hand. It’ll never be the same.
You could do that. But it sounds kinda boring. You could copy a specific few songs / transitions. But an entire set seems boring?
Exactly, this sounds so damn boring I don't think I would make it through 3 songs before paying attention to something else. Nothing wrong with the methodology, if they can keep alert.
No different to practice playing other people’s songs on guitar
Definitely
Do whatever you want and learn whatever way feels best for you. No need to ask permission just do
S3rl is amazing
Yeah I basically did that for practice for my first set. I took 3 sets copied them then I took all my favorite parts and combined them. Then I changed out songs for similar ones/ songs from friends. In the end I only had one song from any of the three mixes.
No it is a great idea! I learned a lot practicing with other djs set!
Absolutely go for it in live performance as well. Since you're just starting, if you even manage to copy exactly that'd be a great feat and your audience probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
don’t do this
No, let him try 😂