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Unveiling the true purpose of a DJ

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:11:40 +0500

What exactly does a DJ do? What’s the main objective, and what tools are employed to achieve that goal?

There’s a common belief that a DJ’s primary task is merely to play music. But in reality, a computer can execute that task by streaming tracks in succession, compiling a lengthy playlist.

Conversely, some assert that a DJ’s essential role is to blend tracks seamlessly in a continuous mix. Yet, this, too, can be accomplished through pre-made mixes, leading to the misconception that a DJ’s skill hinges solely on their ability to mix tracks manually. This often leads to unwarranted debates, like comparing a DJ who uses vinyl records to one using a controller, which, frankly, holds no merit.

In essence, playing music and mixing tracks serve as tools, not the ultimate purpose. Surprisingly, mixing tracks is considered one of the simpler skills in DJing.

So, what is a DJ’s primary task?

The core purpose of a DJ is to create a proper vibe on the dance floor, making sure the crowd is having a good time. The definition of “good” varies based on the event’s nature, of course. It might involve providing a fresh musical experience or eliciting nostalgia through familiar tracks. Sometimes, it’s about setting a soft backdrop. But at its core, it’s about ensuring the audience feels good.

An adept DJ tunes into their audience, intuitively selecting the right tracks to suit the moment. It’s about gauging the energy levels—whether to play a chart-topper that ignites the crowd or introduce something novel to elevate the mood.

When viewed from this perspective, endless debates about equipment and sound effects become trivial. However, does this mean a DJ should cater solely to the crowd’s whims? What about personal enjoyment?

Ideally, a DJ’s music aligns with the event and the crowd’s preferences, offering both freedom and a chance to build a fan base. But it’s important to recognize that these perfect circumstances may not occur every time, especially for new DJs.

In essence, if making people feel good on the dance floor is the main goal, then the primary tool is simple: playing the right track at the right time. Achieving this requires understanding the event’s expectations, cultivating musical taste, maintaining a diverse music collection, mastering set construction, and the nuanced skill of reading the crowd. It’s a lot more than merely ‘playing music’.

3 tips for opening DJs

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:01:50 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

The opening DJ is one of the most underrated roles in the club event format. But who are these “opening” DJs? What they should be doing and what things they must avoid?

Watch the video about it on my YouTube channel:

P.S. This is the video version of my advice written in 2016. If you prefer text over video, read the article: the details are slightly different, but the main message is the same.

How to record a DJ set with crowd noise

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 14:26:58 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Recording one of my DJ sets on that tiny little box. Photo © Schneider Family

I try to record my sets during my shows to listen to them later. It’s also great content that’s nice to share.

But I especially like it when the music is supported by the crowd cheering from the dancefloor: it gives a much better sense that it’s actually a real live recording and not just another studio mix.

Here is how I do it.

The recorder

Just recording a set is usually not a problem: some models of DJ equipment have this feature built-in, and if you play with software like Rekordbox or Traktor, it is even a matter of pressing a button. However, to record a set with crowd noise, you’ll need a special device – an external recorder.

Tascam DR-40X recorder, Joby GorillaPod and 2×RCA-2×Jack cable

I use the Tascam DR-40X. It’s a four-channel recorder, in other words with two pairs of stereo channels: one pair of channels records clean audio directly from the DJ mixer through the line input, and the second pair records the dance floor sounds through the built-in microphones.

The recorder uses an SD card as the media. I bought a SanDisk Ultra with 80MB/s and 16GB capacity, and it’s enough to record about ten hours of audio. It powers from AA batteries, as well as via micro-USB. There is a 1/4” screw jack on the bottom, so you can put the recorder on a tripod.

Connectivity

The recorder is connected to the mixer this way: from the mixer via Rec Out or Master 2 using RCA connectors to the recorder via Line In using XLR or 1/4-inch jack connectors. A cable like this would work, for example.

Schematic connection of the recorder to the mixer, scale is approximate

The main difference between the Rec Out and Master 2 outputs is that Rec Out ignores volume changes on the mixer’s master channel. It means that if you change the master volume during the set (I usually do not advise doing so, but sometimes you need to), it will not affect the recording in any way: the audio will remain even, without volume dips. Therefore, if possible, it is better to use Rec Out.

Settings

This recorder has a hundred different settings, but in this context, only three are important: the selection of an external source, the type of recording mode, and the volume level adjustment.

The external source is switched on the side using the slider: Ext In → Line. This way the recorder will know that the incoming signal is line level (and the output from the DJ mixer is exactly that), so no distortion will occur.

The recording mode is selected by a dedicated button of the same name: Rec Mode → 4CH. In our case, we need to use all four channels, as I explained above, so we select 4CH. The corresponding indicator to the left should light up.

The volume level is adjusted in the main menu: Menu → Rec Settings → Level: -48dB. This means that the incoming signal will be recorded very quietly, but this is not a problem since we can increase the volume afterwards during processing. This way it is guaranteed that there will be no clipping and the recording will be clean.

Obviously, if you have a different recorder, these settings may be somewhere else, have some other name or not be present at all. But you need all three for quality set recording, which is why I chose the Tascam DR-40X.

Processing

After the recording, there will be two audio files on the SD card: a clean recording from the mixer and a recording of the dancefloor from the microphone.

It’s worth understanding that the microphone can’t record people’s screaming only; instead, it records everything, including music from the dancefloor, usually with overloaded low frequencies. So don’t be surprised if you hear a muffled “boomy” audio in this file, it’s okay.

Then it’s just a matter of increasing the volume of the mixer recording (since we recorded it at -48dB), lowering the volume of the microphone recording, removing unnecessary low frequencies with a filter, and stacking the two audio tracks. All this I do in Ableton Live.

Processing and mixing in Ableton Live

Here’s how these audio tracks sound individually and together:

Clean audio from the mixer

Audio from the mics

Audio from the mix with a high-pass filter

Both audio tracks together

Well, and that’s about it. From there just hit export and upload it to Soundcloud to make your fans happy :-)

Advice section on the website

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 18:00:00 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Finally, the advice series got its own separate section on the site.

Earlier you had to go to the blog, find the tag “advice” in the blog, and only then a person would find out that these posts were even there.

Now it became easier: now advice posts are on a separate page with a convenient short address dsokolovskiy.com/advice (all posts there are grouped by topic, a sort of rubricator), and the link to this page is located directly in the top menu.

So, come in to read and show it to your friends:

Music listening routine

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:56:19 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Tell me how you organize the process of listening to music: demos coming to the label and just new releases in different genres. Do you listen on the speakers or on headphones? Do you multitask it with other things (like replying to emails and doing social media stuff)? Do people around you complain about the constant “boom-boom”? How do you manage to stay focused on the music to listen to all the tracks thoroughly?

Nikolay Glazyrin

Thanks for asking. I honestly don’t know how it could be helpful to anyone, but I’d be happy to share.

Listening to demo recordings

First let me tell you about the demos. The demos come in an endless stream of about 30 to 100 emails a week to the label. To reply to all of them at once as they appear in the inbox means to be constantly distracted and waste attention, and I try to work in a concentrated way. Moreover, some tracks are so bad that I can’t listen to them just in the background :-) That’s why for some time I put emails into a special pile and then answer them all at once – it’s more productive that way.

Read about A&R duties

Speaking of email, I use HEY. There you can literally click “Reply Later” on emails and then respond to them all at once in “Focus & Reply” mode. It really helps. HEY is cool in general, maybe I’ll tell you more about it later.

Listening to music

Now about listening to music in general. I have two listening modes, as I call them: passive and active.

Passive mode is when I listen to music in the background, doing my own thing. I used to listen to Soundcloud, Apple podcasts, radio stations, and YouTube, but now 95% of my background listening happens on Spotify because everything is more convenient and there’s a better chance of finding something good.

Usually, I turn on some suggested playlist on Spotify or a “Song radio” based on a track I like and go about my business in comfort. I don’t concentrate on the music in any special way, which is exactly why I call this kind of listening mode “passive” – something is playing, and that’s fine.

As soon as I notice something cool playing, I press ⌥+space and <3 – this is the system-wide shortcut I made to automatically “like” tracks, i.e. to save them in my collection. And then it’s also broadcast to the Telegram channel. It’s faster than switching between applications and clicking on the tiny “heart” next to the track’s name.

A heart, kind of. Alfred app

The automation is set up with Alfred app and the Spotify Mini Player script. Alfred is fantastic, maybe someday I’ll tell you about it too.

This way I listen to music for about ten hours a day, so I happen to find quite a lot of interesting stuff. I usually play background music through my speakers.

Of course, not all music suits the background, especially if you need to work thoughtfully: for example, I find it hard to do with hard techno, but I’m okay with progressive house or chillout.

Active mode is when I’m purposefully looking for something: a track with the right tempo and key, a new release from a particular artist or other releases from a particular label. It’s important to hear the details, so I often listen with headphones while actively searching.

I used to use the Beatport Pro desktop app for this, but since the beginning of 2021, it has been discontinued. Now I use the Beatport website, even though it is much slower and more limited than the app, plus old-good Spotify.

I only need to listen to a track for about five seconds to know if it’s a good fit. This is a very highly concentrated listening mode in terms of the amount of new musical information per unit of time, so I can’t listen like that for a long time – two or three hours at the most. It’s important to take breaks, otherwise, my ears get soaked and I might miss something interesting. During the breaks, I either go back to background listening or get away from the computer altogether and switch to something else: running (also with music, of course), eating or sleeping.

Luckily, I don’t cause any trouble for the surrounding people, not anymore :-)

A new studio!

Fellow readers, where and how do you listen to music?

Anything is possible

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 01:23:56 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Sometimes I get questions in the advice series that boil down to, “Can I do this or that?” or “Can I not do that?”.

For example:

Can I send a demo track to a few dozen labels at once?
Can a DJ not post anything on social media?
Can I not use equalizer?
Can I come to the club ten minutes before the start of my set?

That is, a person has probably heard that something should be done, but is looking for a way to refute it: “Are you sure it should be done? Maybe it’s not necessary? Can we do it differently?” And that’s okay because it’s good to ask questions.

And the answer is very simple: anything is possible. Anything at all. But every choice has consequences that are worth bearing in mind.

For example:

Can I send a demo track to a few dozen labels at once?
Yes, you can, but be prepared that your demo will either be ignored or signed to some third-rate label. Here’s the best way to send a demo.

Can a DJ not post anything on social media?
Yes, you can, but then it will be harder for people to hear about you, and your audience will grow slower. Because social media is important.

Can I not use equalizer?
Yes, you can, but then don’t be surprised if the bass in your track is sluggish and dull. If you at least check and cut the extra low end, it will be cleaner already.

Can you come to the club ten minutes before the start of your set?
Yes, you can, but then you won’t have much time left for “plan B” if something goes wrong – and a lot of things can go wrong. I recommend arriving early.

Anything is possible, but it’s worth bearing in mind the consequences of the choice

Note that in the examples above, I didn’t call any of the outcomes bad. Maybe you write music purely for fun, so you don’t care about releases on credible labels, audience growth, or performances? Well, that’s fine, because those things are neither good nor bad in and of themselves.

But if you have certain career goals in mind, then you have to consider the possible consequences of any of such “yes, you can”.

DJs: hire photographers for your gigs

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 15:48:04 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

A few thoughts on the pictures from DJs’ gigs and advice based on my own failure

First of all, the most obvious: photos are a good thing. They’re personal memories that feel good to revisit and share with others. Who doesn’t love pictures?

Now the slightly less obvious: Pictures of DJs’ gigs are your work assets. If a DJ has good pictures from his gigs, it’s easier for promoters to work with him: to run an advertising campaign for the upcoming event, to sell tickets. Also, photos from performances help to remove fears of potential promoters: when you see a DJ behind the club gear in front of live people, you know that at least he has such experience, which means less chance that he will screw up (remember that decent DJs are pretty rare). And, of course, photos are great content for visual communication for your blogs and social media.

Read what about social media John Fleming and Ace Ventura

Finally, something that would seem unobvious or even wrong to many at first glance: making sure that a DJ gets photos of the gigs is the DJ’s own job. I’m not talking about how to get those gigs (that’s a big separate topic), but about the photos from them.

It’s the DJ’s job to get pictures of his gigs

When I was young and inexperienced, I used to think something like this: “Since the organizer is doing the event, he most likely hires a photographer. And since there’s going to be a photographer at the event, that means I, as the DJ, will have some great shots from there, especially when I’m an international artist in the lineup. Right?”.

With these thoughts in mind, I flew to my first international gigs in Switzerland in 2014, then to Hungary in 2015, then to Switzerland again in 2017, and soon to Greece. Events in different countries with big lineups of international artists; big clubs and festivals. Guess how many pictures of me are from there? The answer is zero. None. At least I’ve kept the posters, or else it was like there were none. Wonder how that’s possible?

See all my posts about the shows: posters, photos, mixes and other snippets from the tour

Well, the thing is, when organizers hire photographers, they do this for a very different reason. For the organizer, the main goal of the photos is to make people want to come to their next events. To do that, they usually try to show a good mood, people, vibe, location, deco, and all that that typically catches people’s eyes. And that’s not necessarily DJs at all.

For example, this is what one of such shots can look like:

Shankra Festival, Lostallo, Switzerland, 2017. The photo is cool, but not about me

I ended up having great gigs, but there’s not a single shot of me from there to use as my asset. Don’t be like me.

After realizing it was a complete failure, I’ve since made it a rule to hire photographers myself — not for the entire events, but specifically for my sets.

When you hire a photographer, you can explain to him what angles to shoot and from what not to; he certainly will not be late for your set; you probably won’t have to wait for the photos for weeks; the files will be in high resolution and thus they can be used even for posters, or anywhere. With this approach, I now have several hundred good pictures that I use for promotional needs, social media, podcast covers, and other uses.

I add the best shots in high resolution to a special page for promoters and press

Of course, I’m not the first to think of this. I remember in 2018 noticing that Boris Brejcha is touring the world, yet almost all the photos on his Instagram are signed by only a few photographers. In other words, Brejcha doesn’t rely on local photographers from the organizers (who, of course, are certainly present and take photos of Brejcha anyway), but he flies with his own, trusted guys.

Boris Brejcha on Instagram

Boris Brejcha in Moscow, 2018. Photo: Ruben Schmitz. The pictures like this “sell” well very

At the time, I thought it was a great idea and started doing the same thing. As an artist, I don’t gather stadiums of people like Brejcha, but even if there are only a hundred people on the dance floor, you can still ask the photographer to take at least a few close-up shots of the DJ — shots like that are useful and important too.

Me at a gig at Gorod Club, Moscow, 2018. Photo: Pavel Tzimisce. A nice, working shot even without the stadium of people

All in all, DJs, a word of advice: don’t rely on the luck of the draw, but hire photographers yourself. These investments are worth it.

Ready check

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:43:42 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

At Skazka Festival two hours prior to the doors opening. Photo: Schneider Family

No matter when my set time is, at 1 or 4 AM, I always try to arrive at the venue prior to the doors opening, especially if it’s the first time.

Is all the equipment functioning properly? Is the volume of the DJ monitors controlled by the Booth Monitor knob? Does it have sufficient overall volume, or should I ask the sound engineer to turn it up? How does the acoustics sound in this room? Won’t that spotlight over there hit my eyes?

Does LINK work? Is the USB port for the USB stick broken, or should I play from my SD card today? Is this the right deck model for me, or is it better to get a controller out of the backpack? Is there room on the table for a laptop, and if it isn’t enough, how can I move everything to make other artists feel comfortable too? Where should I put the recorder?

Are sound guy and stage manager here? What do they look like, and where to find them in the middle of the night if necessary?

What’s the audience like tonight and what’s they up to? What tracks do other DJs play? How do people react to them?

And it is only a tiny part of the technical and organisational questions. Of course, you can’t think of everything, but if you know at least these moments in advance and not five minutes before your set in the middle of the night, chances for a successful performance slightly increase.

How I prepare my DJ playlists

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Sun, 19 May 2019 13:29:13 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Organising playlists by energy levels, vibe, and flow

It would be interesting to know how you prepare your DJ sets, how you decide which track will be mixed well with the previous one, how on stage you choose such tracks that were not included in your planned tracklist, etc.

Vlad Zabolotsky

How to organize your music collection in order to quickly pick the right track at the right moment out of tons of material?

Dj Nerva

Preparing for the performance includes a lot of things: negotiating with the promoter, visiting the venue (when possible), agreeing on a technical and domestic rider, researching the lineup and communicating with other artists, thinking through and launching an advertising campaign, recording a video invitation or a promo mix, working on social media and much more. Maybe someday I’ll tell you about it, but today is all about the “creative” part, the music.

I don’t think of DJ as a creative profession, hence this word is quoted. I’ll write my thoughts on this later

Vlad, to answer the question of how I decide which track will be mixed well with the previous one, I have to explain the structure of my DJ collection first. A similar question was sent by Dj Nerva, so I will combine them into one.

Rekordbox and playlists

DJs play on various media, apps, and gear: laptops, disks, flash drives, vinyl, smartphones; on Pioneers, in Ableton, Traktor, Serato, and many more options. Speaking of myself, I use three things: Recordbox, USB sticks, and Pioneer media players.

On audio formats support

Here is how it works. First, I add music to Rekordbox on my laptop. Then I carefully tag the tracks so that they are automatically distributed among the ‘intelligent’ playlists, and sync these playlists to the USB sticks. Then in the DJ booth, I connect my USB sticks to the Pioneer players, and inside I see all the playlists exactly as I structured them on my laptop back home. And this is the key moment because thanks to these playlists I can easily find that very track I want to play next within a few seconds.

Now I’ll tell you about the key playlists that make up the structure of my collection.

Energy levels

First of all, after adding tracks to Recordbox, I assign them the energy level. This is the main criterion. The most important thing here is that the level of energy is how I feel the tracks and not a formal thing like the tempo or anything like that.

How DJs usually do

Here I want to make a little detour and tell how DJs usually do. Most DJs pre-select the required amount of tracks in advance and arrange them in the order in which they plan to play. So that is complete predestination. Of course, such pre-planned sets can sound great at home, but they might be completely inappropriate on the dancefloor.

It may seem that only newcomer DJs do this, but no: even those who have been performing for more than a decade are doing this, so it’s really common. Some DJs even record the whole mixes in advance and during the performance they basically fake, but this is just so wrong so I won’t even discuss it.

More proficient DJs don’t prepare sets in advance in such a way but select tracks right during the set looking at the crowd in front of them. Most often, they use tempo as a plain simple criterion for choosing the next track.

So it turns out about the following. Let’s assume the following track is playing on the dancefloor:

Dylhen, Paul Thomas — Diablo (Original Mix) 122 BPM, Em

A DJ thinks: “Aha, 122 BPM. The dancefloor is going on well, everything is fine, let’s not slow down the pace.” He is looking for the next track in his digital library of hundreds of tracks, scrolling and scrolling that rotary knob, and he finds this — a track in the same key and even two BPM faster:

R3cycle, Roy Lebens — Babylon (Rise & Fall Remix) 124 BPM, Em

Obviously, the energy on the dancefloor went down; people going out. Lowering the energy during a set down is fine if you know why you are doing this. But if the DJ from the example above wanted to keep the driving vibe, then this is a failure.

Or here’s the opposite example. Suppose a DJ is playing such melodic progressive:

Tim Penner — Oceans Between (Original Mix) 125 BPM, Gm

He does not want to speed up the tempo, so he finds the track in the same key and even one BPM lower, and in addition also from the same record label:

Aaron Cullen, Tommy Conway — Glack (Original Mix) 124 BPM, Gm

Do you get it?

It is clear that the energy is partially correlated with the genre, and as a result — with the tempo. However the relationship of energy level and the tempo is not always that obvious, and it is not always predictably linear.

This is why relying simply on the tempo of the tracks and thus mechanically selecting the next track for mixing is clearly not worth it, and hence I organise my tracks by the energy levels instead.

So, now going back to the energy levels I use in my Rekordbox. In total, I make five levels:

★	Opening
★★	Build-up
★★★	Driving
★★★★	Peak-time
★★★★★	Banging

Experienced guys might have noticed that these names resemble a type or time slot of a DJ set: opening, warming, “peak-time” and so on. Indeed, speaking of the energy level, I immediately think about the scenarios for using a particular track. In other words, I ask myself: “At what point of the event would it be appropriate to play that particular track?”.

For example, I can easily put a driving track in the middle of a warming-up set if I realise that I need to cheer up the dance floor a bit, or vice versa – put a warming-up track in the middle of the night, if I decide to give the crowd a little rest.

energy level is how I feel the track

Update from February 2024

I’m now sharing my entire DJ collection and all of its 80+ live-updating playlists as one of the exclusive benefits for my Patreon subscribers. It’s a great material for learning and inspiration to see how I organise my playlists, a real behind-the-scenes peek into the mind of a DJ. If it sounds interesting to you and want to get access to it, consider joining me on Patreon (and have many more goodies besides this DJ collection). For more details, visit dsokolovskiy.com/patreon.

Inside the energy level playlist, I make four more sub-playlists nested according to what I call vibe and the flow:

Dark Hands-up

Dark Heads-down

Melodic Hands-up

Melodic Heads-down

And here the most interesting part begins.

The vibe

“Dark” and “melodic” are more or less intuitive terms, although the names are very nominal. This is the emotional ‘colour’, the mood of the track.

First, a couple of obvious examples. Here is the “melodic” — think of rainbow, butterflies, flower meadow:

Ivan Nikusev, Platunoff — Aura (Original Mix) 121 BPM, Cm

And here’s the “dark” — twilight, anxiety, hypnotism:

Don Argento, Paul Angelo — Final Sentiment (Alfonso Muchacho Remix) 122 BPM, Cm

Please note that these tracks even have the same key, but how different their mood is.

But there is also a less perceptible difference. This is especially true for Techno, where a pronounced musical part is not always present.

Listen to this:

Section One — Arcadia (Roby M Rage Remix) 132 BPM, Gm

Is it “dark” or “melodic”? Someone can say, “what are you talking about, there are just a kick, bass, and hi-hats, how can you understand anything?”. For me, the answer is clear: if while listening to the track I’m smiling like an idiot, then this is “melodic”.

Now listen to this track. I specifically chose a similar style and even the same artist to shift the focus of attention only to the vibe:

K-Hate, Roby M Rage — Floating (Original Mix) 130 BPM, Am

To me, this track is colder and more aggressive, hence clearly “dark”. And if you think there’s not much of a difference when listening at home, there is a huge difference on the dancefloor.

The flow

“Hands-up” and “heads-down” are pretty unique entities, and I didn’t see anyone using these terms for their music libraries.

To me, this is all about the structure of the tracks: build-ups, breakdowns, pitch-rising effects, big drops, climax etc. In other words, how the tracks flow.

If the track goes smoothly, and you can just dance and keep dancing without being distracted by the breaks and big drops every minute or so, then this is the “heads-down”. In a sense, we can say that the heads-down tracks are more monotonous. This is not very accurate, but sufficient for a general understanding.

What is Progressive

If there are constantly some breaks, new leads, intense breakdowns and all those big things where people literally put their hands up, literally, then it’s “hands-up”.

Below are a few examples:

Filterheadz — Synergy (Sisko Electrofanatik Remix) 128 BPM, Fm

Pay attention to the breakdown in the middle and drop at 1:30. This is “hands-up”.

Another example:

Proff — What It Feels Like (Original Mix) 127 BPM, Dm

You probably realised by now that this is “hands-up” too.

From the two examples above it may seem that the hands-up is always something melodic and cheesy. But for the vibe, we have another criterion, and here we are talking only about the structure. Just both of these tracks are “melodic hands-up.”

Here is another “hands-up”, but this time it’s “dark”:

Dylhen — The Upside Down (Extended Mix) 124 BPM, Fm

And now let’s take a listen to “heads-down”, for contrast:

Chris Sterio — Zen (Matter Remix) 121 BPM, Fm

Can you feel how much smoother this track is?

If it seems to you that heads-down is necessarily something slow and deep, here’s a driving Psytrance example:

Sonic Species — Smashing The Veil (Original Mix) 142 BPM, A#m

Note how this track just is going and going without interruption, you can close your eyes and just dance without the breakdowns.

Speaking of breakdowns, listen to this track:

Union Jack — Cactus (Jonno Brien Remix) 125 BPM, F#m

Here the breakdown is stretched for a minute and a half, but notice how smooth and even monotonous it is, again, if we compare it to breakdowns in the hands-up tracks.

Therefore, knowing the energy level, the vibe, and the flow of the track, I can fully control the direction of the set. And thanks to the playlists, I know exactly where the next track is. This classification of all the tracks and new arrivals in my media library is the main work on the preparation of my DJ sets.

Celebrating 100 articles in the advice series

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 15:33:11 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

What I’ve learned and what’s next

In August 2015 I launched the advice series to help aspiring producers and spread the knowledge. And last week I posted the 100th article in this series. Hundred articles on music production, sound design, DJing, industry insights, marketing, and career advice. This is huge.

I thought such a round number would be a nice moment to thank everyone who sent me the questions and contributed to the blog. So thank you guys, thanks for your curiosity and striving for knowledge which drives this series forward. You’re awesome! <3

And taking this opportunity I would also like to tell a bit of what I’ve learned for the past two years of writing this series and what comes next.

What I’ve learned

Good always wins
When I introduced the advice series, all sceptics were saying that people will steal the tricks and ideas I share, that I will look stupid by trying to teach other people whilst I’m still an uprising producer myself (“You know nothing, Jo... Lesden”) and more criticism. Well, I had no doubts that none of this would happen and I was right. I was amazed by how many people found this blog useful and genuinely shared their own techniques as well. I have a feeling that over time we’ll see more producers sharing their knowledge, too.
Knowing ≠ understanding
I realised that knowing things is not the same as understanding those things. When you explain things to other people, your mind processes it differently and you certainly learn something new even if you thought you knew it before. I can’t stress enough how much I’ve learned from this.
Content marketing works
This whole advice idea came out purely out of the altruistic initiative, I didn’t think about it as a marketing tool. But turned out, that many people — including industry professionals — have discovered my music because of this advice blog. A kind of side effect but in a good way. I certainly recommend other producers to start blogging, it helps people and increases the overall awareness about your name with no money investment needed, something that a classic advertisement can never do.
Writing consistently is tough, but boosts your skills
Back in 2015, I asked myself: can I possibly write a new article every week on a regular basis? Frankly, it was quite a challenge. I’m not a full-time writer nor a blogger, I’m a musician and DJ that writes about music and that’s a totally different thing. Writing a single article is tough, but writing a new piece of advice every week is quite a challenge indeed! Nevertheless, I have to admit that consistent writing helped me learn how to explain myself clearly and even become a tiny bit better in English.

What’s next

The advice series will continue to come out on Wednesday, but probably not every Wednesday. More like When-I-can-s-day.

I want to keep delivering thoughtful and well-made content that other producers hopefully find useful while experimenting with its frequency a bit — sometimes weekly, sometimes bi-monthly, sometimes less often.

I also have a few really cool projects on the way (won’t spoil it here), but sacrificing the quality of one project over another is the last thing I want to do. Quality > quantity, not the other way around.

As a consequence of this changing schedule, more questions will be stacked up in the queue. If you ever wanted to send me a question, I would suggest doing it today as from now on it will take a longer time to post a reply.

Learning music production for authentic results

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 21:39:40 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Some thoughts on how to learn using a reference track but not ending up like a someone’s clone

Stormtroopers from Star Wars Episode VII. Sometimes, browsing Beatport new releases causes the same feeling

Hey Daniel, a lot of forums, tutorials and courses out there recommend learning by using reference tracks, deconstructing arrangements and rebuilding sounds/presets.

This sounds fine in principle, but in practice, I can’t help wondering if this has also created a lot of similar sounding music on Beatport, across all genres.

It may take longer and be more challenging to not use any form of reference but do you think that ultimately, it will lead the producer (over months and years) to more authentic results?

If not, how do you recommend reference tracks/sounds/arrangements are used to enhance learning but not limit creativity?

Doron

That’s a great question, Doron. I’m in a camp with those who suggest learning and training your ears using a reference track indeed, and I do agree that stores are flooded with similar music with a lack of originality. But I don’t think that using a reference whilst learning is what caused this.

Train your ears using a reference track

You see, there is a difference between analyzing and trying to recreate certain sounds for educational purposes and deliberately copying someone’s else music. When you just start out, you seek answers for the questions that puzzle you: how is this bassline made? Is that a saw or a square wave? Does my lead sit well in the mix? And learning other producers’ music is a great way to answer them. Those who want to blindly copy others’ music will find a way, anyway.

When I started this blog, people often asked me something like “are you not afraid sharing your trade secrets so the others will steal your tricks?”, and I always said, “no, I don’t”.

For example, I shared the way I made the robotic texture and atmospheric effects used in my tracks. There is nothing really fancy about it, it’s all basic stuff for anyone with a decent experience, but for beginners, it might be a breakthrough. “Hm, so he made the texture using a simple noise oscillator and a filter... what if I’ll change it to a saw wave instead? And do this instead of that?” — that type of thinking I would advise you to have when you read a tutorial or when you use a reference track. Think of a general concept, a method that can be implemented in so many ways rather than using any given tutorial or reference as it is. This is how the learning curve goes.

I would also like to talk about two more things: the format and the content.

Let’s take newspapers as an example. Typically, there are some current events printed on low-grade paper, probably with some logo on the top and a big bold heading. You know it’s a newspaper just by looking at it. But I don’t think anyone accuses “The Guardian” of ripping off “The Time” or vice versa, or any other newspaper cloning each other. That’s because a newspaper is just a format of the production.

Now speaking about music, all those kicks, basses, mixdowns, etc. are just a format of some particular genre. Let’s say, you know it’s a Psytrance when you hear a certain tempo and beat patterns. But you shouldn’t solely focus on that alone, and I think this is where many producers fall off.

Beginners forget that the content is what people listen to music for, the same reason why they read the newspapers. And when I say content in terms of music, I’m don’t mean a fancy kick drum but rather a feeling, emotions that this track awakes in you; something that will make you want it to listen again and again. How to create interesting music content is another huge topic, and it’s a talk for another time.

Fellow producers out there, I’m keen to know what do you guys think about it? The comments box below is open for you.

“Should I post on every social media?”

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 21:23:07 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

As a music producer, should I post on every social media? Is it worth posting the same content on different social channels? Should I treat them differently? How frequently to post?

Mike L.

I used to think that as more social websites you use as better. Several years ago I would say “yes”, you need to be on Facebook, Twitter, Vk, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, Viber, YouTube, Vimeo, HearThis, ReverbNation, Google+... did I forget to mention anything?

Now, I’m saying this: you should be only on those social websites at which you are certain you can handle it at 100%. And by that, I mean constantly posting and working with the audience — not just once in three months when your new EP is out, but daily or at least weekly. Consistency is the key here.

Let’s say, could you post on Snapchat a few times a day, every day, without sacrificing your other duties? If the answer is “no”, you probably shouldn’t even start then. Remember that semi-alive public pages are even worse than their absence.

The importance of building a fan base

If you just started building your web presence in social media, I’d suggest starting off at least with Instagram and Facebook. The rest depends on your time, your audience demography, and your creativity.

If you still have any questions, feel free to drop a line in the comment box below.

To non-native speakers: learn English

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 15:16:05 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

If you are a non-native English speaker and you want to make a career as an international artist touring around the world, my ultimate advice is this: learn English.

Some people think “I’m a producer, let my music speak for itself”, but it’s not always true. Being understood by other people is crucial, it’s even much more important than having a nice kick in your track.

I’m Russian and I’m not hiding that English is not my native language. Heck, I know that my English is bad, I’m surely making a lot of mistakes, not to mention the accent. But once I’ve reached a certain level allowing me to understand English more or less, it boosted my learning curve in my music career tremendously.

Why you need it

When you can read and speak English, a whole new world of possibilities opens to you.

You can learn music production much more efficiently. According to researchers, roughly 53% of internet websites are in English. This means whether you’re searching for some tutorials, insights, blogs, discussions etc, most likely you’ll find it in English.

Languages used on the Internet. Wikipedia

You can read and understand contracts you sign up: with labels, publishers, agencies and so on. Most contracts are written in a “lawyer’s language” that only they themselves can understand, but still knowing the basics will potentially save you from some bad deals.

Label re-released a track without my consent

You can tour and travel easily. I know a guy who had a gig in the UK while he couldn’t say a simple even a few words in English. It was a pain to both sides, organizers included. Do you think they invited him again? No.

You can have reliable public and business communication. Whether you negotiate with a label, send a remix request, or just announce your next release on social media, it has to be a clear message. And I’m not talking about some misspellings but about the right meaning.

How to learn

First things first, rule number one: don’t rely on Google Translate. It’s fine to translate some particular word, but don’t trust it to translate the entire sentence — it can mess up the meaning and lead to some misunderstanding or even hurt someone.

“Google Translate error sees Spanish town advertise clitoris festival”. The Guardian

The obvious way of learning is... well, study in a college, or find some courses, or hire a teacher. But let’s assume you’re too busy or can’t afford it. Here is what you still can do:

Watch films and TV series, perhaps with subtitles. It’s not only great to hear the actual actors’ voices, but also important to listen to how English words sound in dialogues. I’d suggest starting off with American films, shows, or even cartoons — usually, for non-native speakers, it’s easier to understand American English rather than British.
Read blogs and magazines. Unlike classic literature written in an old-fashioned way, blogs and websites typically have simpler text that is easier to understand. Also, start following persons you like on social media, see what and how they write. I’d suggest reading John 00 Fleming notes on Facebook, it’s always a win-win combination of great professional insights with a nice Brit slang, I learn some new words from his blogs all the time.
Run a blog. Don’t worry about being imperfect and making mistakes, all of us do. It could a personal blog, a travel blog, a professional blog — whatever you’re up to. The point is to write something. Sooner or later you’ll get used to it and start seeing your own mistakes, which is always an indicator of growth. Read also: “9 reasons why should run a blog”.

Speaking of writings, I recommend checking out Grammarly, a web-service that checks grammar and spelling. Don’t rely on this too much as its algorithms aren’t perfect, but it’s a good way to finding some common mistakes that many non-native speakers do. It also explains why something is wrong, which is very helpful for studying.

Grammarly helps to eliminate typical mistakes

You’re welcome.

On cover image: a scene from “The Pink Panther” movie where Inspector Clouseau has tried to learn how to speak with an American accent. Some funny and awkward things happen if you aren’t able to speak clearly.

Template this

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:58:51 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

How templates can help to deal with routine

Please tell us about personal efficiency and how you deal with the routine.

Daniel

I used to think that being a music producer is all about creativity, and well, you know, music production. Later I realized that it’s not really is.

Music producer’s routine also includes dealing with record labels, agents, other artists, and press; doing marketing communication with the fans over social media, websites, emails, and newsletters; and much more. And it’s very easy to get lost and overwhelmed with it.

The situation gets even worse if you add a full-time job to this scenario, which many upcoming producers have besides the music. Doing all these producer’s routine seems impossible!

Re-energizing for music production after 9-6 work

It’s good to have a manager or some sort of personal assistance that would take some of those tasks off from your shoulders, but in reality, not every producer can afford to have one, or actually need it.

Artist manager

So, I’d like to share a few tips on how to save your precious time using templates.

Use templates for emails

As an A&R at JOOF, one of my responsibilities is listening to incoming demos, and I receive a few dozens of demos every day. Some tracks are great, some are not quite, some others are absolutely out of format, like a pop dance song with some vocal.

Most labels simply ignore the demos that didn’t fit, but I believe leaving a message with no reply isn’t really polite. So I do reply to every single demo, however, I would spend half a day if I’d actually write every email from scratch.

Here come the templates. I’ve written templates for all possible occasions, and all I need to do now is to simply copy and paste the right template. Takes 10 seconds, literally.

Here are two just to give you an idea:

“Here’s my Dubstep demo for your label”, a funny name for a template used when the demo is completely out of place

“Maybe next time”, a template for promising demos

I’m using Evernote to keep all my templates library, but obviously, there are plenty of other tools: Google Docs, Notes app, Trello, simple text files in a shared folder, you name it.

I also have templates for any other kind of emails, such: when a party promoter sends me booking request, or when a fan asks when I’ll be playing next, or when a DJ wants to make a guest mix for Rave Podcast.

And guess what happens if I don’t have a template for some specific request? Right, I make a new one!

Use design templates

Do you often use similar images, or making press releases, or sending a newsletter? Invest some time and money to create a good template once, and it will serve you for years.

I use templates for pretty much every kind of graphics I share on a regular basis: Rave Podcast covers, announcements, mockup templates for the website, and more. And it saves a lot of time.

Templates used for various graphics

Use project template

When I work in Ableton, I always put a limiter on a master channel just for the sake of precaution, especially when dealing with a filter resonance while sitting in the headphones.

I also realized that every track a guaranteed has a kick, a bassline, a set of standards drums like closed hi-hats, open-hats, snare drum, and crash cymbal. So I was thinking if I always have these layers and a limiter on the master channel, why not pre-made all these channels and save it as default? And in fact, I did.

Now when I create a new project, it looks like this:

A default project in Ableton

This default template doesn’t have any actual sounds or plugins, it just a structure of pre-made channels, labelled with proper colours and text tags, just the way I like it. It allows me to instantly dive into creativity and start making actual music as soon as I open a new project rather than do some boring organizational stuff.

Organizing music project

It saves time, too.

To save a default template in Ableton, go to Preferences (⌘,) → File/Folder tab → “Save Current Set as Default” → Save.

Bottom line

Templates are huge time-savers. Take notice of what you’re doing repeatedly, whether it’s replying to similar emails or posting the same kind of images in social media, and make template accordingly. This is when creativity comes in!

I hope your routine won’t be the same frustrating as before.

On cover image: if I’d had my templates library existing in the real world, it would look like this. A frame of Jedi Archives taken from “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” (2002).

Getting started with Ableton Live

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 12:57:21 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

What does “feat.”, “vs.” and “pres.” mean

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 11:18:41 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Hi Daniel, I have a question from the listener’s perspective. What’s the difference between “versus, &, feat” and other weird things in the track’s name? I mean, if I listening to something like “A vs. B & C feat. D (E Remix)”, and I would like to find similar tracks, which artist should I look into — A, B, C, D, or E?

To give a sense of context, here is what I’m talking about: Liquid Soul vs Zyce ft Solar Kid – We Come In Peace (Talpa Remix). I hope my questions is not too awkward for your blog :)

Laura

No worries Laura, there is nothing to be ashamed of, I’m sure many listeners around have the same question. Let’s clarify those things:

&	“And” is a collaboration between two or more artists with equal rights and contributions, i.e. they are co-producers. In other words, these artists made it together.
Vs.	Pretty much the same as above, except that versus also might be used for some sort of DJ battles where one DJ competes against another one.
Feat.	“Feat.” stands for featuring, and usually, it means a short or guest appearance. A most common example would be a vocalist.
Pres.	Often used when artists present their new alias to the public, usually less known. For example, Sander van Doorn pres. Purple Haze – “Bliksem”, where both of these are projects of Sander.
Rmx	A “remix” is a track altered by another artist, hence the name. That artist is called a remixer.
ID	Sometimes you may see “ID” instead of a track title in DJs’ tracklistings. If you are curious about what it means and what it happens, I recommend reading detailed Max Graham’s explanation.

Now to the second part of your question.

If you like “Liquid Soul & Zyce ft. Solar Kid – We Come In Peace (Talpa Remix)”, then I’d suggest checking out more of Talpa. In general, the remixer defines the mood of the track, so it’s Talpa in this case.

I hope it makes things easier.

Train your ears

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 13:37:18 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Using a reference track

Hey Daniel! I have recently started producing and I know it is a long-distant race, but I have come to a point where I am struggling. Let’s say I produce a track and it sounds good to me, or should I rather say my ears are used to those particular sounds. After sending track sample to few of my more experienced friends to get some feedback I hear always the same answers like bassline is too quiet, a kick is not loud enough or some sounds are conflicting with each other.

I know it takes time and practice to learn, but how or when do I know that it sounds good? Would be great if I could eliminate these mistakes right in the beginning of a producer journey.

Zoltan Zolike

Zoltan, I can assure you that every producer has experienced this. It’s good you ask questions, it means you learning.

All those things like “bassline is too quiet, a kick is not loud enough” called mixdown, or mixing — I won’t go deeper on this, just want you to know this term.

Studio equipment and room acoustics are one of the most important things when it comes to mixing as you have to hear all sounds and balance it out very precisely. For this reason, we see plenty of mixing and mastering services around — those are experienced guys who put their efforts to get the proper gear, so you can just send them raw material, pay some fee, and get back professionally mixed track. But let’s assume you can’t afford to buy an expensive equipment or change acoustics in your room, and you don’t want to use 3rd party services because you’d like to learn how to do it yourself.

The main thing you have to know about mixdown is that it’s very relative and subjective due to genre-specific sub-standards.

For example, a too quiet bassline isn’t bad generally speaking, but we may think it’s bad because it doesn’t match to other similar tracks, i.e. sub-standard. And those standards vary from one genre to another: let’s say, in Psytrance, the kick is usually louder than in House music.

Now answering your question “how or when do I know that it sounds good”, I advise using a reference track. And by that, I mean literally put some reference track on a new Audio channel in your DAW, and toggle mute/solo buttons to check how your track sounds in comparing to that one. Like this:

It could be any track you like, some etalon sound that you’d like to achieve.

The goal of this method is to train your ears, so you could determine the sound balance in those particular circumstances (your equipment and room acoustics) at which you working on. After some practice using references, you should be able to balance your tracks nicely even without it.

Let me know if this will help.

5 tips on how to finish tracks

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:45:20 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

When you get stuck and about to give up

I keep getting stuck in drafts and can’t finish tracks. I make some basic arrangements, then I do some tweaks over and over again, but it seems I physically can’t finish tracks, you know? Then I start a new project, and it happens again, I get stuck and eventually give up on the track completely. Do you have some tips on how to finish tracks?

Simon Stone

Simon, I’m sure every music producer out there feels your pain! Indeed, getting stuck on unfinished tracks is probably one of the most common issues, I see people write about it all the time. Luckily, I know a few tips that might help.

Aim for results

First of all, ask yourself: do you really set your goal to finish the track? I know some producers who enjoy the process more than the results, they can tweak synthesizers for hours and days! And that’s totally fine, as long as you enjoy it and do not worry too much if this work will ever be released or not. However, if you’re not happy with this, then stop playing around with the synths, presets, samples, and stuff. Change your mindset, and aim for the results.

Embrace the limits

Can you draw a picture? The good answer should be the question “what picture?”, but what if I tell you to draw just some picture, with no more details — could you? I bet not. The same happens with music production. Having no limitations, you can create anything, but most likely, it turns into nothing. It’s like if you would sit with a blank paper trying to write a novel, having no ideas behind it. You should create a context of what and where will be happening.

Now let’s say you’d like to make a 138 BPM track, with no triples or swings, just a straight driving bassline, with a key bass note at D#m, with long progressions and not many breakdowns, with a strong lead what will be revealed in the main breakdown, with mysterious female vocal samples, and heavy atmospheric pads. Now we have a more specific talk, right? Such boundaries don’t limit your creativity but help and guide you through the process to the final result.

Looking at the description above, these are exactly the limits I’ve set myself when I made “Enuma Elish”:

Get inspired

One more reason why you probably get stuck is that you get bored. It especially can be true if you go the same route repeatedly, copy-pasting presets from one project to another. Don’t forget why you write music in the first place, you should be very excited about every project you are working on.

How to build up a track

I realized that the tracks of mine that I like the most were made in one breath when you are completely immersed in it. Try to get inspired by whatever inspires you to feel that excitement again.

Keep it simple, do it quickly

Try to make it as simple as possible: get an idea → write it down → arrange a track → finalize the project. Stop thinking «maybe I should change or add something else?», and don’t “marinate” your ideas for months, just let them go. Don’t overthink, write music quickly. Remember, one finished track is worth more than a hundred drafts because you gain experience and growth.

Less is more

How to find time for music

Daniel Sokolovskiy — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 12:24:10 +0500

Daniel Sokolovskiy:

Having a full-time job, study, and family

Daniel, please advise. I study, have a full-time job, and have family duties. At the same time, I’m a beginner producer, I love music and would like to make a career as a DJ and producer. The problem seems I don’t have enough time for music, I can’t just sit all weekend long locked in the studio to write new tracks. How to find time for music when it’s not what you do for a living?

John Y.

I understand your pain very well. In fact, we are in the same boat: I have a bunch of non-musical projects, family, and other activities too. No surprise, I guess most people have the same. There are a few myths around this topic that I’d like to dispel, and a method that works for me which I’d like to share.

The truth is you will never have more “free time” than you have now. Let’s say, today you have a job, tomorrow you’ll decide to start learning a foreign language, and on the day after tomorrow, you have a family event. This is called a routine, and eventually, it will not be less. Even if you succeed in a music career, most likely you will be busy traveling and playing on gigs. Don’t expect to have more free time in the future, it’s a myth.

Another myth says that you have to spend all day long to make a track. What you really need is to do it regularly, small but frequent steps that will move your progress forward. Imagine training in a gym, you don’t get benefits by doing exercises eight hours in a row, right? In order to build muscle, you have to keep training on a regular basis.

So when it comes to music production, I came up with the method which I call:

2+2 is better than 4

To give an example, rather than trying to find a fully free weekend on your schedule (which is nearly impossible), split your production into a few smaller sessions. In this case, two days for 2 hours each is better than one 4-four long session, hence the name.

Less is more

In fact, even 30-minutes sessions can give you huge progress, if you do it several times per week. Half an hour is the time that every busy person can afford, so excuses are not accepted :-) Also, frequent sessions help to keep connected with the idea of the track, you know exactly what you have done last time, and what you should do next. As a result, small but frequent sessions help to finish tracks easier.

Be a doer, not a dreamer.