Ilya, to answer these questions, first of all, you need to understand the types of events and tasks of DJs clearly. You would also need to consider the specific behaviour of people depending on the musical genre, psychology, geography, location, age of the audience and a dozen other factors.

In addition, “reading the dance floor” is based mainly on hypotheses: if you do action “A”, then people are expected to respond with the consequence of “B”. With experience, you begin to notice such actions and effects, but even with all the arsenal of skills and tools, it’s still educated guesses.

So I will tell you only a few typical scenarios in clubs and general principles of energy control in them.

Teasing

Let’s say a DJ opens the event. Let’s say it’s a proper DJ who knows that it’s better to play something deep relative to the peak time of the event in his opening set.

About warm-up DJs

A frequent mistake of a beginner in this scenario: the whole set playing at the same energy level. That is generally okay, but such DJ sets can seem boring, and people will remain standing along the walls, as in a school disco.

The whole set at one energy level can seem boring

I prefer when a DJ can raise and then return energy in time. That’s what I call “teasing.” This way, a warming-up DJ says, “Guys, it’s coming!” but not going further, just giving a hint.

A warming-up DJ kind of says, “Guys, it’s coming!” but not going further, just giving a hint

I would advise you to mix the current energy level with the higher energy level at about 5:1, i.e. to put one more intensive track every five regular ones. Of course, this is not the “golden rule”; these numbers are here to illustrate the idea.

The teaser kind of hints that there will be something more banging tonight

Now, on how to understand at what point to increase energy. An indirect sign of this is when people moved from nodding their heads at the bar to a shy stomping leg on the dance floor. And also when the girls came out on the dance floor. I will probably be accused of sexism, but it is true: a group of even a few dancing girls is likelier to involve the guys standing aside than the opposite!

Contrast

Now let’s assume the DJ is playing in the middle of the night. If you’re a headliner and you know that most people are here to hear you, it’s very tempting to “go full blast” or to play the whole set as intensely as possible. And some people build up their energy throughout the DJs set, so it goes something like this:

A set with constantly increasing energy might seem boring

That in itself is not a bad thing. It may be appropriate in some music genres with a particular audience; if the artist’s name is big enough, people likely will listen to the end. But in my experience, you shouldn’t.

Such a set can seem too intense and, consequently, too monotonous. It’s like a manic car chase scene in a blockbuster movie. It’s usually nice because of its intensity, but imagine that intensity during the whole duration of a film; you’ll probably get bored in half an hour.

I advise you to build up your sets in the middle of the night not linearly, but in a kind of sinusoid, like a “serpentine” way:

Serpentine-shape helps to evenly distribute resources and guide people’s attention on the dance floor

How to understand at what moment to lower the energy: if you play the most potent hit tracks, and the people react weakly or move to the bar at all.

The contrast is the key here. The differences in energy levels create contrast, an incredible tool for holding the listener’s attention. You can create contrast not only by energy differences but also by alternating mood and structure) of the tracks.

Energy changes create contrast, and it’s an incredible tool for holding the listener’s attention

According to my observations, phrases like “that DJ held the dance floor for two hours!” usually refer to this kind of DJ set.

Roman, now to answer your question: you don’t have to see the whole dance floor to direct its energy. Usually, I keep my eyes on small groups of people throughout the night. Depending on the size of the venue, the light intensity and the number of people, I try to keep five or ten groups in my head – usually enough to understand what’s happening on the dance floor.

For example, some trio actively danced in front of the stage for the first half hour and then moved to the bar. “Did they go for water, or did that track not work for them? Where did that guy with the glasses go?” – These are all small but significant signs I try to pay attention to.

That said, you’re right to point out that the audience in the DJ’s line of sight changes periodically. I call it rotation.

Rotation is when some people leave the dancefloor (to the bar, toilet, or another part of the club), and others come in their place. A slight rotation is a good sign because more people are actively involved in this way. It’s much worse when some group is standing at the bar and stays there – probably, the DJ still needs to get their attention. So when I’m in the DJ booth, I look at the people standing behind or on the sides of the dancefloor as well.

Perhaps there are extreme cases when the DJ can not see people at all, but in my practice, this has yet to happen, so I can not comment on this situation.

There are about a thousand people on the dance floor, but by focusing on small groups or even individuals, I understand how to build energy further. Izvestia Hall, 2018-2019

Finally, I would say that “reading the dance floor” – the ability to put the right track at the right time – is the most challenging part of the DJ craft.

Bonus video

In 2018, John Fleming gave a fantastic video interview to the Digital DJ Tips channel, in which he talked about how he prepares for his sets open-to-close. It’s a great video with lots of insights – watch the whole thing:

In 2020, John 00 Fleming gave an interview with the Finish More Music YouTube channel, and I wrote out some interesting parts from it.

On stepping away from genres

What I’ve learned recently is to step away from genres because if you get tied up in a genre, there’s a thing that you had to be part of it. Stepping away from any genre gives you more freedom and it allows you to venture into different [musical] worlds and not being tarnished from the Internet people, like I was associated with Trance, for example. They expect me to play Trance but where Trance was originally in the underground world it’s very mainstream now and then you just letting Trance people down because I think I’m playing Trance and they call it something else. It just adds these layers and layers of confusion. So step away from it, people accept it plus they’re discovering new music by accident, so it opens you up to more audiences.

On renaming Global Trance Grooves to JOOF Radio

My old show was called Global Trance Grooves, I think it was 17 years old when I let it go. I should’ve let it go years before but I wanted to get Edition 200, it was so special to me. And it was like this switch from when the name change, the next month we saw the plays fly up, we saw it on DI.FM, on Soundcloud, Insomniac Radio came in straight away and took it on board which is a really big deal.

Go and ask 16-year old kids, what is Trance to them. Even if you click through the Beatport 100 top-selling Trance tracks, that’s their introduction to Trance music and it’s predominately very powerful, uplifting, vocal, big arpeggiators, 138 BPM and it’s that sound, whereas I remember and you probably remember Trance for something completely different years ago. So by letting go off that, this is a generational shift, the sound evolved to what this sound is now, a big euphoric main room festival sound. Whereas Progressive House for example reminds me what Trance used to be, the Progressive Trance great days, Hooj Choons, Platipus, that stuff. So having the word ‘Trance’ was confusing. The old generation got it, singing appraisers for me ‘Yay John’s hanging onto that true spirit’, but the next generation would confuse, so I was losing the next generation. They’d see the word ‘Trance’ in a radio show and not even click through it just presuming it’ll be that vocal epic kind of sound. So just that simple realignment, getting rid of that genre tag, it just opened the doors.

On energy levels

Some of the DJs just want to start off with an impact, but if the energy is up here an hour or half an hour in, where do you go from there? You’re already there, so then it seems to go flat. If you’ve just been punch-punch-punch for an hour, that impact of that high energy does wear off. That’s why to me it’s like a journey, like watching a movie: if there’s a massive manic car chase scene with gunshots and everything going for an hour, you just lose interest in the film. It has to be broken up, so when the chase comes you’re like ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting that!’, so you’ve impacted with the energy again.

There is a lot more on the studio sessions and music industry, so definitely watch the whole interview.

Read also Q&A with John 00 Fleming and Tim Penner.

I usually try and recommend playing tracks more or less close to their original tempo, not to speed up or slow down the tempo by 20 beats per minute, as some DJs do.

But Dax J is the only one who does such extreme tempo changes in an awesome way! Check out how he played the track in Boiler Room and how the same track originally sounds.

Dax is great, there’s a lot to learn.

EDM Identity’s Editor in Chief, Grant Gilmore, crafted an insightful article highlighting my artistic profile. Take a look at his thoughts below and make sure to check out the exclusive mix I’ve prepared for their platform. I hope you enjoy it!

Craving a deep, progressive soundscape to explore? Russian DJ and producer Daniel Lesden delivers just that with this exclusive fall mix.

Those who have fallen deeply in love with the sounds of progressive house, trance, and techno know how easy it is to blur the lines between these genres to create magical sonic experiences. This concept has been put on display by countless artists in the community, but one who has continually shown mastery is multi-faceted Russian artist Daniel Lesden.

Daniel Lesden has done seemingly everything under the sun since breaking onto the scene over a decade ago. His releases have found a home on renowned imprints ranging from Pharmacy Music and Digital Om to Perfecto Records and Forescape Digital, but his biggest home has been on JOOF Recordings. Not only has he delivered a plethora of innovative tracks on the John 00 Fleming-led label but deepened his roots even further as their A&R Manager and continually helps the scene grow with his educational courses and advice series that cover a wide range of topics in the scene.

Where Daniel Lesden really thrives beyond his production skills are the curation abilities that he puts on display in a number of different ways. His creativity is seen in full force when he jumps behind the decks at nightclubs and festivals, where he reads the crowd’s energy to build each set and take them on a dynamic journey. Additionally, over the past decade, he’s hosted a monthly radio show called Rave Podcast that gives his fans around the world the ability to tune in and explore new sounds.

With the fall months in full swing and the sound of progressive dominating the airwaves, Daniel Lesden is showing off his curation abilities by spinning up a mix for the EDMID Fall Frequencies series. This 30-minute ride is filled to the brim with stunning tracks from the minds of Fuenka, Alan Fitzpatrick, Matt Lange, and Rick Pier O’Neil, among others – and he even included an ID that we can only hope will see receive a full release soon.

Link to the original post
Words — Grant Gilmore

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.

A career as a producer seems very attractive: you release a track → it hits the Beatport charts and big playlists on Spotify → that’s it, you’re a superstar. At least the combination of the non-transparent nature of the music industry and the social media exposure of other artists’ success can create exactly that kind of expectation.

But what does releasing music really do? How much income can be earned from a track on a large curated playlist? What should one expect, including financially, when signing a release on a label?

All of this I’m talking about in a new video 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.

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:

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