To All Laptop DJ's Stop Looking at the Screen and Pay More Attention to the Crowd!

0:00 I honestly think this video should cause a bit of a stir

Right, ladies and gentlemen, I honestly think this video should cause a bit of a stir. And please watch till the end, not because I want you to, but I'd like you to watch the entire video and then comment because it does potentially involve you. Number one, if you're a DJ, which is more than likely because you're watching this video. But number two, if you're a DJ that uses any kind of software, and let's be honest with you, that's the greater percentage of DJs now. If we go back 30 years, then probably no one did. Put in a comment if you can when we had the first DJ software program. I'd really be interested to find that out. I'm sure you could Google it anyway. In fact, someone's probably Googling it right now. But when it was vinyl, that was it.

Yeah. Nowadays, a lot of DJs using software. Now, really, the premise of this video is there is a new era of DJing happening. Now, let's go back to when it was just vinyl. I mean, you know, to make it easy, let's go back to the 70s. Okay, when probably a lot of you weren't even born. But I mean, I sort of started DJing in the 70s, but not really professionally. It was messing around. But, you know, people hadn't even, most people hadn't even heard of a computer, let alone a laptop that didn't even exist. If someone mentioned about a laptop, it'd be like, what are you on about? But just picture this. This is what this whole video is about. And I really do want your input. So a DJ would turn up to an event with a double console,

2:17 Crowd, use the microphone, turn around

Or if they were very lucky, a set of two, you know, separate turntables. Quite often, they were Garrard. The Technics SL-1200 Mark II didn't really come into fruition, and everyone didn't really use it until sort of the late 70s, early 80s. That's when people could afford them because they were really expensive. But what you had was a DJ who would mostly play seven inch singles. 12 inch singles didn't come in till the mid 70s. And of course, LPs, that was it on dodgy, bouncy belt drive. Turntables. Now, the DJ, this is where it gets interesting in this video, the DJ would put a piece of vinyl on, look at the crowd, use the microphone, turn around, grab another piece of vinyl, put it on, wait till that one finished, start that one and so on. That was it. Now then,

Here's the key. Nowadays, what do DJs do? Think about this, and it might make you smile, while you're watching this video. A DJ will drag a file, put it on that side of the screen, press play on their controller and away they go. Now what's the DJ going to do then? Most DJs, especially probably you as well, if you are a DJ that uses software, you will look at the software, drag another track, and now you're looking at the wave format. You're looking at the screen. You're looking at the track, you're looking at the waveform, you're looking at the rhythm, you're not concentrating on the crowd. Now this video is all about what's happened. Why aren't people, DJs concentrating on the crowd? Most DJs now will concentrate on the screen.

You're looking at the screen. The screen isn't going to go away, the laptop isn't going to disappear, the music isn't going to change, it's still there. And I relate to back to the 70s when we didn't have screens. You know, you didn't have DJs all of a sudden put a seven inch single on and go, I can't do anything because I haven't got a screen to look at. Screens weren't even invented then. Yet the DJ was still able to form a good mix, a good set, and please the crowd. And I honestly think now a lot of DJs are losing the soul and losing that connection with the crowd because your connection is now... mostly with the laptop and not with the crowd. I hope this makes sense. Now what blows my mind, and it really annoys me,

5:24 Chorus verse, verse chorus, pure logic

And maybe this could change the way you DJ as well if you do indeed like me most of the time use a software program. I use Virtual DJ most of the time by the way. I have my laptop to the side. Any of my gig logs or you know any of my posts on Facebook or pictures, you will see my laptop on my left hand side. That's because I need a clear avenue of sight in front of me for the people for the public for the important people, not a screen, because most DJs have got this wall in front of them and it's wrong. You shouldn't have it there. You're gonna be looking... at your laptop you want it to the side because it's it's it's immaterial it shouldn't have to you shouldn't have to be using it all the time you see if you think about this is pure logic now

This is just pure logic you put a track on on say your left side the first track of the night you press play and that's it it's playing that's it you know it's not going to go away you search or on a lot of controllers you search down here you find another track you put it on the right hand side now that's it now it's ready there's no need for you to look at the screen because by definition if you know your tracks you should know when it's going to finish and even so on the lat on the controller there's a countdown timer on the controller or most of them yet still people will look at the screen now again if you're familiar with a seven inch an edit an extended version the edit the the shorter version that they play for mostly on radio

It's about three and a half minutes long so by definition you should get into the zone of understanding chorus verse chorus verse instrumental break chorus verse chorus verse and finish so you should automatically know when it's going to be played and when it's going to be finished anyway not look at the screen go it's nearly finished nearly nearly press play no you should know it anyway extended version four minutes up to seven or eight minutes so you should know that as well now what i'm trying to bang on about in this video is try and get away from concentrating on that square screen in front of you it's not important it isn't what's important

Front of you the people get back that connection with the crowd take away a lot of your energy looking at the screen and look at the crowd because like i said 30 40 years ago we didn't have that and i'm pretty sure djs back then including myself we had more connection with the crowd because we didn't have this thing in between us and the crowd taking a lot of our thoughts concentration and energy what do you think thank you for watching practice and enjoy

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.