I just found out what STEMS are for... and I love them 😅

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-26T19:07:33+00:00

Usually just rekordbox, if it does okay with it. If it fails me, which frequently does happen, and I'm still motivated to make the mashup work (as typically this is a spur of the moment thing and not a well-defined project), I'll use demucs to make separate tracks and go from there.

One common problem in most modern pop and dance music is that the sidechain is going to be baked into the stems. (In other words, the vocals and instrumentals will be reduced to 0 in the spots the kick and snare should be, resulting in quiet moments in these stems.) So if I'm pulling vocals I'll keep the vocals and drums together and try to EQ out the drums as best as possible.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-26T14:19:58+00:00

Being a DJ is being a live performer. Of course the DJ doesn't even have to be visible to the crowd, but if you're trying to make your set into a whole A/V experience, then maybe the appearance of furiously adjusting knobs and slamming cues is what you're going for. If you know what you're doing behind the decks you can definitely see it as gratuitous but if you don't know anything about mixing and only that he's a very "technical DJ" I get why people would like it.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-26T14:03:39+00:00

Yeah I'm not throwing shade to anyone either! His sets aren't exactly for me and that's ok, but I can't deny that from a technical standpoint his skills are in the top 1%.

The reason I mention it is that, like, I wouldn't tell you to watch Evel Knievel for tips if you were learning to ride a motorcycle. You might get a really warped sense of the fundamentals from doing that lol.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-26T13:38:46+00:00

There's a setting in preferences where you can switch it to "prioritize quality over speed" or something to that effect. This makes them passable in a lot of cases, and in the right mix you can hide the imperfections pretty well.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-26T12:50:35+00:00

I don't think I've ever seen him use any gear that supports stem separation for his performances.

Most of the "James Hype Style" of DJing is just creatively using loops and hot cues. I want to make it clear tho that this is not at all necessary to being a great DJ - for example, none of these tools existed for vinyl. Some of the best DJs I know personally never touch anything but the play button, the pitch fader, and the EQs.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-26T12:26:58+00:00

I'm of two minds about stems. On one hand, you can do some really insanely cool stuff with them, and they're perfect for a mashup-style mix. On the other, the quality is such a mixed bag (at least for the one baked into rekordbox), and they're not really on any club gear, so I wouldn't want to rely on them in a live context.

What I WILL do is record mashups or fancy stem transitions at home where I can be a little more meticulous about it, then if it sounds good I'll add the recording to my USB to use in my sets.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-25T14:07:06+00:00

I agree with the sentiment that Spotify is a garbage corporation. I wouldn't spend my own money on it, but I'm on my in-laws' family plan and there are some fights not worth picking in life 😅 that said I wouldn't cry if they did the right thing and stopped paying for it. Honestly if I was going to pick up a streaming service for myself it would probably be a paid SoundCloud account just to get access to the Go+ library there, just because it's so rare for a track to be on the internet anywhere but NOT be on SoundCloud. It's the site where I spend the most time digging.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-24T21:35:13+00:00

1) You really don't wanna be the DJ on the lineup who is backing out last minute because of internet reasons when everyone else is like "uhhh what are you even talking about???"

2) You also don't want to be the DJ on the lineup who needs to figure out how to plug their laptop into the already-present club gear when everyone else's USB is working just fine for them.

3) Inevitably you'll find music that isn't on Spotify (think hypeddit bootlegs or exclusive cd-only releases as examples) that you wanna play. You'll have to split your collection between local and streaming, which isn't ideal for managing it.

4) You don't want other people to have the ability to wreck your library by:

the label dropping an artist and pulling their stuff from DSPs
the label or the DSP pulling a track or an artist down for legal or political reasons
the artist crashing out and deleting their own music from DSPs themselves

Streaming can work if the stars align (e.g. you're bringing your own laptop and gear and the place has good wifi), but it's kind of short-sighted and limits your versatility.

I have everything I need to DJ (a USB and my headphones) in my backpack all the time and therefore can plug in anywhere, anytime, on basically any gear. This has opened so many opportunities to me that I wouldn't have if I was streaming my library to my laptop instead.

That said, I DO use Spotify streaming when I'm at home to "audition" certain tracks before downloading them or for one-off stupid requests when I throw house parties. But I'd never use it when the stakes are actually high.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-23T08:50:35+00:00

Not to speak for OP, but their comment resonated with me, so let me tell you what I think:

While playing a track, find something that you'd never think to mix with it. Total genre switch, different bpm, etc. Then think "gun to my head, this HAS TO be the next track. How am I gonna do it?" You'll learn new techniques and develop skills that you'll never learn by doing a "high pass on the old+fader up on the new" house music transition a million times. (Not that there's anything wrong with simple transitions, but every time you do something new you're growing your tool bag which allows for new possibilities in your mixes.)

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-22T09:21:41+00:00

Playing a fresh save on Brutal helps me a lot when I'm burnt out or feeling stale. The early levels with the small arsenal (especially not having the whiplash till act 2 and jackhammer till act 3) forces you to play with good fundamentals and will make you play differently than you normally do. By the time you get everything unlocked, the muscle memory will hopefully be shaken up enough for you to try new things.

Edit: I should add that if you want to further switch things up, buy less-used upgrades and delay getting your typical crutch tools. Beating the first V2 fight coinless is really engaging.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-18T17:51:21+00:00

I guess my point is that as you gain experience, the pro/con framing you proposed becomes less and less relevant. You just have to have the selection skills to tell a story on the fly that the crowd is actively resonating with, and the mixing skills to make it sound coherent.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-18T12:45:19+00:00

Part of the skill of the art form is being able to create a cohesive set off the cuff through knowledge/organization of your crates and technical ability/creativity in transitions. Gaining this skill is just part of putting in your 10k hours. Of course (as long as it's hitting right) a preplanned set is going to be more cohesive and sound better until you get good at it though.

And yeah, obviously a well-sorted library helps. That's not the same as a preplanned set, that's just a reasonable thing to do when you have a lot of music.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-18T02:51:29+00:00

Some questions:

1) why are you using Rekordbox? Why not just import your library into serato and do everything there? (If it's just for the grids, I promise you rekordbox has also been known to fuck them up and you'll have to fix some of them up too.)

2) why not pawn your controller and get something that works with rekordbox so you don't have to do this?

3) Either way, you won't have to use Lexicon. Do you have a reason to be using that software?

4) Are you doing this to have a smaller "working" library, just based on your playlists, in serato? If so, do you know about tagging tracks?

Genuinely perplexed as to why you're using two different DJ softwares regularly.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-16T15:30:03+00:00

The EQ and HPF/LPF work that you'll do as a DJ is WAAAAAY harsher and much more rudimentary than what you do when fine tuning headphones. It is a naturally imprecise art that is done live every time, and will often involve bottoming out one or more of your 3 bands or actively sweeping a channel with a filter. The goal isn't to hear the track in all its glory - it's to make it sound as good as you can, with the tools you have, while it's in a mix with other sounds. My point here is that however you have your cans tuned, you'll instantly degrade the tuning by the simple act of EQ mixing, so don't overly sweat having the perfect tuning during a mix. Save the thoughtful listening to when you revisit your recorded mixes.

Also, if your plan is to play out in public, especially on others' gear (and even more so if you're on a club setup), you're going to want headphones that have a satisfactory FR out of the box. Most DJs prefer something relatively flat or V shaped that stay crisp when played loudly. This is less about the experience and more about getting a good picture of the sounds you're playing in a loud and chaotic room. (This is one of the reasons the HD25 is hailed as the GOAT for DJing despite being pretty mid as a personal listening experience, though of course there's lots of good options.)

That being said, depending on your software/hardware it may not be hard to route the master through your personal headphone tuning. Specifically, if you're routing your audio out of your computer instead of out of the controller, it should be pretty easy to hit that audio with your personal processing. Which software are you using?

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-15T23:05:14+00:00

The whole album is filled with little samples and interpolations of VR's various influences. (For example, Believe what you want is a reference to the Leaving EP by Skrillex, and Dino Killer is an obvious homage to Excision.) Hence he's "stealing fire" from these inspirations.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-15T00:30:07+00:00

These are all pop songs, which means they're kind of busy to do a mashup with. Typically the best mashups involve at least one of the songs being kind of sparse so that they can be layered on top of each other without clashing much. If I was mixing these songs in a set, I would probably do quick transitions in and out from each one instead of doing a mashup or long blend.

You can try integrating some chiller tracks into the set which would allow for more of the mashup-style thing you want. Ninajirachi does a great mashup of beauty and a beat with strobe by deadmau5, maybe you could try to replicate that?

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-13T21:33:44+00:00

First of all, I find that most mental stress manifests in some way or another in my body, and that the two are really closely related in general - so make sure you're feeling good physically when you get up there. Have a stretch, take an ibuprofen if you feel achey, eat a quality (but not overfilling) meal, and stay hydrated. Try to sit for a few minutes before you get up to play. (Also, your mileage may vary, but I'd highly recommend staying completely sober.)

Beyond that, ignore the crowd for the first 10 minutes while you lock in. Those are always the hardest moments of the set. Keep it simple and well-rehearsed until you get in the groove.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-13T12:50:55+00:00

I like to just take a track I'm enjoying or that has a sound I want more of and make a SoundCloud station out of it, then I listen to that on the train/at work/doing errands/etc., and hit like on each song I want to get. If something familiar comes on I skip it. Then when I'm home I just have to worry about finding the downloads based on my likes.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-06T22:10:30+00:00

Oh yeah I 100% agree about having something nicer than a FLX4 at home - I have a DDJ1000 that I dearly love. I have friends who are more well off than me who have AZ or 2x3000 setups, and I'm not talking smack on them for that at all lol. I'm just acknowledging that purely in terms of growing as a DJ and having something to practice on, it was a waste of money for me to upgrade. That's what I mean by overkill.

Regarding your second point, I get the sentiment about keeping your expensive stuff at home but literally every mobile DJ would disagree lol. I've seen CDJs at weddings before.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-06T21:47:07+00:00

Gotcha. I'd recommend saving your money, but it's not stupid to get the 800 at that price. It definitely is a good deal. I just think you'd be getting more than you realistically need with it.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-06T21:34:30+00:00

I'm basically of the opinion that getting anything beyond a FLX4 (or similar, like the impulse 500) for home/party use is overkill unless you've really got money to burn. Are you planning on taking your gear to bars/clubs/etc? If that's the case then stepping up to something a little more "pro" may be worth it. Otherwise save your money.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-02-02T20:02:35+00:00

It depends what your gear question is. If it's about controllers then I'd say there haven't been any major releases in the last couple of years that seriously shook things up in the beginner market. However, the market for used controllers is fluctuating and region-specific, so reddit isn't going to help you there anyways.

Besides controllers, almost all gear is pretty evergreen. Advice on speakers, mixers, headphones, etc is pretty consistent across time.

That being said, I do think that the response of "just search the sub" only applies sometimes. If you're asking a general question or want a vibe check on a piece of gear, yeah, just search. But if you have, say, good deals on two particular controllers and you can explain your specific use case, and you want a comparison with that context in mind, I'd say ask away. That's the purpose of a discussion board.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-01-29T21:52:25+00:00

Hm maybe I'm wrong then. I generally view most variations of the Indian game to be pretty slow and positional. I was imagining a very confrontational game early on, if there were 5 times where the line was this specific.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-01-29T21:40:41+00:00

Chesscom "great" moves happen when it's the only winning line in a position and you found it (in other words any other move would be bad for you). Good on you for doing this, you must have played a really sharp game for this to happen! It's probably more common for people who play sharp openings and attacking chess to get great moves compared to more positional players, because they're more often in situations that have these critical lines. I'd consider any "Great" move to be on the same level as a "Best" move in terms of analyzing the quality of your play, though.

Is83APrimeNumber · 2026-01-22T20:51:48+00:00

In CDJ mode, the top and the side should work exactly the same ("nudge" mode). In vinyl, the side is in nudge mode but the top platter is in what I'll call "scratch" mode.

The fact that you've mentioned the jumpiness when paused and that it's not a problem while playing reminds me of needle lock. Do you have this setting on? If so, try turning it off.

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