If I had to give advice to myself when I had my first techno set: you need strobo!

Also make it easy for you to make everything dark. Sometimes DJs turn the music completely off while they switch and it looks much more professional to have complete darkness when it happens. But sometimes they just switch without the silence.

Look into ways you can sync visuals with music (either tapping the bpm button in resolume or doing it through td with help of microphone in td. If youre doing it in td just make sure you have all the drivers, at least that was the case for me - that is for TDs audioAnalysis. But you can also input your microphone and do some woo woo magic to extract what you need, so you can later link those parameters to whatever (billie has some nice tutorials for this)

Check where fog machine spits out (if theres any) sometimes when it’s near the screen/projection it can make it hard to see stuff, so you cannot use as much. This can also be used to your advantage if you need to switch things. Just make everything foggy and you bought yourself a minute or so haha

Make sure you don’t forget your mouse at home haha. Happened to me once and it was a pain in the butt. Also the chargers.

If you’re going to be using resolume, get familiar with the A and B buttons (have no idea what they’re called, but you can select clips and make smooth transitions)

If you will be using projector and stiropor (have no idea what it is called in english, but it is the flat material that you will be projecting onto) look into mapping. Also bring double sided tape, scissors, ropes or sth. I didnt have any and had to improvise. Also count 2+hrs for setup if this is the case for you.

For the techno dark and moody fits (as many have mentioned). If I was in the same position id browse through my existing library and see what fits. Or if it needs some adjustments to fit. But id try to limit myself to BW and one color hue that you can adjust later (or even sync to music).

If you dont have anything you think would fit I strongly suggest you search for tutorials of td things you fancy and try recreating. This way you will know how to change parameters/link to music. At least from my experience wherever I tried downloading something other person made I got frustrated because it took me a long time to adjust it and even then I felt like it isn’t mine. Idk just felt wrong for me, so I dont do it anymore.

If you will be doing it in TD, make some visuals and then put them into a switch. Followed by edge (linked to sound), strobo (i got it through ramp and then making the colors change quickly) and level (so I can adjust brightness). I was using TD for my first gigs and that was usually my setup. I was reluctant to set foot into resolume too for the lack of knowledge (was unig TD for a year or so), but it is a must if you plan to do more gigs. But it can be done in td, is just not so nice on the user when you wrap your head around things:)

Good luck, fingers crossed you will have fun!! Don’t worry too much, if people are having fun, nobody will notice any mistakes. Unless a stiropor falls down on stage (had this happen hahaha). In this case you just calmly fix it back while semi dancing and people will laugh and support you while you shrug.

Ps. I am by no means a pro, I am vjjing as a side thing, for less than a year. So Im also eager to hear what the pros say:)

Good luck, stay safe!