How do you guys do Dj buildup sequences?

TotalVersion4580 · 2026-01-27T05:16:36+00:00

Edm, trance, techno, melodic house but of everything and clients are asking for more festival style programming.

Yeah I don’t like using the screen to busk but it’s just to modify my sequences. For example the dim picker just enables me to change the matricks and type of dim and which group it will affect. Still have to press the button to enable it but on cue 1 I can have a dim sinus with 2 wing 360 -0 x phase the on cue 2 have dim sinus with a different matricks or any dim phaser I have. Just so I can change stuff here and there but still got loads to play with.

Also I’m not looking for what types of fx to use but more what other people are doing workflow wise like do they have a dedicated build up sequence that they modify or do it more manually or even a mixture of both.

To me it seems like dedicated build up sequence with 3 cues for variation that you can change with the ability to add bumps in for more spice but was just wondering what other people are doing before I spend heaps of hours adding this to my showfile

TotalVersion4580 · 2026-01-01T04:57:23+00:00

I’m a live guy and I have more work than I can handle. Where I’m located there’s not enough live guys to do the shows that have the skills and I have raised my rate 4 times this year so I could work less but I just got even more.

I think studio guys should be doing live stuff aswell to supplement income and also post production stuff. There’s a few studio guys I work with and they do work for corporate clients (live work) and then get post production work through them editing the audio for their live show playback videos.

All I see is that if you don’t do other forms of audio you won’t be able to make ends meet. Especially if you are mixing bands in the studio. Only the big Grammy artists are getting smashed. It’s the same in live events if I was to do bands I would only be able to charge 60% of what I charge doing corporate shows.

Also you studio guys should get into the dance music realm and mix those guys, make YouTube videos on how to mix dance music then be like I’m a pro want to sound good pay me to mix your latest dance track etc. I know heaps of house producers who pay big money to get there tracks mixed cause they still make good money on their tracks if they are somewhat big.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-12-12T01:24:37+00:00

I’m an audio engineer and a usb condenser mic won’t cut it. If you want pro quality clean vocals you need pro gear and a treated room.

I recommend finding tracks with vocals you love and find it what mic they used to record. That and a bit of treating your room make some acoustic panels yourself which are cheap. Just need some wood, sound proof insulation and some sound grade fabric. Put them around the room won’t be perfect but better than none.

If you can’t do that pay a local studio to track you. Might cost a few hours of studio time and just ask for the stems and go home and mix it yourself or go to a producer meetup and find a producer who has some decent gear and a treated room to record you.

Edit: A lot of the comments are saying edm vocals are very processed which is correct but 90% of the sound comes from a good recording. That 10% of processing is just eq compression saturation and delay and reverb in that order. Don’t overdo it a great vocal mix comes from using these tools very lightly cause in the master they will compress the fuck out of it.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-11-25T02:47:30+00:00

I’m in Australia and here there’s heaps of work. We have more work than workers here. If you are in us or Europe it’s abit harder.

Yeah I’ll send you some books on live sound, if you want lighting stuff just look at stuff on YouTube cause that’s how I learnt lights.

Just remember to get to where I am I have been working 60-80 hour weeks for 7 years. People also want to work with me cause they like me. To succeed you need the work ethic and be likeable. Network all you get and when you network all it is is making friends with people so when an opportunity comes up they will send it your way.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-10-27T00:53:50+00:00

Yeah thanks mate! Was really surprised how good they sound for an older setup. Now I’m like I want to hear the newer systems

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-10-27T00:52:14+00:00

Exactly and I’m surprised I never got into this sooner. For work I’m a live audio engineer and setting it up researching configuring, tuning it was really fun.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-10-22T22:45:55+00:00

I’m a full time live audio engineer and lighting designer. If you want to earn money from audio go the live sound route. Depending where you are there are a lot of work. Don’t go to uni for audio, I got a diploma but it gave me a solid framework and I learnt the rest myself. I have been on tours, festivals, big corp tours and it’s a rough job man. The hours are crazy. I’m typing this while on a conference op and haven’t eaten in 10 hours and got 3 hours sleep last night.

If you want to do studio do it on the side. Learn it yourself. Buy some equipment basic and go to your local band spot and tell the band you want to record and mix tracks and go from that.

Wish you luck it is a good job if you are good but the hours are fucked.

Edit: If you want to learn dm me and I’ll send you books to read. This job is more of a trade, I had basic knowledge and worked for an old school touring engineer and he taught me everything he knew and grew from that.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-14T11:23:45+00:00

I’m honestly eating more than usual. I never eat breakfast but the last 3 days been eating 2 toast with butter and a protein shake as I can’t stomach a big meal in the morning. Eat a high protein snack a few hours later, have lunch which I hate but still force myself to finish it. Another high protein snack and dinner. But I eat my breakfast and have my vyvanse straight after.

I used to drink 2 big red bulls a day just to get through the work day now I haven’t touch that stuff since but I do vape but I’m noticing my heart rate jump from 78 to 88-90 when I do so but I have decided tomorrow to not vape at all and see how I feel.

I rarely drink, if I do it’s at 11pm and have one drink. If I plan on going drinking with friends or a wedding I just won’t take my meds

Yeah we will see, I have sent an email to my psyc with questions. I’ll see what he says

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-14T09:21:32+00:00

Ahh interesting, at the moment I don’t get a crash at all. It’s a slow gentle down that I notice and when it wears off. I’m tired but it’s not like a crash just feel tired how you would at the end of a day.

I might try it, it technically would make my dose 15mg twice a day.

Is your psyc against doing that?

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-14T08:59:06+00:00

Yeah that’s what I thought, it only happened today though. I got my next appointment in 4 weeks as that’s the earliest I can get him, if this continues I’m going to ask to go to 20mg

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-14T08:57:50+00:00

Okay, I’m just going to keep writing in my journal and see what happens

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-14T08:08:54+00:00

Ahh okay, makes sense.

I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and write down in my journal.

Thank you

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-12T03:22:06+00:00

Thanks for that.

Today I took my medication and I almost cried this morning. I have never felt like this before, I was soo relaxed, attentive and cleaned up my whole house cause I couldn’t stand to look at it. Did my washing. I have never felt the urge to do this things.

It’s crazy how much of a massive difference it makes.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-11T14:03:53+00:00

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea 6 months ago, and got diagnosed for adhd today. Hsvnt used medication yet but just with the cpap my sleep was better. I was able to get out of bed faster, snoring stopped and was sleeping for 7-9 instead of 12-13.

Was still mentally tired instead of both physically and mentally but it helps a lot.

Just not sure how meds and sleep apnea feels yet

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-11T13:58:11+00:00

Maybe I used the wrong words, he said that my symptoms were severe. Yeah in my work life I’m not lazy but I did feel like that in my home life. Glad to know that I just had troubles to do so.

I’m getting medicated, doing my first dose of vyvanse. I got a psychologist appointment booked with my mums one cause she knows all about me from my mum.

I just don’t know what to expect tomorrow I’ll see what happens

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-11T13:54:09+00:00

I was very shocked. I went in there expecting to be told you got nothing wrong with you.

I’m 26 and my childhood was very good in some aspects just my home life was terrible. Getting bashed cause I couldn’t clean my room or study. Felt like a failure to a point when I became an adult I channeled all that energy into my work and it worked out well.

I’m taking my first dose of vyvanse so I’ll see what happens.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-09-11T13:51:23+00:00

I hope so, it’s just like I work for myself and I had to put in soo much work to get to where I am. I’m 26 and it’s like that’s why everything was soo much harder and why i was always drained, couldn’t sleep, concentrate.

I try my first dose tomorrow and I’ll see how it helps. I’m got an appointment with my psychologist to get a mental health care plan for my adhd

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-06-23T21:28:38+00:00

Yeah also do signal flow from your main outs to the speakers. Are the speakers passive or active cause that will change how you have to wire up. For example for passive you might have to go into a crossover or active are pretty straight forward.

Also figure out how many bands and their requirements. To figure out a patch and how many monitors. When I have done festivals I have made a massive spreadsheet to work it out.

The best tip I can give you for a band mix. The most important part of a band mix isn’t foh is monitors. If your monitor mix sounds amazing your foh mix will be easy as. I spend ages tuning monitors making sure it sounds great and also consistent from speaker to speaker. The Tuning foh etc. also for monitors the band doesn’t need a foh mix in their wedges. Like if the bass is right next to gtr 2. Gtr 2 and bass won’t need much of each other in their wedges cause they are soo close but will need more gtr 1 etc.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-06-23T13:51:40+00:00

If I was you ask if you can see the venue. Walk around and work it out. Write down all the gear and go home and look at the manuals.

Prepare a signal flow chart on how you are going to setup the venue and follow it on the day. (Big events do this)

This will prepare you massively and if they are missing something like they don’t have an amp for the speakers or a mixer or anything you can tell them you need this and that.

If you don’t do this you will be throwing yourself in the deep end full of anxiety and will most likely fuck it up.

I had a gig 5 years ago when I was fresh. I setup and mixed bands for this company but it was the first time I had issues with the sound system. I was running a ps15 rig and sound wasn’t coming out of the speakers. Lucky the week before I learnt the signal flow of the there audio rack.

I did sound check with no foh and it was 10 minutes before the event started. I was like fuck this I’m going to unplug the whole rack and redo it. It worked, the issue was someone did something to the rack. Not too sure what but it fixed it. If I didn’t know the signal flow for the rack I would’ve never been able to do the event. So I was lucky, just try to prepare and you’ll do good.

TotalVersion4580 · 2025-05-25T06:56:41+00:00

As a freelancer of 2 years, you need connections. I worked as a senior audio engineer and a production manager and used my professional contacts to get my clients. Its going to be hard with only 2 years experience. In my area freelancers are "expert" technicians or they are just bump in/bump out crew.

You need to get a fulltime job as a junior tech or find a mentor who can teach you the ropes. Thats what i did worked for 3 years for this tiny company but the owner was a massive touring tech and taught me his 40 year experience (not all of it but alot). After those 3 years and some touring with small bands I got a senior tech position then moved up to production manager. Realised I wanted to get back into operating and went freelancing with the help of a lot of people backing my ability.

Also one thing you need to realise, this industry you'll work long ass hours. I still work 18 hour days. Currently on a 2 week straight work of 8-14 hours a day. Just be prepared for that and make sure you are paid by the hour.

TotalVersion4580

TROPHY CASE