TTanguero
Forum Master
I suspect any of could put together a set list to keep everyone happy for one evening. Where the need for knowledge comes in is to be able to pull that off every week.
What are DJs doing wrong
- Thread starter itwillhappen
- Start date
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
And modify that list on the fly.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
Of course. A DJ, but also an algorithm, can choose from top tandas of the top orchestras, take the top 5 orchestras twice, balance instrumental and sung, sort them according to time and structure, and a 5-hour playlist is ready. In my opinion, the result is quite usable; many DJs work this way, consciously or unconsciously, me too.
However, the result is somehow boring, and how a DJ deals with this boredom - even personal boredom - makes the difference. Simply putting up with it is often not a bad solution.
Still, when I look at my shortlist for the next milonga, it doesn't look like this:
Vals: Julio De Caro, Ángel D'Agostino, Héctor Varela, Sexteto Cristal, Donato Racciatti
Milonga: Lucio Demare/Ángel Sica/Ángel D'Agostino, Cuarteto SolTango, Alex Krebs, Sexteto Cristal
itwillhappen
Forum Master
Personally, as a participant, I certainly appreciate your intention to impress with quality and restraint. I like to sit out one or a few tandas and listen.
As a DJ, I'm in a different role and have different intentions. In particular, that there is dancing, that the leaders (m/f/d) collect, look up and invite, wave after wave. We're not there for fun!
In case this isn't clear to anyone, I just found a suitable cortina:
Because if you just play all the most popular tandas to a room of experienced dancers, people heard them too many times recently and they lose their effect. Therefore the DJ specials are important, and one should not be afraid to break general patterns if one thinks the dancers are going to like this music at this moment.
(and on the subject of feedback, it can also be incorrect sometimes if someone complained but the actual reason is their opinion on music is in disagreement with that of the other dancers.)
pianistamediano
Forum Master
Kind of why I don't say anything negative to organisers here unless they ask me for feedback; my usual main gripe is with the balance of music (with or without well-composed tandas) from a higher-level perspective, but the majority of dancers barely approach my level of musical sensitivity.
So while my opinion might heighten most people's enjoyment by balancing the music and creating a better atmosphere (rather than generating aural fatigue and a sense of monotony), I don't think they'd be able to properly identify the root cause of such an improvement, since they already enjoy the current music. Therefore, providing my opinion wouldn't really be helpful.
That being said, I express my joy and satisfaction profusely to organizers whenever they invite an excellent DJ.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
The experience is a multifactorial end result, and for many people the DJ is not the most important factor, especially not in advance for the decision to participate or not. And so every DJ or organizer creates his model of how everything is connected.
For example, I never paid much attention to "psychoacoustics", i.e. that the sound quality also subliminally influences the experience. But as soon as I listened to the music more privately, I quickly spent €1000 on better transfers.
Ultimately, you have to be lucky or skilled to have been the DJ for a few good milongas in a row, from the perspective of the organizer and the regulars. Then a certain level of trust and a positive mood builds up, which outlasts an obviously failed tanda. Until you eventually lose interest and become boring.
At our association we had two memorably bad milongas, which could also be traced back to two local DJs who were not able to handle unfavorable conditions. There was massive "unsoliticed feedback" and the board changed its thinking.
And the organizer of my regular milonga is a professional, he organizes four milongas per week in his location, he also likes to be the DJ himself when it comes to alternative or mixed music. He can definitely assess the situation.
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Here almost every third or fourth dancer want to DJ and does DJ. We have a real inflation of DJs. Some start DJing in less than two years of tango dancing. Not that there is any correlation between DJing and dancing. Two of DJs that are my fav started DJing within 2 or 3 years of dancing. I knew saw them when they were beginners. Both are good followers and were better followers at one year mark than most others at five year mark. Only one organizer/instructor will occasionally DJ and I like his sets. There is a couple instructors who invite themselves over to DJ at popular milongas organized by others. I avoid attending when either are DJing, as do some others. But they are popular with certain crowd. There is one particular instructor who DJs his own milonga and people don’t like going to the milonga due to that. He is the only organizer I know that won’t bring in others to DJ. Otherwise it is good spacious floor and all other things are good. Except dancers I like to dance with don’t go there. They do not like his DJing.
The rest two dozen DJs are regular social dancers. May two or three DJs who only DJ and don’t dance.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
That can be a problem. If he's a great DJ, no problem, but otherwise, not a great idea. Sometimes it's simply a question of money.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Hmm. We don't have that many DJs here. Well, we might but they don't DJ at the popular milongas or on a regular basis. I think all of our local DJs dance.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
Technical development has not stopped at mechanical musical instruments without electrical recording and amplification. In the distant past, a tango DJ had to have excellent contacts and own records himself or dig for dubious bootleg CDs in the backyards of Buenos Aires. The technical and financial hurdles to playing a sufficient repertoire of tango music have continuously decreased since then. Streaming services are already halfway ready for use, with tracks downloaded beforehand, of course. Currently, missing and incorrect tags as well as trivial things like pauses between tracks still set limits, but these will eventually disappear with seamless integration into professional DJ players. It is therefore not surprising that more and more people would like to act as tango DJs.
opendoor
Forum Master
I fear it will noot.
LadyLeader
Forum Master
I have been using ordinary plugs bought at a pharmacy but they are not good enough anymore.
I need to buy some of better quality and I wonder if some of you could give me advice about
- what aspects to think of
- what labels could be available in Nordics,
If you need earplugs to prevent NIHL (Noise Induced Hearing Loss) at a milonga, then there's so many things which are just wrong: the DJ, the sound system, the setup, the venue, the organiser, any sound monitoring (most countries have legal limits), and mostly that people are actually going there
Does anybody actually dance, or is it headbangers?
(BTW, you can get custom earplugs made. Vendors on the internet. You should be looking at sound pressure level reduction. A decrease of 10dB is about half as loud - 'loudness' being a perception.)
pianistamediano
Forum Master
I use these myself: Alpine MusicSafe Pro High Fidelity Music Earplugs for Concert & Noise Reduction. I find that for the price (Bought them for about €26?), they work very well for noise reduction. Things are of course more muffled, and I have a harder time hearing the subtleties in the music (I would say the higher frequencies are noticeably quieter), but I believe I can still hear the full range. Not sure if I'm working off my own memory at times, though, because I do hear the music and 'hear' it in my head at the same time.
I still manage to carry out conversations with others with them on, but since I already struggle with understanding what other people are saying even in a less noisy environment because of an auditory processing disorder, I prefer to keep them off when talking.