Speaker A
How I find music for my DJ set. So in a few days, I'm going back to my residency at Hi in AA, and I need to find some fresh tunes. I've been playing there every single week, and what I don't want
James Hype shares three methods to find fresh music for DJ sets using Beatport, SoundCloud, and making custom edits.
Key Takeaways
- Using multiple platforms like Beatport and SoundCloud helps DJs find both popular and rare tracks.
- Digging deeper into artist catalogs and label releases uncovers unique music beyond top charts.
- Creating custom edits allows DJs to personalize their sets and differentiate themselves.
- Following artists and labels on Beatport streamlines ongoing music discovery.
- Patience and a bit of technical skill are needed to find and prepare exclusive tracks for DJ sets.
Summary
- James Hype explains the importance of finding fresh tunes to keep DJ sets exciting for both himself and the audience.
- The first method involves using Beatport to explore top tracks, artists, and labels, and leveraging the platform’s recommendation system.
- He emphasizes digging deeper beyond the Beatport top 10 to discover unique and lesser-known tracks.
- The second method is using SoundCloud to find rare, unofficial remixes, bootlegs, and edits that are not available on other platforms.
- James describes the process of downloading tracks on SoundCloud, including common hurdles like following/unfollowing on social media.
- The third method is creating custom edits of existing tracks to personalize the music and stand out from other DJs.
- He demonstrates how he removes unwanted elements like vocals or synths and adds effects such as reverb and drum loops.
- James highlights the value of making edits as a skill that differentiates professional DJs from bedroom DJs.
- He encourages following artists and labels on Beatport to receive updates on new releases and make future music discovery easier.
- The video also briefly promotes his Tomorrowland DJ course for viewers interested in learning DJ skills.
Chapters
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
to do is play the same music, make myself bored, and make the people on the dance floor bored. So I've got to find a way to find the most appropriate tunes that get me excited and hopefully get the dance
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floor excited too. I've got three methods for finding tunes for my DJ sets. I think the last method is the one that will make you stand out the most. I'm going to get into the first method right now, Beat
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port. So Beatport is like the main website for everything dance music. Make sure you've got your own account because that's going to be really useful when you find something that you actually like. Now beginner guide to Beatport, you've got the
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top 10 on the right-hand side, and then you've got all your genres up at the top. Now I normally go on here and I'll go through the top 10 and see if anything catches my ear. I don't want to play the
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top 10 records even though they're really good. I don't want to be the same as every DJ who's playing the Beatport top 10, so just bear that in
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mind. I kind of like this one. It's got that old school vibe, and I'm pretty sure
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it's a sample of an old track. Now I've seen loads of DJs playing this song, so I'm actually going to dig a little bit deeper. I'm not going to play this song. I'm going to check out what else Nick
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Fanuli has made and what else is on Saved Records. So I'm going to use command and open up a new tab, click on Saved Records, and click on Nick Fanuli. Another cool thing I can do on Beatport is I can go to Saved Records and I can
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see the top 10 tracks from Saved Records, and I can go to Nick Fanuli and see the top 10 tracks from Nick Fanuli. And this is where the digging on Beatport starts, and this is where it really gets like
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interesting if you're a music nerd, which you should be if you're a DJ. Okay, maybe a little bit too chill for me and I. Bea, okay, I'm feeling that. That's kind of dark, so I'm going to add that to my
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basket. All right, so check this record out. This is something really
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different, that's really interesting. So I'm going to check out the artist who's made that, Nick Fanuli and Rner. First of all, let me add that to my cart because it's
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good. Let me check out Rner, see what else this guy's made. Yes, that's to my cart. This is cool because now I'm getting music from an artist that I've never even heard of. Okay, cool. I can see that he released on another
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label here, Solar. So if I go on to Solar, let me check out their top releases as well. I've never heard of any of these tunes. This is exciting. One, my, I like this one. Good energy on this.
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At this point, I'm going to go to the basket and see what got in there. I've added five tracks to the basket. Now another cool thing that Beatport would do at this point, it's now got recommended tracks based off the ones that are in my
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cart, based off what it thinks I like. This is kind of cool. I'm going to add that. So once you bought these tracks, there's one more important step. It's going to show you all the artists and all of the labels that you've just
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bought from, and this gives you the opportunity to follow all these artists. Now once we started following these artists that we really like, they're going to appear on this My Beatport page next. Next time you go on Beatport, it's
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going to show the new tracks from all of the artists and labels that you follow. The next time you do this, it gets even easier. So that is my first method of finding tracks for a DJ set, Beatport. So
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the second method that I use for finding tracks on my DJ sets is SoundCloud. This one's a little bit more hit and miss, but it's where you're going to find real gold that no one else has. So I'm going
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to go to the search on SoundCloud and find a starting point for the kind of thing that I'm looking for. Now one thing I want to find on SoundCloud is bootleg remixes and unofficial edits and things that you can't get on any other website,
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so I'm going to search like James Hype remix and see what's related. There we go. Sprinter James Hype remix is like an unofficial remix, so hopefully it will give me loads of unofficial remixes when I go on related tracks. Like this, for
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example, Loving On Me Mik and Me Remix. It's kind of cool. It's definitely something that you wouldn't be able to get on Beatport. Now this, for example, this is a mashup that loads of DJs play, so we're definitely in the right
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territory of SoundCloud here to find some cool stuff that you can't get anywhere
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else. So I'm not super into this, but I think this might be a good avenue to go down to find related tracks. It's kind of
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like Beatport. I can find related tracks to anything that I've just gone on. So Dr. J Next Episode VIP. What's this? That's kind of hard. I'd play that for sure. Can we get a download on this one? Free download there.
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You go. So what you'll find on SoundCloud, a lot of these tracks have a free download. You kind of have to jump through some hoops to get the download. When I click on this, you'll see if I press download, I have to leave a comment,
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connect my SoundCloud account. If you've never done this before, it might look a bit sketchy, but it's all good. I have to follow all these people on Instagram, and then I have to unfollow them straight away, which is great. So if you're ever
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like someone who's making one of these things, just don't ask people to follow you on Instagram because they're just going to unfollow you. Nobody wins. So that is how I am finding rare and unknown edits on SoundCloud. Now the
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third method to get in tunes for a DJ set is one that it's going to take a little bit more knowledge and know-how to do properly, but I think this is what really sets apart the best DJs from the
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bedroom DJs, and this is making edits. Now I found a tune that I made an edit of that I've been playing quite a lot in my DJ sets, and it's not the most complex thing ever. I'm going to demonstrate to
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you now what this edit sounds
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like. That might sound like a normal track to you, but I'm going to play you the original, how it sounded before I made the edit, buddy. So the main difference is here, I've
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got rid of some vocal and I've got rid of that really loud synth. I wasn't a fan of that synth, and I wanted more space. I didn't want vocal going throughout, so let me break down exactly what I've done
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in this edit to make it different. First of all, I'm just going to drag the original tune onto a new track, and I'm going to make it red so you can see the difference from the original tune. I
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haven't made too much of a difference to the breakdown. The breakdown starts exactly the same and then goes into the buildup. That's exactly the same. Now one key difference at the end of the buildup is I've got this in the original. Mo your
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bu, and I just got rid of that completely in my version. Now I've added a little bit of reverb so it's not so abrupt because if we didn't have the reverb, it would sound like this. It just sounds like someone stopped
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the music. With the reverb, you can do that in any software with any type of reverb. Now when it gets to the drop, first bit is exactly the same, and then the next thing I've done is I've got rid of the loud synth. Now
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the way I've done this is I've just copied and pasted a piece from later on in the track. So if we go into this original version, you'll hear that that bit there doesn't have the loud synth. So if I drag
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and drop that across to there, let me see if that works. And that's pretty much what I've done there. Now there is one more thing that I've done here. Let me delete the original again so we can see just the
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edit. Once the trap drops, it sounds like this. You notice how it sounds kind of like someone's cut the record right there. It goes from being really big to just being a bit. So I actually did something a bit technical to make this
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different and not sound like it just stopped. What I've done is I've cut out the synth and duplicated it so it plays. It's almost like I've extended the part of the track with the synth.
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one more thing that I've added to this track and I've added a really really simple drum loop on top just just like that and it just felt a little bit too minimal for me after all these big sounds it just dropped
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back to this feels almost like too chill so with the extra sounds as well and it's important if you're going to add Loops to a track that's already finished just make sure that you're not like clashing with sounds this is a
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really easy Loop cuz it's all like so it will pretty much sit on top of any track and it'll be okay after that I've got absolutely no limiter on the master that is literally it I would have exported
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this put it straight into record box and that is my own custom edit that no one else has of vcoder body which I've been playing in my sets so that is how easy it is to find your own personalized
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music collection for your own DJ sets it's important to remember don't be like everyone else don't just go and download the top 10 hey big up to the people in the top 10 cuz like they're the most popular songs but you're trying to be
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unique you're trying to be an individual so go and show people your tasting music and do it in a way that makes you different from everyone else if you are learning to be a DJ I made a course with
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tomorrowand that teaches you how to DJ on all different levels of equipment and do all the skills that I do all the tricks that I do there is a link underneath this video to get my Tomorrowland DJ course so go and check
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it out who does this
Topics:DJ music discoveryBeatport tutorialSoundCloud remixesDJ editsJames Hypefinding DJ tracksmusic diggingbootleg remixescustom DJ editsDJ set preparation
