# What's the DJ doing in a live performance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345 "2014-12-04T20:42:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/1 "2014-12-04T20:42:12Z")
Please don’t take this as a “kids today and their artificial music, in my day we had bands who played instruments, get off of my lawn!”-type comment. I may be getting old, but I do appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship that it takes for a DJ to put together a track in the studio. I listen to and enjoy a lot of very produced and electronic-ish music: Kesha, Pink, Nine Inch Nails… I like mashups and remixes. I was just listening to Skrillex all day yesterday, OK, so I’m not looking down on the genre at all. But I was watching the season 6 finale of Face/Off, and they brought out this DJ Rosko(sp?) for a “live performance,” and I’m not sure what he was actually _doing_. He had headphones on. He was clapping along at some points, and occasionally he twisted a knob or two. It seems to me that crafting EDM/techno music is a painstaking and careful process, not something you can do on the fly. Is he really doing anything up there after pressing play? Is he just touching those knobs to look like he’s doing something? (the DJ equivalent of lipsyncing?) or are they actually connected and changing the music in some way? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/2 "2014-12-04T22:34:56Z")
My understanding is that while “Techno Groove A” is playing, he’s getting “Techno Groove B” ready. He’ll also have to time it _just_ so, so that the clubgoers will get a smooth transition from A to B without a jarring change in tempo, beat, etc. Then, as “Techno Groove B” is playing, he’s getting “Techno Groove C” queued up and ready to go, also making sure to sync up the end of B with the beginning of A so the transition is smooth. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/3 "2014-12-04T22:38:06Z")
It’s not techno, but the concept still stands. Listen to this song: Notice how the beat from "Tainted Love" sort of seamlessly flows into the beat from "Where Did Our Love Go?" beginning at about 2:25? Essentially the DJ is doing that, on the fly. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/4 "2014-12-04T22:38:46Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > My understanding is that while “Techno Groove A” is playing, he’s getting “Techno Groove B” ready. He’ll also have to time it _just_ so, so that the clubgoers will get a smooth transition from A to B without a jarring change in tempo, beat, etc. > > Then, as “Techno Groove B” is playing, he’s getting “Techno Groove C” queued up and ready to go, also making sure to sync up the end of B with the beginning of A so the transition is smooth. Why not do all this in advance? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/5 "2014-12-04T22:56:28Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Why not do all this in advance? Hell if I know. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/6 "2014-12-04T23:02:16Z")
Some DJs are essentially just pressing “play”, but good ones are judging the crowd response and varying accordingly, beat-matching the next track, making the transitions between tracks flow, and timing drops for juuuuust the right moment. The tweaking nobs and sliders is to control turntable speed, volume, pitch, and the mix and feed between them. A decent, if not universal, indicator of a good DJ who is mixing live: He or she doesn’t have the earphones clamped on both ears all the time (or not at all) - they are constantly sliding on and off the ears so that they can hear the playing track and the crowd in one ear, and the track they are queuing (cueing? Either works I suppose) in the other. Carl Cox was is pretty handy at this. Here’s a video of him using three decks, actively mixing stuff in front of a bunch of clean-living Dutch People. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/we7_FCM9HM8/hqdefault.jpg "Carl Cox live @ 3 Decks Impulz Brabanthallen Den Bosch, Netherlands 2000") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we7_FCM9HM8) ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/7 "2014-12-04T23:50:26Z")
OK, so if he only played one song… he pretty much just hit play, and maybe dropped in a sample or two, yes? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/8 "2014-12-04T23:57:38Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Why not do all this in advance? They do. I have heard a couple in less guarded moments admit that basically all they do is hit play. All the work is done beforehand. Which makes sense on many levels. All the the big names draw in live crowds not just for the the music but also (or especially) for the light show. It would be pretty much impossible to have a complex show synchronized to the music that closely if they were doing anything on the fly. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/9 "2014-12-05T00:07:04Z")
[quote=“Baron\_Greenback, post:6, topic:706345”] Carl Cox was is pretty handy at this. Here’s a video of him using three decks, actively mixing stuff in front of a bunch of clean-living Dutch People. [/QUOTE] I think you would agree things may have changed in 15 years. For the big names in EDM it’s all about the show. That’s how they can fill up arenas while charging a couple hundred. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/10 "2014-12-05T00:15:46Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I think you would agree things may have changed in 15 years. For the big names in EDM it’s all about the show. That’s how they can fill up arenas while charging a couple hundred. Oh, absolutely. My clubbing days are over, sadly, I just posted to give an example of what a DJ worthy of the name is doing. ---
**Author:** ![dam0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@dam0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dam0)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/11 "2014-12-05T00:18:34Z")
I wouldn’t say that many big name DJs premix sets before hand, if at all. They fly in and out of venues with limited spare time. Some will play several venues a night during peak season. There isn’t the time for this. Along side DJs, you get Light Jockeys who rather then manipulate music, manipulate the lighting live. They take the audio from the mixing desk and use the to sync certain changes in the lighting scenes. Bass drops in, lighting jock has queued up a certain set of lighting sequences to happen at that time, triggered perfectly. I’ve worked with many ‘well known’ DJs in the mid 00’s in the uk. They turn up, get the measure of the place and crowd then play the records which suits the venue and makes the crowd happy. Knowing how to do this, knowing your audience is part of what they’re doing. The technical stuff is as detailed further up this post. They’re making the transitions perfect, dropping lead lines at the right point and adapting as required. Unfortunately, laptops make the beat matching and cueing part largely unskilled ---
**Author:** ![dam0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@dam0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dam0)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/12 "2014-12-05T00:28:02Z")
Missed the edit window. Perhaps an arena tour of a specific DJ, lighting, stage setup etc maybe all pre mixed, set up in advance. Also, I’ve been out of this scene for 9 years or so. God knows what’s changed ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/13 "2014-12-05T01:11:26Z")
Well I may be an anomaly as am into my 50s and I wouldn’t walk into a club playing live music! But I am still in love with house! And a good DJ is doing what **Baron Greenback** says and more! He is not only ensuring a seamless transfer into the next track but he is mixing tracks together, he is bouncing samples around all the speakers, he is putting breakbeat into tracks, he is working the club and lifting everything up spinning them around and dropping them on the dance floor! (now where did I leave my eccies!) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/14 "2014-12-05T01:31:23Z")
> [@manila](#): > > (now where did I leave my eccies!) 😃 Down the back of the couch? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/15 "2014-12-05T02:07:40Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > It’s not techno, but the concept still stands. Listen to this song: > > Notice how the beat from "Tainted Love" sort of seamlessly flows into the beat from "Where Did Our Love Go?" beginning at about 2:25? Essentially the DJ is doing that, on the fly. Hey, **HeyHomie** , clear something up for me, please? I don’t have the album those songs are on, but every time I heard that on the radio, it was both songs back-to-back. I can’t imagine radio DJs all waited by the turntable (what’s a “turntable”?) to blend those two live, so was it a bootleg that spread like wildfire? Or is the album version both songs, and the single version is just “Tainted Love”? WTH are “eccies”? I’m OLD, dammit! Have mercy. Why not do all this in advance? [Here’s why…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxYvzVxJtYM) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/16 "2014-12-05T02:48:55Z")
We used to call live DJ production a ‘live PA.’ The DJ sets up the beat and adds other elements, manipulating as needed. This mixing can be as simple or as complicated as you want. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/17 "2014-12-05T05:20:11Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > The DJ sets up the beat and \*\*adds other elements, \*\*manipulating as needed. Holy hell this is understated in this thread. A live DJ isn’t just spinning a couple tracks together or shifting from one to another (high-level skill that it is). A DJ has an array of soundscapes to meld together in addition to the main tracks. We’re a huge jamband family, so most of our music is live improv-based. There are a lot of similarities there–adding enormous flourishes here and there, bringing parts/components up here and there, that sort of thing. Just as a band can jam on a song for a while, taking it to new directions and creating an on-the-fly composition, so too can someone with a great ear and an in-tuneness with their technology. There are DJs who just spin tracks together and that’s about it, just as there are a lot of pop/rock acts who just come out and do hyper-choreographed numbers. I don’t quite get them. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/18 "2014-12-05T08:30:57Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > WTH are “eccies”? Vitamin E. X. XTC. Mandy. Molly. Disco Biscuits. Ebeneezer. MDMA, basically. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/19 "2014-12-05T13:09:35Z")
According to Deadmau5, “[We all hit play.](http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/25690507284/we-all-hit-play)”, and he has some harsh words for anyone who says otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345/20 "2014-12-05T14:25:48Z")
Heh, love Deadmau… But, going by what he is saying… he sounds like a conductor? Obviously, he is making his own work, which probably preoccupies almost all of his off-time either directly or indirectly. Even back in the day (for me) of the 90’s no one ever really mixed live. I think maybe some rap artists would have on-site beat machines with the rappers. However, I think it would be risqué to mix something on the fly as it could go horribly wrong. I’m sure everything is polished in the studio to a certain degree before going live. You only have so much time for your set, why waste it. A few raves back in the day they would let us kids spin at the very end, when almost everyone had left. It was fun but we were really bad at it. Coordinating the turntable speeds for the handoff is easier said than done. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-dj-doing-in-a-live-performance/706345.md?page=2)