Day 9 - DJing tonight

Party planned tonight. The theme is disco hippies. I am supposed to be mixing tonight. Prepared the set with lot of good 80's stuff. Happy to share the playlist.

I went to the costume shop and bought a Michael Jackson famous thriller costume. I ended up winning the gift for the best costume of the night. Pictures of Michael Jackson DJing below !

Michael mixing

Working on a transition

Patrick and Mimi have asked me to share more details about DJing and the playlist so here we go.

A year ago, I decided to take some DJing lessons from a real DJ who performs in clubs here in Dubai (link to his website http://djgemofficial.com/) . I wanted to be able to mix for friends during parties.

After taking those lessons, I bought some equipment to do electronic DJing which is easier than using the classical turntables. But the results achieved could be far more impressive. See below video of DJ Rafik DMC Champion and the kind of things he does with electronic cue points.

I use a Mac with Traktor 2 - Pro from Native Instruments as a software to mix. I don't carry vinyls, my songs are on the PC in mp3. I also use a sound card Audio 8DJ from Native Instruments in order to listen in the headphones to the next tracks to play. To control the software, I use a MIDI controller VCI-100 Special Edition from DJTechtools. 

This setup is ideal for occasional DJs like me. It's very easy to carry to a party. When you I travel I usually take my Mac with me and train in the plane. I think the future of DJing will be  digital. Though you see a lot of resistance from hard core DJs that want to stick to the old way of DJing.

DJ Ian Golden has been pushing Digital DJing. Look at this impressive routine.

I don't have my Mac with me right now and I will share the playlist in the next couple of posts.