Swing DJ'ing

Februar-Aktion: 15% auf iTunes Geschenkkarten

01.02.2016 by Chris

Der postshop führt wieder eine Aktion für iTunes Geschenkkarten durch.

Ich kaufe diese Geschenkkarten jeweils, um danach vergünstigt Musik (und Apps) im iTunes-Store herunterzuladen.

Vorgehen:

Eine iTunes Geschenkkarte bestellen
Nach Erhalt, den Code auf der Karte im iTunes Store unter Einlösen eingeben
Fertig! Schon wurde der Betrag auf der Karte deinem Konto gutgeschrieben.

Für DJs und Musikliebhaber eine willkommene Aktion! 🙂

Natürlich sind die Karten auch ein tolles Geschenk.

Angebot iTunes Geschenkkarten:

Die Aktion läuft ab sofort bis einschliesslich 14. Februar 2016, bzw. solange der Vorrat reicht. Pro Kunde gilt nur 1 Angebot und die Stückzahl ist limitiert.

Virtual DJ Chrisbe in Barcelona Spain

02.06.2012 by Chris

This week, I spontaneously did something, I haven't done before:

I was a virtual DJ for a dance scene in a different city in a different country!

Virtual DJ Chrisbe in Barcelona, Photo by Swing Maniacs

A short email request

Last Wednesday, I received a short email by Jordi from the Swing Maniacs in Barcelona, if I would like to be their DJ at their event “SM Classic Swing Jam!” in the evening of the same day.

Yes, of course, that sounds like fun!

Well, the point is, I was not in Barcelona, so how did I do it?

Setting up the hardware

To be a virtual DJ you need two tools installed on your computer

Skype
TeamViewer

Skype

I reckon, everybody has installed Skype nowadays. With Skype you can use your webcam, so that both sides can see each other and use the chat interface at the same time (when you don't want/need to/should talk).

TeamViewer

With the software TeamViewer, you're able to take control of any computer. You type in an ID and a password you get from the other side and you're on.

Right after my gig confirmation, I installed TeamViewer on my MacBook Pro. It's free for private use.

How it worked

The 1 1/2 hour DJ set was scheduled for 22.30h. 15 minutes before, Jordi called me on Skype and the call was on until the end of the set. In this way, I was able to see the dance floor (their webcam was directed to it) and hear the music, and they could see me sitting in front of my laptop projected onto the wall (see photo above).

At the same time, I established a connection with TeamViewer to their computer located in the dance studio in Barcelona. Jordi sent me the necessary ID and password via Skype. Now, I was able to see their computer screen on my computer.

In the afternoon, we agreed, that I will use Spotify to DJ.

On my computer, I used iTunes to find the songs I wanted to play and then I used their computer to find the songs on their Spotify and drag-and-dropped it in a prepared playlist. The main reason why I used iTunes on my computer was because I could search by bpm (beats per minute).

Tipp

While DJ'ing, switch of the mic on Skype, therefore no typing sounds and any other disturbing noise from your side will be heard on the dancefloor.

Differences between in-house and virtual DJ'ing

Lack of feeling the crowd

Although I could see the crowd and hear my DJ set on my screen, the image and sound quality through Skype were quite poor. Nevertheless, everything worked pretty well, unless one sudden music stop.

“Feel the crowd” is in my eyes one of the main tasks of a Swing DJ (see “14 Tips To Become A (Better) Swing DJ“). Even if image and sound quality would be better, you're still in front of a computer.

This fact was the most difficult part about being a virtual DJ.

The dancers were applauding from time to time. However, I never really got a feeling for the crowd. I just relied on my music taste and hoped, they are going to like it as well.

Limited access to music

Another “problem” was the music library itself. Since we used Spotify, I couldn't play all the songs I wanted, because some of them are not available on Spotify. Additionally, there is also a difference in the availability between Spotify Spain and Spotify Switzerland.

Would I do it again?

It was great fun and it's just amazing what's possible nowadays due to technology.

Yes, I would do it again, just because I love these kind of experiments!

What do you think about virtual DJ'ing?

I would love read your thoughts in the comment section below:

What do you think about virtual DJ'ing, would you do it?
If you have done it already, what were your experiences?

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists

22.10.2011 by Chris

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I have the feeling that many iTunes users still don't know how powerful Smart Playlists (for my German speaking readers: Intelligente Wiedergabelisten) are.

When Apple introduced them many years ago, I was immediately hooked and it changed the way how I organize and sort music forever.

To really benefit from the flexibility of Smart Playlists, you need a good system of pre-organizing your music with tags, BPM and ratings.

If you missed these posts, please check out part 1: Tagging and part 2: BPM & Rating of the series “How to Organize Music in iTunes” before you read further.

Now, let's dive into the topic:

Smart Playlists for Swing DJs

I use Smart Playlists in many different ways, but in this post I would like to focus on Swing DJ playlists.

An Example

I would like to have a playlist with all the Balboa tunes in the library, they should have BPM included and a rating between 4 and 5 stars. Christmas songs should be excluded.

As you know from my post about tagging, my genre tags for Balboa are “Sw Bal” and for Christmas “Xmas”.

How to create a Smart Playlist in iTunes

So, I step you through the process of creating a Smart Playlist.

in iTunes, click in the menu bar “File” and then “New Smart Playlist…” (in German: “Ablage”, “Neue intelligente Wiedergabeliste …”)
a window “Smart Playlist” opens and “Match the following rule:” is checked
change “Artist” to “Genre“, keep “contains“, write in the empty field “Sw Bal” and press “+” on the right
in the new (second) row choose “Genre“, then “does not contain“, write “Xmas“, press “+” on the right
in the new (third) row choose “BPM“, then “is greater than“, write “1“, press “+” on the right
in the new (fourth) row choose “Rating“, then “is in the range“, click four stars on the left and five stars on the right
check “Match only checked items” (optional)
make sure that “all” is chosen for “Match all of the following rules:” and also that “Live updating” is checked
press “OK“. In the right side bar, you find now a playlist called “untitled playlist“
click on this new playlist to edit the title and write something like “Swing DJ Bal”

After step 8, it looks like that:

If you want to edit the playlist, just go back to “File” and click “Edit Smart Playlist“.

Why is this so powerful?

When you checked “Live updating“, then every new tune you add to the library will be automatically added to this playlist, in case it matches all the defined rules. Your playlist is always up to date!

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From my everyday life as Swing DJ

I've created many different smart playlists. For my Swing DJ sets I usually use two: one for Lindy Hop and one for Balboa. These playlists consist only of 4- and 5-star rated songs, BPM are mandatory for me.

Some are sorted by tempo, for example 110-120 bpm, 120-130 bpm and so on.

One playlist includes all swing songs without bpm and rating. That's my source to find new suitable songs for dancers.

There are also smart playlists with 3-star rated songs to listen through. It might be that my music taste has changed and I would rate some of these songs higher now.

In Herräng there was this masquerade night where I needed Hawaiian swing (check out Staff DJ in Herräng). First of all, I created a smart playlist, as explained earlier in this post, and set additionally “Genre” contains “Haw”. Then I browsed through my library and wrote in all Hawaiian swing songs the “Haw” tag in the genre field (so it looked like “Sw Bal Haw”, for example). I didn't have to care if I had got all of the songs, they were all automatically in the right place.

Of course, I also have regular playlists in use. For example for dance or musicality classes, or for my Song of the Week :).

Well, we have reached the ending of the series.

I hope, this post has been helpful and inspiring!

Let me know what do you think about it.

What else are you interested in? Please share your thoughts!

Do you have any questions about Smart Playlists? I'll answer them in the comments below!

Here are the links to part 1 and part 2:
How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 1: Tagging
How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating

If you like this post, then check out Swing DJ Resources for more articles for Swing DJs.

Photo credit: sufinawaz

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating

14.10.2011 by Chris

Thank you so much for all the comments and emails you have sent me after publishing part 1: Tagging in iTunes.

I'll post some of the ideas I've got from my readers in a wrap-up post after this small series is finished.

So, let's start with part two.

We need two more parameters to have an idea about the music in our library: the tempo of the song and a personal rating system.

Detecting BPM (Beats Per Minute)

As you know, the tempo is defined in BPM or beats per minute.

Detecting BPM is manual work and it takes a lot of time. By my own experience, all automatic BPM detectors are not useful for jazz/swing music (tell me, if I'm wrong), because they usually only count every second beat. Then you get a number like 96 although the song has 192 bpm.

Helpful Tools to Manually Detect Beats Per Minute

Online Tool

Tap for Beats Per Minute BPM This tool runs in your browser. Just tap any key and get the BPM. Disadvantage: There is no function to write the detected BPM in iTunes.

Tools for iTunes
If you use iTunes as your basic library, then here are some tools for you.

ltjBPM for Mac (link App Store EU). The one I currently use. Very small application window. Standalone tool to detect BPM by tapping a shortcut. Lets you export measured BPM directly in iTunes. Many more functions like skipping to next song, rating, etc. all controlled by shortcuts. Costs: $ 2.99 / CHF 3

Cadence BPM Tapper for Windows & Mac (link App Store EU). Standalone tool to detect BPM by tapping a button. Lets you export measured BPM directly in iTunes. Costs: Free.

Cadence Desktop for Mac (link App Store EU) & Windows. The desktop version. Costs: $ 5.99 / CHF 6

Turnover for Mac (link App Store EU) Another BPM tapper. Many functions, also controlled by shortcuts. Actually, developped by a runner for runners. Costs: $ 4.99 / CHF 5. (Note: I haven't tested the software so far. I you have any experiences, please share them with us).

Rating System

Beside the tagging system, I also have created my own rating system which I would like to share with you today. The rating basically refers to the danceabilty. In other words, when the song gets a bad rating it doesn't mean it's a bad song, rather it's not suitable for swing dancers.

Let's have a look.

***** 5 Stars
Great song for dancing, safe winner, no pre-listening required (by myself as DJ)

****4 Stars
Great song for dancing, pre-listening required/preferred

*** 3 Stars
Average song for dancing, I usually don't play these songs at (main) events. But sometimes, I come back to the 3-star songs, because I need new inspiration or because my music taste has changed in the meantime and I would rate some of them higher now.

** 2 Stars
No-go. I never play this song for a dance crowd (I prefer to give some stars instead of none, so I know that I already have rated the song)

* 1 Star
Duplicate song, I already have rated this song (the higher rated song has usually the better sound quality)

A while ago, I found out that if you copy your iTunes library to a new computer, you loose the star rating. So I started to additionally use the grouping field to write in the rating as figures (1-5). I do this from time to time with bulk modification.

That's it! Now it's up to you again:
Let me know, what tools for BPM detecting and which rating system are you using?

Or do you have any questions about this post? I'll answer them in the comments below!

Here are the links to part 1 and part 3:

If you like this post, then check out Swing DJ Resources for more articles for Swing DJs.

Photo credit: schnaibel

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 1: Tagging

05.10.2011 by Chris

Note: This is a post especially for the subscribers of my Swing DJ Resources Email List.

Some of these posts won't be public in future. So, if you would like to receive ALL the posts, then sign up now in the side bar on the right side or at the end of this post.

Nowadays, tags are very common to organize or sort all kind of information. In marked contrast to many different software products, which allow us to set all kind of tags, iTunes still doesn't provide a tagging system to organize music and media.

This is part 1 of a short series about how you could sort your music in iTunes.

Use of “Genre” Input Field

Let's make a principle decision: We only use the “Genre” input field for tagging.

We don't want to use the comment section to sort our music, this field is reserved for additional informations about the song, such as recording date, line-up, etc.

I know that many DJs use the comment section to define the song: mood, tempo, energy, etc. It's up to you!

Use of Genre Abbreviations

A typical genre label in my music library looks like this:

Jazz Sw Bal NO or Jazz Sw Haw Xmas or Jazz Sw Sl West

As you can see, every label starts with Jazz Sw or Jazz Sw Bal and I use abbreviations to define the genre. While DJ'ing we want to see the genre tab but the visible field should not be too large.

So what do the abbreviations mean?

Jazz is the basic genre of the music we are playing.
Sw Swing is the basic style for the music and for dancing, this automatically includes Lindy Hop.
Bal stands for Balboa or Bal-Swing. As you know, not every song which is great for Lindy Hop is a good Balboa track
NO stands for New Orleans style
Haw stands for Hawaiian style
Xmas stands for Christmas songs

Here are some more ideas:

Bl Blues
Boog Boogie
Char Charleston – I don't use “CH”, because this stands for Swiss music in my library 🙂
Ea Early
Gy Gypsy
Sl Slow
R&B Rhythm & Blues (the early style)
West Western
…

Note: I doesn't mean you have to DJ with iTunes, but many DJ software are drawing on iTunes!

Now I want to hear from you, how do you label your music in iTunes?

Also, do you have any questions about this system? I'm more than happy to answer them in the comments below!

If you like this post, then check out Swing DJ Resources for more articles for Swing DJs

Photo credit: plattmunk