CSFont's Alternate Universe & Arbitrarium: DJ Notes

If you are a DJ, or curious about being one, here are some helpful hints.

• If you're not a DJ, but would like to be one, you can apply to be one. If you are unable to follow instructions, then You have no chance to survive make your time.
  • If you have fewer than 256 artists/performers in your collection, your selection is too limited, in my opinion.
  • If you have fewer than 1024 tracks in your collection, your selection is too limited, in my opinion.
  • If your tracks are not legally acquired, they cannot be used on CC Radio.
  • If you don't have a microphone, you are unlikely to appear on CC Radio.
  • If you lack positive reputability in the Collective, you are unlikely to appear on CC Radio.
• Being a DJ is not a popularity contest. If you take it as one, you will be disappointed.
• You must be cognizant of the rules.
• You should occasionally record and listen to segments of your own shows, especially to check on volume issues (see below), mic quality, etc.

These are what I consider to be the top DJ issues:

• Mic volume too low.
  • DJing should, at its best, be an interactive experience for listeners.
  • Listeners should be able to hear you when the music is at a low to moderate volume. They might be at work, or at school, after all. But they still want to hear YOU, the DJ.
  • Thus, your typical mic volume should be high enough that it is at least as loud as the music you are playing.
  • You can check your levels in the plugin. If, when you are speaking, your average levels are similar to those in your music, that's great. Don't forget to record your shows and play them back to double-check.
  • If you are getting plosive pops when your levels are right, consider getting a foam screen or wrap for your mic. It's better to put up with plosive pops than to not be audible, though.
  • In my opinion, most DJs continue to have this problem -- even ones who have been DJing for a long time.
• Volume variances among songs.
  • Your listeners should not have to adjust the volume in the radio widget more than once, when they first start listening to your show.
  • Current recording production for popular (Top 40) music tends to make songs very loud, at the expense of dynamic range. If you only have these kinds of songs, you won't have much of a problem, but you also probably won't make a very good DJ. If you mix these with older songs that have some subtlety to them, the older songs will sound too quiet.
  • If your player supports Replay Gain tags, make sure they're in all of your tracks, and use them.
  • WinAmp supports Reply Gain tags, if present. Turn on support by going to General Preferences, Playback, Replay Gain. You may need to use another program (like foobar2000) to generate the Replay Gain metadata.
  • iTunes has Sound Check, but this may only work when you're playing back in iTunes.
  • Alternately (and this is what I do), you can run all of your tracks through a program like mp3gain so that they all have similar relative volumes, even if a player doesn't support Replay Gain or other normalization tags. Your tracks become portable to any device. I use the -c -r flags on FreeBSD. Your platform might have a slightly different way to specify those options.
  • Again, once you have set yourself up, TEST YOUR SETTINGS with a loud song and a soft song. Record your test and play it back for yourself.
• Leftover tags for initial song.
  • This is a comparatively minor issue, but it's very easy to fix.
  • When you start your show, you should not already be playing a track (that you care about), because if you do, the radio balloon will display the metadata for the last track played by the previous DJ. This makes you look silly, and will have listeners asking you "Was that really The Sex Pistols? It sounded like Lisa Hannigan."
  • The balloon will not update until the track metadata changes -- usually because the track changes.
  • Since this problem is so common, when you end your show, you should help out the next DJ by playing an ending track with generic metadata, so that listeners are not entirely confused about what track is playing.
  • This 10 second track of silence works well as a show opener/closer. It has generic metadata that shows up as "CC Radio / The Sound of the Casual Collective." It was created in Audacity.