DJ & producer role-play

[socrates]

This guide is just a small glimpse in the life & career of a DJ and(or) a producer. This is not something to follow 100%, depending on what music you mix, or produce, and how your character behaves - if it's just a hobby, that goes on and off from time to time, for a full time career that takes all of your time.

I will share some gear that might be useful to roleplay, and some generally thoughts I believe any DJ and(or) producer should focus on.

 

This guide is purely informative and I hope it would help actual DJs on GTA W to put more work into their careers. 

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understanding the concept:

DJ

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A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile DJs (who are hired to work at public and private events such as weddings, parties, or festivals), and turntablists (who use record players, usually turntables, to manipulate sounds on phonograph records). Originally, the "disc" in "disc jockey" referred to shellac and later vinyl records, but nowadays DJ is used as an all-encompassing term to also describe persons who mix music from other recording media such as cassettes, CDs or digital audio files on a CDJ, controller, or even a laptop. DJs may adopt the title "DJ" in front of their real names, adopted pseudonyms, or stage names. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_jockey) 

Now we'll have a dive into every type of work DJs can perform, and what your roleplay and character development it should be. 

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Club DJs, commonly referred as DJs in general, play music at musical events, such as parties at music venues or bars, clubs, music festivals, corporate and private events. Typically, club DJs mix music recordings from two or more sources using different mixing techniques to produce non-stopping flow of music.

One key technique used for seamlessly transitioning from one song to another is beatmatching. The quality of a DJ performance (often called a DJ mix or DJ set) consists of two main features: technical skills, or how well the DJ can operate the equipment and produce smooth transitions between two or more recordings and a playlist; and the ability of a DJ to select the most suitable recordings, also known as "reading the crowd".

 

Generally speaking, if you plan to roleplay a club DJ, is a full time job - there's little to no time to have another commitment if you want to do this properly, because in real life, a club DJ spends hours and hours searching for music (called digging), spends time with promoters, managers, goes from one event to another, and basically dives into music their entire time.

 

You should focus on developing a character that goes from a hobby to a full-time DJ, going from one gig per month, to three or four gigs per week. Your entire life is surrounded by music, even if it's hip-hop, electronic, reggae, and so on, your entire focus is on this. A full time DJ means that you're interested in music a lot, and you do what you love, so this shouldn't be a problem. No one became a well known DJ over night, so it might take time and hard work to get there. 

 

Your main focus should be playing the music for your events, but also roleplaying it properly - look at videos of DJs, how they act, what they do, check out interviews to take a look inside their mind, see how they think, how they feel about music. Your DJ roleplay doesn't stop when the music stops, but it continues in the backstage or backroom, at afterparties, what people you meet, what are your connections, your emotions toward music and so on. There's no stop here, you can go wild.  

 

Searching for music and for promoters or booking agents should be a concern when you're a beginner. It would be difficult for you to find events, giving the fact that no one knows you and they most likely never heard your mix. You should invest time in that.

 

With time, you would be eventually famous enough so people would contact you, not the other way around, in which case, you have some sort of a stable job, if you want to put it that way - but remember, DJs at first are just some persons that are passionate about music, they don't care about the financial side. With time, your character would have some intake from these events, depending on how famous you are, how big is the crowd, how many hours you are playing - this is what defines your fee. 

 

I can go hours speaking about this, but what I wrote should sum it up - if you have any questions about it, please contact me. 

 

 

 

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Radio DJs or radio personalities introduce and play music broadcast on AM, FM, digital or Internet radio stations.

 

A radio DJ is different from a club DJ - they not only play music, which is more commercial, but they are radio hosts which will have podcasts, broadcast news, and have little fun games on the radio. Their job is  to be up to date with the new commercial music, also with the news, and most likely be like a journalist - Here's a great guide made by @Sal - ACCESS  - this should give you a better look about journalism and roleplay.

 

As a radio DJ or host, you should consider this to be a full time job, where you have a 'nine to five' work schedule, and you meet great people. Sometimes it's no longer your job to look for music, make connections, or even invite people - that might be the case of the radio itself, so you're just an employee that hosts a show, or maybe an hour of music, depending on what you want to do. 

 

You might have to prepare questions for your guests, and interact with them more than you'd interact with music, but this depends on your radio and what are you looking for - either it's a music radio or a news radio. 

 

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A resident DJ performs at a venue on a regular basis or permanently. They would perform regularly (typically under an agreement) in a particular discotheque, a particular club, a particular event, or a particular broadcasting station.

 

A resident DJ should only be part of a club after they had numerous gigs, on the course of months of years, and the crowd loves them. When it comes to roleplay, if you're a resident DJ, things are much simple for you in terms of payments and money, but you still have to go through digging(looking for music), but it would come with less networking - you already have stable events, so it's no need to look for promoters or booking agents every time. It's like a stable job.

 

Everything that's written for every type of DJ can be used as a resident DJ, this is just a status more than anything new - you have a stable place where you can place music.

 

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Actual roleplay & steps: 

 

Music selection -  This is the most important part - what your tracks would be. Selecting the right tracks will dictate how the crowd will act, and how your mix will sound. Choosing the wrong tracks, people might be bored, and you'll end up with an empty dancefloor. This is done by your own choice, you can look at DJ track lists online to have a better understanding of that, if you want.

 

Beatmatching - this refers to your synchronization between two tracks. Usually, only one track is playing, when the DJ will do beatmatching of the second one, and eventually will play it over the song that's playing for the audience. As a DJ, you'll be the only one hearing the beatmatching, because you'll have just one track up, while you 'prepare' the second one. This is the case for both DJ players and turntables (I'll explain later) - this is a key step for a DJ, this is basically the creation of a mix, to be able to beatmatch two songs that are somewhat in the same BPM (beats per minutes) range - I'll leave a link at the end to take a quick look.

 

Knowing your gear - It's very important to know the gear that you're working with. Usually, clubs come with 2 players Pioneer CJD 2000 - these are the ones that play the music, one song from each player, and you can use either CDs, USB stick, or USB card to load your music from. Basically, these are digital turntables. 
Also, your mixer - this one is important because it helps you either play, or not play, your tracks - Usually mixers have 4 channels(1 channel for one CDJ or turntable). They have a lot of effects that you can use to spice things up a bit. Usually, clubs have either a Allen & Heath Xone: 92 or a Pioneer DJX 900 . Of course, clubs can have any other gear that's out there, but these ones are the most used ones. I will leave you useful links for tutorials to understand how these work - it's quite complex and it's much more easier for you to look at a video. 

 

How much money would I make as a DJ? - This depends on what you play, where, and how famous you want to be. Some people might want to stay in the underground culture and have a low income, while working as a bartender or any job that will pay the rent and the food. Some people will go famous, making more money than a person can spend. This is a subjective matter, you can ask for $2000 for a gig, or $200.000 - this is why your character development is important, because you'll need to decide how famous you want to be, how much networking you need to get there, and eventually, how much money you'll make. At first, your events will probably pay just enough money to buy some food and maybe invest more back into the music, but with constant gigs, you'll be able to afford to pay rent, eventually buy yourself a place, and so on. Go wild, it's your own musical career, so you're the one deciding.

 

What is a booking agency and how does that work - A booking agency is basically an agency that gets you all the gigs. They discuss with the clubs, they set everything for you, you just have to come and play your music, but at a cost. Usually, booking agencies ask between 15 to 30% of your fee, so this depends on you if you want to be independent, and go from one club to another to find gigs, or if you let someone else take care of that for you, while paying some money. Usually, unknown DJs don't have a booking agency because no booking agent has heard of you, so it would come later on your career, once you're pretty known and you've had a couple of gigs.

 

 

The most common steps would be for you to do this as a hobby first, get your first couple of gigs, then eventually move on and do this as a full time job, asking more money for your DJ sets, and evolve constantly. This is very diverse, it depends on what you want to achieve here - fame, money, or just to keep it simple and as a hobby. 

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What music to play & final words

This is up to you - you can go either for hip-hop, electronic, or whatever you want. It's the same career guide for all, which is not restricted to the phases that I wrote in here. Your DJ career can go much more in depth but mainly your focus should be the way you interact, behave, and how much time do you spend for this. You can always look at DJ interviews or documentaries, to have a better understanding  - this is a small guide to show you the basics. 

 

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Useful links: 

 

1. How to beatmatch(CLICK ME)
2. PIONEER CDJ 2000 TUTORIAL
3. XONE 92 TUTORIAL
4. DJ DOCUMENTARY 1
5. DJ DOCUMENTARY 2

 

 

*This tutorial might be edited to add more information - feel free to PM me if you think something was left out. I did my best to explain how to roleplay and behave like a DJ, and how people should do it on GTA W - I really hope that people will eventually consider being a DJ as a full time character and develop it properly, rather than playing music here and there and only enjoy the money - it's a beautiful journey if you're really passionate about music. 

*I know this roleplay is very niched but I'm hoping that whoever wants to do this, will have a look here and be more confident about it.

Edited April 5, 2022 by SOCRATES
addon 1

[socrates]

Reserved for producer guide, will be uploaded later on. 

[socrates]

Reserved for gear pictures. 

[Welsh]

As someone who has been a DJ for decades and IG, this is a very useful guide. Thanks for putting it together

[socrates]

On 6/10/2022 at 3:35 PM, TotalDeeJay said:

As someone who has been a DJ for decades and IG, this is a very useful guide. Thanks for putting it together

Glad to see people enjoying this - I find it sad that most of the people IG don't even bother to roleplay a DJ, but stream a mix or a radio and grab the money. I'd love to see more dedication towards this at some point. 

[Welsh]

33 minutes ago, socrates said:

Glad to see people enjoying this - I find it sad that most of the people IG don't even bother to roleplay a DJ, but stream a mix or a radio and grab the money. I'd love to see more dedication towards this at some point. 

I am glad that I could find an output for my own creativity, and also be able to still use my external gear 

[Chipsdose]

@socrates Can't read black on black in dark mode.

[socrates]

2 hours ago, TotalDeeJay said:

I am glad that I could find an output for my own creativity, and also be able to still use my external gear 

glad to see people using their own gear. What you got? 

 

2 hours ago, Chipsdose said:

@socrates Can't read black on black in dark mode.

switch to normal mod, dark mode is bugged anyways. 

[Welsh]

16 minutes ago, socrates said:

glad to see people using their own gear. What you got? 

 

switch to normal mod, dark mode is bugged anyways. 

My 11/12 year old Numark Mixtrack Pro, still works a charm, I also remapped most of the buttons too