Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ!

I would like to open this post offering a tribute to Tim Bergling, better known as Avicci, DJ and producer, who died recently - April 20th. He had already performed here in Recife in 2011. Avicci was already experiencing some health problems. Acute pancreatitis, acquired in part from excessive consumption of alcoholic. Particularly I did not know his work and I saw cool things like

For a Better Day, "Wake Me Up" and Hey Brother. Fuck Joe, you come with a post about DJs and did not know the guy? True ... I confess. By a sad coincidence he came to die exactly when I decided that this would be the subject of this post. 

The DJ's family published an official note suggesting that the artist committed suicide:

" Our beloved Tim was a seeker, a fragile artistic soul searching for answers to existential questions. An overachieving perfectionist who traveled and worked hard at a pace that led to extreme stress. ‘When he stopped touring, he wanted to find a balance in life to be happy and be able to do what he loved most – music. ‘He really struggled with thoughts about Meaning, Life, Happiness. He could not go on any longer.

‘He wanted to find peace. Tim was not made for the business machine he found himself in; he was a sensitive guy who loved his fans but shunned the spotlight. ‘Tim, you will forever be loved and sadly missed. The person you were and your music will keep your memory alive. ‘We love you, Your family.". And the letter from his wife/girlfriend, man, made my eyes sweat.

And for you people that thinks a DJ is just a guy who stands there in front of a table full of little buttons and lights, with a vinyl in a record player to rub with his hand, making those little noises that do not even can write in onomatopoeia, you need to know more about their work.

It is no wonder that in 2013, at the beginning of the year, the profession of DJ - or Disc Jockey - was recognized, among others, by the Ministry of Labor (in Brazil) and included in the CBO - Brazilian Classification of Occupations. I guess in English would equivalent to the IRS Business Classification. With this, the professional DJ could be included in several other public agencies, such as INSS, Brazilian IRS (for income tax declaration), Healthcare Bureau, etc. Currently Law 2081/15 by Deputy Vicentinho (SP), establishes that the professional DJ must be approved in a technical course offered by schools duly accredited and recognized by the Education Bureau (MEC), with a minimum working load of 800 hours-class. The requirement is dismissed for those who already practice the profession for at least five years from the date of publication of the law.

The proposal also imposes other requirements. The DJ must be at least 16 years old; finish or be in high school; and be Brazilian citizen born or naturalized. Foreigners may work in Brazil, provided that the stay in the national territory does not exceed 60 days. (Source: Agência Câmara News)

Foreign DJs continue to have the right to perform in Brazil, but not for more than 2 consecutive months. The Project is still under discussion in the Plenary House.

I can say that DJ work is not at all simple because I tried (and I'm trying to) do something very basic, like creating a playlist to play at a party. I chose the 70's theme, but without the fussy of Disco or Brazil “Jovem Guarda”. Only Funk (for Gods sake, not the one from Rio de Janeiro), Soul and R & B. From bands of the 70s to the present, with some self-produced remixes (hand claps for me).

Here comes the first difficulty. Choose the songs, the right time to play them and the transition between them. You just can’t pick some songs that you find cool and save in your Spotify playlist or on your the pen-driver. You have to have the nimble to put them in a coherent order. I mean, in the beginning of the party, something lighter, so you are going to set it up. Then you begin to put things more animated, popular, that the people generally know, until reaching the apex, with those songs that everyone knows and dance. It gets warm again and so goes up, graduating through the night. Simple, right? But not... First you pick a lot of songs randomly. This first filter is the songs that are candidates to enter in the set list. After that you will listen again, one by one, but this time putting them on a sequencing. Finally you create a playlist in the order that you set the songs. Two lists, because you're going to have to make the transition between songs. So, the DJ's job, however basic is your task, is not just about getting on stage in front of the mixing table at the night.

John Steventon (http://www.recess.co.uk/) quotes a very interesting thing: We can divide into three categories those people who adventure as DJs. Those who love music, those who want to make money and those who think that being a DJ is cool and they want to be famous. If you love music and are a good DJ - and lucky - you can get rich and famous. But most importantly: love the music!

The next level is to make your own remixes. You need a lot of practice to do that. I spent a couple of days to produce this disgusting mix of "The Guitar Man" from Bread with the Cake version, using VirtualDJ. Of course, a CDJ (Table used by the DJs) helps a lot in the remixes. 

The problem is that a reasonable (one-sided only image of VirtualDJ) costs between $7,000 and $12,000. So, we’re talking in more than R $ 15,000 to set up a simple discotheque table, with only two CDJs.

And the third stage of the supreme DJ is the creation of the songs themselves. It is to record sounds and combine them to create a song. Or create a song where some singer will put his voice, as Bronken Arrows of AVICII, which has as singer Zac Brown. Netflix has a cool movie that portrays this: We Are Your Friends

Also there are some algorithms that identify whether or not a song will make success, and in my projects there is an algorithm to identify good songs to play at parties. By identifying patterns by style, it will search for songs with the same patterns. I can use the Python librosa library for this. And some other libraries to access Deezer or Spotify. It will search for songs with similar patterns and lists them.

The result of this adventure in the world of discotheque was that I did not organize the set list for the supposed party theme 70's Soul. I just selected some songs, but everything was out of order. I met many new DJs and noticed the hard work they do. They do not take their eyes off those little buttons and CDJs. I did not buy, nor will, a CDJ module. I found that mixing songs is very messy. I bought John Steventon's book DJ for Dumbies. And I'm going to try to go forward with the algorithm issue for DJs. Here one of the cool things I have known during my researches: