With the Inter-IIT Cultural Meet being just a few days away, all cult sections are busy practising away. Watch Out dropped by each section of the Cultsoc to get a sneak peek into their practise regime and to find out their expectations from the meet.

What are the events under your section in the cult meet?

The only event that the audio section is managing is the DJ Battle which is introduced for the first time in the cultural meet.

What is a DJ battle?

Basically,the job of a DJ is to play music according to the mood of the crowd,There are a lot of techniques to accomplish this and different DJs use different ones. For example, club DJs try to stick to the mood of the public and raise the tempo of the songs being played. Then there are turn tabelists, radio DJs who play theme specific songs or a playlist. Since this is a competition, the participants will be judged on several criteria like scratching, faders, the techniques we use, and so on. The interaction with the crowd would be a major factor in judging.

Will the competition have a crowd dancing to your beats?

Basically we’ll be facing a crowd and their reactions will be the basis of the points that we get.

Will the crowd will be casual or staged?

The crowd will be the general populace from all of the IITs. We expect a heterogeneous public since the competition will be on the UG floor.

Tell us about your practice sessions for DJ battle.

We are preparing specific mixes that we’ll be performing there. I, for example, will be using a launchpad in my performance. It helps in building a drop or mixing songs and it gives a beat to the music.

What goes behind all the preparations for the competition?

First, we decide what type of songs we want. Some attention also needs to be paid to the beats-per-minute (BPM) of the songs. You cannot mix any two songs randomly. They must have the same BPMs. There has to be a connection between the songs that we are mixing, and the list is prepared accordingly. We can also arrange songs in a way so that the public can feel the tempo rising, having it start off slowly and then pacing till the major drop comes. Then, we also have to take care of the mood. We have to give time to the crowd to relax, so the songs cannot be too fast and there have to be moments in the mixes where we can actually interact with the crowd. So, these are things we try to manage behind the walls.

What is the contingent size?

There can be at most two members in a team, and two teams from each IIT are allowed.

You need a lot of instruments for DJing. What was the technical support you received from the inter IIT team and the administration?

We have a controller which is similar to the DJ system that will be provided in the competition. We give commands, and the system performs actions accordingly. However, it will be a challenge in switching to the actual system from the controller.

What were the challenges you faced while practicing?

The actual DJ setup is quite expensive so we won’t be provided with that. We will be given a specific instrument a day before the actual competition and 1 hour practice slot is allotted for every team. So, we’ll only have that time for practice on the actual system we will be using.

What are your expectations from the competition?

We are expecting a boost in the section name after the competition. It’ll also be a great experience for us, along with providing a much needed exposure.

How is the DJ culture in other IITs?

Since the setup is really expensive, it is not very popular. However, most people are really into DJing on an individual level.

Any ending remarks or message to the incoming teams?

I would like to wish them luck. Although we are suffering from a lack of technical support, but we certainly hope to give them the time of their lives.