From DJ to Producer: What’s the Difference?

The term ‘DJ/producer’ is an increasingly common sight within the DJ world. In fact, it’s become such a standard that even some beginner-DJs have been tempted to add ‘producer’ to their list of skills. It’s getting to the point where people might naturally start confusing one for the other. Are they the same thing? In this blog we explain why these two skills are very different and where they might overlap.

DJ vs. Producer

Ok, so you’ve just bought yourself a complete DJ setup or controller and you’re already busy learning the ropes. Mixing one track with the next comes easy to you and your newly developed skills haven’t gone unnoticed: people are already asking you to DJ at parties. The next step? Make a page on your chosen social media platform so people can find you and reach out to you. For said page, you’re going to need a few things. The first is your DJ name, your contact details, of course, and maybe a little info about yourself. Because you’ve seen it everywhere already and it sounds good, you slip in the adage ‘DJ/producer’. What it actually means is irrelevant at this point, right? Well, it might be wise to find out what it actually means, just so you’re not messing with anyone’s expectations.

The Deejay

Naturally, you’re free to write whatever you feel the need to on your page, but be aware that it might mean that you’re going to be asked to do some things that you just don’t know how to do. In the most literal sense of the term D.J., which stands for disc jockey, refers to someone who is able to play music in such a way that each track smoothly transitions into the next (so it’s not to be confused with a radio DJ who also brings some presentation skills to the game). So far so good. That’s something you can do. You spend all of your spare time preparing your sets at home, trying new things out and, now that you’re a seasoned bedroom DJ, it’s time to step outside and find your audience. What will you need to get the job done? A DJ controller and some software, an all-in-one controller, or a pair of decks and a mixer.

The Producer

Before we get into it, we need to make another distinction. If you’re one of those people who helps bands and artists to bring their work together in the studio, making sure that the instrumentation and sound of each song on the new album has a clear, discernible thread running through it all so that the final track list hangs together perfectly, then you are a studio producer. This is not the kind of producer we’re talking about here. While the kind of producer we are talking about still deals with the interweaving of different instruments and the overall sound of a track, we’re talking about the kind of producer who is not only the writer, but the arranger, the executive and the ultimate boss of their musical work.

Swoooosh!

Great, now we’re getting somewhere. With the first big difference clarified (a DJ plays music while a producer writes music) we can go a little deeper into the role of a producer. The equipment that goes into being a producer also differs from that of an off-the-shelf DJ. To write and produce music, you’re going to need something that you can use to generate beats, melodies and all of the details like ‘swoosh’ noises and maybe even some vocals. You can get a lot of it done using virtual MIDI instruments or even by recording real instruments. You could also hire in some help and find a good vocalist. Once you’ve reached the point where you have one good track or a whole album of them, you can also reach out to other producers and musicians to set up a collab. Remixes also fall into the terrain of the producer, since the skill of remixes essentially involves a deep edit and even rearrangement of the original track. To do all of that, the average producer is going to need some kind of MIDI equipment, a drum machine, at least one synthesizer, an audio interface, some kind of DAW software and a microphone.

Doing the Splits

As a producer, there might come a time when, following the release of a couple of tracks, someone asks you to come and play ‘live’. Unless you’re an especially gifted multi-instrumentalist, you’ll usually take on the challenge armed with a DJ setup and maybe some extras, like a drum machine, a synthesizer and some external effects. However, your body of work to date may consist of nothing more than three tracks, so you’re going to need to bulk up your ‘live’ set by mixing your work with some tracks that the crowd already knows. This is the sweet spot. This is the moment when the producer steps over a fuzzy boundary to meet the DJ. There are plenty of artists that exemplify this crossover, including Avicii and Martin Garrix. It can also work the other way around, where DJs who start out playing other people’s work and then step over into the world of production. Artists that have done exactly that include Hardwell and Tiësto. So, if you can safely say that you can both DJ and produce, feel free to leave that little adage on your Insta page. And if you can’t, who’s stopping you from leaving it there, right?

What do you think? Is there another massive difference between DJing and producing that I’ve left out? Let me know in the comments!