In this guide
Every fall there's a moment when my calendar suddenly turns into a rave map, and this year it's right now. EDC Orlando is about three weeks out, starting at Tinker Field on November 6, and two weeks after that Dreamstate SoCal takes over the Queen Mary Waterfront in Long Beach on November 20 and 21. If you've been telling yourself "this is the season I finally learn to mix," the weeks between now and then are really good timing.
What's actually on the calendar
Orlando Weekly reports that EDC is heading back to Tinker Field for its 15th year, November 6–9, with more than 100 artists across five stages. The names at the top include Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Kaskade, Alesso, Steve Aoki, Alan Walker, SLANDER, Mau P and David Guetta. That's a big-room, high-energy weekend.
Dreamstate is the one closest to my heart, though. I grew up in Innsbruck, and as a teenager I took the train to Munich more weekends than my parents would like to know about, mostly chasing trance and techno. According to EDMTunes, this is the eleventh edition of the trance-focused festival, and it grows to four stages this year, including the new Long Beach Amphitheater, plus a Beatbox art car stage that spotlights local trance artists. There are more than 70 artists in total. Above & Beyond play an Anjunabeats Classics set, ARTBAT, Enrico Sangiuliano and Pegassi make their Dreamstate debuts, and the B2B pairings include Ferry Corsten & Marsh, BT & Matt FAX, and Alpha 9 & Ilan Bluestone. An Anjunabeats Classics set is exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to dig out my old records.
Why a festival is the best DJ lesson you can get
Here's something I tell friends: go to a festival with a "student brain" for at least one set. Stand where you can see the booth. Watch how long the DJ lets two tracks run together, when the low end gets swapped, and how they build tension before a drop. Trance is especially good for this, because the long breakdowns and slow builds make every transition easy to follow.
Then come home and try it yourself while it's fresh. You don't need a club booth to start. You need two decks, a mixer and some patience. Here in Denver, the cold evenings are my signal to move practice indoors, and the right setup depends on how you like to play.
The setups I'd practice on before November
The vinyl route: Pioneer DJ PLX-500 + DJM-450. Trance grew up on records, and nothing teaches you beatmatching like a platter under your fingers. The PLX-500 is a direct-drive turntable with a familiar club-style layout, so the habits you build carry over to pro decks later. It has a line output, so it can go straight into powered speakers, and a USB output lets you record your vinyl to a computer, which is great for finally digitizing those old trance 12-inches. Pair two of them with the DJM-450, a two-channel mixer with features inherited from the club-standard DJM-900NXS2: a Magvel crossfader, Beat FX and Sound Color FX, and a built-in sound card for recording your sets. It also unlocks rekordbox DVS, so you can mix digital files on your turntables with control vinyl (sold separately).
The digital route: Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX10. If you'd rather mix from your laptop, the FLX10 is Pioneer DJ's four-channel flagship controller for rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro. The large jog wheels have color displays showing waveforms and artwork, and the four-channel layout carries over directly to a CDJ and DJM booth. Its Track Separation splits a song into vocals, drums and instruments live, which is perfect for a trance-style moment: hold the pads and melody of one track while the drums of the next one roll in underneath. It even has a built-in DMX output for running lights.
For the long festival weekend (and the hike after): Garmin Enduro 3. I plan every trip around a trail, and a festival weekend is basically an endurance event in nicer outfits. Garmin rates the Enduro 3 for up to 90 days in smartwatch mode and up to 320 hours in GPS mode with solar charging (under its stated sunlight assumptions). It has a built-in LED flashlight, which is really useful for finding your group after the last set, and preloaded TopoActive maps for the Monday-morning hike I always promise myself. It weighs just 63 g, so you'll forget it's on your wrist while you dance.
See you on the dancefloor
Whether you're heading to Orlando, Long Beach or just your living room, this is a great few weeks to fall a little deeper into the music. Catch a set with your student brain on, then come home and chase that feeling on your own decks. Everything above ships from California, with next-day delivery in the continental US, so there's time to practice before the first festival gate opens. Wir sehen uns at the front, near the speakers, of course.
Lukas Weber is one of Frontrow's editorial voices, a character our team writes as to bring an outdoor and electronic-music perspective to the gear news we cover.
