Take a spin with local DJs

Local DJs want to see your "ooohhh" face. That's when DJs knows they're rocking the party and making your night. But they know they have to work for it.

So DJs spend countless hours logging their music, practicing, maintaining their equipment and getting their show together. Then, when they've been playing all night, feeling out the crowd and guiding the party, it might happen: They play the perfect song at the perfect time, and a veritable "ooohhh!" erupts.

"The best feeling in the world is when you hear that because then you know you did everything right," said DJ Natty Heavy. Other cues he likes to see are heads nodding, feet tapping, people coming up to see what he's doing or the point over to the DJ booth.

"You know you own the crowd when it looks like everyone in there is moving in some way, shape or form. And the booty shake is pretty much a guarantee that you're doing all right."

Around Charleston, you can hear DJs at restaurants, art shows, weddings, bars, fundraisers and countless other events. Finding the perfect song for a particular crowd can be tough, though. DJs have to take into account what they think will be best for the party and what people want to hear.

DJ Moo Moo Mack likens it to a give and take that he has to balance. He mixes what the crowd likes with what he wants to introduce to them.

This is a skill that any DJ has to master. Reading the crowd can mean the difference between being a party rocker or a complete disaster. And every DJ has his own insight on how to do that.

"I like to find one person who's already walking into the place and they're nodding their head. My whole set is going to be dedicated to them," said DJ Sonar of the Spaced Invaders duo.

"When people have good energy and they're in a good mood, it's contagious. So that's the person I'm going to play to, especially if it's a girl, because the next thing you know, they're going to get their friends to start dancing. If you're playing to them and they like it, it's just going to be a domino effect. The next thing you know, you have this sort of monster starting to brew up and you just work and work and work and start dropping stuff that you know is going to hit them. ... We call them 'heaters.' "

Dropping the heat is more than just a song, though. It's finding the perfect timing, and it's the creative license DJs take with the beats.

"I think there are three things that can make a good DJ," said DJ Mateo Jones.

"People will love you if you have all the hot tracks, but timing can be just as important. You can take a song that might not be that great, but with the right timing, it could be the perfect song for that moment.

"Then there is technical ability. Creatively mixing songs can make them much more interesting. Tricks like cutting, scratching and juggling can make a set that much more exciting. Any DJ can get by on any one of those things. But a great DJ will be able to combine all three, have great music, play it at the right times and do it in a creative and engaging way."

These days, that can mean a variety of things. There are as many DJs as there are types, genres and subgenres of music. The Spaced Invaders, for example, are multimedia DJs that play and mix visual elements along with the audio on their turntables.

But technology is a two-sided record.

Advancements have led to a DJ's basic equipment being "two turntables and my Mac," as DJ Mateo Jones quipped. He, like many, uses the program Serato on his laptop to play music and his turntables to control it. The perfect blend between old and new, it has become just as accepted as vinyl, as Serato still allows for the feel and manipulation that only turntables can provide.

The real debate now exists between what Alex Rosen, or "Scrunchyface Flatbroke," of the Spaced Invaders calls the DJ versus "turntablist." According to Rosen, anyone who loves music can be a DJ, but not everyone is so broad in his definitions.

"To me, a DJ is a person that understands how to entertain the masses with music, creativity and with his own personal touch," said Moo Moo Mack.

"Anybody can be a DJ, anybody can walk up and put a song on. But the art of DJ-ing is being able to understand the manipulation of the equipment, how to look into the crowd and decipher good from bad, the right song to play at the right time."

Natty Heavy agrees. He does not consider someone with an iPod and a playlist a DJ. In fact, many DJs refer to those guys are "microwave DJs" who just press a few buttons and hit start.

"A DJ isn't the type of person who should just press play. If you can just put on an iPod, why pay a guy?" he said.

"A DJ is someone who can make a show out of the music; turn it into something different than you're used to, string those songs together, make it a nonstop situation. Make the music sound correct. So the rhythms and the BPMs (beats per minute) are all matching you on the right key with the next song.

"All that stuff factors in. And, yes, song selection is a major part. Some guys excel at that, and they can just press play, and some get away with that all the time. I don't necessarily think that makes them a good DJ. I think that makes them a good playlist."