The Tango DJ – An Unknown Species

I'm Sam from Berlin (well, more precisely just outside it, out in the green). I came to Argentine tango in 2013 and was immediately hooked on the music, the dance and the whole way of life. Here I indulge an important part of my tango hobby: tango DJing. General stuff about dancing, learning and other tango-centred activities like software/database development lives at www.sammy.de. I also run the internet radio station Tango-Radio-Berlin.

Since 2014 I've also been trying my hand — with growing success — at being a tango DJ. Both in my choice of music and in my technical setup, I put an enormous amount of emphasis on good quality and optimal sound. I'm constantly on the lookout for the best recording — for me that means authentic sound with minimal noise or playback artefacts, but without artificial denoising artefacts or added reverb — and for ways to optimise my technical setup. More on the philosophy and the technical setup on their respective pages.

Through my intensive engagement with the subject, I also started giving talks on orchestra studies in 2019 (for example at the Tango Safari Brody and at Mala Junta in Berlin). During the first Covid lockdown in 2020 that grew into a series of more than 20 live-streamed episodes. More on the 'Orchestra Studies in a Nutshell' subpage (work in progress).

On the blog I'll mostly cover all sorts of topics around DJing — a tour through the things I've engaged with, and an overview of the various sources I've found useful over the years.

Last but not least, my upcoming and past 'gigs'. If you'd like to invite me to a milonga/encuentro/marathon/festival, or for a talk, feel free to get in touch via the contact form :-).

From time to time I'll also post some of the setlists I've played (linked from the event name and from blog posts). That serves three purposes — it documents my music choices and how they've developed, it lets me take notes for myself (mistakes and improvements), and it lets others reuse individual tandas or whole lists.