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Equipment can be jokes.

One thing i've noticed is places not giving a flying fuck about people playing on vinyl, like no needles, dodgy tone arms and phono's, pure wonkeyness on the deck. Rinses my head when that occurs, to much love to the cdj's.

ive seen some killer producers dj and they SUCK.

ive seen some djs with radio shows....and they SUCK.

ive seen some cocky djs play live and they SUCK! like....the most annoying thing is going to see someone play, and horrible selection with some horrible mixing. worst. ever.

If anyone was at Glade 07 in the overkill tent on sunday you'll have whitnesed some sloppyness, it was all of the dmz lot, mary anne hobbs and some other dubstep people attempting to mix, sounded terrible. and when coki was finishing some indie looking bloke was showing him how to get two records in time and then glitched it up with a little box thing, coki didnt look amused.

Fair play Rob, but I think we'd need a whole new thread for nightclubs with bad Sound Systems & poor equipment. If it was that bad I'd sack off the set for the sake of professional decency.

PS. Listening to "The Prayer" the other day - lovely tune Sir, can't believe that was 10 years ago.

Rob Sparx wrote:I played a gig more or less sober the other day and had to contend with:

- One deck not plugged in (didnt know this until it was almost too late)
- Crappy old needles with hardly any treble that sounded all wrong
- Weight on 1 needle arm was wrong so sound distorted & needle jumped
- Monitors out of sync so everything sounded like it was clanging - couldn't mix in headphones as they were distorting too much with 2 channels and I didnt know where the volume control was for them
- Dodgy half broken headphones kept cutting out and falling off
- No lights so had to keep putting mobile up to mixing desk

etc etc This wasnt the worst rig id ever played on tho - that had most of the above + 2 broken cdjs and virtually broken monitors it was pure embarassment made me look like a right plum! Fair enough if a DJs clearly steaming and cant mix for shit its not on but plenty of the time its more down to equipment than anything else and there's no way the audience would know that they probably just thought the DJ was shit! Anyone who says they wouldnt find it difficult to mix with all those problems is talking out their arse especially if they're not even a DJ!

haha unlucky mate, it is quite reassuring to know that headline DJs like you have to contend with this sort of thing too though!

Abs wrote:If anyone was at Glade 07 in the overkill tent on sunday you'll have whitnesed some sloppyness, it was all of the dmz lot, mary anne hobbs and some other dubstep people attempting to mix, sounded terrible. and when coki was finishing some indie looking bloke was showing him how to get two records in time and then glitched it up with a little box thing, coki didnt look amused.

I dont remember coki there... overkill was so fucking cak tho because of the rain - which murked everything, esp. in overkill- .

all i really remember from this glade was rain RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN 2bh. It got given the nickname ketamine Auschwitz..... quite fitting I thought.

Last year I was prepared, but the rain didnt come! Eitherway Im prepared for all the new site can throw at me

Abs wrote:If anyone was at Glade 07 in the overkill tent on sunday you'll have whitnesed some sloppyness, it was all of the dmz lot, mary anne hobbs and some other dubstep people attempting to mix, sounded terrible. and when coki was finishing some indie looking bloke was showing him how to get two records in time and then glitched it up with a little box thing, coki didnt look amused.

haha i remember that. was pretty bad. Pinch saved the day..

Bob Crunkhouse wrote:

Abs wrote:If anyone was at Glade 07 in the overkill tent on sunday you'll have whitnesed some sloppyness, it was all of the dmz lot, mary anne hobbs and some other dubstep people attempting to mix, sounded terrible. and when coki was finishing some indie looking bloke was showing him how to get two records in time and then glitched it up with a little box thing, coki didnt look amused.

haha i remember that. was pretty bad. Pinch saved the day..

agreed i recall mah appriopately played mud by loefah tho

i helped clear big puddle at front before pinch came on. Big up the mud shovelllin crew

If you can't match a beat, you shouldn't be playing out(If you use dj software and let it match the beat for you, you should die and have the shit beat out of your corpse). I didn't even think about putting a demo to give to promoters or whoever until I could mix properly.

Even if you're a dope producer, that's no excuse. Learn how to mix or don't play out. I've heard some of my favorite producers play the worst sets ever. I fucking hated every second of it. When they came around again, I didn't go see them for that fact. People will remember your shitty set. Obviously, you're gonna fuck up here and there, but that's a given. With mix cd's and sets for download, they should be near flawless really. If you fuck shit up, start over.

.

Rusha wrote:
everyone makes mistakes and when you are going for a good two hours straight, you cant expect it to be 100% perfect every single time

It's nice to know there is some sympathy!

I played a crap last half hour last night. I'd done 90mins already, an hour of reggae and dub, moving into some dubstep. Then people sort of turned up in the last half hour. I haven't dj'ed dubstep out much at all before. There's massive feedback created by the sub on the needles, I couldn't see the records too well, the pitch faders are calibrated a lot different to my decks at home, and I may or may not have forgot to turn the monitor up

It wasn't all bad, but there were about 3-4 proper clangers, and one of the mixes I'd practiced chopping between two remixes of 'Come Around' went tits up.

At the end of the day, there's a reason I was on at 9-11 and it was a bit of a wake-up call to get a fair few more hours practice under my belt, and I was pissed off with myself that I'd played badly - so it definitely went to heart.


This was a free night, but I'll admit, if I'd paid a lot to see a headliner, or another big DJ, and they were too drunk/blazed to play, I wouldn't be best pleased. The odd clanger happens to everyone though!

I've been djing for around a year now and still havent played out, I dont want to give the crowd a bad time. This has nothing to do with the fact that no one has offered to let me play........

tbh I have heard some quite bad mixing at nights, but as long as its not terrible it doesnt have to ruin the set! Also it is a rare gift to be able to beatmatch instantly every time *cough* oneman *cough* so give a dj a break! I think its also important for a dj to know when its time to give up on a mix and cut the tune out, nothing worse than a dj trying to two tunes in time, full blast, for about 30 seconds

In my experience, I normally have to choose between beatmatching and a good drop, sometimes in a tune there are only a few places to drop a tune so that they will both rise and drop at the same time etc. if you spend a good few bars getting the two tunes in time, you may miss the oppurtunity but at least you know the two tunes are roughly the same tempo!

and abs, my sister loves you

If you own a club i dont think there is an excuse for a poor setup, Not everyone can afford the best but at the very least:

x2 1210's
x2 cdj's (maybe not 6-7 yrs ago but now yes)
x1 4 channel mixer
x2 Monitors (THAT WORK, YOUR WHO YOU ARE)

Im really sorry but i cant see why these things would not come top. A good soundsystem would be really nice but not everyone can afford a Function One.

I know there not everyones favorite place but there is a reason Fabrics / The End (until it closes) / Matter (New Kid On The Block) sell out week in week out and it aint the "Decor"

Even Corsica Studios, not the best looking place by a long way but healthy system / Decks that worked / CDJ's that work and finally (hope your reading future club promoters / Owners) Monitors that are clear.

P.S one more thing

a friend of mine was booked to play on New Years eve and was asked to BRING HIS OWN NEEDLES for his set. Dont know how other people feel but where DJ's....Not mobile disco's.....I should only be supplying myself and my weapons of choice (Vinyl / Laptop / CD's)

Sorry to go on but there is to much sub standerd out there.

I make all my sets sloppy on purpose.

Nah man, I was told early on that a DJ should always bring their own needles....to think I want to use some shit needles that the dj before me probably scrapped across the record 8 times. Bring your own needles, headphones, records, some even bring slipmats...you gotta be prepared for that shit, who wants to show at a gig and then they don't have something you need? I even have RCA's and a bunch of adapters whatnot, in my dj bag.....ya never know!

M2J wrote:
P.S one more thing

a friend of mine was booked to play on New Years eve and was asked to BRING HIS OWN NEEDLES for his set. Dont know how other people feel but where DJ's....Not mobile disco's.....I should only be supplying myself and my weapons of choice (Vinyl / Laptop / CD's)

Sorry to go on but there is to much sub standerd out there.

I would never use house needles.

thedubpanda wrote:i saw The Bug with Flowdan in Glasgow and i can honestly say he didn't mix one track and he was blasting the tunes FAR too loud.....

Selecta - fair play to him - saw him do this at glade - one of the best sets of the festival.

I would much rather have my top producers spent their time making music that spend time brushing up on their beatmatching skills... a clang shows that they're human.

fiziks wrote:If you can't match a beat, you shouldn't be playing out(If you use dj software and let it match the beat for you, you should die and have the shit beat out of your corpse). I didn't even think about putting a demo to give to promoters or whoever until I could mix properly.

Even if you're a dope producer, that's no excuse. Learn how to mix or don't play out. I've heard some of my favorite producers play the worst sets ever. I fucking hated every second of it. When they came around again, I didn't go see them for that fact. People will remember your shitty set. Obviously, you're gonna fuck up here and there, but that's a given. With mix cd's and sets for download, they should be near flawless really. If you fuck shit up, start over.

.

amen!

M2J wrote: P.S one more thing
a friend of mine was booked to play on New Years eve and was asked to BRING HIS OWN NEEDLES for his set. Dont know how other people feel but where DJ's....Not mobile disco's.....I should only be supplying myself and my weapons of choice (Vinyl / Laptop / CD's)

taking your own needles/headphones is standard !!

Ben Freeman wrote:Nah man, I was told early on that a DJ should always bring their own needles....to think I want to use some shit needles that the dj before me probably scrapped across the record 8 times. Bring your own needles, headphones, records, some even bring slipmats...you gotta be prepared for that shit, who wants to show at a gig and then they don't have something you need? I even have RCA's and a bunch of adapters whatnot, in my dj bag.....ya never know!

This.

If you are a DJ and getting paid, it is expected that you are professional. To be a professional, you need your tools. I always bring backups of everything reasonable (needles, RCA's, slipmats, records & CD's, etc), and I have never mixed on the house needles - always switch them out for my own that I know are in good condition.

Everyone does have a train wreck every now & then, it's just a part of it - no one is perfect 100% of the time. It is however expected that you can mix reasonably well I'd think, especially if it's a prime time slot.

Although I do have to say, some of the most fun nights that I ever attended or played at were called "Night of the Drunken Master" which was started after the Jackie Chan movie came out. In order to get on the decks you had to blow a .08 on a breathalizer, so every DJ was pounding shots or beers before their time slot so that they could play. Lots of good mixes, and some crap ones came out of those nights bud damn was it fun.

Oh and I will also say, and I'm sure that I am the minority, but damn rewinds get on my nerves. I have never liked them, and never will. Jungle, DnB, Breaks, Dub whatever - I just don't like it for some reason.