I am a backline tech for a sound & production company that does festivals & clubs AMA

[loverocket]

don't assume someone thinks your song sucks. With a filled dance floor. i'm not letting your song play out…. i'm going to mix and phrase properly to hold the floor. if your into a/b mixing intro's over outro's thats your thing.

Guess who filled your dancefloor dummy?

And I'm not asking you to let the song finish. But you don't chop the break when the crowd is vibing. Or cut a vocal phrase mid sentence. Or mix out before the bassline even kicks in.

I just think it's DJ etiquette 101 to let the last song play. You don't want that to happen to you. Plus sometimes the last song is special for a DJ. Like putting the bow on the present.

You never see it happen at the top of the game. With the famous DJ's.

[sliding down the banister]

Some excellent points made. This one is jumping out at me at the moment:

4. HAVE A BACKUP PLAN. I don't care what your setup is. Have some CD's, have a USB stick, have a freaking iPod to RCA adapter if you must. It doesn't matter if you've never played on CDJ's before. If your macbook gets a drink spilled on it, you pull out your backup plan and own it. Of course you are not going to be as comfortable as your usual setup, but you are prepared for anything and adaptable. and those DJ's make it far.

I love the advantages that DVS systems such as Serato & Traktor bring; but the potential for major technology failure scares the living daylights out of me.

My most recent worrying experience was when I was booked to play a night last month at a small underground club in Beruit. I decided to do the set using Serato; so packed my Macbook, SL2 & some leads, two lots of vinyl & CD encoders & some cartridges. My back-up on this occasion was a USB of enough songs to be able to play a set on CDJs, if something happened to plan A. I caught up with the promotor ahead of the gig & we went to the club beforehand to do a sound-check.

The set-up was a couple of SL1210s [without headshells or cartridges] & Pioneer DJM-900 mixer. No CDJs in sight.

"OK, I thought...the good news is I am well versed in 1200s & the mixer (which I used to own) & I have my own cartridges; the bad news is my USB back-up plan has just gone out of the window."

Problems really began when I could not get the Serato SL2 to work. I spent a good 40 minutes playing with cables, drivers, settings...the works to get it up and running. Absolutely nothing...I just could not get it to work and it is fair to say that I am getting a bit concerned!

My one saving grace, that prevented this night from being a total disaster was my wife and a box of vinyl 45s. I was due to be playing a warm-up set at another [45s only] gig in a couple of days, so I had a box of 90 funk & soul 45s, back in the flat we were staying at. My darling wife, proceeded to jump in a cab and retrieve the vinyl from our room, returning about five minute before I was due to start. I just about managed to squeeze a set from that box!!!

I managed to get the Serato up and running when I was back home a few days later; but I still have not fully worked what went wrong...which is obviously still bothering me.

[dsquareddan]

So I was at movement 2014 last year and they had Hawtin closing the main stage on Sunday night. He was playing his normal minimal run around which can be hit or miss for me but he was really tearing it apart that night, thanks partially to the sound system. As in, this system with these tracks could have replaced an iron lung at 200 feet from the stage.

Monday night (Memorial day, US holiday) they had Carl Cox on the main stage. Guy played what could have been the same set except that it sounded like he only had half the system behind him or something. As such the minimal turned in to monotony and we went to watch Octave One instead.

So, a couple of questions.

I know that Hawtin is rather close with the festival promoters. Is there ever a case where you're told "make sure artist X goes up to eleven, keep the rest at a nine"?

Would the system have been dampened because it was the last night of the festival and it was technically a week night?

Or is this just a case of better use of head room?.. and or a better engineer in the booth?

hey sorry was out working a festival in the woods for the past 8 days. amazing time. Skrillex, Kygo, Pretty Lights, the entire Dirtybird records crew, GRiZ, Zeds Dead, KOAN Sound, Excision, Datsik, Tipper, Big Gigantic, Zomboy, ugh, I don't even remember how many acts I had over the weekend.

To answer your question, it's all speculation from me, but Hawtin might have had his own sound engineer that could dial the system in perfectly for his style of music. I have yet to actually work for either of those 2 guys actually so don't know for certain. But it could have been a different engineer operating the rig on Monday night, or like you said sound restrictions might have been put in place. I've also run into scenarios where a DJ is killing it in terms of music selection, but their volume levels are all over the place. Some tracks are extremely loud and others are a sharp drop in volume. some guys mix both tracks on top of each other with full EQ and it really jumps the master output volume significantly so to compensate, as an engineer when we see a DJ doing that, we first ride the volume faders on the mixing console to counter the changes. but if it continues and is pretty bad we'll compress the signal to even out the dynamic range a bit (but also lessening it). Also, this may not be the case, but in my experience, the DJs that have been doing this for many many years and are considered veterans of the scene are actually pretty much going deaf and push the volume to extremely high levels when mixing which will have some engineers compress that signal to save their speakers from blowing up

[Afterhour Ali]

hey sorry was out working a festival in the woods for the past 8 days. amazing time. Skrillex, Kygo, Pretty Lights, the entire Dirtybird records crew, GRiZ, Zeds Dead, KOAN Sound, Excision, Datsik, Tipper, Big Gigantic, Zomboy, ugh, I don't even remember how many acts I had over the weekend.

Hey Dan, I've been wondering for a while how people react to/perceive Kygo on stage. His sets are pretty downtempo and chill. While its likeable and easy listening I'd imagine that music on a big stage being a bit too boring.

[dsquareddan]

Hey Dan, I've been wondering for a while how people react to/perceive Kygo on stage. His sets are pretty downtempo and chill. While its likeable and easy listening I'd imagine that music on a big stage being a bit too boring.

people were loving it. he played during peaktime of the festival on the last night. I had the same thoughts as you, but our stage (1 of 6) was extremely packed for his set. I don't have much positive things to say about Kygo himself, but I'm going to keep my words to myself on that one.

here's a video
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Sham...3298863088110/

[dsquareddan]

one thing as a backline tech that I seriously wish more DJs would do:

If you use Serato: get on Serato DJ. get the latest update, buy the Club Kit, ditch your SL box & use just a single USB cable into the DJM900 mixer instead and save your SL box for a backup. (this isn't limited to the DJM900SRT model anymore)


If you use Serato & CDJ's: Use HID Mode instead of relying on timecode CD's. seriously, ditch that shit. Get a USB hub & 2 USB cables and be done with it. Don't be afraid to try it on your next gig. it's not difficult


If you use a "large" controller for Traktor: Have you ever instead tried using HID mode on CDJ2000's and the DJM900 as your sound card for Traktor? It's a HELLUVA lot easier to bring 3 usb cables & a hub to a club than lug around a gigantic heavy controller that takes up a ton of space on the DJ booth that most likely already has CDJ's & a DJM mixer. It's cool if you're set on still using Traktor, but you'll look hella boss up there on the standard equipment than lugging around a controller. If you want to use Traktors built in FX grab a small controller like the Kontrol X1


If you use Ableton: USE THE DJM900 AS A SOUNDCARD. download the drivers for the DJM900 here: http://www.pioneerdj.com/en/support/software/djm-900nxs
now when you plug a single USB cable from your laptop into the mixer, it will show up in your audio device list inside Ableton Preferences. choose that, and then choose which channel of the mixer you want as your master output (1/2 is channel 1, 3/4 is channel 3 and so on) or if you want you can mix with up to 4 channels of the DJM900 simultaneously by setting each channel in Ableton's respective outputs to each channel.

If you use CD's: WHY? stop right now. please. go get rekordbox and a USB stick and make your life a thousand times easier. It's not complicated at all
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...0nS2gNau7v8aLm

If you use USB: please use Rekordbox. I see so many DJ's on USB without rekordbox and you're limiting yourself so much on CDJ's. Track waveforms do not load instantly and the BPM is never 100% accurate. everytime I've ran into an issue with a DJ on USB more than likely they are not using Rekordbox. It's a solid piece of software if you use it right (key thing here is don't use your USB stick for anything other than Rekordbox). Bring a backup USB with an exact copy of the first USB. I've seen the ethernet link on CDJ's go mid set. If all your music is only on one USB and there is no link between CDJ's, you're out of luck. Usually it's good. but be prepared in case the link fails or isn't there
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...0nS2gNau7v8aLm

all of this is in the name of making your life as a DJ way easier, less stressful for setup and helping guys like me who setup DJ gear on stages at massive festivals way more confident in that nothing will go wrong.

[loverocket]

one thing as a backline tech that I seriously wish more DJs would do:

If you use Serato: get on Serato DJ. get the latest update, buy the Club Kit, ditch your SL box & use just a single USB cable into the DJM900 mixer instead and save your SL box for a backup. (this isn't limited to the DJM900SRT model anymore)


If you use Serato & CDJ's: Use HID Mode instead of relying on timecode CD's. seriously, ditch that shit. Get a USB hub & 2 USB cables and be done with it. Don't be afraid to try it on your next gig. it's not difficult


If you use a "large" controller for Traktor: Have you ever instead tried using HID mode on CDJ2000's and the DJM900 as your sound card for Traktor? It's a HELLUVA lot easier to bring 3 usb cables & a hub to a club than lug around a gigantic heavy controller that takes up a ton of space on the DJ booth that most likely already has CDJ's & a DJM mixer. It's cool if you're set on still using Traktor, but you'll look hella boss up there on the standard equipment than lugging around a controller. If you want to use Traktors built in FX grab a small controller like the Kontrol X1


If you use Ableton: USE THE DJM900 AS A SOUNDCARD. download the drivers for the DJM900 here: http://www.pioneerdj.com/en/support/software/djm-900nxs
now when you plug a single USB cable from your laptop into the mixer, it will show up in your audio device list inside Ableton Preferences. choose that, and then choose which channel of the mixer you want as your master output (1/2 is channel 1, 3/4 is channel 3 and so on) or if you want you can mix with up to 4 channels of the DJM900 simultaneously by setting each channel in Ableton's respective outputs to each channel.

If you use CD's: WHY? stop right now. please. go get rekordbox and a USB stick and make your life a thousand times easier. It's not complicated at all
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...0nS2gNau7v8aLm

If you use USB: please use Rekordbox. I see so many DJ's on USB without rekordbox and you're limiting yourself so much on CDJ's. Track waveforms do not load instantly and the BPM is never 100% accurate. everytime I've ran into an issue with a DJ on USB more than likely they are not using Rekordbox. It's a solid piece of software if you use it right (key thing here is don't use your USB stick for anything other than Rekordbox). Bring a backup USB with an exact copy of the first USB. I've seen the ethernet link on CDJ's go mid set. If all your music is only on one USB and there is no link between CDJ's, you're out of luck. Usually it's good. but be prepared in case the link fails or isn't there
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...0nS2gNau7v8aLm

all of this is in the name of making your life as a DJ way easier, less stressful for setup and helping guys like me who setup DJ gear on stages at massive festivals way more confident in that nothing will go wrong.

word

[LeeH]

all of this is in the name of making your life as a DJ way easier, less stressful for setup and helping guys like me who setup DJ gear on stages at massive festivals way more confident in that nothing will go wrong.

Some great advise. I put my CD wallet straight in the bin and showed up to my gig at the weekend with my laptop, USB cables and 2 USB sticks (one for backup

The club had a DJM800 & CDJ1000s!!! Didn't end up playing and the promoter set the bouncers on me for wasting his time. I now have a fat lip, black eye and zero chance of getting another booking at the regions biggest club night.

After reading back over your tips I see its only really applicable to stages at massive festivals DOH
Luckily bin collection isn't till Tuesday so I was able to retrieve my CDs. They're covered in bean juice, used tea bags and potato peel but they still work!

[Killing time]

Some great advise. I put my CD wallet straight in the bin and showed up to my gig at the weekend with my laptop, USB cables and 2 USB sticks (one for backup

The club had a DJM800 & CDJ1000s!!! Didn't end up playing and the promoter set the bouncers on me for wasting his time. I now have a fat lip, black eye and zero chance of getting another booking at the regions biggest club night.

After reading back over your tips I see its only really applicable to stages at massive festivals DOH
Luckily bin collection isn't till Tuesday so I was able to retrieve my CDs. They're covered in bean juice, used tea bags and potato peel but they still work!

i used to bring a cd wallet around, but then i just started bringing my laptop + x1 and 2i4 because i hate burning cds.

showing up before the club opens for sound check is also really important for me, it helps me make sure everything i have is going to work. that way if we can't get something going i have a little time figure out the best course of action is.

[LeeH]

i used to bring a cd wallet around, but then i just started bringing my laptop + x1 and 2i4 because i hate burning cds.

showing up before the club opens for sound check is also really important for me, it helps me make sure everything i have is going to work. that way if we can't get something going i have a little time figure out the best course of action is.

If I'd just thrown the wallet in the boot instead of the bin I would have been fine!

Sound checks before the club opens is the way forward, ball ache when the club opens at 9pm and you're not on till 2-4am tho!
I like to show up 2 minutes before am on and try and make it out the club before my last track has finished, makes me feel like a REAL dj.

whats an 2i4?