First bar in Paris this saturday...

[bumtsch]

... not feeling the heat yet but I guess it'll come.
I'll play the Tape bar near Bastille with two friends and I'm very much looking forward to it. We'll be playing smooth stuff - from deep house to tech house with bits of disco and funk thrown in.
Mandatory FB whoring here...

This came about after a bit of networking with a friend of a friend who plays every two weeks in several places... sometimes you don't even have to do much to get your foot in the door. I'm pleasantly surprised by this as, not being the most social person, I was afraid I'd never get that going. We're also getting along pretty well so that'll lead to more gigs ... yay.

We set that up a month ago. Been doing my prep work, got my checklist ready, scouted the location for an easier setup. We'll have lots of shit to carry between my mixer and his crates of wax

After having played tag team at home with my main man (timecode vs real vinyl) things are looking even better. I'm glad I'm playing along him as he's had plenty of experience with this in the past.

I'll try and record a quick mix of some of our tunes to add to the event after I get home from work.

[Sherlock Ohms]

Shame - I'm not in Paris till Sunday night ... and even then I'm stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere in Massy ...

(ponders how much a cab to Bastille or St Germain would be ...)

[bumtsch]

Ahh, there - this is the kinda stuff we'll try to sneak in.

[ANok?]

damn I'm gonna be in paris sunday morning around 9:30! Is anything else going on soon? I need to know where to go, I'm gonna be there for 6 weeks!

[ANok?]

anyone else from DJTT gonna be in paris? Maybe a meet up?

[bumtsch]

So, the gig went down pretty well, but with shaky beginnings.

The booking sheet said times would be 21-1:30.

I packed my bags during the afternoon and plopped down there via the underground to setup my DDM4000 instead of their old ratty DJX700 (yuck) in the cramped booth with their decks, inc. laptop stand assembly and all. Took me about 20 minutes, at 20 I met up with my opening mate for dinner not far away... as he added during the day actual playing times would be 22-02.

Now it's about 21, we're done and I have to meet up with my main man to go get the rest of my setup : my bag with vinyls, X1s, laptop and his bigass record bag he left there... while my opener doesn't have his laptop! Anyhow we parted ways, him to get the machine and hopefully to get setup while we're driving through Paris's thick saturday night traffic.
We finally make it with out stuff at about 23... the place is cramped, I already knew that, but it doesn't take that many people in to be even more painful to navigate! It's also damn friggin hot and I had to resort to the age-old cliché of the dj-fanning-himself-with-his-records.
First alarm : the mixer is REDLINED to death. I tell my mate to lower it and get the bar to turn their shit up but.. they can't - they have NO headroom at all. If we stop redlining, the music will be drowned out in the ambient noise... it felt a bit dirty playing this hot. They need to get better amplification (and me to play other places with more appropriate systems!)
No room to have the X1 in a proper position... try using it rotated 90° behind a deck, it sucks when you aren't used to it.

The opener is using my stand so I have to start with some vinyl while he exits.
I mix in (first time on tech12s... LOVE the pitch fader), no issues, the slight change in style turns some heads Mixed in a second record while booting up traktor.
The timecode picks up... but I have NO AUDIO. About a minute left on the 12".

PANIC!

I grab another tool which'll buy me some time and promptly mix it in. It's not quite right but at least there is no cut in the music.
I then figured out what was wrong with traktor - the routing was set to internal, i'd been on asio4all a few hours before messing about with some collection management in the couch.
Played 3/4 more tracks then let my main mate takeover with his stack of latino,groovy vinyl while I make my way out gasping for AIR.
The left deck started having an issue with the tonearm/needle - it sounded a bit off and you should have seen the timecode scope... it looked almost like a moebius strip, the calibration meter was at a constant 50% - still tracked fine but the vinyls came out a bit fucked. (turns out it must be the deck - looks perfect here).
I then finished 0:45-1:35... didn't play that much, next time there I'll play on my own or with just a friend.

We packed our stuff and left afterwards, dj buddies digged it, bar staff digged it, heads were bobbing - no room for dancing though, only me behind the decks and the barstaff

The head of staff came and offered a bottle of whisky (Paddy) as a payment. No cash as the place wasn't too filled up - I wonder how it's like when it's really busy?!

Lessons learned :

*Get a foldable laptop stand. Thomann's millenium stand isn't top notch. the crane stand is too big and heavy (I'm a flimsy geek).
*Get a BIG vinyl bag which can pack all of my stuff - 15,4" laptop, about 20 records, one or two X1s, audio8, ortofon box and cables+power supply and if at all possible, the laptop stand in it too. It has to have a bit of room over the top because in a normal bag, the laptop is either too wide, or too tall, and prevents the bag from closing appropriately.
*Get the smallest surge protector/ground lifting power adapter I can find. I brought one of my power bars but didn't use it , it wasn't needed but I didn't feel too safe.
*check traktor's routing settings before playing.
*double check playing times with a PERSON.
*have a sticker with my handle+links+QRcode on my laptop. I have a sticker from my main man's electro project slapped on for support but then someone came up and wrote down his url while I was playing
*Bring an extra t-shirt - lighter than the one I wear when I play (not like the one I wrapped my mixer in).
*Put 3 vinyls aside for for changeovers, not two.