Bad Digital DJs

[DvlsAdvct]

Hey guys

So this past weekend I had the joyful experience of a stomach virus that decided to only let me move from the bed to the bathroom and back for two days. I had to call out of the 2 year anniversary night of the gig I spin at cause, well, it would have just ended poorly for all.

They had a guest DJ booked. This DJ spins on Traktor. Apparently a nightmare ensued. The night started at 10:00PM. One of the guys that runs the event told him to be there early so they could set his stuff up, and then he could go do whatever he needed (he does audio work for a living, so keeps odd hours). Well, that didn't happen.

He showed up at 12:45AM. He tried to set up his stuff and, lo-and-behold, he has no sound card.

He's running his audio out of his headphone jack.

That's right. He has an RCA cable to 1/8".

Well, he plugs into the DI box to the board, gets nothing. He plugs into the DJ mixer, registers three green bars, five when they max the gain. He consistently blames everything on the venue, the other DJs and says "Why isn't Jared (that's me) here? He could make this work" to which I laugh cause I'd have told him he needed to get out and come back with CDs or an audio interface.

And this guy has a gold record hanging on his wall. It makes me die a little inside.

Another good one.

We book a laptop DJ who spins on a Hercules Rmx controller and Virtual DJ for a Saturday night. He calls me up Friday night (I'm drunk as fucking hell by 9:30) to ask me what kind of cables he needs for the club. I told him what we need on our end (1/4" into the DI box or phono to get into the DJ mixer) but I don't know what's on the back of his controller (I was surprised I was this eloquent while I could barely see).

Saturday he calls me around 6 to double check. Says the back of his controller has 1/4" and Phono. I said stereo 1/4" to 1/4" is easiest. He brought those.

Well, I plugged everything up, he maxes out all his volume and I am having a steady, normal conversation with him on the dance floor. He doesn't know why this is happening. I don't either cause, well, I am not programmed to know every DJ controller on the market. So I play around a little and look at him and say "This is how it's gonna be. Either spin on CDs or it's gonna be soft and people are going to not have fun." I told the guys that run the night, that was that.

He came up to me right before the night started and says "So, the back of the controller says that RCA is +4 and the 1/4" is -10. What does that mean?" I just shook my head and said "+4 is bigger than -10. It's louder". He got a little offended and I shrugged.

So, I left cause, well, I wasn't spinning, my girlfriend looked for parking for two hours and was going to have a nervous breakdown, and I had a headache, so, I got the best of the story the next day. During my friend John's set, VDJ just started looping a sample of "Throw your hands up in the air" randomly. The DJ didn't know it was him, he didn't know was to do, and he hard shut down his laptop.

And this was before he had his set.

So, unbeknownst to our lovely digital DJ, he didn't know that when you restart VDJ it doesn't save your audio settings. So, he restarted the program, fired it up, and away we go.

He starts playing, has his headphones on, and apparently the sound was so bad that people just walked right out of the room. After a quick "fix" it didn't sound like warm, steril death... instead just... well... death. It could only get so loud (cause why would anyone bring different kinds of cables), he did some "mashups" that had no discernible beats, and then he thought he did really well and wanted another gig.

And I have to defend laptop DJs in my scene.

The guys who run the night told me "You're the only laptop DJ we'll let spin here." And I have to do the whole "Well, let them talk to me cause I will make sure they know what they are doing, and will provide the cables just in case, and don't ever book these guys again" dance. It sucks.

So what have your run ins been with embarassingly bad laptop DJs?

[mpetersen3]

how is it possible for someone to become a dj and not know this basic ass shit like what a club uses for audio inputs, and gain stuff (if the person was actually a good dj) and if not (well actually either way) I hate them in advance for the work I am doing to become a decent dj before I even have made a myspace to promote myself (because I'm not nearly good enough). So I am studying and they are out there ruining digital djs reps (which are already bad).

[DvlsAdvct]

exactly!

[killkillkill]

Wow. There were so many opportunities for that guy to get out of the hole, but he just kept digging.

But I guess anybody can n00b out and have a really bad night? Well, maybe not that bad.

The lesson I take from this? Bone up on my CD-DJ skills, just in case.

[darrel855]

I think most of it is these people are producers who want to make some extra cash . So rather than actually putting together a live set they think it'll be easier to call them self a DJ and make a half assed effort at it .

[nicolas]

Been a bedroom dj for a yer or so, would never dare to go out in a gig without asking, just becacuse I DON´T KNOW HOW IT WORKS OUTHERE.
At some point in our lifes we all begginers want to have a gig other than those we give to our friends in our house with our lousy sound equipment. But for this to happen there's still a lot of things to learn, the big risk (and the great advantage as well) for digital Dj ´s is that everyone can try it.
It would be nice to have someone, like the experienced people here, to give us some tutorials about the different kinds of set ups in clubs.
Personally, I don't know much about it.

[DvlsAdvct]

Ean has an article on setting up in a club.

The steps are pretty easy. Plug sound card into DJ mixer (usually phono connection). Just bring different cables (phono (or whatever plugs into your interface) to 1/4", phono to XLR, etc.) and connectors and you're set. And know your gear.

[killkillkill]

I agree. If there isn't already a feature like Nicolas describes, I'd love DJTT to make one. Some kind of walkthrough that includes the sort of setup you're likely to encounter in a club, what you should always bring i.e. cables/gear/stands, maybe some audio parameters.

It'd be pretty helpful in a lot of ways, if only because the DJs who already work in the club may not even know what they're doing, and wouldn't be much help.

[DvlsAdvct]

Honestly, I had to teach all of the DJs at the night I spin at how to use the gear. I had to show them how to use the mixing board, the DI box, their eyes still glaze over when I talk about the difference between the EQ on the mixing board and the EQ on the DJ mixer... how to use gain and volume...

ugh... sometimes I feel like a god

[BentoSan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeevazoXGMg - Setting up digital dj gear in a club by Ean Golden