I play from 10:30 to 3 on friday and saturday night this past week end and I would like to share some of my experience and pose a few questions for the vets kicking around here.
I started a residency in April. I play Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at a dance lounge in St.John’s NL called Escape. Its pretty sick. I have done 3 nights so far and I held the place together while getting commended on my capabilities. I’m looking forward to having to mix 15 hours a week and it paying rent. More importantly, the 15 hours of mixing a week.
Heres this weekends scenario:
2 CDJ800’s where at the club for me to use. I brought along my Denon X120 because the mixer provided to me last time was a little beatin’ behringer and it was just less stress to bring mine along.
Once I setup I start playing various random songs waiting for the place to fill up. 2nd tune in the pitch fader on one of the cdj is toast. You increase by a fraction and the pitch jumps around by 2 or 3%. Luckily I had my X1 and 95% of my music beatgrided so I ended up having to use the sync in traktor to mix. Everyone who turned out had a blast, I think 120 bodies went through and heard me so thats pretty good I think.
What would you do in a situation where the club equipment isnt up to standards and you had no pitch control without the option to use software?
How do you divert people who insist that you uninstall traktor mid-set and install Scratch live and start using it because it was sent from a higher power?
I feel not even using the dvs anymore and running X1+mixer. There were a couple times that the RCA’s needed to be switched out and the CDJ’s wouldnt store the cue properly on the timecode cds.
I got a lot more dancing in once I decided to stop relying on the CDJs.
What do you say?
Bad CDJ’s+DJ playing upstairs bleeding into the downstairs DJ booth+small amount of protection from whoever wants to approach me+more dancing= sync?
Do you have a good relationship with the owners/promoters?
You divert those people by ignoring them. shrug Or tell them to grab you after the gig. Or put your headphones on and give them the “One sec, I’m mixing” and don’t take the headphones off until they leave.
Then stop relying on the CDJ’s.
Use Sync whenever you want. Someone tells you you’re not DJing, well, they probably aren’t a DJ. Or at least one that matters.
When you aren’t playing in super upscale places, or sometimes when you are, but the guy who bought the equipment is well… less than savvy, it can be rather annoying to have to troubleshoot equipment issues mid set.
After a lot of soul searching (lol) I have come to my perfect setup. Because I only ever mix two tracks together, I have a lot of options on my X1. I have re-done the way the X1 handles pitch control, and I like using my X1 for pitch control better than any CDJ pitch fader I have ever used now.
I do religiously beat grid my tunes, and I have the option of using sync in various ways to take some pressure off the transition if I am failing on the beat-matching, but I don’t like to use it all the time.
I also find using a single midi controller for ALL my controls inside traktor, including everything I need on the deck, I have completely eliminated the need for DVS, at least for myself. And that makes setup, and transitions SO MUCH EASIER. Just one set of RCA’s to hook up, and I don’t have to disconnect the CDJ/TT’s from the serato box, or the mixer to go into my sound card.
I know the people leasing the place, but they wouldn’t keep me there if I didnt keep up. A couple of guys have already been bumped off the call back list and they told me they wanted me for the resident guy.
I was actually mixing with my headphones on most of the night because I didnt have a monitor/hear the floor properly.
I cue up the track on either 100% cue or 50/50 in the headphone, then when I go to mix the track it I roll it back up to 100% master. I dont even know the model of my headphones. They are Denon. Now that I’m thinking of it. It seems that after a year of use the leads seem to be worn down to a loose connection. I have to check the warranty.
I think I have enough confidence in what I can do now that I dont care how people feel about the way I choose to mix. Its winning, basically.
If you know the people and they like you, try talking to them about purchasing better equipment. Nothing extreme, and if you’re willing to use your own computer based gear, just see if they’ll puchase a new mixer and possibly get that CD deck fixed, y’know?
And, at that, see if they’ll hook you up with a speaker of some sort for a monitor. Granted, if you’re in the open then headphone mixing might be the easiest.
on the cdj… did you make sure that the tempo button was set to normal (8%) and not set to wide? if it was set to wide, the tempo will increase 2-3% with very little fader movement
nope this motherfucker looked like you took a piss on it three times
It was clearly, messed up.
They have a DJM-400, but part of this clubs thing is having two different DJ’s on each floor.
Upstairs has events going on, and I keep downstairs going with top 40 ish tunes. “club house” haha
The upstairs guys get the door if there x number whatever and I am just getting a flat rate.
Nothing too much now, I’m just starting. I’ll take all the sub-par gear as experience right now. Its good to know when everything falls apart that you prepared enough to keep anyone from finding out.
I just need another 100 new songs to have a very comfortable list to pick from.
I have two midi fighters on the shelf as we speak. I dont want to use a stupid usb hub out though. 1 midi fighter and an X1 run off the same usb if I got one of them “biconnector” usb cords?
Moral of the story is:
It 2011,
If everyone is so worried about being original why should you worry about how you do things if your getting shit done.
Sync wont replace beatmatching, just like Jon Jones wont replace Shogun, but he sure as hell beat the shit out of him!
I guarantee the vast majority of people in a club do not give two shits how music is being played/mixed, just so long as it is, goodstyle.
I really don’t see what the problem is with people using sync and urge you to not let it be an issue, especially seeing as yours and their night went better once you eliminated any problems from tying to do the opposite.
Look at this way. If you’re stressed about the beatmatching being a problem because of the equipment, that stress will roll over from tune to tune and it’s all you’ll be concentrating on and trying to sort out whereas using sync, not only will that stress be non existent, you’ll have more time to plan ahead, see what is or what isn’t working on the floor and hopefully give you chance to get more creative with effects, loops or whatever.
Hell, you’ve even got time to dance and show them that yes, you are in control!
I gave up on DVS when I realized that was a possibility. Anything that complicated, I want equipment that I know works. The biggest advantage of spinning with controllers IMHO is that you are responsible for the functioning of all the equipment you need to use.
[quote=“Ryan Leo, post:1, topic:22689, username:Ryan_Leo”]
How do you divert people who insist that you uninstall traktor mid-set and install Scratch live and start using it because it was sent from a higher power?
[/quote]I point to headphones or IEMs and ignore them. If they’re the ones writing my check, I’d have to think on my feet. Something tells me that “I’ve had SSL crash while I was performing and ruin a night before,” might end up being the point that wins me the argument…it’s also true if you want to pretend that matters.
That’s what I did. Frankly, I don’t miss them except for that day right after I buy a bunch of new tracks and have to set a lot of beat-grids. When I’m performing, I don’t miss CDJs at all.
