I’m playing tonight at a trendy artsy spot in the design (arts) district in Miami. This place recently has had GZA from Wu-Tang perfom, DJ Premiere, and a few other hip-hop and soul/funk type artists. It’s my first time playing there so I asked the person who got me the gig to find out what the club set up was so I knew what to bring. I’m figuring this place would only have turntables. The response from the manager was
“Tell him to bring his serato box and laptop, needles if uses vinyle or CD’s if he uses CDJ’s. We have a pioneer mixer, 2 Technic Turntables and 2 CDJ’s”
I often see the question here if anyone is discriminated at clubs from using a controller, and people often reply “used whatever you can rock the crowd with”. While that is an honest statement – I find more club managers have the mentality of this guy. Serato and CDJ’s or 1200’s. Honestly speaking I could show up tonight with an Audio 8 and TSP and he probably wouldn’t care or have have a clue, but having never been there I’m not sure if an S4 would fit in that booth or if they would be open to it since he’s already telling me to bring SSL and needles or CD’s.
I know it’s different everywhere — but in my experience (which isn’t as much as others here) is that if you want to play at a club, then you should be using what the club expects you to play on. It makes getting gigs like this one that much easier.
this is exactly the reason why i practice with bscly everything: turntables, cd players and my trusty s4. I’m not saying I have everything of that but i do own a S4 DVS and I do manual beatmatching with turntables and sometimes use the s4 in a similiar manner in which you would use CDJ’s.
I think you should be able to rock a crowd on anything, be it a controller or anything else. Why didn’t you simply tell them that you can rock a party with the provided gear but also ask them if perhaps you could bring a controller?
Pretty much this is true for many places I see. I play on cdjs no software just cause my traktor program has failed on me so many times I can’t count. Either crashing, skipping, or something else strange I can’t trust it anymore.
I’m hoping getting an S2 will remedy it cause using timecode was just not working out for me at all. Always had a problem setting it up and getting it to work correctly.
But yes more often then not owners want that set up
a $200 investment in a used SL-1 box with add a notch to your dj belt. No harm of foul to learn another DVS system. Its like being able to use a PC and a Mac.
It sounds to me more like he’s bored of DJs asking what to bring and just copy-pastes a section of an email.
If the promoter is interested in a particular style of playing then that would have been on the cards from the beginning. If they let you get to the gig and have you set up and start playing and then say “oh I thought you were a scratch turntablist guru, why are you using traktor?” then, well…
Just do what you do. If you’re all self contained then what club can’t handle a pair of phono inputs? If you’re worried about space then you can always just go on the plastic lid thing of the turntable?
JesC, in my experience that’s not quite true. CDJs, Technics, and a Pio mixer are pretty standard, but having a Serato box in there as well is far from it. As for the Rane mixer - I haven’t seen a single club in the Boston area with one; granted Boston night life isn’t something I’d measure nightlife in general against (the scene here could use a lot of work) but I’d hardly call SL-ready a standard in clubs.
I think what this particular club owner is trying to say is that he wants whoever’s coming in to be able to use CDJs/TTs and not have to move everything around to accomodate a midi controller/make sure whatever DJ is coming in can actually beatmatch (as a measure of competence). Asking for something like this weeds out the guys who have had an S2/equivalent for a month and think they can DJ at a venue. There are plenty of DJs out there who play on midi controllers and can rock a club, and there are plenty of DJs out there who play on SSL and suck; however, a DJ who can play on a DVS setup (given no other information about said DJ) is more likely to have some level of dedication/skill than a DJ with a midi controller if for no other reason than the cost of entry for a DVS setup is higher than the majority of midi controllers out there.
Is the promoter/whoever is running the night being a bit shortsighted by having a policy like this? Sure. But, it also saves said person a lot of time weeding out the jokers out there who played DJ hero, thought DJing might be fun, and went out to grab a Vestax Spin/LPD8/other low-level midi controller and started calling themselves a DJ. The fact is that most venues out there aren’t looking for the best DJ available - they’re looking for an adequate DJ - and they’re more likely to find an adequate DJ quickly by avoiding the crapshoot of looking through midi-controller DJs. I’m not bashing midi-controllers/DJs who use them; in fact, I used a VCI-100 and then an APC40 myself for about 2 years and still use an X1 and midi fighter in my setup. I’m just saying that business-sense wise, the route this guy is taking might be a bit more efficient.
Im from L.A. so things might be a little different. Most djs i know that play on SSL, usually carry a SL box and few even carry a 57 in a case. I usually do small gigs with a VCI-300 now but if its a long gig i usually take my 57 if Im able to switch out the mixer.
This is an easy one:
Bring your s4 and if you can find room to it use it. At the same time bring your Audio 8 or borrow an sl1 an use whatever your allow to it.
Believe me the gear is the least thing you should worry about but you will make a very nice impression if you can play whatever is easy for them.
At the end they do not have problem if you mix with a computer and to be hones if you can manage traktor you should manage serato it is so damm easy to use.
Of course if you can beatmatch, well…
Don’t get me wrong - most DJs around here still use Serato. Just saying there usually isn’t an SL box actually installed in the club. Still I look at that as a non-issue anyway since if a DJ really wanted to he could pretty easily just throw an Audio x in between the SL box and the CDJs/TTs and use the SL box in thru mode and still avoid messing with the back of the mixer. Anyone making a big deal out of setting up a soundcard in a club is being a bit asinine unless it really is that hard to get at the back of the mixer/wherever they need to get to connect it.