First Gig Report
Some of you might remember my thread a few days ago asking for advice before my first gig. So here’s how the whole thing happened.
I arrived at around 4:30pm, plenty of time to set up. Everything was working perfectly, had the mains going from my M-Audio Jamlab Soundcard with the buffer right up, so no pops or crackles for the time being. I was cue’ing from my headphone out. There were a few people around, mostly setting up lights and things.
I was fully setup and playing some tunes by 5:30. When I got there LMFAO’s new album was playing, so I had to continue that sort of vibe. Launched into some of the chiller songs on that album, then slowed down the tempo till I was playing some deep housey tunes.
People started arriving, and that’s where the problems started. I got a couple of pops when I pressed buttons in Traktor, so I held off correcting a beatgrid or too in my headphones. Next thing I know, nothing but white noise coming out, so I ripped out the cable from my soundcard and swapped my iPod in, while I switched the master out to my PC’s soundcard, and headphone to my external soundcard. Swapped back to PC from iPod, everything going smoothly again. People were drinking by now, and around 5 or 6 dancing to the Madeon I had playing. (Turns out people love French House).
The crowd were predominantly South African, and I think there were around 25 people in total, but half or so were outside smoking and drinking. It was getting dark outside an most people had arrived, so someone went hunting for the main light switches, and they accidentally hit the switch powering my whole setup. I swapped my iPod in with a mix while everything restarted.
I start Traktor up, and plug it all back in. Pick up with the same song, put I’m hearing crazy audio skipping. We all think it’s the speakers, so we check those. They’re fine. I swap back to my M-Audio, thinking my headphone jack is busted. Still skipping. I so listen in my headphones, still skipping. I record a 20 second clip of a song, still skipping when I listen to it. I try all manner of different songs, restart Traktor, you name it.
Here’s the kicker: I listen to the same songs in iTunes, and everything sound perfect. I restart my computer again, and Traktor is still messed. My friend is arriving later, so I text him and ask him to bring his computer, so I can try install Traktor on his and get it working. He arrives with computer, but I can’t plug my screen in as he forgot his VGA - > HDMI adaptor.
The mix is running out soon, so I get ready to swap onto iTunes. By this point it’s around 9:30, everyone is drunk, and doesn’t seem to care at all I’m just playing off iTunes. Decent amount of people dancing, I’m playing bangers and people are having a great time.
I play for the next couple of hours, taking requests and trying to keep the energy from dying.
Got paid, danced with some drunk chicks 2 years older than me, had fun and got around 4 hours of sleep.
Got home, plugged my PC back in and Traktor worked perfectly. Yes the software is legal, and it had never crashed on me in my 4 months of using it.
TL;DR played first gig, worked through numerous hiccups and people had a great time.
