Hey guys, it’s my first post here and I’m already asking for some advice.
I’ve been DJing parties for about 2 years now; just your basic on and off campus college parties, a New Years Eve party, little things like that. I have produced a couple of my own tracks which got some decent responses. I’ve been honing my skills, experimenting with different stuff, and I feel like i’m ready for my first real bar/club gig.
I emailed some places in my area asking if they had any openings or needed an opening or emergency guy. I have an interview with a place on Wednesday night at 8, asking me to bring a CD of a mix of mine.
Now this place is a pretty hot spot; State university up the street, big college scene. I frequent there every so often, I know the music they expect, I know the crowd. But I do have some questions about the setup they are going to be expecting from me.
I have an HP Pavilion with Traktor Pro 2 mapped to my Numark Mixtrack. When I play parties, I usually just hook up their speakers directly to my laptop, and go from there. I don’t have an amp. I don’t have my own speakers. I’m assuming this will be alright? I can hopefully just plug into their system. I’m not sure how this really works.
That’s what I was thinking. My mixer doesn’t have an audio output though. I plug into my laptop headphone jack and play through there, using a splitter for my headphones and the hookup. My mixer is a Numark Mixtrack which is a USB insert.
The bar I’m playing at this Friday has a house sound system, but no monitor, so I have to bring one speaker. On top of that I tried asking the owner what kind of connection I need to plug into house system, he said “Yeah you just plug into the house system”…So you have to know a little bit about pro audio, because you can’t expect the owner to know.
Basically, I have to go before Friday, so find out what they have, and how much space I have, because the only thing I have to act as a monitor is a powered 12 inch speaker.
You always need to ask if you have to provide your own sound system, because that’ll factor into your fee.
Most places will have a sound guy. Be it someone just working the specific night, or someone who is there on a regular basis. But it’s not a bad idea to go down there ahead of time (a night or two early) and talk with them, and check out their system.
Most of the time you’ll just be plugging your setup into an open channel on a club’s mixer. Which, if you are using the headphone out, is probably going to be using a 1/8" to RCA cable. (RCA end going into the mixer, the headphone jack into your setup).
Honestly if you are going to be playing out, it’s probably not a bad idea to invest into an external soundcard like the Audio 2 DJ. It’s worth every penny to get the best sound, and it’s going to be leagues above the sound quality of your internal audio interface. The same kind of setup procedure works though, though you’d probably just need a 1/4 to RCA cable I believe.
First of all, I completely agree with Bassline Brine–you should go grab an Audio 2 DJ. Aside from quality it will improve your latency AND allow you to monitor in your headphones. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Now then, without knowing their setup it’s going to be hard for us to give good advice, right? So you need to tell us a little more
Do they have a DJ booth with a house setup? If so it will probably be as easy as plugging into channel A of their mixer and playing your set through that. You can use the cable below, it’s an 8th inch to RCA Y Cable, they sell them at Radio Shack for under $10.
If there’s no house setup you’ll need to find out how they do things and report back to us.
First thing’s first…make your best 60-minute mix of good bar music. And at the interview, take tons of notes. But, don’t commit to anything you’re not prepared to do.
Make bros with a regular employee at your local electronics shop. If they don’t have something, they might be able to find you something that will work or make you something that will.
Thanks for all the replies guys, it really helped. Another question I have, and take into consideration i’m new to this. I gave the general manager a CD of about an hour mix of my stuff and what I think the crowed there is going to respond to. That being said; should I rely strictly off of mixing everything live when the day comes, or pre-record my mix and go off of that?
That’s what I thought. Every other private party I have played I’ve done everything live. However with these parties there was room for error, and if I made a mistake or two it was pretty much overlooked. I know doing a gig at a popular spot where there’s 200-300 people every night is a little nerve racking. I think i’ll be fine with the crowd sense, but I know the general manager is going to be looking for every little thing when it comes to my first time.
I’d suggest that if nerves are the issue, you start with a 2 or 3 track selection that you are so comfortable with you could mix it blindfolded, that gets you comfortable with the room, booth & crowd. Then you can freewheel it as you see fit. I bet the GM won’t get a damn as long as the peeps are buying drinks.
Very true. My main concern is trying to tie in a good amount of hip-hop and top 40s stuff with the large amount of house I play. Most of my stuff is going to be between 126-130 bpm and i’m just nervous about forcing some hip-hop stuff with the mix. I rule of thumb is always speed up, never slow down, but sometimes it’s necessary.
If you’re not confident in your ability to do the gig, don’t do the gig. If you’re confident in your ability, do the gig. It’s been two years, unless you’ve been mixing to the completely oblivious, you know what you’re doing, just do that. It’s a small club in a college town, you could most likely play a Deadmau5 album on repeat all night and nobody would think twice.
Just don’t do anything you aren’t confident in doing, and you’ll be fine, if you start improvising, and trying things you aren’t comfortable with, that’s when smooth mixes become messes.
You’re right. I am confident I can do it. The worst that happens is they aren’t into what I play and they don’t ask me to return. I think it’s just nerves because it’s going to be bigger than anything i’ve done before. I will be fine.
