I made it out of the bedroom!

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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1

I made it out of the bedroom!

Hey guys,

First post here but I’ve been following this site forever now. At the beginning of the week I won a local mix contest and now I have an opening spot in the biggest club in the city.

Very nervous.

I have a few questions for any veterans out there because the promoter I’m dealing with is incredibly vague and really won’t answer my questions. First off, I have no idea how a PA system in a club works because I’ve been djing on my one KRK 5’’ for a few years now. So what cables am I going to need to bring to this club? I’m using Tratkor, my macbook, a Kontrol S4, and a midi fighter 3D so obviously I know what’s needed to hook those up but will I need anything for their speakers, or will they have that sort of thing?

Also I’m only playing for an hour which I’m pretty excited about because I have the opportunity to pre plan a kick ass set. However I’ve been reading that this is a very bad idea? Keep in mind I’m not some veteran playing for 3 hours, this is my first show and it’s only an hour so I want to make a good impression.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance guys!

Martzehhh

2

I don’t think I can help with much here, but congratulations, nicely done brother. I’m pretty jelly. You should post your remix up here so we can check it out. Good luck!

3

Promoters are usually a pain in the arse! The club will have all of its own stuff already.. Just make sure you take everything you use to connect your kit to your laptop. What are you currently using to connect your speakers to the mixer/controller your coming out of?

If you were playing out in a club I’d say play live but since this is a competition you want to showcase your skills and technical ability so definitely 110% make a killer set! Remember to use as much of the software as possible but don’t over do the loops and effects.. Best of luck!

4

Firstly… Stop… Breathe…Calm Down :slight_smile:

Ok, well done on getting the set. Its always the most exciting thing for a bedroom DJ moving on to a Club.

But make sure your not too overexcited, even though you’ve said yourself your not a veteran acting as professional as you can be goes a long long way.

Promoters are generally too busy or not bothered about communicating with Djs anyway so dont feel like you are being ignored and they probably know nothing about the PA system anyway… If your using a S4 then you will probably only need a RCA cable to plug into the mixer at the club… normally the club will have some cdjs and a mixer already set up into the PA system, so just plug into a spare channel and your good to go. It does really help to go have a look before the gig, maybe one quite night jsut so you can see the booth and the space you will have. Remmeber your only one of potentialy a few djs so you have to think bout how easy it will be to pack up while the others are playing.

You said this is the biggest club in your area so id be suprised if they didnt have the PA already connected, heck there might even be a sound engineer to help you set up. Turn up atleast a hour before the night kicks off… that way you can make sure your plugged in and ready to go and also introduce yourself to the club owner and the promoters, maybe even a soundcheck.

On to set lists:

Everyone has their personal opinions about pre planned sets, there isnt a good or bad in either. I think its great to have a idea of what songs you would like to play during your set, but i wouldnt neccesarily have the whole hour’s set planned out. You never know what might happen, what if the crowd reacts different to how you had planned, or the promoters are impressed and ask you to stay on for a extra half hour (it does happen) and you panic because youve already played your ‘planned set’

Id create a playlist and pick the tunes you want to play, then from now untill the gig just keep mixing them in different ways and orders so your not planning but your used to all the songs and are confindent of mixing in between all of them. Also remember you are the warm up Dj, dont go in playin absolute bangin tracks, the best of the best, because your job is to get the dancefloor nice and warm ready for the headline dj. That dosent mean you cant play any big songs, but be wary. This has been coverd on other threads before.

Lastly i remember how nerve racking it can be but Djing is supposed to be fun right? Enjoy yourself and relax, get some friends to come with you nice and early so you have that comfort. Its ok to have a beer before your set but dont get Drunk!!! And most importantly Have FUN.

I hope this helps even a little matey… Let us know how you get one!!

Best of Luck

5

OP stated he has one the local mix competition and the prize is the hour set…

unless im mistaken!

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Yes, I mis-read! my mistake.. yeah, dont play huge tracks and I wouldnt pre-plan anything, like City_Boy said have a good selection of tracks and make sure you know them well! youve already won so there is nothing to fret about, the most important thing to do now is read the crowd and have fun playing some music!

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The best would be to go to the venue and check out what they have. i guess they´ll have a mixer. so the only thing you´d need to bring as well would be a rca cable to connect your s4 to one of the mixers inputs. and while you are there check out how big the booth is. some booths are designed to give controller djs a little headache spacewise.

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Congrats. Also don’t get disheartened like I did if no one is there or the people that are aren’t dancing. Remember, you are only warming up.

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Goodluck dude, I go to UofG. From what I know most of the clubs here have djm 900’s and Cdj-2000 Nexus. So you’ll be fine just running your S4 into one of the channels on the mixer. Make sure you have some sort of back up as well just incase your computer dies or something. Kill it!

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Thanks for the great replies guys I wasn’t expecting such great feedback.

I can understand the no massive tracks but you guys don’t think I should play any bangers to get people moving? The set I’m playing is electro/progressive so by nature they are pretty high energy.

The input/output I’ve been using at home is just an RCA cable so you think that’s what they will use in the club? Last question (although I have too many) is will I need to changed any of the audio settings in traktor? I’d imagine they would stay the same as long as I used the same ports.

Thanks a ton for the feedback guys ill definitely give you an update as to how it all went.

On a side note, cooking. Do you mean you go to the university of Guelph? Because I’m playing in Guelph if so that’s wild lol

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like i said. the club will have a mixer in the booth. so the only thing you have to do is to connect your s4 out (rca) to one of the mixer channels (rca) and you are ready to go.

and also like i said:

GO AND CHECK out the venue before you are playing there. have a look at the booth and what the setup will be like. this will help you being prepared a lot. if there is no chance for to do so, ask the staff/promoter/djs who work there to give some infos about the booth!

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yep! university of guelph. Currently living in residence and I’m only 18 right now. As for the bangers, People just entering the club don’t necessarily always want to jump right on the dance floor when they get there, they might want to chat, have a few drinks. So low key warm up music is the best option. Whoever’s headlining is going to want to pump up the crowd themselves most likely. Its gonna be hard trying not to play a ton of dope heavy hitting tracks. However I think as you progress towards the end of your set you can gradually play some stronger tracks. Here’s a great thread that might help explain things better. Tips for Opening DJs – Josh Wink, Hector Romero, Mike Huckaby, DJ Dan, Shiftee +

Im not sure who you’re opening for, but it would be best to avoid tracks produced by them.

Which club are you playing?

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this is too crazy, im at the U of G as well. What club are you playing?

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That’s nuts! I’m the opener for the end of class bash at loft (2nd floor) I hope you guelphies can make it that’s sick! Haha

As for the tips thanks a lot Ed ill try and get in contact with the promoter and see if i can swing by real quick to see what I’m dealing with.

Do you know off hand if i will need to change any of my traktor audio output settings?

Thanks

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no, that should be not needed

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like johney said. your traktor settings stay the same since you use the same output like you use at home.

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3 sets of wires you should bring and you should be covered for any situation. 1) RCA 2)TRS (Mono) 3)TRS male to XLR Male. I would hate for you to not be able to play because you thought you only needed to bring RCA’s and you didnt bring a pair of the other wires I mentioned.

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^as long as the club has a mixer plugged into the master RCA’s will do.

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Yea obviously…but are you going to guarantee the OP that where the club is having him set-up there will be a mixer available for him to plug into? It’s like $20-30 in cables depending on length. Better safe then sorry in this situation, and they’re cables that the OP will prob need for events in the future

20

Yeah you might be able to get away with a few bigger tracks if you’re playing a loft, considering your not like opening for some big producer and stuff. It’d be cool to come out but unfortunately I’m still lacking an ID. I’ll be all good for my 2nd year as I turn 19 in august. But yeah, Good luck dude, kill it.