The sync button is saving my life & I dont like it!!
Ok, I’m DJing in a massive (around 8,500 capacity apparently although I think thats an exaggeration) night club. Last night I did the main room which if it’s an 8,500 capacity club has gotta be like 5,500 peeps. Anyway, I’m having serious issues with being able to mix in there, the sound system is so fucking boomy! It’s not nice and tight and punchy like other systems I have used. It’s just fucking ridiculous!.. from the DJ booth anyway. It’s a massive Funktion One sound system but I dont think its set up right, I reckon its been set up for maximum loudness rather quality.
Thing is other DJ’s seem to be able to use it no problem so I dunno what the fuck is up. Im thinking maybe I’ve damaged my ears to the point where Im having trouble I dunno. If it werent for the sync button i dunno where i’d be. I’d probably be looking quite a fool by now. I might be tripping, I might be fine but its just Im thinking the mix might sound fucked so Im instantly jumping on the sync button before I get a chance to fully raise both faders in confidence. I’m seriously considering maybe getting in-ear monitors. Laidback Luke plays in the same club & thats what I saw him use.
I followed a relatively big DJ last night so it was a full house & I used the sync button on pretty much every mix purely out of peace of mind as this was an official summer opening party so the first night they had a big DJ in there this summer. Shit loads of peeps, all the bosses watching etc. Im thinking maybe I should just go for it next time and not touch the sync button.
Anyway, anyone experience anything like this? Anyone know if its possible to try before you buy on in ear monitors or any recommendations on models?
I use earplugs wherever i go and on-ear headphones on top, drowns out most of the background sound and dosent damage your hearing from having the headphones up a bit louder
yep, though where I usually play stateside is not nearly as big, the boom where I dj from is fucking horrible and milliseconds off the highs. I put on my over the ears sony headphones atop two plugs and all is good. I still feel the subs on my feet and chest but can mix with comfort, albeit the drivers on my headphones are starting to wear as a result.
i use westone um2’s when djing in loud environments. In ears take a while to get used to, but are worth it! btw be careful of the mixer volume when plugging in, as these will blow ur ears if u are not careful. They offer 25 db of ambient noise reduction, great for saving ur hearing!
a little more info regarding your monitoring setup would be nice but from your OP… sounds to me like you’re trying to mix using the main sound system to monitor your mixes rather than a booth monitor.
you’ll always have a hard time trying to mix off the main’s and it should never be done (circumstances permitting.. ie booth monitor craps out)
Isn’t the rule of thumb 1ms latency per foot you are away from the monitor? Add whatever latency you have from your gear… Boom + delay = dismay - that’s what Aunt Agatha used to say (before she was beaten to death by a scotch egg)
in ears is something ive been thinking of too, the club i dj in has two rooms, the main room is set up brilliantly but the other has no booth speakers and the bass bins are built into the bottom front of the console, its an absolute nightmare.
From years of mixing at home in my parents house on headphones, i’m used to not having a monitor…it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to get used to, but i’d say in ear monitors are you only friend here!
i used to work in a club where the capacity was around he 2500 mark, the position of the Dj booth i used to be in was to the side kinda behind all the major sound so my only option was to use the monitor provided or use just my earphones, i tended to use the monitor and as there was usually 3 of us in the booth we used to have the fucker cranked right the fuck up and we’d be partying in that booth haha, i kinda felt it relayed to the paying customers, they seen us going for it in the booth then thehy did the same all kinda bouncing of each other haha…good times
If the monitors aren’t setup right your mix will be out cos of the length of time it takes the sound from the main speakers to reach you in the booth. It will sound right in the booth, mixing to the sound from the main output, but when you bring a track in over the main out it will be in time but out of phase cos of the distance the sound has to travel.
You need to either setup the monitors properly in the booth or mix in your headphones as others have said.
The monitors in the DJ booth are right next to my ears. Literally right in front of the decks. I’ll attach a pic so you can see. I really want to be able to use my earplugs when I mix but I feel the ER20’s are too much of a cut for me to really be able to feel the impact of whats going on in the music. I’m thinking I might invest in some 10 or even 5db cut filters just to take the edge off. I also might start practicing mixing in the headphones, I’ve never been a fan of this method but it might be something I need to get into.
The monitors in the club are obviously controlled by the mixer but I feel I need to really crank them in order to hear em over the main speakers which is just destroying my ears. Next time I play I’m just gonna not touch the sync button once I get into the swing of things. I’m more than capable of mixing, I think a large percentage of the reason I was hitting the sync button is cos it was a big night and the pressure was on. To be fair I didn’t know I was doing the main room until literally 30 secs before I was due to play. I’ve done the main room before but wasn’t given time to prepare anything to follow the DJ that was on. I was ready to go mash up a foam party downstairs which is a totally different vibe. The boss was like “right, you go on in here now and the other DJ can do downstairs”.
I’ve had this happen to me in the past too. I chalk it up to a lack of experience. Just ignore the sync, and you’ll get used to that system in no time… especially if you’ve been mixing for years already.
I don’t see a problem with using the sync button. If your objective is to deliver the best listening experience to your audience then why not do that by using the tools at hand?
For who’s benefit would you not be using sync? Yours or your crowd’s?
There are still a million other things you can do with your mixing that’s not beatmatching.
but from your OP… sounds to me like you’re trying to mix using the main sound system to monitor your mixes rather than a booth monitor.