So I think I might share the details of my gig last night, as there were a few lessons there on what and not what to do.
The gig was at a local bar which masquerades as a nightclub on Fridays, and usually attracts an 18-22yo student crowd, and usually books up-and-coming local DJs.
So was the unlucky one and scored the opening slot (which apparently was decided by the promoter by pulling names out of a hat - he didnt even listen to my soundcloud!). So I played a fairly upbeat indie pop set, which the few people in the bar seemed to enjoy, then switched to pop and stated getting people dancing as the venue filled up.
By then, my slot was over, and the next DJ came on. He play a fairly solid set for the first hour (which I quite liked), but in the last 20mins of his set, the contents of his bar card kicked in, and he then played nothing but solid back-to-back Skrillex - Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites for 20 mins!
He promoter at this point got the last DJ in the booth quick smart, who then put in his first CD only to find that 80% of his music wouldnt play! Turns out that he buys everything from iTunes, and that CDJ1000 Mk1s cant play .aac formats. So he ran back to his car, pulled out his Mac, and burned CDs for his set in the booth while DJing with what music he did have!
fail to prepare prepare to fail! but someone elses loss is your gain, at the end of the day youre out for number 1, next time you should get the main set
edit: didnt mean to sound derogatory to you, in fact you sound like the only one that prepared
Unprepared noob who shouldn’t have been allowed to spin in the first place. But the promoter is to blame.
edit: Hmm, I should correct myself as it is a bit harsh. I was thinking about my own point of view, considering the music I play, it’s way out of question from me to buy from Itunes. And I didn’t read what were the units (cdj1000mk1), so I’m not sure I would have thought about the compatibility with this model of cdj. Probably, may be or not.
I think this guy didnt think about what model of CDJs he would be playing on, as I know he has CDJ850s at home (which can play .aac formats), I think assumed that all CDJs can play the same formats.
However, to his credit, he did very well in fixing his situation, as he managed to keep the music playing untill he had some more usable CDs. And by the end of the night he had ended up playing a good set.
But I was thinking to myself, that this is why I’m glad I’m a indie controllerist, I dont need to rely on someone else’s (quite possibly dodgy gear).
So the lessons learnt
-Dont get drunk
-Know what gear you’ll be using, and if what you want to do will work
-Be prepared.
at least the guy can say… when the shit hit the fan, he had a back up plan.
(of some sorts) just imagine if he didn’t have his mac or simply had no blank disks at hand…
that could of been real bad, but fair play to you, hopefully you get a better spot, a lesson well learned there id say.
Im not getting your point here. Shit happens he still did well. I can honestly say i would never have taught my itunes music wouldnt play on a cdj.
This is also why i save my music in mp3 (320 kps of course). Nearly all software plays mp3 and i have never had a problem with cdj’s not playing my cds.
Anyways man like you said you played a good set so why should you worry.
Well this is why you need to do your research man! It could bite you in the ass later on. Not all pioneer CDJs play mp3 cds dude. I was recently at a contest where 2 djs had to back out since they only had mp3 cds.
