phatty720
Just wanted to share my first dj'ing experience. A local club has open tables on tuesday nights, and for some ungodly reason i actually decided to do it. I was soooooo nervous. It scared the crap out of me. Granted there were only about 20 people in the club (mind you it was a tuesday night), but i have NEVER gotten up and dj'd in front of people i didn't know.
Started off well with somehow hitting a knob on the back of the mixer that cut out the sound for 20 seconds. Also had to use somebody else's needles because mine were skipping for some reason (too heavy maybe? Bought some new Shure's and screwed on the optional weight.)
Once I got past those hurdles tho, it actually went well! It was a bit awkward getting familiar with the mixer (5 channel pioneer) but i picked it up after a minute or two. I selected some hard hitting cuts, so even if i f'ed up the music would still be good :)
My friends didn't notice any f' ups so it looks like my first time was a success. My ears hurt tho because that pioneer cranks out some serious wattage to the headphones. Let's just see if i can work up the nerve to actually do it again.
Just thought i'd share the experience...
dave n
Started off well with somehow hitting a knob on the back of the mixer that cut out the sound for 20 seconds. Also had to use somebody else's needles because mine were skipping for some reason (too heavy maybe? Bought some new Shure's and screwed on the optional weight.)
Once I got past those hurdles tho, it actually went well! It was a bit awkward getting familiar with the mixer (5 channel pioneer) but i picked it up after a minute or two. I selected some hard hitting cuts, so even if i f'ed up the music would still be good :)
My friends didn't notice any f' ups so it looks like my first time was a success. My ears hurt tho because that pioneer cranks out some serious wattage to the headphones. Let's just see if i can work up the nerve to actually do it again.
Just thought i'd share the experience...
dave n
Inviato Wed 11 Aug 04 @ 7:03 am
clax
Hi.
Nice to see your impressions. It's cool to learn from each other about DJing experiences.
I think everybody's nervous in the beginning.
The first song I played in a live gig was a vinyl 45T and I played it in ... 33T. It was a slow song. The other DJ who invited me has runned from the other side of the room to make me change because .. I was so nervous that I haven't heard the difference!! Fortunately the next of the gig was good.
After this first experience I had some other problems: I broke some cells, some amplifiers died, I've cut the songs that were playing and didn't open the good fader on the mixtable -> no sound at anymore, I stopped the song which were just launched in the place of the old one, I played a song instead of another one, ...
They are anecdotes as in any activity.
I do not think that the public realizes each of these errors because they were generally resolved very quickly.
Clax
Nice to see your impressions. It's cool to learn from each other about DJing experiences.
I think everybody's nervous in the beginning.
The first song I played in a live gig was a vinyl 45T and I played it in ... 33T. It was a slow song. The other DJ who invited me has runned from the other side of the room to make me change because .. I was so nervous that I haven't heard the difference!! Fortunately the next of the gig was good.
After this first experience I had some other problems: I broke some cells, some amplifiers died, I've cut the songs that were playing and didn't open the good fader on the mixtable -> no sound at anymore, I stopped the song which were just launched in the place of the old one, I played a song instead of another one, ...
They are anecdotes as in any activity.
I do not think that the public realizes each of these errors because they were generally resolved very quickly.
Clax
Inviato Wed 11 Aug 04 @ 7:29 am
ElofdeNeve
Story 1:
First time at a big club in Belgium, packed with at least 2.000 party people (which is actually alot in my country, most clubs are filled with less than 1.000 people). I was announced that night through flyers and posters.
I started with my first track, dj Tiësto - Lethal Industry (I will never forget it). Setting the track "ok", I started and the vinyl had some, how do you call that, "splinter" on the edge of the vinyl, so when I started my finger hangs on this splinter, so the record went completely wrong. Cutting the fader, me getting all nervous. Luckily the boss of the club looks at me and smiles. The next of my set was extremely carefull, no tricks, no fancy stuff, but just mixing right. After the gig the boss asked me to be resident in this club, despite this false start.
When I came home, the first thing that I did was getting that darn splinter of the record. I cursed and cursed, but now I can laugh about it.
Story 2 (with Virtual DJ!):
At Cityparade Ghent 2004 I used Virtual DJ on the truck, because I knew that the roads were in bad shape and spinning with vinyl would be impossible. I heard alot of other dj's who's records skipped every 5 seconds. Anyway, I'm quit busy mixing and the track Komakino - Man on mars comes up. Everybody starts shouting around and on the truck. The first big break comes up and ... black screen, no electricity.
What the f... Seemed that my adapter from the notebook fell off the table and so the plug was disconnected from the notebook, resulting in no power of course. Restarting notebook, took about 1.30 minutes. People were shouting all the way, and when I started again with the first beat of the track (i replayed the track) the atmosphere went insane.
Another story:
I have a live rip from Sensation or Trance Energy two years go where one of the deejays accidentally takes of the wrong needle... actually the one that is playing at the time! So you hear suddenly a little crack and the needle being taken off. It takes about 4 seconds before the crowd realizes what happens and they start shouting. The dj (who's name I will not mention) just puts the needle back on, scratches back & forth a few times and lets the music go on...
I can imagine that he will be all stressy after that.
First time at a big club in Belgium, packed with at least 2.000 party people (which is actually alot in my country, most clubs are filled with less than 1.000 people). I was announced that night through flyers and posters.
I started with my first track, dj Tiësto - Lethal Industry (I will never forget it). Setting the track "ok", I started and the vinyl had some, how do you call that, "splinter" on the edge of the vinyl, so when I started my finger hangs on this splinter, so the record went completely wrong. Cutting the fader, me getting all nervous. Luckily the boss of the club looks at me and smiles. The next of my set was extremely carefull, no tricks, no fancy stuff, but just mixing right. After the gig the boss asked me to be resident in this club, despite this false start.
When I came home, the first thing that I did was getting that darn splinter of the record. I cursed and cursed, but now I can laugh about it.
Story 2 (with Virtual DJ!):
At Cityparade Ghent 2004 I used Virtual DJ on the truck, because I knew that the roads were in bad shape and spinning with vinyl would be impossible. I heard alot of other dj's who's records skipped every 5 seconds. Anyway, I'm quit busy mixing and the track Komakino - Man on mars comes up. Everybody starts shouting around and on the truck. The first big break comes up and ... black screen, no electricity.
What the f... Seemed that my adapter from the notebook fell off the table and so the plug was disconnected from the notebook, resulting in no power of course. Restarting notebook, took about 1.30 minutes. People were shouting all the way, and when I started again with the first beat of the track (i replayed the track) the atmosphere went insane.
Another story:
I have a live rip from Sensation or Trance Energy two years go where one of the deejays accidentally takes of the wrong needle... actually the one that is playing at the time! So you hear suddenly a little crack and the needle being taken off. It takes about 4 seconds before the crowd realizes what happens and they start shouting. The dj (who's name I will not mention) just puts the needle back on, scratches back & forth a few times and lets the music go on...
I can imagine that he will be all stressy after that.
Inviato Thu 12 Aug 04 @ 7:24 am
sambukashot
Once i was mixing and i thought to myself these two tunes go together like a dream, only did i realise after the fader went up i was mixing the same song again!
(rewind that one and play again)
Keith.
(rewind that one and play again)
Keith.
Inviato Thu 12 Aug 04 @ 4:04 pm
bagpuss
yeah it seems that when playing infront of people that logic and rational thinking goes out the window, i sopose you kinda get caught up in the moment too much and go into a bit of a trance.., i really think though that vdj software is a very good for taking the pressure off because there is no "funny" stuff (generally)..., but of course there can be problems..., i think my main worry is that sometimes mp3's have a click or pop during the beggining and end which really stands out especially through a big system..., but i'm not yet ready to make showcase it..., i'm really waiting until i'm so good that mistakes are generally unheard of which will make alot of room for nerves..., like when your a real pro at something ( for example sport or some skill) then people just cause a sweat on your head but make you tunnel visioned as it's these moments that it's all about ;)
Inviato Thu 12 Aug 04 @ 10:33 pm
ElofdeNeve
For clicks and pops: listen always BEFORE. Listen to your MP3's at home. If the problem doesn't exist there, then it will not come up in a club. I never play music that I didn't, at least once, heard before.
Inviato Fri 13 Aug 04 @ 9:34 am
clax
Yes even with a waveform, the title displayed, and a lot of cue points displayed on the screen it's still important to hear the song before playing it aloud with a lot of people dancing.
Inviato Fri 13 Aug 04 @ 10:13 am
bagpuss
yes agree.., and it's a shame there aren't any mp3 editing software avaliable without converting back to wave..., maybe their is?
but a few songs have a click or pop at the beggining and end, and does anyone here ever expireience this problem..., that when you encode the tracks off your cd's that the program or maybe even cd drive hasn't been so accurate..., in that the the beggining of a track starts too suddenly.., like a secound or so has been lost and the same at the end.., the song ends before it's really faded down.., maybe mp3 does this because is soposed to delete what we son't hear...
interested to know if you expirenced this :)
but a few songs have a click or pop at the beggining and end, and does anyone here ever expireience this problem..., that when you encode the tracks off your cd's that the program or maybe even cd drive hasn't been so accurate..., in that the the beggining of a track starts too suddenly.., like a secound or so has been lost and the same at the end.., the song ends before it's really faded down.., maybe mp3 does this because is soposed to delete what we son't hear...
interested to know if you expirenced this :)
Inviato Sat 14 Aug 04 @ 10:03 am
djzero
there is one mp3 editor that i've seen somewhere that doesn't decompress the files can just cut bits out of them here and there, i'll have a look for it and post a link to it
Inviato Sat 14 Aug 04 @ 11:36 am
Lodewijk
Here's a mp3 editor, and it's freeware:
http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/
Here's what it says on the website:
mp3DirectCut is a small tool for editing MPEG audio directly. You can remove parts, change the volume, split files or copy regions to new files. All without the need to decompress your MP3. This saves work, encoding time and disk space. And there is no quality loss through any re-compressions. mp3DirectCut is very fast and gives you extensive control over your MP3s.
Several prelisten functions
MP3 visualisation and VU meter
Easy navigation
Fading, volume setting, normalizing
Pause detection
Direct recording of MP3 (ACM and Lame encoder supported)
Layer 2 support
ID3v1.1 support
Cue Sheet support
System requirements
200 MHz
Windows (9x, NT, 2K, XP) or Wine
MP3 ACM system codec (present in XP) or mpglib.dll
For MP3 recording: Lame encoder DLL or ACM
http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/
Here's what it says on the website:
mp3DirectCut is a small tool for editing MPEG audio directly. You can remove parts, change the volume, split files or copy regions to new files. All without the need to decompress your MP3. This saves work, encoding time and disk space. And there is no quality loss through any re-compressions. mp3DirectCut is very fast and gives you extensive control over your MP3s.
Several prelisten functions
MP3 visualisation and VU meter
Easy navigation
Fading, volume setting, normalizing
Pause detection
Direct recording of MP3 (ACM and Lame encoder supported)
Layer 2 support
ID3v1.1 support
Cue Sheet support
System requirements
200 MHz
Windows (9x, NT, 2K, XP) or Wine
MP3 ACM system codec (present in XP) or mpglib.dll
For MP3 recording: Lame encoder DLL or ACM
Inviato Sat 14 Aug 04 @ 12:30 pm
bagpuss
Thankyou very much! :) ..., very nice find.., everyone should have this., because many mp3's need to be edited..., and the tool is very easy.., plus the file is very small to dl..
another great app to compliment a mp3 dj...;)
thank alot..:)
another great app to compliment a mp3 dj...;)
thank alot..:)
Inviato Sat 14 Aug 04 @ 8:30 pm
Lodewijk
yes, it's really great to hear to song start exactly at the moment you push the play button :)
Inviato Sat 14 Aug 04 @ 8:37 pm