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I feel like such a n00b

Hey guys,

I've gotten another gig down last Saturday, but it did not go all that well.

I was booked to play after a lesbian/drag-king audition for a LBGT theater troupe. Knowing this, I prepped for some Disco House goodness ("they're gonna love it", I thought) (Mistake #1). This is one of the main styles of music that I play anyway, so I was really confident going in (finally an audience that likes House!).

However, as soon as the event ended, nearly everyone left. The club owner has put away all of the sound equipment that I was supposed to use (to make space for the auditions), so instead of giving me 10 minutes to set it all up, she let me hooked my CDJ up into her Numark CD-Mix 2/3 (not sure which). I assumed, that she hooked my CDJ into channel 1 on the mixer(Mistake #2), since that's the channel that the crossfader works on, etc.

Ok, so I'm using a piece of equipment that I haven't used before. It looks pretty easy to use...Cue, Play, Pitch, what could go wrong...

So I got on, everyone left, and I started my set to the mostly empty room. I started with the wrong track (meant to choose track 4 instead of track 3. D'oh!)(Mistake #3), which threw me off because I was going to start with a really upbeat track and I ended up playing something slow and deep instead. I was still getting the hang of the CD-Mix (how do I use the CUE?!? I press "1" for channel 1, but channel one is at the same volume in my phones. Channel 2 works, and Channel 3 puts the channel 1 sound into my phones at a really high volume. What's going on here?). Thats what I was thinking while trying to match in my next track. I didn't have time to pay attention to the big picture before mixing in track two...

Because I spent my time trying to quickly get the hang of the equipment, I didn't notice that both tracks (the one I was playing and the one I was CUEING) were playing in the speakers at the same time (Mistake #4). I thought that the mixer really amplifiied the sound going to my headphones(Mistake #5), and that outside of the booth that everything was peachy. Apparently my CDJ was plugged into Channel 3, so that the crossfader wasn't working. It took me three songs to figure all of this out (wait a minute, I'm moving the crossfader but only Channel 2 is going out. WTF?!?).

I feel like a total n00b after all of this. Another DJ that was there tried to comfort me with his "one time I took the needle off the wrong record in front of 600 people" story. Now I have a story of my own to tell!

At least all of the people left (see Mistake #1), because apparently even gay people hate gay dance music.

So what's the moral of today's story?

1. ALWAYS check out your equipment before going on. I an owner/promoter expects you to use their equipment, make sure you do a sound check earlier in the day, not 2 minutes before show time.

2. Don't assume that a crowd is going to like any particular kind of music. I should have known this after playing in front of so many fickle Top40 crowds.

3. Double, no TRIPLE check your tune before putting it on. I was so focused on learning the CD-Mix that I didn't check the track number on my CDJ before pressing Play.

4. Never let someone else hook up your equipment for you. I want to know exactly where my plugs are going.

Man, my first gig is this Wed. I will definitely take your advice to heart!

Look at it this way, it can't get any worse than that right!?

If you haven't got a vast amount of experience using different pieces of kit, ALWAYS find out what equipment you'll be using at every gig you play (if you just phone the venue they'll usually be more than happy to tell you), get the manual from the manufacturer's website and have a good read.

Tbh, I recommend still doing that whenever you're going to be playing on a bit of kit you haven't used much before, even you've got quite a lot of experience playing on different models. You might find out about a feature you didn't know about, you might spot something that could have caused you problems on the night (leaving the filters closed on an A&H mixer being a classic example) or just looking at a picture of the front panel of the thing might make it more familiar and then easier to get to grips with when you let loose on it.

Re: I feel like such a n00b

quote:

Originally posted by Dojomaster26 1. ALWAYS check out your equipment before going on. I an owner/promoter expects you to use their equipment, make sure you do a sound check earlier in the day, not 2 minutes before show time. 2. Don't assume that a crowd is going to like any particular kind of music. I should have known this after playing in front of so many fickle Top40 crowds. 3. Double, no TRIPLE check your tune before putting it on. I was so focused on learning the CD-Mix that I didn't check the track number on my CDJ before pressing Play. 4. Never let someone else hook up your equipment for you. I want to know exactly where my plugs are going.

5. arrive EARLY so all this shit would not have happened.

I was there early (two hours early, in fact). I just couldn't get a chance to learn the new equipment because the LBGT show was going on. Plus, I ASSUMED that I was using my own equipment for the gig, that I would get 10 minutes to set it all up instead of being rushed onto a foreign piece of gear.

Oh well...next time I'll assert myself more, and make sure that I either get to use my equipment, or that I get more than a few minutes to learn the house system before going on.

Remember kids: when you ASSUME you make an ASS out of U and ME

check your first track before pressing play, speed and volume.

Re: I feel like such a n00b

quote:

Originally posted by Dojomaster26 So what's the moral of today's story? 1. ALWAYS check out your equipment before going on. I an owner/promoter expects you to use their equipment, make sure you do a sound check earlier in the day, not 2 minutes before show time. 2. Don't assume that a crowd is going to like any particular kind of music. I should have known this after playing in front of so many fickle Top40 crowds. 3. Double, no TRIPLE check your tune before putting it on. I was so focused on learning the CD-Mix that I didn't check the track number on my CDJ before pressing Play. 4. Never let someone else hook up your equipment for you. I want to know exactly where my plugs are going.

1) With experience comes knowledge. A good dj can step up to the gear and throw down. No matter what the hardware is. Have you ever noticed that seasoned vets often look over and chat with the previous dj? What they're doing is orientating themselves on the gear.

2) The lesson learned here should be to be ready and diverse within your style range. The person booking you should have an idea what you play. If you put yourself out there to be the hip-hop/mash-up/trance/house/funk king, you had better be ready to perform on that diverse of a level.

3) While choosing the wrong track happens from time-to-time, it's definitely a sign of being new. Had you oriented yourself with the mixer before hand (refer to #1), you wouldn't have been pre-occupied with it. But since you didn't, it was up to you to recover quickly. Again something that comes with experience.

4) Hate to bust your balls, but 95% of the time you won't be there for setup. Especially when you're talking about club venues that are permanently wired. Again, I refer you #1.

i think most of us have made those errors at some stage. Now you've made them once you'll be aware to avoid them in future.
you feel like a bit of a git now, in a few years you'll have seen plenty of others do exactly that and remember with a chuckle when you went through it.

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