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REVIEW: SvD and Deko-ze at Beta Waterloo (pg. 3)
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| Yohan |
| oh yeah. all the n00bs who had no idea who was playing at Beta. lol |
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| Prometheus Xex |
| quote: | Originally posted by chinamon
damn shes quick. i havent even thought about my pics yet. lol |
Chop chop, get to it! Your not slowing down with age are you? LOL. |
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| hax-a-million |
so yeah, first time at beta... waited in line about 10 mins at 11:30, first thing i see on my way in is some girl who is out of her mind and can't stand up. i honestly expected a lot more of these types but actually it wasn't that bad. definitely not as many noobs tripping out as i thought there would be, from what i've heard. i only spent a bit of time up near the speakers so i can't really speak for what the crowd was like up there. note to self, get some decent earplugs.
walked up to the first coat check, very small and full. i could see a bunch of extra hangers and more tickets, but the girl wouldn't check my coat. went upstairs and stand in a mob of pushy kids for a half hour, but still couldnt get my coat checked since it also filled up quickly.
something else i expected was the ability to go in and out, so i could have a few drinks in one of the nearby pubs. after coming in from toronto i didn't make the predrink, and it seems with the coat check situation, you basically have to choose between getting buzzed (for a short time, anyway) and holding your coat, or coming sober and hopefully getting your coat checked. i offered the bouncer $10 to let me go put it in the car but instead he was just going to stash it with the girl taking cover... no thanks.
i was pretty impressed with the lighting rig, especially the inner trussing that can move up and down. the lasers had some good effects, and the sound has pretty much been covered in other posts but my guess is that if the place wasn't a theatre before, there would be a ton of echo in that room and you'd have no choice but to put some speakers at the back. so basically the way they have it isn't a trainwreck, it gets the job done, but it could be better.
i caught the end of deko-ze's set when i came in, loved his selection and energy behind the decks. i need to make a conscious effort to get out to more of his gigs. i thought sander's set was weird, not what i was expecting. the last two times i've seen sander at guv he just dropped bomb after bomb after bomb. i got bored quickly, but i wanted to stay and see if it would improve. by 2 we gave up and took the long drive home
@elyot, very interesting observation about harmonic mixing. I have seen a program that analyzes your whole library and tries to tell you the key to each track, and then there's a chart showing which ones will sound good with each other. apparently lots of guys are using it including some big guns (pete tong, dubfire, hernan, etc etc). Seems like something i might use, seeing as i have no ear for that kind of thing at all, but i would expect that once you're making over 5k/night you wouldn't need those kinds of training wheels. i guess it's just another nail in the coffin of the art of spinning.
for your reference: http://www.mixedinkey.com
glad to hear others enjoyed themselves, and see you all at purple room in the near future i'm sure :toocool: |
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| DJ_Elyot |
| quote: | Originally posted by hax-a-million
@elyot, very interesting observation about harmonic mixing. I have seen a program that analyzes your whole library and tries to tell you the key to each track, and then there's a chart showing which ones will sound good with each other. apparently lots of guys are using it including some big guns (pete tong, dubfire, hernan, etc etc). Seems like something i might use, seeing as i have no ear for that kind of thing at all, but i would expect that once you're making over 5k/night you wouldn't need those kinds of training wheels. i guess it's just another nail in the coffin of the art of spinning.
for your reference: http://www.mixedinkey.com
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This software is crap. All it does is guess the key of the track and then simply tell you whether or not another track is in the same key or a 4th or 5th different.
Keying your own music takes 3 seconds with a piano (I use Ableton's). Anyone who's taken a high school music class can understand a circle of fifths and realize that tracks in "close" keys will have a chance of not clashing when mixed.
However, using this alone completely fails sometimes. Not all intro/outro basslines are centered on the tonic and some tracks contain key changes.
More importantly, if you actually want to do any layering with anything other than monotone basslines, you need to understand chord progressions and harmony. Mixed in Key can't help you with that (and in the hands of an amateur, leads to lots of TY attempts at harmonic mixing).
There are VERY few DJs I know who are actually capable of using harmonic mixing in a way that truly improves their sets:
Airwave
Myon & Shane54
Armin
(shameless plug alert) An example from one of my sets. Listen to 41:30 - 44:00 in this mix of mine. The fact that the layering here works is a property of the melodies and chord progressions used; Mixed In Key has NO WAY of detecting this and the only DJs I know of who regularly employ these types of tricks are the ones listed above. |
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| Cribby |
| By far the worst SVD I've heard.. |
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| Beta |
Thanks for coming out everyone. Obviously the sound is getting better and will be setup as a 4 corner system. We jam the place and are lucky to walk away with between $1k and $2k. After 5-6 shows we barley pay the monthly overhead.
Anyways, long story short, BETA was built from ZERO and I knew there would be things to fix....
Sound - CHECK
Coat check - CHECK
Merch booth - CHECK
Laser Stability & improvements - CHECK
More Glass doors and upgrades to avoid noise going outside - CHECK
Proper Kyro System - CHECK
Expanded balcony to come out 10 more feet to the end of landing - CHECK
I know exactly what to do, just need the money to do it. Doing the best I can with what I got.
FYI - Not counting any regular weekends dates (most profitable days) and just shows, we have missed out on over 100k in PROFIT! I would have thrown that back into the club and we would have fixed all issues.
Love the support and BETA has been open 7 days.... Only going to GET WAYYYYYYY better. I promise... |
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| VERTiG0 |
| Still can't wait to get out to check the place out - Thursdays will never work for me. |
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| PurpleHaze |
i had a blast!! it's so amazing having such a club here in town. the sound, lighting, space is superior to anything i've seen in the tri-cities.
i love the high ceilings, lighting racks, dance podiums, raver go-go dancers with glow stick hoola hoops.
i thought the sound system was amazing! so powerful. i agree that there weren't enough highs, but i thought the lows were spot on
was bummed about coat check filling up so fast but i just tied it around my waist and continued on with my night.
deko-ze was such a surprise!! was NOT expecting to hear trance classics :) huge thumbs up to him
svd played the crowd well and worked that system hard...so IMO i thought based on that he did a good job. to be honest i've lost touch with svd but he's a good performer and he performed well. i thought he kept it upbeat and had some great drops for the most part of the night.
overall had a great night and can't wait for my next outing at Beta
oh ... definitely need 2 more speakers in the back!! sound would be 1000000x more complimenting!!
good job so far beta! |
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| Mewseechi |
That was an amazing night. I loved the music at the start, but once SvD came on, I had a hard time matching my hooping to his music. So many epic buildups that went nowhere, and as everyone's obviously mentioned before, he was quite jumpy in his styles (I was happy when I heard a single dubstep mix though :D).
The crowd really is amazing. I think that's what makes beta so enjoyable. I know you guys really want a liquor licence (understandable, you're losing out on a lot of money), but I find the crowd is so enjoyable without drinks. People are there to dance, not just to get drunk and get laid.
Do you guys sell any kind of snacks at bar? I never bothered to check, but dancing from 10pm-4am made me quite hungry by the end. If you don't already sell snacks, you could probably make some more profit there.
Speaking of profit: boo at the price for coat check. Still, it's understandable: you have to make profit somewhere since you don't sell liquor, and space for coats is in high demand. *sigh*
Lights show: amazing. Seriously, don't stop being awesome. It was one of the best parts of my night, and yet requires so few words to describe.
Volume: I only went to the front at the start of the night. Volume was fine then, but I know it was creeping up throughout the night. At some point in the night, the volume was perfect at the back, not making me def, but I could hear it, and the best part was that it made the walls vibrate. Then it slowly got too loud. Even screaming directly in people's ears, they couldn't hear me. I can only imagine how loud it must have been up at the front. I'm looking forward to some speakers at the back, though please don't let the dj's blast it so much when that happens, or else there will be nowhere to hide to save my ears.
| quote: | Originally posted by Yohan
Though there was this one security guy on top of one of the platforms trying to see what's going on. Would rather see some chicks dancing than some security dude. Kthnxbye lol
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There's a reason they were up there. Didn't you smell the weed? They were just doing their jobs.
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Elyot
Beta might consider taping some reflective tape or glowtape around the perimeters of the gogo dancer boxes (or even just painting a white strip around the edge). My friend was dancing on one and she complained that she was completely paranoid of falling off the box because she couldn't see where it ended (see Guv's ) |
That would be me! I was just hoping to find some glow sticks and tape, but Elyot wasn't willing to be my bitch and run around for that :p. It was less of an issue later in the night, when there was people right next to the boxes to give me some idea of where the edges were (though that also meant they kept hitting my hoop. That could be solved if it was a foot taller, but that would also suck a lot more to fall off of.) Still, I found my foot right on the edge a couple of times, so some kind of reflective tape would be much appreciated!
Also, maybe get another box. They are really popular!
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Elyot
Sound at Beta seems better every time I go. I mostly stayed at the back this time because the crowd at the front was insane. Sander loves his bass. My usual trick of remaining on top of the stairs still seems to hold true (the sound is better because you have a direct line of sight to the mids and highs). |
I agree, the back is the best spot to stand. I just wish the floors weren't so slippery right there (they're smooth and often get wet from snow).
Also, could use some benches right up against the back wall. I liked to sit down there, but the floor was all wet because someone spilled some sugary drink. I was all sticky by the end of the night, and not in the good way ;).
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Elyot
I loved seeing people from the UW Spin and Flow Club out in full force. Many of these people are genuinely talented. I hope beta continues letting them perform in the club (it seems like with current capacity limits, there is always room for them). |
Yay us! I'm seriously still hoping to actually work at beta, else I won't be able to afford to go all that often. |
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| Salmon |
| reviews on here have been very accurate. Over all fun night, but I have to agree with everyone who felt SvD's set was lacking, Deko-Ze killed it compared to him, but still enjoyed seeing Sander show up to a venue like beta |
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| chinamon |
| honourable mention also goes to Kurtbradd Dacosta for his opening set as well. |
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| feelgood |
| I think i read somewhere that dekoze's set would be available for DL. can anyone confirm? |
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