Nebula
Got my first gig tomorrow. :o) yay! taken me about 6/7 months to get the courage up lol. Its only a small party at a friends house, but we all gotta start somewhere! hehe, anyhoo... i have mixed feelings, sometimes i'm well up for just getting stuck in, but other times i'm just thinking... "what the hell u doin?" lol. Anyone got any tips to share? short of taking lots of alccohol to get everyone drunk so they dont notice me!
Thanks in advance :o)
Nebula
Thanks in advance :o)
Nebula
Posté Fri 22 Jul 05 @ 10:25 pm
Homeboy
Be simple. Do not try to do anything you are not comfortable doing. I have taught a few people using vdj and I think they all try to hard. The crowd doesn't always notice a good mix. But they do notice a bad mix. So just be yourself and have fun.
Posté Fri 22 Jul 05 @ 10:35 pm
Nebula
:o) so kinda just dj for myself? kk, simple mixing it is then :o) cheers
Posté Fri 22 Jul 05 @ 11:11 pm
Nebula
i had my first gig on sat nite, and went with only one stupid problem with the setup (my herc console seemed to be hated by windows, as it wouldnt bootup, but after booting with console disconnected and installing drivers, no probs!)
I did not have a single crash from the program, which is excellent. All praises to the team!
Also had a few people approach me as to what it is and who its made by, etc...
thanks for a wicked program!!
I did not have a single crash from the program, which is excellent. All praises to the team!
Also had a few people approach me as to what it is and who its made by, etc...
thanks for a wicked program!!
Posté Mon 25 Jul 05 @ 8:04 pm
mp3jrick
Wicked Pissa as we say around here.
The most important part about making this all work is to stay relaxed, concentrate on it because it will overwhelm you at times when a glitch or error occurrs.
Being able to think straight is 1/2 the battle.
Stressing will definately alter your focus on the music also, so the sooner you wake it up and make it run the better.
Boot as soon as you can after setup and get some music playing, this will help.
The most important part about making this all work is to stay relaxed, concentrate on it because it will overwhelm you at times when a glitch or error occurrs.
Being able to think straight is 1/2 the battle.
Stressing will definately alter your focus on the music also, so the sooner you wake it up and make it run the better.
Boot as soon as you can after setup and get some music playing, this will help.
Posté Mon 25 Jul 05 @ 8:19 pm
anewsome
Good to hear you're starting to play out with VDJ. We were all there at one point or another. I had my first proffesional DJ gig at an 18 and over club in 1987, but still my first time out with VDJ was December of 2004 and I was nervous too. Unlike your outing though, I did have a crash with my first outing, TWICE :-)
Luckily those days are behind us all and VDJ no longer has the crash problem. I too started off with a HDJC. Had the same problem you do,.. system will not boot with it plugged in. Still have that problem to this day even with my new computer and XP10s.
A few pieces of advice, in no particular order:
* Prepare your set! I am constantly surprised by how many DJs do ZERO preparation for a set. They show and just start playing whatever comes to mind. By no means do I go in with a playlist and that's what I play for the night but I certainly have an idea of a lot of songs I want to play, and I've also got my "hottest hour" pretty well in mind and I know how all the hottest songs of the week are gonna fit together to make the best dance experience. Build your crescendo and apply it properly! In other words don't play the hottest track of the night when there are only 5 people on the dancefloor.
* Don't play songs twice. This is a personal peeve of mine. I hate going to a club and a DJ plays the same song twice in a night. I've never had to do this and nobody else should either. See 1st tip.
* If you are in an area where people will come up to you and start requesting songs, try to focus on getting their request and getting back to work. I missed a lot of mix-in spots and wrecked a bunch of mixes in the early days by spending too much time talking to requesters.
* Have someone other than yourself work the lights, fog machines and microphone too if you can. If you mix heavily then you really need to focus on that. Although, if you are the human jukebox style DJ who simply pushes a button and does a crossfade, you can probably work all that other stuff too.
* Try to have a backup plan to let the show go on through ANY piece of equipment failure. Sometimes this means carrying an extra whatever. My IPOD comes in handy as a backup source of sound.
* Try not to drink alcohol and DJ at the same time. At least for me this works. I tend to make a lot of mistakes and make suspect song choices if I've had a few drinks. What do you mean the crowd didn't go crazy for that Milli Vanilli?
Luckily those days are behind us all and VDJ no longer has the crash problem. I too started off with a HDJC. Had the same problem you do,.. system will not boot with it plugged in. Still have that problem to this day even with my new computer and XP10s.
A few pieces of advice, in no particular order:
* Prepare your set! I am constantly surprised by how many DJs do ZERO preparation for a set. They show and just start playing whatever comes to mind. By no means do I go in with a playlist and that's what I play for the night but I certainly have an idea of a lot of songs I want to play, and I've also got my "hottest hour" pretty well in mind and I know how all the hottest songs of the week are gonna fit together to make the best dance experience. Build your crescendo and apply it properly! In other words don't play the hottest track of the night when there are only 5 people on the dancefloor.
* Don't play songs twice. This is a personal peeve of mine. I hate going to a club and a DJ plays the same song twice in a night. I've never had to do this and nobody else should either. See 1st tip.
* If you are in an area where people will come up to you and start requesting songs, try to focus on getting their request and getting back to work. I missed a lot of mix-in spots and wrecked a bunch of mixes in the early days by spending too much time talking to requesters.
* Have someone other than yourself work the lights, fog machines and microphone too if you can. If you mix heavily then you really need to focus on that. Although, if you are the human jukebox style DJ who simply pushes a button and does a crossfade, you can probably work all that other stuff too.
* Try to have a backup plan to let the show go on through ANY piece of equipment failure. Sometimes this means carrying an extra whatever. My IPOD comes in handy as a backup source of sound.
* Try not to drink alcohol and DJ at the same time. At least for me this works. I tend to make a lot of mistakes and make suspect song choices if I've had a few drinks. What do you mean the crowd didn't go crazy for that Milli Vanilli?
Posté Tue 26 Jul 05 @ 2:22 am
clax
The first vinyl I played in a gig (middle of the night - a few years ago).... I played it a 33RPM instead of 45!!!
I was so nervous I haven't realized until the other DJ (who let me do a set) ran through the whole dancefloor and pushed onto the good speed button!
I was so nervous I haven't realized until the other DJ (who let me do a set) ran through the whole dancefloor and pushed onto the good speed button!
Posté Tue 26 Jul 05 @ 7:18 am
Nebula
Hey, thanks to you guys for the advice! I did prepare my set, but didn't bank on having to perform for 6 hours. thankfully everyone was well on their merry ways lol.
Unlucky Clax, but i can see where you're coming from. Used to think everyone'd check everything like that, but now i see that nerves take centre stage so to speak and you can easily make stupid mistakes!
thanks again to the team/community for the program and support :o)
Unlucky Clax, but i can see where you're coming from. Used to think everyone'd check everything like that, but now i see that nerves take centre stage so to speak and you can easily make stupid mistakes!
thanks again to the team/community for the program and support :o)
Posté Tue 26 Jul 05 @ 9:22 pm
internodal
I remember my first night-club gig perfectly.
At that time, I was using a very primitive (but highly reliable) software called "Virtual Turntables", by Carrot Innovations. Everything about this software was manual ajustment. Pitch control, jog, bend, everything. And setting cue points was a nightmare on this software. But it worked, and would never crash.
Anyways, I had to do the whole gig with my right hand injured. How I got hurt was so stupid!!
Before the gig, I was standing on a ladder, positionning some pin spots overhead. I was already very nervous about the upcoming gig, which was due to start in less than 2 hours. So nervous, in fact, that at one point, I accidentaly put my hand in the pathway of a cieling fan that was spinning full throttle... Man, that hurt!! My hand got all numb and swollen, and it bleed like hell.
Now, remember. This was my right hand, otherwise known as the mouse-handling hand... As if I wasn't nervous enough, I got scared that I couldn't use my hand for the gig.
Fortunatly, it healed just enough that it wouldn't hurt too bad while I played.
The whole night turned out to be one of my best performances!!
Internodal.
At that time, I was using a very primitive (but highly reliable) software called "Virtual Turntables", by Carrot Innovations. Everything about this software was manual ajustment. Pitch control, jog, bend, everything. And setting cue points was a nightmare on this software. But it worked, and would never crash.
Anyways, I had to do the whole gig with my right hand injured. How I got hurt was so stupid!!
Before the gig, I was standing on a ladder, positionning some pin spots overhead. I was already very nervous about the upcoming gig, which was due to start in less than 2 hours. So nervous, in fact, that at one point, I accidentaly put my hand in the pathway of a cieling fan that was spinning full throttle... Man, that hurt!! My hand got all numb and swollen, and it bleed like hell.
Now, remember. This was my right hand, otherwise known as the mouse-handling hand... As if I wasn't nervous enough, I got scared that I couldn't use my hand for the gig.
Fortunatly, it healed just enough that it wouldn't hurt too bad while I played.
The whole night turned out to be one of my best performances!!
Internodal.
Posté Sat 30 Jul 05 @ 12:03 am