Bad DJ Story #842 b/w S.erato Question
DJFerrari
2,411 Posts
Got back from another work conference/DJ gig in Orlando... didn't go quite as well as Barcelona.So my company sponsored another company's party and I was the DJ. They were at our party in Barcelona and liked me so much that they wanted me for their party. It was a James Bond theme so they wanted some theme songs and loungey music. The venue was an upscale club and we had 2 conference calls to make sure the equipment I brought worked with their system. I get there to setup and ask the sound guy for the hookup to the system to find out that they can't plugin to a Rane TTM 54 mixer even though I told them twice that's what I was bringing. The sound guy then chews me out because we insisted that I be on stage instead of the DJ booth because my company had a banner hanging from the table and it was good exposure. He says that no DJ has ever played on the stage so all they had to hook up to was those 3 prong thingys. He hands me 1 rca input and says that's all they can do. I then say mono won't do and then he goes off on a rant about how I'm using mp3's and the quality sucks anyways so it won't matter. I tell him that bitrate is irrelevant to the mono/stereo issue, but he won't listen. I'm now stressed for time because people are starting to show up so I say screw it and start playing. Wow... DJing in Mono sucks. Having to guess what sounds will be missing for each track without monitors over a massive club system. I did my best, but it sounded pretty bad. Oh well, most everyone was feeling it so I just kept going. I say most everyone because about 2 hours into it, some guy came up to the stage and started chewing me out that the music wasn't "current" enough. I told him that I was instructed to play old Bond themes and lounge music at a relatively low level because it was a corporate event and the idea was to have people networking with only background music. Plus, everyone else was having a good time and complimenting me on the selection. He then tells me that his company was a sponsor of the party and the situation was unacceptable. The next thing I know, my music is cutoff and a CD of house music starts playing from the DJ booth. Mind you, it was a 7-10 PM corporate party so no one wanted to hear house music! I wonder what he said?!I was totally okay with not playing because I was struggling with the sound and I ran into a weird Microwave problem. The left turntable was way out of sync with the software. Every time I threw the record, the audio stuttered a bit. It caught up eventually, but it made mixing almost impossible. Every time I mixed a record from the left, I just waited for the right song to end. What could cause that? It couldn't be a USB issue as the right turntable was fine. The torque appeared fine when I examined it. I'm guessing it was the cables from the turntable to the Microwave box. Anyone else ever run into that problem?All in all, it was an okay trip. Right after I finished playing and calmed myself down, I ran into one of my best friends from college who was at the conference without my knowing and we got super wasted. That was cool. I also met up with Kid Gusto the night before and we saw Kid Koala. Cot damn... that dude's incredible! That Moon River routine is so 
I get to go back to Florida in 2 weeks for another conference/DJ show in Cape Canaveral so I'm definitely solidifying myself as that corporate DJ dude 
I get to go back to Florida in 2 weeks for another conference/DJ show in Cape Canaveral so I'm definitely solidifying myself as that corporate DJ dude
Comments
Dude, InfoWorld is on this big jag about being an "events" company these days. If IW ever ends up doing some sort of event with your company, we'll have to rock a 2x4 geekfest set.
That'd be awesome... LinuxWorld is in August in SF and we'll be going all out for that. Let's make it happen
as far as all that bad shit that happened goes, as long as it don't affect your rep and prevent you from getting future paper, who cares? douche who powertripped on that current music tip actually did you a favor since you could just cruise after that, haha
Ah... that could have been it. Wasn't the needles, everything works fine now that I'm back on my home system.
Very true... I had way more fun getting blacked out
I play most of my gigs in mono. balances the sound out nice and even.
my microwave was doing a similar problem, something which I'm beginning to get used to. when I load a song into the left turntable and drop the needle (in absolute mode) instead of reading the audio cued up, it wigs out and starts scrolling through playlists or song titles - like the spining record is moving the highlight up and down my column of playlists. the right turntable never has any trouble. I'm convinced it has nothing to do with needle or cable, but is a problem with the computer being too slow, or not being warmed up yet (ghost in the mac). This has happened to me a bunch of times now, and usually, last night included, after I shut down and restart my comp a couple times, it will finally work the way it's supposed to. I have the macbook "pro", which seems super amatuer in its performance. intel = 4x faster my ass.
But that is cool to play in mono with Microwave. Most house soundsystems are wired in mono and i have came across this problem a few times. Gotta love playing an old track and all the drums are missing.
bought it used = no manual
edit: http://www.rane.com/pdf/sslman.pdf
let's see if this helps...
Yo, for real, the sound guy at that show just showed his ass at how unprofessional he is. If dude did not have any DI (direct input) boxes and only 1 RCA cable, dude is NOT a sound tech. But also let this be a lesson that even if equipment is being supplied, always bring your own cables and adapters. You just never know.
as for the dildo acting up, I've seen this too, and generally I've found it to be a needle/tone arm issue. Dust collecting on the needles can make for bad signal transmission to and from the box, and a bad connection in the tonearm can make some weird 'slipping' issues. I find this when using busted up turntables that are provided by the venue. And the always present problem of a not good connection between the headshell and tonearm. The lick maneuver works, but it's good to get one of those de-oxit pens to be able to swab the connectors on the headshell and inside the tonearm to make sure you are getting a good contact.
go go corporate DJ!
Just so we're not confused here.....
It sounds like you were dj'ing in only ONE channel, not mono.
A mono connection will still play everything in the recording so when you describe "sounds missing" it confuses me.
Mono = no stereo seperation.
If you were playing stereo records over only the left (or right) channel, then you would notice missing sounds etc... So what you were describing sounds like it wasn't mono at all, but rather stereo signal through only the L or R channel.
Just saying. Good job regardless.
fuck the turntables, just use the laptop. are the tables really absolutely necessary?
Yeah, that's the ticket... just 1 channel. I'm an idiot
What up N****n!
So yeah, the guy was a real dick. It'd be one thing if we didn't have 2 conference calls beforehand, but we were assured everything was cool. Oh well.
Thanks for all the tips... it's good to know all the things that can go wrong so I can fix it instead of panic!
You need some of this in your life, it is like steriods for your electrical connections: http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1607/.f?sc=2&category=188
Sound guy sounds like a dick, but I am not at all surprised. The vast majority of them have no clue what they are doing, never taken an audio engineering class, you can pray they maybe read a book about it but even that is pushing it. A cable run that long in RCA introduces so much noise. Does sound like he wanted to use XLR cables though, and since the 54 only has 1/4 balanced outs, rolling with some 1/4 to XLR adaptors would be good.
Any good spots to eat down there? I might be going there with the family in a few months.
but you should always carry a bag of cables and adapters to fit any system.
sayin.
you can set microwave to mono out. then, there is no balance issue, just turn up the bump. if the record tracking was acting funny, it's either the needle connection or one of the tables wasnt grounded. with Microwave, you can't hear the buzz of an ungrounded table, it just makes the application act all crazy.
usually in this situation it means that your rcas are reversed. switching em usually fixes it... i dont use Microwave, but when our headliner for my monthly has Microwave, we set up a box ahead of time and test it.
you should've nutted him