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why do bars/clubs build such crappy dj booths

bombhiphopbombhiphop 104 Posts
edited April 2006 in Strut Central
I am so tired of going to a venue to play and their dj setup/booth sucks. The venue is always stoked about their setup... "our soundman built it". Hello, maybe someone should consult a dj! Equipment hardwired in, turntables feet away from the mixer or not able to turn them battle style, one monitor on the right side (when most dj's use their headphones in the right ear). Yeah, I'm bitching - but geez these things and so much more drive me nuts! I'd like to know what other people notice as dj booth mistakes. Post here.

  Comments

  • grandpa_shiggrandpa_shig 5,799 Posts
    i dont like it when im not facing the throngs of people that usually show up to my gigs. no really, i hate it when the booth is facing a wall or something. i like to know if im "hitting in da club" or not.
  • BelsonBelson 880 Posts
    Remember the promoters don't want you to feel comfortable - they always want to keep you on the back foot....at least that's the way it feels some times.

    Worst DJ booth I ever played in, there was no monitor, the left hand deck 45 button didn't work, there was no light in the booth and the only lighting that was in the club meant I couldn't read any 45 that had black text on a red label, and the headspace was no more than 6ft high.

    Best booth I played in, had a sofa behind it and many other luxuries. The guy that owned the club was also the principal DJ.
  • kennykenny 1,024 Posts
    worst booth/setup i ever played ?

    the left deck is turned around so the needle is facing in on the muthafucker!! not to mention the crossfader knob is completely borken

    and yea, that turntable being a feet away from the mixer thing really puts me off too...

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    i dont like it when im not facing the throngs of people that usually show up to my gigs. no really, i hate it when the booth is facing a wall or something. i like to know if im "hitting in da club" or not.

    I started to say - I don't like having my back to the audience either! I got a mild Jesse James complex about that...if somebody important comes through that door, or if I'm failing or succeeding, I wanna be the first to know!
  • JoeMojoJoeMojo 720 Posts
    Worst decks I ever played on were at Bunker 54 in Rio... I don't know who had massacred those poor 1200s, but you would touch them with your hand and they would grind to a halt, then speed up and slow down randomly for another ten or fifteen seconds after you let go.

    Plus the pitch control was completely 'lumpy' - nudging it would sometimes do nothing, sometimes speed up dramatically.

    I didn't even know it was possible for Technics to be so mangled.
  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    No, the worst is when they tell you the equipment is great and you show up to find a Gemini DJ-In-A-Box, that someone has already worn the fuck out. Nothing worse than tables that take 5 seconds to spin up to speed and mixers that crackle and bleed all night.
  • coolchriscoolchris 301 Posts
    anybody ever DJ on that 400 pound hanging from bungee chords pile of shit at 111 minna?Take that shit to burningman bitch.
  • p_gunnp_gunn 2,284 Posts
    not having enough space to lay out records is my pet peeve... do any places actually put bins into the booths anymore?
  • DeeRockDeeRock 1,836 Posts
    Oh boy, I have a million and one horror stories on this subject! One of the best ones was when a club hired me and I talked to him and asked him about the set up and they assured me they had everything and it was top notch blah blah blah. I show up and walk in and go over to the booth which i wasn't sure if it was the booth or not as it looked like a storage area. I asked where are the turntables and he says "Turntables"? All dumbfounded!!! Then he says to me, you use records???? Hilarious! Luckily I had my shit out in the truck form a previous gig. They had two regular cd players under a table and a weird mixer on a shelf under another storage shelf and my hand could barley fit in between them.
  • djobelixdjobelix 23 Posts
    yeah a million stories of turntables where someone has gone 'ohh yes i know what this needs... someone to f*ck with the torque' or where the tone arm and/or counterweight is being kept in place by bluetac, sometimes you ask them f they have anymore turntables, they say yes and you wish you never asked. the worst one was actually a house party, me and the guy i dj with were doing it as a favour free and all that, so we trailed 4 turns and 2 mixers to this house set up and asked where the stereo is, only to be presented with an alba protable stereo - seriously wtf!! it always amazes how many people think that a mixer will connect to their 10 year old cd/radio/cassette portable combo, its like 'theyre all stereos arent they???!?!?'
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    bars and clubs here don't even have DJ booths.

  • CousinLarryCousinLarry 4,618 Posts
    bars and clubs here don't even have DJ booths.


    You are embarrassing the Richmond club scene.;)
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?
  • CousinLarryCousinLarry 4,618 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?

    They should just get a helper monkey to DJ.

  • meshmesh 925 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?

    where was that?

    the only place here in town that i have played at with a booth is club 534(the old Boss). they actually have 2 booths and they both suck. one turntable, the pitch did not work. going to +8 was like going to +1/2 on a regular 1200. mixer bleed, headphone bleed, non-battle style, and about 2 feet tall(which sucks for my tall ass).
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?

    They should just get a helper monkey to DJ.



    Pray for Mojo....


    Swim Bar in NYC. The DJ set up is suspended from the ceiling, inside of a stairwell. You have to go halfway up the stairs, then climb over the railing into the platform.
  • BigSpliffBigSpliff 3,266 Posts
    not having enough space to lay out records is my pet peeve... do any places actually put bins into the booths anymore?

    I built a booth with a bin and it gets used by barstaff to store everything they don't want to deal with actually putting away properly.
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?

    where was that?

    the only place here in town that i have played at with a booth is club 534(the old Boss). they actually have 2 booths and they both suck. one turntable, the pitch did not work. going to +8 was like going to +1/2 on a regular 1200. mixer bleed, headphone bleed, non-battle style, and about 2 feet tall(which sucks for my tall ass).

    tobacco co.

    btw--Europa seems to have a nice DJ booth and lounge area downstairs. can we take over down there?
  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,789 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?

    The homogenisation of club nights... there's a chain-night/organisation over here that caters to students (i.e. they buy up cheap, out-of-date beer and sell it on promotion Wednesday nights only) called Fat Poppadaddys. Biggest lame pile of stanky shite ever. When they first set up in Norwich (where I'm studying) they put out fliers asking for DJs. I replied and got back an 'action-pack' with the Fatpoppadaddy mission statement, plus conditions attached to DJing for their night. These included running a meet'n'greet service for over-seas students and organising a special maranga night which I assume they figured would cover the entire Latin-American Spanish language demograph. If that alone hadn't put me off, there too was the knowledge that I'd be taught how to mix with cd mixers playing the Fatpoppadaddy playlist of approved cds.

    A few weeks later, and I find myself in said club with bunch of friends getting wasted on the cheap out-of-date beer, and behind the decks is one of the new recruits. Next to him, for the whole night, is a guy with a clip-board going through a checklist and rating the apprentice-DJ's mixing.
  • meshmesh 925 Posts
    last week i went one of the few clubs that had a "booth". they had one of those big numark angled mixers with built in CDs. it looked like a big ARP or some shit. they also a had an old ass apple Mac up there. when I asked about DJing, they told me to fill out an application. whatever. then the dude told me that he was having a lot of DJ turnover. he said he was surprised because he just got this new music service where this company sends 100 tracks every month that fits their specific demographic. the DJ is supposed to make sets from those tracks every week using this ancient computer DJ set up and tracks that are chosen by someone else.

    gee, I wonder why you can't keep DJs?

    where was that?

    the only place here in town that i have played at with a booth is club 534(the old Boss). they actually have 2 booths and they both suck. one turntable, the pitch did not work. going to +8 was like going to +1/2 on a regular 1200. mixer bleed, headphone bleed, non-battle style, and about 2 feet tall(which sucks for my tall ass).

    tobacco co.

    btw--Europa seems to have a nice DJ booth and lounge area downstairs. can we take over down there?

    hahaa, yeah i forgot about that place(tobacco co). i used to cook there. you DONT want to DJ there, but you already know that.

    europa is chill fo sho. i havent ever been able to spin there. they usually do a chill lounge night on wednesdays i think. mordecai has spun there a couple of times. i dont think they prefer hip hop djs, they are looking more for the electronic crowd. at least that was how it was relayed to me. but hey, it would be worth a shot.

    element actually has the super ill dj booth, but all the music i ever hear coming out of there is pretty lots of house and shit. but tony, the owner dude, saw me spin at the MMM show and was stoked on my set and said he wanted to talk to me. i was sick all last week so i havent talked to him yet, but maybe we can do a jumpoff there. do a night thats not a houe night, more of a general party. we'll see...
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts


    element actually has the super ill dj booth, but all the music i ever hear coming out of there is pretty lots of house and shit. but tony, the owner dude, saw me spin at the MMM show and was stoked on my set and said he wanted to talk to me. i was sick all last week so i havent talked to him yet, but maybe we can do a jumpoff there. do a night thats not a houe night, more of a general party. we'll see...

    I was working on that dude, as you know, and gave him several mixes of different ideas i had. i came back and he was talking all stoked. he said he listened to my mixes on his car on road trip (read: highly scrutinized--yikes). but...he still said we'd def do something but never called back. ??? i went in there a few times after and the music was TURRRRble. (i seriously heard some gay house rmix of 9 to 5) it was also pretty empty. something has to be done.

    He's a good dude, but I don't get what he's doing? That system in there is easily the best the city. We should go in there and run shit. Otherwise I think he might close.

    I'm calling out to all Richmond DJs. Take your hatts off. Let's do this.
  • meshmesh 925 Posts
    Let's do this.

    i'll see if i can talk to him this afternoon sometime. if not today, then tomorrow. i definitely want to talk to him and see whats up. see how things are going for him and if he is ready for a change.
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
  • CousinLarryCousinLarry 4,618 Posts
    Let's do this.

    i'll see if i can talk to him this afternoon sometime. if not today, then tomorrow. i definitely want to talk to him and see whats up. see how things are going for him and if he is ready for a change.




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