simon ross and your dj howler thread.

[Moonman]

what happened at your last gig? I've played howlers before, dont worry about it, its how you learn.

To other dj's on this forum, have you ever played a howler and considered giving up? I know i've done it before. I remember one time in 2006 i played a, shall we say, more commercial Armand Van Helden track to a floor that wanted crunchy electro house. Needless to say i cleared the floor and it took about 15 minutes to get people back. It was the first time it had happened to me and quite a shock...i didnt think i'd get asked back after that, but i did! I also remember that night i was missing cue points everywhere etc, i think its cos it was one of my first gigs again after a while off and i was so nervous.

So whats your biggest clanger?

[Number2Fan]

Nearly every time I mix I consider giving up, but you have to get back in the saddle. I enjoy it, and I carry on. Out live I certainly have thought about how crap I am, espesh when the place changes as the next DJ blows the roof off. LOL So what though......no one actually died! My downfall is just terrible trainwrecks of mixing..

Everyone has bad ones though, even the op names, I've been there and seen them flop. Imagine if Lisa Lashes had one bad night, due to her mood, or the atmosphere in the place and then just never ever DJ's again, that would be ridiculous, even more ridiculous would be if she only gave up because after her bad set she'd drank a load of Jack Daniels and then made the decision because she was maudling drunk.

Whatever trade you are in, this can happen anyway, I've seen brilliant chefs do the same after a bad 'service' and brilliant doctors and nurses after a 'tragedy' and fabulous coppers after a terrible 'incident' all say and think this way. :boohoo:

Just look at Dave Pearce, and how rich and famous he is...

[JasonB]

I'm interested in what happened with Simon, was it equipment trouble? tune selection trouble?

[Number2Fan]

Was it, womens troubles? :whistling:

[Ian_k]

my philosophy is if i drop a loose mix, to better the mix in the next mix of the track

i've heard djs say they will allow 3 mistakes.....

if it sounds crap mix / fade put of it, sounds a lot better than a trainwreck

[MikeW]

A howler that stands out for me was one night when I played at a local DJ comp around 2001ish.

At the time I was using belt drive turntables at home but the venue had direct drive Technics 1210s. I didn't appreciate the difference in belt drive & direct drive decks until this gig in particular & as a result, most of my mixes were absolute trainwrecks! Let's just say embarrassed wasn't the word...

After that night, I saved hard for some direct drive decks before I even thought about trying for another gig! It was a learning curve which did me some good when I look back on things :whistling:

[Moonman]

i remember entering a dj cntext one time (2002 i think) and the booth was so small, you had to move the monitor to fit more than one person in it. Anyway, the promoter came in the booth to use the mic and left, he moved the monitor pointing outward. I didnt realise this and wondered why i found it hard to mix, it wasnt until the last record when a friend pointed it out to me...where did i finish? 3rd!

[simonross46]

hiya guys, sorry ive not ben able to fill you all in on this sooner! i've noticed the thread for a while but had time to msit down and explain. long story but here it goes ...

at uni we have societies for sports and hobbies etc. and recently a DJ society has been formed. we meet weekly at a local nightclub before opening hours and basically spend the night mixing our favourite tunes on their cdj 1000's and laptop set ups. the idea of the society is to get people gigs around the city as soon as you are good enough to dj to a live audience. there are a small handful of us who are already dj's, and we were given a night at one of the bars on campus called The Library Bar. its a small venue which generates very little attention. im the only 'trance' dj in the society, everyone else is either house or dubstep. on the night itself we could not get hold of any pioneer cdj's, the best we got were extremely cheap american audio cdj's and some sort of gemini effects mixer. we set up at 6:00pm, and my set was at 1:00am. i was put on late to form a bridge between the house dj's and the dubstep dj's ... but cos there were so many of us we were only given 20 minutes each to play as many tunes as we wanted. i decided to showcase some new corbossy material along with some new and exclusive tracks i had been sent by other dj's i know, but this had me worried already cos i didnt feel my style fitted well with everyone else at all, not for 20 minutes, maybe if it was an hour instead. during the time between setting up and my set itself, i grew more and more anxcious about my set and having to use these cheap cdj's. there was a lot of talk about how hard they were to use. once my set arrived, i mixed out from the previous dj nicely (thankfully he ended on a faithless tune, and i started with the new avb remix of 'not going home') but after this nothing went well at all. everybody went out to have a fag, so i got nervous i had cleared the floor, then my beatmatching started to struggle. i was advised to use the pitch bend rather than the jog wheel ... neither worked for me at all. after playing 3 songs i became so demoralised i threw my headphones down, took my cd's, and left with a couple of girls who had come to see me. all of the mates who came to see me that night had never seen me live before and were keen to see what the hype was about me, and although everyone says i did good, i know i didnt and i still feel like i let everybody down.

i have learnt one thing from this though. i'll never use a cheap setup for a live performance ever again, and ill only use equipment i know im comfortable using. i keep thinking to myself how the night might have been if we had pioneers, but i cant dwell on the past just got to get better at it again now!

[Briggsy]

Set up does play a big part in confidence. Thankfully, everywhere i've played has had Pioneer CDJ-1000s - apart from one gig last year. Basically, there were two rooms, and one of the CDJ-1000s had failed in the other room - so they took our CDJ-1000 for that room, and gave us one CDJ-200 as a replacement. It was like taking a Jaguar off of us and giving us a Nissan Micra as a replacement. The accuracy of the pitch fader was awful, and the jog wheel was stupidly sensitive.

As for people going out smoking - unfortunately, this is the negative side of the smoking ban in clubs. You'll find that when one person goes out for a fag, all of their mates follow - so that one person ends up being ten. Then because other people see one group going out, another group go out with them so that they can all chat over a fag. All of a sudden, you've lost 40 people from your dancefloor. It happens everywhere - in the big clubs too. Unfortunately, regardless of how good a tune you play, if people have decided they're going for a fag - then they're going for a fag. There's no stopping them - so don't let that affect your confidence.

If its any consolation - i've been DJ'ing for ten years, and only started playing out 5 years ago. I started off really well - and then went awful. I took on too much - 3 internet radio shows a week, too many gigs each month - and it then began to feel like a chore. The enthusiasm went - and that showed in my sets, and I went crap - so I took a break until 2 years ago. Since then, i've come back a refreshed DJ - my sets have been better than ever, and the past 12 months have been my best yet - averaging 2 or 3 gigs a month. Sure, there will always be gigs that you enjoy more than others - I thrive off a busy crowd and a venue where I can play my style without any restrictions. My DJ'ing is always 10 times better then because I can really get into it. I've played in Coventry and Loughborough in the past - and I didn't enjoy those gigs so much because I had to play recognised tunes that are well known because the crowd, with no disrespect to them, weren't the most clued up - plus they're also fairly commercial towns. Where I play in Banbury, the club is busy now, and the crowd are generally very 'up for it' - and the ones that hang around later in the night are much more knowledgable (they come for the music rather than lots of drinks) - and as I generally play the closing sets when I DJ out, it means I can play "my" style without any restrictions. I thrive on that and my sets are far better there than anywhere else (plus i'm resident so you get to know the crowd, and they get to know you, which makes it even more special).

So basically, what i'm saying is, don't let equipment affect your confidence, don't be put off by certain venues or crowds, and be patient - this is my best year ever for DJ'ing - and that has come 10 years after I started DJ'ing. You're fairly new to it all - so with your passion and determination, you WILL get there too - and you'll get there quicker than I have!

Take my advice too - look after your ears! This has been my biggest year yet - and sadly, the same one i'm going to have to 'retire' from DJ'ing in too. Simply because i've abused my ears for 10 years! Don't make that same mistake mate. You've got a bright future ahead of you - get yourself some decent moulded earplugs. They cost a lot of money - but you'll always be able to get more money. You can't get new ears.

[Moonman]

equipment is a pain. I use Serato and i prefer to use Technics 1200's to control everything with. As soon as i walk into a booth and i dont see them, i do start to panic. I have used the control CD's, but i dont like them. Not so long ago i used the internal mode on Serato cos i just didnt want to use CDJ's (i've always found them too sensitive and the behave differently to Technics which is what i know and love, also with Technics, i can "ride" the pitch, on CDJ's due to the sensitivity this is almost impossible for me to do because of the pitch "steps"). This is whats pre empting me to get a midi controller. Thankfully, theres still plenty of Technics around, the last place that didnt have them was a bar in cambridge about a year or so ago.

Using Serato isnt that much of a pain anymore, in the last year i dont think i havnt been to a dj booth that hasnt had the soundcard already installed so all i have to do is plug the laptop in, so thats nice.

I've also played nights where im the only house dj and others have been drum and bass and dubstep. After 3 hours of this, the house was a welcome change and people loved it, so dont be afraid of being different.

Ive been there though when you know you've played shit. It happens, it hits you hard but just have to get on with and learn where you went wrong.

[MarkL]

Oh mate, I wouldn't worry about that. I have had to play on dodgy Denon cdj's a while back where the pitch had about a 10 second delay between adjusting it and it actually changing so that made beatmatching impossible. These things happen, nightmare when people have came to see you and you sound rubbish!

If I were you I would make a little promo pack up with a good mix CD and include with it a list of your productions and radio plays then go about to all the club nights where you stay and pass them about. Hopefully you will land a couple of gigs that will be more suited to your style and have proper equipment! :thumbsup:

[JasonB]

Looks like its partly equipment and partly confidence/nerves/anxiousness, regardless heres hoping next times much better guv

[emy]

Can I just say big up Simon

I set up a DJ society and we seem to have failed due to lack of interest, so I am glad to see yours is going well

I did an internet radio show recently. CRAP for the whole hour, it was so bad I hate people hearing me when I am having a bad day. I wonder why I do the internet radio but will continue.You have to put the bad behind. practice for hours and hours and get better so BOOM in their faces

[simonross46]

I set up a DJ society and we seem to have failed due to lack of interest, so I am glad to see yours is going well

Did yours not go very well? Some other lad I didn't even know set one up at this uni, so I joined and have been there every week. 50 members strong and I've been elected vice chairman now too I've been practicing my mixing a lot more recently now though, and seem to be getting a lot better too

[emy]

Er we had to get 15 names and student numbers to start the society, only got about 11 so we were kind of an "unofficial society" hehe. We had meetings every two weeks in the uni bar but no equipment at uni to have mixing sessions (I mean turntables) average number of us at these meetings was 5. We did DJ at some uni events though. Just not enough interest, I had plans for it, wanted to start a night up. shame it ended

At least I can put it on my CV that I was the president of the society, it makes it look dead good