Michael M. Hughes
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Michael M. Hughes
ParticipantI have the IE. The jogs are far too sensitive for me to scratch with. You can dial them down a bit with a knob in the back of the unit, though, and I’m hoping they’ll adjust the speed in a firmware update. For scrubbing through tracks they’re fine, but if you like to scratch, the IE might not be your best bet.
Otherwise it’s a great controller for the price.
ParticipantD-Jam, post: 6238 wrote: No….I’m usually tired and want to sleep.
I wind myself down with symphony music in the car.
I did have one guy who went to the WMC one year, and on the last night he went to see Tiesto, then immediately caught a plane home and went to work. It was a bit of a shock to his system to go from massive Tiesto event to working in the office.
I do that, too—I call it “cleansing my ears.”
In the build-up to a gig, I’m so immersed in music that I find myself “hearing” beats (usually around 125bpm or so) all the time—when walking, washing dishes, driving, showering. I’m living inside a nonstop mental soundtrack. After the gig, I need to give my ears and brain a break, so I listen to classical, jazz, or ambient. For the first day or two after a big gig I listen to talk radio and podcasts and no music at all.
ParticipantThanks, D-Jam. I realized I could keep spiraling into despair or pretend everything was okay—so I chose to just roll with it. We’re our own worst critics, to be sure. My set wasn’t as good as it should have been, because the sound was nagging me, but you’re right—most people didn’t care.
ParticipantSmiTTTen, post: 5982 wrote: I’m surprised it took this long for that comment to pop up.
I tried very, very hard to resist 🙂
ParticipantMy optimization and preparation consists of powering up my laptop and opening Traktor. 😎
ParticipantI don’t miss having to shop at the retails shops—online buying is just so much more convenient. I do hope bookstores stick around, though—in spite of reading a lot of books on my iPad these days, there’s nothing like serendipitous browsing for real books.
ParticipantI’d hesitate to refuse to work with this promoter again. He may be new to the game, too, and he could turn out to be a good ally, and he could learn from you how to better hire and work with DJs.
Participantjezalenko, post: 5757 wrote: Haha, cheers Drew.
Also forgot to mention, the 2nd DJ forgot his headphones too :p
Also thought I had some bad mixes, as the venue has no booth monitors and I couldnt hear anything except the bass comeing from the subs 2m away from me. Need to mix with the cans some more 😀
Definitely try cueing in your phones in situations like that, if possible. It can make a huge difference.
But I’ll echo others—congratulations, and you definitely showed professionalism and adaptability, and the promoter should have taken notice.
ParticipantNever say, “Screw the Beatles.” Especially at a corporate event, you’re likely to do well playing some classic rock early in the evening. Stones, Beatles… tunes with a bit of a dance-y vibe (“Miss You” never fails). Corporate events are a lot like weddings, minus the schmaltzy love songs—you need to be ready to please a variety of people, and some people will be happy hearing music they like early in the evening because they’re not dancers. So hit the rock/alternarock crowd early on and make them happy before shifting gears to dance music after the drinks start kicking in.
Also like weddings, you need to be flexible and have a focused collection—not necessarily hundreds of songs from each genre, but a few surefire hits from different genres. I was once caught off-guard at a corporate party when I started getting lots of requests for modern country… this was pre-iPhone/wifi days, so I literally had nothing for them but managed to throw down some old country chestnuts that sufficed (or at least kept the beer bottles from flying at me). Now I keep my iTunes organized by genre, and before a corporate or wedding gig I go over the charts and pick a few popular tracks for r&b, pop, alternative, new country, hiphop, etc. just to have in my arsenal.
Good luck, and please let us know how it went and any lessons you learned.
August 10, 2011 at 5:06 pm in reply to: Need some advice for fine-tuning a DJ app for the iPad #5568ParticipantLooks interesting. I’m using Djay for iPad as my backup/emergency in case my laptop should ever catch on fire. I even used it once at a party, and it worked surprisingly well—I think there’s a real future for the iPad as a DJ tool. Please let us know when it’s released.
ParticipantI turn my laptop on.
ParticipantEmma Partnow, post: 5509 wrote: i don’t have to prove myself that i´m able to mix i´ve done that my whole life and spend more time mixing then with my daughter
As a ‘Reason’ for his Belief That ‘He’ Is The Second Coming – No Comment
That quote bothered me, too. I think he should spend more time with his daughter.
ParticipantD-Jam, post: 5502 wrote: I do read some Mac-centric sites. I get irked whenever fanboys like MG Siegler continually kisses Steve Jobs’ butt and can’t seem to write about anything without somehow leading the article towards “Apple is the best and they can do no wrong”. I do like though when i go on Macrumors and see guys who love their Apple machines, but do not accept everything Jobs does in an unquestionable manner. They’ll give plenty of heat when a stupid decision is made or they feel the products are being dumbed down too much or limited. I can take anyone more seriously if they’re willing to challenge their idols.
I have given Apple plenty of grief over the years. I’m enjoying Lion, the latest OS, but some of the iOS-ification just doesn’t make sense for desktops and laptops. I also have video editor friends who feel completely abandoned by the dumbing down of Final Cut Pro. I’m definitely not a Saint Steve can do no wrong fanboy.
But just to be picky, I think it’s not that Apple’s computers are aimed at/designed for computer illiterates—it’s just that computer illiterates assume that Apple’s OS is easier to work with (and I’d agree). There’s a difference. As I stated before, many of my friends who are heavily into computing (coders, which I am not) love their Macs and prefer them as their primary machines.
ParticipantDitto the above. I never chat—I’m usually working on multiple projects when I drop in here, and chatting is too demanding on my time. I know some folks love chats and IM, but I find the board and blog to be perfect for my needs.
ParticipantNothing wrong with that, and I think his explanation is solid. Again, it’s only DJs who get upset about these kinds of things, not the obviously happy crowd. Milli Vanilli it isn’t.
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