Nathan Kelly
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Nathan Kelly
ParticipantAs always, you make great points, Vintage.
I 100 per cent agree that controllers offer more in terms of features and flexibility. What they don’t (and will never) offer is the ability to show up to a venue with a USB stick, headphones and nothing else. They don’t offer the ability to hand off quickly and easily without having to fiddle around behind the mixer to unplug sound cards/controllers.
So yes, I totally buy into the “belief” here that controllers are awesome. I love playing on my controller and it’s great for MOST cases. What I don’t love is carrying it around all over town and worrying about someone spilling a vodka cranberry on my $3000 laptop. (I play in smaller bars and clubs, close quarters.)
I’m totally comfortable with my controller workflow and I fully realize nobody but other DJs care at all what gear you’re using. It’s fully a matter of logistics and convenience for me. Sometimes I want the freedom to carry barely anything so I can play an opening set somewhere, then head to an afterparty at another place without carrying around a gig bag full of expensive gear.
What’s to practice is forcing yourself to play without sync, without visual aids in many cases, and without the bells and whistles of software. To get muscle memory on common mixers/CDJs so it’s second nature to play on them in stressful, nerve-wracking gigs.
I don’t buy into the bullshit that “real” DJing is only on vinyl/CDJs. I just want to get comfortable on those setups for the gigs where it makes sense to use what’s there.
ParticipantBrowser volume is set the same as system volume, but either way the metering display shows the original WAV file peaking under 0 dB and the stream peaking at -5.
Interestingly though, I uploaded a 320 MP3 version and it didn’t seem to be affected. The volume was consistent between the source file and the Soundcloud stream. So maybe it’s how Soundcloud handles WAV files?
ParticipantThe “house tech” is whichever bartender happens to be working that night. 🙂
One thing that I did notice is that the house mixer (DJM-350) had just one RCA to XLR cable coming out of the left channel of the master output. That cable went into the left speaker. So I guess it’s wired mono?
I played a gig there with software set to stereo. My controller went into the house mixer the standard way (RCA into one of the channels). Does that mean I was only pumping out one half of the stereo signal to the whole PA? If I set it to mono for next time the full signal would be summed to all the speakers then?
ParticipantThanks for the tips, everyone. Vintage, this in particular struck a chord with me: “If you actually play, you prep your mind for the night ahead. You start the process of thinking ‘what comes next’. You don’t fall prey to boredom.”
That’s a really good point. Just some things to add:
(1) I’m a hobbyist, not a professional. 1-2 gigs a month here, mostly for fun.
(2) Getting paid very little, and the organizer is a personal friend.I was still thinking that I’d be “directing” the background music. Watching reactions, adjusting levels, switching genres, eventually mixing in my own stuff. I just wanted to take it easy until it’s time to get the party going.
But I agree with the general sentiment here: The optics of putting the music on “auto-pilot” are bad.
ParticipantIt’s funny, as someone who started out with controllers I’ve been thinking that I should get some sort of CDJ/DJM/XDJ setup at home so I can learn on “club standard” gear. But it seems more and more that clubs and bars expect DJs to bring their own gear anyway.
I think a lot of this whole CDJs/vinyl vs. laptops rivalry comes down to optics. Arguably it looks “cooler” not to be using a laptop in the booth, instead using big, expensive-looking things with a Pioneer logo on them. But even at large clubs now there’s probably going to be a laptop in the booth somewhere (the next DJ playing, maybe).
I guess it comes down to how comfortable you are bringing $2000-$3000 worth of gear (laptop and controller) to a place with drunk people moving around wildly. 🙂
ParticipantGreat tips here as always. Yeah I think getting the messenger style bag was a mistake. In retrospect a backpack would have been better. (It was all the store had and I needed something that night). Ah well.
I wonder if I could gently suggest to the club that me using the Nexus setup would benefit us both, since they wouldn’t have to pack away the CDJs so I can fit in my controller. I also DJ their busiest night of the month, so that might put me in a better position to ask to use that gear. Be nice to get some experience on the “industry standard” setup, you know?
ParticipantThanks for all the input!
I used to put my files in specific genre/energy level folders (don’t like having iTunes organize it for me), but I found that I’d often change my mind about a track (maybe it’s straight-up techno not tech house, maybe it’s a starter not a closer, etc.) and end up changing that folder in the software and then it wouldn’t match with the file.
I’m thinking of just organizing based on purchase/download date. So by year, then month and so on. That way there’s some organization and I can easily go through and trim the collection down a bit. (And track my buying habits!)
ParticipantTo be clear, they charge an extra $50 to use their Nexus 2000 CDJs and a DJM900. The standard setup (no charge) is a pair of CDJ-350s and a Xone:92. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable DJing out on something I haven’t at least had the chance to play with a bit.
Maybe I just need to look at a more compact bag. I’ve got a Gator G-Club messenger and it’s large with only one strap (won’t fit in a basket and too unwieldy to one-shoulder it on a bike). Thanks for the input, all!
ParticipantOh you’re totally right Chuck, much respect for you and the people that did it in the days of vinyl. I can imagine that would have been a massive pain.
That being said what I’m looking for is a VERY light setup. And even though the Denon is a small controller, packed all up together it gets pretty heavy, particularly on a bike. (I bike everywhere). And I’ve been in booths where there isn’t enough room even for that little thing.
That’s why I’m interested in getting something that weighs almost nothing – iPad + Audio 2 soundcard, route that into the club mixer and off I go. Does anyone have experience DJing with Traktor on an iPad? The touch interface does concern me a bit though – seems like it would be easy to “mis-touch” something and trainwreck.
I guess the lightest possible setup would be a USB key, but my club actually CHARGES to use the nice CDJs.
ParticipantGlad to see some Toronto love. (It’s Queen Street). I just got a “residency” (monthly casual gig really, just happen to know the organizers) at a club south of the Village. The DJ booth is elevated and overlooks the whole dance floor. It’s an awesome feeling.
ParticipantLive in Toronto, rather. Not leave. Be nice if we could edit posts. 🙂
ParticipantThanks for the tips, everyone.
@Terry_42 To clarify, I wasn’t saying “I should buy Pioneer because of the brand name.” What I meant was that Reloop is harder to get here in Canada. I don’t know of any brick and mortar stores that stock it (and I leave in Toronto, our biggest city). So I can’t physically try it before I buy – need to get it online. Pioneer gear, however, is everywhere. If I need it serviced or have any issues, I can go to the store I buy it from. If I have issues with Reloop, I’d have to send it off. That’s what I mean buy a brand being more “supported.” Smaller issue, but worth considering.@Santa Creek Furrows Your upgrade path would be similar to mine. My Denon MC2000 is somewhat similar to the Mixtrack Pro 2. For me, the TM8 is attractive for two main reasons: (1) The pads. 8 of them for each channel. Meaning I can actually juggle cues, get near to the end of a track, without touching the laptop. (2) VU meters. Really missing those on the MC2000. Even with full Serato, the track VU meters only cover software track gain.
Question for you though, how long did you have your MP2 before upgrading to the TM8?
ParticipantGains in Serato are confusing. What I found difficult to get my head around is that there are software gain controls and hardware gain controls.
The track gains are set in software either manually or through auto-gain and the meters reflect only the software track gain.
The master gain control is also set in software, but the master level meter is the final output of the controller’s sound card.
On top of that confusion, the hardware track gains don’t control anything in the software (nor do they affect the level meters), but just act like volume knobs.
So on my controller (Denon MC2000), you can’t use the hardware gain knobs like on a traditional mixer, since there are no hardware meters telling me what those gain knobs are doing.
ParticipantI’ve got a brand-new MBP, Core i7 (Haswell), 16GB RAM – so I’m hoping that’ll be enough! 🙂
ParticipantThanks for the help, everyone. Great tips.
In terms of flow, I was thinking:
– Start off with some indie dance and groove-oriented house for warm up
– Then there’s a burlesque show (awesome right?) during which I won’t play
– Then slam into the guilty pleasures that I KNOW this crowd will dig (90s pop and hip hop)
– Transition that into some more high-energy house
– End off with some tech stuff and perhaps a few more guilty pleasures for the folks who stay past last callI have a month to prep, so I feel like I could get comfortable to full Serato in that time (the interface isn’t that different). Mostly I just want the Pitch N Time DJ expansion; the current keylock on Intro isn’t that great (I hear artifacts even when I’m only +/- 3 BPM, on Lossless AIFF tracks, anyone else have issues with that? Maybe I’m just hearing things).
I’ll have a look around for some non-beatmatching transition tutorials (feel free to post any you can think of). And it looks like I’m gonna need to collect a lot more tracks!
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