ScottoRobotto
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ScottoRobottoParticipant
I think a low key approach is better, show the main character’s passion with their day in day out dedication. The scene should “set the scene” but should ultimately be a backdrop to the main character and his/her story.
I would avoid the typical tournament/rival premise or love-story-underscored-by-personal-tragedy angle. I think a challenging the odds story is a better fit.
November 14, 2015 at 9:27 am in reply to: Broke into the scene, how to make a impression now. #2293731ScottoRobottoParticipantThis may be boring to hear but if you want to be regarded and treated like a professional than act like a professional. This doesn’t mean wearing a suit or talking like one but move with “urgency” and show some hustle. Show up to setup earlier in the day and take care of any logistical issues. Show up early before your set so they know you’re on-site and ready to go. Introduce yourself to the techs and be polite and friendly, remember their names and make sure you use it during the conversation and when saying goodbye. Don’t drink during the gig, maybe not even afterwards.
These are the traits I present to my clients in any kind of work I do. I show that I am reliable, dependable and take myself seriously so they don’t need to worry about me. I work quickly and efficiently to setup and tear down to demonstrate competence. I show attention to detail so they know that even when they aren’t watching me I am doing the job right. I am polite and attentive when I speak to them so they feel that I am both listening to them and understanding them. I explain what I have chosen to do and why so they can understand what is happening and be reassured I know what I am doing.
Personally I take it a little further with professional dress and grooming, the way I speak and paperwork but that is because that is me and I am both comfortable with myself and the image I present. You need to develop your own professional image. I agree that doing something unnatural is not sustainable in the long term but I still feel these are habits you should train yourself in because they are almost universally useful as a working professional of any type.
ScottoRobottoParticipantany people view being signed by a label as a status symbol or a milestone, they don’t value it for what it can do for them its simply what you do to be successful. That is completely the wrong was to look at it.
Signing with a label is a business relationship, what you have to ask yourself is, “What am I giving up and what are they going to do for me?” Do you expect them to be a promoter/marketer and increase your exposure? Do you want them to be a publisher/distributor and sell your work digitally, online or in physical stores? Are you looking for an agent to find you paying gigs in your area or abroad? Whatever you are looking for you need to look for a label that will do what you need them to do.
Next research the label and make sure they actually do what they say they do. Some “labels” are just digital storefronts that no one’s heard of and don’t promote other than their website. Their “promotional work” doesn’t generate additional sales the artist didn’t drive themselves anyway. If all you’re looking for is a eCommerce site that’s fine as long as the percentages work out for you and you’re are aware what’s going on.
ScottoRobottoParticipantI don’t like the gig bar because personally I don’t like Galaxian style lasers. If I were to pick up a stand-alone all-in-one I think I would go with the ADJ Dual Gem Pulse. Good coverage of the floor, multiple light sources between each lens to create shifting angles for aerial effects with fog, and chases with a separate strobe effect.
The price is pretty good at $130 shipped and since it’s just one unit easy to set up and tear down. No DMX or external controller so it’s limited and will be difficult to build from. To expand it I would probably use it as a center light with a pair of moving beams off to the sides or as an alternate center light in a system.
ScottoRobottoParticipantThe problem is that you can’t turn them down when using sound active or auto patterns, they run at 100% power only. In the future I’ll probably use a single unit instead of both and put the second one behind the band to use as a crowd blinder.
Next year I may be doing lighting for a wedding and one of my packages will be using the Wash FX units to color wash the ceiling and upper walls rather than doing uplighting.
ScottoRobottoParticipantWell I can say it was too bright for what I was going for. It tended to wash out the other chase lights behind the bands I was using to create a backdrop and white on full was unflattering to the performers.
ScottoRobottoParticipantWell my sliders were at about 25-30 out of 255 for white light doing red, blue and green. When I was doing single color I could move the sliders up to about 100 or so. These were two fixtures with 18 4-watt LEDs so assuming linear output 10% is about 14.4 watt. That is what I found to be appropriate for color washes. On the other hand at 100% when the units was pushing white light during chases, that’s 144-watts of LED output.
I can probably work around it by programming chases into my DMX controller or software DMX control but stand-alone it is definitely limited by Chauvet’s built-in programming.
ScottoRobottoParticipantLast night I used the Wash FX system during a concert for 3 bands. I mounted 2 Wash FX fixtures to a pipe about 15ft away from the performers.
2 fixtures was too much light output, when doing static color washes I was at about 10% power which meant working the DMX controller sliders was a little jerky. When I used auto chases the whites were too bright since you can’t dim the intensity during auto chases. Next time I think I will use a single unit and drop it back a little further to 25 feet or so.
Also none of the auto chases have smooth color fading, it just snaps from one color to another. I could program it into a DMX controller but it’s disappointing that they didn’t build it into the fixture instead of a 23rd slightly different variation of a color chase. For now I’ll use these fixtures for washes and color chases but eventually I think change over to using them for static washes and crowd blinders and pick up some LED pars that have smooth color mixing programs.
Now that I’ve used them for a live event I’ll say they they give excellent light output for their price point and are great for static washes, strobing, and as a crowd blinder. However the auto chases are limited and I wish they had better DMX controls, particularly a master dimmer that could be used for both static washes AND auto chases.
September 26, 2015 at 9:02 am in reply to: DJing & Work: Should I Give Up Before I Even Begin? #2260871ScottoRobottoParticipantAre you prepared to be an entrepreneur? Most people aren’t cut out for it. When you own your own business everything is your responsibility and you have to deal with a lot of crap that most people don’t want to. I don’t know you but based on your probable age you’re probably not ready, let alone a field as notoriously hard as being a musician or any sort of artist.
Why not get a job and DJ/Produce as a hobby? Work part-time and give DJing/Producing a go for a year or so. After this time if you have enough saving and you still think DJing might be financially viable then you can give it a shot. If not then you can keep doing it as a hobby. Eventually you may need to settle down and get a full-time job and possibly give up a few hobbies like DJing but you can cross that bridge later.
ScottoRobottoParticipantThe biggest way people tend to abuse their body is sleep deprivation. There is a little flexibility our bodies can accept if we short it a few hours but the sleep debt still needs to be paid. In the mean time the interest of fatigue takes its toll on everything we do.
One of my weekly lighting gigs on Wednesdays doesn’t get me out of the bar until 2 AM and I have school the next day at 7:30AM, I usually only get 4 hours or less on those nights. I try to catch naps in the van before I setup for the gig and short 20 min naps before I tear down at the end of the night.
As for food, you should make it as easy as possible to eat healthier alternatives. Keep some fruit and vegetable sticks in your refrigerator, most people are shorting themselves on fiber. Remember, healthy food are not magic pills that make the effects of an excess of less healthy foods go away. Healthy foods provide the nutrients that you’re probably not getting enough of and when eaten INSTEAD of unhealthy foods let you eliminate excess calories which cause weight gain, excess sugar which causes tooth decay, and saturated fats and cholesterol from your diet that contribute to heart disease. In short, it isn’t a plus/minus system where healthy foods cancel out unhealthy foods, all food adds up towards ranges where you shouldn’t exceed or fall short and unhealthy food tends to lead to excesses in some areas and shortages in others.
ScottoRobottoParticipantLook at it as a challenge rather than an obstacle. Your job is to come up with a sequence and mix these songs together smoothly. Maybe it’s not the job you’re used to but it should still be within your skill set. Unfortunately if you’re not comfortable and familiar with all these songs and artist you will need to spend some time listening and researching the songs, you should bill them a few more hours for the customized set list.
ScottoRobottoParticipantThis is actually interesting question about information security but rather get into it I will say the short answer is no, you can’t stop them from copying the data.
You could write protect the drives and I would do that because it’s low hanging fruit. I would also pick up some backup software to make it easier to clone the drive. I would probably clone the drive from a master copy before sending it out, it would also make sure your DJs have an up-to-date library before heading out to a job. Alternatively you could use an online cloud based backup service so you don’t need to keep dedicated hardware, the problem is that since you need to upload your files to the cloud it could take a little longer than .
I would also keep several spare drives that you run through a rotation to reduce the wear on the individual drives and just to have spares on hand. Hard drive capacity is high enough these days that you can get more than enough space without spending a whole lot on the hardware.
ScottoRobottoParticipantI pretty much only hear lyrics in vocal trance and it’s usually all chorus. I suppose you could collaborate with a singer to make samples for use by producers but even if you could monetize it it would be really difficult to build that into a serious platform.
Putting aside EDM for now, have you done songwriting in general? Most musicians I know who sing only want to perform lyrics they wrote if it’s an original song. Alternatively they might perform someone elses song if it’s someone elses band and they are just playing in it. There is a place for songwriters in the industry but it will take time to establish yourself specifically as a songwriter.
ScottoRobottoParticipantHere are a few lights I’ve been looking at recently:
Chauvet Wash FX, $150
ADJ Mini Dekker, $80
ADJ Micro Phase, $50
I would put the Wash FX on a stand behind you to backlight you and wash the stage, and another tree with the Micro Phase as a centerpiece and two Mini Dekkers master-slaved together on the sides. I figure the entire setup with stands and other accessories would cost you about $650 total.
If you want to build it as you go along I would probably start with a light stand and a Mini Dekker, that will run you about $150 with the clamp, extension cables, etc. Next I would add on another Mini Dekker so you can master-slave them together and a second light stand so you have the option of putting them on opposite sides of the stage. You could also pick up the Micro Phase now and stick it behind you on the second stand and put the Mini Dekkers together on one stand.
Another simple set up would be one light tree with two ADJ Pixel Pulse bars for about $400, you could also start with one for about $250 total.
ScottoRobottoParticipantHanding out flyers isn’t meant to build this sort of relationship, it’s meant to get exposure to try to get higher attendance and more ticket sales. It’s an unfair to expect it to do more than that just as it would be unfair for me to criticize social media for not being able to get the average DJ a gig in Ibiza.
Building relationships is not unique to social media, if you had a gig on a Friday and you knew a DJ with a gig on a Saturday you could offer to hang up their flyers for them when you pound the pavement and they could do the same for you. I build relationships with DJs and bands by going to their events and talking to them after their set. I give them a card, I talk shop with them, and I sometimes play roadie and help them clear the stage and carry their stuff to their van. I go to parties with them and meet their musician and DJ friends. If I finish a lighting gig and there is a DJ or band I haven’t met before and I don’t plan on leaving anyway then I leave my lighting up and do a free show for them. It can be as simple as giving a shout out to the following act at the end of your set and asking the crowd to stick around.
You seem overly concerned with maximizing your return which is general is fine but it is too simplistic a strategy. My goals in promotion are to maximize my exposure without exceeding my budget, it is absolute values that concern me not ratios. The goal of promotion is to maximize your results not to get a good deal, set your budget then spend the money. Naturally you should pursue low hanging fruit including social media but if you’re serious about promotion you don’t stop.
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