On Djing...

i'm not a creep i swear but boys taking their shirts off during my set will never not be fun.

Technical question for more experienced DJs:

I've been making the transition from doing mixes in my bedroom to DJing in bars. I mostly play Techno and some House, and I generally like to have long transitions with a lot of subtle blending between the two tracks. At home with my junky controller I can do this very smoothly and seamlessly, but when I'm using pro gear (presumably feeding into a compressor/limiter) it's a different story. Everything seems much more abrupt, I find it nearly impossible to do more subtle blending with EQs, filters, and faders, it's like it's either on or off, I get sudden jumps in volume, and I also get a lot of muddiness through the house speakers vs what I hear in the headphones. I think part of the issue is that I need to crank the gains more to ensure I'm hitting the compressor with adequate signal, but I'm not sure what else I can do to get more subtle and smooth blending between tracks. Thoughts?

hm not sure other than that bar system sounds kinda wack, i don't think there should be a compressor / limiter in a pa signal chain

Just to be clear, I'm just assuming there is, I don't really know. I thought it would be pretty standard to throw a compressor and EQ on a house sound system.

yeah that sounds weird. some mixers have a setting for gradual vs. sharp crossfade, maybe check that? the muddiness is prob a house sound issue imho

so my bar put a pause on my thursday nights for a while with a promise that they would resume but no hard date on it...

i'm trying not to be doomy about it. my worst take is that someone there complained about one of my grumpy moments and they're canceling me. that's not what they're saying though, so i'm trying to be even-keeled about it. overall i enjoy djing regularly (of course), even though some weeks were harder than others. but i also became reliant on the extra dough to make ends meet. i've been trying to reach out to other bars with no promising word or contact from anyone regarding anything in the near future. i'm cognizant that i'm feeling a bit of desperation and so trying not to push it with anyone. i've spent so many years earning barely enough at my day job that the year of having "a little bit more than enough" did wonders for me.

probably going to follow up some texts / insta messages with visits this sunday. feel like i need god or the universe or whatever to throw me a bone. the best i can do is be patient but i'm not sure i'm up to the task :|

aw sorry to hear that, good luck

thx

sorry map, hope one of those places comes thru for you <3

:)

Hope it all comes good for you, map.

they can't do that to map!! wtf? sending love

thanks a bunch all, i really appreciate the kind words. i thought it was like no big deal, i'd enjoy the break and be back at it soon enough. but now i feel like i got a rug pulled out from under me. fuck this stupid shithole city tbrr.

'i accepted and played a black eyed peas song for you and this is how you treat me? we're OVER'

hahaha

Friday night I played at someone's 60th birthday party, so I had a room full of people in their 50s and 60s who were just dying to get on the dancefloor. Excellent party, one of those nights where you're totally in the flow and every song is exactly the right one at the right moment.
At the end of the night everyone started calling out my name and the restaurant owner asked if she could hire me if she ever needed a DJ.

Best hobby ever.

that’s so sweet :)

haha AWESOME

I love nights like those, they’re so special - for everybody.

yep, I still remember a great wedding night set I did w/tons of friends, I think that was in 2004 but I was just recalling it the other day b/c I was thinking about Missy's "Work It"

and ArchCarrier I'd love to hear what went over especially well re: tracks

what a lovely story. love this thread!

and ArchCarrier I'd love to hear what went over especially well re: tracks

With that said...

Instant floor fillers (just press play and watch what happens)
ABBA (Dancing Queen / Mamma Mia / Gimme Gimme Gimme)
I'm So Excited
Don't Leave Me This Way
Born to Be Alive
It's Raining Men
Red Light (Spells Danger)
Relight My Fire
Listen to the Music
You're the One That I Want
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
I Will Survive
Tragedy
YMCA

German party hits:
Helene Fischer - Atemlos durch die Nacht
DJ Ötzi - Sweet Caroline
Marianne Rosenberg - Ich bin wie du

Dutch party hits:
Goldband - Noodgeval
De Dijk - Dansen op de vulkaan
Doe Maar - Belle Hélène

Classic rock:
Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer
U2 - Pride
Blondie - Denis
Toto - Hold the Line
Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

Red Red Wine by UB40 and One Step Beyond by Madness also drew big reactions.

I didn't have a lot of chance to show off my awesome technical skills, but two good segues were Uptown Funk > Get Lucky and Dancing with Tears in My Eyes > Enola Gay.

sounds like a blast

my bar has told me they are resuming my thursdays in 2-3 weeks, so that's good news. it's crazy how distraught being on pause and not knowing if i had been dropped or not made me! in any case this place is SOLD and i don't know how long they're going to be open, probably not through the end of the year.

also keep having positive encounters with the new gay bar i want to play at. the owner likes me i think. i met his husband last night, who informed me that the owner listened to and liked the sample mix i gave them. they're full up right now with djs, but they're planning on opening their rooftop by june for pride. i have my sights set on playing up there, maybe another sunday tea dance idk.

oh nice I’m glad you’re getting your night back

props for “hold the line”, archcarrier

fun to ride a flanger over that one during the chorus (s/o idjut boys)

Dancing with Tears in My Eyes > Enola Gay

atomic bomb thing going on in both those tunes iirc, good thematic link!

They also have more or less the same tempo and I believe even the same key, so they go great together.

I hope it works out for you, map.

Paradise by the Dashboard Light

All 8 1/2 minutes including the baseball bit? In all my years of DJing I think this request drove me the craziest. There would always be a handful of people into it while the majority cleared the floor and headed for the bar.

there's a 5:25 7" edit!

Man, that would have made my life so much better had I known.

Why would you play an edited version of Paradise by the Dashboard Light? That's like reading The Count of Monte Cristo in an abridged edition!
There are always people on the floor who know all the lines by heart and act out the dialogues. It's the highlight of every party. I love it.

lol hey you know your audience!

if I wanted to slot it in as a request I would prob just hard fade from "stop right there" and call it good

but weddings have an entirely different set of rules than clubs/bars

Last Friday, towards the end of a fairly shit night (some truly horrible people turned up, off their fucking tits, which drove a lot of the nice people away, and by the time I got the management to get rid of the worst one, the damage was done), I mixed Warren G "Regulate" into Blue "Fly By II" - at which point one of the few remaining people went "How can you go from THAT into THIS? Change it!" So I changed it... to "All Rise" by Blue. Pure malevolence, but I was past caring.

oh man, i feel you on that. when it gets to a certain point you gotta make your feelings known.

sometimes you have to let people know you aren't going to take their shit!

Ugh, drunks are the worst.

Just a heads up: Defected has their House Masters discography (35 digital albums) on sale for about $50 on bandcamp right now. I copped.

https://housemastersdefected.bandcamp.com

Let it quietly be known that I was open to a couple of local gigs (for the first time in over 10 years) due to summer + I have COVID so I think I'm safe for a couple of months once I get over it? But having a laugh that everyone just wants me to go to their open deck nights with a cover and paid parking to play for 20 minutes for free*. Back to not playing locally with meeeee.

*cover means I pay them tho

Also @ map, sorry+happy to hear about your Thursdays but sometimes that's the game. And don't beat yourself up about friction with the crowd at times because you're just being you, you're just being human. No one can manage playing AND being charming all night all the time, especially when we all know people absolutely become unreasonable when they perceive you as "the help" for their night out. You're a really nice frood and I hope that Sunday roof thing kicks off for you, also because it'd get you psychologically less focused on the first venue (which seems to cyclically cause you a lot of stress).

And @ Moodles, there's absolutely something wrong with that club system and I'd check that someone hasn't messed with the curves on the EQs or that there isn't a bad limiter or something. I literally wouldn't play on a system that worked like that and if you're DJing at home on anything more than laptop speakers, there shouldn't be that big a difference between what you're doing there and out. Best to bring it up with the engineers at the places you're playing!

I'll definitely look into it more next time I'm there, but I'm also going to make sure I have the gains cranked as much as they can be without going into the red. I think a lot of the music that gets played there is ultra brickwalled, and a lot of what I play is not, so it may need some extra oomph

i finally cold-messaged someone about getting a DJ slot at the bar he books for but haven’t heard back from him (it’s been over a week). gonna keep trying there and other places. my next scheduled gig is the end of this month, the usual LGBT happy hour which is going to be co-hosted by the local gay rugby squad. i’m very excited about this particular gig for…multiple reasons lmao :x

shortly after that i’m slated to co-DJ my friends’ wedding party. they have pretty similar tastes as me so i feel like i’m gonna get to play some stuff in my general wheelhouse which is fun. still a little nervous about it because i’m not really used to playing to audiences who are expecting to actually dance, but hopefully it’ll all go smoothly

also recently made the acquaintance of an older DJ here, he’s an LA local who’s been collecting and playing out for many years now and does a weekly happy hour at a bar not far from me. went to see him play the other week and just hung out near the booth the whole time and chatted with him. happy to expand my DJ pal circle, especially in this city where it all feels sorta impenetrable at times

nice updates. i think just getting out there is important, you never know what's going to come your way. xii those gigs sound thankless but sometimes something is better than nothing i guess?

checking back in with current gay bar this coming sunday. rumors more persistent about "did you hear they're getting torn down?" i will find out how long they're going to be open if i can.

i might see if the bar i want to end up at would be interested in having me on a monday or tuesday night for less $.

After coked-off-their-tits-and-beyond fuckhead week, we pivoted happily back to nice people who like good music week, which came as a blessed relief.

@ Map - I appreciate the "I started DJing in 2020" types telling me about open signups but yeah, I'm not tossing ten at the door and driving half an hour to play 3 songs for 12 straight dudes just waiting their turn. I know I kinda started this thread with "they didn't show up" but they eventually did and I had an okay run here ten years ago. And I came back to stuff hot, getting nods from a lot of mags for the work I was doing during the pandemic. I'm not too elite for lowkey hometown gigs and I'm not demanding headliner slots, I'll open for something cool or someone nice for funsies and two drinks at a house party if I don't have to go far, but yeah, I have a limit.

I'm a complete nobody by comparison and I steer clear of open decks gigs like that, the only way I could imagine justifying them would be if I just wanted a chance to get some extra practice in on a professional setup.

i'm doing my tea dance again this summer! old bar wants me back. the one that just canceled my thursday has basically ghosted me and is going down the shitter / getting sold. sundays 5-9 are sooo much better for me time-wise too.

yay that's great!

Sounds great! Them selling explains some of the issues you've been having - sounds like lots of behind closed doors drama. Glad you can wash your hands of it.