Doing my first gig on saturday
Doing my first gig on saturday Posted on: 11.07.2012 by Devora Chait Hey folks! So... after 6 months of practice, I believe I'm finally ready to play for an audience hehe. A DJ from the local bar just asked me if I could spin on saturday and I'm going to say yes, although I'm VERY nervous, but hey gotta step out of the bedroom some time. I'm expected to play ranging from deep house to techno. I got the tracks, and the skills to play a decent set, but I'm SO nervous. Any one got some last word advice on reading the crowd, how to react and play out? Damn maybe I'll just buy me a six pack to relax before going there or something hehe. | |
| Dione Haimes 18.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by djchriswoods.co.uk
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| Amberly Maimon 17.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by djchriswoods.co.uk
same here... a good number 2 before i leave the house one drink before i start and one cigarrete before i go up (if the place is non smoking if its smokig allowed then i go crazy) and one drink during the set... |
| Sally Walkowiak 18.07.2012 | This is actually really good advice. I do the same thing.
Originally Posted by djchriswoods.co.uk
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| Carmelo Politowicz 18.07.2012 | Since it's relevant - I had my first "gig" in over a decade this last weekend. My first gig ever was a small rave in the late 90's - had 2 rather large full range monitors to my left and right - I played DnB for an hour, and all was good. This party I played over the weekend I had two rather small monitors facing me, a sub cabinet right below me, and another (larger) sub cabinet across the room from me. An interesting thing occurred with this setup that I have never had to deal with before while at home (or the aforementioned rave) - a crazy sound delay / reflection. I noticed it just prior to mixing my first record in - everything was sounding great, cue mix was beatmatched to the master and all was well. Before I brought in the cued track, just to check as a habit of mine, I cued in the master mix into my headphones on top of the cued track and bam - its a trainwreak in my ear. I'm like - WTF, this is crazy. I un-cued the master mix, and it was perfect. Despite the nerves, I determined that what I was hearing in my ears was early by a fraction of a second over what I was hearing out of the main mix, so I phrase shifted behind what I would normally do - checked back with full headphones on to ensure that the tracks were matched accordingly and then began to do the mix live. Luckily it all sounded great out of the mains, and I went on with my 2+ hour set with this adjustment in place, but it made for an interesting evening because I had to train my headphone ears to get used to hearing a beat slightly behind what I was hearing out of the mains - like they were out of phrase since what was being sent to the master had this delay. Basically - I would get it beatmatched in terms of tempo and then do the last minute adjustment seemingly out of phase, and continued as if all was perfect (which it was in the end despite sounding weird as hell in the headphones). It was actually interesting to cue the master mix in the headphones and hear how much of a delay there was. It was crazy (for me at least). Has anyone else dealt with this? If so - was my workaround the correct solution, or is there something else experienced DJ's do to fix this? To the best of my senses, the smallish monitors facing me were not able to overpower the echo being produced from the mains and the large subs sitting across the room from me. Does this sound accurate? I almost switched over to split cue'ing the rest of the evening , but I have not done that more than maybe 3 minutes on a whim just to try it, so I wasn't about to do it live in front of a bunch of people to potentially disastrous effects. |
| Devora Chait 18.07.2012 | holland ^^ |
| Nelle Scriver 18.07.2012 | Nice good Job where are you located? |
| Devora Chait 18.07.2012 | Yeah calgarc, but I had to open so I had to set the mood and draw people in for the rest of the evening
hehehe... The saturday before that it was pretty much empty but this time it was packed! job well done i suppose and for a first gig... well i'm happy. Damn playing out is fun hehe I wanna do it again soon! Also yeah I had more then 1 beer, I dunno how you guys even feel that. I probably had about 4 before playing as I was with friends and yeah... you know how that go's lol.. |
| Dione Haimes 18.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by djchriswoods.co.uk
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| Stanley Topoleski 18.07.2012 | you are DJing in a bar... the secret is in the booze just relax and play your set, they will be drinking |
| Amberly Maimon 17.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by djchriswoods.co.uk
same here... a good number 2 before i leave the house one drink before i start and one cigarrete before i go up (if the place is non smoking if its smokig allowed then i go crazy) and one drink during the set... |
| Sally Walkowiak 18.07.2012 | This is actually really good advice. I do the same thing.
Originally Posted by djchriswoods.co.uk
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| Teresia Janusch 17.07.2012 | i dont really get nervous anymore, but on the odd bigger gig at a new club i might get a little, but over the years ive noticed i do the same things for those gigs: 1 take a shit before leaving the house (not joking, nerves and needing to go dont mix!) 2 have one beer on arrival but drag it out and have another when i start |
| Yong Aptekar 17.07.2012 | Nice job dude!! |
| Erica Charvet 16.07.2012 | Nice! Good job. |
| Margie Pavell 15.07.2012 | good to hear...keep up the good work... |
| Devora Chait 15.07.2012 | So, my first gig wen't better then I could have hoped. I started out with an almost empty dancefloor and after my 3d track it started to fill up. People were coming up to me saying my mixing was top notch and everything and I got everyone to dance! I got a few new contacts and they asked me to spin again! I'm one happy camper hehehe. |
| Devora Chait 12.07.2012 | Yeah figuring it's a bar I'm going to try to keep it low key, but i'll keep stuff like this >
to pump up the energy if needed lol. |
| Lashawn Maycock 12.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by Woah
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| Kamala Temple 12.07.2012 | Drink a little ease the nerves if you need to, but really don't overdo it lol. Good luck, I'm sure you'll do just fine. Record your set if you can and post here afterwards! |
| Cole Maroto 12.07.2012 | good luck man, i'm sure you'll do fine since you've been practicing and feel ready. i haven't had very many gigs but i get nervous too. usually after the first few transitions i'm fine though and i'm sure it will be the same for you. have fun out there and let us know how it goes! |
| Latoria Kavulich 12.07.2012 | good luck to you mate! the first one is always a killer for the nerves |
| Latina Samon 11.07.2012 | I'd be bricking it too. If you're ready though then its the next step and I bet you'll want more afterwards! |
| Devora Chait 11.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by AlanS
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| Chanell Guillemin 11.07.2012 | What if the crowd that shows up hates techno and deep house. |
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