DJing gone wrong!

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DJing gone wrong!
Posted on: 04.07.2012 by Mireya Shackett
Hey everyone, have you ever DJed and then you have a huge fail? What happened? Tell me your worst epic fail?
Tena Peters
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by dripstep
^when anyone asks you what makes a DJ, THAT is what makes it. When you can successfully pull out of a catastrophe, and still keep the crowd jumping, you have made it.
Ah stop . I'm just a worrier who prepares for the worst. Cheers though!
Lilliana Perris
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by VirtualLogic
a mate who was standing behind me at a party garbed my headphones of the table while i was mixing, next thing i know he forgets he has them on and goes running out of the booth, he bought the whole mixer to the ground, and almost my laptop.
OUCH!

I woulda smashed him....
Georgianna Eurick
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by durtyjerzy609
it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?
what happened the girl afterwards?
Claude Koveleski
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by durtyjerzy609
it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?
I would have fully Chuck Norris chinned her ass

chuck-norris.jpg
Daniell Kosharek
06.07.2012
^ Troll
Claude Koveleski
06.07.2012
What? You don't normally beat match? What is the world coming to these days? Please don;t tell me you let a computer decide your BPM's ????
Corrin Penney
06.07.2012
Everyone's got at least one horror story. Heres mine.

My local residency is a little disorganised at times, but usually goes without a hitch.

This time I'd plugged in my lappy and was booting up to get things sorted while the previous was finishing off.
It was taking aaages and I was getting more and more twitchy. Finally it booted only to have the sound guy come and pull out plugs under the booth for CDJ's.
One of these was my laptop, which doesnt have a battery . . . .

The previous DJ was outta there, with about a minute to go on the record. I panic, whisk round, grab some random record outta my mates bag and bang it on.
Ive never beatmatched that quickly before. But the record was spot on, in key, and transitioned nicely into my set, once my laptop had re-booted that is.

No-one noticed, and it was all groovy, my rep was safe for another day!
This was one of those moments im soooo glad I learnt to manually beatmatch.
Ara Tima
05.07.2012
Well.

The first time I used an S4 was in a dark club I had a residency in and for a special festival after party I was sharing the decks with the other resident, now I usually played off the CDJs and he used an S4, however as we were playing b2b I told him I would just use the S4 as it was easier for me then him adjusting to the CDJs (I already had lots of experience with Traktor).

Anyway. It was dark, late, and I'd had a little smoke or two and at some stage towards the end of my set my fingers had dropped down a level on the EQs and without noticing I'd spent the last 3-4 songs using the Filters as Bass, Bass as Mids, Mids as Highs and so on..

Now this wouldn't have been too big a deal as it was late, everyone was pretty messy and so forth, however the kicker came when the next DJs, tapped me on the shoulder laughing and informed me, these next DJs however happened to be some guys from the festival... Diplo, A-Trak and the guys from Magnetic Man. I got a lotta shit for the rest of the evening /morning from them, and still get shit from everyone involved in that venue today.

Tena Peters
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by dripstep
^when anyone asks you what makes a DJ, THAT is what makes it. When you can successfully pull out of a catastrophe, and still keep the crowd jumping, you have made it.
Ah stop . I'm just a worrier who prepares for the worst. Cheers though!
Yong Aptekar
05.07.2012
^when anyone asks you what makes a DJ, THAT is what makes it. When you can successfully pull out of a catastrophe, and still keep the crowd jumping, you have made it.
Tena Peters
05.07.2012
Had a couple. I don't believe any DJ who never claims to have never had a fuck up, but how and ever.

In one club I worked in, the manager loved to hang out in the DJ booth, just to watch what the DJ did. I believe he always wanted to be one. Anyway, he'd talk the ear off you and, since he was the boss, I thought (at the time) that I couldn't exactly tell him to fuck off. Nowadays I would, but this was my first residency.

Anyway, once he's chatting away and I'm crossfading into a quick cut. Of course, I pull the fader in the wrong direction and, still listening to him, it takes me a couple to seconds to realise that I'm after plunging the club into silence. Everyone turns to face me, of course you get that moment where your heart stops and it takes forever to realise the simple mistake you've made, then I just fade back. People are looking disgruntled, so I get on the mic and say, "Nothing happened. So shut the fuck up and dance." They laughed and got on with things.

Another time in another club, the assistant jock used to occasionally mess around with the EQ on the mixer (well, he soon learned not to after this). I mix with an S4, so I set the levels at the mixer at the start of the evening then EQ from the S4.

At the start of the evening , he's warming up as the first people are walking in and I've gone for a piss. I'm chatting to one of the staff as I come back out the floor and having a laugh, then I hear the music kinda chopping. "Ahh, he's learned how to use the gater!" I believe, as I'd been showing him how to incorporate FX into live sets. But it kept chopping. So either he had the FX on fully throttle, and then some, or something was wrong. I legged it out and found him standing there like a deer in headlights as the few people in the club were looking confused. I ran over, and literally just pulled faders and twisted knobs until it got back to normal. It wrecked my head but there were people in the club, so now we were at "hope it doesn't happen again and figure it out afterwards" stage.

It was one of those gigs that was bumpy at the start but turned into a great evening . The crowd were very split: they either wanted full-on, cheesy commercial or heavy and hard stuff. So you keep the middle ground until we're peaking. As a result, the heavy crowd hated the commercial and vice versa, but we won everyone over in the end. We got the 'one more tune' chant, and I always do play one. So I save a mash-up I'd been keeping for the right end of evening until then. It was perfect: a real slow start that'd leave everyone going "HUH?!?", then it kicks in hard and the whole place would jump. That was the hope anyway. And it worked! One of those times where there's a proper HEAVE when it drops, you know?

Until it gets to the big vocal breakdown, which is a sing-along bit. I turn the volume down slightly for that, they sing along, then back up as it built back up. Then it happens. Chop. Chop. Chop. Originally people believe I'm adding effects and are reacting to the chops, then it quickly becomes apparent that it's not. Then I realise what the warm-up guy had done: the gain on the main mixer was on nearly full blast. It's a miracle it hadn't chopped all evening , I must have turned it up too high when I pulled it down then back up again. It was killing the speakers.

I fixed it, get on the mic and say, "Let's rewind!", to the sing-along bit. They're happy again. Phew. But those few seconds: going from a spectacular end to what was a tough gig, to losing it all at the final hurdle, to getting it back again. It took at least 6 months off my life.
Lilliana Perris
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by VirtualLogic
a mate who was standing behind me at a party garbed my headphones of the table while i was mixing, next thing i know he forgets he has them on and goes running out of the booth, he bought the whole mixer to the ground, and almost my laptop.
OUCH!

I woulda smashed him....
Marva Cupid
05.07.2012
a mate who was standing behind me at a party garbed my headphones of the table while i was mixing, next thing i know he forgets he has them on and goes running out of the booth, he bought the whole mixer to the ground, and almost my laptop.
Maile Dekerlegand
05.07.2012
Another one... house party, 100+ people (biggest party of my life at that stage).

Someone runs up to me and says "shit bro gotta turn it down, neighbours have called noise control", someone else then comes up say "no worries, false alarm". I keep playing stuff for another 20 minutes and then three people run down the hall and say "quick grab your stuff, noise control are coming we locking the door but they brought the cops!"

Anyway, a mate grabs the CDJ starts running back down the hall (while it is still plugg in -cringe-), I grab my laptop and am runing to down the hall to the bathroom to stash it. As we are running down the hall amid the panic we run right up to the council noise control officer guy and a cop walking back the other way. They instruct us to put the stuff back and proceed to confiscate everything EXCEPT the goddam amp and speakers (and thankfully my laptop). That pretty much ended the party, was funny tho, heaps of ppl were sticking up for me and thanked me afterwards.

3 months and 250buck fine later I got my stuff back, the next party there they asked if I wanted to play again, I passed.
Georgianna Eurick
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by durtyjerzy609
it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?
what happened the girl afterwards?
Maile Dekerlegand
05.07.2012
Was DJing a bbq in a mates backyard and had the decks and mixer setup on an elevated balcony thing overlooking some grass where the people were. The wind kicked up and blew the records off the decks about three times, given that I was raised overlooking everyone this had the effect of:
a) stopping the music with a krrrrrrrrrrrrhhgggghhhhhh, so everybody looking at me with the WTF face...
b) firing the record frisbee style down into the group of people

This happened about three times before we switched to the one CDJ I had for a while. Needless to say there were a few heeeeeehhh sorry kinda shrugs that day.

Also it was really hot that day and we had a little makeshift awning thing setup over top of the decks to provide some shade. As the day went on and sun moved about the shade got less and less and eventually a couple of records started to warp while they were playing (one time code, one battle may they both RIP).

Annnnnd finally, as the shade went away so came the sun upon my pale as face until I turned a nice shade of lobster for everyone to have a laugh about later on.
Claude Koveleski
05.07.2012
Originally Posted by durtyjerzy609
it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?
I would have fully Chuck Norris chinned her ass

chuck-norris.jpg
Wallace Lawmaster
05.07.2012
just the usual trainwreck, no big fails. But playing in a band, one time played at the city's christmas parade, the circuit tripped and lost all power in middle of playing.
Branden Wentler
05.07.2012
Hit stop on the wrong deck /face palm
Anja Ellenberger
04.07.2012
Power surge shut all the lights and music off. Got pretty hectic with people pushing and shoving for 30seconds before the emergency lights came on. Thank god i was behind the booth
Latoria Kavulich
04.07.2012
we blew out a 3k amp and two speakers at a evening club. needless to say we didn't get paid for that one lol
Cole Maroto
04.07.2012
i can't compete with the tone arm being ripped off, or indoor fireworks and pissing, but at my first real gig at a crappy hookah bar i was trying to get the feel of my friends mixer which we were using. it was a long 4 channel mixer which was a little odd coming from my experience with 2 channel mixers. i was so focused on remembering what channels i was plugged into and where his knobs, cue, and headphone controls were that i was happy i got the first 2 songs mixed together with no real issues...

then i took the needle off the record i had just mixed in...silence. lol oops! i just laughed and put it back on and kept on truckin'. not very epic but it gave everyone a good laugh. thankfully most of the people there were friends, so they didn't really care much.
Mireya Shackett
04.07.2012
Damnnn! Thats crazy!
Jerica Salava
04.07.2012
Needles giving out was bad. You would hear shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and everyone would look up at you as you saw the tone arm skidding across the vinyl.
A crazy friend of mine was so drunk he pissed in the corner of the DJ booth.
Fireworks went off indoors and charred the carpet on my speaker.
Salvatore Husley
04.07.2012
holy shit
Stefania Herb
04.07.2012
it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?

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