Going into the red – why do DJs do it ?
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bob6397.
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August 4, 2015 at 12:35 am #2233931
Fintan Moloney
ParticipantI know this problem, but really DJs pushing things into the red are only making themselves sound bad anyway. Pioneer mixers have a lot of headroom so they can probably pull it off but overall its simple DJ manners. If you are on before somebody else you don’t as I call it ‘redline’ the mixer. In a lot of cases if they are really driving it they are going to hit the limiter in the club which is going make them sound terrible anyway.
Go on after them, you might sound lower but the the dynamic range in your sound will sound way better than a guy hitting the limiter.
August 4, 2015 at 12:44 am #2233941ParticipantOne other thing, on your point there about people criticising Digital DJ controllers compared to Pioneer CDJs. That makes no sense so I wouldn’t worry about that, any half way decent controller now runs on a 24 Bit 96Khz sound card on par with CDJs – as long as its hooked up on Balanced Connectors (XLR or Jack) you are up in the same quality.
August 4, 2015 at 1:07 am #2233951Ronnie EmJay
ParticipantI’m using Allen & Heath K2 or the louder NI Audio 6 when using timecode. I’ve had issues using CDJs via USB, NI Audio (for audio) and the K2 as only a midi interface.
August 4, 2015 at 1:10 am #2233961ParticipantAnd I’m just venting with this post.. I’ve had one of the afore-mentioned Spanish DJs say I’m not a real DJ because I pushed everything up on my channel to almost max to be able to play an acapella over his redlining for the changeover, then once he was gone, I lowered the gains and EQs on the house mixer when my beat dropped in and all was fine.
August 4, 2015 at 1:14 am #2233981ParticipantThe NI audio 6 is a fantastic interface so your levels out of that are fine. Same with the sound quality. Next time you are in that situation I’d say look mate your levels are at +6 or whatever how do you expect me to mix into that. I think the only way you can resolve that situation then is chat to the guy before the set and say look can we keep levels around the 0 mark on the mixer. If there needs to be more volume let the club turn their amps up.
August 4, 2015 at 10:00 am #2234021Terry_42
KeymasterHonestly it is because many DJs do not know squat about sound engineering.
I was the same until I got into sound engineering and worked for a PA company… until then I went into the red, because everyone did it, so I had to do it too.
Then I got into sound engineering and that stuff stopped. Pair that with gigs in high class clubs where the sound engineer will not let you go red… and your picture of the world changes…
But idiots with closed minds are everywhere to be found…August 4, 2015 at 11:35 am #2234061ParticipantYep I stick to what I know… luckily the crowd adjusts….
but it’s also part of the reason why I like to start off a night and build things up… plus I can play how and what I like 🙂August 4, 2015 at 5:50 pm #2234321DJ Vintage
ModeratorYep, I’ve said it before and I will probably say it a thousand times more before I pass away:
RED is BAD
and
0dB RULEZ!
August 4, 2015 at 11:15 pm #2234401Alex Moschopoulos
ParticipantIn my experiences, it’s ego.
I remember when I used to play at a European-style cafe and bar, I never “pumped it loud”, since my role was more background atmosphere. I’d play smooth deep house and lighter flavors, but when colleagues wanted to come play a guest spot, they would crank up the volume to the max and play big room bangers or wild techno…then have the audacity to get angry when a manager told them to turn it down or the crowd wanted the music to change.
This is the difference between the experienced and the amateurs. The amateurs who go red are only thinking of themselves, as you might notice many of them won’t play to the crowd. They want the fantasy of the big room explosion and yet can’t accept the venue isn’t that and they are not playing a big massive.
The worst part are how many of these red-pushers have skilled themselves in internet popularity, so they’ll bring heads out and thus get booked…despite their poor sound skills. I don’t know if you can educate them. I’d more say the venue needs a sound board as the go-between their mixer and the speakers, so when they go the maximum on volumes and gains the sound guy can still limit them.
It would be nicer if they just stopped booking these amateurs.
August 5, 2015 at 9:15 am #2234451KeymasterI 100% agree D-Jam. The trouble I see is that back in the 90s most managers I worked with had a good sense which DJs are actual pros and which are said amateurs. These days most managers are the same “know it all” types and mostly young guys with filthy rich parents who had to give something to make there otherwise useless sons work somehow… So they actually have no interest in the whole thing, still think they know it all and have no clue. So anyone who can fancy talk and show them 1k followers on facebook gets booked.
August 5, 2015 at 12:01 pm #2234501Nacor Carmona Blanco
ParticipantHonestly, 90% of spanish djs are crap. They have no clue about what is happening with the sound system.
Yeah, I am from Spain also.
August 5, 2015 at 12:24 pm #2234531ParticipantYou could say that, I couldn’t possibly comment 😛
Seriously I see the better ones who know what they are doing trying to leave Spain and move to other countries to get away from the same EDM/pachanga playlist. Some of the clubs here are playing almost the same songs as when I first got here 4 years ago!
August 5, 2015 at 12:26 pm #2234541ParticipantD-Jam, you’re correct on that big room experience… many here don’t seem to have a concept of warming up or down or recylcing crowds… Many nights will have a DJ every hour – in the false belief that each bring people – the problem being they all think they are EDM stars and play the same boring playlist with perhaps slight variations. The other year all of them were playing Animals and Tsunami but the Spanish crowd seem to like it, maybe I’m the one who’s wrong in not playing songs already played by someone else.
August 5, 2015 at 1:36 pm #2234551Elliott Kim
ParticipantD-Jam,
A sound board won’t save the day if the signal coming from the DJ mixer/controller is pushing the inputs on the board into the red too.
Ignorance among DJs regarding sound knows no international boundaries, music genres, or subset of DJ, although mobile DJs tend to be a little better about it.
August 5, 2015 at 11:05 pm #2234791ParticipantI learned on vinyl and on student radio, the first thing was always to set levels correctly, and also so both sources have the same volume – software does it with autogain, so people forget, but I’d think for CDJ users this should still apply? I would always first go to the “meat” of the new song and make sure it matched volume with what was playing live already by setting the gain after looking at the VU meters, then cue it up.
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