How do I approach sharing the night with another act?

I would contact him – get an email address for him – and say the following:

1. You are the DJ for the night and basically introduce yourself
2. You were wondering if he could provide a set list so that you can avoid playing any tracks he sings (as a rule, I would never play a track that is being performed live.. It often doesn’t reflect well on the live performer and that can upset them..)
3. Does he want to plug into your PA so that he doesn’t have to use his own? (I would make the offer if it was me – he may say no – but I would rather only need 1 setup in the room and then it looks a lot neater than having 2 sets of speakers etc.)

Basically – Contact him, ask a few questions, but make sure that you are polite about it – getting off on the wrong foot now will not help when the day arrives.. 🙂

bob6397

Nice question and nice answer, Bob. I’m going to republish this one on the main site, so look out for it!

Ok. MAJOR Tip here!

This is not specific for this particular case, but has to do with the general notion of sharing a night with another act.

As a DJ do not ever plug into a band’s PA! EVER! 😀

Bands play sets. And they start packing up the moment they finish their final set. Which is usually not the official end of the evening, if only because people don’t want to stop cold turkey but enjoy some background music as they leave the place. And you may just suddenly find yourself without something to make yourself heard through. I was there once when it happened that the band’s engineer just slapped the faders down after the last notes of the band sounded and started switching off the amps. And no manner of threat, promise of money or coercion could make him fire things up again.

Also, what bands look for in a PA sound is usually different from what you as a DJ might want. This can be true for amps/speakers to begin with, but is very likely going to be true for room EQ and other settings the band’s engineer might feel necessary. And when challenged, he will make the adjustments he thinks fit for the band over the ones you think you need.

In short, you hand over any and all control over the sound system to the band that has it’s own agenda.

Another point:

I am a bit weary about letting a band plug into my PA. If it’s stuff like singers with a tape (tape-acts), sing-a-song writers with a guitar or low volume live performers I have no problems with it. I am also a certified sound engineer so usually those guys are more than happy to have someone take that off their hands.

In your specific case it’s only a singer and you are doing the major bits, so I can see how him plugging into your PA would make sense. Try to find out if he charges the venue/organiser/customer for bringing a PA though. You might want to make some kind of deal on that. Personally I don’t like it if I do the work (you can’t take a break when the singer is playing over your gear, you have to stay at your post in case any control is needed) and I don’t get paid for it.

A full band on the other hand has a backline (all those guitar amps on stage, live drummer) and that backline is loud. If you want to make the vocals and keyboards and such heard in a balanced way, you have to set your PA relatively loud to come to par with the sound coming of the stage (and don’t underestimate that sound level!).

Meaning you will be running your PA hotter than usual. Risk is significant that you will get a dirty/clipped signal into your PA at some point. Even more than DJs, bands have a tendency to play a lot louder as the sets/night progresses.

And while you may try to keep the master volume/input gain on your PA in check, if you input a clipped signal, it can still cause problems for your gear.

So, while playing a night with a band too and a big +1 to Bob for finding out the playlist in advance and leaving those tracks out of your gig (which can be a bitch sometimes when the band plays your 30 favorite 80’s tracks), I hardly ever play over the band PA, unless I know the gear and preferably the engineer and I have a 100% guarantee that the PA will be available til I am done with my part of the gig. And I am careful who I let plug into my PA.

If they don’t have a sound engineer and think their sound is not good, who they gonna blame? You! If they do have a sound engineer, he may not be happy with your PA and will give you a hard time about the sound.

I have learned this stuff the hard way over the years.

Yes, two PA’s will look less nice than a single one. But unless you are very comfortable with someone else having control over your sound OR you are comfortable with providing the sound for a demanding band, I’d just put up my sub and two speakers and worry about myself.

Again, in this particular case, I’d be fine plugging in a single singer to my PA. I would make sure I had my PA mixer with me, but that is just the sound engineer in me talking.