DJ Vintage
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DJ Vintage
ModeratorYep, biggest upgrade you could do! I do have mixed experiences with bootcamp though. Do you want to run windows “in a box” like a virtual machine, or do you want your MBP to be a dual-boot machine?
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorAn analogue club mixer will require one stereo output per channel input. So, if you want to play 4 decks through the house mixer, then you would need an 8 channel sound card. Obviously with Traktor set to external mixer.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorHey,
Tip from an old sales hand, NEVER give something away for free! Free means it has no value. Make it “No cure, No pay” if you must (i.e. name a price in advance, tell them they don’t have to pay you if they didn’t think you were worth it after you performed) or name your price and then give a discount. The point being, always let them know the VALUE of what you do BEFORE you start giving away stuff. Next time, when you DO ask for money, they will have this “but he did it for free first time”- thought running through their minds. And compared to free, everything else is expensive. If you start out by telling them how much it is to book you and then end up giving them a one-time only introductory offer at, say, 50% off, they will already have your REGULAR charge in their minds and know that is what they’ll end up paying you for a next gig. It saves you the nasty experience (I learned the hard way) of doing that first night for free, then coming back next time to be told “you were really good, but we can’t afford the fee you are asking” once you tell them what you want to be paid.
Same goes for no cure, no pay. If they are cheapskates, they’ll let you play and then say, nah not good enough. You have achieved two things, one is a night playing out live and lots of people seeing you in action (make sure you follow the Digital DJ Tips checklist T-shirts, business cards, DJ Shoutouts, flyers and other marketing stuff) and the other finding out these are cheap people and money will always be an issue with them and you really don’t want to spend your energy there anymore. Off to find better customers who DO value what you do.
Another thing is to become a “risk-sharer”. This works best if you are bringing something new. Let’s say they have an average of 75 people coming to the rink now, without a DJ playing. And you believe that you can bring such a show, that 25 more people will start showing up after word of mouth gets around. You could then come to an agreement that you get paid (only an example) nothing until more than 75 people show up. After that you get a decent kickback per person. That way, your popularity and the fans you bring to the venue brings you more money. It is easier for the venue that way. Because if they get no exta visitors, they don’t have any more costs than before. And when they do get more visitors, they can easily pay you from the extra revenue (guessing the entrance fees, skate rental fees and what people eat and drink while they are there). So, you get paid more the better job you do. Make it so that it is a realistic goal. You want to be able to make the fee you are looking for on an average night, not only on the top nights. The top nights should bring in the bonus money! Again, this works best if they have the evening without a DJ performing now and you are not gonna be just another DJ.
If they have DJ’s already and you still want to do this, find one of the DJs that played there and find out what he/she got paid. That should give you a good starting point for your no cure – no pay / discount discussion with the manager/owner.
Good luck with getting yourself out there!
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorSimply Disco, post: 39353, member: 8985 wrote: I don’t want a mac. I hate mac. I don’t own a single apple product and I never will.
I understand your sentiments. I was like that til about two years ago when I got my first iPhone. And out of my 7 PC’s, only one is a Mac. But I have to be honest and admit that, however much I object to Apple’s “we’ll be the judge of what is best for you” policy, the MacBook does beat my regular laptop in the area’s I mentioned. Especially the whole soundcard stuff is way easier than on a PC and more stable. I am 35 year computer veteran, so trust me when I say I know how to get a PC, any PC, to do what I want it to do. And I have been playing around with DJ software on laptops since quite a few years.
I still don’t like Apple, but they did well with the iDevices (because you don’t WANT to fiddle with those, they just should work as intended) and with the way they handle media in their OS.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorAlex Wray, post: 39348, member: 4521 wrote: Yes, i’m sure they would appreciate my laptop…..
LOLOL
ModeratorStazbumpa, post: 39341, member: 1739 wrote: Adding my tuppence,
… As for looks, do you want to showcase your laptop or actually play music and make ladies gyrate suggestively? 😉
I’ll take the gyrating ladies anytime … however both inside the booth and partially outside, perception of gear does count … Like with Pioneer, can’t go wrong if you have a CDJ900 or 2000 sitting in your booth, but if you have Denon SC2900 or 3900 for example you have to explain yourself LOL. So brand and reputation do count, even if it is not important for us, the real pro’s :-).
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorI would look for an iPad 2 (the one without retina) instead of a 1. If your market is anything like ours, there isn’t THAT big a difference in price between used 1’s and 2’s.
The iPad 2 has a dual core A5 processor whereas the iPad 1 has a single core A4 processor. This is a pretty big step up and with iPads being available new for around 400 euro, the difference in price between a used 1 and 2 can’t be more than a few 10s of euros and I would most definitely go for the 2.
The 2 will do anything you need it to I think. After all, iPad apps are just that, apps designed specifically for the possibilities and limitations of the platform.
Greetinx,
C.April 15, 2013 at 9:32 am in reply to: Anyone know anything about legalities of pic on blogs?? #39181ModeratorThere are a few factors. Who shot/drew the picture, i.e. holds the rights to it. If it is a professional photographer/designer you will need to get written permission in advance at the least and maybe expect having to pay some for it. Another factor is, who is in the picture (if it is a photograph). I know that a European law was passed a few years back prohibiting the public use of pictures without the consent of everybody in it. So imagine yourself taking a picture of a beach, there is 10 people walking, sitting or playing that are pretty recognizable in it. You would need all 10 people to consent before you publish the picture, even if YOU were the one that shot it.
This of course is all the legal nitty gritty, but your best bet, if you know the source (and the site you found it on might not be the original source!) is to send an email, compliment the person with a great picture (little flattery will get you everywhere), explain what you are trying to do with your DJ site and how awesome it would be if you could use that picture on it. You’d obviously name the photographer/designer’s name underneath the picture and hope the extra exposure will help them.
Fair chance you’ll get a nice email back thanking you for the compliment and telling you to go ahead and use the picture.
Or, if this is a company (which it may very well be) that holds the rights, they will send you a nice message thanking you for the compliment and tell you that since that is how they make their living you can buy the rights to use the picture for an X amount.
Then it is up to you to decide if you want to pay for it, take your chances without paying (not a clever move, since they are bound to check up on it) or go find another suitable picture.
Obviously, you can play dumb and do what 99% of the population does, consider anything you find on the internet free and re-use it as you wish. Worst that can happen is that you get summoned to take it off if it ever gets discovered by the rightful owners, which isn’t very likely unless you become a household item and millions of people visit your site on a daily basis :-).
Good luck with your site.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorHey, I can only speak for the Denon MC6000 and it put a smile on my face to hear you refer to it as old and expressing fear of support anytime soon. I don’t see Denon dropping support on the MC6000 anytime soon. Besides, the only kind of support you really need to worry about would be mappings and both the software forums and the denon DJ forum are more than active on that front.
I know for a fact that the MC6000 comes with software, Traktor LE or Virtual DJ LE (depending on which continent you are on), so it’s not correct that it is shipped without any.
The unit is rock solid, features four channel standalone matrix mixer, TWO microphone channels, each with full three band tone control (might not be important to you, I don’t know your DJ=ing style) and ducking. Powered, so not dependent on USB power.
I have had mine for close to two years I think and it has been a totally reliable and sturdy workhorse that has everything I need.
Since most controllers in a certain price range these days have pretty much the same feature set and I don’t think really bad controllers exist anymore, it is becoming more and more of a personal choice.
Good luck picking one!
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorMany countries have dance charts. I know of at least one here in Holland that goes back to 2000. Charts like that can give you a clear picture of what exactly was succesful dance music over the years (an dusually help you derive a bit of the taste for that country).
In the old days the local record/CD shops were a good source of information. When I did my first stint abroad (4 months in Germany) I practically live in the local record shop.
Good luck and enjoy!
ModeratorI know that Numark sell replacement button kits for some models. Might want to check with customer service.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorYep, very clear why that didn’t work. You are trying to power the subwoofer with a line level signal on a port designed to take loudspeaker level input.
Only one correct way to hook it up:
- Stagepass monitor output (1/4″ Jack to XLR male) to input on the JBL (doesn’t matter which one, they are linked). Be sure to use the monitor control knob on your Stagepass to set the subwoofer level (just turn up the level knob on the JBL to 0dB or when in doubt to max).
That should do the trick.
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorNah, have a 15″ MacBook … screensize is fine. I actually had a 17″ for a while and swapped it because it was just too much hardware in front of me.
There should be no real problems, although I don’t see how only USB3.0 ports would have posed a challenge on your VAIO. They are (officially) backward compatible, i.e. if you stick in a 2.0 device it will behave as a 2.0 port. But alas.
The Dell has Windows 7 which is good (don’t go for 8, it sucks, especially for our purposes).
You may however contemplate getting a 2011/2012 MacBook Pro. I have never been a big Apple fan (80% of my machines are still Windows), BUT … there are a few things that make it very suited for DJ (or Pro Audio in general) use. Contrary to popular belief it is not that it is more stable (my laptops never crash on gig, barr some hardware problems), but the aluminium casing (unibody) not only looks good but is a bit sturdier than any kind of plastic. The major advantage is the way Apple OS deals with soundcards and such. This is plug-and-play, whereas under windows more often than not you are stuck with Asio4All or proprietary Asio drivers and they don’t always quite work correctly straight out of the box.
Finally there is the matter of image. Like it or not, there is a pretty strong undercurrent in DJ land that if you are a pro, you have a Mac. Strangely enough this seems to have passed over to the crowd. Somehow seeing that lighted Apple logo on the DJ booth qualifies as some sort of certification.Again, nice Dell laptop and you should have no problems with it. If you are using it just for DJ-ing, strip it to the bare minimum, switch of networking (both cable and wireless), don’t install virusscanners (if you need any, get a mobile version that runs of a memory stick when you want to) and other “automatic” background programs. Turn of all energy saving features (sleep screen, sleep HD, sleep PC all set to never), turn off automatic screensavers, turn off all windows sounds.
If you are going to use the laptop for other purposes too, consider making it dual-boot.Good luck and greetinx,
C.ModeratorI don’t know serato, but it sounds like no tracks have been imported and analyzed?
Greetinx,
C.ModeratorI’d say, apart from the obvious crowd reading skills, technical DJ skills and practice, practice, practice, it would be creativity mixed with a sense of where the edges are. The true greats came up with things that were new and daring, yet close enough to the edge of the comfort zone to be accepted. Create your own signature and off you go.
Greetinx,
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