⚡ TIMESTAMPS ⚡ 0:00 Intro 3:21 Things WILL go wrong 6:44 Avoid problems where possible 7:25 Have a backup plan 7:40 Run through your backup 8:35 Be realistic 9:50 Community stories & tips
Nice video. Let me share one of my DJ fails. So, I've been DJing for years, but my worst experience happened when I made the jump from CDs to Serato. I was asked to DJ for a popular UK reggae and dancehall artist in my hometown, Sydney, Australia. We had four shows lined up, and the last one was in Sydney. The night before the final show, I was tidying up my files on my laptop, just renaming and moving songs around to other folders. The night of the final show The DJ before me had the crowd pumped, and I was ready to keep the energy going. But when I went on stage and hit play on my first track, disaster struck! At the time I didn’t know that moving tracks on my hard drive messed up everything in serato crates. I had to beg the warm-up DJ to keep the crowd going while I sorted out the mess. After some frantic troubleshooting, I got it working, but the setlist was all over the place. Needless to say, the artist wasn't impressed. Instead of rolling with it, he walked off the stage, leaving me sweating bullets. It took me years to get over my fear of supporting artists after that, but hey, we live and learn, right
I’ve just done my own little video on this subject to post on a group.. essentially I use MacBook and Traktor with an s4mk3. I always run through an external mixer. I also run a cable from MacBook headphone port to the mixer. So if Traktor or the controller was to fail I can turn up the ‘MacBook headphone’ channel and get instant music from a 1hr mix I will have playing in VLC in the background. I’ll pick a mastermix mix suitable for whatever the event is so if I ever have to use it it’s at least not totally random. Separate to that I have Djay on my phone with a dedicated SSD (so I don’t need to swap over my main SSD, it’s totally independent)… I have a numark DJ2GO controller and a cable ‘loom’ made up of the lightning adapter, USB hub and power cables all attached together so it’s ready to plug and play. I also have an old Samsung table with the ‘party mixer’ app and a 64GB SD card with every NOW album and a bunch of other essentials. So I’m pretty well covered in terms of being able to play. I always take my own 4 way extension with filter and surge protector, bunch of XLR cables, adapters etc. Spare USBs for the controller, spare MacBook charger. The only thing I don’t have is a spare power supply for my external mixer but if that failed the S4 can be used, even if Traktor isn’t running. As for amps and speakers giving up… that’s with the gods haha
Also.. I was actually called out to finish off a wedding where the DJ had a really old low end windows laptop and battered American DJ controller that must have been 15 years old. He had absolutely zero plan B. When I got there one of the guests was playing music from the iPhone speaker into the mic!!! The DJ had not disabled windows updates and after 15 mins of downtime VDJ wouldn’t run properly. He could have actually played music on his laptop using a media player but he hadn’t thought of that and didn’t have the cables / adapters to get from the headphone port to the PA.
My important tip to those who do open air parties like I do... Have an umbrella, light duty tarps and bungee cords (dollar store quality) ready for flash rains. I was hit by a flash rain one night but I handled the situation a like a pro, wrapped up my rig and speaker, I remained dry with my umbrella, waited out the rain which cleared out after 10 minutes of heavy pouring. I was proud as a boyscout. Another good one is to carry extra underwear in case of a shart. Say no more-say no more! 😅😅😅😂😂😂
I had a situation recently where it started raining at the beginning of the ceremony and my laptop got soaked, and the keyboard quit working. I pulled out my back up laptop out and copntinued on the reception without missing a beat. I texted my wife to go get rice! Put the wet laptop in rice as soon as I got home. Next day good to go. It can be expensive to keep two laptops, so check out sites that sell refurbished equipment. I also keep critical music backed up to an iPad and to my phone.
i was opening for a well known dj, got the "file unsupported" error on multiple songs. had to quickly reset that cdj while leaving a track playing on deck 3. recovered in time and nobody knew a thing :)
Mic packed up mid gig? Plug your headphones into your mic socket it'll do a turn as an emergency mic. Not the greatest, but good enough to call last orders with!
Another great show! I have seen a couple of rumours about the inpulse 500 being replaced by a new model have you heard anything? Just deciding if it's worth waiting before I make a purchase
⚡ TIMESTAMPS ⚡
0:00 Intro
3:21 Things WILL go wrong
6:44 Avoid problems where possible
7:25 Have a backup plan
7:40 Run through your backup
8:35 Be realistic
9:50 Community stories & tips
Nice video. Let me share one of my DJ fails. So, I've been DJing for years, but my worst experience happened when I made the jump from CDs to Serato. I was asked to DJ for a popular UK reggae and dancehall artist in my hometown, Sydney, Australia. We had four shows lined up, and the last one was in Sydney.
The night before the final show, I was tidying up my files on my laptop, just renaming and moving songs around to other folders. The night of the final show The DJ before me had the crowd pumped, and I was ready to keep the energy going. But when I went on stage and hit play on my first track, disaster struck! At the time I didn’t know that moving tracks on my hard drive messed up everything in serato crates. I had to beg the warm-up DJ to keep the crowd going while I sorted out the mess.
After some frantic troubleshooting, I got it working, but the setlist was all over the place. Needless to say, the artist wasn't impressed. Instead of rolling with it, he walked off the stage, leaving me sweating bullets. It took me years to get over my fear of supporting artists after that, but hey, we live and learn, right
Thanks for being so generous in sharing, and showing that it can happen to any of us, any time. Glad you "got over" that fear finally.
I’ve just done my own little video on this subject to post on a group.. essentially I use MacBook and Traktor with an s4mk3. I always run through an external mixer. I also run a cable from MacBook headphone port to the mixer. So if Traktor or the controller was to fail I can turn up the ‘MacBook headphone’ channel and get instant music from a 1hr mix I will have playing in VLC in the background. I’ll pick a mastermix mix suitable for whatever the event is so if I ever have to use it it’s at least not totally random. Separate to that I have Djay on my phone with a dedicated SSD (so I don’t need to swap over my main SSD, it’s totally independent)… I have a numark DJ2GO controller and a cable ‘loom’ made up of the lightning adapter, USB hub and power cables all attached together so it’s ready to plug and play. I also have an old Samsung table with the ‘party mixer’ app and a 64GB SD card with every NOW album and a bunch of other essentials. So I’m pretty well covered in terms of being able to play. I always take my own 4 way extension with filter and surge protector, bunch of XLR cables, adapters etc. Spare USBs for the controller, spare MacBook charger. The only thing I don’t have is a spare power supply for my external mixer but if that failed the S4 can be used, even if Traktor isn’t running. As for amps and speakers giving up… that’s with the gods haha
Also.. I was actually called out to finish off a wedding where the DJ had a really old low end windows laptop and battered American DJ controller that must have been 15 years old. He had absolutely zero plan B. When I got there one of the guests was playing music from the iPhone speaker into the mic!!! The DJ had not disabled windows updates and after 15 mins of downtime VDJ wouldn’t run properly. He could have actually played music on his laptop using a media player but he hadn’t thought of that and didn’t have the cables / adapters to get from the headphone port to the PA.
Wow thanks for sharing so generously
I always have a separate small controller (FLX4) and exact duplicate laptop setup connected to my small external mixer and ready to go in seconds.
Great idea!!
Nice
My important tip to those who do open air parties like I do... Have an umbrella, light duty tarps and bungee cords (dollar store quality) ready for flash rains. I was hit by a flash rain one night but I handled the situation a like a pro, wrapped up my rig and speaker, I remained dry with my umbrella, waited out the rain which cleared out after 10 minutes of heavy pouring. I was proud as a boyscout.
Another good one is to carry extra underwear in case of a shart. Say no more-say no more! 😅😅😅😂😂😂
Oh, Jack! Thanks for two very different pieces of good advice 🤣
@@digitaldjtips Hey.. sht happens to the best of us, because most rock star DJs are drinkers, the runs and whatnot.... Or so I've been told.☺😉😉🤣🤣🤣
I had a situation recently where it started raining at the beginning of the ceremony and my laptop got soaked, and the keyboard quit working. I pulled out my back up laptop out and copntinued on the reception without missing a beat. I texted my wife to go get rice! Put the wet laptop in rice as soon as I got home. Next day good to go. It can be expensive to keep two laptops, so check out sites that sell refurbished equipment. I also keep critical music backed up to an iPad and to my phone.
Lesson learned!
I carry a backup all in 1 controller to support my main all in 1 controller And a second set of small speakers. 2 complete systems.
Perfect Steve
i was opening for a well known dj, got the "file unsupported" error on multiple songs. had to quickly reset that cdj while leaving a track playing on deck 3. recovered in time and nobody knew a thing :)
Good work Richie!
Roland SP404 MK2 in the aux of the mixer for DJ mode and an iPhone plugged into the 404 for just in case
Yup, it seems a few like to do it this way
Mic packed up mid gig? Plug your headphones into your mic socket it'll do a turn as an emergency mic. Not the greatest, but good enough to call last orders with!
One of the oldest and best hacks 👍
Had to do that in the past. Like you say, not good, but better than nothing
Evening Phil and all, Top Stream as per...
Thanks!
Another great show! I have seen a couple of rumours about the inpulse 500 being replaced by a new model have you heard anything? Just deciding if it's worth waiting before I make a purchase
No idea, sorry
Rehearse and prepare! Never full proof but makes the probability of problems less
Agreed Oliver
I have always taken a 2nd laptop in case 1st goes down. If main speakers have an issue I use the monitors instead.
Thanks Allan!
Can you go go standalone with this mixer ? Also can I plug my 1200s in to this
For Bluetooth get an alto Bluetooth dongle
Thanks Allan
Someone send this video to Grimes, and remind her to practice her beatmatching...
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
i always carry a 3.5kW generator and a twenty liter jerry can with me if the power goes out
That's dedication!