DJing at the Spiegeltent has ruined me for the shitty sound system at CBD.
To begin my evening (I did a set there… um… a week ago yesterday?), the little sound guy (who can never ever be found when you do actually need him, and if you can find him, can’t do anything without a ladder in the middle of the (crowded) dance floor) told me off for blowing the phono channels on the piece of shit sound desk in the main room. I interrupted mid-rant with “sorry, man, I haven’t DJed here in about 8 weeks, and I always use the line out. Because that’s the rule” and pointed out that I was actually using the line out at that very moment. He tut tutted a bit and I kind of did the glib hail-fellow-well-met bullshit where it sounds like I actually really care what he thinks.
I would care, if it weren’t for the fact that that sound system is set up for the doof doods on the weekend, always frighteningly heavy on the bass, so all our music sounds ridiculous.
I wanted to raise the issue of how we’re not allowed to change the settings to suit dancers who can actually a) find the beat without having it hammered into their bones with the force of a thousand decibels, and b) actually listen to – and dance to – the whole range of instruments present in a recording. I also wanted to have a little chat with him about how it’s not actually useful to have a bunch of spotlights shining into the eyes of the DJ when your DJ is actually more interested in working the crowd than preening for the crowd. I did think about suggesting a more sensible set up for the desk than one where you have to physically lift the console thingy out of the wooden frame to insert your RCA cables, feeling all the hairs on your arms stand up in response to the stray volts floating around in there. I considered raising the issue of booth monitors and using whole, complete cables that worked and weren’t jerry-rigged into the system. And I had one, final thought about pointing out to him the fact that we were actually holding that conversation without shouting, suggesting that perhaps we swing DJs (or least I) don’t really pound the volume too greatly.
But I didn’t.
I simply took pleasure in sneering (silently) at his ill-fitting black tshirt and daggy-bum (in a pre-2005 mode) jeans.
And then I dropped way too many lo-fi tracks on a crowd who could hear everything I couldn’t at the DJ console, and consequently could only hear a sort of muddy slurry in the mids. I took a series of walks around the room to see how things sounded, and decided nothing could be done. So I had to pump it nu skewl at regular intervals.
In retrospect, it’s breaking my heart.
I used exactly the same type (and age) desk at the speegs as I do at CBD, but it all works nicely and is well cared for there. I could play what I liked and it sounded great. There’s no lifting consoles out of the frame and then trying to reinsert them without pinching wires at the speegs. There’s (one of many available) sound dood(s) who’ll cheerfully help me set up and offered useful advice (I learnt more DJing there than in any other session anywhere with anyone else), one who smiled, reciprocated cheerfully when I introduced myself and extended my hand for a shake (mateship in DJing – he is the G-O) and who was, generally, so sweet I thought about buying him a beer for his efforts (but didn’t because they were $10 a pop and I was only paid $40 for 2 hours work).
But CBD is a scarily skanky mid-80s type nightclub. The sort of place you went to when you were 16 because you could get in without an ID. The sort of place where you could score any type of drug you liked, provided it was cut with… well, you really didn’t want to know. The place where young women met men in their 40s who had interesting opportunities in the film industry available for lovely young ladies like yourself.
I shouldn’t bitch, really – it’s the longest running swing dance venue in our town. It has 3 floors which we’ve used for a range of events. And while the management aren’t nice at all, they do let us continue to dance there. Though drinking there is a challenging proposition – $5 for a bottle of Gatorade? I don’t think so.
I know I need to learn more about levels and things (and to get a decent sound card), but still. This is a blog, and if there’s one thing a blog is for, it’s misinformed, self-righteous rants. I mean, the
But I’d at least appreciate it if the sound dood was civil. And washed his hair more frequently.
wash your hair, roady
It’s good to see someone else complaining about sound systems and guys. Not that I’m a working dj or anything. I’ve seen / heard too many good live shows ruined by bad systems or mainly bad sound people.
While no one can really make a bad system sound like hifi sound men (and they are always men)can make a medium to good system sound bloody awful by pushing it too loud for the amps or the speakers or worse both. Amps with no head room so they clip when pushed and speakers that have no mid range are my pet hates.
Glad to hear someone else complaining about too much bottom end and too much tinny tweeter sound. I’ve complained about this doof problem (that is boomy bass through crapy speakers and tinny scratchy tweeters and fuck all else going on) and it’s always assumed I’m just “some old guy who doesn’t like the music”. Jeez almost anything will sound good through a nicely performing system.
I could go on – and I often do.
One good speaker with a full response range and decent amp wih reserve headroom serves music better than 10, 8 6 or 2 speakers not as good.
And room treatment – don’t get me going.
How about a post and pics about your gear?
… they are always men. I have yet to meet a female soundie.
I don’t know very much about this stuff. I used to have really really good hearing, but have noticed I’m losing the upper end of my hearing, and over the course of the night my hearing worsens – I have a couple of friends (one of whom has just moved to Canada :( ) I get to let me know if the volume is too high. I find that I up the volume over the course of the set as IK get ‘immune’ to the sound levels.
My set up? Well, I have a laptop which uses itunes (argh – I am longing for a better alternative… that works on a mac!) and an RCA cable. And a brand new pair of sennheiser headphones. The Squeeze has recently expressed interest in an external sound card – he’s a computer nerd who used to be into band stuff, so he’s very interested in this sort of stuff.
I could take pics of the actual desk thingy while I’m DJing… But that’s surprisingly dull.
“Glad to hear someone else complaining about too much bottom end and too much tinny tweeter sound.”
Dood, swing DJs are all about bitching about this particular bit of nastiness. It was so nice at the speegs to say “we don’t like much base” and to see the sound guy grin with relief and immediately turn down the base to a normal level.
” Amps with no head room so they clip when pushed and speakers that have no mid range are my pet hates”
Oh yes, I know that hate. I was at a gig one night DJing with another DJ, discussing the sound limitations of the venue (it was actually the speegs, where they have a max sound limit because of the location) and how we couldn’t get any more volume from the system. She immediately turned the gain up really high and I cringed. And turned it back down when she left the booth. There’s nothing nastier than that horrible ‘cracking’ sound, except perhaps the distortion. That last Thursday night when I was DJing, I noticed the sound was cutting out completely at higher levels in the second DJ’s set. And I cringed.
There are delicate politics in DJing – it’s not really cool to give other DJs advice or to make suggestions, especially if they’ve been DJing as long as you have or longer. Which means that I don’t feel comfortable pointing out stuff like that to others, and some of my favourite DJs don’t give me advice even when I ask for it.
This is actually something that bleeds over from dancing – there are some seriously hierarchally related issues in giving advice. And I’ve noticed that people won’t give teachers advice (nor will they take it, for the most part), even if they’re just new to DJing.
There are definitely gender issues at work here, as well.
But I have a female DJ buddy with whom I regularly experiment with this stuff. She plays much higher quality, hifi stuff, while I play much older stuff – so we have a nice range of stuff to experiment with. It’s especially nice to have a DJ buddy who’s learning like I am.