I arrived at the bar Saturday night to be told that in additional to the band there would be a DJ to fill the extra time due to the clock change and because there was a large reunion party that wanted to request songs. No problem, the bar has distinct and separate systems for the DJ and the live stage. The DJ system runs through a decent distributed system of JBL 10 and 12 inch install speakers (I have never climbed up to see the actual model, not my department) which has 8 of them in the main room, 4 in both the lounge and pool rooms. This system is supplemented by a single 18 inch sub at the dance floor. The DJ booth has a typical CD player rig with DJ mixer but no turntables.
Basically, when I was told there was going to be a DJ, my main thought is that I won't be able to store empty cases in the DJ booth and fat girls won't be bugging me to play The Wooble during the set breaks.
Mr. DJ shows up, and is instantly very needy. He has his own rig (I am ok with that) but he doesn't want to fit in the DJ booth (he can't be clearly seen there) and the manager doesn't want to strike the bars DJ rig. Mr. DJ 's solution is that he wants 1/2 the stage and have the band play on the other half. That is not going to happen. Well, can we move the DJ rig onto stage and then off the stage. No, you are here to play during the bands set break, not to spend all the time moving equipment to get ready to play.
My solution is give him a couple of tables on the dance floor to the side of the stage and if we have to use some crowd barriers to rope him off we can do that. I go back to taking care of the band that had just arrived.
I did notice that he was setting up a new pair of ZLX115's on stands. I noticed because initially he wanted to set it up right in front of the singers stage position. I suggest an alternate location where he can cover the floor and his stands would be less likely to be knocked over. So he ends up with ZLX basically under each of my main hangs pointing at the dance floor. He was also patched into our distributed system.
I noticed a weird dynamic between him and the manager. The harder he pushed the ZLX's the more the manager turned down the distributed system, which includes the one sub. The one sub is nothing to jump up and down about but it does ok right there on the dance floor.
A little after 9:00 I do my version of a silent line check with the band and then spend a little time tweaking their monitors (2 in-ears and 3 wedges) all without the mains turned on at all.
Do you see what is coming?
The DJ did his thing until 10:00 when I brought up the live system, turned on the lights, and had a rock show.
He is usually there on Thursdays, and I don't think he had ever heard the live rig before. The look on his face was priceless.
He spent the rest of the night trying to play keep up. The ZLX's were hard into limiting and distorted as hell.
Just so there is a tech tip in here and not just simply (warranted) gloating...
I often pick up the tap timing for effects by placing my knee against part of the structure of the FOH booth at the back of the room (about 100 ft from stage). The fundamental from the kick gives a nice clean vibration in the wall of the booth. However, this time the band was playing to a click track. I have had bands with a click track before but always on a separate monitor split. This was the first time I have ever routed the click to FOH before adding it to the monitors.
It was neat to be able to see their tempo in the channel leds before they even started playing, and I often had all the effects tapped in before they even started playing.
Basically, when I was told there was going to be a DJ, my main thought is that I won't be able to store empty cases in the DJ booth and fat girls won't be bugging me to play The Wooble during the set breaks.
Mr. DJ shows up, and is instantly very needy. He has his own rig (I am ok with that) but he doesn't want to fit in the DJ booth (he can't be clearly seen there) and the manager doesn't want to strike the bars DJ rig. Mr. DJ 's solution is that he wants 1/2 the stage and have the band play on the other half. That is not going to happen. Well, can we move the DJ rig onto stage and then off the stage. No, you are here to play during the bands set break, not to spend all the time moving equipment to get ready to play.
My solution is give him a couple of tables on the dance floor to the side of the stage and if we have to use some crowd barriers to rope him off we can do that. I go back to taking care of the band that had just arrived.
I did notice that he was setting up a new pair of ZLX115's on stands. I noticed because initially he wanted to set it up right in front of the singers stage position. I suggest an alternate location where he can cover the floor and his stands would be less likely to be knocked over. So he ends up with ZLX basically under each of my main hangs pointing at the dance floor. He was also patched into our distributed system.
I noticed a weird dynamic between him and the manager. The harder he pushed the ZLX's the more the manager turned down the distributed system, which includes the one sub. The one sub is nothing to jump up and down about but it does ok right there on the dance floor.
A little after 9:00 I do my version of a silent line check with the band and then spend a little time tweaking their monitors (2 in-ears and 3 wedges) all without the mains turned on at all.
Do you see what is coming?
The DJ did his thing until 10:00 when I brought up the live system, turned on the lights, and had a rock show.
He is usually there on Thursdays, and I don't think he had ever heard the live rig before. The look on his face was priceless.
He spent the rest of the night trying to play keep up. The ZLX's were hard into limiting and distorted as hell.
Just so there is a tech tip in here and not just simply (warranted) gloating...
I often pick up the tap timing for effects by placing my knee against part of the structure of the FOH booth at the back of the room (about 100 ft from stage). The fundamental from the kick gives a nice clean vibration in the wall of the booth. However, this time the band was playing to a click track. I have had bands with a click track before but always on a separate monitor split. This was the first time I have ever routed the click to FOH before adding it to the monitors.
It was neat to be able to see their tempo in the channel leds before they even started playing, and I often had all the effects tapped in before they even started playing.
