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Dj's United

Slimboy Fat

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Posts posted by Slimboy Fat

  1. I use one of these nowadays along with either a goalpost or a T-Bar (depending upon the size of rig and the amount of lighting required) and a custom deck surround made from creative use of 1.5 inch plastic conduit, a few elbows and a black sheet attached with velcro tabs.

     

    It has cut my set-up / breakdown times by a huge amount and gives me a decent amount of working space, as well as negating the need to ask the bar staff for a spare table or two. The only real negative is *if* the venue is upstairs with no lift, in which case I usually ditch the roll-cab and carry the components up individually.

  2. I must admit it is something I have been considering for quite some time. Live music is definitely king in these parts at the weekend but my plan is to offer our local rock / metal venue my DJing services for free for maybe a couple of months or so on a Monday night to see if we can get something going. Nothing currently happens there on a Monday and every other night of the week is occupied by some sort of live music, whether it be a residency, a "jam" or open mic night or a feature band. The advantage to me is that I will actually be playing the music that I personally love and am most familiar with. The current big disadvantage is that I am currently on alternate weekly early / late shift at work so physically can't actually put the plan into action until we revert back to regular day shifts.

     

    The bottom line is that it's a risk that may work or may not but I know I will have fun and make friends in the process and I feel we need all the friends we can get in this industry at the moment.

  3. It's all about personal choice but after trying almost all configurations my chosen set-up nowadays would be (depending on size of venue) one or two T-Bars on wind-up stands. The luxury of being able to wire up your lights at eye-level and then effortlessly wind them up to 3m high is just too much to resist.

  4. I think the main challenge will be what to listen to on the headphones when playing Simply Red and John Barrowman...l :devil:

     

    I had to laugh when I saw this. I have occasionally been known to indulge in a little System of a Down or Pantera via the old headphones whilst some requested inane faceless over-produced pop drivel is playing through the speakers. Is this a common thing? :wacko:

  5. Sad sights indeed.

     

    As far as the Butlins / Pontins / Haven type holidays are concerned I think what has become their greatest enemy is the very thing upon which their foundations were built....AFFORDABILITY. Elements of this word have now become lost in translation, especially now it is more than possible for a family of 4 to enjoy a week in the sun ALL-INCLUSIVE than it is to spend a week in Minehead or Bognor.

     

    As far as I am aware they don't give a lot away on terms of gigs for independent DJs either. The DJs in such establishments nowadays seem to be Red / Yellow / Blue coats with the necessary training on how to use the in-house DJ software.

  6. I use a Mondeo estate which suits me down to the ground practicality wise - 2 kids and a Mrs to ferry around, it's a decent cruiser for the occasional runs back to the Midlands which I have to make plus My entire rig fits in there with room to spare. I am looking at changing to a short wheelbase VW T4 Transporter as soon as funds permit though, reasons being more load space PLUS I really fancy carrying out a camper conversion.

  7. I used to be based in Wolverhampton like Nik and demand dictated that I rarely tended to wander more than 3 or 4 miles away from home. As of 9 months ago I now live in Weymouth, Dorset which, to be quite honest, doesn't seem as competitive as the Midlands for other DJs but then again the region is far less densely populated and we are somewhat "out on a limb" here. I was pondering whether it would be worth getting back into for a while due to the nature of the area but Nevertheless the work does seem to be about so that is all the encouragement I need.

  8. Hi All.

     

    Now that we're pretty much settled into our new area I am now looking to fire up the rig and get gigging once again. I've scouted our new area and there does seem to be a healthy demand for DJ services - especially in one or two more specialised niches. The local karaoke scene is quite healthy and what with all of my gear sitting in the garage gathering dust, I have come to the decision that it would be extremely rude not to.

     

    One question I was pondering just before the move and new job took over my life was how several Karaoke DJs I have seen link their equipment up to a venue's own multiple TV screens without any visible sign of extra cabling from the DJ rig? Is there some sort of gadget which patches in to the TV signal remotely or is it purely down to many metres of well-hidden cable?

     

    Your advice will be greatly appreciated, thanks. Jase.

  9. These do look good but I like the starcloth effects.

     

    Ideally I would like my starcloth to be taught around the front of my stand (like the photos on this post)instead of looking like a crhistmas wrapper.

     

    Anyone know if there is a click frame or something ??

     

    :joe:

     

    You could always use a couple of old tent-poles top and bottom so that you can adjust the tension.

  10. Very stylish and tasteful. There is definitely a place for the "minimalist" look but I would be tempted to make these screens in such a fashion that screens could be added or taken away, thus allowing the user to customise the size of the screens to suit their rig. This way they could be adapted and utilised for either "minimalist" or "maximalist" use.

  11. i wouldnt start early , tell him your in work and cant unless you pay someone to cover you, (the fee for cover is what extra your asking for) so you can start at his time but at x amount . best you can do , he booked a disco from a set time,

     

    That's lying..........best avoided at ALL costs.

  12. Nowt for me I'm afraid as i'm still scouting our new area out although I am currently working on a local establishment concerning a residency playing the music I actually know and love myself. My song to play this weekend......following the resurgence of interest in Journey how about squeezing in their classic "Separate Ways". Choooooooooon!

  13. another question has just popped in :aa .

    laptop has a 130 gig hdd. IF I loaded 50gigs worth of mp3's which is prob more than id really put on it would it slow it down ?

    sorry for all the q's but im still a bit of a novice when it comes to this sort of thing :aa

     

    Having such an mp3 collection stored on a *single partition* HDD will definitely slow the machine down. Your machine may well already be partitionned with Windows in it's own segment....If this is the case you should be ok BUT I would advise another separate partition to keep your music away from your general program files. If your HDD is not currently partitionned I would advise doing so using a program such as "Partition magic", creating a small partition for the operating system and two larger ones for your program files and music respectively. Also invest in an external drive to make a back up copy of your internal drive. 50 gigs worth of music is a lot of info to lose!

     

    BEWARE before doing any of this as my system restore files were actually stored on my hard drive rather than on a separate disk so when my hard drive died I had no way of immediately restoring the original operating system. If this is the case then please don't forget to make a system restore disk BEFORE doing anything else.

     

    Hope this helps. :Thumbup:

     

    Jase

  14. Even though keeping your music files on the internal HDD seems to make sense, Personally I wouldn't and don't use the internal hard drive.

     

    I have always regarded my laptop as an essential tool for my profession and as such wouldn't want to do anything potentially detrimental to it's performance. Filling the internal hard drive with music adds a large amount of "clutter" to the main system drive and will eventually slow the computer down. Try defragging a full HDD and see how long it takes ;).

     

    *IF* you are going to use your internal HDD, I would certainly create a partition specifically for your music.

  15. Hi, I've taken a booking for end feb, Its a boys 21st, He phoned me last night to book and asked if " I could play his music?" When I asked what it was he told me it was club mixes of tunes, I welcome requests but in the past when your handed lists half the stuff dont work and nobody dances, So you change it and the person starts asking for there songs again?, He says it is alot of music and he is bringing a memory stick of tunes.

    My plan is to play some of his and mix it depending on the crowd reaction,What would you do?.

     

    If it's an unreasonably large amount of music your client wishes you to play why not convert the gig to a "Rig rental"....that way you get your money for the night with none of the comeback and the the responsibility for the music lies solely with the person hiring your rig.

     

    Simples. :Thumbup:

  16. There are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many candidates for this one. Kiss Me Thru The Phone, everything Beyonce has released, Bodies, but I reckon the all out winner will be whatever trashy cover is rushed out by the winner of the X Factor in a few weeks.

     

    I can't argue with this post at all Mitch. Anything to do with X-Factor is :crap: - music for the gullible masses rather than for people who truly understand and appreciate good music and the effort put in by extremely talented and hard-working bands and artists struggling to make a name for themselves. The "Rage Against The Machine" campaign was a fantastic episode and demonstrated the strength of feeling against X-Factor but ultimately I have no doubt that it will not bother Mr Cowell one iota as long as the cash comes tumbling in for him.

     

    And another thing.....How the HELL did "Single ladies" by Beyonce win best video of the year? I wonder who paid for that title???

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