Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[mbp]

Nice little set up...what lighting did you use?

[Excalibur]

Did you run a sub under the booth?

Ah, I didn't say, did I? Oops. Yes, there was a Db 612 under the booth, helping out the RCF 710s. Although they're compact, I don't think I can get two under there, along with my rack case of radio mics and lighting controllers. This venue and crowd pose issues, I haven't sorted them all yet, but I'm on the way there with this.

Nice little set up...what lighting did you use?

I wanted simple, and on the tops of the poles are the trusty Hadron 4 in 1 lights ( poor man's Chauvet wash fx ) which really are the swiss army knife of lights. Can do colour wash, derby effect, laser and strobe. Below them are the room fillers, Crossfire XP. I can run them master slave easily, I'll have to look at putting them under DMX control as well.

[Nakatomi]

Quite a busy week last week... Thursday saw me 'celebrate' my birthday by djing a wedding where I was included as part of a package..

It started well but by 10pm not a soul was left in the room bar myself & barstaff. People came in occasionally to get drinks & they apologised for leaving me in the lurch.. I wasn't too bothered... It could've easily been worse.. A room full of people not looking like they're enjoying the music, for example..

Then Saturday I had a wedding at a venue new to me
Ooo, dead easy loadin a colleague told me. Yeah.. Dead easy.. Just a 100m jaunt down a path, turn left go up a wee ramp for 20m, into the first double doors, then turn right & through another set of doors then you're in! Doddle.. I was supremely glad of my rock n roller.. Though it took 3 trips to get everything in.

When i showed my face the venue had just got started building the stage. The MC, who by the way was a really nice guy, suggested I set up next to the stage. He was pleased I didn't have a six footer..

Speakers were intended to go either side of the stage on the floor, as were the lights. The stage itself was reserved for the band. I met with the band's main man who was a thoroughly lovely bloke. Then came the 'can we just plug into your PA?" line. Oh my dear boy, one does not simply' just plug in' to my PA..." but your speakers have xlrs.. We could just swap leads.. ". " Ah! ", said I..." but it'll make things much smoother if I go to my van & bring in my little mixer... You can sling me a pair of xlrs, which I'll take into my mixer line inputs via jack tails I've got & we'll be in business". Consider him flabbergasted!

Sadly no kind of sound check of the band was possible before they started beyond checking the signal path from their desk to mine because the rest of the band weren't to arrive til after the 1st dance... Hmmmkay then...

So I played background music as people filed in. The bride & groom came to see me & we ran through a couple of changes to the order of things. The 1st dance ended up being delayed slightly on account of the incredible heat & humidity of the day.

Come the time I was given the nod & I got everyone standing up around the dancefloor as planned. A huge apllause rang out as they started & I felt pleased it'd all gone to plan. FoB dance next & that was well received too.. Then it was on with my tunes to a packed floor. The band, my friend the MC told me, were running very late & would I be so kind as to continue until they were ready? Of course!

As members arrived I saw the main man juggling levels & swapping cables around.. I filled yet more time & by 830pm they were good to go. "it's now time for tonight's band so please give a very warm Miles wedding welcome to Basement Jazz!". Colour James the band leader gobsmacked... Heh.

They got their very warm welcome & started their set. Problem was I couldn't hear the lead singer. I popped out front & still couldn't hear her. I jumped back to my booth, set my headphones to listen to their channel & couldn't hear her much there either. So I picked up my spare radio mic, took a punt on a level & walked onto the stage & handed it to the singer. She sang. We all heard her. Marvellous.

The arrival of the evening's food was also late which meant the cake cut was also going to be delayed so.. Yet more filling...

I played bg music for the food, keeping it upbeat until it was the band's 2nd set. This time they sounded MUCH better though their new levels meant I had a troublesome feedback if I cranked their level any. A couple of tries on my desk's graphic sorted that out.. Needed a slight dip at 150hz.. Who'da thunk it!

Rammed floors followed & the band did the best cover of Wonderwall ever to grace my ears... In a jazz swing style... Oh my god it was divine! Their last song came.. I bigged them up again & waited a sec.. James looked at me as if to say go on, now you... I got back on the mic & said "wait a sec.. Isn't there an encore?" which started yells of one more song from the crowd. Oops

Oddly they hadn't intended to play one more but did a great one anyway..

Then me for the remaining 90 minutes, into which I crammed all the unplayed pre-requests including a mini set of German pop music the bride had asked me to do my best with. She needn't have had reservations... Everyone played along. I still have Mama Laudda ringing in my ears!

We ended the night with Shut Up & Dance... Then it was my turn for screams of one more. I walked onto the stage, took a slightly mocking bow & started derigging.

By the time I'd finished wrapping cables I was a sweating mess. To say I had a very happy customer would be an understatement... James the band leader came back full of thanks & praise too.. A bit of a result!

I'll post about last night's wedding later..

[mbp]

What are the Equinox MicronBooths like?......cons/pro?

Oh, are the crossfires any good as being 3W only??

Ta

[Nakatomi]

What are the Equinox MicronBooths like?......cons/pro?

Oh, are the crossfires any good as being 3W only??

Ta

Crossfire XP are the only ones worth considering IMHO.

As for the Micron.. I had one for a couple of years.. used it a fair bit, and grew to HATE it. I suppose what you'll think of it initially will depend on what you're used to. I came to the micron from an Ultimax 4ft stand which was hell with too many handwheel bolts (its bits don't stack & its best transported fully assembled), so I naturally loved the relative ease of putting up the micron. For a while. I grew to hate the scrim, the fiddliness of the overhead upright bars (and their fixed height) and putting it all together in its bag at the end of the night. I've never actually needed a booth as narrow as the micron in fairness. My trussbooth has been everywhere with me since I got it & I simply don't miss the micron at all. I am however considering going to something as narrow as the micron but less of a barricade...

[Nakatomi]

Here's the lowdown on Sunday's wedding then..

It started out as a classic case of.. are they gonna get in touch? Why haven't they got in touch? Then a frantic message from the venue on the day asking me to call the groom. Well of course.. if only I had his number.. Anyway we got all that sorted out & the all important 1st dance was discussed - off I went to buy it in good time for the gig. This er... shall we say.. slippage is being addressed & hopefully will be absolutely nixed very soon!!

Got there, set up & met singularly the most likeable photographer I've ever met at a wedding. In came the groom, we discussed some minor details & at 7pm guests piled into the room. Man, it was gonna be a busy one. Being a Sunday I thought, let's hope it stays that way..

Cake & 1st dance time came around quickly enough & after a brief stall to locate a missing VIP the happy couple entered the room to huge applause. I love the look on the couple's faces when they come in & see their guests going on like that for them..

1st dance done, off we went & it looked very much like the crowd were only going to shake their stuff to generic wedding disco fayre. There was a very energetic dance off which started during Blurred Lines which I ran away with, incorporating It's Tricky, U Can't Touch This, Sexy & I Know it, We No Speak Americano & Timber.. . I think I was the winner of that round lol. More standard fayre followed - I just couldn't get much off the beaten track to stick. Meh, que sera I suppose.. Luckily, the bride popped over & asked me if I had any Foo Fighters. Well! On went Everlong & didn't that just open a doorway to something way more interesting! And so that & the tunes that followed prompted ever more interesting requests from guests - so I joined the dots as you do & we weaved a merry path down the less trodden road with alternative hits from the 2000s. The crowd tired of that stuff so I slunk back slightly into more classic rock like ACDC - You Shook Me All Night Long.. Mrs Bride took a break from jumping up & down to request No Diggity & that in turn led to more, and similar gear until...

A guest requested Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop That Thing.. eek! I didn't have it! As luck would have it, the wedding had been deemed an unplugged affair so my connection to ILikeMusic was unfettered, so down came a lovely fat WAV nice & quick & I played it next, right after Fatman scoop. Another guest requested FloRida & Tpain - Low, so I banged that on & it was last orders time.. I reached for CeeLo Green - Forget You which brought people hurriedly back from the bar. Not much time for many more songs I said, which brought the groom over to request Mr Boombastic - his Dad's favourite song apparently... Mysterious Girl followed, to guffaws & whoops of delight & then we finished on Bohemian Rhapsody - a choice which the groom later admitted gave him pause, but he soon realised it was genius. His words folks, not mine. It was either gonna be that or Mr Brightside..

In the post mortem chat, the groom asked me how I did all that.. considering they'd only given me the first dance info. Well, I said.. I just play stuff & watch how people react to it, and I listen.. and I also took a few requests and er.. join the dots.. . The guests being great, up for it people really helped of course!

In summary, an absolutely brilliant couple of gigs at the weekend. Right now I feel blessed to have a job I (mostly) enjoy so much. Feedback from gigs has been largely unprompted this year & the other week I got a picture message from my wife featuring an actual thankyou card from a customer whose wedding I thought had been a near deserted dancefloor all night long. Just goes to show. I was, I don't mind admitting, quite moved when I saw the card though. I hope I never become immune to that.

[Nakatomi]

I should also mention, I had a playlist for this one, well....more of a suggestion list, which totalled 26.2 hours of music! Now I'm one of those who loves playlists, and when they're this long, surely there must be some gems to select from.

Yes, there were!

I love a good playlist. They make excellent fire lighters!

Seriously though.. 26.5 hours long?! You can call that customer service if you like.. I call it torture! For them as well as you. I've sat down before & made lists to cover a 5 hour gig (it was for a theme night) - and even coming up with 6 hours of danceable material which you could be reasonably sure of succeeding was pretty time consuming. 26.5 hours seems more like they just dumped their entire recent play history on you.

I have mixed feelings about playlists in truth. On the one hand, they can be a brilliant pointer towards where you can head (this is mostly my sentiment on the matter these days). On the other, they can be a millstone around your neck & can crucify an event to death. The key, if there really is one, is to try to manage things so they don't get out of hand. Thanks to me not having a fuzzy search based custom built app - and none being generally available (at a reasonable price) it takes roughly 10-20 minutes per hour of tracklisting for me to collate. NOT fun if the list is 4 or more hours long.

No Wayne, rather you than me mate, honestly. I ask for an outline - a breakdown of genres, artists & a smattering of must-play tracks & it's working for me very well now - and I'm MUCH happier in my work as a result My feedback seems to be coming up roses more often too.

[mattydj50]

What are the Equinox MicronBooths like?......cons/pro?

Oh, are the crossfires any good as being 3W only??

Ta

Yes, the Crossfire XP's are the uprated model with 8 x 10W LEDs. They are the ones Peter has and, having seen his in operation, they look damn fine too.

[mbp]

Got a couple of ADJ Quad Phase 10W effect lights from another set up....

Are they worth keeping and using instead of the Crossfires, or shall I rehome them and buy two crossfires?....mmmmm!!

[Excalibur]

Crossfires? XP all the way, no question. Believe Quad Phase are good, don't know if there's a high power version.

Micron booth? Been looking at the Equinox Combi, which is wider than the Micron, but narrower than the full size. Got all excited about it, but it's not going to replace either of those, and I can't justify three booths, plus my Rustic. Sadly, Mr Neen will have to sell his combi to someone else. Genuine shame, cos I thought it was going to replace the micron, but it's not .