Possibly the end of an era.

[Excalibur]

Well, in a couple of hours, off I go to do my first ( nearly) all ( nearly) digital disco. The Cortex is loaded with nigh on 14,000 tracks, as is the laptop. I've just downloaded a few singles ( isn't it a lot easier than trekking off to Woolies? :D ) And because not everything is on HD yet, a combined CD/MD player. I've run everything up this aft, and everything runs lovely. Don't expect piccies yet, cos the carpentry is not yet finished.

Two days ago, it was headless chicken time, until I found out that the eagerly awaited Maya soundcard was the culprit in the "why won't Media Monkey work" panic. How I wish I'd listened to Crazy a bit more, as feeding the mixer from the headphone out on the laptop, you can hardly tell any deficit in sound, quality until it's absolutely flat out, at which point it just becomes a bit strained. I think Justin's coming to demo part of his new LED lightshow, and add moral support, and technical skill. :D

The van looks a bit overspecced now, since five CD boxes, two equipment, and one cable boxes are staying at home tonight!! :eek: :D I can see how you lads with a pair of actives and a laptop get a full disco in a hatchback now!!:D

Full report to follow at approx 2a.m. tomorrow. :D

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Good luck Peter!

[Shaun]

Have fun, Peter. You won't look back.

[501damian501]

good luck, hope it works out

[Johnny]

Good luck, I am sure it will go well :)

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Good luck tonight. I remember how I felt the first time I went out digital and even though I had problems to start off with, I haven't looked back.

[Excalibur]

Thanks chaps, I'm quietly confident. I can't believe how little kit I'm taking! :eek: It's just like the old days, when it would all go in the back of a Mini Traveller. :D :D
Just wish I'd had time to print a few of Rob's " Idiot Sheets" :D :D Reckon there'll be enough requests to keep me supplied with ideas.

[Shaun]

Just wish I'd had time to print a few of Rob's " Idiot Sheets"

You need sheets to remind you Rob's an idiot?

[Excalibur]

You need sheets to remind you Rob's an idiot?

How dare you say that Sir? :eek: Have you not seen him commending the mighty Cortex to a poster on here this very day? ;) ;) :D :D

[rob1963]

You need sheets to remind you Rob's an idiot?

:eek:


How dare you say that Sir? :eek: Have you not seen him commending the mighty Cortex to a poster on here this very day? ;) ;) :D :D

:D

[Penfold42]

Have fun Peter....:D

[CRAZY K]

How I wish I'd listened to Crazy a bit more

Yeah some people say that--sadly not the lady I had on the phone this afternoon who wouldnt take my advice on how to organise a combined Wedding Scottish Dance and Disco.

She would insist on starting the Scottish Dancing later in the evening when the kilts were very understandably all boozed up, tired and only really interested in Disco.:eek: :eek: :eek: Oops upside your head and Cotton Eye Joe time--as im sure Steve would agree:D :D :D

Some people just know it all--her FIRST wedding my 300th!! ( I have lost count actually)

I just cant be bothered so we told her to find some other entertainer who is going to get a shedload of trouble at 10pm:rolleyes:

Back on thread--GO FOR IT PETER

CRAZY K

[Excalibur]

Well folks, first one under my belt! :D :D :D :D :D :D 55mins from last song to this keyboard. Can't be bad.
Bad news first! :( :( There's no beer in the house, so it's Australian Chardonnay. ;) :D
Good news, the kit was faultless. I knew it would be a great place to learn, as it's local and a good crowd. Very much a Family 18th tonight, as opposed to mates. Thanks Justin for bringing his LED lighting rig to use, and being Mr Happysnaps. I bet some of them are on here already. :D ( I now know which rough direction my lighting upgrade will go in ;) :D )
He was also invaluable in tweaking a couple of bits of software on the laptop, and giving helpful advice and moral support.

There is one thing to watch for on the Cortex, which it has done at home. Plugging in a USB cable, not necesarily connected to it can cause it to lose the connection to the HD. We managed to achieve this during setup, and no probs in the gig. I would suggest to anyone to plug in all your usb bits , and simply select which ones you want. I had loads of moments with no idea what to play, but requests helped, and so did being able to get a track in seconds. I learnt a few searching tricks tonight, I can tell you the Cortex is more picky grammatically than an Oxford and Cambridge English Language Examiner!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't find the copy of a track I wanted, but I knew where it was. Alter one digit to lower case, and there it is! Summer of 69 does not exist, if you use 69 as your string. Summer of '69 however is easily found! :eek: :eek: ;) ;) :D :D
I only hit the wrong button a couple of times, and nothing too drastic ensued.
So to sum up, not perfect DJ wise, pretty fine kit wise, and to borrow a song from T Blair -" Things can only get better"

[CRAZY K]

Well folks, first one under my belt! :D :D :D :D :D :D 55mins from last song to this keyboard. Can't be bad.
Bad news first! :( :( There's no beer in the house, so it's Australian Chardonnay. ;) :D
Good news, the kit was faultless. I knew it would be a great place to learn, as it's local and a good crowd. Very much a Family 18th tonight, as opposed to mates. Thanks Justin for bringing his LED lighting rig to use, and being Mr Happysnaps. I bet some of them are on here already. :D ( I now know which rough direction my lighting upgrade will go in ;) :D )
He was also invaluable in tweaking a couple of bits of software on the laptop, and giving helpful advice and moral support.

There is one thing to watch for on the Cortex, which it has done at home. Plugging in a USB cable, not necesarily connected to it can cause it to lose the connection to the HD. We managed to achieve this during setup, and no probs in the gig. I would suggest to anyone to plug in all your usb bits , and simply select which ones you want. I had loads of moments with no idea what to play, but requests helped, and so did being able to get a track in seconds. I learnt a few searching tricks tonight, I can tell you the Cortex is more picky grammatically than an Oxford and Cambridge English Language Examiner!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't find the copy of a track I wanted, but I knew where it was. Alter one digit to lower case, and there it is! Summer of 69 does not exist, if you use 69 as your string. Summer of '69 however is easily found! :eek: :eek: ;) ;) :D :D
I only hit the wrong button a couple of times, and nothing too drastic ensued.
So to sum up, not perfect DJ wise, pretty fine kit wise, and to borrow a song from T Blair -" Things can only get better"

PETER PETER PETER!

WHY would you enter 69 when your looking for SUMMER of 69.

You wouldnt do that on a Google search:rolleyes:

Always type in the first part of the tag--sometimes its best to only type in part of the title rather than the whole lot--and quicker.

I hope you havent tagged everything using "THE" :eek: :eek: :eek:

Ive done a few:bang: :bang: :bang:

Well done--glad you like it--makes the job so much easier eh?

CRAZY K

[rob1963]

Excalibur,

Congrats on the digital move, even though you beat me to it, you swine!

:D :D :D

[Penfold42]

I only hit the wrong button a couple of times, and nothing too drastic ensued.

Amateur.....! :boxer2: :p :D


Excalibur,

Congrats on the digital move, even though you beat me to it, you swine!

:D :D :D

Everyone's beaten you Rob..........:p :D

[Dragonfly]

Amateur.....! :boxer2: :p :D

I bet he plugged the amp in and had a decent soundcard :D :D ;) :D :D :beer1: :beer1:

glad to hear you had a good night all in all.

[Excalibur]

I bet he plugged the amp in and had a decent soundcard :D :D ;) :D :D :beer1: :beer1:

glad to hear you had a good night all in all.

Does anybody read anything on here? :confused: :bang: :bang:
The expensive soundcard you bunch of Helpful Harrys recommended has a serious conflict with ONE program. The one I'm using!:eek: :bang: £75 wasted, cos it won't let Media Monkey work at all! Crazy was right, just plug it into the headphone socket. ( I know it's not good practice, but it's the only option available unless I decide to get El Cheapo soundcard, which was my intention until I listened to the experts! Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by experts. I rest my case.;) :D :D

[Penfold42]

Does anybody read anything on here? :confused: :bang: :bang:

Think that was aimed at me Peter.....my soundcard failed last night....:o

[Excalibur]

Think that was aimed at me Peter.....my soundcard failed last night....:o

Perfect! Swap you a Maya for a Cortex!:D :D :D :D :D :D

[CRAZY K]

Does anybody read anything on here? :confused: :bang: :bang:
The expensive soundcard you bunch of Helpful Harrys recommended has a serious conflict with ONE program. The one I'm using!:eek: :bang: £75 wasted, cos it won't let Media Monkey work at all! Crazy was right, just plug it into the headphone socket. ( I know it's not good practice, but it's the only option available unless I decide to get El Cheapo soundcard, which was my intention until I listened to the experts! Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by experts. I rest my case.;) :D :D

May not be good practice but as a back up it works fine--in my experience--

Not that you will probably ever need back up with a Cortex--Hard Drive maybe:(

Im so confident I leave the back ups under the Disco stand/table in their boxes. Mini disc ready just in case::cool:

Are you able to join me in the ****pit for a full LIVE gig demo of the Cortex on the 4th July Peter?

Thats cokpit!!!!!!!!!!!

I havent been cancelled ( yet ):D :D :D

regards

CRAZY K

[Excalibur]

PETER PETER PETER!

WHY would you enter 69 when your looking for SUMMER of 69.

You wouldnt do that on a Google search:rolleyes:

Well done--glad you like it--makes the job so much easier eh?

CRAZY K

Because if you use a search term designed to give fewer results, there's less to look through!;) ;)


:

Are you able to join me in the ****pit for a full LIVE gig demo of the Cortex on the 4th July Peter?

Thats cokpit!!!!!!!!!!!

I havent been cancelled ( yet ):D :D :D

regards

CRAZY K

Oh Yuss. I shall contact you nearer the time re Dress Code, etc. There should be no probs, as long as Penmare can fast track my visa aplication to cross the River. :D :D


Right, I couldn't decide whether to put this in Good Gig, Bad Gig, or here. It's here.;)
Last night I stood in for Justin at his pub residency. Lousy money, but it justified the journey to repatriate his lighting rig, and was basically a paid trial for the new kit.:D Arived 5mins late, and was set up 15mins early! :D This digital lark has a lot of plusses. I had loads of room to spare round me( a novelty for me ;) :D ) and a nice setup. Imagine my worry when ten minutes into the gig, a young man wearing a t-shirt proclaiming him to be from another DJ company entered my pub! "Oh dear" ( ;) ) I thought, "here comes the old two DJ's booked in at the same venue routine!" After voicing this fear, the young chap reassured me this was not the case, and he was in a pickle. He was working in a pub/club across the road, and had forgotten his power lead for his HD, his only music source. :eek: He was delighted to find I had two of the same make with me, and asked to borrow a cable. I felt I could manage without one, so did so. The only problem was that he would not finish till 2am! I did my gig, playing two CD tracks, four MD tracks, two lappy tracks from pendrive, and the rest from the Cortex.:D :D Isn't it amazing how fast you can select a track when the previous one's about to finish? :confused: ;) :D Great fun doing a Tamla set, and a Northern Soul one with all the tracks at my disposal so easily. So ended the night a happy little bunny, and went across the road to watch and learn from the young man, who was obviously vastly experienced in the use of digital playout, and perhaps hear a few cutting edge dance tracks I could use.

OH NO, NO SUCH LUCK!! It was two Pro15's on the floor, being thrashed within an inch of their cones by a powered mixer, being fed by a laptop out of the headphone socket ( this was bear in mind, his ONLY playout system! ) and a Soundlab Radio Mic! To those of you thinking that I shouldn't judge on first impressions, it doesn't get any better.:D He was using BPM ( I think) on full autopilot, and it was mixing decks with 16secs cross fade with his only interjections on the mic being used to whip up his nine punters into a frenzy being "Oggy oggy oggy" and "Come on". :D :D His music selection was full fat cheese, with no attempt at continuity, integrity,or skill. Amazingly, many of the punters seemed to love it, though the landlady hadn't and docked him a tenner for being a divot! :eek:
As they say in the papers, I collected my cable, and left!;) :D

PS, after last nights emergency Chardonnay, I had a four pint keg of beer from the highly regarded Brown Cow brewery at home. :beer1: :beer1: :D :D

[BeerFunk]

Wow, I'd never think to ask a DJ in another pub for a spare cable for a hard drive! Maybe a phono lead or something, but that was a bit lucky for him! I hope he thanked you vigorously? :)

[Excalibur]

Wow, I'd never think to ask a DJ in another pub for a spare cable for a hard drive! Maybe a phono lead or something, but that was a bit lucky for him! I hope he thanked you vigorously? :)

Profusely, cos as you point out, a week earlier, and I'd have had nothing like that with me!! Bought me a drink too, but my hoice of refreshment costing
60p for an Orange Squash wasn't an excessive charge on him, so I didn't feel embarrassed. Apart from watching somebody so lazy and unimpressive at work. :D

[JAMdisco]

Sorry, been busy removing conifers from my front drive today (that I cut down 3 weeks ago :o )

Glad to hear that you're happy with your new toys Peter.
60p for an orange - the robbing :Censored:'s charge me 65p:attn:

Haven't had chance to get the pics on but will do it first thing tonight when I get home.

And finally - Welcome to the 21st Century - it's a great place to party :D

[nigelwright7557]

The van looks a bit overspecced now,
Full report to follow at approx 2a.m. tomorrow. :D

I get my gear in the back of a Mondeo.
Once the back seats are folded forward it turns into half a van.
The boot lip is a nuisance so I might invest in a van or an estate next time.

[JAMdisco]

Pictures now uploaded in the Gallery. :D

[Excalibur]

I get my gear in the back of a Mondeo.
Once the back seats are folded forward it turns into half a van.
The boot lip is a nuisance so I might invest in a van or an estate next time.

Ah yes, but I can still fill the van with gear when I want to! ;) ;) :D :D

[Excalibur]

And finally - Welcome to the 21st Century - it's a great place to party :D

Now I know I've arrived here. I did something I've never done before. :eek: ;)
Having forgotten my pen, I was unable to write down the requests. :( :( Then I remembered! I typed them into wordpad.:D :D :D