My most important gig ... EVER!

[Alex]

Well guys and girls,

After 8 months planning, tonight is the night of my most important gig ever.
It's my sisters surprise 40th birthday party.

My mothers garden which is freakin' huge was given the Marquee treatment on wednesday and I set up last night. This week has been hectic with the final build up to today..... so very quickly, he's a brief bit about it.

We have a local Dance Troupe performing (She use to babysit the kid who is lead dancer) and we have a huge surprise by having an Amy Winehouse tribute act too.
(We did try to get the real thing... but we weren't happy with her agents terms... apparently they " can not guarantee Amy will arrive for your show" in which case they would "refund 40% of the total fee paid"... hmmm I think I wont take that risk then!) LOL

We sent out just over 200 invites and we have a confirmed amount of 120 coming....

I'm going to get some video and pictures through out the night, and will post a full gig log a bit later on.... depending on how hungover I am tomorrow.

As I'm attending the event, I've cheated a little bit! .... I've gone and made some short "pre-done" mixes which I will use every so often so I get a chance to party too ( The pre mixes have taken over 3 weeks to prepare and have been tested on people too, to ensure they sound and blend well )
I'm looking forward to 1am... when I put the club mix on! Thats my time to dance! :D

Wish me luck guys and girls

xx alex xx

OH and PS: Apologies to those who have tried to contact me this week.... my schedule and office times resume from Monday (.. depending on hangover, it might be from the afternoon time! LOL)

[Spirits High]

Have fun mate, sounds like it's going to be a cracking night ;)

Loving the "Real" Amy Winehouse T's & C's :eek: :D

[Alex]

Thanks Paul, it's going to be Goooooooodddddd! (Think bruce almighty)

I'm all excited about the Robe Club Washes... I've programed about 20 different shows into the control deck.... gonna totally have fun with that!

And the best thing is, the party carries on tomorrow as the bar company and marquee company aren't coming until Tuesday!!!!
So we're having another party on Sunday... technically it's an open house, but obviously we've only told a select few :D

[JTRS]

Best of luck for tonight, I know the pressure tha doing an event for a member of your family puts you under, so I hope it all goes fantastic for you and your sister tonight.

JTRS

PS


So we're having another party on Sunday... technically it's an open house, but obviously we've only told a select few :D

Select few including everyone on this forum then!!!!!

[Paul The Party Dj]

Lol - brilliant - have a great time letting your hair down ... that's not going to work is it ... well, you know what I mean.

I reckon you'll be back in circulation by Thursday - but I'm not saying which Thursday!

Cheers

[yourdj]

where is my invite? :)

[Ecstatic Events]

Good luck! Sounds like its gonna be a great party!!

The Whinehouse T&C's made me chuckle :)

[Alex]

OH MY GOD --- Issue number 1 !!

My DJ software is skipping everytime I load a track! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'm using Club DJ Pro... and everytime a track loads up, the one currently playying stutters!

I'm on windows Vista ( Yeah yeah, I know!!!) but with everything turned off!

Any ideas I could try? If not, it's going to be a WinAmp night!! LOL

Of all the nights for it to go wrong!!!!!!!!

Starting to stress out now!

[Booche]

Could try/use VDJ 7 for tonight it will at least get you through the night mate

Hope you have a good one and enjoy it :D:D:D

[spin mobile disco]

Go to drive harware settings and turn on the increase performance tab. Then restart. That helps in most cases. Make sure you have pre scanned your music as if it does this when playing it will cause stutters. Split your music up into sub folders Maybe all starting with a b c etc. This can speed up transfers. Go to visual settings and turn on windows basic setting. This means if your computer shares some memory with the graphics card it uses less of it.
DO a scandisc and check for errors. Turn off internet adapter and then disable any antivirus software. Turn of automatic updating and turn off system sounds under control panel - sounds.
Then run a defrag,

If it still does not work then im afraid it is due to the laptop not having sufficient ooomphh to power this program. I used to use pc dj fx and red and had no problem with stuttering even with very low spec laptops so check if your software needs an update as well.

hope this helps.

[BeerFunk]

Best of luck for tonight! Although to be honest, if it was my sister I'd have got someone else in so that I could enjoy the night as a guest.

[yourdj]

OH MY GOD --- Issue number 1 !!

My DJ software is skipping everytime I load a track! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Get a mac :p

Just use my mixes no one will know.

Or sd card player. Chill Winston.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Just use my mixes no one will know.


He can't be that desperate! :D

[Alex]

All fixed :) .... Phewwwwwwwwww

Running a Sony Vaio AR71s so I knew it wasn't the laptop :)

I found that Windows Vista wasn't allocating enough memory and processor power to the software... so I've now played with the settings and made ClubDJ the most important software to run!!

I might set up a webcam later on and broadcast it on my site! :)

[Alex]

Get a mac :p

Just use my mixes no one will know.

Or sd card player. Chill Winston.


AND IN THE BACK UP CORNER... WEIGHING IN AT 3 lbs .... The SD Player is ready and primed with my own backup mixes ;) ... and yours on there too toby hehehe!

Backup two - Second laptop with a few CD's rippped onto it...

Backup Three - IPHONE!!! :D

[Shaun]

So....how did it go? :)

[Alex]

Ok I assume you saw I was on?? :D

An amazing night!!! Completely amazing!
I've got a quick video which I need to convert and upload... and will do that later tonight

Setup and Pre-Gig

Friday - 9am
Picked up my moving heads ( Robe ClubWash 250CT ) ... travel a further 25 miles to hire the bubble machine. Managed to hire two plinths to stand the Robe's on.... nice 2 metre high plinth too!

Friday - 10:30am
Arrive back at the parents house to find the marquee erection is now complete and I can get in there.
Laid the dancefloor (12ft x 15ft) and positioned my booth ready for rigging.

Now the hard part... lifting two 250kg metal base slab (3/4 inch steel plates) and moving them from the front of the house to the back!
It turned out to be a 3 man job.... and I ended up tearing my scar tissue on my back from an op I had about 3 years ago (Agony!!!!... But knew it would be worth it)

We only had one chance to position them (as we didn't really want to move them again) but thankfully, the first position was perfect... as you'll see in the video.

Friday - 2:30pm
Start rigging up my lights... decided on a basic set up as the Robes would be adding a great effect anyway.
Rigged up my two impossibleds and linked them together... along with a Twin Tango and a terminator light.
After 5 different positions, I finally decided on not having much on the actual dancefloor and using them to light the marquee with disco lighting.

Friday - 3:30pm
Right... time to program the moving heads! And my first attempt at DMXing !!

Friday - 8:30pm
OH MY GOD...... 5 hours it's taken me to work out how to get these lights to work with their control module.
Finally though, I've got there... programed in some disco lighting, ambience lighting and spot lighting!!!
Time to start on checking the sounds and coverage.

Friday - 11:30pm
I went a bit overboard with my testing... and we've received our first complaint of the weekend! HAHAHA!
Some woman from about 20 houses down the road comes up and moans that the bass and volume are too much!! Can we turn it down. We explained we're having a party and she starts kicking off and wingeing

I'm only using Mackies SRM450 V2... and I've only set up 2!! No bass bins... no extras... nothing!

I checked the sound levels down the road and it wasn't " That " bad LOL

Saturday - The day of the party!!

7am - Arrive at mothers!! They are still asleep!!!!
Build the stainless steel bar... and set up a few bits for the bar staff... Installed the uplighters into the side bushes and trees.... DMXed them up so I've got control from the DJ box.

2pm - Head back home to start getting ready as I've got to pick up the bar staff at 4pm....

4pm - Surprise Surprise......... I'm running late!!!!!!!!!
4:15pm - Picked up the bar staff and run back to mums!

4:30pm - Disaster One........ I've brought the wrong size trousers!!!! Quick sew up and disaster averted!!!

5:30pm - Disaster Two....... Lost all my DMX show's..... dunno how!
5:45pm - Phewwwwww.... found them again!

6pm - Guests start arriving.... 1 hour EARLY!!!! WE're still doing sounds checks with our acts!!

7:30pm - Get told the birthday girl is on her way and expect here in about 10 minutes ... so I start to dim the music.

8:10pm - Birthday girl ACTUALLY arrives... to huge cheers, the Robe Lights coming on and into action with a purple wash and sweep motion. It was amazing! Her entrance music was the Disney Spectro Magic music.....

8:30pm - The Dance troupe arrive... and hand me a CD with their music on. Rip it on to laptop so I've got it ready and lined up!!

9:00pm - First Act of the night... StreetForce DC, a street dance act come on..... got some video of this too!!
9:20pm - Officially open the buffet.... I didn't get chance to eat at all today :(

10pm - Second Act of the night - AMY WINEOUSE ( Not it's not spelt wrong... thats the name of the act! :D )
The way we planned it though was amazing .... Fantastic entrannce
I whacked off ALL my lighting..... whacked the volume off instantly..... and pretended my laptop had died.... Apologised over the microphone... at which point...

OH MY ROBES ARE WORKING AGAIN! YAY!
And suddently there are massive cheers ( from my speakers) ... whats going on.

Cue my ROBE ... a bright white spot light appears and shines directly on AMY and follows her onto the dancefloor.
Within 3 minutes, I had about 15 people come and ask me.... is that really Amy Winehouse!?? I just said " Yeah...." with a grin and nod of the head! hehehehe

45 minutes of pure Amy goodness :) Everyone loved it....

10:45.... time for the premixes so I can enjoy my night
Lined up....

20 minutes of 60's
35 minutes of 70's
66 minutes of 80's
a splash of 90's
and then into some club music mixes to finish the night!


Stopped the music as at about 3:00am... after receiving 9 complaints in total! LOL

One draw back of being the DJ at your own party..... you get drunk!!!! LOL
Drank quite a bit... but don't feel TOO bad today LOL
Unlike the other half! LOL LOL LOL

[Shaun]

Great gig report. Sounds like a lot of work (I was knackered just reading it :d).

Looking forward to the video. :thumbsup:

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Glad it went well in the end.

Just a thought though - Did I read it properly and you said you set up in the marquee the night before? It's been bloody cold as you know so do you think that it may have affected some of the equipment?

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Get a mac :p

Just use my mixes no one will know.

Or sd card player. Chill Winston.

What's the big deal about getting a Mac Toby?

[Charlie Brown]

Stonking report.

You make me laugh! I'm glad you had a good'n! :)

[supersound]

Excellent,always nice to hear of a successful gig

[Booche]

Glad to hear you and everyone else had a TOP time mate,

Would love to see some pics and the video as it sounds a fantastic laugh :D

Cheers Dave :)

[yourdj]

He can't be that desperate! :D

yes I agree. i used them today as a wedding showcase and they are not bad.
Mixings a bit ropy as i was eating my dinner and working on something whist recording them but all the right music is there.
nice to listen to them in a gig room.

see my post later on a review. YES the video man is back!


What's the big deal about getting a Mac Toby?

Just a private joke as his PC is always having problems, while my mac carries on regardless. :)

I think thats the third last min laptop drama this year - hence my back up mixes?

[Alex]

Glad it went well in the end.

Just a thought though - Did I read it properly and you said you set up in the marquee the night before? It's been bloody cold as you know so do you think that it may have affected some of the equipment?

The marquee was attached to the side of the house... so the house heating was on along with 3 large heaters to accomadate for 300 people.
We had them on ALL night on friday as one of the bars beer barrels exploded and leaked beer EVERYWHERE! :(

At times I felt it was warmer in the marquee then in the house LOL





Just a private joke as his PC is always having problems, while my mac carries on regardless. :)

I think thats the third last min laptop drama this year - hence my back up mixes?

Only because I'm on Vista! :D Currently sat here now, upgrading and formating.... Windows 7 the whole way now.

My god, I am so tired....... so glad I am having a night off from the quiz and enjoying a sneaky beer or two.
Probably be asleep by 9pm lol

[Paul The Party Dj]

I think thats the third last min laptop drama this year - hence my back up mixes?

It's Alex - there's always going to be a drama! :D

Glad it all went well - hope you don't hurt yourself anymore packing down.

Cheers, Paul ;o)