Biggest mistake you've made?

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I’d say that was their mistake, not yours.

Thanks. It does make you feel quite gullible though especially when all you want to do is try to help others out.

Trusting the wrong people is something that can happen to anyone. Trust nobody & you'll always be on your own. It's a two way street, as somebody told me recently

There are very few people I trust. Not just because of what I said regarding the Disco business in reference to this thread but in general.

[djrikki]

My worse experiences have always been when using other people equipment, or in particular software.
I've been a fully registered traktor pro user for over 10 years now and when my fiance's does her gigs she goes the freebie route of using VirtualDJ.
The former indexes all music correctly whereas as the later is lazy and uses the file system directly which just sucks - especially when you kept on playing karaoke versions at a regular disco!
Won't happen again now I've had my mits on it - I make sure the path Column is shown.

And many times I've had broken headphones, learning to read the waveform in order to still mix really tests your knowledge of music and its structure.

[funktions]

can't think of any as such. been quite good really. years ago my roadie started to head towards caversam in reading rather than thatcham, I wasn't really well traveled at the time but knew it was near newbury not reading. quick trip down the m4 and got there at the correct time.

I can understand the trust thing, we have been letdown/stitched up by others we have helped to cover stuff they could not do. oh yeah payment once your there, to find they have paid. other "disco" trying to take a rather hefty "fee" for giving it to us to do, not thanks mate you saved my reputation but oh yeah I have kept the £90 deposit they paid me, tough. a rather large person running an agency still owing me £1k for work from years ago.. you hear of the ones to avoid on the dj grapevine, and so we have. we do not mind helping out others if they are stuck but we want all the information before we even think of saying yes.

[funkymook]

My biggest mistake was not charging enough over the first few years of DJ’ing as a business.

I had good equipment and music knowledge and was very customer service focussed, in fact I’m not doing anything fundamentally different now than I did then.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

My worse experiences have always been when using other people equipment, or in particular software.
I've been a fully registered traktor pro user for over 10 years now and when my fiance's does her gigs she goes the freebie route of using VirtualDJ.
The former indexes all music correctly whereas as the later is lazy and uses the file system directly which just sucks - especially when you kept on playing karaoke versions at a regular disco!
Won't happen again now I've had my mits on it - I make sure the path Column is shown.

And many times I've had broken headphones, learning to read the waveform in order to still mix really tests your knowledge of music and its structure.

You can set it to just show music, karaoke or both.

I do have some karaoke mp3s for when people have sang at weddings but they're clearly labelled without me having to do anything.....

[RobKennedy]

Many years ago I turned up at venue in Portsmouth for an agency gig and was directed to the function room by the manager.

10 minutes in to the gig the venue manager appears beside me to break the news that I'm in the wrong room and there is another guy doing the wrong gig in the other hall !

Chatting to the other DJ I was all for sticking where we were in order to minimize problems, as they were similar gigs/money etc. But no he insisted on swapping over during the buffet so once the food was announced it was like a comedy trying to get moved and set up in the other room. (SWEATY!!!)

Felt like two gigs in one night !!!

Another one I can think of is also many years ago and I was helping a friend with a wedding which was about 60 miles travel for a good friend of his. Anyway, we get set up and I turn around to see him looking very pale - turns out the CD containing the first dance is on his kitchen table. We came up with some excuse but I was so glad it was not my gig!

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Many years ago I turned up at venue in Portsmouth for an agency gig and was directed to the function room by the manager.

10 minutes in to the gig the venue manager appears beside me to break the news that I'm in the wrong room and there is another guy doing the wrong gig in the other hall !

Chatting to the other DJ I was all for sticking where we were in order to minimize problems, as they were similar gigs/money etc. But no he insisted on swapping over during the buffet so once the food was announced it was like a comedy trying to get moved and set up in the other room. (SWEATY!!!)

!

Could you not just swap your play outs?

[RobKennedy]

Could you not just swap your play outs?

The guy who's party it was had already been over for a chat about the music etc all was good ! I was thinking he had left it a bit late for requests. Its funny how the magnitude of the blunder does not dawn on you until you find out and it all makes sense.

Swapping play outs would have been a great idea I guess in the heat of the moment such a sensible solution just did not occur to us !!

The more I think about it the more I remember I must have blanked it out - the halls seemed like they were miles apart and I had no trolley. Also the guests at my first gig were lovely but a frost had settled in the new hall which took a while to thaw. The venue manager was in a right state as well - a real flapper

It was one of those where you do your best in the situation but drive home glad its over and putting it down to experience.

[Shaun]

Biggest mistake you've made?

1: Taking too much gear to gigs.
When I first started working for myself I always charged more than the local DJs, but to compensate I always took way to much gear, which resulted in looong setup times. At that time the majority of my gigs were local to me so I would arrange to setup in the afternoon where possible. I always thought by taking a lot of equipment it would make the client feel I was worth the fee. I eventually realised that my worth had nothing to do with the amount of gear.

2: Buying too much lights.
Way back in the day before my venture into DMX I used to buy a pair of every type of new-fandangled light that came on the market. I had a long overhead bar, plus a couple of t-bars all filled with mish-mash of different effects, all running sound to light in pairs doing their own thing. I thought it was great, but looking back, it was a headache to the senses, lol. Moving to just a few effects running with some nice DMX scenes was a game-changer for the way I worked.

3. Buying cheap speakers and amps.
Again, this was back in the early days. I bought cheap, and more times than not they were not up to the task. Definite False Economy.

4. Buying my first ever DJ setup and not having a backup amp.
I was only a few gigs with my first rig and my amp failed at the start of a School Christmas Party. I had no backup. Luckily I was able to call on the help of a friend that had an amp. The wait for him to arrive was excruciating. From that day I have never left home without backup for every main component.

5. Wrong Date.
I arrived at a local Masonic Lodge in the afternoon and setup for a Birthday Party. I arrived back to the venue in the evening to see a band wheeling in their equipment and the other band members standing scratching their heads looking up at all the DJ gear on the stage. I got chatting to the singer and it turns out that the evening was for the lodge members annual dance. The band had got the date right but I was 24 hours early!! Luckily the stage was quite big and the singer suggested just sliding all my gear back towards the back of the stage.





I have more I'll add later. I've accumulated quite a few mistakes in the last 27 years.

[yourdj]

The venue manager was in a right state as well - a real flapper

I had a manager like that on Saturday in Salisbury. He was having a right paddy as i asked to move a chair in the ceremony room (which was for me anyway) to make some room. He said its a legal requirement, this that and the other and a pain to sort out. I walked over picked up the chair and moved the table forward in about 10 seconds. and wowed to stay out of his way for the rest of the day. He relaxed a bit as the day went on, but you really do wonder how these jobsworths manage to get to positions of power don't you? The other staff were ace.

It is amazing what you miss when you are in a fluster. As Dexstar said the play outs would make sense, but sometimes the obvious is not apparent and at times you can do the best that you can do. My wife was setting up the photo booth the other day. I was busy managing guests etc and looking after the band. She disappeared and on going over talking to the other staff member "she had gone home (5 mins away) to get a stand". I looked around and could not see any stand missing, so finished setting it up. my wife arrives back and the stand she thought was missing was the camera stand that was in the middle of the floor all along. She is heavily pregnant so i will let her off. Because of that it was a bit delayed getting started as the band were chomping at the bit to get going (rightly so!).