r/Beatmatch • u/stoic_po3t • 2d ago
Other First Event - A Beginner's Tale
I recently posted about a private event that I was DJing and whether I should let tracks play out or mix quickly. Well, here are the results.
I arrived about an hour before I was set to play music. The venue is a restaurant/bar and they had their own controller, a DDJ-1000srt. I have been practicing on a FLX-4 and honestly, it was a bit intimidating. Anyway, I open my laptop up and launch Rekordbox, and nothing happens. I'm playing around with system settings before I ended up googling for help. Well, I found out right there that this controller is only compatible with Serato. Great.
I download Serato quickly and then connect the controller. Now It tells me I need a driver. Download the driver and then I kept getting an error message "Failed to connect to audio!" Great, another hiccup. Keep in mind, I'm using my wife's Mac, and I am not a mac user at all.
Anyway, finally figured out that issue and then came the next one. Since I just got started with DJing a few months ago, I stream my music from Spotify. Serato keeps telling me "Streaming server could not be reached." I closed Serato, reset the laptop a few times and kept getting this message. It's now about 15-20 minutes before I'm set to start. I'm sweating bullets.
I am so fortunate (and 1000% grateful) that my friend came by to check his laptop (he was going to be DJing the following day) with the controller. His worked perfectly fine, including Spotify streaming. He let me use his laptop for the evening. Thank goodness.
On to the set. I mentioned that I have been using Rekordbox, where all of my hot cues are programmed. Sooo basically I had zero cues and had to do a bit of improvising with tracks. Not going to lie, some of my transitions were messy, but you know what? No one noticed, because the music kept playing. I weaved in and out of hip hop, house/edm, and latin/reggaeton. People were vibing, and I only made quick transitions when I felt like the energy was changing. At times, the booth speaker would cut out randomly. I thought maybe it's because I didn't use a quarter inch jack for my headphones, although I'm not sure.
All in all, the event went well and I received positive feedback on the music I played. People were vibing, socializing, having an overall good time. I kept spinning afterwards for the afterparty, so I did 6 hours total. The last 15-20 minutes I played some afrohouse that was solely for me as a congratulations, but people seemed to enjoy that too!
I suppose my advice for other beginners is, be prepared to deal with technical issues. Also, in this particular setting, the music was more important than the transitions.
Take from this what you will, but thank you to this community for the support and insights!
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u/Pilesy 2d ago
The music is always more important than the transitions.
I think as dj/music enthusiasts, ourselves, we have this fantasy of tricks and crazy mixes and mashups but the reality is, most people really just want to dance to some good music, not stopping and starting, not knowing what’s happening & wishing the dj would stop messing about.
Glad you battled through - bless the laptop friend who saved the day.
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u/scoutermike valued contributor 2d ago
my friend came by to check his laptop (he was going to be DJing the following day) with the controller.
I hope you learned something. Your friend came a day before, you came only an hour before.
Most if not all your technical issues could have been resolved areas of time. At the very least you should have known about the controller the venue was providing and been prepared for it.
Showing up cold with no idea about the hardware provided was an ill-advised decision. You should have done your homework.
I’m glad you were able to get things working and finish the show.
Now, other new dj’s can learn from your experience.
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u/TheBloodKlotz Old 2d ago
Congrats on the successful gig! These are the kinds of gigs that teach you so so much and make you a better dj, consider yourself blessed to have survived one so smoothly 👌 you definitely owe that friend a beer or something though
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u/stoic_po3t 2d ago
Thank you, it was a great learning experience.
I am buying that man more than one beer for sure!
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u/step11111 2d ago
You could also try using a mobile hotspot, but agree that local files will always be superior. I think generally good mixing just comes with time on the decks. At some point, hardware and software no longer really matters and you just go. But local file portability IS a huge part of that, because then you just have your stick and plug it in.
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u/DJ_Z_Frog 2d ago
Congrats on a successful set!
You may want to consider building a library of FLAC (or MP3 if you prefer) files that you store locally. That way, if the venue you're at doesn't have a reliable internet connection, you're still able to play your music.