DJ setups/Mixer porn/New toys thread...

Dan

Millsy Ask Strudders…

Millsy

Dan I asked him and he sent me a tactical formation chart aprospos of fuck all. He’s excruciating sometimes.

Unbroken1

ScottBailey …various reasons I suspect, main one being availability on their rider, and whether they are playing with support DJ’s that have a compatible preference I guess.

Tenaglia has (had?) a huge collection of vintage Urei/Bozaks and RLA stuff, but seems to play on Traktor pretty much exclusively now (favours the DJM2K NXS for some reason). I know Morales and Louie Vega also have a history with rotaries but chop and change (based on current sponsor I imagine!).

I guess if you are lucky enough to have an ‘all night long’ scenario, you can set-up exactly as you please, like Mr Scruff/Theo Parrish with their Isonoe set-ups, or even Diggers with his DB4, but its harder for hire shops to keep inventory of the more obscure stuff, especially in more remote places.

NasserAlazzawi

ScottBailey question for you. I know you have a penchant for boutique rotary mixers, but why do you think it is that pretty much every DJ (Tenaglia, S&D, Cox, Oakenfold, whoever) who has ever played on Urei/Bozak/other rotary on some of the (quoted) best soundsystems ever assembled (Twilo, Stereo, MoS, Home, Cream etc) never play on them by choice now?

I think I know the answer to this

It’s hard / sometimes impossible to rent them and clubs don’t have them

So although these are some of the biggest DJs in the world - it’s a part of a sales piece

If you become more difficult to book asking for hard to find hardware as a must have then promoters hiring clubs have to go to the expense / hassle of finding them and some will just choose another DJ

Even if you are at the highs of John digweeds success - it doesn’t take too many wrong turns to see bookings slow down. Anything from posting the wrong thing online, to a language barrier / misinterpretation, making excessive demands and having to overcome hurdles like finding and paying for rare mixers can suddenly make for a thinned out diary

There are plenty of DJs that specify a preference of V10 with second option of DJM 900nxs2 (some adding Xone 92/96) but they are easily available anywhere in the world by rental companies.

Having finally found a love for rotary myself id love to see them in clubs but it’s still super niche and would freak a resident / other guest DJ out if the first time they’re using one is on stage all of a sudden because a headliner asked for it.

Unbroken1

ScottBailey …weirdly, I think parts and labour are probably more available now than they’ve been for the last 20+ years, so many boutique brands making new mixers/parts, and loads of workshop fettlers that can fix/customise old gear.

Another thought is the lack of big clubs with installation set-ups. Remember hearing of UK DJ’s in the early 90’s playing at Sound Factory/Twilo and being confronted with the rotary Urei/Rane for the first time and having to just learn on the job. Guess the nearest scenario now would be Room 1 at Fabric, but clearly they’ve gone for a more modular system that can be switched around pretty seamlessly depending on who is playing.

Personally I’d force them all to play on the V6… that would sort the men from the boys!

ScottBailey

Unbroken1 this was actually going to be my reply to @NasserAlazzawi above. There was a time that clubs had an inbuilt system that you seemingly had to turn up and play on regardless, and if you didn’t know the equipment you had to learn on the job.

So I guess it’s more of a case of the club pandering to the artists now to keep them happy, as they’re bigger than the club brand now?

Surely you’d think somewhere like the MoS or Fabric would be pretty uncompromising on hardware so as to protect the brand, legacy?

If a Urei is still the be-all and end-all of high end sound, then it should be the DJ that sinks or swims, no? Especially when DJs are a easy to come by these days

matty303

Unbroken1 The V6 is still in the fabric room 1 booth though, as you’ve said, very few seem to use it - except Craig.

NasserAlazzawi

In terms of remote locations - In 2022 the Xone DB4 was a problem for Digweeds gig in cyprus. We couldn’t find one and I was tasked with finding a Xone 92 instead. He would have played on Pioneer but really would have rather not.

Now the V10 is widely accepted I did wonder if he shifted to that or not.

Unbroken1

NasserAlazzawi …a professional would be mental not to have base knowledge of a V10/A9 in any travelling scenario, still OK to express a (reasonable) preference tho.

A lad I know ran a hire shop in Ibiza for years… he absolutely loved a high-end/rotary and loved it when a client specced them, but they rarely did.

NasserAlazzawi

That’s also a good point.

If you own one as a club it’s going to get battered. And when you need a repair all of a sudden - even if you ordered the parts in - you have a much easier time getting the main 3 or 4 mixers getting repaired super quick as there are qualified technicians in most countries for Pio / AH.

ScottBailey

NasserAlazzawi If you own one as a club it’s going to get battered. And when you need a repair all of a sudden - even if you ordered the parts in - you have a much easier time getting the main 3 or 4 mixers getting repaired super quick

So a lack of highly skilled audio technicians on-site these days compared to previously?

NasserAlazzawi

There is a club in Norway (I think?) that has a dj desk which flips upside down - one side with Pioneer and the other with a rotary

Love the idea but that’s an expensive commitment not just to buy but install and have backup mixers for too.

Clubs are struggling at the minute and whilst a lot of them have great dj gear they want 10 - 20 years out of the mixers in an ideal world

For each one they have they have to buy it 2-4 times for backup and room 2 etc - the cost gets out of hand.

NasserAlazzawi

Not on site

In a real world scenario if you and I own a club and our mixer goes down one weekend, we have a backup but need the other one up and running asap

So we can either take it to our nearest town or special deliver it to a dealer who fixes it and have it back within 1-2 weeks. Sometimes days it it’s easy.

Normally someone who can repair them doesn’t work at the club but it does happen in fringe cases

But the great thing with using mixers everyone has is the demand for repair dictates how many people all over the world are trained to fix them quickly

Rotary world could be dicey for that. Nobody likes uncertainty even if it is actually easy

Unbroken1

ScottBailey …or you bring your own mixer (and sound engineer) with you, a la Dixon.

ScottBailey

NasserAlazzawi I just find it odd that someone like Steve Dash himself, someone who built some of the most legendary soundsystems with rotarys, seemingly doesn’t use them under his Sonic Lab/Integral Sound brands when doing shows like Cochella, EDC etc. If the man so concerned about sound is not longer using them, it just makes you think why! He’d seemingly have all the contacts for people repairing stuff like this as he took his soundsystems around…

NasserAlazzawi

Unbroken1 …a professional would be mental not to have base knowledge of a V10

Yes or you could turn up on stage at this festival and wonder how the fuck to get your headphones to work having never played on one after another DJ has changed all the settings and pretend you know what you are doing whilst you quietly poop and suss it out

The A/B and two sides to the mixer headphone cue section threw me for six in the dark but it is genius for b2b

NasserAlazzawi

ScottBailey but then you’re back round to messing with the promoters signed agreements with all the different headliners that they will provide X mixer - normally one of two mixers

Unbroken1

ScottBailey …sadly I don’t think sound is the priority it once was.

I don’t have a definitive answer in the example you mention, but there so many variables in the chain that can make something sound shitty (artists doing their own edits, tracks being ‘home’ mastered, tits like James Hype redlining all over the shop), and I guess having someone associate any of those issues with the system is bad PR. It’s not like having a controlled space that everyone knows has great sound and resident DJ’s that understand how to drive it.

mono-stereo …we threw a series of parties at the MOS mid-90’s, I’d never seen a sprung turntable before, first time using them main slot in a packed room 😳

mono-stereo

I was confronted with a big old rotary with no EQ when i played upstairs at the GC. First time i played out and was shitting myself as it was, could of done without the added stress tbh.

NasserAlazzawi

mono-stereo shitting myself as it was, could of done without the added stress tbh

Exactly this. Nobody needs the grief when everyone is looking at you and your palms are sweaty. Plus the chances of you getting booked elsewhere improve based in some part on how you handle yourself during handover, how comfortable and confident you seem, and how you don’t create problems or are even helpful to solve someone else’s. I’ve literally got gigs from saving people’s asses when someone is in a pinch.

ScottBailey

NasserAlazzawi messing with the promoters signed agreements with all the different headliners that they will provide X mixer

So then you’re back to promoters/clubs pandering to artists instead of going for the best sound possible, if these mixers are the so called best in class for sound…

NasserAlazzawi

I will also say all of the above is part of the reason Denon SC6000 never stood a chance of being deployed in main clubs even though they were better than 3000

NasserAlazzawi

The most modern mixers all sound great though

Their priority is making sure everyone has a great time and all DJs work on kit they are comfortable with so I can see it from a promoter / DJ perspective

Even if they would rather use one - it’s causing contractual issues and uncertainty for fractional gain in enjoyment - when they have genuinely more important issues to manage

ScottBailey

Unbroken1 sadly I don’t think sound is the priority it once was.

I think you’re spot on here. I guess because of the crash of the clubbing scene, people don’t want to run the risk of going all out when it’s easier to have a wine bar with pretty crap PA system in it, where you know no one’s really there for the sound experience and instead are just out on the lash. I guess that’s where you’ve got to give it up to the big clubs and audio guys back in the day who would seemingly have had the same scenario, but decided to do it anyway. That’s where legends are born…

NasserAlazzawi

Unbroken1 tits like James Hype redlining

“if you ain’t redlining.. “

I will add that many headliners who have came on after me have shot straight into the reds - many of them in the prog / afro house scene. I almost enjoyed telling a headliner the set I had recorded for him was destroyed by his redlining after I had all the levels genuinely perfect.

I believe redlining for some may be an old habit - when I was learning to DJ I used to love the visual feedback of hitting one red (syncing the beat with an affirmative visual) and it took me a few years to learn “Trim Down Master Up” for a clearer sound on the dance floor.

I won’t name names on here but many you have heard of do it. And they use sync

Pappa did it right though

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