5:40
What mobile DJs think of their own trade
On YouTube this video is called Are you a Mobile dj? Watch this and give your opinion!
What this lesson teaches
A piece of equipment philosophy with a specific recommendation, and the reasoning is better than the gear it is about.
The rule
His long-standing position: always take a third entity.
Two turntables? Take something else as well - and always take spare cartridges, because with two styli and one break you have had it.
Two CD players and a mixer? Take a third source.
Why two is not enough
Because working on one deck is survivable and miserable. His description of it is accurate: needle off, record on, CD in, CD out, talking on the microphone in between, trying to make sure the room does not realise you are down to one machine.
You can do it. You cannot do it for four hours while also reading a floor.
The specific case
The unit in his hand is an all-in-one - two players and a mixer in one box. Plug in a couple of powered speakers and you are playing music inside a minute.
Would he take only that to a professional gig? No.
Because it is all one thing. If it fails, you have nothing - and if the mixer section fails you have nothing even if the players are fine. An all-in-one concentrates every single point of failure into one box.
But he would absolutely take it
And this is the turn, and it is not a contradiction.
As a backup, an all-in-one is close to ideal, precisely because it is self-contained.
One CD player fails: take it out of the case, plug it into a spare input, carry on.
The mixer fails - the failure that otherwise ends the night, because everything goes through it: unplug the output from your dead mixer, plug it into this, and you have sound again. Inside a minute.
So the weakness as a main rig - everything in one box - is exactly what makes it a good spare. It replaces any part of your setup, or all of it, from a suitcase.
The standard he is holding you to
His argument for why this is not optional, and it is the hardest line in this course.
If you have driven 200 miles and you call yourself a professional, then when things go wrong you should be able to wipe it off, smile, and get on with the job.
"Sorry folks, a piece of kit's broken, I can't do the function any more" is not available to you. They have paid for a professional.
And his version of how much the client cares about your problems: they do not give two hoots if your leg has been chopped off. They want music. They want the night to run from here to there - not start, stop, start, stop.
That is harsh and it is also the correct way to think about it. The guests at a wedding are not an audience for your equipment troubles; the evening is the product, and continuity is most of it.
And an aside on build quality
Worth noting because it is a buying principle. He has no patience for manufacturers who sell something cheap expecting it to last six months, by which time the receipt is lost and it is not worth returning.
If that is the plan, he says, you should not be making products.
Which connects to the speaker-buying lessons in stage 7: the cheapest version of a thing is often cheap because somebody decided it did not need to survive, and a backup that fails when you reach for it is not a backup.
Contents of the video
0:00 This video is mainly targeted for the mobile, pro-mobile DJ
Alright folks, this video is mainly targeted for the mobile, pro-mobile DJ. It's not meant to be controversial, it's meant to be quite sensible and logical, and if you can understand where I'm coming from then you'll think, yeah, you know, there's a certain amount of sense there, which is quite strange for me because I'm a bit of a nutty person sometimes. Right, in front of me I've got this piece of kit from American Audio, it's known as the CK1000. It is a twin CD stroke MP3 player. With a mixer in the middle. It's all in one. The whole thing. So basically, you know, you could take this to a function, a house party, wherever and plug a couple of powered speakers in and that's it. So theoretically within like literally one minute you can play music, which is pretty cool. But would you take this to a gig? Let's say if you're a mobile DJ, if you're a pro mobile DJ. Well, when I say if you take this to a gig, I'll start again.
Would you take just this to a gig if you were a pro mobile DJ? I would say no. Here's the deal. I've always said, you know, you've got your mixer, you've got your two CD players, you've got your vinyl turntables or whatever. I've always said, always take a third entity. In other words, if you have two vinyl turntables, um, you know... Take maybe an iPod, take maybe, always take extra cartridges. Very important, do not go just with the two sty-like because if one breaks you've had it. So always take maybe another CD player as a backup because you never know if one stops working it's going to be one heck of a problem with just the one unit because it's needle off, record on or it's the CD out, in, out, shake it all about and you're talking on the microphone in between and trying to make sure that the people out there don't know that you're just using one piece of kit.
1:47 At the end of the day, kit nowadays is a lot better
So, why do I say don't take something like this with you to a mobile gig? Well, it's quite simple. Alright, at the end of the day, kit nowadays is a lot better. The build quality is better. The internal workings are better. Theoretically, it should last for a longer time. At the end of the day, if there are companies out there still making bits of kit and they think, well, you know, we'll wang it out at a couple of hundred quid and if it lasts six months, all the better. By that time, they've lost their receipt and they won't even be bothered. To go and send it back because it's not worth fixing. Well, if there are companies like that, then I'm afraid you should not be making products. You should be making products that last a long time. So, back to what I'm on about. So we've got this piece of kit. Why don't you want to take this particular piece of kit to a mobile gig? Well, because it's all in one, so if this stops working, then you're left with this and a mixer. If the mixer actually stops working, you've had it. But here's the deal.
3:35 Sorry folks, bear with me a second
I would definitely take this to a gig with me. Okay, I'm not contradicting myself. Here's the deal. I've got my mixer, I've got my two CD players. Alright, I'm quite happy, you know, I'm messing about with the kit and all of a sudden say one of the CD players stops working. Well guess what? You can take this out of a box, you can plug it in from the rekord output... If your mixer stops working over here then no panic. Because, okay, maybe you haven't got any sound so you might have to scream over the people and go, what's wrong? Sorry folks, bear with me a second. Within a minute you can unplug the output from your original mixer, plug it into this guy here and you've got sound again. So, I would not take just this to a mobile gig with me but I would take this kind of kit with me
To a mobile function along with my other pieces of kit. Because at the end of the day, if you're driving 200 miles to a function and you are or you class yourself as a pro mobile DJ, people will expect to have a pro mobile professional person. In other words, if the SHIT hits the fan, you should be able to wipe it off, smile clean and get on with the job at hand, which is what it's all about. If all of a sudden your CD player stops working and you haven't brought another CD player. I'm really sorry folks, a piece of kit's broken, I can't do the function anymore. They've paid you to do a professional job. Therefore, they don't give two hoots if all of a sudden your leg's been chopped off, your arm's chopped off, your head's fallen on the floor and guess what? Blood's spurting everywhere. They're not bothered. They want music. They want...
A DJ. They want charisma. They want the night to start here and finish there, not start, stop, start, stop, start, stop, start, stop. So, think about it logically. You turn up, you do your gig. If something goes wrong, you wang something like this out of a suitcase, you plug it in, and the night carries on. I hope you see where I'm coming from there. So, on that basis, something like this is fantastic because you stick it in a suitcase. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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