I'm DJing this rave in like a month

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I'm DJing this rave in like a month; and it's probably going to suck
Topic Started: Oct 6 2008, 11:30 PM (170 Views)
Ulgania	Oct 6 2008, 11:30 PM Post #1
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Backstory: I'm a DJ for my college radio station, and I've gotten pretty good at mixing and the like for the sake of playing it on the air. I take lots of requests, and I compose myself pretty professionally. Now, this rave coming up - I'm really looking forward to it. My college has never done one before and I volunteered to DJ for it a while ago. In fact, when they told me I was going to DJ, I assumed I was going to do it alone, by myself, without people micromanaging. I already told them the kind of stuff I play already, and they (the radio station student staff) are fine with it (hell, they listen to my show regularly). Now, here's the problem: two of the staff members want to DJ it. They started some advertising, too. One of them just DLed Audacity (which is a free, very sloppy audio editing program) and made an ad that we have to play on the air during our shows. In this ad, she claims that she's the DJ, as in ONLY DJ. The other guy, who's pretty much my best friend around here told me he's playing all of Daft Punk's live album (Alive 2007. Great live album to get your hands on if you're into Daft Punk). As a DJ, I can already tell SEVERAL things wrong with playing an entire album by a single band at a rave before even getting into the fact it's a live album. I mean, honestly, this is a RAVE, not a Daft Punk concert! Sure, we have 4 hours to play with, but that doesn't mean that over 1/4 of it should go in a single direction. Honestly, why would you do that? It's a terrible idea and he should feel terrible, but apparently me, the only actual techno DJ on this campus sees it to be a bad idea. Anyway, I digress. How should I go about dealing with this? Should I just tell them that I want to do it all solo? Should I not go solo but still stress that they need to keep the fact that it's a rave in mind? Or should I just walk away from the situation? I should mention that the girl is a bit of a "buddy" ... yeah ... I've been meaning to end that aspect of things, but I don't want to piss her off to the extent that peoples' dignity end up at stake. FUCK



NRE	Oct 6 2008, 11:32 PM Post #2
Map Tsar and Southern Gentleman Posts: 9,266 Group: Admin Member #120 Joined: April 21, 2005	I wish my college had a radio station, that would be a kick-ass job!



New Harumf	Oct 7 2008, 08:32 AM Post #3
Bloodthirsty Unicorn Posts: 9,638 Group: Forum Mods Member #177 Joined: October 8, 2005	There is only one solution here. Get your Artist up - tell them this is not DJ by committee and your artistic integrity demands you work alone, tho you appreciate their input. If this is not acceptable, become the wounded artist, and walk away. Let them do an awful job, and make sure your name is not associated with the project at all. As someone who respects the art of the DJ (which I assume you do) why would you want to do the work so they can get the credit? The last thing you should do as an artist is let your name be associated with a crappy project.



Nag Ehgoeg	Oct 7 2008, 10:00 AM Post #4
The Devil's Advocate Posts: 7,238 Group: Admin Member #7 Joined: December 26, 2003	Ulgania Oct 6 2008, 11:30 PM One of them just DLed Audacity (which is a free, very sloppy audio editing program) and made an ad that we have to play on the air during our shows AAAAHHHHEARGGHHHEDBLAH! You're not serious? Tell me you're not serious! For the love of god, please don't do this to me. We're talking about the same Audacity right? Now, don't get me wrong, I use Audacity exclusively for all my draft work and for whenever I want to put something quick and sloppy onto the internet... but... seriously? I don't know what kind of mixing and recording facilities your college has... but if you've got halfway decent hardware you MUST have better software. And if you don't have good hardware... well, anything made using only a microphone jack and audicty should not be broadcast on any radio. Even closed network internet "radio". That said... Audacity is probably the best free program out there. For reasons I don't want to get into too much, because that's marching firmly off the point. The point being, of course, that if these people think they can do better then leave them to it. Back out. Because there is no Daft Punk album that you could play the whole of in a rave (you could maybe, at the very most, pull perhaps five tracks off Discovery for bringing the mood down at the end - but that's the absolute closest you could get to playing a whole album), and this girl sounds incompetant. If you really can't bring yourself to walk... you gotta sit down and express your concerns. For a start there is one track from Alive that I'd play at a rave and that's "Around the World Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and only then because it's a great mix of two of the most iconic tracks of my generation (ok, the Encore track is sweeet but it's not really rave-y... Touchologic it would go down well on the party scene, but it's not what I immediately think of as a rave track).



Ulgania	Oct 8 2008, 05:41 PM Post #5
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	I just expressed my concerns today, actually. Full on. I was chastised for not playing the right music, and the girl rattled off a list of bands I should actually play (many of which I do... on a regular basis). Anyway, I'm walking from this one. I'm getting my own next semester. Mind you, I'm writing this from my radio show haha



Ulgania	Oct 30 2008, 01:47 PM Post #6
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	UPDATE So, I've agreed to help out. However, they want everything to be in like 2 or 3 big prerecorded files they can just play in winamp. The only thing I'd be allowed to do at the show it put on a light show. This is pretty much retarded at this point. There's not going to be any real DJing. And despite everything I've told them, they still insist they can make it work perfectly with Audacity. FUCK this is why we can't have nice things.



Rhadamanthus	Oct 30 2008, 02:41 PM Post #7
Legitimist Posts: 12,945 Group: Admin Member #19 Joined: January 13, 2004	Dude, you know you want nothing to do with this; I say don't take it if they won't let you DJ.



Ulgania	Oct 30 2008, 09:06 PM Post #8
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Yeah, but I don't want this thing to fall apart either. The radio station's having a hard enough time getting its name out. If this event flopped then doing it again would be that much harder



Rhadamanthus	Oct 30 2008, 09:16 PM Post #9
Legitimist Posts: 12,945 Group: Admin Member #19 Joined: January 13, 2004	That may be the only way they learn...



New Harumf	Oct 31 2008, 08:35 AM Post #10
Bloodthirsty Unicorn Posts: 9,638 Group: Forum Mods Member #177 Joined: October 8, 2005	Ulgania Oct 30 2008, 09:06 PM Yeah, but I don't want this thing to fall apart either. The radio station's having a hard enough time getting its name out. If this event flopped then doing it again would be that much harder They seem to be trying to guarentee it flops, don't they? Why attach your name to a failure??



Ulgania	Oct 31 2008, 10:10 AM Post #11
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	But you see, I'm capable of salvaging this. That and if I manage to show that they suck and I don't I get sympathy coos.



New Harumf	Oct 31 2008, 10:36 AM Post #12
Bloodthirsty Unicorn Posts: 9,638 Group: Forum Mods Member #177 Joined: October 8, 2005	Ulgania Oct 31 2008, 10:10 AM But you see, I'm capable of salvaging this. That and if I manage to show that they suck and I don't I get sympathy coos. Nope. You would just be part of the general suckiness.



Ulgania	Oct 31 2008, 11:36 AM Post #13
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	After some brief conversations, I officially have creative control over my own block of time. This'll be amusing.



New Harumf	Oct 31 2008, 01:01 PM Post #14
Bloodthirsty Unicorn Posts: 9,638 Group: Forum Mods Member #177 Joined: October 8, 2005	Ulgania Oct 31 2008, 11:36 AM After some brief conversations, I officially have creative control over my own block of time. This'll be amusing. Now, don't screw the pooch! You know you can always rely on Dean Martin: "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!"



Ulgania	Nov 6 2008, 11:58 PM Post #15
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Thought I'd mention how it went. The whole thing started slow. The monotonous music the first DJ played was getting very poor ratings by the crowd, and people were begging for me. Seriously, I had to leave for a few minutes for personal reasons, and I got a few texts begging for me to come back. So, I comeback, people are like "SETH, PLAY SOMETHING GOOD," so... I play some hyper techno. People start moving. I get into my setlist. Then I start playing a remix of Sandstorm I made myself (everyone kept whining about it before the rave... but the song really isn't even that good, so I made a decent remix with something that actually had a harder beat). I think the fact that people enjoyed and kept literally cheering for me made me happier than anything I've done for a while. Good times. Turbulent, but good. They better made me DJ of the month or something like that. :lol:



New Harumf	Nov 7 2008, 09:30 AM Post #16
Bloodthirsty Unicorn Posts: 9,638 Group: Forum Mods Member #177 Joined: October 8, 2005	Ulgania Nov 6 2008, 11:58 PM Thought I'd mention how it went. The whole thing started slow. The monotonous music the first DJ played was getting very poor ratings by the crowd, and people were begging for me. Seriously, I had to leave for a few minutes for personal reasons, and I got a few texts begging for me to come back. So, I comeback, people are like "SETH, PLAY SOMETHING GOOD," so... I play some hyper techno. People start moving. I get into my setlist. Then I start playing a remix of Sandstorm I made myself (everyone kept whining about it before the rave... but the song really isn't even that good, so I made a decent remix with something that actually had a harder beat). I think the fact that people enjoyed and kept literally cheering for me made me happier than anything I've done for a while. Good times. Turbulent, but good. They better made me DJ of the month or something like that. :lol: Sounds like a fun time! Way to go, sport, that goodness you didn't listen to us. Seth??????



Ulgania	Nov 7 2008, 11:00 AM Post #17
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Yeah, my name's Seth. Not too afraid of putting my first name on the internet... although a clever snoop could realize that the 292nd most common name in the USA would be a little easier to trace than some other names. Yeah, it was fun.



Ukabanea	Nov 7 2008, 03:33 PM Post #18
The Resident Evil?....Mayhap? Posts: 494 Group: Members Member #402 Joined: January 19, 2008	Ulgania Nov 7 2008, 11:00 AM Yeah, my name's Seth. Not too afraid of putting my first name on the internet... although a clever snoop could realize that the 292nd most common name in the USA would be a little easier to trace than some other names. Yeah, it was fun. hmm i wonder what jack is...anyway my friend has been talkin about DJing for awhile now seems pretty cool. About the buddy thing it seems as if you and Saidhail have more in common than previously thought :lol:



Ulgania	Nov 8 2008, 02:42 AM Post #19
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Heh, care to elaborate on that?



Ukabanea	Nov 8 2008, 01:48 PM Post #20
The Resident Evil?....Mayhap? Posts: 494 Group: Members Member #402 Joined: January 19, 2008	Ulgania Nov 8 2008, 02:42 AM Heh, care to elaborate on that? ehh nvm...



Ulgania	Nov 11 2008, 09:33 PM Post #21
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	I doubt anyone cares about this topic anymore, but quick question: Anyone know of a decent visualization program that's like what media players use, but... not through a media player? Using milkdrop on an external display during the rave worked pretty well, but I'd like to do that again without having to use a media player. Also, considering I'm officially taking the whole DJing thing very seriously now (I've been approached by the radio station to MC a couple other events haha) I'm wondering if there's a DJing program that's good, but better than something like Virtual DJ.



New Harumf	Nov 12 2008, 10:00 AM Post #22
Bloodthirsty Unicorn Posts: 9,638 Group: Forum Mods Member #177 Joined: October 8, 2005	Ulgania Nov 11 2008, 09:33 PM I doubt anyone cares about this topic anymore, but quick question: Anyone know of a decent visualization program that's like what media players use, but... not through a media player? Using milkdrop on an external display during the rave worked pretty well, but I'd like to do that again without having to use a media player. Also, considering I'm officially taking the whole DJing thing very seriously now (I've been approached by the radio station to MC a couple other events haha) I'm wondering if there's a DJing program that's good, but better than something like Virtual DJ. Word of advice - only work for money!



Ulgania	Nov 12 2008, 11:06 AM Post #23
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	It'll be $10 an hour. Already got that covered haha Still need a good visualizing program that isn't a media player



Ulgania	Jan 28 2009, 07:04 PM Post #24
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Woohoo, topic is once again valid! DJing my second rave on March 5th. Bullshit is flying in all directions, and I'm actually considering resigning from the radio station, period. This should be fun! Although I would be giving the stuff I prepared for the night to another DJ just to make sure it doesn't go that badly.



Ulgania	Jan 28 2009, 07:04 PM Post #25
A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse Posts: 4,041 Group: Members Member #450 Joined: June 3, 2008	Woohoo, topic is once again valid! DJing my second rave on March 5th. Bullshit is flying in all directions, and I'm actually considering resigning from the radio station, period. This should be fun! Although I would be giving the stuff I prepared for the night to another DJ just to make sure it doesn't go that badly.


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