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Music night! Fall 2008/Halloween-ish
Nov. 2nd, 2008 02:18 amYay! Nothing exploded! Kinda wish I got more video, or a video of the whole thing or something, since when you're actually working it, it sorta feels like not the full experience...
Almost had some trauma with the light truss after it was just about set... probably because it was over-weight and the stand on the slipping side has a smoother surface- the other tripod that came with the truss is busted, from tora-con last year. So the truss is definitely showing wear now, but replacing it really isn't reasonable for the moment.
Some quick notes about my new DJ setup (Traktor 3.3 on laptop + Behringer BCD3000 PC DJ interface + Alesis IO26 Firewire audio interface) and the lighting rig.
Pros:
-People showed up! And most seemed excited. Which is good.
-Able to take requests!
-Able to easily adjust playlist for any reason
-Waveform view shows changes of parts of a song, which can make lighting decisions easier
-Keyboard + mouse + specialized hardware interface = pretty darn powerful
-Setup seems easier each time, because everything is more organized (after tora-con).
Cons:
-Bah, what a crappy DMX controller
-smooth transitions are hard to do live
-would still like to have a real mixer to do dynamic talkover (where the music level is determined by the level of the mic) for talkover parts. Talkover in traktor is pointless, so I used my Alesis firewire interface for the mic. But it's kinda annoying to juggle talkover music volume, turning the mic on and off, having to come up wiith something to say that is logical, and cueing the next track. Maybe the fixed that in Trakor pro? Probably not.
-Forgot to get sandstorm and a few other staples. But I had enough music for four hours, and you can't ever play everything everyone wants. I did have the pokemon theme in 4 languages, with 2 (different) italian remixes.
-Kinta randomly decided to stop responding to sound activation for a while, so I had to jump up and adjust the mic sensitivity a few times. Overall I still really like the thing, since while it isn't really much different from a normal derby, the effect is so much less cheesy.
-Need road cases, but they're crazy expensive.
I'm really not sure if I'll volunteer to make the playlist again anytime before spring, because it really does take a good bit of time, and considering how well this went, I'd feel weird trying to make a new one so soon that could both be different enough to not seem like the same thing again and still be quality. Though there are many songs I had thought of (and others reminded me of) that didn't make it in this time, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I took a very conservative approach to balancing the old and new, and kept some/most of the traditional staples (Mamboleo, various eurobeat tracks, the two ending songs) and the newer stuff that nearly everyone knows (Hare Hare Yukai, Still Alive, etc)
while only being really adventurous in what ended up being a fairly successful experiment (rickroll, over 9000, Ievan polka) in my little "It came from the internet" section. I didn't expect that warm of a reception to never gonna let you down, so I ended up playing the whole thing. Neat. Didn't end up using too many of the talkover songs, except a couple, and then all your base at the end. I think it's kind of neat being into Demoscene, because no one else that I know has any idea what that music community is, and so the songs and mixes that come out of there end up being new to everyone. I wasn't adventurous enough yet to actually slip a whole song into the actual set though I could totally do/would really enjoy doing a whole demoscene/bitpop party. Could also do a whole Eurobeat party but after playing the more memorable songs or about a couple hours, it'd kinda feel weird (but it'd feel weird at 160bpm!). I have yet to make progress on my project to make a eurobeat song using dragonforce lyrics, though maybe first I should record eurobeat lyrics over a dragonforce song. Hmmm....
Sleep now maybe, photos/setlist later.
Almost had some trauma with the light truss after it was just about set... probably because it was over-weight and the stand on the slipping side has a smoother surface- the other tripod that came with the truss is busted, from tora-con last year. So the truss is definitely showing wear now, but replacing it really isn't reasonable for the moment.
Some quick notes about my new DJ setup (Traktor 3.3 on laptop + Behringer BCD3000 PC DJ interface + Alesis IO26 Firewire audio interface) and the lighting rig.
Pros:
-People showed up! And most seemed excited. Which is good.
-Able to take requests!
-Able to easily adjust playlist for any reason
-Waveform view shows changes of parts of a song, which can make lighting decisions easier
-Keyboard + mouse + specialized hardware interface = pretty darn powerful
-Setup seems easier each time, because everything is more organized (after tora-con).
Cons:
-Bah, what a crappy DMX controller
-smooth transitions are hard to do live
-would still like to have a real mixer to do dynamic talkover (where the music level is determined by the level of the mic) for talkover parts. Talkover in traktor is pointless, so I used my Alesis firewire interface for the mic. But it's kinda annoying to juggle talkover music volume, turning the mic on and off, having to come up wiith something to say that is logical, and cueing the next track. Maybe the fixed that in Trakor pro? Probably not.
-Forgot to get sandstorm and a few other staples. But I had enough music for four hours, and you can't ever play everything everyone wants. I did have the pokemon theme in 4 languages, with 2 (different) italian remixes.
-Kinta randomly decided to stop responding to sound activation for a while, so I had to jump up and adjust the mic sensitivity a few times. Overall I still really like the thing, since while it isn't really much different from a normal derby, the effect is so much less cheesy.
-Need road cases, but they're crazy expensive.
I'm really not sure if I'll volunteer to make the playlist again anytime before spring, because it really does take a good bit of time, and considering how well this went, I'd feel weird trying to make a new one so soon that could both be different enough to not seem like the same thing again and still be quality. Though there are many songs I had thought of (and others reminded me of) that didn't make it in this time, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I took a very conservative approach to balancing the old and new, and kept some/most of the traditional staples (Mamboleo, various eurobeat tracks, the two ending songs) and the newer stuff that nearly everyone knows (Hare Hare Yukai, Still Alive, etc)
while only being really adventurous in what ended up being a fairly successful experiment (rickroll, over 9000, Ievan polka) in my little "It came from the internet" section. I didn't expect that warm of a reception to never gonna let you down, so I ended up playing the whole thing. Neat. Didn't end up using too many of the talkover songs, except a couple, and then all your base at the end. I think it's kind of neat being into Demoscene, because no one else that I know has any idea what that music community is, and so the songs and mixes that come out of there end up being new to everyone. I wasn't adventurous enough yet to actually slip a whole song into the actual set though I could totally do/would really enjoy doing a whole demoscene/bitpop party. Could also do a whole Eurobeat party but after playing the more memorable songs or about a couple hours, it'd kinda feel weird (but it'd feel weird at 160bpm!). I have yet to make progress on my project to make a eurobeat song using dragonforce lyrics, though maybe first I should record eurobeat lyrics over a dragonforce song. Hmmm....
Sleep now maybe, photos/setlist later.
