You were the one who brought it up. That for you a DJ using CDs is obsolete. A DJ can be a computer DJ and still suck.
Backup equipment
- Thread starter Ajdjmusic
- Start date
I don't.
We moved to computers because it made mobile work lighter and easier to deal with. No more hard inventory to manage and move.
But this has also resulted in diminished quality of the entire field. The quality of mobile DJ service today is far lower than it has ever been with respect to both technical proficiency and artistic quality.
The technical troubleshooting skills of today's DJs is absolutely abysmal. Their knowledge of basic audio fundamentals and sound principles is almost non-existent. I say that while fully aware that some people feign ignorance for the benefit of passing responsibility onto others - but, that's only a tiny fraction of it.
By and large, your average mobile DJ today, knows less about how to connect audio equipment than the average 10th grader of the 1980's. Today's DJs are good with bluetooth and a 3.5mm stereo jack and yet, even the latter casues quite a few issues.
Artistically, the mobile DJs fascination with threads, samples, loops, and other studio features is often butchering the musical progam and the audience's ability to actually enjoy the music they want as they know it. There's an awful lot of events today where the DJ program is like getting into a taxi, only to find out the driver has no knowledge of the city, no map, and no GPS. It's an aimless mess of detours, wrong turns, hard stops, and near misses.
I can't help but acknowledge the upside for consumers posed by the limitations of CD and vinyl.
Back to the original question, I'm a big believer in having redundancy on EVERY component(s) in the chain. But besides having the extra gear on hand, there's also the issue of mentally being prepared and knowing where each backup is and to go thru the thought process of how to best bring the backup gear online in an emergency. I used to have 2 laptops available, but would only put one unit out. After going thru a couple of blue screens (bad ram in a machine) it came clear that just having the extra gear wasn't enough. Now, I always have 2 laptops running with the same exact major songs playlist loaded. On the major dances I also fire off the 2nd machine, as close in sync with the first. If the 1st machine takes a dive, I'm only a volume know turn away from being back in business. I also think using active speakers is worth it, if only that you have a built-in backup at all times.
We also have to bring some talent to bear as a backup. S#!+ happens and your microphone (if still audible) is a very good piece of backup gear. "Dead air" is a misnomer - because we tolerate (and even enjoy) silence all the time. It's "confusion" or a lack of direction that is the real issue when things don't go as planned.
If we have no sound at all - we still need the stage presence to step forward onto the dance floor and speak clearly and confidently to let people know what we are going to do about it and what they should do in the meantime. Wedding planners, banquet managers, etc. also need to know that we have a solution to the problem and how long that will take so that they too, can adjust appropriately to keep the event comfortable and on track.
If we do this well, then there really aren't any consequences to having equipment issues because everyone experiences similar problems in their own jobs as well, and they understand competence and the ability to recover. If on the other hand, we are unprepared, short or gruff, and not forthcoming about both the issue and the solution - then we will have damaged our credibility, which has further reaching consequences.
If we have no sound at all - we still need the stage presence to step forward onto the dance floor and speak clearly and confidently to let people know what we are going to do about it and what they should do in the meantime. Wedding planners, banquet managers, etc. also need to know that we have a solution to the problem and how long that will take so that they too, can adjust appropriately to keep the event comfortable and on track.
If we do this well, then there really aren't any consequences to having equipment issues because everyone experiences similar problems in their own jobs as well, and they understand competence and the ability to recover. If on the other hand, we are unprepared, short or gruff, and not forthcoming about both the issue and the solution - then we will have damaged our credibility, which has further reaching consequences.
I have been moderating DJ gear forums for 20 years. I have seen relatively little change in the average audio skill level over the years. What has changed is that today's gear is more integrated. Controllers and mixers are all-in-one, speakers have built in amps and processing and you no longer needed external playback sources. This means fewer interconnects are needed and thus fewer opportunities for screwing things up. A DJ can get further into the business with the limited audio knowledge they have. Back in the day, I would get a steady stream of phone calls from DJ's that were at gigs and had problems they couldn't troubleshoot. Most of the time it was something stupid like a setting (including power on/off) or cable connections to an external crossover. Now the only connections are PC to the controller via USB and then controller to the powered speaker.
That means the decline isn't visible - but it has declined. It has not been a steady state through the tech revolution. I have event support contracts for local school auditorium/theaters and get to work with students all the time. These are kids at the age where you and I would have been installing audio in our first car, or stereos in our dorm rooms or home. None of that exists anymore - it's all on a phone or tablet feeding earbuds or a Bluetooth speaker.
Most Schools have an IT department and they now serve as the audio-visual point of contact, but IT training doesn't address the audio & electrical aspects needed to acquire sound before it's digitized, and how to reproduce that amplified sound back into the acoustic space. Watching people make cable connections is like watching an early toddler playing with a shapes toy. They go with what seems to "fit" or has the same color - but no concept of what the connection type is and how it works. (i,e. headphones vs. insert, Hi-Z vs. Low Z, serial data vs. audio,)
Students are funny because they like to declare themselves an 'audio engineer' - until you ask: ". . . have you engineered your way to realzing this is a mono sound system and the only thing you are doing with that pan control is cutting the volume in half?"
Last edited:
I see your point. Yes, when I was a teen, everyone wanted to upgrade their car stereo and most kids did the upgrade themselves. Teens were certainly more mechanically inclined then but I'm not sure if they really understood audio any better. High schools had metal shop, wood shop, automotive shop, ham radio clubs, etc. These days they worry too much about splinters to offer classes that really teach you anything hands on.
There is none of that in the schools today, and hasn't been since the late 1980s. All of it was removed and replaced with theater and "performing arts" which likely explains the proliferation of narcissism in today's society. Without all the education and emphasis on performing arts Facebook would likely never have caught on.
About a decade and a half earlier the phone companies had developed and were ready to distribute new video phone technology that would allow you to see the person you were calling in real time. During consumer testing people unilaterally rejected it! No one wanted the other party to be able to see them while talking by phone. Now, the largess of people can't do anything other than look at themselves on a phone.
If you want training in any kind of industrial arts today you have to attend a technical high school and the number and size of those in any school district is very small and always far below the demand. Many kids who apply never get in because the space is so limited. We all know that plumbers and carpenters charge substantial fees for their labor - and that is a departure from our parents and grandparents era. That is a direct result of so few people having any clue about how plumbing, electrical, or any kind of construction is actually done, as well as a societal shift in expectation that every facet of life comes with concierge service.
Last edited:
It's worse than that. It really is the fundamental difference between indoctrination and education. Today schools instruct kids on what to learn (acceptability), while the latter and historical method was to teach kids how to learn (life long skill.)
I hope my 5 year old grandson in 12 years or so will realize that a 4 year college degree and the immense loan debt it brings is not the way to go but instead a trade like these may be a smarter alternative.
If things don't change soon it won't matter. He'll be paying for other people's student loan debt while he himself never gets to attend college.
I'd rather pay for Mixxy's equipment than somebodys student loan.
I agree. They had a chance to legislate some sort of regulation on the cost of college and universities. They could have limited these student loans and made the whole situation more logical. It is too late for all of that though. Crony Capitalism won out on that front in education, and now we will witness the decline of everything moving forward. Same goes with our Health Care. For profit hospitals, and for profit health insurance, and out of control unregulated presciption drug companies were great for making some people wealthy, but bad for most Americans over time. Americans may not have felt the issues 20 years ago, maybe had a sense of thinking health care needs an overhaul, but now we are at a point where costs are insane, and worsening quality of health care in general.