Karaoke Forums

I was going to edit my original post on this topic but looks like it was amongst the data lost in the last site "hack". As some of you may recall, I had a 10 day gig during deer hunting season at a bar in the north woods of Wisconsin DJ'ing for the dancers (strippers if you want to be a jerk about it) that they bring in for that time frame. The gig went really well, the girls were very friendly and I made a lot of new friends. I also got to see a whole new side of that industry and learned a lot.

The surprising part to me though was how much from this gig I will be able to use in my regular Karaoke/DJ gigs. First and foremost I learned some new techniques for getting crowds engaged and keeping them on the "edge". Obviously having naked women walking and dancing in the bar helped, but there are a lot of little ideas I developed that I'll be using in my everyday work. I also got the opportunity to play with some software I hadn't used before, most notably VirtualDJ. Not really applicable to the Karaoke scene (unless it plays MP3+G's which I haven't researched yet), but a very cool tool for regular DJ gigs. In addition to all that, I also got some new perspective on what people look for in a DJ/KJ and what aspects of audio performance mean the most. The bar I was working in was an acoustics nightmare. Square room + bare walls + tile floor = tons of reflections. I worked alot with different EQ and mix strategies to combat the many issues including some serious resonance, vocal sonic space issues, speakers issues (using house PA) and just overall battle with reflection volume. Hearing the comments from folks and reacting to it (since I was stuck in a box with a completely different sonic experience than what the house was hearing) really gave me some interesting ideas. I pulled every trick I know out of the toolbox for this one and came up with some new techniques I've never been taught.

So it all went well in the end and I've already been offered the same gig for next season. The feedback I received from the patrons, owner, dancers and their roadies was all extremely positive. The important thing though as it applies to this forum, is never underestimate how much a gig can teach you. Going in I'd have never thought that this gig would have any applicability to my regular gigs or that I could learn so much from this that could be used in those gigs. I'm a bit re-energized and looking forward to my next KJ gig, it's gonna seriously rock.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Does sound bounce differently off naked bodies?

OK, there are a lot of 1 liner possibilities here, but I will forgo any because I am truly interested in what Tony learned. Could you share more Tony?

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

I am interested, too, as we just started a new venue that is also a linoleum cavern nightmare. (Using the bass enhancement feature on our Yamaha amp actually "normalized" the sound quite nicely but I'm sure that is not the usual method of dealing with this.) But I was trying to bring him out gradually......

Besides, you can't talk about such places an not expect repercussions.

It did take some restraint on my part.

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

Tony, I played in one those venues you describe. Christmas party at the Knights of Columbus, the room was not carpeted. They have shiny wooden parquet floors instead. Glass windows with no curtains (heavy curtains would’ve been nice for sound absorption).

On my sound check the audio & vocal were bouncing all over the place that created an “echoey boxy sounding room”. The sound waves strike a wall, bounces off that wall and travels to another thus create an annoying noise reverberation. I play “Staying Alive” I could’ve sworn the Bee Gees were on all four corners of the room.

Luckily, the next room was being remodeled. There was a rolled carpet to be installed I ask the staff to help me roll it in my area set-up. The manager put sofas & couches on the side for absorption & left the two main doors open. The crowd arrives (more absorption) & the sound got a little better.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

oh boy, did one as a fill in one night.....bare concrete floors, corrugated metal for ceiling tiles, everything above belly button was mirrors....all walls, and everything under was diamond plate, and no furniture but barstools made from rebar (those actually looked kinda cool).

please do fill us in on what you learned, if it got you thinking and excited, it must be good stuff.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Yeah, let us know about the new "software" you got to play with.

Rosario

OK some of the things I learned:

On the crowd management side, reverse psychology works. If you tell 100 people not to look at the scene of an auto collision, 100 people will look. I threw in a lot of nuggets making use of that principle to get guys involved when things seemed like they were starting to quiet down. Also found that calling a guy's manhood into question can motivate him to do just about anything. That was very useful during some "stripper games" when audience members were reluctant to participate.

On the audio side, a bunch of new things to note. First, I had to play through the bar's jukebox which was a Touchtones box like you see at so many bars. The volume control on the jukebox goes from 0-100 however according to the manufacturer 80 is unity gain (0 dbu). When doing battle with reflections and specifically vocal clarity which was being destroyed by the reflections, I came up with a cool trick. I did all the usual things, pulled most of the low end and quite a bit low-mid out of my channel, removed reverb, a little quicker release on the compressor, etc. However, what actually helped quite a bit was adding a chorus effect on my vocals but with extremely short delay settings (way shorter than you'd ever use in a normal situation). It seemed to help build a stronger sonic presence without causing additional clarity issues. The jukebox had 6 MTX Home Stereo style speakers and a single MTX 2-way 12+Horn box connected to it. Bad idea on the installer's part to mix two different types of speakers, it caused some additional issues. Driving mid-highs (3k) a little harder than normal and using a Low Pass Filter at 16kHz really helped maximize the effectiveness of the horn while avoided distortion from the cone tweeters in the other boxes.

As far as software I got to play with VirtualDJ as I mentioned before. I've since checked and it does play MP3+G's so I may look at a purchase soon. Might have to do a comparisson between it and the new AutoKDJ to see which I prefer. The VirtualDJ stuff is awesome for setting up beat matching, making really clean crossfades and has some pretty cool effects that I played with quite a bit.

I also got to play with Acid Pro 7 for building medley mixes for the dancers. Hadn't seen the latest version yet (or even the previous one) so it was cool to work with. Still doesn't hold a candle to Pro-Tools HD as DAW's go, but it still kicks butt especially on the pro-sumer level. Some really cool features that I couldn't see using in a studio but made it easier for the less experienced recorder.

On a more personal side, I learned a lot about how to see people as people. It's really amazing how the guys look at, think about and treat these women. I got to be pretty good friends with a couple of them and got a whole new perspective on the (@$%&#!) they go through to put on a show and how their career choice affects areas of their life that I'd have never really considered. It was really eye-opening.

So there you have it, a quick synopsis of my lessons learned.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I'm really surprised none of the guys here have asked if you got pics at that gig.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Got any pics from that gig?....

any video?

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

any phone numbers?? jk

Yes many pictures, most of which I cannot show. I don't believe there are any videos. And yes I did come home with a couple phone numbers (and emails, and facebook pages). Like I said I made pretty good friends with them. On top of that there is a certain relationship between the DJ and the dancer.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke