Gig Log, Kit in Your Car!

0:00 Aberara tomorrow and all t

Alright guys, my god my hair's gone. Got a gig log tonight and this gig log is going to be entitled Kit in Your Car. Let me explain. My partner Yvette has taken my van because she has a function in a local village place called Fangeitho and she's doing like a little summer fair there. And I've got my oak furniture in there, and she's selling that, and that's got to go to Aberara tomorrow and all that sort of stuff. So, I'm left with a cat. There you go. But I'm left with her car. And I'm putting kit in my car. Reason for this video is quite simple. I suppose normally mobile DJ, you would expect to have a van, transit, that kind of thing. But quite a few DJs have got Cars. So if you are a mobile DJ and you only have a car, then the idea behind this video is do video response to it and let's see how big a show you can get inside your car. In other words, we see the car, we see the kit in the car and then we see the kit out of the car set up. No cheating. Don't overload your vehicle but I've sort of got things set up. Got the light console.

A couple of 15 and a horn, flight case there with a couple of players in and a mixer, amp there, need a flight case for that, CDs, more CDs, few lights in there, couple of stands, got to put another stand in for the lighting, probably a little tea bar I'll put in because it's a very small function room. It's in the Conra Hotel near Aberystwyth, I was there last week as well. The cat there of course is in case I get hungry during the course of the evening, I can always roast it. It's so funny. He's possibly one of the only cats I know who could quite happily go for a lovely little drive in your vehicle and sit there and purr. Alright, kit in your car. Right then, while I make myself some... This function is unavailable. Sorry, it's just on camera. While I make myself some toast, I'm going to just talk a little bit about the sort of stuff I do when DJing is concerned or setting your kit up or that kind of thing.

2:28 I don't know if you're happy and you don't clap your hands

I don't know if you're happy and you don't clap your hands. How long have you been a DJ? Six months, two years, a day, 20 years? Well, if you've been a DJ for about 20 years, it's more than likely that you have turned up to a function and forgotten something. I'm not on about your clothes, I'm on about something really important like an amp or a mixer. I've done it twice and it's one of the most embarrassing things going. And also, you could be up shit's route. So, here's a tip for you. This is what I generally do. Of course, I didn't do on those two particular days. I make a mental note of my kit as I'm looking at it in the back of the van or the car or the bus or the lorry. And what I do, I actually set my roadshow up while I'm looking at my kit. Now think about this. I will know what's in all the boxes and I'll know what they are, what your amp, speakers, etc. And what I'll do is I will start from the mixer all the way through the kit and I'll set it up in my mind. But I'll look at the kit in the back of the van, sofa or car or bus, lorry or truck. Thank you.

5:22 Trestle table because the worst thing

That's going to be an ongoing thing, that is. Right, so what I'll do, I'll start off with the mixer and I'll think, right, what do I plug into the mixer? Of course, mic and headphones. Where are the mic and headphones? They're there. If you think, are they or aren't they, then go and check. Make sure they are there. And then of course, I'll think, right, the cables, the power supply to the mixer. Of course, you should really have a box full of all your cables anyway. I'll make sure I've got that. Also then, the RCA or the digital or whatever cables from the mixer into your CD players or your decks or maybe your laptop, maybe your controller. Make sure you've got that.

Once you've got those things in your mind and you can see them or you know exactly where they are, that's where they should be. Tap the box if it's light, it's empty. If it's heavy, they're in. Yeah. Or... yeah. Right. And then you go to the cables from mixer, controller into the amp. Uh, your console or if you're turning up to an event and hopefully they've got a trestle table. We've all done it. Make sure you've got something to cover the trestle table because the worst thing in the world is to turn up, can I have a trestle table? Yeah, sure, there's one over there. Oh dear. And then it just looks shit because you've just got your kit on a table with just nothing. Um, check out Scrimking.

7:08 Mainly though, I'm g

They've got stuff that you can put over your tables to hide crap. Make sure you've got that. Make sure you've got all your power supplies. Have you got enough power supplies? It's always good to have three or four over. It's the wrong thing to be missing... You just need one more power supply! Oh! Been there. The other one then is your lighting. Also, a small tip inside a tip. This is what I do every single time. I will make sure that I set the audio up first.

Alright, yeah, you've got to set the console up, but I'll make sure I set the audio up first. Console, then audio. And then I'll do the lighting, because you don't want to set all the lighting up, then come to the audio and realise you've forgotten the amp or the audio doesn't work. Tell you why, is because during the course of the evening, flashy lights look wonderful, marvellous, all the flashy, fizzy, fozzy lights, but at the end of the day, if you've got no sound... Pretty crap. You're better off having sound and no lights. You could just get someone to go to the wall and press the light on and off. So check, make sure you've got your lights. Of course then think about your T-bar or your stands for your lights. Make a mental note of everything you've got, all your kit. And what you're actually doing is you're setting up your console in your mind. So theoretically when you go to the venue...

10:50 You've got to be on the ball

DJ tutorial by Ellaskins It's good fun, we all enjoy it, but you've got your kit in the house. Take it out of the house, into the car, you drive, then out of the car, into the venue, set up. Then you've got to dismantle and then you've got to put it back in the car, van, lorry or bus or truck. And then out of there, back into the house. So you're actually touching virtually every single piece of kit four times, if not more, because you're setting it up. I'm going to have my toast. Excuse me. Alright guys, it's still quite early. I'm sort of on the... On the way to the gig. Mainly though, I'm going early into Aberystwyth to get a new sort of shirt, bicycle shirt and shorts because I've got a racer now. I had one years ago. There it is in the back. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go for a bike ride before my gig. The reason I've started recording now

Is to follow on from what I said in the house. I'm now on the way to the function, sort of, as I said earlier, but I'm not that far from my home. And what is going through my mind now is chocolate and sex. Just kidding about the chocolate. What's going through my mind now is... Right. What's going through my mind now is chocolate and sex. No! No! What's going through my mind now is... I'm thinking about what I might have forgotten. In other words, I'm still going through that list. Another way of making sure you don't forget any items is have everything you need in one corner of one room and that is your corner, your gig corner. That's what you will be taking to your gig. If there are bits missing or bits left in the corner then of course you know that there are certain items you've forgotten. That's another way of doing it. Also another way

All set up and as they say, that thing there takes, well, a couple of minutes to set up. A bit blurry, I do apologise, I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's gig. The main reason for the Very little footage is because there were probably only about, I'd say 50 to 60 people. When you've got that many people, you've got to work. You have to work because they still expect to have people on the dance floor and if we look at percentages, if you've got a thousand people and you've let's say for example got two or three hundred people on the floor, that's fantastic. If you've got 60 people and you've got two people on the floor, that looks terrible. It's horrible. So you have to work. You've got to be on the ball. I tried something different tonight. Very different. I tried to smile for the whole evening. Continually smile. And it worked. It paid off. They chucked things at me. It was good fun. It was very good fun.

All right, so going back to what I said earlier, which was earlier today, even though you're watching this video and it's all spliced together. Let's see what you can get in your motor. No vans, no transits, no big trucks, just cars. What show can you get in your car? Didn't really give a good example of that today because what I should have done is shown the whole setup correctly. But I do apologize, but it's more reason for you. To do what I was going to do correctly. In other words, let's see your Mini or your Metro or your Alfa Romeo. Maybe you've got a Porsche. Maybe you take your Porsche. Who knows? Let's see the kit you can get in your motor. Alright? I hope that's been a help. A few tips, etc. But that's what it's all about. It's about sharing. So practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.