I get to the event, with about forty minutes to my set I get on stage and start setting up. There was a multi-plug adapter right next to me, no hassles plugging in. My fears of pulling out a cable for a CDJ or mixer (my biggest fear at the point) were moot because there was a separate adapter for live equipment. I thought that I'd have everything set up in a few minutes and could go get a drink and give the DJ some space to finish his set before I came back.
Everything seemed great, Live was running flawlessly my NanoKontrol was working perfectly. My Novation Nio 2/4 wasn't giving issues in the headphones. Monitoring the signal straight from the box on my headphones, the signal was crystal clear. I was so excited.
Then things went pear shaped.
Using RCA connectors, I plugged into the mixer, A Pioneer DJM600 which, ironically, is one of my favorites for DJ sets. I asked the DJ if I could quickly check the signal with his headphones seeing as he had a good six minutes to his next mix. Shock. The signal was low. Very, very very low. With the gain on the mixer set to full, only two green lights were barely flashing on the mixer's meters. My heart sank but then with total relief I realised "Shit, the Nio has Phono outputs. Wow, that could have been embarrassing." So - and I still have about half an hour till my set now - I quickly swapped the inputs on the mixer from Line to Phono thinking everything would be peachy.
Nope.
The signal going into the mixer was one of the dirtiest, most distorted noises I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing. My god, it was horrible. The bass sounded like a hollow shell, the kick was more distorted than the most intense Gabba track - and this was for a Psytrance set, by the way. The gain pot on my Nio seemed to have absolutely no effect on the signal going into the mixer. The gain set at 9 o clock on the mixer was still pushing the mixer so far into the red I was expecting flickering bars to start flying out the back. Even with the gain set nearly to infinity, the signal was still horribly distorted. There was absolutely no way I could make anyone put up with even 16 bars of that, it'd probably be against the Geneva convention.
I called the event organiser over and we tried sorting things out (this all over another poor DJ trying to play his set with two people clambering over his shoulders.)
We tried different channels on the mixer, we tried different cables, we continuously switched between phono and line on the mixer in case by some act of God, the architecture of the hardware would suddenly accommodate me.
I rebooted three times.
By now I'm down to the last five or so minutes of this guy's set before I need to get things going. I can't think of a situation more sickening for a DJ then watching the remaining time on a CDJ tick down while wiping the sweat off your brow and wondering what the fuck you're going to do. It is seriously the kind of thing I've honestly had nightmares about. This entire night was literally a nightmare come true.
There is a somewhat happy ending though. As I was leaving home, laptop slung over my shoulder, a voice - a very quiet one - inside urged me to grab some CDs just in case Plan A failed. So in the last 15 seconds before my set started, I flung a CD into the CDJ and played a DJ set that I didn't enjoy in the slightest. For the whole (lengthy) drive home I've been stressing over the fact that I don't know how I can be booked as a live act with the heavy burden of knowing that this could happen again and not having any idea as to why.
Does anyone have any answers or suggestions? Really one of the most disappointing things I've experienced in a long time which is so sad because it was a seriously rocking party. I have to thank the enthusiastic crowd who didn't seem to care one way or the other what was being played as long as there was doof and it sounded good.
Any advice would be very, very appreciated and encouraging, like a big fuzzy hug. Please excuse the lengthy post, but it's somewhat cathartic for me at the moment.
