It is Talbott streets feelings that they should not in any way shape or form touch a dj's levels because.... what then is the point. They are the mixers right?
This is a very unfortunate attitude to have for a number of reasons.
Dj/Artists aren't sound engineers. Nor does the promoter/club pay them to be. The sound-check is merely there to make sure that equipment is in working order. That's it. A pro Dj may make suggestions as to what they need--warming sound, more highs, harder-hitting bass--but it is not their job to be able to manhandle the sound equipment to get that sound. That would require such a knowledge of electronics, sound, and each brand of equipment, as well as sound principles and acoustics
Answer me this: who would you expect to know this? A traveling Dj who has to play on a myriad of different systems and configurations? Or the sound guy at the club, who has the single configuration, the single system, and the single space considerations? Hint: It's the sound guy. That's why clubs HAVE sound guys, or at least should.
And by sound guy, I don't mean, the cute guy with the faux-hawk who can tweak some knobs every now and again. Heh.
No one would dare even contemplate throwing a concert with no sound guy simply because Korn did a sound check. That's preposterous. And we shouldn't be expecting PvD to make the club sound better. He'll come in and sound
"ach! Nein! Das is' schlecht!!! Die Tiefenregelung ist nicht dicht genug!!" But he sure as hell won't try to adjust the compressor [do they even have one?] to try to make it
Tiefenregelung dichter. Or at least I'll be surprised if he did.
It's his job to worry about the music content.
It's the club's job to make sure there's someone there that makes the content sound nice for the club's environment.
It's sound design, not magic; and it's not something that we should expect traveling Djs to be able to do. If they can, awesome. But most can't, because they shouldn't have to.
There's a club.
A club has sound.
Fuckin' fix it.
It's their job.
No one else's.
Moreover, a Dj's hearing deteriorates as the performance goes on. That's why the monitors get louder and louder, highs get higher, volume creeps up. It's because the Dj is 'chasing' the sound as his ears start creating more wax to deaden the noise. So relying on the Dj to keep the levels reasonable is a lesson in futility. Some Djs realize this and consciously make sure that levels and EQs remain where they were in the beginning, and that's awesome if they're that disciplined--most aren't. Most don't trust their ears enough. That's why every concert--electronic or otherwise--should have a sound guy.
And that sound guy should be more than just a knob tweaker.
Maybe a knob gobbler, certainly.
Ha!
At any rate... my rant is done.
For now.
On a more positive note: props to the promoters for lowering the prices a bit.
trance yo.
