PDA

View Full Version : Who's done a silent disco?



fullenglishpint
03-02-2012, 04:18 AM
I'm playing the House/Electro/Dubstep/DnB channel at a silent disco in a couple of weeks time. Anyone done one and got any tips? I think it's gna be a strange experience haha. Tempting the student crowd away from the cheese channel might be a bit tricky.

JuxtaPoser
03-02-2012, 05:56 AM
Yeah I played a Silent Disco set at a festival last year; one of my more surreal experiences thus far haha. I started out playing standard house and electro etc and then realised that there's no point trying to make the silent disco something it isn't. They key to silent discos is to play stuff that people know, preferably with a hook that everyone knows and will sing along to. It was cool playing Barbra Streisand and taking my headphones off and see 400 people singing "Doo doo doo DOOOO doo doo doo doo doo doooo doo".

So yeah, the main tip is don't worry too much about being cool, remember it's a novelty and play some random shit. Also, it's one of those gigs where being visibly excited by what you're playing helps a lot. If people see you going crazy on stage, along with half the crowd, they will instantly switch their headsets over to your channel to see what's up.

fullenglishpint
03-02-2012, 06:14 AM
Thanks for that. I'm slightly torn, the whole point of me being there is to be an alternative to the cheese/chart, but I appreciate that there's no point playing a set of my favourite niche house and dubstep tracks cos no one will listen. I guess house remixes and such are probably the way forward,mat least for part of it.

Subprime
03-02-2012, 07:09 AM
I did a couple of silent discos last year, one of them was playing dance music as an alternative to cheese on the other channel.

Bit of a nightmare gig to be honest, don't think I had many of them listening to me. The providing the silent disco had a CDJ / DJM 400 setup, the DJM 400 having now way of fading between cue and master (it's all master or all cue), which made beatmatching a little tricky to say the least. The whole vibe is sort of strange, everyone feels a little be restrained, and the crap headphones they give out (with quite a low volume limit) don't really work for dance music. I got paid, but I was glad I was only doing it for 90 mins.

dlove
03-02-2012, 07:13 AM
The whole vibe is sort of strange, everyone feels a little be restrained, and the crap headphones they give out (with quite a low volume limit) don't really work for dance music. I got paid, but I was glad I was only doing it for 90 mins.

yeah, for me, the whole point of music in a club is eyelash vibrating bass.

fullenglishpint
03-02-2012, 07:40 AM
It is a bit of a weird idea but it's a gig and at least I have a pretty free music choice. They're setting up a second booth on one of the raised dance floors so i said I'd rather go down in the afternoon and set up my own mixer and CDJs rather than use whatever POS pioneer relic they can find in the back room (the installed DJM-700 is shite enough). That way I have a nice split cue mode so beatmatching should be fine.

Marc S
03-02-2012, 08:24 AM
never played one, but ive been to one, it was quite bizarre when you dont have the headphones on. sounds like people playing basketball with squeeky shoes on.

Damon_Chambers
03-02-2012, 08:31 AM
i didnt know what this was. had to go off to google and found this on the wikepedia page. :lol:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Silent_house_party_san_francisco.jpg

fullenglishpint
03-02-2012, 08:32 AM
The guy with the stache is winning and the guy in the checked shirt is on sooooome kinda trip.

DjBlanco
03-02-2012, 08:33 AM
honestly it sound like it might be fun IMO lol never heard of it XD

fullenglishpint
03-02-2012, 08:35 AM
I've never actually been to one but they're pretty common here, especially at festivals after the noise restrictions come in.

Lionman
03-02-2012, 10:14 AM
never played one, but ive been to one, it was quite bizarre when you dont have the headphones on. sounds like people playing basketball with squeeky shoes on.

Same. It is quite nice that you can when see the dj on the other channel dropped a hit though. Half the room cheers!

TheBoggler
03-02-2012, 10:31 AM
It was cool playing Barbra Streisand and taking my headphones off and see 400 people singing "Doo doo doo DOOOO doo doo doo doo doo doooo doo".



I just imagined this in my head. I'm still laughing. :lol:
I've never seen one in person, but I've heard about them. They do seem pretty novelty but i mean... have fun with it. I'd try to make it a game to play the most reactive music possible, most [good] drops, maybe some electro with a latin feel [When I play the porter robinson remix of venga, even I can't NOT dance like an idiot], etc etc. Unless they're handing out pretty decent headphones, it's going to lose the bass feel of a club - but you can still have fun with it. Which is what it's all about, right?

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 10:37 AM
Ok Explain Silent Disco... this is apparently mostly a euro spectacle, us Americans do not enjoy :(

Marc S
03-02-2012, 10:39 AM
It's a disco that has no PA, everyone wears wireless headphones and tunes in, to people wearing them it feels like a normal club, to anyone else its a room full of people dancing in silence.

If you don't have the headphones on it's bizarre to hear what a club sounds like with no music, the shuffling feet, the squeaky shoes, and everyone looks mental lol.

DJ ATX
03-02-2012, 11:20 AM
Been to a couple, but never DJd at one. Its great cause if you want to talk to someone, you actually can have a pretty decent conversation.

I think this concept would be great for house parties too. :)

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 11:37 AM
It's a disco that has no PA, everyone wears wireless headphones and tunes in, to people wearing them it feels like a normal club, to anyone else its a room full of people dancing in silence.

If you don't have the headphones on it's bizarre to hear what a club sounds like with no music, the shuffling feet, the squeaky shoes, and everyone looks mental lol.

THAT would be awesome!!!!!!!!! :) :) I must spread the word in the Americas!!!!!!

DJ ATX
03-02-2012, 12:05 PM
THAT would be awesome!!!!!!!!! :) :) I must spread the word in the Americas!!!!!!

Umm...its already been around for a few years now. At least here in TX and also in CA. ;)

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 12:13 PM
Umm...its already been around for a few years now. At least here in TX and also in CA. ;)

Well I do live in Kentucky - you know it takes at least 4-5 years for that stuff to trickle down here!! lol

We still got some club DJ's who dont' even know what dubstep is and club goers who are just now getting into dubstep!

DJ ATX
03-02-2012, 12:16 PM
You need to start up a Silent Disco night KY!!

There was a promotions group here in Dallas, that started one a couple of years ago. They are now doing them monthly all over N. TX and making money.

Sween
03-02-2012, 12:18 PM
I want to to start a silent mosh pit night for metal clubs.

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 12:22 PM
You need to start up a Silent Disco night KY!!

There was a promotions group here in Dallas, that started one a couple of years ago. They are now doing them monthly all over N. TX and making money.

That would be awesome ... I'll have to look into the logistics of it - assuming all wireless headphones with a gazillion transmitters - or surely there is a system with one transmitter to go out to all headphones.

Wow so how bad is it when everyone starts singing outloud with earphones in ? lol

fullenglishpint
03-02-2012, 01:01 PM
There are loads of companies here that rent out the kit. It's pretty simple to set up, just a transmitter on the master out from the mixer and as many DJs as there are channels.

Jason Cerna
03-02-2012, 01:13 PM
i did my first silent disco at a festival last year. its a weird experience. you'll hear people sing out lyrics to tunes they recognize or you'll hear girls giggle, dudes too. you'll get random 'fuck yeas'

since you don't have a proper monitor, you have to keep switching back and forth from your headphones and the receiver headphones the crowd gets.

lots of fun.

Hibbo
03-02-2012, 01:17 PM
I've done quite a few of these, they are always great gigs.
Couple of bits of advice that might sound obvious, stick to playing big vocal anthems that everyone knows, and maybe remixes of stuff like kings of leon, Chilli's etc... and make sure you take a mic, always good to keep an eye on how many people are listening to your channel with the classic 'if your listening to our channel make some noise!!!'.

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 01:20 PM
This sounds hella cool - i'm definitely going to look into - man.. if this ever caught on somehow - would it put PA's outta biz? hmmm...

It wouldn't work too well with a club tho would it? Lots of drunk people with YOUR equipment in their hands ready to take home or break or drop in a drink/toilet? Hmmm. But other events? awesome. I'm excited :)

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 01:21 PM
This sounds hella cool - i'm definitely going to look into - man.. if this ever caught on somehow - would it put PA's outta biz? hmmm...

It wouldn't work too well with a club tho would it? Lots of drunk people with YOUR equipment in their hands ready to take home or break or drop in a drink/toilet? Hmmm. But other events? awesome. I'm excited :)

Jason Cerna
03-02-2012, 01:21 PM
That would be awesome ... I'll have to look into the logistics of it - assuming all wireless headphones with a gazillion transmitters - or surely there is a system with one transmitter to go out to all headphones.

Wow so how bad is it when everyone starts singing outloud with earphones in ? lol

one transmitter, mated to the headphones. your mixer's main out, booth or record out will go into the transmitter. from what the people we worked with last year told us, the headphones are the expensive part since you have to have a lot of them. then, there's the industrial batteries, you're gonna need a ton, so buy in bulk.

Jason Cerna
03-02-2012, 01:23 PM
This sounds hella cool - i'm definitely going to look into - man.. if this ever caught on somehow - would it put PA's outta biz? hmmm...

It wouldn't work too well with a club tho would it? Lots of drunk people with YOUR equipment in their hands ready to take home or break or drop in a drink/toilet? Hmmm. But other events? awesome. I'm excited :)

here's who did the gear for our gig:
http://silentdis.co/

all we did is plug our gear in. they did all the headphone setup and handouts.

Lazy O
03-02-2012, 01:35 PM
It's a disco that has no PA, everyone wears wireless headphones and tunes in, to people wearing them it feels like a normal club, to anyone else its a room full of people dancing in silence.

If you don't have the headphones on it's bizarre to hear what a club sounds like with no music, the shuffling feet, the squeaky shoes, and everyone looks mental lol.

LMFAO!! :lol:

I must go to one!! lmao

Jason Cerna
03-02-2012, 01:37 PM
for the festival we did, we had our own area of the grounds and the organizers setup this area for us. we were also doing visual projections so we added 2 square spandex screens.

http://jasoncerna.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mikeaid3.jpg

there were three of us, two tag teaming and one doing visuals. that gear with the rabbit ears is the transmitter for the headphones.
http://jasoncerna.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mikeaid3_2.jpg

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 01:40 PM
Very cool - doesn't look like they have a location in our area yet. Maybe the VA people woudl come over. But after looking, I was surprised, I assumed they would be in-ear phones not big "DJ" earphones :) and the ladies don't freak about them messing up their hair?

Jason Cerna
03-02-2012, 01:48 PM
the headphones use a pair of AAs, so they have to be the DJ/studio style.

jazzyj
03-02-2012, 01:54 PM
the headphones use a pair of AAs, so they have to be the DJ/studio style.

ahhhh makes sense. i can just see these women wit this hair bitchin tho lol :) and some diva-ish men as well :)

DJ Watty
03-02-2012, 05:38 PM
For those who want to know

Number of headsets: 50
Transmitter Type: Basic
Total cost for new headphones: 1825 GBP ex. VAT
Total cost for reconditioned headphones: 1425 GBP ex. VAT

Subprime
03-02-2012, 06:14 PM
Surprised so many people here are keen on the silent disco thing. I've always found them to be horrible gimmicks, both as a DJ and as a punter.

Finnish_Fox
03-02-2012, 06:41 PM
i didnt know what this was. had to go off to google and found this on the wikepedia page. :lol:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Silent_house_party_san_francisco.jpg

Me too. I must be old.

Damon_Chambers
03-02-2012, 07:47 PM
I want to to start a silent mosh pit night for metal clubs.

i want to attend. but not be in the pit.

Damon_Chambers
03-02-2012, 07:48 PM
For those who want to know

Number of headsets: 50
Transmitter Type: Basic
Total cost for new headphones: 1825 GBP ex. VAT
Total cost for reconditioned headphones: 1425 GBP ex. VAT

ya. let me just dump all my money into the hands of a bucha drunks i dont know. im loving this idea!

JuxtaPoser
03-02-2012, 07:55 PM
ya. let me just dump all my money into the hands of a bucha drunks i dont know. im loving this idea!

All the silent discos I've seen have required a deposit in exchange for headphones. I reckon they'd pay for themselves pretty quickly tbh.