It is a few days since I performed my ‘Sonic Fluidity’ show in Beijing, so how did everything go? Well before I get to that, I have to address a few changes that had an impact on the way I could present and perform the show as it was intended. In the week leading up to my show time, it was apparent that amid the ongoing re-scheduling of other events at the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre’s weekend festival, my show intentions were perhaps misunderstood by some members of the organisation. I say this in the most friendly and constructive manner, as all the staff at Three Shadows were fantastic in their efficiently and assistance in actually executing the show within their events plan.

The initial idea was for my show to be something at the end of the day, after everything else, for people to have some drinks, socialise and relax to music and visual stimulation. Just like a DJ set in a club or festival right? I was meant to be outside, after 7pm when it would be dark, on this cool stage area with a large, brick wall acting as a screen behind me. See my previous posts for full details.

However, it was perceived that it might be too cold for the audience to remain outside after dark and clashed with a proposed meal time for visiting guests, exhibitors and delegates. So the decision was made to change my show time to 3pm, and move me inside to one of the exhibition halls. This was frustrating initially, but not the end of the world – the space was actually very good and hosted a suitably placed DJ booth cutting in the wall, which for any pop-up party would be ideal. I arrived in Beijing the morning before and tested the projection that evening. It looked good, I was optimistic. However, on the day it just was not quite dark enough in the exhibition hall. The Three Shadows staff did a great job of blacking-out the door immediately opposite the DJ booth, plus all skylights at my end of the exhibition space, but the light crept through from the far end and diluted the projection somewhat.

There was also no sound system. I was under the impression that the schedule changes were due to allowing my show usage of the small in-house PA system, before it was moved to the outdoor stage for the awards ceremony at 4pm. However, when I arrived at 11am, the PA system was already set up outside playing a mixture of classical and popular music to the attendees of Three Shadows. The staff were reluctant to move the system inside for my show, so for a while I had no sound. However, one staff member quickly resolved this and hired a larger speaker in. Great! Or was it? Not initially, as the house PA system had active monitors, whereas this speaker also required an amplifier. The same staff member then made a call and soon enough a rig appeared complete with AMPS and a Mackie mixer. I plugged the single speaker into the Xone 92 mixer via the Mackie mixer – mono had to do, and used my audio engineering skills to get the master level in a good position. This allowed me significant room for signal gain on my UC-33 MIDI controller and the Xone 92. It would have been better to have the sound system figured out before the day, but Three Shadows is not a music venue and the staff were focussing on the main aspects of the day – the exhibition and award ceremony. Fortunately, I am an audio engineer and a DJ who keeps his headphones on for the entire set – I need definition which I rarely get from booth monitor speakers. Perhaps I have had some terrible gigs in the past, but this time there was one speaker and no monitors at all. Some artists might have a meltdown without their ‘performance-comfort-zone’ provided, but sometimes you’ve just got to make the best of what you’ve got and crack on regardless of imperfections.

As for the performance itself, I will always be my own worst critic unless it was seamless. Therefore, I’ll say this with a positive attitude, it was ok. To be honest I started off in tricky territory with slow, ambient music and then moved through latin, tribal drum style house, broken beats and funky techno tracks, before settling into a flow where all music was harmoniously key-matched with conventional, four-four beats. Early on a few of the tracks did not mix well together, regarding key or structure. I guess not all music can be blended smoothly and fluidly, however I pride myself on tight, neat mixing, or at least so the tracks do not appear to be aurally attacking each other. It made me cringe a little and I was glad that the audience was not predominantly a music, or DJ-wise crowd – so perhaps the holes weren’t so obvious. As with all DJ sets or performances, I was just getting warmed up and into the flow by the time I had to stop. The set time itself was cut from one hour to forty minutes, which I stretched to forty-five before I was stopped.

I placed two cameras to capture the show. One GoPro off to the side in the DJ booth and my DSLR with attached shotgun mic immediately in front of the DJ booth, beside the projector. After spending such a large amount of time and money on this project, I at least wanted to have a video that I could showreel to other promoters or share for my portfolio. Unfortunately, the DSLR was slightly out of focus and without anyone to monitor it, this remained for the duration. The sound was not captured very well either. The GoPro captured a good picture, perhaps unfortunate to also capture a large empty space towards the opposite end of the exhibition hall. The GoPro was connected directly to the ‘Record Output’ of the Xone 92 and although a passable recording, the built-in Limiter’s ‘side-chain pumping’ is somewhat annoying for any audio engineer’s ears.

 

In reflection, all in all it was a great opportunity to test out my music, visuals and the concept. The next stage will be to successfully build the installation in the venue with a live feed integrated through Resolume, while music is played live via turntables. Cross DJ had some good effects, but the platform itself is not reliable or stable enough, even for a top of the range MacBook Pro 2018. I am in the process of finding a venue with which to test this and will continue to update the blog in due course.