Ep.13 - The DJ Booth Has Changed Forever — 5 Shifts Reshaping Live Events in 2026

The DJ booth has quietly become one of the most technically complex positions in live event production — and most people haven't noticed. 

In Episode 13 of Behind the Rack, hosts Franco and James join us for a candid roundtable on the 5 biggest shifts transforming the modern DJ booth: the evolution from stand-alone performer to full production hub, the rise of monitor stacks and line arrays behind festival booths, how mobile DJs are now controlling lighting and video from a single controller, the slow death of the MC skill, and what AI might realistically bring to the DJ world in the next 18–24 months. 

We also get into the real talk on sound quality vs. aesthetics at weddings, the democratization of DJing (and whether it's raised or lowered the bar), vinyl's surprising comeback, and how music curation — not just playback — is what separates great DJs from average ones. 

If you're a DJ, a live event production pro, an AV integrator, or just someone who's ever been to a wedding and noticed something felt off with the sound — this one is for you. 

Topics covered: 

• The 5 shifts reshaping the modern DJ booth 

• Festival booth logistics: rolling setups and pre-production meetings 

• Why mobile DJs now need to know lighting, video AND sound 

• The MCing skill gap and why it matters 

• Column speakers and aesthetics: when looks beat SPL 

• Audio fatigue, speech intelligibility, and the father-of-the-bride problem 

• Shure SLXD wireless scanning — done right 

• DJ software reliability: the case for whatever doesn't crash 

• Networking cables in the DJ booth (yes, really in 2025) 

• Barrier to entry: $200 controllers and the democratization debate 

• AI in DJing: BPM matching, stem isolation, facial recognition — what's coming? 

🎙️ Behind the Rack is produced by SFM, a Midwich company — Canada's trusted AV distribution partner for Broadcast, Pro/Live, and Systems Integration. 

📍 New episodes every two weeks. 

🌐 sfm.ca 

Transcript

AI DJs And Reading The Room

Franco 0:00

But the difference between you know an AI DJ or a live DJ, you cannot teach AI to see how that person's reacted to that one song that you I will maybe have to disagree with that, but I wonder if there's a camera or two cameras or three cameras that are analyzing you know, we're talking about dance floor.

Vince 0:20

Yeah, imagine you see okay, this genre and it identifies the people left the dance with these that are like okay, two, three tracks, the floor is pumping, they put that track and it dies.

Franco 0:30

He's he's too slow to transition, loses the crowd.

Vince 0:34

This is where I'm thinking um AI learning about possible combinations that don't work, or I haven't really put that much thought into how AI can change the DJ industry. Maybe I should, maybe I can make a lot of money doing that.

Franco 0:50

I'm seeing more and more at the DJs, like the the concerts, like the bigger productions, yeah, lineries.

Hugo 0:56

Yeah, that was one of the point of monitoring or these are like yeah, liner rays. It's like the booth, man.

Vince 1:05

Six to eight linery tops with four 18-inch subs as as monitors, you know. We call them DJ headphones, and but that's what they're using.

Franco 1:26

Really?

Catching Up On DJ Culture

Franco 1:27

Boys, what's happening? I feel like we haven't that was a really good clap.

Vince 1:36

I think that was your best one yet. Yeah, I heard getting better at this. I heard that reverberation off the walls. It was fantastic. Actually, I didn't hear any because of our incredible uh acoustic treatment that we did in this room. Yeah, those are very generous words.

Hugo 1:50

It's been like it's been a while, huh? It's been just us three.

Franco 1:54

Seriously.

Hugo 1:55

Yeah.

Vince 1:56

Uh I mean the other ones are great, they were fun, but it's also different when it's just us three. Yeah, yeah.

Franco 2:01

Yeah, just to catch up on certain things. And one topic I was really excited for is DJ Trends and culture. And there's I got a whole bunch of questions for both of you.

Speaker 6 2:13

Yeah.

Franco 2:13

Um, especially you in terms of some stuff. Uh, admittedly, my twin boys are like addicted to watching Tomorrowland all the years, and it's amazing. We watch Skrill X uh concert, we watch all kinds of stuff. But Tomorrowland is where I get really interested because you get to see a variety of DJs. The lighting is crazy, the music's good, but you get to see different setups, which um which got me got me thinking of of this this episode. And stay tuned because we're gonna I'd like to tease on the five shifts that I've kind of noticed uh and I will unpack in the uh in the episode.

Hugo 2:50

But

Fred Again Meets Daft Punk Legend

Hugo 2:51

um May I just start with something that really did it hard in my heart, uh, hard in my heart, uh about three or four weeks ago. I don't know if you guys know a DJ called Fred again. Yes, yeah. So he did a he did his last tour in UK in London. I don't remember what was the the venue name, but he invited Thomas Bangalter, like the Daft Punk guy. Holy crap. And he I have goosebumps, I'm not kidding. The set is online on YouTube, no ads for now. Okay, it's also on on uh Apple Music. It's his it was his last show for this his tour called uh USB002. I don't know where the name comes from, but it was a set of Thomas Bengalter with Fred again, reinventing some Daft Punk classics, mixed with his his music. Yeah, it's phenomenal. I I know it's not related to tech, but it's related to art, and it's been years, and I'm a big Daft Punk fan. I'm yeah, me too. Like a huge fan. Yeah, uh, it was completely refreshing. So you guys have to see that, especially the YouTube one. Yeah, uh insane.

Franco 4:07

Sorry, it was my I always like Daft Punk, by the way, but uh because of my film background, I listen to soundtracks most of the time, and those guys for the Tron is my one of my son's favorite soundtracks, and it was Daft Punk. And you're seeing more and more of these artists like Nine Inch Nails with the new Tron.

Hugo 4:27

But um the Daft Punk uh album for Tron was unbelievable, and it's nice to see those guys getting into uh that creative, uh that creative uh and by the way, obviously Tomas doesn't wear a mask anymore, so he he had he did a a cameo in one of his uh in one of Fred Again's set back in February or maybe January uh when he was in Paris. So we did just a small appearance without the mask. It was the first time since the uh it was the first time Thomas Bengaltor mixed without a mask. It was a while ago, and now for this second thing, they do uh basically a beat to beat, a back-to-back. It's really cool. Wow, how long is it set? Uh close to two hours. Oh wow, yeah, wow, nice.

Franco 5:18

Yeah, that's cool. I have YouTube premium, so I hopefully I don't get any ads.

Hugo 5:21

No, no, but I there's no ad right now. I I suspect that probably someone paid to not have ads, but it's worth it's worth a watch. Wow, definitely check it out.

Franco 5:31

I'm so excited for that. Yep, so excited. Um yeah, so let's kick it off.

Booth Monitoring In Ears And Waveforms

Franco 5:37

Um DJ booth, not like it used to be, that's for sure. No, and I know and I know we we we had this whole episode just on the CDJ 3000X, which just that is just um uh a glimpse into how the DJ world is changing, streaming and but now we're talking about the DJ booth, so we're stepping back, looking at the big picture, and I feel like yeah, uh DJ booth today didn't look like a DJ booth 10, 15, 20 years ago. How has that changed? What has changed?

Vince 6:12

I think it's important we we establish which DJ booth we're talking about. Are you talking about a live stage production DJ booth? Are we talking about a fixed installation in a club? Are we talking about a mobile DJ booth? Like, what do you want to focus on?

Franco 6:28

I would argue not the club, I don't think that's changed so much, but uh I would say uh both on the Crusoe Entertainment, uh that type of space and the concert. That I think that has changed uh quite a bit, you know what I mean? Like even you're looking at concerts now, and it's just the console and a mixer, and that's it. Back then it was a lot more gear. Um one thing I want to touch your pick your brain on is like I'm seeing more and more at the DJs, like the the concerts, like the bigger productions, yeah, lineries.

Hugo 7:02

Yeah, that was one of the point I was above it, or these guys have like yeah, lineries as a liner in the booth, man.

Vince 7:10

Yeah, from six to eight liner tops with four 18-inch subs as as monitors, you know. We call them DJ headphones, but that's what they're using.

Hugo 7:21

Do you think that's because the the main PA is getting so loud, or these guys are just getting like they're getting more there's two reasons.

Vince 7:30

Yeah, one because the main PA is become so loud that they're gonna need some serious sound reinforcement in the booth, and two, a lot of these legendary DJs are losing their hearing, so they need something even more powerful behind the DJ booth. Um, and that's that's just what's happening. But it's funny, we're talking about DJ headphones, that's what we call them, you know, the linery stacks on either side. But um you'll notice a lot more people now are actually using in-ear monitors. Yes, they're not using headphones. Uh, there's a bit of a trend in a culture of people not even using headphones whatsoever now because the amount of information available on the players in front of them. I mean, you can essentially beat match two tracks without even headphones. Just with the waveform. Yeah. I disagree with it. I disagree with it. I disagree with it. But I mean, that's you know, if you know your routine and you already know your track list, then yes, you can pull that off. But if you're uh you know a free format DJ and you're playing in front of a crowd, I mean you're listening to your tracks before and you're you're realizing when, you know, figuring out where your cue points are and when you're gonna drop that track. But um, yeah, those are just I mean, some of the trends from some of the sound side. I mean, some crazy monitors out there on those stages. In terms of the actual DJ booth themselves, when we're talking live production, I'm gonna I'm gonna disagree with you. I'll actually say it's pretty similar. I mean, you still have your your two to four players, your mixer. Um I'll I'll say that on the effects side, uh, we've reduced the amount of peripherals now that DJs will use on the effects side. Most of them only have one smaller. They'll have one external effects. Um is this a pioneer? Yeah, too.

FOH Sync With Lights Video Pyro

Vince 9:10

For the longest time it was the RMX 1000. Now that's been replaced with the uh RMX Ignite, which does even more than the RMX 1000 did. Um what I will say is I think there's a big difference behind the DJ booth, meaning at the FOH uh uh location. So your audio is still coming from your DJ booth. Everyone knows the live performance is coming from the DJ booth, but there's so much uh a syncing being done with video now, lighting, pyrotechnics, mapping. I mean, that's where there's the biggest difference. I mean, before you had your DJ playing on stage, you had your lighting show, and you know, you were hoping that you had a really good lighting guy that knew some of your tracks or that you know, busk really well when it came to the lighting. But now, with the amount of uh time code going on, the amount of visibility that the technical guys have at the FOH tent about what the next track is gonna be, the amount of syncing, a lot of these guys now. You actually they just did this at Ultra and most festivals will have this. I was about to talk about Ultra, I'll talk about it later. Some of these, uh, or most of these festivals, I should say, but I know Ultra because I saw it uh online. Uh, they'll have a pre-production meeting or a pre-production tent where they'll have their pioneer DJ set up. DJ will come in, play his set. Most of these sets, these guys are sticking to you know, a set track list.

Hugo 10:38

Couldn't we say Alpha Theta?

Vince 10:40

Well, depending on the gear, yeah, Alpha Theta is true, but it's true. Um they'll run through their set, and you have the lighting guy, you have the video guy, you have the pyrotechnics guy, and you have the FOH engineer going through the set with them to make sure that everyone's aligned. Oh, nice. And this is not even the actual set, this is beforehand, whether it be the day of or the day before, just running through everything to make sure that everyone's synced and everything's working properly. Right? So that's where I would say the biggest difference would be uh in terms of actual gear. Because, like I said before, I mean back in the days, you didn't have much live video, you didn't have LED pros. No, pyrotechnics were at a minimum. Okay, you'd you know, set your pyrotechnics at the end of the show. Now you've got pyrotechnics during the show, you have CO2, you have water. Water's becoming a big part of these stages now, believe it or not, right? Water's become an effect that people are using a lot of. Um they project on water vapes or something, yeah. Yeah, so you can actually set up like a like a mist fountain and use that as a projection screen. Um, so people are getting really creative, but with all these aspects, I mean, you better make sure that you guys are aligned, right? So that's where I'm gonna argue that that's where we've seen the biggest difference. But in terms of playing the actual audio, I once you're on stage, I mean you're playing to the crowd, so that hasn't really changed the mechanics of playing. We spoke about it streaming, right? A little bit. Yeah, uh, but obviously at these festivals, they're not streaming from you know major streaming platforms, they're they're playing off their USB stick, yeah. Which is like which is standard, yeah, exactly.

Hugo 12:15

But not only standard, but I I I watched uh Deep Dish at Ultra Festival. Yeah, they were playing their tracks remixed by themselves, so nobody else has the track, so it's sitting on the USB, and that's their their stake. Exactly. Talking about Ultra, uh in in Miami, the first it was the first, it's probably something that exists for a while, but after the DJ set of Deep Dish, yeah, all the gear rolls on the side, and then another set of turntables gets yeah.

Vince 12:43

That's right. That's cool. So, because of the amount of artists now at all these festivals, the turnover between the acts needs to be blazing fast. Yeah, so oftentimes they'll have two sets on these rolling platforms on the actual DJ booth. And while one guy's playing, the other one's off to the side, they're making sure the configuration is all good, all set up properly. The DJ's able to see his mixer set up, um, whether it be the EQ curve or whatever it may be, aux is whatever it may be, making sure that his effects routing is correct. That can all be done during or before the current set, and then the turnover happens. DJ's done his song. You don't even have to go eject the USB, wait for the next guy to come in anymore. Everything's already loaded, ready to go. Within a couple of minutes, you're ready to perform again, right? And that's just because of the demand of how many artists are at these festivals today. So it's uh it's cool. Yeah, the mechanics have changed a little bit, um, but it's really the behind the scenes.

Franco 13:41

The booth has really become like a production hub.

Mobile DJs Run The Whole Show

Franco 13:43

That's what I that's what I was trying to get at. Where it's and even on on like on the smaller scale stuff, like the the production stuff that you're seeing at the smaller live events, like the local stuff, DJs for doing weddings and stuff like that.

Vince 13:55

You're you're doing more lighting, you're doing more video, you're doing more so I'll I'll argue and say that the mobile DJ booth has changed dramatically completely. Yeah, from when I first started to now. Uh, it's a command center, right? That's what it is. Uh whether you were doing small weddings by yourself or you'd go in and you'd be the chosen DJ and you're working with a production company because of the you know high-end wedding industry, and these guys are coming in with you know 20, 40 movers, huge sound systems. A regular average wedding DJ will not supply that themselves. Yeah. Um your DJ booth has now become a true command center. So, from a mobile standpoint, um, when I first started, you'd often have you know the lighting guy off to the side, which would be supplied by the wedding DJ company, um, you know, on a road case with the lighting controller taking care of the lighting. Cool, that made sense. The DJ was kind of the spotlight in the middle of the stage. They would do their thing, MC, entertain the crowd, and that worked. But as time progressed and technology got better, that DJ now is also doing his lighting at the same time. He's doing video because now there's lots of TVs and displays being used in the wedding DJ setups or the mobile DJ setups, no matter the type of event, whether it be corporate, whether it be weddings, whether it be uh, you know, family events.

Speaker 6 15:14

Yeah.

Vince 15:15

They're all those components now are being controlled by that mobile DJ. And the cool part about it is that it's become a lot easier to do, yeah, become a lot simpler. So now the DJ will often have you know the controller in front of him or her. Off to the right or the left, they'll have their small lighting console, which you're not manipulating every channel anymore, right? You've got a lot of presets. A lot of the controllers now are making it very easy to program. So you can be doing a track and you know exactly when the drop is coming, you know, one button and your lights are strobing. I'm using as an example. But to have that available right next to you, and you're not talking to the lighting guy behind you or next to you, that that changes your performance, right? Um, everything from syncing, even the the video displays with your tracks and your VJing, right? Your video DJing. Um, that's all at your fingertips now. Versus before you needed a lot more equipment, it was a lot more spread out. You might have had a person dedicated to that one role. Now that DJ is capable of doing everything themselves, which is uh pretty phenomenal. I mean, uh, Pioneer DJ's got um got controllers that have a DMX out on it now, right? So now not only is it reading real-time music phrasing and applying it to DMXing, the controller is doing it itself, right? So it's uh it's definitely changed for sure. Um a lot more technical. You know, we talked to uh we were talking to someone on a previous podcast saying how technology is moving so quickly and you can't fall behind. It's the same thing with DJing now. You need to know a little bit about every single aspect of live production and not just beat matching or reading a crowd.

Franco 16:53

So lighting, yeah.

Vince 16:55

And that's where you know, as a mobile DJ, I think it uh it could be your biggest weakness, right? If you're just saying I know how to read a crowd, I know how to play music, great, but today it's all about experience, right? What do you bring to that room? Does the equipment blend into the room? Does the lighting look good? Is it just a you know a light on sound active mode? Yeah, sure, that works for certain parties, but most of the days now, you know, DJs want to be programming the lighting to the room and to the crowd. So you have to know a little bit about everything in order to to make a living now as a mobile DJ versus just coming in with your your huge speakers and I've got the biggest, baddest sound system. It's not about that anymore.

Franco 17:37

It's about you know becoming a producer, so more of a producer standpoint and uh storyteller for yeah, storyteller and entertainer.

The Lost Art Of MCing

Vince 17:47

Entertainer, you know, one skill that I was lucky enough that I came in kind of or I started. There was a big trend in the 80s, 90s, early 2000s of MCing at at private events. Um, and I had to learn that skill to be able to get the weddings. Uh so I was lucky enough to work with a lot of great MCs in the city. Uh luckily, you know, I I spoke more than one language, so I was able to adapt and learn how to MC. To find an MC today, very difficult. Oh, yeah. Very, very, very difficult. Wow. Um, so that's something that I think we're missing a little bit of, you know, and there's different styles of MCing, just like you know, there's different styles of comedians. But to be able to MC and motivate a crowd properly without being obnoxious or without making the show about you, that's kind of like you know, is that a generational thing you think? I think it's a generational thing. I think it's a trend thing. I think the newer generation doesn't even know that that could be part of an event. Uh, but it's important. Yeah, it's really important. How do you guide the evening? People are looking at you, they're looking at the bride and groom too. Yeah, but you're the one guiding the entire flow of the event and making sure that people are doing what you want them to do, you know. And there's a lot more distractions at today's events. There's phone booths, there's the cell phones, yeah. The bars that are located outside the room. That's the biggest threat to any party, right? So, how do you, you know, yes, you can play good music. Yeah, but how do you wine? How do you convince people to hey, you know, come back from the photo booth or the bar, now we're doing something? What are those tricks that you're using to get people back on the dance floor? You're using the power of the microphone, right? And that's something that you gotta practice. And not a lot of people, I I think are are practicing that. Uh, and that distinguishes a lot of people, those that can. You know, there's some some older mobile DJs, whether it be Montreal, Toronto, major cities, that are still working because they have that skill, right? So it's it's interesting to see where things are going from a mobile DJ standpoint, but just the equipment alone, um people are a lot more aware of the equipment being used, and I hate to say it, but the way the equipment looks, right? So you're you're getting married, you book a beautiful hall, spending a ton of money on food, inviting guests over, everything that comes with the expenses of having a wedding. The next thing you know, you've got a DJ that shows up with a huge sound system because they're so proud of it, but you're covering half of the draping that they paid for. Now all of a sudden, people are looking at the speakers and no longer the bride and groom or all the decor you spent money on. That's not necessarily what people want today.

Speaker 6 20:32

Yeah.

Vince 20:33

Back in the day, people didn't know. There was no social media, there was no internet. So it was that was your bragging point. I have one of the best sound systems in the city, and I'm gonna make sure your wedding sounds amazing. Cool. You know, that's where the argument of people using linerase in a 30 by 30 room, like, no, that that doesn't make sense. But it was loud and and you know, it was powerful, people felt it. That was important. But now people or clients want equipment that'll do the job, but that also looks good.

Speaker 6 21:01

Yeah.

Vince 21:01

Right? Because the expenses of everything else have also gone up. Like I said, the core, the room priorities have shifted. True, you know, and I speak to DJs all the time, and they're like, Yeah, it's crazy how many people ask me, you know, what does your sound size sound setup look like? That still boggles my mind. Yeah, I think I said it in a previous podcast, but yeah, I bring it up because it's it's true, right? Yeah, that's where column speakers are coming in now because all of a sudden you don't have a big black box on a speaker pole next to the bride and groom. You can have a white column speaker that blends in flawlessly with the setup. Guess what? People are gonna prioritize that over the sound of it. And it's just the reality of today. You know, I don't uh a part of me disagrees with it, right? But at the same time, it's the experience. That's what people are looking for.

Experience Over Volume At Events

Franco 21:52

That actually brings up uh uh my next point, which was how sound systems are changing. And it's sad that. People are looking at the aesthetics, which I could assume I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but you know, in in in system integration, that is always uh an issue as well.

Speaker 6 22:10

Yeah.

Franco 22:11

But I didn't know that it was bleeding a lot into uh like those type of events. Um how is how is do you do you think people I think you kind of answered that question a little bit, but people are more aware of the equipment. Are and and I think you again you you answered it, but is it because of the sound quality? Do you think people are looking for the sound quality, or is it still the DJs that are telling them that there's gonna be a better sound quality, or is it just something that is very passive, like it's just the DJ upgrading his gear and the demand is really not there?

Hugo 22:44

It's really up to the DJ that's I think you're evolving two things here again. That depends on the type of event, you know. At an Ultra Festival, at Stereo Nightclub, at any type of after hour, like the sound system quality is gonna matter a lot. Yeah. In a wedding, I think you agree with me. People don't really care. People I would say anymore.

Vince 23:09

I yeah, I don't think it's I don't know if care is the right word. I think they just don't know better. And I and I talk to a lot of people, and that's the point that I try to prove is you think of the average person nowadays, when they listen to music, and we spoke about this on another podcast. Barely anybody has a dedicated theater room. Barely anybody has a dedicated listening setup, right? Whether it be vinyl, CD, their Flax, their MP3s, whatever it is, people are happy listening to music off two little speakers directly on the iPad. Off a quarter-inch display. Not even. I mean, it could put the iPad in the corner of the room and listen to the floor. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like from speakers that come out of a phone or a tablet, they're happy with that. You put that in a live event setting where there's people talking, there's music blasting. I think people don't understand that there is such a thing as better audio quality out there. And I think the people that are successful are those that are able to tell that story while maintaining the look and the experience factor, right? Um I could tell you so many stories where I've done events personally and I've consulted with, you know, whether it be a competitor or somebody else, and they're like, I don't know if that's enough sound, you know. Like I would add another four subwoofers to that wedding, it's a big wedding. And then I'm like, no, you know what, just from experience and I've been in that room, I think we're okay with, you know, call it two subwoofers instead of four, as an example. And I show up to that wedding and people are complaining, like, hey, can you turn on the bass? It's like, so imagine if I showed up with four subwoofers. You know, people care more about again the experience. Is it dinner time and people can talk to the person next to them? Yeah, that makes more of an impact than the frequency of that subwoofer that's coming out and whether you can hear it, you know, in front of the dance floor or on the side of it. No one cares if your subwoofer is in cardio and cardioid mode or not. People don't know, but they know how the sound impact impacts the overall experience. When you're at a wedding and someone's doing a speech and you can't hear it, what ends up happening? You start talking to the person next to you. Yeah, then that multiplies by 10 tables, 20 tables. Now all of a sudden you have the father of the bride trying to give a speech, everyone's talking, it looks disrespectful, but it loses the impact of the actual speech. Now imagine if you had a DJ in there that had a proper sound system. Again, it doesn't have to be the biggest, baddest sound system, but has a good set for the main dance floor and knows how to set up proper fills and delays in the room, and now everybody could hear that speech from the father or the brother. And the room is quiet because everyone's listening, everyone could hear it properly, and now all of a sudden that speech looks like an Academy Award winning speech because everyone's listening, there's that respect. Yeah, that makes a difference. True. Right? So it's like it's little things that that actually impact the experience versus having that crazy amount of sound. Now, this is where the technology comes in because back in the day, if you needed twice as the amount of equipment to set up those delays and you need, you know, a lot more amps and whatever it may be, we're really going back in time now. But now it's just a matter of setting up an extra powered speakers, powered speaker with a small delay directly on the mixer. With a small delay on the mixer, even better on the speaker itself. True. Oh, yeah. Or even just a column speaker, put that on the subwoofer, you have your highs, and you can control the volume from an app or set the delay on the app. Now you're improving the experience for everybody.

Franco 26:53

So now DSPs, DSPs are really integrated in the DSPs directly in the speaker.

Vince 26:57

Yeah, yeah. I don't know anyone that uses an external DSP. Yeah, nobody.

Hugo 27:00

And on the opposite side of the spectrum, I I rarely do gigs. Like my last gig was probably three, four years ago to a cycling event. I was uh volunteering as the DJ and I I did borrow some equipment from from SFM. Uh and on the opposite side of the spectrum, when you're in a like a bike race and someone comes and tells you, hey man, your system sounds really good. Props to me, you know, it means you did a good job. If someone that's doesn't have any record or is not a melomaniac, or you know, he's he's not someone into music, but he, hey man, that's that system sounds really good.

Vince 27:42

Yeah, you did a good job. That is that is that is cool. And it's about educating them too. Like the amount of times I've walked up to my bride and grooms and said, Hey, do you notice how you know the room's not loud right now? It's dinner. They're like, Yeah, everyone's telling us how it's the first wedding that we can actually speak to the person next to like next to next to us, and it's really nice. And I can speak to someone without yelling and screaming, those little things make a difference because then you're not tired. The fatigue effect on of sound, that's another aspect that people don't understand the science of, right? The auditory fatigue that that does to someone, I mean, it could drain you, and then all of a sudden you're exhausted by 11:30, and you're like, I gotta go home. I don't know why, but I'm feeling so tired and I have a you know, a small headache.

Speaker 6 28:25

Yeah.

Vince 28:25

But if you have a proper, well-balanced audio system, you know, and the bass is not moving your internal organs and you're at a wedding, like that makes a big difference. You're gonna dance till 2 a.m. because it's comfortable. So it's more about the effect of the sound that it has on the experience than the actual equipment being used. But would you say the equipment helps by by doing that? Yes, no, for sure. The equipment does absolutely help doing that, you know.

Franco 28:54

And yeah, wider dispersions, especially those column speakers, uh have much more wider dispersions, so you're covering a lot more than let's say back in an old QSC regular powered speaker where it's you know, and I think that's where when I was DJing, it was like, okay, no, we'd maybe have to put four or six just to make sure that we're we're covering the dispersion, and that's going back 25 years. But nowadays, like the liner, I was freaking out. Like it's the line array, the columns, and even the power.

Vince 29:26

Yeah, some of the EAW stuff you can change. Yeah, on the line arrays, you can change your dispersion now, which is just by physically flipping something on the actual speaker.

Hugo 29:35

Yeah, the wave guiding, exactly.

Vince 29:37

Yeah, that's incredible. But even like lighting, I mean, we used to bring around so much truss to all the events. Uh, and now it's all about being in there as quick as possible and getting out as quick as possible. Um, so people are using less trust now. They're putting moving heads on, you know, speaker stands with adapters. Wow. Instead of having a bunch of wash lights for the dance floor now, people are showing up with bars like we have here in the corners, right? So it's it's changed. The look is sleeker, it's smaller. A traditional speaker stand, I'm gonna argue that more than half of the people using speakers now are not using your three-foot traditional speaker tripod stand. Square, they're using a square thing, exactly. They're using a square base with like an M10 pole on it, like you would use on a subwoofer. Yeah, and using that because it takes up less room, it's a lot easier on the eyes, it's a lot sleeker, and that's what people are doing. Interesting.

Minimal Rigs Reliability And Smarter Mics

Vince 30:34

So it's it's very I would say there's like a minimalistic approach or trend going on, yeah, uh, which makes a difference again visually, but also from a production standpoint, the simplification of your command center, like we're talking about, also allows you to focus on your craft, and that's what I try to push a lot now is you know, we're talking about the equipment. I'm talking a lot here, but no, that's fine. Uh we're talking about the equipment and how good it is, and yes, it makes a huge difference. And certain brands are better than others for certain applications, but to not have to worry about equipment failures, amps overheating, uh, you know, moving heads with lodged motors or whatever it may be, if there's a lot less worrying about other things, then I can focus on my crowd and I can focus on what I'm playing. Yeah. And that makes a huge difference. Yeah.

Hugo 31:32

You know, even talking about failing, I have uh an anecdote for you. Uh I long, long time ago, I I had a few gigs in a club called uh uh uh Le Salon d'Aomé here in on uh um on St. Laurent Street. It's a house music club, and I remember at the time I was using uh software from Emadio called Synchro Synchro wait Torque from Synchro Science, which was bought a German company bought by Emadio and uh never failed on me once. Okay, and I remember I was doing the uh the first part for for another DJ in the in the sorry sorry here. What what did that thing do? What did that sorry torque do? It's basically it's it was just like a tractor or record box, it was a a digital DJ interface like virtual DJ and all this. Yes, it was a software to play your wave or mp3 or AIFF track. So yeah, you're right. Cool. I should give a little bit more context. Basically, allow you to play your digital files off your laptop. Just like record box. It's a sound card, base basically a sound card, but it also came with the software. Correct. Okay, and yeah. And I remember the DJ that was after me kind of laughed at me because I was using a software that nobody used, it was not very known, but what I told him is it never crashed on me. So I'm not gonna replace it until the driver exists for my computer. Yeah, and the guy who was using Tractor, it was probably version 1.7 at the time, like it was in one of the early versions of Tractor, and he he laughed at me because I was using uh not an industry standard software, but he had a few crashes during his set. You see, my gosh. And don't get me wrong, I've used Tractor after because my software came to an end, like it was obsolete. Yeah, after that, like after version two of Tractor Software, it never crashed on me. But you know, it was just funny that the guy told me, Why are you using this? And I told him, Because it never crashed on me. And during his set, he had two or three crashes. Wow. So so as Franco said, when you when you don't have to uh think about like is it gonna crash? Is it uh am I gonna have problems? And you can basically concentrate on what you do best, which is your craft. Yeah, things get easier and you get more like more smiles on the dance floor, that's true, more happiness, everybody's happy.

Franco 34:06

So that's very true. I think that's one big positive about the the evolution of uh of technology is not just to evolve, just to evolve, but more to how to um to further enhance the experience, and that's by focusing on the craft and letting all the stuff being automated by either DSPs in the background or the equipment doing its thing, running down like room correction, like you were saying before, like both of you guys were saying, I think that uh that's a huge yeah, and like even something as simple as uh as microphones, you know.

Vince 34:41

I remember back in the day, I I never went to school for this. I didn't know how to scan for a proper frequency on a microphone. And I bet you there's a lot of people listening that don't know that when you scan for a microphone, you actually have to have your other microphone receivers on because then that takes up a channel, right? So it's reading saying, hey, these channels are all taken. Yeah, how do I scan properly and find an empty slot? A lot of people don't know that. So they would turn on one microphone, scan, and then you know, turn off, go to the next microphone, scan. That's not how to properly scan for a microphone. But now with the technology, um, the systems literally do it for you. Like I have a SLXD system and um from Sure. From Sure. Shout out to Sure. Uh and both of my receivers are connected with a Cat5 cable. When I initialize my system on one, so I scan for a frequency, it'll ask me after it initially scans for the first one, hey, I know there's another receiver connected. Do you want me to scan that one too, since we're doing it together? Absolutely. So from a single button press, I'm scanning two microphone systems, and I can tell you, knock on wood, I haven't had a single issue with that system. So it's just like it's it's it's just become, I don't want to use the word easier because there's different skills needed today than you needed 10 years ago. Like networking. Like networking. You know, I've I never had a cat five cable in my DJ booth before. It's crazy. Now I do, you know, so it's it's just changing. Uh, and I think it's for the better. I think it's for the better. And there's still people that haven't adopted, you know, just like every other technology shift. But once people realize, hey, I could actually focus on my craft and not worry about microphone interference and all that, hey, let's, you know, let's use it to our experience. Or to our benefit, I should say.

Franco 36:28

Yeah.

Vince 36:29

Yeah.

Franco 36:29

I'm

Bedroom DJ Boom And Democratization

Franco 36:30

seeing a lot more uh bedroom DJs getting out of the bedroom and now touring and stuff like that, because you know, with the whole advent of YouTube and um Twitch, you know, streaming, and I know a few DJs in this company that are on Twitch and and DJ, um that too is becoming a lot more uh relevant and uh prevent than yeah.

Hugo 36:57

I just mentioned earlier in the podcast Fred again is like was a bedroom DJ that became famous because of his uh uh uh boiler room. So you know it's it's it's exactly like that. You now have superstars that came out of their bedroom. Yeah. Because of the advent of like uh uh small controllers. Yeah, all in one uh sorry, uh what's the name again? Like the like a small controller, yeah, controller, yeah.

Vince 37:26

DJ DJ controllers, yeah. You know, flex four or whatever it may be.

Hugo 37:29

Yeah, flex two.

Vince 37:30

Now now and that's one big proponent of it, I have to say, is back in the day when you wanted to get into DJing, there was two turntables, mid turn tables, an amplifier, speakers, like and don't forget the whole music acquisition. True, right? So you're buying the music, you had to go find it, you know, again, going back decades, whether it be vinyl, CDs, whatever. But even if it was, you know, downloading your music, whether you're paying for it or not, you still have to sit down and prepare the music and all that. Yes. Nowadays, you can go and buy a controller at $400 and you're DJing. You already have a Spotify.

Hugo 38:06

You're DJing off your Spotify. Yeah, you're DJing off your Spotify. Or I or IMU, sorry, no, Apple Music or beatboard streaming platform.

Vince 38:15

$400 now. Yeah. And you're you're able to DJ. Like that's amazing. I wish I had that back in my day. And that's just creating such a movement that there's so many people getting. I get phone calls all the time because people know I'm in the industry. And they're like, Franco, my you know, my son or daughter wants to get into DJing. What's the best thing to do? And I used to always say, like, okay, well, look, before you spend a couple thousand dollars, like maybe go to a friend, or they can come over, see the equipment, see if they actually like DJing. Uh, but now it's like, guys, you can go buy one for $400, or even better, you can download an app on your iPad and just start to understand what DJing is. So that barrier of entry is a lot lower now because of the cost. Um I I'm gonna say something controversial. It's good for the podcast. Yeah, you know, I think it's also decreased the amount, the it's lower the quality of DJs too.

Franco 39:12

True. So I was just gonna ask you, I'm gonna ask I was gonna ask you that because in film uh the the the barrier of entry has definitely lowered. And one comment Quentin Tarantino had said was the amount of garbage that's on the market right now is insane. So I was gonna ask you the same thing. Like, have you seen a uh a wave of garbage?

Vince 39:36

Yes, yes, uh and I think I don't want to go down a rabbit hole, but I I think you could say that about any trade. Like, I mean, you look at uh I'm trying to think of a good example, uh, renovations. Like back in the day to be a contractor, you had to invest in the tools, you had to know who your suppliers were. You can walk to Home Depot now, spend $500 on tools, battery-powered tools, and you can do a whole you know renovation project yourself if you really wanted to. So, yes, you're gonna have good contractors and you're gonna have bad contractors. It's the same thing. It's just it's the it's the ease of acquiring the tools that have gotten a lot easier. So it's normal that you're gonna get a higher volume of people. And just like anything else, the more people you add to your sample, you know, the less quality you're gonna get because there's that many people competing and trying to fight for the same thing.

Hugo 40:30

They call that democratization, not for French, not for in English, yeah.

Vince 40:34

But I think it's amazing for the industry, I think it's amazing for the market. We have uh uh traditional musical instrument stores that would have never even touched a DJ controller or piece of pro audio gear that are now calling us saying, Hey, I've got a lot more people walking into my store. Yeah, I've got the people that want to buy an acoustic guitar. That's fine, it's my bread and butter. But there's a lot more people asking me, hey, do you have a DJ controller or do you have, you know, whatever it may be? And that's what's really cool, is that it's changing and people now when they they want to start learning an instrument, it's no longer clarinet, piano, drums, guitar. It's all those instruments plus DJing. And that's what's become really cool. We work with a cool program in uh in Ontario called Mathroom Music. I don't know if I mentioned it before on the podcast. Uh Joseph Carjee, who's become a good friend of mine now, too. He actually teaches math through music. So through DJing, he comes with 15, 20 controllers out of school, and during lunchtime, he's teaching them about percentages and and numbers all through DJing. Wow. Which is amazing. Right? So it's like it's really cool to see how DJing has become part of main culture now. Yeah, because it's a lot easier to uh to enter. But um I guess it's great for the industry.

Franco 41:55

It's not dual edge for anything. It's great for sales, but yeah, yeah. And it's great for, I guess, uh, discovering new artists that may have never known that they had that talent because of that that that barrier entry, but uh at the same time, you also get all the and I think one thing that people don't talk about often enough, and this is my take, I don't know if it's true or not.

Vince 42:18

Is it

Curation Vinyl Comebacks And Live IDs

Vince 42:19

controversial? No, this isn't controversial. You like my controversial topics, eh? Um, I think it's great for the music industry from an artist standpoint, because it's become so easy to consume music nowadays that you don't play a vinyl from song one to ten anymore and just let it play. We've become we have no more patience for listening to full albums or for even different artists, different songs because it's all being thrown at us so quickly. Versus when you're DJing, you're consciously thinking about what song you're gonna play and how that's gonna impact, whether it be yourself, you're DJing for yourself in your bedroom, or for the crowd. So I think it's still it creates that attachment to the artist or to the music, which I think we've lost a little bit. And I think that's what's so cool about DJing is that you have someone actively thinking about what song they're gonna play and which artist they're gonna choose to control you know your dancing, which is so cool.

Franco 43:21

So you're saying that DJs help music discoverability. I think so.

Vince 43:27

Yeah, it's it goes back to you know the original days of uh an artist that would come out with a track or an album. They'd go to every radio station, vinyl, yeah. They'd go to every radio station, please play my vinyl, please play my my album, please play my track, because that was the only way to discover it. Well, now there's a lot of that happening because you've got all the major streaming platforms just pushing music like there's no tomorrow. But DJing allows you to filter and choose that exact track curate. Yeah, so that curation is still really important, and I think. That's why vinyl is making a huge comeback because there's that um that curation that's involved, whether it be buying the vinyl, actually, like okay, I'm gonna spend forty dollars on this vinyl and I'm gonna listen to every track because I spent a lot of money on it. Um, to actually playing it and just everyone needs to relax. Let's listen to the track or the album and understand the intention behind it. I don't know, it's a little philosophy.

Franco 44:25

No, I agree, but I I have to agree, I have to agree. And I actually appreciate DJs that actually sample older stuff, like older music, yeah. And that gets a lot of people like, oh my god, what what was the original song? And then you they get onto who sampled it, and then uh I think that that's really cool. And I kinda I love artists that do that, honestly. It's it's amazing, especially for the newer generation, yeah, especially for the newer yeah.

Vince 44:49

There was there's like a trend of like you have to only play you know mainstream, most playing on the radio because that's all people knew. But now that we're in this era of wow, there's so much music, I don't even know what I like anymore. Next time you speak to someone asks them what you know their favorite genre or artist or music is today. I'm telling you, they're gonna have a hard time answering. True, because there's so much of it, there's so much of it being thrown at them that now we've come out of this wave of you gotta play everything, everything, uh sorry, play mainstream because that's the only thing people knew. To now there's so much of it, I don't even know what I like myself. So now the DJs that are able to pick those unique tracks and bring something different, yeah, or those remakes genera.

Hugo 45:30

I mean, they could play like stuff from different eras, play a bit of everything, yeah, yeah.

Vince 45:34

Those are DJs that are successful. You know, and that's why you're gonna get a lot of, you know, we're talking about trends in the DJ booth too. There's a lot more live production happening now. Because again, I have to be careful with my words, not because DJing's become easier, the equipment has simplified it. Um, but now the DJs who are often producers now, right? To to DJ on a main stage, you're producing the music, you're actually making the music. People think you're just DJing. No, that's not true. You're actually making the music. So now because you know the whole act of beat matching and playing two songs has become simpler, the DJs are saying, okay, how do I make my performance different than the next guy? They're doing some of that live production on stage. Yeah, whether it be you know Fred again, Disclosure, there's so many guys doing live production, doing remixes of their original tracks. Yeah. Because again, people are tired of hearing the same track over and over and over again. Doing the remixes, doing the live production, bringing something different to the table. That's what's differentiating there.

Franco 46:33

Especially if you're a fan of that artist and you love that song, and then you get to the event and then they're losing. Yeah, yeah. Oh my god, they lose their mind. They lose it. Yeah, because now they feel like uh it's it's a one-off experience, right? The guy's not gonna read it.

Hugo 46:47

We find that on on YouTube or I mean it's it's a I I had to be there.

Vince 46:51

You heard something that someone else would never hear.

Hugo 46:54

Actually, that's not true.

Franco 46:55

I I actually like Skrill X, and I was listening to his one of his concerts with my kids, and a lot of the the remixes of remixes that he was doing couldn't find it anywhere. I was like, and then I was like what I told you.

Vince 47:15

Can't find it, and that's what we call an ID in the in the DJ world. It's something that you know you don't know what it is, you've never heard it before, it's different, it's not part of uh announcement.

Hugo 47:25

Yeah, when you look at the track list, sometimes you see ID, ID four, ID six.

Vince 47:29

Yeah, those are those are unidentified tracks that make the experience that much better. Yeah. So I could talk about this all day long. I love the questions, but I know we're getting at uh closer top of the hour.

Franco 47:42

Um, yeah,

AI Setlists Stems And The Near Future

Franco 47:43

really quick. Um, where's this all heading? Like in the next 18, 24 months, is uh is AI gonna come and swipe all this out? Or I know AI is the big buzzword, and you know, every podcast we do now, um, it's popping up and for good reason. Um but no, 18 to 20 month, 24 months long term, what do you what do you what do you guys sing?

Vince 48:07

What have you guys heard? I I haven't seen that much AI, to be honest with you. I I mean on the software side for sure it's gonna start popping up, whether it'd be showing you which tracks are in, you know, uh sing key or tempo, or even probably start to make you a perfect set list because of the the ability to sort through thousands of songs by genre, BPM, key, there's an organization factor that AI is is is so powerful for. Yeah, that I think we'll see. But the difference between you know an AI DJ or a live DJ, you cannot teach AI to see how that person's reacted to that one song that you can. I will maybe have to disagree with that, but okay, facial recognition, camera, yeah.

Franco 48:56

You know what I mean? Like having a camera. I was just thinking of that because you're talking, and I'm like, I'm just thinking of everything you're saying, and I'm like, I wonder if there's a camera or two cameras or three cameras that are analyzing, you know, we're talking about imagine you see, okay, this genre and it identifies the people left the dance floor.

Vince 49:13

Yeah, look at D10, like D10, like it could be, it could be D10.

Franco 49:17

We're analyzing people in the and and coming up with a report saying, uh, he wasn't really, you know, like he wasn't engaged. He wasn't engaged after the president said that statement, he wasn't really happy. I'm wondering if that can possibly come in.

Hugo 49:31

It could, it could, but it could, it's not gonna replace it.

Franco 49:33

It could. But but I'm saying, like, you know, like you you have those DJs, and I'm not most DJs are really good, but you have some DJs that are like, okay, two, three tracks, the floor is pumping, they put that track and it dies. He's he's too slow to transition, loses the crowd. This is where I'm thinking um AI learning about possible combinations that don't work, or I don't know. I'm just I'm not sure.

Vince 49:57

Yeah, no, I mean it's a great brainstorm for sure. I mean, I haven't really put that much thought into how AI can change the DJ industry. Maybe I should, maybe I can make a lot of money doing that. But um, I I think uh I think anything is possible. But I think like I was saying, there's still that unique connection that a DJ has with a dance floor. Maybe I'm just old school and naive, but there's nothing that replicates a feeling of you're dancing and you're looking at the DJ, DJ makes eye contact with you and knows like, okay, that's my superstar on the dance floor. I gotta make this guy happy because there's 30 people dancing with him or her. Let's keep it going. You know, like there's that connection to the booth or that room or experience that AI will, I don't think we'll have, but now my mind is going, you're right, facial recognition, body count on the dance floor. Does it know when you play disco, all of a sudden body count went down to four? You know, like it could be, could be, but that could be really cool.

Hugo 50:56

Yeah, I think uh I think uh we've seen that in a couple of softwares already, like uh the uh digital DJ software. Uh but I I think that the stems uh are getting like oh yeah instead of isolating with a regular EQ, yes, uh isolating based on stems, like just cutting all the drums and and all all the voices and all the bass, like so much easier. You'll see more of this, I think.

Vince 51:23

I I think we're seeing more on the production side, yeah. You know, like a lot with the the effects and the actual production using AI, isolation to your point, whether it be vocal isolation or specific instrument isolation, there's a lot of AI that's being put into that. Uh but the live aspect, I think we're still a couple years old. Yeah, gents. It was a pleasure

Final Takeaways And Farewell

Vince 51:43

talking to you about this stuff.

Franco 51:44

It was amazing, guys. Thank you so much for letting me pick your brains and hopefully uh some people uh uh learn something. So don't forget, like, subscribe, and uh write us a comment in the uh comments below if you uh have any uh questions or want to see something else. See you on the next one. See you on the next one, guys. Enjoy.

Speaker 52:01

Like, you know, that's the same.