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Who needs a DJ when you’ve got a VJ?
By Chrissi Mark
Photos by Hew Burney
Every Friday, 19,000-square-foot Egypt-themed
nightclub Ra gets packed to capacity, despite wavering talk of the
venue in the press. MGM Mirage – the uber-company that also
owns major Las Vegas strip hotels like Bellagio, Treasure Island,
New York-New York and Mirage – recently added the Mandalay
resorts to its holding list. That includes the sprawling Mandalay
Bay; and Ra’s home, the pyramid-shaped, light-topped Luxor,
a staple of the Vegas skyline. Ra’s entire staff was scrapped,
save two men: general manager Jerome Thomas, and promotions and
marketing coordinator Steven Lockwood.
Lockwood is the young brain behind the club’s
revitalizing A/V party, the Friday night club-filler that bills
VJ Roonie G., aka Roongsak Griffeth, as the headliner, rather than
a DJ...
“It’s more hands-on,”
the 24-year-old Lockwood says of the party. “Vegas has come
down to people have to see it, want to touch it, and sing along
to it – that started with [MGM Grand lounge] Tabu with their
[touch-responsive video] tables. And so [at A/V], people can see
the TVs, they’re familiar with the music. It’s kind
of like watching MTV but with no commercials.”
With an opening DJ, a light jock controlling
over 100 intelligent lights, and a lights-off introduction, A/V
runs more like a dance concert than a weekly party. And maestro
G., who flies in from his home outside of Atlanta each week, is
more than happy to work the booth’s four Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD
turntables in a hybrid show that takes the notion of DJ as performer
to another level.
“I do some video magic and manipulation,
but I do it intertwined with the perspective that I’ve got
to keep the dancefloor rocking,” G. says. “So I’m
continuously mixing music as a DJ would, but on video. It makes
it really [musically] mixed.” G. plays mainstream and underground
hip-hop, Top 40, dance, ‘80s, a little bit of rock, mash-ups
– which are “a big Vegas thing now” – and
even more progressive stuff, like hard house and trance. “That’s
all mixed in with a touch of today’s pop culture, the hot
movies, or Dave Chappelle,” he says. “Because it’s
video I can just throw it in and they can relate.”
A connoisseur of nightlife media, Lockwood
was brainstorming new possibilities for Ra when the light bulb lit.
He’d seen G.’s video mixes on MTV2’s Monster Mix,
and watched the him demo Pioneer’s DVJ-X1 – which he
does at trade shows around the world, as one of the company’s
official endorsers – on a Pioneer promotional disc in “a
magazine somewhere. I saw him mixing videos, actual movies, and
I’m like, that’s my tech guy. How can we get this to
happen?” The Ra crew made contact and snagged G. for a residency.
G.’s visuals make for an energetic
crowd.
A Cockpit Equipped
A/V launched in January, and went from monthly to biweekly to weekly
in a matter of six months, eclipsing a mash-up party that had generated
earlier buzz. Lockwood added additional Sony plasmas, hung from
the ceiling with aircraft carrier cable, to the venue’s preexisting
quartet of 20’ x 30’ screens; and pimped the booth with
plenty of VJ candy.
“This is like a dream,” says
G. “It’s surreal, this booth. This is something you
draw up in a space shuttle and you don’t expect it to really
be built.”
The booth was recently redesigned with the
help of sponsor Pioneer, which prompted G.’s first turn on
the company’s “monster mixer,” the DJM-1000. “I’ve
got a big hip-hop background, so I’m all about the static,
the rawness, and improvisational stuff,” he says. “So
I never expected the fidelity of that mixer to be as good as it
is. It made a huge difference [with] the sound quality. It just
sounded great.”
The DJM-1000 connects with an Edirol V4
video mixer, plus two DVJ-X1’s and a Pioneer DJM -909 battle
mixer on the left and right sides, giving G. four video sources
at his disposal at all times. There’s also a Pioneer EFX-1000
effects unit, and two M-Connection MC-100NP VJ tri-monitors, connected
with Pioneer VSW-1 switchers.
G. admits it can all be too much information.
“By the end of the night I’m brain-dead,” he says.
“Every time I do a mix I have to think of the visuals mixing,
so I have to do two switches, two faders, and then I have to figure
out when I want the visuals to mix. Do I want the video to mix at
the same time, or before or after? So I’ve started to build
up a system where I usually do it after, because I like the mix
to be a surprise. So as I’m overlaying I’ll purposely
not overlay a video mix; I let the audio sneak up and then bam!
Right when I blow it over I’ll let the video in, where it’s
more effective.”
Even for an accomplished VJ like G., the
A/V booth is unprecedented. “I’ve been spinning with
the four-DVJ set-up for a couple of months, but last week was the
[first time with the] full set-up with three mixers,” he says.
“That was just phenomenal because it brings out the turntablist
background in me. I’m really able to manipulate audio and
videos at a more comfortable pace, at a pace that I can go at instead
of at the whim of the set-up. A lot of times the set up would slow
me down.
“I’m so excited. I’m like
a kid in a candy store. I just can’t wait to get back on there.”
Scratchy Sound
With all those video decks, what about the A in A/V? G., a father
of three who barely looks old enough to have accrued 22 years of
DJ experience, would hardly let audio get lost in the video. He
uses two separate Rane Serato Scratch Live systems “so I don’t
have to lug a gazillion CDs along with my gazillion DVDs,”
and is already working with Rane and Serato to smooth out glitches
in the product, just as he did with Pioneer during the development
of the now-standard CDJ-1000 digital turntable.
And to the analog-philes and naysayers of
CDs, MP3s and anything digital, G. has a message: “Screw that.
I’m playing videos, yo. You’ve got to move forward.
I can’t imagine what’s coming out, but if you don’t
start getting your stuff together you’re going to be stuck
in the stone ages.”
G’s Thing: The A/V Booth
4 - Pioneer DVJ-X1 digital audio
and video turntables
3 - Pioneer SW1 video switchers
2 - Pioneer DJM-909 battle mixers
2 - M-Connection MC-100NP VJ tri-monitors
2 - Rane Serato Scratch LIVE systems
1 - Edirol V-4 video mixer
1 - Pioneer DJM-1000 mixer
1 - Pioneer EFX-1000 effects unit
1 - Pioneer HDJ-1000 headphones |
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