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-- Some help on wedding dj stuff
Some help on wedding dj stuff
My brother is getting married and since I used to oh about 11 years ago, he wants me to do it.
I'm having a bit of a hard time dealing with non EDM tracks. I feel like some songs just go on for too long and i'm trying to find ways to transition where mixing isn't really an option.
I suppose I could skip a verse but then i would have to start adding cue points to about a million tracks.
For the dance stuff, I used ableton to warp them so I don't have to worry about the beatmatching and since he doesn't really like that stuff, I did enough tracks to cover that, i'n just not too sure what to with the other stuff. My brother isn't really down with EDM so most of it will be everything but.
Do people play the whole song usually ? Or do they loop a bar then do some delay fade out and start the new one, or do they just fade to the next track when they feel it is time. I was practicing for a bit and found it really hard in that it just all sounds like shit.
Another challenge i'm having is that i have too much music. What would be your advice for that ? should i just make my list smaller ?
And finally, this is a one time thing so i'm not really going to buy anything expensive. I have 2 rme fireface sound cards in the closet so that part is covered. I'm thinking of running each channel of traktor to ableton which will have a little bit of dynamic shaping so that I don't have to worry about track loudness. Then those tracks are sent to the master with a C4 multiband I supppose I will adjust once we set up the venue with a limiter as I don't think the system will have one other than the fail safe which turns the music down. For a controller, I bought this cheap novation fader and the native intruments x1 and I also have a few ipads with touchosc I can use as well.
Anyways, any help in what I should be doing and what I shouldn't be doing would be great. Its a one time thing but it is my brothers wedding. I've never actually been toe a wedding and I don't really go to club that play normal music so i honestly don't know how they do it. maybe i am over thinking this.
Also , what do most do for a back up when using a lap top ? I have 2 fireface cards so I aupppose I could just have the same set up twice as i have a macbook pro and so does my girlfriend.
annyways thanks.
Use well-known songs, play entire track, crossfade at will, profit.
Just have music that appeals to many different age groups...and if you are going to play electronic music you might want to wait until later on in the night when grandpa and grandma go home.
The beauty of this gig is that they are your family, and you can easily do the research and know what everyone fancies in terms of music.
You don't need to mix really. A wedding DJ functions as more of an MC that happens to play music and have all his own gear (the all in one package, no talent needed.)
The safest bet is to talk to the bride and find out what she wants. Trust me, she probably has how she would like the night to go etched in her in her head. Chances are if you make this a gig about showcasing your dj skills, you will look like a dink. This is the one gig were being a glorified jukebox is the point. I would worry more about getting the introductions and you mic skills ready. (It really isn't as easy as it looks if you are not used to animating a fuckload of people)
That being said, I've done this job for people I know a few times. It is actually really fun, tons of horny single women, free booze, free food, and who doesn't feel like 1 million bucks in a suit.
Always have a pre recorded 45 minute loop for drunk bridesmaids.
Pretend your a jukebox and bring an ipod or a similar mp3 player as backup.
HE'S BACK!!!!!
Good to see you back here R!
OK so, I hate mobile DJ'ing myself, but I've been roped in to a few too many weddings so here's my pearls:
Your technical setup should be fine and it's not a bad idea at all to bring a duplicate laptop setup. If one goes down the other is 30 seconds away.
You may to to use a program called mp3gainPro - it can match bathces of mp3's to within 1.5db of each other by chaining the MD tags. It's not perfect but it certainly gets them very close to each other.
The c4 will be fine but also have a limiter in the chain, with settings of a max thershold for the PA so that if something suddenly peaks or some twat tries to jack it up, you don't blow the speakers/amps.
Also, whatever you do bring cables x 2 and get there early for a good sound check - I've never been to a wedding where the soundsystem was perfect/all the kit was present/someone was there who knew how to set it up/etc - it pays to be prepared.
As for music selection - download the latest top 40 list and look for some edm mixes of them - these are good transition fodder for later, if you want to start taking it towards EDM. Make ure you have hiphop (ugh) and some R&B.
Unfortunately, ever wedding I have ever been to, has the usual cliches in terms of music, but at least get th stuff that everyone from any age group knows, some sinatra, some Van morrison, etc (double ugh).
In terms of transitioning on non EDM stuff, just wait for the main part of that song to go in to outro and fade up the new track on the first part that is recognisable to the audience. They don't give a shit about smooth mixing and once they've got some irish whiskey in them you could be banging pots and pans and they'd still be doing rock the boat on the dancefloor.
Have a little practice on the mic but don't sweat it to much - at the end of the day, it's friends and family so they know you and know you're not a paid MC. Just have a few one liners ready, especially anything that embaresses your brother as crowd love that shit.
Last resort: get as hammered as the crowd and play you like - at least you're all on the same level, and it's probably wiser than trying to intellectualise the behaviour of a bunch of drunk pikeys 
i used to play weddings when i first started djing
just play the classics, play them all the way through and do a simple crossfade to mix
you want to keep an eye on the energy of your tracks and build your flow that way
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Zyklon_Jay Just have music that appeals to many different age groups...and if you are going to play electronic music you might want to wait until later on in the night when grandpa and grandma go home. The beauty of this gig is that they are your family, and you can easily do the research and know what everyone fancies in terms of music. You don't need to mix really. A wedding DJ functions as more of an MC that happens to play music and have all his own gear (the all in one package, no talent needed.) The safest bet is to talk to the bride and find out what she wants. Trust me, she probably has how she would like the night to go etched in her in her head. Chances are if you make this a gig about showcasing your dj skills, you will look like a dink. This is the one gig were being a glorified jukebox is the point. I would worry more about getting the introductions and you mic skills ready. (It really isn't as easy as it looks if you are not used to animating a fuckload of people) That being said, I've done this job for people I know a few times. It is actually really fun, tons of horny single women, free booze, free food, and who doesn't feel like 1 million bucks in a suit. Always have a pre recorded 45 minute loop for drunk bridesmaids. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Tony Morello i used to play weddings when i first started djing just play the classics, play them all the way through and do a simple crossfade to mix you want to keep an eye on the energy of your tracks and build your flow that way |
I miss you, man.
for music
http://www.mobilebeat.com/top-200/
maybe it will help u out!
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the set up
2 laptop one running dj software and the other running live.
2 sound cards to the mixer.
1 mixer to the PA.
1 mic
maybe a ipod
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Your the dj play music for the chicks fuck the guys! 
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btw my last mix
http://soundcloud.com/atxshotcaller...-summer-session
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Looney4Clooney Hey Tony, its Richie. lol been a while since i've attempted to dj. I think i'm putting to much into this. Even bought that allan and heath mixer on special for 700$. Been downloading acapella after acapella, fixing tracks i like but feel they need a some fixing. I hired his favourite band to record their wedding song. Now that is gonna surprise the fuck out of them. I had to sign a blood contract that the track never sees the day of light or they will sue me for all i'm worth which is not very much but their manager was definitely not onboard. But they were nice and my brother has been a die hard fan since he was like 8. Any tricks on going from different tempos. Things i've been doing is using loop points to distort the original tempo and i've made a bunch of drum fill loops to lead into the new tempo. Also found that using a delay to nothing works well. haven't paid a penny for any of the music. How does that make you guys feel ? lol. Its fucking work just downloading man. Been downloading all the shows. I think I will have every song ever made. lol. I have 2 weeks now to weed out the shit. Discovered ableton by using the warp feature, That program is actually brilliant. IF i were ever to make EDM again, I would use that over logic in a second. No idea why anyone would use logic to be honest. Well for EDM. So like to people slow dance and shit ? To i need to have some ballads ? SHould I approach this like a high school dance ? I honestly haven't been to a top 40 club in a decade. I'm going to vancouver for a week prior to the wedding so I guess i will get some more details. I'm sure my brother will know what he wants. |
m4b back? lol
I don't think it's Mad For Brad. Mad For Brad wasn't this stupid.
"So like to people slow dance and shit ? To i need to have some ballads"
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Zyklon_Jay I don't think it's Mad For Brad. Mad For Brad wasn't this stupid. "So like to people slow dance and shit ? To i need to have some ballads" |
it isn't that simple
i mean i have to screen all the music for lyrics that don't gell with a wedding, Like a song about a breakup, off the table. Also half the family is traditional chinese, so i've been researching their billboard charts. I can't play anything vulgar while there are grandparents around , I don't know my brothers friends and whether they dance so even the way people dance will affect the music you can play. You can't go from rock to EDM , you need an aesthetic buffer ie funky disco ish stuff then to billie jean then you are set. And I need to know how EDM I can go which again , I need to ask him about his friends but he is stressed beyond belief at the moment so I will just wait till i go to vancouver and ask his better half.
I'm sure being a shitty wedding dj is easy to do but this is my brother and his reception is going to be off the hook. Even have a lazer beam system rented although he doesn't know about that. Maybe he will get angry, I've already changed the PA specs , added lights, and put a deposit on all these rental things just in case.
If I can manage to persuade half the audience to imbibe cocaine or some other drug, then we have a party. And people will only go crazy if they know they will have fun. So i have to set that standard early that this night will kick your ass and that fat green lazer beam that just blinded your granndma is just a taste.
please post pics of event afterwards 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by clay please post pics of event afterwards |
All you need.
And Neil Diamond - old people eat that shit up.
went off without a hitch. Spent way too much time. Because I produce, i would just start editing every song.
The EDM stuff was fucking annoying and so time consuming. First you have to warp your tracks in ableton. Then set proper beat greats in traktor. Honestly, way more time consuming than just beat matching. IN fact I wish I could of just beatmatched but traktor was always trying to sync shit.
I never really understood the downside to technology because I used to dj years ago with vynil but man I know exactly what people are talking about. I found my eyes always looking at the laptop. I think you really need to prepare really well for that sort of djing to work. And you need some sort of display that doesn't involve looking at some screen away from the audience.
Traktor doesn't beat match for you. Well unless you have donkey ears. So to actually warp it then set beatgrids, oldschool beatmatching seems so much less hassle. Riding the pitch is something that takes about 6 months to master. I have no idea why people would want to rely on some prorgram that has awful transient algorithms.
If i were to dj again , traktor would need some manual override like serato or something similar or it just doesn't work without spending hours going thru your tracks. I suppose it would not be so bad if you did your songs as you got them but i had to do about 100 tracks.
One thing I did find cool was using live and triggering different drum loops , acapellas and fills.. That program is pretty fucking cool. I had 2 laptops tho which made it simple. Would never trust running 2 programs at once. Had SSD's in each computer so nothing over heated and an ipod to the mixer just in case shit hits the fan which it didin't.
The only embarrassing part was family saying shit like you are really in your element. I mean djing is cool but like that was a one time thing. Djs are twats.
Oh and for people that want to make more money, start selling versions of your tracks with all the work done. I don't see how anyone wouldn't pay an extra 1$ for that service.
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