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I'm not a dj, so I guess the only way to find out is to ASK. If I wanted to do a dj night INSTEAD of karaoke, can I just get a library of songs, just like for karaoke, and put them on harddrive. If so, do they sell the (equivalent) to the Foundation, by Soundchoice, or the Essentials, by Chartbuster? Or do you just have to know maybe a couple thousand dance songs in your head? I think the equipment I have right now is powerful enough for the venue that I am currently at, I don't have lights, and I'm sure that is a MUST for dj work, so I'd have to get those. But I'm really at a loss where to start a GOOD, BASIC dj library. Any suggestions?

Rosario

Okie dokie... I am gonna wade in here because the title ("Dumb DJ Questions") I thought applied to me But seriously, I DJ too - and in fact cconsider it more important to me than my karaoke side.

What do you mean by "DJ night"? Are you actually going to actively DJ - beatmix, fade, mix, sample there and then?

Or do you mean you just want to line some music up and have it play?

If you are talking about the first - you will need to learn how to do it - using either the right software (virtual DJ is a good starter) or a set of decks and vynil. This is what I do (software, no desire to lug record decks around, although I do DJ at home on my decks).

However, if you mean the second - easy. Just use a playlist and a crossfader effect (winamp supports both out of the box).

MUSIC:
You need a VAST library of music. Why? Because people request all sorts. You have to be able to read the crowd and know what song you want to lead them to, where you want to take them, steer the mood and the vibe. I personally say that chosing the right music is more important than any technical skill - and possibly the area I excel at.

LIBRARIES:
Here in the UK, I like MusicFactory releases - they have great compilations of chart hits, new stuff and oldies. Moreover, the sleeve tell you the BPM and intro length. Also the "Now" albums are a godsend for modern cheesy parties. Other than that - it's simply a case of buying as much music as possible. Luckilly I have always had a LOT of music, and coverting it to mp3 was a chore but worthwhile.

PRODUCING:
I have produced a number of my own "premixes" - about 6 songs long seamlessly mixed so I can take a cigarette break. But otherwise, I mix on-the-fly.

HARDWARE:
I use the same hardware as my karaoke setup - but a different mixer. A DJ mixer and a vocal mixer are 2 very different things.

LIGHTS:
Unless the venue has lighting - these are vastly important. But you can get a good effect without spending a fortune. A few double-derbys, a few moonflowers and a few lasers. About £700 worth, through a light smoke - looks about £3000.

Hope any of the above random mumblings help.

Nlouch,

I do about 25 or so DJ gigs a year on top of my bi-weekly karaoke gigs.

As for the music, the copyright laws are the same as karaoke or any other live commercial performance - pretty much buy it from a licenced dealer or you are out of compliance and can be prosecuted. I use Amazon.com's MP3 service. Always high-quality downloads for $0.79 for the top downloads for the month...$0.99 for everything else, including instrumental versions and backbeats.

As for equipment, I was using my karaoke PA for most gigs with a standard live music mixer (Yamaha 16/6FX). I have a smaller PA with powered speakers for smaller gigs and most weddings.

The thing I just found a few weeks ago that is perfect for a good beatmix/cut DJ is the Numark iDJ2. I got it over at Guitar Center for about $480.00. It is not quite professional grade, like as in you are not going to find a working DJ in a big club using one, but it does have all of the features you need to run a live DJ show and mix and remix on the fly. I'm still getting used to it, but I used to beatmix and loop CDs of my Numark CD25G, and this thing is 100% easier to use. I have been running it off a 16 gig portable thumb drive, but you can also hook up an IPod or pretty much anything with modern solid-state storage (portable hard drives, other MP3 players, etc.).

Go check out a few of the demos on YouTube. You can run a complete live DJ show with some cool live mixing and remixing with just this unit and a set of powered speakers.

Good luck!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Not dumb at all. I would also query as to whether you want to do the 'talking DJ' deal or just provide a great mix of music.

I have a collection of probably close to 3000 CDs...I have ripped every one of them on to two laptops, one with Windows media player and the other with a DJ program (something about a monkey?). To supplement what I didn't have in my collection, I went to Billboard (through Napster I believe) - they list all the billboard hits for every year, four seasons I believe - so you can look, for example, at Spring 1978 and find the top played hits ... this is a pretty good way to figure out what you need for any kind of crowd. I believe they also break it down by genre.

We do a lot of weddings with this setup and combine it easily with karaoke. I also have created playlists (which both softwares will do) for 'pre-ceremony country,' 'pre-ceremony jazz', etc., so you can literally hit the 'go' on a playlist and it will fade in and out from song to song for hours if you need it to. Of course you can break in and change whatever you want at any time. I have a 'hard rock dance' playlist, a 'hip hop dance' playlist, etc. You get the idea.

There are indeed sets of discs you can purchase to do this for you, as Nlouch states. On the other hand, if you're thinking specific crowds, I find out what radio station(s) your group may listen to - go in to their playlist, look at what they're playing, pick the most popular pieces, and rip those to your computer. Same with country. It's just really a matter of getting familiar with a lot of music so you can provide a playlist that guides the crowd - - by having two laptops, i am able to switch easily back and forth - both have their own slider on the board - simply a matter of manually fading if you have to. I don't do the high-powered DJ chitchat - Not into that, or those crowds. Let the yunguns do that. I am, however, very skilled at providing the appropriate music with the appropriate flow because I have invested the time and energy into it. Really it is simple to do - just takes a bit of time initially. Best of luck - it is good to be able to offer this service ... and I am embarking on my first venture into pre-karaoke show trivia next month. Should be fun, and another great option to offer future venues.

Well, you guys showed me what I really DIDN'T know about djing. Topher, and Nlouch, you TOTALLY lost me on some of your posts, but then again, I expected that. I guess what I'm looking at is SORT OF dj. More on the lines of what Karen was talking about. I'm talking about just playing some tunes, announcing some stuff, and having people dance. This is just an idea I'm currently tossing around. Sounds like if I can find the right songs, I can rip them to my harddrive, put them into my filler tunes playlist, and let Compuhost do the fading, I can do the announcing, and I'm good to go. OH, except for the lights. That I can find out about through here, or researching the net. Thanks guys, and ladies, any more suggestions are welcome.

Rosario

Wherever we lost you - just say and we can explain.

Seeing as you basically just want to play some music - those "101 hits of the 80s" type boxsets are handy little starters.

I guess I should have worded the title differently, should have been "dumb questions for djs". Having said that, I didn't think anyone would think I would be asking for help after calling someone dumb. I'm lost as to what is a "beatmix/cut", or "beatmix". I know what fading is, and mixing is, but not beatmixing.

Rosario

Rosario - There a a few TYPES of DJ

A Mobile DJ - Party Stuff / Weddings / Events
This is were you need a vast library and maybe some lighting etc

A CLUB DJ- This is an animal unto itself - specializes dance tunes which need to be PERECTLY beat matched and mixed ( Each song has a "beat counter" associated) with the rythm of the song so IF dancing you're not get all off kilter with slow beats song the a fast beat song etc etc ect .

Bar DJ - Another large diversifed library is KEY and a program thats allows you create a playlist and CROSSS FADE from one song to another. Best source of what type of music can be found on the bar jukebox

Beatmixing is taking two songs & working the tempo so the overall beat/tempo feels the same between the two songs.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

And I fit mostly into the "Mobile DJ" category. Used to play clubs, etc in a previous life - but it was very much "Turn up and play" - the gear was venue gear, I just brought my records. I also do bars. Over here a bar DJ is very much as skilled as the club DJ but more chilled.

I think having done that side of things, and now the complete flip side of things, gives me a funny perspective on it all

Beatmix is a trick DJs use to match two songs' beats while fading from one to another. The old days with the turntable, you would use the slow down/speed up nob so that the beat would match then slowly bring the song back to normal beat. Now, you can do that in software, although doing it automatically doesn't always work.

If you just want to have filler music for a few songs, why not just take a iPod and do your mix at home then play it through you mixer? You still need to rip the music to the iTunes but I think iTunes have ways to fade in/out between the songs option so you can take however many songs you may need, double it then play it during the night. That's what I do for filler songs if I am not doing a full DJ gig.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

My buddy DJ~E is doing a three day gig Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week..

I'm stuck doing the karaoke.. (Saturday only, 8-10)

Info here.. http://www.thedunetour.com/

Pretty good sponsor, OK money..

might be an idea to look at sites like http://www.ukdj.com or [urlhttp://www.mastermixdj.com/paris/frameset.asp[/url]

and buy some CD's (or downloads) that suit your needs. . . some of the the Grandmaster Cd's are idea for filler music at Karaoke, and can come in handy at disco's for the odd fag break I also (though i've never tried) think the Grandmaster may even get you through a whole disco.

Once again I agree with Nlouch, the 100 hits of the eighties sets are a godsend. . . more so becuase they tend to contain some of the more obscure requests.

On a subnote: I was so excited when I saw this thread title. . . I thought it was going to let me rant about the customer who asked if i could "play something everyone here knows". . . whilst the Suggs version (dance remix) of Cecelia blared out the speaker. . . er the crowd here is aged 21-75. . . I think most people know this one in one form or another.....

srnitynow
Super Poster


Re: Dumb dj questions
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New postPosted: Today at 12:33 pm
Well, you guys showed me what I really DIDN'T know about djing. Topher, and Nlouch, you TOTALLY lost me on some of your posts, but then again, I expected that. I guess what I'm looking at is SORT OF dj. More on the lines of what Karen was talking about. I'm talking about just playing some tunes, announcing some stuff, and having people dance. This is just an idea I'm currently tossing around. Sounds like if I can find the right songs, I can rip them to my harddrive, put them into my filler tunes playlist, and let Compuhost do the fading, I can do the announcing, and I'm good to go. OH, except for the lights. That I can find out about through here, or researching the net. Thanks guys, and ladies, any more suggestions are welcome.


The filler tunes will work from compuhost will work, you just can make quick adjustments to your playlist on the fly. Funny, I'm just getting set up for djing. I have Virtual DJ. As we speak, I have it going thru my mp3 library and tagging each song with it's BPM. I've educated myself on how a real dj does his job by using google. Lot's of stuff out there.

I was lucky, since I got an iPod a couple years ago, I put all my CDs into digital format and began buying lots of songs on iTunes. I have over 6000 songs to use for DJ purpose including most all genres and from the 50's on ( a few from the 40s and a couple from the 30s that will never be requested). I looked at lights today, I'm not going to buy the bulb lights, great prices on them now but LED is the way to go. I'm going to buy an Onstage 2 tiered lighting stand, a couple lights and start that way.

I've never been a fan of LED lighting - never felt it really produces the same results as bulbs. But am coming round - an LED Par Can is on my shopping list...

Oh and eben: iTunes fades but the iPod doesn't. Also beatmatching is mroe than just the fade between songs, and I pretty much never used jogs for this, I rest my finger against the platter to a varying degree and watch the srtobes - but that is personal choice between some DJs

The great thing about virtual dj (maybe other programs do it too) is that it shows the beats per minute to the music. Not only can you adjust--slow or speed up the song's bpm, (though small adjustments are recommended) but as you put your playlist together, you can line them up by bpm and match them up and then it's just catching the beat on the incoming to the outgoing.

Most bar owners and most here are still stuck on the idea you either do karaoke or DJ when after awhile people that do private parties request a combination of both. After a time you can adjust the ratio according to the number of singers there or dancers. People at parties or in bars just want dance music and that s how I classify my format anymore I dont use the word DJ but use the phrase dance music.

A few years ago I was hitting all the pawn shops and thrift shops looking for regular music cd's. For the last few years I go by the Bulletin Board charts or what requests we get at shows or parties then download them individually. Usually the first requests are for regular music and if I get more than one request for a song I go ahead and get it on karaoke also because invaribly somebody will want to sing it.

WE do play the newest top hits for fill for a few reasons. It energizes the show and people are trying new stuff instead of the same old few week after week.

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