Wasnt sure which forum to really post this. If Im in the wrong place, I will gladly move my thread.

Hello, Im looking to start a DJ service. Mostly for weddings at first but really would serve any purpose. I plan to fund and manage the business using my brother as a partner to do the real work.

I am an accomplished IT manager so I am no noob to technology. Audio isnt my specialty but I know enough to be dangerous. I was hoping to get some advice on key points to look for when purchasing equipment suitable for playing weddings.

I plan to mainly use a laptop to play .mp3s. Id also be interested in any advice on software to use. I am just getting into this so Im also interested in advice on copyright laws etc. The third hand advice Ive been given so far is that I would be covered as long as I subscribed to a service such as Rhapsody or something similar where you are allowed to own unlimited downloads for the fee.

Im interested in just a basic system, enough power to play a large room as well as a good wireless microphone setup. Karaoke would be a plus but not required. Im thinking I dont need one of these expensive mixers and such. Im not going to be mixing techno and all that, just running a basic playlist.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Sincerly,
Mike

I shoot weddings on the weekends, been doing it for 14 years now and have been to probably 500 or so.

A lot of the DJ's I've worked with have switched to MP3 based setups; laptops or MP3 based mixing consoles, but they always bring a CD player and CD's just in case.

You want a good wireless mic kit, nothing is worse than having speakers talk and the audio cutting in and out.

You will want a decent mixer, doesn't have to be really fancy, just good quality and robust.

You have the option of going with powered speakers or speakers and an amp, I personally would go with speakers and an amp as the powered ones I've heard at receptions didn't sound that good.

You need to have a really outgoing personality to keep the guests entertained.

I don't know anything about the music rights.

Go Pro audio...not consumer gear. Check out sites lite Sweetwater, Musicians Friend, Zzounds, etc. They all have DJ departments. It's the only way to go.;)

Stick to quality brands for both speakers and amps, nothings worse than hearign crap DJ speakers. And the advice about about wireless mics, a reliable mixer and backup system are spot on.

As for the music rights, check with your licensing authority. I used to pay $50 a year for mine - that was for wedding videos.

You mentioned the possibility of using this setup outside of just doing weddings. In that case get a pair of decent cd dj decks- Pio, Denon, Stanton, all make good ones. If you want a solid mixer go with Rane. Couple things to look for in a mixer, adjustable fader curve, kill switches, fader start inputs. Lastly, get Serato Scratch Live paired with a laptop which contains your mp3 library and you're good to dj weddings, banquets, clubs, graduations, bar mitzvah's etc..

Hello buddy,

Best of luck for your work buddy. Offer your service to theme parties like beach theme wedding or Halloween nights. Enjoy your work have fun.


Regards,
sarah_9:)

Head on over to some sites like www.djforums.com . You'll get a lot more info there.

Hello mwgwin, I am a DJ as well.

I myself use a pair of Technics SL-1210M5G turntables with a pair of Ortofon Q-Bert needles, a Rane TTM-57SL Mixer with Serato Scratch Live built in, a Pioneer EFX-1000 Effects machine, Pioneer HDJ-1000 Headphones, and an Apple MacBook Pro.

I get my music from a record pool, as do almost all professional full time DJs. This is basically a service that I pay for monthly and I can download as many tracks as I want provided I give feedback about the track to the record companies. (The point of a record pool is to provide DJ's with NEW songs. The DJ then provides the record company with feedback regarding the popularity of that particular song when they play it at events.)

I use DJCity (http://www.djcity.com/digital/record-pool.aspx). They are $30 a month but they make you pay in 3 month chunks ($90/3 months). All their tracks come in instrumental, acapella, clean, dirty, and 8-bar intro versions. Their tracks are all encoded in 320KBPS Constant Bit Rate MP3 which is more than enough quality for a club sound system let alone weddings. They have quite a wide range of music, but their main focus is mainly hip-hop and they release tracks before the record company releases a CD for the consumer market.

There are other record pools such as Direct Music Service (http://www.directmusicservice.com) to name a few... Direct Music Service has a less robust selection and higher price than DJCity, but they have a handful of old school songs that DJCity isn't licensed to release.

In terms of gear, I agree with what pharcyde23 recommended, although the setup he mentioned could be quite expensive and probably more advanced than you need. Most wedding DJ's have a very very basic setup of some sort of a rackmount dual CD player with a rackmount mixer.

Like pharcyde23 mentioned, the Serato Scratch Live software is the standard in DJ software and vinyl emulation systems.

I find these (http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Vestax-VCI300-DJ-Controller-with-Serato-ITCH?sku=801754) all in one DJ controllers increasingly popular. The Vestax VCI300 DJ Controller combines a mixer, and two decks in one compact unit. It connects to your laptop via USB and it controls the included Serato Itch software which plays the MP3's on your laptop. There are also buttons on the Vestax unit that controls the Serato software. It is perfect for you, but a bit on the expensive side. There are cheaper controllers out there but most of them are mediocre.

This (http://keyboards-midi.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-Torq-Xponent?sku=241136) controller is also a good one, but it uses the competing M-Audio Torq software. The Torq software is actually very good and has more features than Serato, but Serato is the industry standard and has the best customer service, product support, and software updates are released frequently. Serato is also the most reliable software.

You also need a pair of headphones for beatmatching, cueing, and mixing. I recommend Technics, Pioneer, Sony, and Ultrasone headphones.

You NEED to learn how to mix and beatmatch regardless of what genre or event you play so you can transition smoothly between songs and keep the dance floor moving. If you are not going to be mixing, you might as well just get an iPod and hook it up to a sound system and let it be the DJ.

As for speakers, the Mackie SRM450 V2's (http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Mackie-SRM450-v2-Active-Loudspeaker?sku=600652) and JBL Eons (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=jbl+eon&st=) are favorites among us DJ's.

They are powered, meaning you wont need to lug around an amplifier rack. You could always purchase passive speakers with a discrete amp for more power (for larger rooms).

I would also look into electrovoice speakers. They are higher end than the Mackie's and JBL's of course with a higher price tag.

I hope that helped. PM me if you have any questions.

Hello mwgwin!
I'm Jason and I would like to share a short thought about making a DJ company. My first job was not being involved in music business but after it, I took my entrepreneurial vision and founded D.Jay’s Entertainment, Las Vegas NV. In 6 short years the company grew to be one of the largest professional DJ, Photography, and Videography companies in the “Wedding Capital of the World”. As my answer in your question, instead of having those expensive and more complicated type of mixers (that basically you said you don't need it), maybe you should try checking out some sites that offer cheap DJ intruments. Good luck!

*former* DJ here.

Back in 93 when I started we would take our cerwin vega home speakers and home audio receivers to the parties and dances we spun at. That was back breaking!!! Wow have things have changed.

I moved on the house/techno club scene and my partner continues to run the successful mobile business to this day.

Here's my opinion:

Go with powered speakers and add a sub if you can swing it. The Mackies are my first choice and JBL second. Don't waste your money on any other brands. My old partner has the Samsons and some other brand and they're junk. He's had to replace multiple parts in both sets and this wasn't long after he had them.

The Mackie's and JBL sound better and build quality is much better.