A few months ago after going to a family members wedding and talking with the DJ and asking him a few questions I decided that I would give DJing a try. So I played with some open source software out there called MIXX and found that it was fun to do. I also have done sound work with my Dad since I was in middle school, there has been some time though that I have done none but I still know what I’m doing with sound equipment. I also have some equipment from my podcast setup.
I looked around for what I would need, and since I didn’t have much money to spend on stuff I got a basic Hercules DJ Console MK4, Harbringer 15″ powered speakers, Bringer Eurorack mixer package. Console was didn’t come in the package, and it came with stands, cables, and some cheap mics.
On the mics though I did get a email after saying they would give me a $50 credit for select items, but it didn’t work and when I talked with them on the phone they just asked me what I wanted and I got a Shure SM48 for free.
Anyways I played with my equipment and acquired more music, and a guy from work’s daughter was getting married so I was testing my speakers in the gym at work and I offered to do the wedding for free so I could get experience.
Things went good, learned a lot such as even though you talk with the people you are playing for, they may have other plans so you may need to get more information on what songs are if they give you a disk of things they like. I wasn’t informed of what some of the songs were for and played them but later they wanted them for dances that the bride and maids were doing oops. Also found out that I had my speakers up too high and the patio covering was blocking the sound to the people in the back. It may have also been that I was trying to keep the volume to a point that if you were in the back it wouldn’t be all that loud but on the patio were people were dancing I think it was loud enough.
So Friday I am going to do the music for my cousin’s second local wedding reception, not sure what I will play but have some music that will be good for the audience. They said they didn’t want to dance so not sure how good some of the songs will be that normally get danced too. I have just spend a few hours going though music to get an idea of what I have again since it’s been a few months since I did the first wedding.
The more I learn and get experience it should get more fun to do, just need to get more people to pay me to do things for them and more then once every three months.