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How do you decide what to play? +
• Observing the demographic present at an event and selecting songs that cater to that demographic
• Observing what guests are dancing to and selecting other songs of a similar style
• Requests made by guests at the event
• Requests made by the hosts/guest of honor (i.e. you) ahead of time
In general, our music strategy for weddings is to start with older music and work into newer songs as the night goes on. This allows older guests to dance to at least a few songs from their era even if they don’t stay for the entire reception, and ramps up the energy throughout the night as the “liquid courage” helps guests become more willing to participate. -
Can I choose the songs for my first dance, father/daughter, mother/son, etc? +
Absolutely! These items (and many more) are covered in our wedding reception planner. If you don’t know what exactly you want, we provide a list of common music selections for each event or can provide a more personalized recommendation if you give us an idea what style/artist you are looking for.
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What if I want a song that you don’t have? +
Let us know. If it’s currently available we will acquire it and add it to our music library. This saves you the hassle of providing us a CD or digital files and ensures all the songs we play are of consistently high quality.
If the song is not available to the mainstream (i.e. a defunct local band or something out of print) we can play a CD or mp3 you provide, as long as it is an original album or we can verify the sound quality of the recording ahead of time. -
Can I give you a list of songs to play during the dance? +
Yes. You can handle this in our reception planner, or by creating a request list within the online request system on our website.
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Can I request that [insert song] not be played? +
Absolutely. Several songs that people tend to have strong feelings about one way or the other (Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey, Macarena, YMCA, etc) are covered explicitly in our reception planner. If there are other songs, artists, or styles that you do not want played you can also note them on the planner, or designate songs as “Do Not Play” within our online music database request system.
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Do you talk between songs? +
Only if there is something pertinent to be said. Our goal during the dance is to provide an atmosphere conducive to dancing for the guests who want to dance. Pausing between songs just to hear the sound of our voice doesn’t further that goal, so we don’t. We instead focus on selecting a progression of songs that is easy to dance to and smoothly transitioning from one song to another.
This isn’t to say that we completely shun the microphone once the dance starts. We generally do a little stumping to get guests out for the dollar dance, bouquet/garter toss, and other activities. But, if you want to hear “That was On the Road Again by Willie Nelson, and this next one was a number one hit for Hank Williams in 1949,” we’re probably not the right DJ for you. -
How do you make sure you have current music? +
We purchase a weekly CD subscription service specifically targeted for mobile DJs and radio stations. We are guaranteed to have any song in the Top 30 in Country, Urban, Current Hit Radio, Rock, and Adult Contemporary. We also get some Contemporary Christian songs. We have used this weekly service since 2002, and it is almost unheard of to get a request for a new song that we don’t already have.
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What do you use to play your music? +
Our primary music source is normally a laptop computer, with a professional dual CD player for backup.
Our primary motive for using computers is that they allow our DJs to provide a more polished, consistent performance. We use software designed specifically for DJing—not Winamp or iTunes. It allows very precise control of song transitions, and allows our DJs to preview exactly what each transition will sound like before it goes out over the speakers. This software also greatly simplifies the task of beatmixing (matching the speed of two songs and fading seamlessly between the two, as is done in big dance clubs), which makes it easier to train our DJs to provide a high quality performance.
The music we use on our computers was ripped from CDs we own to high-bitrate mp3s. We do not use illegal downloads, which are usually lower quality with inconsistent volume levels.
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