Fear Factor…
We’ve noticed a trend in the mobile DJ business and that is that many of the others play music from a laptop computer they bring with them. While the idea is a slick one, we are not rushing out to jump into this new technology.
Perhaps it’s because we’re older and we were taught by our parents never to put “Put all your eggs in one basket.” While that may conjure up images of someone at Easter, or a farmer collecting eggs from the henhouse, it is also a great metaphor for why we are reserved about going this route.
We have both had the experience of computers just deciding at any given moment to take a dirt nap. Emit a puff of smoke that would make the Vatican wonder if another vote was taking place, and call it quits. And, usually when something is critical. It would be a horrible thing to be at a dance and discover the chips are down. We never want to let our clients experience that, or anything like it.
Perhaps it’s because we’ve been in this business so long that we like the tactile feel of loading up a CD in the player. Back when we started, it was 45’s and LP’s that we were setting on our turntables and setting the needle of the player on. We’d listen for the first few seconds of sound. Find that first blip of it and then back spin the turn table a short distance. Then when we wanted it to play, flipping a larger toggle switch. Our turntables were pro-level and required very little time to get the record up to speed. By the time you had the switch moved the full distance of it’s ‘flip’ the music was playing. We could build segues (Transition between music selections) that were ‘nice and tight’, meaning no gap in the music.
We can still do that with our three CD players.
Pardon us for a touch of bragging here, but we’d rather do our own segues than let some software designer decide how it ought to sound. These packages ‘listen’ to the song that’s playing and then start playing the next one when the sound volume goes below a certain level. We think that a skilled DJ ought to be able to determine when to start the next piece of music. It’s basic DJ stuff. Telling a piece of software what the next song is and letting it start it is, well, cheating, taking the easy route and a heck of a lot less interactive and uninvolved in the dance.
Sure, we use a computer for our dances. We run a software package written just for us named “Playtrac”. Playtrac lets us find songs by a number different of ways, including name, artist, style, and year. We can then add them to an on screen list of songs we want to play. Requests are marked so we can pick them out and give them proper priority. We can move the order of songs on a list, so we keep track of what styles of music we are playing or are going to play. As we play each piece of music, we mark it played and the information for it is displayed in large letters on both that computer on our stand and another computer off to the side. This remote computer is hooked up via a network we set up at the dance. (Takes a few seconds to do) This way if one of us is using the microphone on the side of the stand, as we sometimes do, they can clearly see the information as well. We can also go back during the dance and look at what we have played and when we played it. This lets us make sure we are covering the styles of music our client preferred and that we are playing a good variety of music. We think this is a great use of computer technology, for it assists us in doing our job, but does not really do the work of being a DJ.
And, we think it is so much more fun. We get to challenge one another to do the perfect transition and cheer one another when we do a great one. We also feel this is a more interactive way to work.
Lastly, there is the fear factor. Not the TV show, but a great fear we have of showing up for a dance only to find that the computer is dead, or perhaps not playing music properly, or needs to be re-booted during a dance or any of the hundreds of other things that a computer can do to foul up your day. Putting all of our musical eggs in one basket, or even with a backup computer is scary to us. We like knowing that with only a few exceptions, CD’s will play when we need them to, letting us create the best dance environment we can for our clients and their guests.
Music is a very important part of our lives and our business depends on it. Depend on Radio Record Hop for your next event. Our show comes with over 21 years of experience playing the best music from the 40’s to today’s top hits. Visit us on line at www.radiorecorhop.com
We’ve noticed a trend in the mobile DJ business and that is that many of the others play music from a laptop computer they bring with them. While the idea is a slick one, we are not rushing out to jump into this new technology.
Perhaps it’s because we’re older and we were taught by our parents never to put “Put all your eggs in one basket.” While that may conjure up images of someone at Easter, or a farmer collecting eggs from the henhouse, it is also a great metaphor for why we are reserved about going this route.
We have both had the experience of computers just deciding at any given moment to take a dirt nap. Emit a puff of smoke that would make the Vatican wonder if another vote was taking place, and call it quits. And, usually when something is critical. It would be a horrible thing to be at a dance and discover the chips are down. We never want to let our clients experience that, or anything like it.
Perhaps it’s because we’ve been in this business so long that we like the tactile feel of loading up a CD in the player. Back when we started, it was 45’s and LP’s that we were setting on our turntables and setting the needle of the player on. We’d listen for the first few seconds of sound. Find that first blip of it and then back spin the turn table a short distance. Then when we wanted it to play, flipping a larger toggle switch. Our turntables were pro-level and required very little time to get the record up to speed. By the time you had the switch moved the full distance of it’s ‘flip’ the music was playing. We could build segues (Transition between music selections) that were ‘nice and tight’, meaning no gap in the music.
We can still do that with our three CD players.
Pardon us for a touch of bragging here, but we’d rather do our own segues than let some software designer decide how it ought to sound. These packages ‘listen’ to the song that’s playing and then start playing the next one when the sound volume goes below a certain level. We think that a skilled DJ ought to be able to determine when to start the next piece of music. It’s basic DJ stuff. Telling a piece of software what the next song is and letting it start it is, well, cheating, taking the easy route and a heck of a lot less interactive and uninvolved in the dance.
Sure, we use a computer for our dances. We run a software package written just for us named “Playtrac”. Playtrac lets us find songs by a number different of ways, including name, artist, style, and year. We can then add them to an on screen list of songs we want to play. Requests are marked so we can pick them out and give them proper priority. We can move the order of songs on a list, so we keep track of what styles of music we are playing or are going to play. As we play each piece of music, we mark it played and the information for it is displayed in large letters on both that computer on our stand and another computer off to the side. This remote computer is hooked up via a network we set up at the dance. (Takes a few seconds to do) This way if one of us is using the microphone on the side of the stand, as we sometimes do, they can clearly see the information as well. We can also go back during the dance and look at what we have played and when we played it. This lets us make sure we are covering the styles of music our client preferred and that we are playing a good variety of music. We think this is a great use of computer technology, for it assists us in doing our job, but does not really do the work of being a DJ.
And, we think it is so much more fun. We get to challenge one another to do the perfect transition and cheer one another when we do a great one. We also feel this is a more interactive way to work.
Lastly, there is the fear factor. Not the TV show, but a great fear we have of showing up for a dance only to find that the computer is dead, or perhaps not playing music properly, or needs to be re-booted during a dance or any of the hundreds of other things that a computer can do to foul up your day. Putting all of our musical eggs in one basket, or even with a backup computer is scary to us. We like knowing that with only a few exceptions, CD’s will play when we need them to, letting us create the best dance environment we can for our clients and their guests.
Music is a very important part of our lives and our business depends on it. Depend on Radio Record Hop for your next event. Our show comes with over 21 years of experience playing the best music from the 40’s to today’s top hits. Visit us on line at www.radiorecorhop.com
posted by Radio Record Hop at 9:42 AM
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