Metro?!?!?! Where are you?

[Daniel]

Your kind (DJ's) has a lot to answer for buddy! Last night one of your type did his thing at a disco at Caroline's school and played some truly woeful music. Music such as 5,6,7 ,8 by Steps, the Macarena, Cotton Eye Joe, the Axle Foley Crazy Frog as well as Saturday night by Whigfield. How does someone get away with owning such rubbish and then actually playing it? I think I'm going to set myself up as a DJ and get some crappy lights and a few "Worst dance tracks of the 90's" CD's and some speakers and call myself a DJ :mark: I mean he didn't even play lady in red! How is this man a DJ???????

[GridGirl]

Pretty rubbish music, but were the kids up and dancing around to it? If they were, then they were obviously having fun anyway even if the DJ was a little suspect.

[Daniel]

Pretty rubbish music, but were the kids up and dancing around to it? If they were, then they were obviously having fun anyway even if the DJ was a little suspect.
Put the kids in the dark and have flashing lights and the little turds will dance to Vivaldi I'm sure!

[Erki]

Bad music from the 90's always wakes up the nostalgia in me. Oohhh...90's... ;(

[Iain]

I was assaulted in the ears twice by Scatman John when I was out last night. :mark:

[Daniel]

I was assaulted in the ears twice by Scatman John when I was out last night. :mark:
It only just clicked with me a few months ago that Scat = Poo so therefore Scatman John is really Pooman John. Very much a Eureka! moment for me :D

[Erki]

Didn't "scat" actually mean "stutter". Somewhere I read that they guy was a heavy stutterer but worked hard became a Scatman John. Nice I'd say. :up:

And don't diss Scatman. Otherwise... :mad: :vader:

[Daniel]

Didn't "scat" actually mean "stutter". Somewhere I read that they guy was a heavy stutterer but worked hard became a Scatman John. Nice I'd say. :up:

And don't diss Scatman. Otherwise... :mad: :vader:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scat%20singing Scat singing.....

So he's not the Pooman :(

[AndySpeed]

you come accross some bad ones but then when you come accross a good one you stick with him!

There's a particularly good DJ in the north west, goes by the name of Simba aka Chris Grant, and he plays damn good music!

And I'm sure Carl is an awesome DJ! Do you play Will Smith or Jazzy Jeff?

[Dave B]

The golden rule is if the dancefloor is full, you're doing a good job. When I briefly did the job, I had to leave my own taste at the door on more than one occasion.

Worst DJ I've seen recently used an iPod. Singular. There were huge gaps between tracks and he had the voice of a depressed railway station announcer.

[AndySpeed]

An iPod is NOT a DJ tool, even if using a Numark duo iPod thing. A DJ should either use CDJ's or Vinyl (rare) or if he/she must, a laptop, but to compensate if using a laptop he/she should have a fantastic mix/track selection and personality. Personally when I've seen DJ's with laptops I don't even know if they're doing anything or just checking their emails. :\

[Daniel]

The golden rule is if the dancefloor is full, you're doing a good job. When I briefly did the job, I had to leave my own taste at the door on more than one occasion.

Worst DJ I've seen recently used an iPod. Singular. There were huge gaps between tracks and he had the voice of a depressed railway station announcer.
You should at least be able to create an "on the go list" with an iPod and avoid silly long gaps inbetween tracks.

[CarlMetro]

Put the kids in the dark and have flashing lights and the little turds will dance to Vivaldi I'm sure!

Oh no, you couldn't be more wrong on that one.

Personally I don't do kids parties anymore because they're just too much hard work and some of the most fical audiences you will ever come accross :s I leave it to a couple of guys who work for the same agent as me to do them.

There is no pre-qualification to be able to call yourself a DJ, all you really need is a few quid to spend on kit, a few compilation discs and a perhaps a little bit of musical knowledge.

What you list for the music played though Daniel is the sort of thing I would play for kids, especially the MTV generation where they spend hours in their bedrooms watching music television learning dance moves and lyrics.

I would never say I'm a good DJ, I'm an ok DJ but I'm only as good as my audience. I did three shows last week, a school prom on Thursday where I played nothing but chart, dance and R & B for three hours. A wedding on Friday where, despite having nearly 200 people in attendance, the most I had on the dancefloor at any time was six people because it's amazing what effect a free bar will have on some people, and a Summer Ball in a marque on Saturday with 100 people attending and on avergare 75% of them on the dancefloor until we finally shut it down at ten past three in the morning :D

I've seen some appaluing DJ's in my time, where they've been working the same venue as me, but I've seen some bloody good ones out there too. a simple rule of thumb is price. Like most things you get what you pay for. If you're booking up a function and you find a DJ that's charging £75 a night, find someone else. As a guide I charge £300 a night minimum ;)

[Hazell B]

.... I charge £300 a night minimum ;)

More if you want music too ;)

[Eki]

More if you want music too ;)
Hazell, I think you've lost your mind. I saw it in the gutter down the road.

[Hazell B]

You mean I can stop saving up now? :eek:

:p :

[AndySpeed]

There is no pre-qualification to be able to call yourself a DJ, all you really need is a few quid to spend on kit, a few compilation discs and a perhaps a little bit of musical knowledge.

In order to gain experience of mixing though, surely you would need to spend more than just "a few quid". I know there's probably a fair difference between the type of DJ-ing that you do and this Carl, but if you wanted to practice mixing songs together, especially with CD's, it costs a lot doesn't it?

It's a bit more of an 'art' to be able to mix songs together with merging BPM's etc. (tracklisting becomes all the more important) and even moreso to "mash up" several songs at once. It's something I'd love to try but haven't because of the hurdle of, well, cost!

[Ian McC]

Your kind (DJ's) has a lot to answer for buddy! Last night one of your type did his thing at a disco at Caroline's school and played some truly woeful music. Music such as 5,6,7 ,8 by Steps, the Macarena, Cotton Eye Joe, the Axle Foley Crazy Frog as well as Saturday night by Whigfield. How does someone get away with owning such rubbish and then actually playing it? I think I'm going to set myself up as a DJ and get some crappy lights and a few "Worst dance tracks of the 90's" CD's and some speakers and call myself a DJ :mark: I mean he didn't even play lady in red! How is this man a DJ???????

Cant be Carl, no Weather Girls ;) :uhoh:

[CarlMetro]

In order to gain experience of mixing though, surely you would need to spend more than just "a few quid". I know there's probably a fair difference between the type of DJ-ing that you do and this Carl, but if you wanted to practice mixing songs together, especially with CD's, it costs a lot doesn't it?

Not really. A standard dual CD player like this one http://www.citronic.co.uk/product/product.php?s=170.631 and the most basic of three channel mixers is all you really need to get started in your bedroom. Beat mixing is only really done in clubs, where a DJ will have a set playlist and it's not as difficult as it seems, I worked clubs for a couple of years in the late 90's and still do the odd guest spot.

These days though it's more function mobile work and, while I use the slightly more expensive kit than I used to, if someone was just starting out purchased semi-decent second hand kit then you could probably set yourself up for less than £750. You then gradually build up to the bigger set up and better kit like I have over the years.

Of course, you also need some work to do ;) Which is where agents come in handy.

[Mark]

I wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with using an iPod, as long as you don't wait for the song to finish before you start selecting a new one.

I'm not familiar with the interface but I assume that you can cue one song while another is still playing?

Unless you are in a night club I don't see any need to mix beats, especially as the songs you are playing may be completely different to each other. Just don't leave massive gaps.

The DJ at a wedding a went to recently was terrible, he ignored the golden rule of if you clear the dancefloor, change the music style! I made a couple of requests that got everyone up dancing, but instead of keeping with that type of music, he went back again, and the dancefloor cleared :s

[LotusElise]

Bad beat-matching is worse than not trying to do it at all.

[schmenke]

I wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with using an iPod, as long as you don't wait for the song to finish before you start selecting a new one...

...And ensure that the battery is fully charged :p :

Carl, why don't you use a laptop? I would have thought that managing MP3 tracks is easier than cd's? :mark:

[CarlMetro]

Partly because a couple of guys I know who converted to laptops have since converted back to disks because of numerous problems and partly because it took me long enough to convert from vinyl to CD :\

[Azumanga Davo]

Didn't "scat" actually mean "stutter". Somewhere I read that they guy was a heavy stutterer but worked hard became a Scatman John. Nice I'd say. :up:

And don't diss Scatman. Otherwise... :mad: :vader:

You may be mad, but thou dost speaketh the truth. Best bloke yet...

[Drew]

Last night one of your type did his thing at a disco at Caroline's school and played some truly woeful music. Music such as 5,6,7 ,8 by Steps, the Macarena, Cotton Eye Joe, the Axle Foley Crazy Frog as well as Saturday night by Whigfield.

Throw in "three lions" and you have pretty much described every school disco at my primary school. Please tell me all the boys were together and all the girls were together and that all the boys ran for a bit and then slid on their knees?