Some Essential Tips for the New Mobile DJ

0:00 This video is mainly targeted for the new mobile DJ

All right, ladies and gentlemen, this video is mainly targeted for the new mobile DJ. Right, so, and also you may have noticed, you're straight into the video, no silly adverts. I do have Google Ads, it's a way I can sort of generate a little bit of income, but on the other occasion, it's nice for you to just press play and not have some dodgy commercial play with stuff that you don't really want anyway. So, I'm going to give you an analogy first and then we'll go into what you need. So, let's imagine that we're talking about an analogy of a hotel, for example, like a Premier Inn. Very simple, very box standard, but if you want a good, nice rest, then you know what it's going to be like, whether you go to one over there or one over there or one back there somewhere.

So, some of you may laugh at this, but then hopefully it makes sense. And the reason I've... done the Premier Inn is because they're all pretty much the same and most mobile, small mobile DJs, I'm not saying are the same, but what have you got? You've got PA, a few lights and you look good. Right, so the first thing is the front of the hotel. Very simple, very box standard, but also looking professional. That's how you need to be. You need to be how the hotel looks. So when you walk into the venue, you haven't got cut off jeans, dodgy hair and you stink. Make sure that... you are presentable because first impressions count. That is the key. If you walk in and you're late and you look a bit rough around the edges, then your client is going to think, who have we booked?

The next one is like the reception. So you walk in, the reception at the reception in a way should be your PA system and your lighting. You walk in, it's very clean, it's very tidy. You know exactly where everything is. It's not cluttered. So try make sure that your PA and lighting isn't cluttered. And then, of course, if you're using a laptop, then that's when you want to make sure you've got Wi-Fi in there. The electrics work and the water works so when you jump in the shower, it's not cold. So that's almost like the mechanics of everything in the hotel. Now, I hope you get my analogy there. So let's say you want to become a mobile DJ and you look online and you see these massive shows with loads of PA and loads

2:20 You're going to start at the shallow end and work all your way down

Of lighting and whatnot. Well, if you've got the money, you've got the time, then go for it. But you're not going to jump head first into a swimming pool where you don't know where the bottom is. You're going to start at the shallow end and work all your way down. Another analogy for you. So what's the first thing you need? Well, I bang on about this time and time again. One of the integral parts of a good mobile DJ setup is your PA system. Now, please, if you agree with me, do a thumbs up or a comment or something. Let me know, give me a comment about any part of the video. I don't mind now online if you go on to the likes of eBay or Facebook swap shop or your next door neighbour or down the road someone selling a PA and it looks good

And it's got very flashy, it's very big and there's loads of speakers and everything like that, then just beware. Just be very wary because what you don't want to do is end up having some kind of PA that fails halfway through the day. The night or sounds crap. So I would go for the likes of JBL, EV, QSC, RCF and Nexo if you can afford it. Yes, very expensive. But when you are a professional DJ and you turned up for the night notice, I said that night you want to walk into that venue, plug your PA system and not even think about the fact that it could fall apart, break or stop working. So that's that. Now I also recommend you think about active. So active is where the amplification is inside the PA and passive is where

4:40 It's probably a good idea to take a backup just in case

You have an amplifier, an external amplifier outside of your PA system. So your PA basically if you plug it in when it's active with no power amp, it's not going to work. Because you need power to power that. Now, they've all got the pros and cons in the past. I always used to use passive, but I now use active. I'm sure you've seen the gig logs. I've got a couple of EV mid and top 12 and horn, and I've got a couple of twin 12 inch subs powered as well. Now, the reason I prefer now powered is because if one speaker stops working, the other one technically should carry on working. Whereas if you're using passive and an external amplifier, if your amplifier stops working, then you have no sound at all. So it's probably a good idea to take a backup just in case.

There you go. That's your PA. So only go for good quality makes. Now, if you make down the road has got a set of power speakers and they're 50 quid each, then take a look at the make, take a look at how they look. Are they a bit dodgy? Again, another way of finding out if they've been used and abused is a lot of powered speakers will have a little fan at the back to cool the amplifier inside the cab. Now, if that's caked with dust and it's just got loads of debris in there, it means that it's very likely that that speaker has seen a great deal of work because as the fan turns, the fan is there to cool the amplifier down. And of course, the longer the amplifier is on for, the more the fans going to turn, which means the more it's going to suck in dirt, which means it's going to clog up.

So just make sure it's nice and clean if you can just buy new because in the UK I'm sure it's the same in most places around the world. If you buy brand new, you should technically have a year's warranty. So if anything goes wrong, you send it back, they get it fixed. And again, with cheap speakers, if they break down, then you might as well just throw them away. Now, the next one is lighting. Now again, this video is mainly for the up and coming mobile DJ or someone on a budget. And maybe you've got a small vehicle so you haven't got the capacity to take loads of lights. Now, if you think about it out there, it's sweety land. It's like going into a sweet shop with all the lights you can get. You want this, this, this and this.

6:57 Why am I saying that?

But just hold on before you start buying the latest moving head. That costs £1,000 each. Now it may look good and it may give a wicked show. But the trouble is with really expensive lighting, you're wasting your time if you just buy the head without any form of controller. Why am I saying that? Well, a lot of these big lights have gobo wheels, they have prisms and they can do all manner of stuff but then if you put them on sound to light, all they're going to do is move around at a random kind of effect. So what you're doing, you're paying a great amount of money for something that's not really doing its job. Whereas if you do have a big show and of course you want to spend your money's no object, then by all means go and buy

A bunch of moving heads, stick them into some kind of lighting controller and away you go. So check out my last gig log. I'm pretty sure it was the last video I did. And you'll see some lights from Cam. I'm not sure if they're still an actual company that's out there, but they were great lights. They were cheap and cheerful, but they did the job and proof is in the pudding because I've got some. I've had them for about ten years and they still work. Nova Pro exactly the same. They still work. So a couple of those. So now we can get these lights on bars so you have a T bar tripod and you have a bunch of lights on there and you're good to go. A couple of those. And to be quite honest, a relatively decent light show.

9:16 It's a box standard industry world renowned microphone, UK brand new

One either side shouldn't cost you more than a couple of £100, $300. The next thing, of course, is a controller. So you want to remember as a mobile DJ, you've got to use the microphone. Now, a lot of people may disagree with me here, but I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me if you class yourself or you want to become a professional mobile DJ, you have to learn to use the microphone because you may want the bride and groom. You may request them to come on to the dance floor for the first dance for the cutting of the cake just here's a request for someone. You've got to get used to using the microphone, which brings about the mic. Now, you can't go wrong with a Shure SM58. Again, if you agree with me, let me know.

It's a box standard industry world renowned microphone, UK brand new. They're about 60 quid can't complain. So again, with your controller, this is important. Now you need to make sure that your controller has got provision for an on off button tone the very least. But ideally you want bass and treble so you can increase decrease the volume of your microphones. You want a volume control on it as well, and you want to have bass treble and a switch so you can turn it on and off on your controller. And then I suppose what we've got to deal about now is your laptop. So I'll leave that entirely up to you because I don't know. Well, I know enough about laptops to know what I should and shouldn't get, but make sure you've got plenty of RAM.

You've got a good processor in there and I five, seven or whatever it is now. The other one, of course, which I highly, highly recommend is make sure you get yourself a solid state drive. So the difference between a normal hard drive and a solid state normal hard drive, it's got spinning disk solid state is just sat there. It's a bit like a thumb drive but a bigger version. Now again, small caveat here as well is that if you're completely relying on your external hard drive if you want or solid state and your laptop is clear of anything, then just be wary. Because if anything happens to shouldn't really with your solid state. But if anything happens to your hard drive, then you've got no music. So make sure you've got at least 456 your main set on your laptop.

11:35 Whereas back back to the Premier Inn, it's always a nice desk

So if anything goes wrong with your external hard drive, you've got music on your laptop to use. Now also when you set up the last thing you need to do and this is, I think this is paramount. I'm relating back to the hotel. Imagine going to the hotel, going to reception and they're sat there on a chair with a table in front of them and a phone and you'd look at that and you think I'm going to go somewhere else. Whereas back back to the Premier Inn, it's always a nice desk. It looks professional. And that's where your DJ console comes in. Make sure that looks professional. One of the absolute the worst things you can do. I mean, there are loads of bad things you can do, but one of the worst things you can do is turn up and say, excuse me,

Can I have a table to set my kit on please? It just looks ridiculous, doesn't it? And already now you're hassling the management of the hotel who think this guy, this girl, they're not professional. So make sure you've got a good DJ setup, a good deep. You see, I'm losing my mind here. Mind you, I lost my mind. A long time ago. Make sure you've got a good DJ console. I mean, you can pick these up anything from sort of 100 up to thousands of pounds, but you don't need anything fancy. All right. Now, I hope this has been a help and I'm going to finish off with something again. Comment if you think this is right, but I believe it is. You can be the best mobile DJ in the world, but if you turn up late and you give a great set, they will always remember that you were late.

On the other hand, if you're a mediocre DJ and you turn up early and you give a mediocre set, they'll remember you as that was a good DJ. So in other words, what I'm trying to say is if you booked, for example, as I do, bride and groom say the hotel would like you there at, say, five o'clock in the evening because that's when the afternoon dinner is finished and they're clearing the tables. Don't turn up at five or half five, turn up at four o'clock or even three o'clock as soon as you're there. Make sure the bride and groom or the client know you're there. You don't have to walk up to them and say, hello, here I am. Just give them a wave. They should know you by then that'll make them happy. The entertainment's turned up.

That's one less thing tick off the box they haven't got to worry about. So I hope that's been a help. Don't forget. Leave a comment. Let me know what you think. Thank you for watching. Practice and enjoy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.