Advice on DJing??

A&A Beats, DJ's

Hi, just wondering would some more experienced DJ’s help me out?

Me and a friend want to start DJing and get into the industry. We currently have 2 300W Yamaha speakers and 2 active 150W monitors with a 600W powered Yamaha mixer (17 inputs). We have 2 box disco lights and 2 spots, which is probably our weak side, about 5mics and we use 2 laptops connected to the powered mixer through a battle mixer. We have already about 70GB of music on a 500GB external hard drive.

We are in the Dublin area and just need help getting gigs, and also we need to know what kind of gigs would suite are set-up?? Any suggestion on how to get gigs and what type would suite us?? Or even just general advice!

Thanks.

unclebill98

Well in short, the small Pa you have your talking small pubs and functions.

Monitors are really just for your pleasure if you really need them.

There is a previous tread a few days ago about party DJ's, have a look at that.

A&A Beats, DJ's

unclebill98 wrote: »

Well in short, the small Pa you have your talking small pubs and functions.

Monitors are really just for your pleasure if you really need them.

There is a previous tread a few days ago about party DJ's, have a look at that.

We were going to face the 2 monitors away from us so 900W's of power goes out to the crowd rather then just 600W's.. does this work or not?? and for say a medium sized venue is 900W's not enough? thanks again.

Run_to_da_hills

There is several agencies around Dublin that hand out work on commission basis and is something that I never got into. They might get you started.

http://djmarlowe.com/links/dj_agencies_ireland/

Other companies offer a data base at a set annual fee of a few hundred yoyos. http://www.djs4u.ie/current/index.php

A&A Beats, DJ's

Well we wouldn’t be too keen on joining an agency... well I live in Dublin and im very tempted just to go out and ask around in smallish pubs and offer like half price first time deals or something... but the only problem there is we mightn’t be taken seriously as we are only 17/18 even if this doesn’t mean we are any worse then other DJ’s.. What do you think? Would this work?

A&A Beats, DJ's

do that bigger..

Well we wouldn’t be too keen on joining an agency... well I live in Dublin and im very tempted just to go out and ask around in smallish pubs and offer like half price first time deals or something... but the only problem there is we mightn’t be taken seriously as we are only 17/18 even if this doesn’t mean we are any worse then other DJ’s.. What do you think? Would this work?

unclebill98

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

We were going to face the 2 monitors away from us so 900W's of power goes out to the crowd rather then just 600W's.. does this work or not?? and for say a medium sized venue is 900W's not enough? thanks again.

I would'nt bother really. 150w active monitors ain't going to do much tbh. Get yourself some decent tops and start from there.

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

do that bigger..

Well we wouldn’t be too keen on joining an agency... well I live in Dublin and im very tempted just to go out and ask around in smallish pubs and offer like half price first time deals or something... but the only problem there is we mightn’t be taken seriously as we are only 17/18 even if this doesn’t mean we are any worse then other DJ’s.. What do you think? Would this work?

Its not some massive contract you'll be signing. Just a gig here or there. could be worth looking into.

A&A Beats, DJ's

Most of these want DJ’s with experience.. and we have only done about 7 gigs so far.. that could be a problem hahaha

seannash

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

Most of these want DJ’s with experience.. and we have only done about 7 gigs so far.. that could be a problem hahaha

lie,say youve done more

unclebill98

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

Most of these want DJ’s with experience.. and we have only done about 7 gigs so far.. that could be a problem hahaha

It could be.

seannash wrote: »

lie,say youve done more

I would'nt. They could drop in and find out your not exactly what they thought you where.

A&A Beats, DJ's

Well apart from tellin lies to people, which can be a back-up, wat other ways do u get into DJing because everywhere i look u need experience..i realy want to do this but we cant find a "door" into gettin the experience in the first place..

thumpybum

I dunno about the lyin bit, Ive seen DJs who had years of experience and were brutal, and others who had months and were just great and seemed to always knew what to play. I mean, the inexperienced might not always know everything for every crowd but who does, we all started somewhere.

Seriously, as posted above, whatever about your ability to judge a crowd and music for same get better gear then what you have. Loads of threads on same. If your serious about it, it'll pay for itself. See the gear resources for sites and watch adverts.ie and buyandsell.ie
As for gettin gigs, put ads in the in the buyandsell and local shops and local newspapers at a nice price to start, youll be surprised how many gigs youll get. Post back here if advice needed.

and lastly....."Mam, Dad, flash the cash, I'll pay you back!!!!"

A&A Beats, DJ's

What would be good startin off gear?? i mean if we just add sub's to de two 300w speakers would that be ok?? or what would be best to get most gigs.. thanks a lot everyone btw..

DJ_Spider

thumpybum wrote: »

As for gettin gigs, put ads in the in the buyandsell and local shops and local newspapers at a nice price to start, youll be surprised how many gigs youll get. Post back here if advice needed.

Be careful with buyandsell, they don't usually accept business type ads for free. Gumtree is better. (http://www.gumtree.ie)

Run_to_da_hills

DJ_Spider wrote: »

Be careful with buyandsell, they don't usually accept business type ads for free. Gumtree is better. (http://www.gumtree.ie)

Gumtree can be dodgy and full of scammers, I have already reported a few of them. Always buy C.O.D. with Gumtree.

highlydebased

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

What would be good startin off gear?? i mean if we just add sub's to de two 300w speakers would that be ok?? or what would be best to get most gigs.. thanks a lot everyone btw..

How much money have you got?

DJ_Spider

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Gumtree can be dodgy and full of scammers, I have already reported a few of them. Always buy C.O.D. with Gumtree.

Yes or use paypal. I know it's full of scammers, I was suggesting for posting for work. Buyandsell usually want you to pay for a 'trade' advert, unless you word it very carefully!

A&A Beats, DJ's

What would be good startin off gear?? i mean if we just add sub's to de two 300w speakers would that be ok?? or what would be best to get most gigs.. thanks a lot everyone btw..

A&A Beats, DJ's

Well there is two of us in it... like we want to use what we have if possible.. but we would have a big enough fund to expand onto wat we have.. would it be a good idea to just buy say two 400/600W subs and an amp and just ad this to are two 300W speakers? or would it sound terrible?

Dj Fitzy

i have been djing for ten years now..best way to start is to do a few gigs for free for friends birthdays and prove to others that ye can dj...make up a few cards and hand then out.. you have start some where...

A&A Beats, DJ's

Yeah we did out business cards alri.. but i finish the Leaving Cert on Friday.. so after then it will be full steam ahead.. do ads on gumtree.ie and adoos.ie work, do u get much interest off them?
is it a good idea to not let on that your new.. like not lie.. but just not tell them

Dj Fitzy

yes dont say anything...if you play good music no one will ask... starting off you will always have do **** gig trust me i have done my far share of them but its the best way to get your name around....

A&A Beats, DJ's

yeah ill do that.. ill ask around on bebo and stuff like that.. would any pubs give u any chance to get started? althought i guess ill just have to ask! wit de gear we have (says at start) wat should we stay away from so we dont mess up or look stupid..

Dj Fitzy

first of all ...cuase there two of ye thats not a good thing i have never seen two djs playing together...go on your on and get your own gigs... i know thats not easy.... another thing what kind of music are ye going to play??? i have laptop for djing but i would never use its...its best to use cds..laptops are the lazy way out

A&A Beats, DJ's

well he owns most of the gear and i have all the music.. which is everything.. 70GB of it.. would it be really bad have two people? or would it just look abit weird! haha we have 2 laptops and we use Virtual DJ Pro so we can mix just like cds.. but it is a lot easier then cds i agree..

Dj Fitzy

like i said two djs for me its a big no sorry..no pub or club will hire 2 djs....?????.i think you should get a loan by some second hand gear and start and you own... 3 grand would get alot of stuff i might sound alot..

A&A Beats, DJ's

ah rite.. i didnt think it would be that much of a problem.. de only reason there is two of us is because together we wouldnt have to buy too much more equipment.. like we wouldnt both be sittin there with headphones on at de same time! but we would be within talkin distance..haha ah i donno do we stand any chance like that? because i have 5grand but im savin for flyin lessons! cant have it all.. haha

DJ_Spider

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

well he owns most of the gear and i have all the music.. which is everything.. 70GB of it.. would it be really bad have two people? or would it just look abit weird! haha we have 2 laptops and we use Virtual DJ Pro so we can mix just like cds.. but it is a lot easier then cds i agree..

When you can afford one of these (3,500Euros!) and have twice as much music, then I would invest in better kit. I have over 150GB of songs on my system, with over 5000 karaoke songs. I use VDJ same as you, but never have seen 2 DJs working at the same time. Unless they are battling!

Might be best to copy all the songs so you both have your own stuff. Then you can add to it and eventually have different stuff.

Dj Fitzy

what kind of music are ye playing too????

unclebill98

Dj Fitzy wrote: »

first of all ...cuase there two of ye thats not a good thing i have never seen two djs playing together...go on your on and get your own gigs... i know thats not easy.... another thing what kind of music are ye going to play??? i have laptop for djing but i would never use its...its best to use cds..laptops are the lazy way out

Apart from laptops being fragile for live use, 90% of Dj's use them. Why drag around 400 cds and have them lumped on a table when you can have everything on a laptop.... Thats a shocking statement. CD are lazy... Vinyl is not :rolleyes:

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

well he owns most of the gear and i have all the music.. which is everything.. 70GB of it.. would it be really bad have two people? or would it just look abit weird! haha we have 2 laptops and we use Virtual DJ Pro so we can mix just like cds.. but it is a lot easier then cds i agree..

So, you need each other to start. Nothing wrong with that, sure having the extra pair of hands is going to make everything easier.

Dj Fitzy wrote: »

like i said two djs for me its a big no sorry..no pub or club will hire 2 djs....?????.i think you should get a loan by some second hand gear and start and you own... 3 grand would get alot of stuff i might sound alot..

If there happy to share the fee then no pub/club is going to care.

Both of you give it a go, sure one of you might not like it and pull out and the other can go on, if you both like it then down the road go your different ways, no point splitting up before it begins.

Dj Fitzy

nothing wrong with to djs you say....well frist of all you have to spilt the money between the two of them ....and looks bad having two standing beside each other.. you dont need four hands to dj????

unclebill98

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

Hi, just wondering would some more experienced DJ’s help me out?

Me and a friend want to start DJing and get into the industry. We currently have 2 300W Yamaha speakers and 2 active 150W monitors with a 600W powered Yamaha mixer (17 inputs). We have 2 box disco lights and 2 spots, which is probably our weak side, about 5mics and we use 2 laptops connected to the powered mixer through a battle mixer. We have already about 70GB of music on a 500GB external hard drive.

We are in the Dublin area and just need help getting gigs, and also we need to know what kind of gigs would suite are set-up?? Any suggestion on how to get gigs and what type would suite us?? Or even just general advice!

Thanks.

Dj Fitzy wrote: »

nothing wrong with to djs you say....well frist of all you have to spilt the money between the two of them ....and looks bad having two standing beside each other.. you dont need four hands to dj????

Read the tread. They have no problem with it. I am pretty sure they understand the money goes two ways....... :rolleyes:

Pubs/Clubs would'nt care less if there was 10 of them. As long as the job there hired to do is done.

run_Forrest_run

Dj Fitzy wrote: »

....and looks bad having two standing beside each other.. you dont need four hands to dj????

Only last weekend I saw 2 DJs in the booth in a club..one can maybe help out (alternate nights) until they get more money together to invest in more decks/effects and then pehaps ye could do something like 2 many DJs or when the two lads from Deep Dish mix together...granted the likes of 2many DJs might be a far cry from where the lads are right now but sure it's always good to aspire.

Dj Fitzy

unclebill98 wrote: »

Read the tread. They have no problem with it. I am pretty sure they understand the money goes two ways....... :rolleyes:

Pubs/Clubs would'nt care less if there was 10 of them. As long as the job there hired to do is done.

pubs would care if there was .ie ten djs..i you ever seen 10 djs playing a set;)

unclebill98

ok, i gave goggle 5 mins to find a pic of ten dj's on stage...... i gave up

L1011

One of the biggest trance acts (Above & Beyond) around is 3 lads, who all DJ

"back to back" sets are very common in "proper" dance (as opposed to commercial/pub DJing).

Can't see why it wouldn't work.

DJ_Spider

Ahem! http://www.goodlifebar.com/node/825 But they use turntables! Better start saving for a couple more lappys guys!

cono121

I tink theres a place based out in tallaght, star djs, i dj also, just a bedroom dj, a guy from star dj's asked to give a ring about a job, so there obviously taking on people, contact them, could be worth mate!

A&A Beats, DJ's

well i have no problem splitin de bill! like even 100 (each) is more then enough for playin music,which lets face it is probably all we'll do for awhile, for 4hours!! you kno wat i mean like? and since only one of yous seem to have sumtin wrong wit 2 DJ's i think we'll go ahead wit our plan.. for the moment i think havin 2 there will be fine.. so any help wit wat gear and gigs WE should do?? thanks..

DJ_Spider

You'll be lucky to get 100 each! The most I get for a residency is 190 and I came down from 230. As regards to gigs, seeing as you don't have much experience and are young, ask family and friends if you can do birthdays for them. Do them for free or for drinks/food! Then when you have gotten more experience approach the agencies, that will give you more work to work with. Then go out on your own.

You can't really just go straight out and get gigs with the little equipment and experience you have. I have over 15 years experience, 10K worth of kit and I still find it a bit hard to get gigs. I do have a residency every 3 weeks in a pub in the city, but that wont pay the bills!

Good luck anyway and get that song collection bigger!

unclebill98

DJ_Spider wrote: »

You'll be lucky to get 100 each! The most I get for a residency is 190 and I came down from 230. As regards to gigs, seeing as you don't have much experience and are young, ask family and friends if you can do birthdays for them. Do them for free or for drinks/food! Then when you have gotten more experience approach the agencies, that will give you more work to work with. Then go out on your own.

You can't really just go straight out and get gigs with the little equipment and experience you have. I have over 15 years experience, 10K worth of kit and I still find it a bit hard to get gigs. I do have a residency every 3 weeks in a pub in the city, but that wont pay the bills!

Good luck anyway and get that song collection bigger!

This is very true.

A&A Beats, DJ's

haha i find the harder i look for gigs the less we get! haha ah yeah ill ask around my mates and see... sure there has to be a few 18th's or 21st's comin up! cono121 do u have there number? might aswell chance my arm.. and sure the worst they can say is no!

Thanks a lot everyone and sure if things dont work out ill probably get one of you's for my 21st! haha

for my Bro's 21.. this cowboy charged €270 for 4hours and he used the in house equipment!! thats such a rip off if other DJ's are only charging €230/190..

DJ_Spider

There will always be people who take advantage in any business. I heard of one DJ who charged €800 for 3 hours work using in house gear. Worst thing is they paid him! I used to do all the parties in a bar in Skerries, I would take my own kit and work from about 9 til 12:45, I would get €200. But when I worked in the club up the road, I worked 12:00 til 2:15 and got €160.

So it's swings and roundabouts really. As has been said before, don't over price your self, but also don't let people find out you are too cheap! Cheap doesn't mean good, try to get the message you are 'value for money' but make sure you are!

A&A Beats, DJ's

DJ_Spider wrote: »

As has been said before, don't over price your self, but also don't let people find out you are too cheap! Cheap doesn't mean good, try to get the message you are 'value for money' but make sure you are!

Well this is why i sort of asked for help.. we arent too keen on upgrading are equipment just yet.. we are goin to buy more lights alri (maybe LED spots, the sound controlled ones).. but with wat we have we dont kno where to place ourselves on the market, if on it at all! haha yet we dont want to hand out free gigs because that gives the impression we're rele bad, and from the gigs we have done people say we are good.. so i kno this is hard to do havin not heard us.. but say with the gear we have + a few lights, average DJin skills, for 4hours.. wat should we be charging??

highlydebased

A&A Beats, DJ's wrote: »

Well this is why i sort of asked for help.. we arent too keen on upgrading are equipment just yet.. we are goin to buy more lights alri (maybe LED spots, the sound controlled ones).. but with wat we have we dont kno where to place ourselves on the market, if on it at all! haha yet we dont want to hand out free gigs because that gives the impression we're rele bad, and from the gigs we have done people say we are good.. so i kno this is hard to do havin not heard us.. but say with the gear we have + a few lights, average DJin skills, for 4hours.. wat should we be charging??

You'd be better off getting effects lighting instead of spots for DJ'ing....unless you want to light something in particular up there is not much point

Best go with the advice posted above. Get experience under you're belts first before money.....not the best but its the only way. Any agency will not take on anybody without experience, let alone a required list of equipment......

For 4 hours you'd be looking at between 150 to 200 euro.

thumpybum

You'd be better off getting effects lighting instead of spots for DJ'ing....unless you want to light something in particular up there is not much point

Best go with the advice posted above. Get experience under you're belts first before money.....not the best but its the only way. Any agency will not take on anybody without experience, let alone a required list of equipment......

For 4 hours you'd be looking at between 150 to 200 euro.

agreed. for advice on particular equipment, theres some great threads on the DJ forums.com

I got 2 american Revo IIIs after getting recommended from there. Very happy with them. Got a best price of c 190e each delivered from this ebay store. note: That listing is for a revo II, he doesnt seem to have a revo III in stock. If you want to see a review of any particluar light, go to youtube and put in the name of the light, you should find a contributor with a vid of a demo.

CantGetNoSleep

I think the idea of doing 18ths / 21sts for free would be your best bet

If you said you are in sixth year then you will know a lot of people who are 18 - 21, if any of these are having partys in pubs just offer to do it for free, it would give you a great opportunity to get used to DJing in a live venue before you do any paid work. With free gigs for friends if you make one or two f*ck ups no one will mind too much