Why I Love Numark’s iDJ2

I started DJing at 18, back in the early ‘90s when rave and dance music was, excuse the pun… all the rave. My first deck (mixer and turntables in a ‘coffin’ case) was an absolute monster in terms of size and weight. If I remember rightly it took two of us to carry it into venues. Also, to prevent it from over-heating it had a pair of fans inside the console to cool the components down and thus covering them in thick dust that had to be cleaned regularly. For some unknown reason (even to this day), turntables back then would occasionally hum and feedback resulting in an embarrassing and rather frantic palaver of taking the turntable plate off and adjusting two screws to halt the humming.

All this stopped when I invested in the daddy of all turntables, a set of Technics 1210’s. If you were a DJ and had a set of Technics in the ‘90s you had arrived in a big way. Even to this day Technics turntables have a massive and loyal following.

Shortly after CDs arrived and with it CD based decks. It took a while for DJs to embrace the new technology including myself. Until that point all any DJ had known was turntables. CD decks had the advantage of quicker loading and cueing up tracks, they were more compact to carry around, they offered new ways of mixing such as looping songs and of course CDs themselves were smaller, lighter and sounded better. However, there was one thing that got lost in the transition from turntables to CD decks and that was the hands-on feeling, such as ‘scratching’ and ‘spinning back’.

Fast forward to the present and now we have a new technology to embrace, the MP3 deck. MP3 decks come in various forms including laptops loaded with DJ software, digital MP3 controllers to work alongside laptops, hard drive players and my new love Numark’s iDJ2. After being lucky enough to own and work with some of the most expensive and state-of-the-art decks over the years it can be hard to get me excited about new disco equipment. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job but consistently using anything for 17 years can become a little samey. However, occasionally a new piece of equipment arrives in the world of DJing that is so innovative, so fit for purpose that even I can’t hold back, allow me to introduce you to the iDJ2.

Numark’s iDJ2 is clever in many ways. Firstly, it combines two players, a mixer, a colour screen to view your music and a host of functions and yet is almost the same size of most mixers, let alone the players and laptop that would normally sit beside the mixer. For most modern DJs to take up less space in a vehicle and be compact and light-weight to carry around is a priority, so the iDJ2 gets a big thumbs-up for this.

The next great thing about the iDJ2 is the music source it uses… just one iPod! Think about it, the facility to carry and DJ with 30,000 songs (more if used with an external hard drive) with something that fits in the palm of your hand! Trust me after many years of back breaking carrying records then CDs into venues, upstairs, on to ships etc. is nothing short of a revelation. The other astounding thing is that within its internal magic the iDJ2 manages to play two tracks off the one iPod at the same time, and it doesn’t stop there, you can even play the same song in both players at the same time!

The iDJ2 also has a music holding area called the ‘Crate’ (no prizes for guessing Numark is an American company). This is essentially an area you can send tracks to either play later or to create a play-list. For example, if someone asks for a request that perhaps doesn’t fit with what the DJ is playing at that moment he or she can send the requested song to the Crate to play when the time is right. If a customer provides the DJ with a music list to work to, all of the songs on the list can quickly and easily be placed into the Crate thus creating a ready-to-go play-list for that particular customer.

This moves me on to the last reason why I think the iDJ2 is a great piece of kit, its search facility. The iDJ2 has the ability to search from a USB keyboard which is stored neatly on a tray that can be pulled out from the optional case. The keyboard has hot keys that allow you to search by title, artist, album, genre, year, play-list or by a general search, just like an iPod. Within an instant any song or artist can be found and loaded ready to play, try doing that with 30,000 plus songs on CDs!

I would like to finish by saying I’m not an employee of Numark, in fact this is only the second Numark product I’ve purchased. I believe the iDJ2 deserves a special mention on this blog purely based on what a revolution it is for both the disco industry and for me personally. If you ever find yourself in a position needing a deck for either professional use or as a hobby I would whole heartedly recommend the iDJ2… just don’t forget the rave music.

Happy DJing!

Best Music For My Party

Deciding on the best music for your party is easy when you consider 3 important factors –

It’s all about me!
Be indulgent when choosing music for your event, after all it’s your party so you should have the music you want! Inform your DJ or disco service of your likes (and dislikes if need be) either verbally or in the form of a music list. Rather than presenting a five page list of every song you’ve ever loved keep the list simple by concentrating on say your top 25 ‘must-have’ songs and if you have any remaining favourites put those in afterwards. Presenting a long list detracts the DJ away from the songs that mean the most to you as well as him having to spend more time looking at the list than concentrating on the party itself.

Consider your guests
Ok so you love dance music and your ideal party is to resemble an illegal rave but have you really thought about what your guests want or are going to enjoy? Being indulgent doesn’t necessarily mean being selfish. Think about the age range you are inviting, are they going to like the music you have chosen or have you instructed the DJ to take your guests (and their age range) into consideration? Allowing your guests to ask for requests and dedications is a great way to ensure the DJ accommodates your guest’s favourite songs as well as helping to fill the dance-floor. Don’t worry a good DJ will politely and tactfully screen out any requests that may jeopardise your busy dance-floor or go against your personal music requirements! Failing to consider your guests music tastes may result in an empty dance-floor or worse still prompt your guests into a sooner than expected exit from your party.

Use your DJs expertise
Choose your DJ well and then have faith in his ability. Experienced, professional DJs perform at many parties so they regularly see what music works and doesn’t work. Allow your DJ the freedom to monitor and respond to how full your dance-floor is and how the music is being received by your guests. This means he can keep with a certain style of music if it is working well or change a style of music if it’s not.

So there you have it, how to choose the perfect music for your event. Indulge yourself, consider your guest’s ages and music tastes and allow the DJ the flexibility to do what he does best. Have a great party!

DJ Hire or DJ DIY?

If you are weighing up the possibility of hiring disco equipment and DJing yourself or allowing a friend to DJ at your party, before you pop down to the local disco hire store you may want to consider the following first –

DJing

Appearances can be deceptive. Good DJing is a skilled profession that goes way beyond putting CDs into CD players, if you want your party to have a great atmosphere you need to be an expert in the following –

• Competent and lively on the microphone – to really fill a dance-floor music alone is usually never enough
• Know all of your guest’s music tastes – if you have mixed ages attending you will need to know what works for an 18 year old, 30 year old, 40 year old, 50 year old, 60 year old and so on…
• Know how to ‘read the crowd’ - to keep your dance-floor full you will need to constantly monitor and respond to the changing moods on the dance-floor

Music

You may have 500+ songs on your i-pod but are they really all the right types of songs for your event?

• Professional DJs such as DNA DJs carry thousands of songs so they are always prepared for any eventually and can change the music in an instant if a certain style of music fails to work
• To keep your guests truly happy you need to be able to accommodate requests or dedications from over 50 years of music covering many different music genres

Equipment

Disco equipment is expensive which is why disco hire shops will only allow you to hire cheap, low-quality disco equipment.

• Good quality sound and lighting can make a massive difference to the success of your event, professional DJs (especially DNA DJs) love using the best equipment money can buy for superior quality
• Disco equipment hire is not necessarily cheap, once you have added the essential mixer, amp and speakers to your hire list you are usually paying at least 40% of the cost of a professional DJ and this is without the cost of any lights and the experience and expertise of a professional

Back-up

Disco equipment like most electrical equipment can fail and especially disco hire equipment due to the abuse it receives. Short of hiring additional equipment what would you do if the CD player skips or the mixer fails to switch on?

• In the rare instances, professional DJs such as DNA DJs can find the fault of any failure almost immediately and carry back-up audio equipment such as mixer, amp and speakers as well as spare leads and fuses
• DNA takes ‘back-up’ to a whole new level with replacement DJ cover, so not only are you protected against equipment failure but also accident or illness to your DJ

Costs

Is disco hire really that much cheaper than professional DJ hire?

• To hire the equivalent amount of equipment a professional DJ (including DNA DJs) brings to an event would be almost the same and even possibly more and is of a much lesser quality
• To truly equip your event with all the music you may need could cost you £10’s if not £100’s and that’s forgetting the hours it would take to download the songs

Still considering that disco hire? Your event deserves better, treat yourself and go DJ hire not DJ DIY!

What makes DNA Wedding Disco Specialists?

Weddings are unlike any other event; with so much pressure riding on ensuring you have the perfect day hiring the right wedding disco is essential. The good news is DNA specialises in wedding discos; read on to find out what makes DNA the wedding disco specialists -

A wealth of professional experience
As a full-time disco company, DNA has been providing bridal couples with dynamic wedding DJs since 1991. During this time we have listened and learnt a great deal about what makes the perfect wedding disco service.

Wedding Disco Advisors at your service 6 days a week
Your wedding is important, which is why we have a dedicated team of friendly, knowledgeable and helpful wedding disco advisors on hand offering you support and advice from your very first call through to the big day itself.

Experienced, Professional Wedding DJs
Every DNA DJ is trained to perform at wedding receptions from the outset. However, it is not until they have at least 4 - 5 years DJing experience before they are even considered to join DNA’s elite wedding specialist DJs. And even then further training is undertaken to ensure you of the most experienced, professional wedding DJs available anywhere.

Music to suit all your guests
When it comes to music a main concern for bridal couples is ensuring all their guests are accommodated, regardless of age. Our wedding specialist DJs carry the most popular music from all decades (‘50s – ‘00s) and use their knowledge and expertise to ensure each age range is accommodated throughout the evening. Our wedding DJs will of course also accommodate the most important people’s music requirements… yours.

All traditional wedding formalities covered
Whether you like traditions or not, wedding formalities can make your wedding reception that bit more special. Our specialist wedding DJs offer professional organisation and announcements for the following traditional wedding formalities – First Dance, Cutting of the Cake Ceremony, Throwing of the Bouquet and Wedding Send Off (circle or arch).

Finishing touches
Our wedding disco service doesn’t stop there, to bring your dance-floor alive we use state-of-the-art sound and lighting and offer written confirmation of your wedding reception and replacement DJ cover to give you unrivalled peace of mind.

We now cover more of the country

We are now operating in more counties across the UK than ever, so whether you’re celebrating a wedding, birthday, engagement, anniversary, presentation, corporate event or teenage party you can now hire a DNA DJ and disco in all the following counties –

• Essex
• Kent
• London
• Middlesex
• East Sussex
• West Sussex
• Surrey
• Hampshire
• Berkshire
• Oxfordshire
• Buckinghamshire
• Bedfordshire
• Northamptonshire
• Hertfordshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Suffolk

How to choose the right Disco

The search for the right DJ for your party doesn’t have to be a frustrating nightmare when you follow some simple good advice...

1. Use word of mouth – Unlike a product discos and DJs cannot be picked-up off a shelf then studied, they cannot be road tested or trialled over 30 days which is why recommendations are the next best thing when it comes to choosing the right DJ. Ask friends and family if they have had a DJ and what they thought of them. Friends and family can usually be trusted in giving an un-biased and honest opinion, both good and bad!

DNA says: The proof is in the pudding as they say. For every ten bookings we take on average seven of these will be recommendations by friends or family or customers re-booking after having had a DNA party before.

2. Search Google & Yellow Pages – Second to recommendations internet search engines (especially Google) and Yellow Pages are the perfect places to search for your DJ. Any good quality disco service will advertise in these popular mediums. When viewing websites take time to read some content (looking at photos only provides half the picture) and get a general feel for the quality of the website (presentation and design). If you use the Yellow Pages look for larger well-designed adverts with clear informative content. If a disco service takes the time and money to create a good looking website and Yellow Pages advert it is because they want your business. It also demonstrates that if they can apply professionalism and attention to detail to their advertising they can do the same for your event. Sloppy advertising usually means a sloppy DJ!

DNA says: When a customer is searching the internet or Yellow Pages it may be the first time they have come across our website or adverts so it is important for us to make a good impression right from the start, so they feel confident in our ability and professionalism.

3. Pick-up the phone – Once you have chosen a couple of DJs to contact avoid emailing and use the good old fashioned telephone instead. A great party relies heavily on the ability and personality of the DJ, so by talking to him on the phone gives you the perfect opportunity to hear what he sounds like and judge his personality. After all if he doesn’t have the confidence and personality on the phone how is he going to use these important qualities at your party?

DNA says: Our knowledgeable Disco Advisors (which include both DJs and non-DJs) are always friendly, bubbly and are happy to provide information on our disco service, answer questions and offer expert advice six days-a-week.

4. Make notes and compare – Any good, professional DJ would be willing to provide you with information, answer questions and offer advice if requested. For those who don’t you are best avoiding all together, after all if a DJ is proving to be difficult and un-willing now they are likely to do the same at your party. Make notes of what each disco service offers so you can compare services later on.

DNA says: We encourage our customers to ask questions and spend time comparing services as we know the night of their party is too late to find out that they have chosen the wrong disco service! A good quality disco would expect and be happy to have its service put under the microscope to help a customer make an informed decision.

5. Why seeing a DJ working can be a bad idea – If a DJ offers to allow you to attend one of his events it may sound like a good idea at first but it could end up being not such a great idea on the day of your party. Why? If a DJ is happy to offer and allow you to someone else’s private party then they will be more than happy to do the same when it comes to your party.

DNA says: We appreciate the difficulty a customer faces when deciding on the right DJ which is why we are more than happy to provide information over the telephone or if preferred, customers can visit our shop-based office if they wish to meet us or discuss their event further. We feel it is wrong to have complete strangers attend our customer’s private parties with close friends and family for our own commercial gain.

6. Why demo music CDs can be a waste of time – So if it’s not a good idea to see a DJ in action how about they provide a demo music CD? This is a great idea if you are looking for a specialist DJ specialising in a certain style of music (i.e. a Hip Hop Specialist DJ) as the music on the demo CD will be the one and only style of music you are looking for. However, if you are looking for a DJ to play a wide range of music styles and artists then demo CDs offer very little help. An experienced professional DJ will want to build his music play list around your requirements so sending you a demo CD of popular songs still may not necessarily be the songs you personally had in mind.

DNA says: The great thing about music is that it is very personal and diverse. For example, whilst some people love ABBA some people loathe ABBA. Getting the music right for any event is about asking the customer what they want and ensuring that music is played at the right times as well as being flexible on the evening. If a customer is unsure of what music they want certain factors are taken into consideration such as the age range attending and by providing suggestions based on professional experience that the customer is happy with. We also welcome music play lists, accommodate music requests and dedications on the night and our DJs constantly ‘read the crowd’ (respond to the changing moods of people on the dance-floor).

7. Surely DJs belonging to a DJ Association can’t be wrong? – Unfortunately, there is no government law a DJ has to abide by or ‘approved’ industry training a DJ has to pass before he is allowed to start trading as a DJ. All it takes is a small amount of money for a basic disco set-up, some music and that’s it - no previous experience or training necessary! But surely a DJ Association would vett DJ applicants by shadowing them at an event or putting them through some kind of training or audition? Well you would like to think so but sadly this is not the case. DJ Associations (and there are plenty of them) are usually run by groups of private DJs following no government screening process, undertaking any formal training or abiding by any government guidelines. To become a member of a DJ Association it is usually a case of a DJ paying a subscription fee and promising to abide by some basic guidelines but certainly no initial or on-going testing or scrutiny to ensure quality of workmanship. Few DJ Associations will even meet there members let alone screen them properly.

DNA says: When we first started we looked into many different DJ Associations and was both shocked and disappointed at how easy it was to join them. After that we decided that to ensure consistent high standards from our DJs we would need to create our own internal regulations and more importantly our own DJ training programme. Our comprehensive and unique DJ training programme has been fine-tuned and updated many times over the years in our quest to continually improve the quality of our professional DJs. Even to this day there is still no other DJ training programme we know of like it anywhere in the UK, including DJ Associations! We also monitor all newly trained DJs for two years through our Customer Satisfaction Questionnaires as well as recommendations and direct customer feedback.

8. The best price is not always the best option – There are times when the common philosophy ‘why pay more?’ should be a deciding factor in spending money, unfortunately choosing your disco based on this isn’t one of them. Not all disco services are the same and even if they seem to offer the same things (such as similar disco equipment) they can still be very different due to one very important factor… the DJ. His personality, mike skills, music choice and timing are just some of the many qualities that can make a big difference to the outcome of a party. Having a rough budget in mind is a good idea but remember to have some flexibility built into your budget as what you ‘imagine’ a disco costs compared to the reality can sometimes be very different. As much as a cliché it sounds, sometimes with services such as discos a better philosophy to consider is ‘you get what you pay for!’

DNA says: We believe prices should be balanced and fair based on what is offered and the level of service that is provided. Having said that we believe not only are our prices very competitive but the quality of our service far exceeds discos charging a lot more.

Resident DJs - to use or not to use?

With more and more venues recommending their own ‘in-house’ DJ should you make life easy and say ‘yes’ to the resident DJ or should you shop around for an ‘outside’ one?

The Resident DJ

Pros: The main reason people opt for a resident DJ is ease of booking. The venue takes care of everything so all you need to do is pay a deposit and if needed speak to the DJ about any personal music preferences.

Cons: Most DJs are part-time amateurs simply looking for an additional income; few see their job as a skilled profession or look to further their talents through diversity or understanding what makes the people that matter satisfied… the customer. With this in mind obtaining a residency at a venue can be the perfect solution for this type of DJ. No matter how good or bad he may be his work is guaranteed and if a customer doesn’t like the service he has provided it rarely matters as the next customer is already booked in for the following week! Also most venues offer resident DJs to make easy money. The only problem is dynamic, high-quality DJs do not come cheap so venues look to hire cheaper less experienced, low quality DJs which they then can apply a healthy profit margin to. The truth is once the profit margin is applied resident DJs usually cost the same as (or more in some cases) than a professional, more experienced ‘outside’ DJ.

The Outside DJ

Pros: The majority of top-end professional DJs rarely like being confined to the same venue on a weekly basis. Diversity and the desire to impress customers are more important to a professional DJ – they would rather be appreciated for their skills and talent than to simply make money. To be put more bluntly a professional DJ needs to win you and your guests over and ensure your night is an outstanding success if they are to survive in the disco industry. Also, a professional disco service will usually be keener to work more closely with you with regards to personal requirements such as music choice.

Cons: Unfortunately, bad DJs also exist on the ‘outside’ so you can still fall into the trap of booking a less experienced, low-quality DJ. Also, more time and effort will be required to research and book the right ‘outside’ DJ.

The Verdict

Both resident and ‘outside’ DJs have their good and bad points. The prefect solution would be a high-quality resident DJ, unfortunately they rarely exist. With only 52 weekends in a year, professional ‘outside’ DJs simply do not need to sell themselves short by becoming resident DJs. If the easiest route to booking a DJ is a higher priority than the success of your event and your venue is offering a fair price a resident DJ would be your ideal solution. If the complete opposite is your priority and high-quality is key, politely decline the offer of a resident DJ and be prepared to put time and effort into finding your perfect DJ elsewhere such as the internet or Yellow Pages. Your venue may try making this option harder for you by saying that the outside DJ needs Public Liability Insurance (PLI) and Portable Appliance Tested (PAT) equipment etc. Don’t worry; all good professional DJs will have both of these requirements already. If you are still unsure, avoid signing on the dotted line for the resident DJ, instead research and speak to both the resident DJ and some well-chosen ‘outside’ DJs. Consider what each offer, how they put themselves across (personality, helpfulness, professionalism etc.) and the prices charged helping you to make a more well-informed decision.