Photo 1 (above): our DJ setup outside for a HS back-to-school dance.
Photo 2 (above): our effect lights inside in a small auditorium for a middle school dance.
This past weekend, Dustin and I disc jockeyed a high school dance. Here are my observations and reflections regarding the dance:
- There were not many people there until about 1 hour into the dance, which was probably due to the fact that many people arrived late after going out to dinner.
- We are gradually getting more organized. I had to drive back to Dustin’s house because we left the screws for the component rack and the lightstand on his bed. As a result of this, we decided (in the future) to keep our wires, cables, and small components (light hardware, mics, power strips, screws, etc.) in a medium-sized Rubbermaid bin.
- We did well setting up, especially considering that Dustin had an injured shoulder and was unable to lift anything. I brought my brother to help us set up.
- The tech room in the auditorium was locked and we were unable to find a key, so we didn’t get to use the disco ball. This was not a problem, as our lights worked very well.
- As far as music, we learned that you never know what people are going to request and what you will end up playing, so you need all your music on CDs. There were several songs that people wanted us to play, but they were on the laptop! People requested salsa, spanish songs, 60s rock songs, and others. We had the songs, but we couldn’t play them. In any case, next time we’ll bring blank CDs.
Before we DJ our next event, we will probably need to rethink our speaker configuration. We usually use our 2 15″ speakers on 1 amplifier, and our 4 10″ speakers “daisy-linked” on the other. This weekend, we tried giving each 15″ speaker its own amplifier, and not using the 10-inchers. This did not work too well, as we were pushing the big speakers on power (ok, well Dustin says we were fine) and the quality was not as good as it could have been. Before our next dance I will talk about this in detail.