|
Band VS DJ
Q: My father and I keep going back and forth about having a DJ vs a band. I want a band and he insists a DJ is good enough and that bands are too expensive. Which would you suggest?
Susan A: Susan, this is a tough decision. We love bands and orchestras! Nothing can beat the energy, excitement or fun that a good band brings to a wedding reception. No DJ can beat a good to excellent band in crowd response or energy level, there is something about live music that will always be best. However a bad band will have your guests headed to the doors as fast as a bad DJ will.
What you have will depend on your budget. A good disc jockey in the South Bend region will cost between $1000 to $1500+. To find a good band you are going to have to go outside the area to Chicago or Indy and that is going to cost you starting around $8000. An orchestra has enough members that they don't need to stop the music and take breaks every 30 minutes will cost you $10,000+. We really recommend finding an orchestra over a band. An orchestra will have enough members that they will be able to rotate out singers and players to take breaks but keep the music playing and the guests energized. When a band takes a break, many guests look at this as an opportunity to leave, so the longer the music is going the better.
So it all depends on your budget. Do you have enough room to spend the thousands a good orchestra requires? If not then we recommend you check out the DJs listed here. The good ones like the Music Machine, River City Music and the Hitman will keep the party going and approach the energy of a band and not take breaks. Labels: band, disc jockey, dj, orchestra, reader question
Hiring Your Wedding Reception Disc Jockey
 Over the last two weeks and attending the various bridal shows that have been put on I have noticed a trend among the wedding disc jockeys that have popped up; They are selling the music list, the audio equipment and the light show but they are not telling you anything about the entertainment!There is a common misconception that a DJ is about pushing play on a cd player or computer and blaring music out over a pair of loud speakers. Since starting at Michiana Weddings I have been to dozens of weddings and that is what a lot of Disc Jockeys are about and what they sell, but it is NOT good wedding reception entertainment! In fact DJs who are just about the size of their music libraries, the brand their audio equipment is or the number of lights in their show seldom create a party atmosphere where your guests will be dancing till the end of the night. Quite often the majority of guests are gone early, no more than a few people are ever on the dance floor at one time but the light show sure is pretty.These DJs are quite easy to pick out at a bridal show or even on their website, in fact they are the majority of DJs out there. They advertise, 20,000 / 50,000 or even 1,000,000 songs libraries. My question is, is there even a million songs out there recorded to purchase and how many of those million songs are even worth listening to? This type of advertising irritates me too, because if the DJ really had a million songs at an iTunes rate of $0.99 each this is a person already rich, why did he waste his money on songs or becoming a DJ? Actually they don't have that many songs but are using the fact that iTunes and the pirate services exist from which they can grab those songs. Really it is false advertising, no DJ I have encountered or that other DJs have encountered really has a million song library.Another sign of a poor wedding reception entertainment professional is the BIGGEST light show around! Ask yourself, when was the last time you went to a night club and danced because of all their high tech lighting, while there was no music? You didn't! No one dances to lights, in fact no one pays any real attention to lights at a wedding or a nightclub. Half the time I dance with my eyes closed, just feeling the music, drives my boyfriend nuts when I do this. It is just a fact, no amount of lights is going to make your wedding reception a dance party success. People don't dance to lights and if you are my grandma, she gets up and leaves because the lights drive her nuts, in her old age.A large lightshow can also be a hindrance for you, they take time to set up and to tear down. A DJ a friend hired took two hours to disassemble his show after her wedding and the following week when they got back from the honeymoon my friend found a bill from the banquet hall charging them an hour and a half of overtime because the DJ wasn't gone in a reasonable amount of time. This is also something to be aware of with your hall. Many halls these days have time restrictions for all of the third party vendors to be packed up and out, in fact a hall like the Woodward the vendors have to be out when your wedding reception ends. That means if you have the hall till 11:00 PM the DJ and photographer and videographer should be getting ready to make for the door at 10:30 PM.Equipment, equipment, equipment. "We have 20,000 watts of energy!" "We carry only the best Peavey Equipment!" "We have a wall of speakers." You have seen it in their literature, online or they have told you about their fantastic audio equipment and how much they bring with them. Equipment and the amount of power a DJ has can be important. You don't want the DJ to just show up with a home made speaker system, a home amplifier and then proceed to sound like the music is coming from under water or the amp is being over driven to such a point that distortion in the sound is giving your guests headaches and have them packing for the door early.The question here is not what type of equipment they have or how much but if they know how to really use it. Don't laugh, you would be surprised at how many of these "audio professionals" only know that cord a is inserted into slot b and that makes the speakers go. One DJ, that I witnessed, was on the phone last summer with his boss having a fit that he was getting no sound. After someone from the office arrived they determined he had plugged the audio out cables into he audio in slots on his mixer. Even though he had 6 speakers there he didn't know enough to trouble shoot his equipment. So don't let brand names, or large numbers fool you with equipment the true test of a reception entertainer is the quality and clarity of the sound they produce, not who has the biggest sub woofer.So at this point you are probably left wondering, what qualities should I be looking for in a DJ?HOW TO HIRE A DJFirst and foremost on hiring any DJ is EXPERIENCE & TALENT! Playing music for a wedding reception is not just about choosing a song and pushing play on a cd player or computer. It's about knowing what to play and when to play it! Crowds are fickle, what they will dance to, how long they will dance to it and if they will dance to it changes through out the event. A DJ not only has to be able to read the crowd but be somewhat of a fortune teller as to what they will be responding to three songs into the future. And a good DJ if they goof up on song selection won't just plow on with the same type of music they were going to play originally.One DJ last year started playing polkas. For the first polka he had a pretty decent response, half the floor covered with dancers, which from what I understand these days is good. with the second polka he lost half his dancers. With the third polka he had three couples on the dance floor. By the fifth polka the bride was yelling at him to change the music, no one was dancing. He should have quit the polkas with the second song but lack of experience or skill or ability to read the crowd, he cleared the dance floor of dancers and kept on playing the polkas. A good entertainer would have been on to the next type of music long before.For a successful evening experience counts and you want a DJ that reads the crowd, and is proactive in keeping the dance floor full of guests having a good time and with experience you will get this. Microphone and Master of Ceremony Skills. One of the skill sets that so many Disc Jockeys are lacking, even experienced one, and one of the most important. We all know what a good MC sounds like, you hear them nightly on Leno, Letterman, Oprah etc. These are people who are articulate, clear speaking and get the point across without repeating themselves constantly. One DJ in the area repeats everything they say twice "ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the first dance. Ladies and gentlemen the first dance of..." They do not scream, stutter, repeat themselves or eat their microphone. A good DJ knows how to hold his microphone so that his voice comes across it clearly and will be able to explain to you how to do it, if asked. Especially since these are instructions they should give to the people doing toasts. A DJ who eats their microphone when they try to talk is easy to pick out, most of the time they come out sounding like the adults in the old Charlie Brown specials... Wa, WAW, wa wa wa....A Master of Ceremony acts as a guide to what type of evening it will be, they set the mood, by how they say things and what they say. You may want someone who is Sienfeld, cracks jokes, laughs with your guests. Or you desire someone who keeps it formal. What you probably don't want is someone who uses your reception as their advertising forum. Yes there are DJs who will stand up there and self promote themselves, I saw one who even dragged a previous customer up to his equipment and had them give a testimony on how well they did at that person's wedding and how well they were doing now. Ack!Ask the prospective DJ as to what their philosophy is about being the Master Of Ceremony. If you like their answer this is probably the DJ for you, everyone is looking for something different. If they say they don't talk, well that's probably not good either. Guests on occasion need vocal encouragement to dance and they need to know what is coming up next. Nothing is worse for a guest than to be getting a drink and not realizing that something like the cake cutting is happening, something they want a picture of. Or the father of the bride heads to the bathroom not realizing that his dance with his daughter is in 30 seconds. One thing to note as the evening goes on the need for chatter decreases as their music skills become the dominant form of communication.The reception coordinator. Another very key part of a DJ's job is being the reception coordinator. S/He has the microphone, they control the sound of the music and by nature, if you don't have a professional wedding coordinator working your event then all the other vendors at the reception are going to turn to the DJ to keep up on what is happening. As the Master Of Ceremony they are keeping your guests informed, as the reception coordinator they are keeping your vendors informed and YOU.The last thing in my opinion a bride and groom should have to do is watch the clock. A good reception coordinator which is what a lot of DJs advertise they do will come to you a few minutes before the scheduled event and let you know it's time. If you are not ready they will proceed accordingly by adjusting the schedule. They will also keep your other vendors, like the videographer and photographer informed as to when and what is going on.Be aware though that many DJs promote just this type of service, but fail to follow through in practice. They think an announcement over their speakers is being a reception coordinator. It's not, physically tracking down people and informing them is, not a hap-hazard announcement that you will probably miss and the vendors most likely won't notice. How can you find out what type of coordinator they are? Ask your other vendors, if the DJ takes the time to inform the photographer or videographer or banquet manager as to what is going on then those vendors will be able to tell you just that. Don't just trust the sales pitch.Up above I said don't buy the hype of 20,000 / 50,000,000 or 1,000,000 song libraries it's just not that realistic. So what should you be looking for? Well the consensus among the DJs that we recommend is that they carry about 10,000 songs of which 1,000 of those are key songs in their library and the rest are more of a "we have it just in case".The key to a successful wedding reception is do they have a wide variety of music. Something from the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000+. Do they have the music that you want to hear? And how are they updated. The more experienced DJs are members of subscription services like RPM and ERG which supply radio clean edits of all the latest music to be given to the radio stations. One thing to note here, is that if the DJ touts his illegally downloaded music library, run don't walk away. Illegal music is usually of low quality and I have been to a few weddings where the DJ was not smart enough to check out the music and got hit with an RIAA fake that either made it half way through the song and went to white noise or a voice came on saying, "this music is pirated". Talk about putting dropping a wet blanket on the festivities, both times it happened during the first dance. The DJ is making money from doing your wedding and rightfully the artist should have been compensated for the use of their music for your enjoyment by the DJ belonging to a subscription service or buying the actual albums they use.Equipment.Up above I made light of the the DJs who sell their equipment as such a major benefit. As I said usually they are promoting the amount of equipment they have. Equipment is important, but not amount and not even type but quality and use. A qualified DJ will ask you how many guests you are having and where the event will take place and be able to tell you exactly what they need to use for your event. Most weddings do not need a wall of speakers. Neither can they be done well with just two little speakers. A professional who knows what s/he is doing understands this. In talking with our recommended DJs it appears that most events are best served with a bi-amplified sound system that employees 2 full range speakers and 1 18" sub or 2 12" subs. Bi-amplified means 1 speaker handles the mids and high speakers while another amplifier handles the subwoofer. This set up will provide a nice thump on the dance floor and clean highs that don't distort. Some DJs promote the Mackie speakers with built in amplifiers in each speaker an alternative to a bi-amplified sound system. This system can sound good, but we have heard DJs overdrive these speakers and sound lousy too.Most of all an experienced DJ who knows what s/he is doing with their equipment will be able to tell you how they can get good sound in any situation. To DJ at Century Center and sound good is different from DJing at Windsor Park and sounding good and they will be able to tell you how and why. And ask them what their philosophy on sound is. Are they just trying to shake the windows in the building out of their frames or what. Personally we don't like the ones trying to knock the windows out.Those are our major points when looking for your wedding reception entertainment in the form of a DJ. Be an informed consumer and don't be afraid to ask questions! No question is stupid and if the vendor treats your question as stupid then probably s/he is not the vendor for you. If they aren't willing to tell you their philosophy on what the purpose of an MC is or how an MC should act then they probably aren't one. If your photographer says that the DJ didn't keep him informed then even if the DJ claims to he probably doesn't. If the DJ wants to shake the windows then your guests will probably be headed for the door during the first dance.The entertainment is the main make it or break it factor of any wedding reception. A good DJ will keep your guests going till the last dance of the night, a bad DJ will leave you with an empty hall paid for with 3 hours to go till the contract is up and the banquet hall will not be offering a discount just because everyone went home early. Be informed, ask questions!-Amy TaylorPictures courtsey McDonald StudioLabels: disc jockey, dj, reception entertainment, wedding reception
|
|
