Disc Jockey Equipment & Lights

New Year parties in Toronto are full of hope for better things. It is at this time that people want to have parties to celebrate yet another New Year. Unfortunately, some parties like the ideal entertainment that grasps the spirit of the New Year. Prior to settling on a Disc Jockey that will be responsible for the provision of quality entertainment, things to expect from the New Year DJs include constant attention to one’s needs

The DJ’s should arrive some hours before the commencement of the party in order to have enough time for equipment set-up. The DJs should also test the equipment in advance and replace any that might not be working properly in order to avoid disappointments during the party. Toronto DJ’s should also dress properly to match the occasion. Unlike a wedding where, they could be required to wear tuxedos, a New Year’s party is more casual and the DJs can be allowed leeway to dress in appropriate casuals.

A New Year party host in Toronto should expect the DJ to treat family members and the guests with a friendly, delightful manner. Guests do not want to be entertained by a sulky DJ. He/she should be able to discern the different types of music and which genres fit the guests invited well. A clear understanding of the different phases of music is also desirable. Additionally, the DJ should be organized and with a firm control of the entertainment aspects of the party at all times.

The DJ should be energetic enough to help shape the party spirit. He or she can achieve this by choosing the right type of music and adjusting the music volume to the right level in the entire party area. The party host in Toronto should expect that the DJ should be careful enough to avoid playing repugnant songs, or doing distasteful things that may offend the guests. Additionally, the DJ should be able to work with other people in attendants. This includes the photographers, and even the organizers and the party program director. When choosing the DJ, a planner should remember that most guests notice the various entertainment aspects than any other aspect of the party. If the entertainment is dull, then the entire party spirit dies off and the guests could end up leaving the party prematurely. The planner’s expectations should therefore act as a guide when picking the DJ.

The planner should expect to see passion and drive in the DJ, after all, it his/her profession of choice. The party organizer should ensure that the chosen DJ understands the entertainment needs of the invited guests and the host of the party. Thus, he or she should ensure that a positive mood is maintained throughout the party. However, the DJ should also exhibit a deep understanding that his or her tastes and choices in music do not really count at this moment. At such, he or she must be able to execute the demands of the guests without any reservations. Toronto planners should also expect the DJs to consult with them on the various aspects of the planned entertainment. It is the planner that informs them of the invited guests and their likes and dislikes.

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In my previous article I mentioned that as a DJ you’d want to purchase lights that are DMX capable. What is DMX and why is this an issue? Here’s the quick, non-technical answer.

I’ve mentioned that there is typically more than one way to control an effects light. One way is simply to let it react to the sound it hears. This isn’t a bad idea. It can give you some nice results. And some lights have footswitches or hand controls that let you change the colors, make them blink, or point them in different directions depending on what sort of light you are dealing with. The snag is that these methods have some drawbacks.

First, you’re may have located some of the lights some distance from your station. If the action needs to pause for a bit, how are you going to disable those lights temporarily? Second, if the lights are manually controlled, you are limited to placing them no further away from you than the length of the cord that came with them.

And maybe you’d like to coordinate the lights into programs you can control directly from your DJ station. Enter DMX.

If your lights are DMX capable, you just wire them together in “daisy-chain” fashion with the first light in the chain hooked to a DMX control board. The cables look just like your standard XLR microphone cables, but you are often advised to buy cables specified just for DMX purposes.

Each light is given an address that corresponds to controls on your lighting control board. At first glance it appears a bit complicated, but the principle is that when a signal is sent from the control board, that signal needs to arrive at the right light and activate the right feature. There’s no reason for me to go into this here because the instruction manual that will come with your light board and individual lights will thoroughly explain all of this. Just get the idea that your control unit sends signals down the wires and each lighting fixture will either react or not react to that signal depending on how it is set. It’s really easy to do once you get the hang of it.

The beauty of this system is you can design elaborate lighting scenes and run them from your board including having your board fire off those scenes in sync with the sound. And you can cut all the lights at once with the push of one button if you want.

Yeah, but what about stringing wires from fixture to fixture if some are on the other side of the dance floor? Simple! Wire the ones that are close to you together and into your board, and use a pair of wireless DMX transmitter/receiver units to send the signals across the room to your other units!

Almost forgot – you can usually control your fogger with your DMX board, too!

We’ll look at control boards and programs next time!

Craig

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Let me be honest. Ever since I discovered lighting effects for DJ work, I’ve become a lighting fanatic. I’m assuming here that you are just beginning to explore DJ lights. Given that being the case, let’s start with some basics and go from there.

Most all DJ lighting units are sound activated. That means you can just plug the unit into an outlet, point it in the desired direction, set it to respond to sound, blast the music, and let it run. However, you need to put some thought into this first.

Keep in mind that many lighting fixtures get extremely hot, so be careful that no one gets burned. We’re talking about a blistering hot device plugged into house current, so safety must come first. Since you will probably decide to suspend some of the lights, be entirely sure that you employ every possible safety precaution to make certain they don’t fall on someone’s head. And don’t overload power outlets! It is horrible to fire up your equipment for the first dance, flip on your lighting units, and have the whole thing work great for five seconds before a breaker trips ending the show. Power your lights properly from multiple circuits then turn it all on for a while before the event gets started.

When you position your lights you need to make sure every light that is set to respond to the music can hear it properly. This is rarely a problem, but it does mean that snuggling the thing away behind your speakers might not be the best idea.

What ones to use? I love the various “intelligent” lights or scanners. You can thrill your crowd with laser lighting effects. If you’re not afraid to spend some money, some of the “moving yoke” lights are will knock your socks off. There’s no reason to discuss these now because you can examine them and watch little movies on the internet of how they work in action. If you don’t know where you can find these, do a search for “Chauvet Lighting”. Chauvet has a lot of videos of their lights in action on their webiste.

I would make this one strong suggestion: Be sure any lights you buy are DMX lights. DMX refers to a way to control the lighting units from a remote programmable control board or software program. As a result you can run all your lights from a remote light control board or a device that hooks up to a computer. This does mean wiring the units together or using wireless control boxes, but the results can be amazing, and sooner or later, you’ll want to try this out.

Want to be part of our discussion? Then you need to be at my blog, Discovering and Shopping for DJ Lights.

A deeper look at DMX next time. For now, go check out what’s out there – and have fun!

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We all know that a crowd at a wedding reception that gets a little liquored-up can be a lot easier to get fired up on the dance floor. Sometimes, things just take on a life of their own and we don’t have to do much.

But what about non-alcohol wedding receptions? I’ve done some additional crowd involvement, but I wonder if there is something I could do with lights or other gear to get things rolling?

Craig

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I love the equipment we use. Part of that probably comes from a life-long interest in electronics. But maybe I’ve gotten a bit ahead of myself.

Want to get your skills up to speed in a hurry? Check this out.

Craig

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Okay, this question is closely related to lighting. What size fogger to you take with you to jobs? Do you have more than one size?

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For those of us who use online suppliers for our equipment purchases, do you tend to make most of your purchases from one particular supplier? If so, which one? I’ve been happy with CheapDJLights and with Musician’s Friend.

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I’ve got to admit … I have no LED fixtures. Yet. Are you using any? If so, which ones are the most valuable to you?

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Do you set your fixtures individually to respond to the music and let them run? Or do you use a DMX controller to set up scenes?

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I’ll admit it. I don’t get much joy from running DMX cables to the various fixtures. So the idea of wireless DMX units like Chauvet’s is appealing. I’ve had mixed results though. In some buildings they work great. Other times the control is erratic resulting in lights blinking off and on at inappropriate times. Anybody have similar results?

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