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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: What do you guys recommend?

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I have a wedding coming up that I'm DJing for and the bridal party wants their own song for every single couple who will be entering the room. There are 10 couples plus the bride and groom, so that will be 11 songs in total. BPM's are no where close in range for all of the songs, so beatmatching is pretty much going to be next to impossible. Plus, it's looking like there will only be around 20 seconds of each song played since that's how long it will take each couple to enter the room and go to the head table where the wedding party will be seated.

So basically, I'll have to line up 11 songs probably in a side list, load side 1, load side 2, play side 1, announce, fade to side 2, load side 1 with new song, announce, and then keep going back and forth like that. It's just me so no separate MC for the announcements. I'm nervous that between getting all the songs loaded and cued up while announcing, something is going to go wrong with the coordination.

Should I not worry about it and do things like stated above, or should I maybe just create a mix (either in VDJ or in Abelton or Pro Tools) where it's just one single MP3 with 20 seconds of each song, and then all I have to worry about is playing the one track, and I can focus on just doing the announcements? What would you guys do?
 
Inviato Mon 11 Apr 16 @ 12:34 pm
Been in the wedding DJ biz over 25 years. This has come up a few times during my career. I found the best solution is to use Audacity to mix together a proper 30 second clip of each required song. Couple one= Track 1. Couple two= Track 2 etc etc.
Note these are not super mixed into one track.
It's all single tracks of 30 to 45 seconds each matching each couple.
Enough time for the couples to get in the hall and take their places. Fade out-- start next track -- establish the mood -- start yapping. Fade out -- start next track establish the mood -- start yapping -- fade out -- Next track -- and so on.

Reason for single tracks-- On the big day-- with that many couples-- you stand a 60% chance that one or more couples may not show up ("last time I saw Joe and Mary they were headed to a 7-11 to get some beer").

With track numbers matching couple numbers-- (your "cheat sheet" should be printed in large 36 point or better bold typeface) ---- you have the option of skipping a track physically and remembering to skip them by crossing out that track number on your list.

Now-- the important part. As you "sample-Prep" each of the requested songs-- you target the most remembered refrains or chorus lines from that song. Billy Jean by Michael Jackson is a good example. You may not want to play the first 30 seconds-- -- you may want to play the Billie Jean refrain-- starting at about 1:28 into the song.
On the other hands a song like "Who let the Dogs out" by Baha Men starts cold with the most important memorable lyric -- instantly.
By using Audacity or any good audio edit program-- you can sweeten up each of your prepared segments for maximum effect.

On the big day-- you have your prepped tracks lined up. Make sure all those bodies are in order outside the hall. Play first song for a few seconds (establishing mood) --- fade down a bit-- introduce couple with music in background - put music back to loud while couple marches in-- cue up track two --- fade out track one when couple comes to stop-- fade in track two-- with a few seconds -- (establishing mood) --- fade down a bit-- introduce couple 2 with music in background -- fade out track two when couple comes to stop -- and you know the rest -- "Shampoo-- Rinse-- Repeat" -- :)
 
Because there are so many couples with separate intro songs, things can quickly fall apart with a pre-made mix as some couples may walk quicker or slower to their respective places. Unless you have faith that each couple will be on point, I would steer away from it as you will then have no way to extend or shorten each track if the situation arises.

Personally for this situation, I would load each track into the sampler and route the audio of the sampler to a deck fader to give quick access to each track and have volume control to fade in and out since the BPMs of each track are so far apart.
 
Thanks guys...another idea was to maybe edit each song so that there is a 16 or 24 beat intro and outro, with 15-20 seconds of the chorus or hook after the intro. That way, I can still fade from track to track at the outro, make the announcements during the intro, and if the couples are going too slow, I can always loop the outro or set a cue point that I can hit to restart the chorus.

But I like your guys' suggestions too. Appreciate the advice!

Normally I like to have 2 songs at the most for wedding parties. 1 for all the couples and 1 for the bride and groom. This is the first time where every single couple wanted their own song, and I'm sure it wont be the last either. :)
 
visionz5 wrote :
Thanks guys...another idea was to maybe edit each song so that there is a 16 or 24 beat intro and outro, with 15-20 seconds of the chorus or hook after the intro. That way, I can still fade from track to track at the outro, make the announcements during the intro, and if the couples are going too slow, I can always loop the outro or set a cue point that I can hit to restart the chorus.

But I like your guys' suggestions too. Appreciate the advice!

Normally I like to have 2 songs at the most for wedding parties. 1 for all the couples and 1 for the bride and groom. This is the first time where every single couple wanted their own song, and I'm sure it wont be the last either. :)


Looks like a good plan to me. You will nail this "cast of thousands" intro session with ease. Only thing I would add is that it would be simpler to make each of your specially prepared segments run up to a minute each (rather than worry about loops and cue points in mid-stream). Why add extra steps to an already busy session.
The KISS principle applies here big-time.

Also, I can share that I've seen this careful preparation with extra editing and proper execution go all to blazes when each of the couples elects to walk in like a set of pallbearers instead of "rockin' down the aisles." If that happens to you-- don't worry-- you did your job. It just happens sometimes.
It helps to "rev' em up" outside of the hall with positive encouragement and a cheerleading attitude.
OK guys, I've got your music all set up-- now let's make this a blast with some smooth action --- I wanna see each of you bust out your best dance moves!!
Wait till you hear your names and the show is all yours---

You know what I'm saying.
 
Get your list of songs, edit the part of song you want to play and re tag as say couple 2... etc

Get order list of couples entering room

set up songs in automix as preferred order (don't really matter if the order gets screwed up as you already have the tag for each couple)

Double click next song when needed... simples.

And if your introducing the couples, it couldn't be any easier.
 
20 secs for 11 songs. that makes it 220 secs, 3-1/2 mins.

Why not just pre record it ?

I would make cues, 20 secs between and another 10 secs of some spot in the song that is "loopable"
once in the recorded file, recue back every song spot and variable BPMs

In case something goes wrong and it takes more than 20 secs you keep that loopable spot playing and when the other couple enters you
disable that loop and let the other song come in.

Some will say "what if the wrong couple enters ? "
then make a cue for each couple.

Or just reloop the whole 20 secs if something goes wrong.
 
I have done this a few times in my career, and VDJ has just made it easier. I would keep it simple. Load all tracks in automix, you can use one or both players. Play the first track, after the couple gets to the spot you want, hit mix now, and the next track will start. If you use both players, it will be easier to fade the track in. Do not sweat this, it is an introduction, you just have to get the names right.
 
Nah.... my idea is waaaayyyyy waaaayyyyy betterrr... rofl

amahm wrote :
Oh my God! your right again Paul... as usual
 
tayla wrote :
Nah.... my idea is waaaayyyyy waaaayyyyy betterrr... rofl

amahm wrote :
Oh my God! your right again Paul... as usual





Oh my God! You're right again Paul.... as usual. I'll admit, I did skim over your post, as soon as I saw "edit", I was out of there because I would not even do that. Just goes to show, you are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay smarter than me.
 
Haha, rofl mate.
 
Thanks for the tips guys! I ended up creating edits of all the songs last night in Abelton. I have a 10 second intro, 10 second outro and the chorus. Some songs came out to be around 30 seconds. I loaded them up into VDJ and set cue points (one right at the start of the intro, one to loop an outro in case the couples take too long walking to their table, and 1 at the start of the chorus in case I need to skip part of the intro all together). So I think it'll be ok. I'll load them all up in order in a sidelist and have them auto mix on their own. Hopefully I'll never have to even look at the laptop and can just focus on announcing the names. But the cue points will be there just in case I do need to do anything.
 


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