Avoid Things That Can Ruin Your DJ Career

Whether you are considered to be among the best DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia or you are an upcoming DJ, you need to play your cards right and avoid the things that can ruin your DJ career. The following mistakes will give you a bad name and prevent you from getting gigs in your area.

 

Ignoring red lights and levels

This mistake drives a lot of sound engineers crazy. If you see red lights on your mixer, amplifiers or any other equipment you might be using, make sure you act immediately to correct the mistake. While there is more leeway on most mixers and a few red lights may not cause a problem, it is always good to watch out for them. If you see red lights, you are risking damaging your expensive equipment which might take you some time to recover. DJs for hire in Victoria Australia should take care of their equipment to avoid being cut off by simple faults at the middle of the gig.

Drinking before working

Any career doesn’t require you to drink before working. If you have to drink then it is better to drink on your free days or after work. Drinking before working can be embarrassing for DJs. If you get to the club early, it may be tempting to take a few drinks as you wait to go on. Some people get nervous before a gig and think that drinking can help them kill their nervousness. Drinking and mixing do not go together.

Playing endless crowd requests

The best DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia know when to play requests and when to ignore them. You should have a basic plan for the gig. Playing random requests will upset the majority of the crowd. You shouldn’t feel the need to play requests just to please a few people and upset the majority.

Tips On How To Package Your Aussie DJ Services

If you want to be a wedding DJ Melbourne in Victoria Australia then you need to package your services. Most wedding vendors have packaged their services. When it comes to creating packages for your DJ services, it is an ongoing struggle. You need to try over and over to know what will close the deal. DJ packages play an important role in helping wedding clients narrow down their options. Packages show off everything you can offer in a transparent presentation. You should think of your packages as valuable bundles of services that a happy customer will choose from.

 

 

Create package options

 

You will want to establish a base rate or flat fee for the actual service. Other suggested services should go into your packages. Lapel mic for the officiant, ceremony sound system, wireless mics for toasts, uplighting, planning sessions and a venue walkthrough should be in wedding DJs packages.

 

You need to start by listing all your services and aim to have three tiers of packages. Don’t have too few packages and also too many packages will overwhelm you. Your lowest package should be bare-bones. The middle package should be the most popular option. It should include a few upsell services and extras.

 

The last option should be your most expensive package. If you price it competitively, you will be able to convince a few shoppers to upgrade because of the discount they will get.

 

Define each package

 

You need to choose what goes in each package as a DJ Melbourne in Victoria Australia. There are different ways you can make your packages work. You should throw in cheap add-ons to entice couples to use your services. You should encourage clients to spend more on extra services that make a difference at the wedding. Once you have defined each of your packages, you should make an effort to perfect your presentation.

Top Reasons Why You Should DJ At Weddings

There are a lot of misconceptions about wedding DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia but they shouldn’t shake your spirit of becoming a wedding DJ since there are a lot of benefits of being a wedding DJ. There are high chances that if you let people know your honest-to-goodness DJ then the question will arise whether you do weddings.

 

If you are smart then you will immediately say yes even if that is not what you do. Weddings are an ideal way you can improve your artistic and technical skills, increase the variety and number of gigs on your calendar, build your reputation and get paid for the services offered. Here are some more reasons to become a wedding DJ.

You will get paid

It is great to play music in your basement and impress your followers on YouTube and mix cloud with your set. It is even better to keep your friends entertained at a house party. However, unless you have a residency at a high-volume club, you won’t be making any money close to what wedding DJs make. What is the benefit of entertaining people for free when your fellow DJs are being paid for what they do?

You will get better

You do not develop the instinct of mixing alone at home. The only way you can get experienced is through raw experience. The good news is that wherever you live, there are opportunities for gaining the experience and to get paid for what you do.

If you want to be among the top wedding DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia, you need to play live for real people. The best schooling you can get is not on YouTube or expensive online mixing courses. You can only get it through live mixes like playing at a wedding. This way, you will learn how to interact with your audience.

How To Index And Select Your Music As A DJ

DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia have the task of indexing their music, sorting it by style and marking it with sound colour. Creating such a list can take a lot of time. You can spend months creating it but when you have this list, it will be your treasure. You should never give away your list because it will be half the money you make when performing.

Some people make the mistake of exploiting the index and not exploring anymore. This can be wrong because you can encounter better mixes. It is also wrong because you are not looking at your audience and you won’t make being a DJ fan.

Tempo

You should have a good idea to measure the tempo of your tracks. There are programs online that can help you with this. The song’s tempo can help you match the current song to the next song. DJs in Victoria Australia can also set the tempo of effect boxes to the playing tempo.

Get cool music

You should arm yourself with cool music. You can use online music stores to buy new music. You need to follow the best artists so that you can get their music immediately they release. The timbre, sound quality, and colour of the songs are created by the original artist. You cannot modify it much. As a DJ, your set belongs to you and artists have little control over it. The audience you will see will depend on the organisers of the event.

If the song is boring or not cool, that isn’t your responsibility to fix it. DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia should choose songs that are good in the first place. How they weave the songs together in their set is their task. You can ruin your set with only five crappy songs so you need to ensure you have the best music.

DJ Tips For Setting Your Sound Levels Before You Begin Mixing

If you are a beatmatching professional, you know your top DJs Melbourne equipment inside out and words like bar and breakdown are part of the daily DJ vocabulary. It is now the right time to move on and learn how to mix your tracks. We will get a taste of what mixing is and how to set your sound levels.

Setting your sound levels

In most cases, two tracks from different records will have a different volume level. They will also be recorded in different tempos. One record may be louder than the other when you play them on the same turntable. This means you can cause distortion to your audience and this can affect their experience.

The job of a DJ is to provide a uniform level of volume for all the tracks played. It is, therefore, important for DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia to know how to balance their sound. The rule thumb is to set a channel level so that in the loudest parts of a record, the channel meter touches on the red from time to time but doesn’t stay there to avoid clipping.

If your mixer doesn’t have channel meters, you can monitor the level of the sound using the master volume or the cue meter.

Setting the volume of the channel

You can set the channel’s volume using its gain. The gain of the track should be set beforehand before you start bringing the record in.

For top DJs Melbourne in Victoria Australia who has channel meters on their mixer, this is a breeze. You can adjust the gain of the track as you are beat-matching with the new record in your headphones. This can be done by adjusting the gain in the loud parts of the song, its channel meter will touch on the red occasionally as we had already described.

The Best Ways To Negotiate With An Aussie Wedding DJ

The best DJs in Melbourne Australia will give you a chance to negotiate. Being able to negotiate with a wedding DJ will help you in the long run. You can talk to your wedding professionals about how you can work within your budget but some DJs won’t lower their rates just because you asked them to. You need to make them see the need for lowering their rates for you. Here are some tips to help you negotiate with your wedding DJs.

Do your research

Before you negotiate with your wedding DJ, you will need to find out the reasonable cost for a wedding DJ in your area. You will learn that the cost of DJs vary from DJ to DJ with the most popular DJs charging more than the upcoming DJs.

Use the right channel to reach out

While most wedding DJs in Melbourne Australia are willing to negotiate, if you use the wrong channel they will not negotiate. Avoid negotiations through calls, texts or emails. Schedule a meeting with your wedding DJ and negotiate in person. Make sure you know the rates of the DJ so that you do not end up making ridiculously low demands. Requesting for ridiculously low prices will appear to be offensive.

Understand the seasons

Most DJs charge higher prices during the high season when the demand for their services is high. If you know you have a low budget for your wedding, try to schedule it when the prices are low.
 

Prepare to compromise

The best DJs Melbourne in Australia have their professional gear, backup, lights and additional accessories. Some of them might agree to lower the prices if you compromise on some things. For example, you might compromise on the lights if you feel comfortable with normal venue lights. Review the packages of your DJ to know the services you don’t need and those that you can compromise.

How To Get Booked As A Wedding DJ

 If you are a wedding DJ in Melbourne Australia, it is important to know how to get booked. Otherwise, you won’t be able to sustain your business if you are not getting gigs. You may have the right gear and skills but marketing your services is a different thing. Here are a few tips to get booked as a wedding DJ in the city in which you operate.

 Wedding DJ references

When you take your first meeting with a wedding couple, they will not be aware of your DJ abilities. Anybody with the right equipment and software can claim to be a professional DJ. You should always have a few penned references to give out during your first meeting. You could also show video footage from your previous wedding so that the bride can have a look at what you can do.

Selecting the right music

The best wedding DJs in Melbourne Australia should be able to understand their clients because their performance depends a lot on their clients. Their demographic, age and musical tastes come into play when ensuring you have a quality collection of music for their reception and wedding.

Look good

It is important to be yourself but if being you isn’t what the couple is looking for then you should up your game. Most weddings are formal and perception is reality. Unless you know differently, you should be able to dress for success. Don’t dress like you are going to perform in a club. Keep it clean and neat.

Master of ceremonies

If you want to increase your chances of being hired as a wedding DJ in Melbourne Australia then you need to know how to play the master of ceremonies part. Couples nowadays don’t want to hire a DJ and a master of ceremonies. They look for a DJ who can play both roles and charge them fairly.