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When hiring a DJ for your event, there are some tell tale signs of what you are going to get by having them answer a few simple questions, or by questions that they may ask you.
Here are a few of the things you should watch for:
1) Does your DJ want or need to have a Internet connection for your event?
While having an internet connection during an event helps with being able to get that song that they may not have, be very concerned about this. I will not tell you that I have never had the case that I have not had a song for an event, and needed to grab a copy of it off the internet during an event, but in most cases, many of the songs that DJ’s grab are from You Tube, or some other lower quality site.
Music off the internet is not all equal! Music has a bit rate, while 192 is considered near CD Quality, 320 is the prefered normal for good quality sound.
I have on hand over 150K songs, and rarely need to download a song, though it does happen at times.
2) Most DJ’s these days use Laptops (I myself have moved to this as well) to play music at events.
While there is nothing wrong with DJ’ing from a laptop, ask your DJ how the sound is brought from the laptop to the speakers.
Running a cable from the laptop earphone jack to the mixer or amp, is not quality sound. A professional DJ used an external sound card from their computer, and does not use the earphone jack. Earphone jacks from a computer do not have high quality sound output.
3) Does your DJ actually play their music in stereo versus mono?
This one truly amazes me, I have seen many “Professional” DJ’s set up their systems with one cable coming out of the amp to the speakers, this is NOT stereo.
4) Playlists
Is your DJ setting up your entire night with play lists? While playlists are useful to make sure you have requests sorted out for your event, they should not be used to plan an event entirely.
Your DJ should be able to read your crowd, know what is keeping your guests moving and entertained.
5) Lighting
What kind of lighting is your DJ offering?
In todays market, DJ’s should be using LED lighting. If they are not, then question why they have not updated yet. LED lighting is cost effective in all aspects.
These are just a few of the issues I have seen in today’s market of DJ’s.
Question your perspective DJ about their equipment, sound knowledge.
Professional DJ’s should not be bragging about buying “used” equipment, they do not know the history of that equipment, it’s reliability and so on. Be wary!
