Gig Rewind

My New Year’s Eve Wedding Playlist

New Year’s Eve Wedding – 2017

Here is Sunday’s Wedding Playlist exported from Traktor’s History. I had a LOT of Michael Buble requested directly from the Bride & Groom ahead of time as well as Elton John and Billy Joel.

Tracks that really worked getting this crowd started were disco/nu-disco and pop music two-five years old.

Breakdown

Here’s a breakdown of notable points in the night and explicit requests by the couple:

  • Track 1: Beginning of reception following cocktail hour
  • Track 9: Bridal party introduction
  • Track 10: First dance
  • Track 18: Father/Daughter dance
  • Track 19: Hora
  • Track 25: Dinner begins
  • Track 33: Unplanned Mini-dance set begins (at Bride’s request)
  • Track 37: Cake cutting
  • Track 50: Midnight countdown
  • Track 51: Groom request
  • Track 70: Couple request
  • Track 71: Couple request

Tracklist

Num. Title Artist Time BPM
1 After All (feat. Bryan Adams) Michael Bublé 3:38 134
2 Tell Her About It Billy Joel 3:56 91
3 Thinking The Hippos 2:42 91
4 Dance With Me Tonight Olly Murs 3:23 81
5 Learning To Fly Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 4:03 117
6 Real World Matchbox Twenty 3:52 117
7 Sun Daze Florida Georgia Line 3:06 85
8 Oye Como Va Santana 4:19 129
9 Thinking The Hippos 2:42 91
10 Dance With Me Tonight Olly Murs 3:23 81
11 You Make It Feel Like Christmas (feat. Blake Shelton) Gwen Stefani 2:38 93
12 Nobody But Me Michael Bublé 3:00 94
13 Feels (feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean) Calvin Harris 3:44 101
14 Karma Chameleon Culture Club 4:01 91
15 You Can’t Hurry Love Phil Collins 2:54 98
16 Beastie Boys vs. DJ Thomilla (Get Intergalactic) Happy Cat Disco (Mashups) 3:42 104
17 Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine) James Brown 2:52 108
18 I Hope You Dance Lee Ann Womack 4:55 151
19 Hora Medley (Jewish) Bobby Morganstein Productions 7:36 135
20 Do You Love Me The Contours 2:56 150
21 Let’s Twist Again Chubby Checker 2:22 84
22 I Want You Back (Album Version) Jackson 5 2:59 98
23 Bailamos Enrique Iglesias 3:33 100
24 Darlin’ Darlin’ Baby (Sweet, Tender, Love) The O’Jays 4:11 107
25 For Once In My Life (Album Version) Stevie Wonder 2:49 109
26 Melting Pot Booker T. & The M.G.’s 8:15 116
27 Let Your Love Flow The Bellamy Brothers 3:18 109
28 All The Things You Are Stan Getz 6:51 93
29 My Favorite Things John Coltrane 13:50 89
30 So What Miles Davis 9:23 136
31 Fever (1998 – Remaster) Peggy Lee 3:22 136
32 Melting Pot Booker T. & The M.G.’s 8:15 116
33 Shake It Off Taylor Swift 3:40 160
34 Honey, I’m Good. Andy Grammer 3:20 122
35 Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) Mark Ronson 4:28 115
36 Superstition (Jet Boot Jack Remix) Stevie Wonder 6:13 118
37 I Only Want to Be With You Bay City Rollers 3:38 133
38 It Takes Two [Explicit] Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock 5:02 112
39 Kiss the Bride Elton John 4:23 138
40 After All (feat. Bryan Adams) Michael Bublé 3:38 134
41 Blurred Lines [feat. T.I., Pharrell] Robin Thicke 4:24 120
42 Get Down On It (Chocolate Biscuit Remix) Kool And The Gang 4:49 118
43 Stayin’ Alive (Viceroy Edit) The Bee Gees 4:24 115
44 Hustler Softmal 5:42 120
45 Finally (Mart Remix) Jerome Robins 5:03 122
46 Lola’s Theme Recut (Purple Disco Machine Remix) The Shapeshifters 6:10 122
47 Lets Groove (Bootrar3 Remix) Earth, Wind and Fire 5:30 124
48 Smooth Santana Feat. Rob Thomas 4:57 116
49 Havana (Scooter Smooth Blend) Camila Cabello vs Santana 3:24 116
50 2018 NYE Countdown (Start at 11:57 PM)(Cold Out) Fuseamania vs Earworm 3:54 104
51 New York State of Mind (feat. Tony Bennett) [Live] Billy Joel 6:50 109
52 Jump Around House Of Pain 3:39 107
53 Poison Bell Biv DeVoe 4:22 112
54 No Letting Go (Starjack vs Kento Moombahton Hitter)[Clean] Wayne Wonder 3:03 105
55 Despacito (Moombahton Redrum) [Clean] DJ Delirious / Daddy Yankee 3:52 100
56 Whats Luv (Moombahton Edit 2)[Clean] Fat Joe & Ashanti 3:28 102
57 All That She Wants (Billy The Kit Moombahton RMX / Clean) Ace Of Base 2:49 105
58 Rockabye (MoombahClub Rework) [Clean] Bandit ft Sean Paul 4:19 102
59 Independent Women (Peakhour Moombahton) Destinys Child 3:06 105
60 Mi Gente J Balvin & Willy William 3:07 105
61 Livin La Vida Loca (Reggaeton ReDrum) Ricky Martin 3:14 96
62 Stacy’s Mom (Remix) Singularity x Robotic Pirate Monkey Remix 2:46 128
63 Its Tricky Run DMC 3:04 128
64 Your Love (feat. The Outfield) Morgan Page 4:00 128
65 Danza Kuduro Don Omar 3:19 130
66 I Knew the Bride (When She Used To Rock’n’Roll) Dave Edmunds & The Refreshments 3:16 89
67 Tell Her About It Billy Joel 3:56 91
68 Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting Elton John 4:53 153
69 Livin’ On A Prayer Bon Jovi 4:11 123
70 Save the Last Dance For Me Michael Bublé 3:39 134
71 Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond 3:24 127

Wedding DJ Setup

Bedroom Bootstrapper, Maximum Marketing

Stay Classy & Connected With Written Cards

One way I stay connected with past clients is hand writing cards and sending them in the mail.

  • As soon as I DJ their event, I send a Thank You card.
  • Each December I send out Happy New Year cards.
  • If I did a wedding, I send an anniversary card.

Most people just get bills in the mail. There’s something about a hand written note that will strike a cord with some folks.

A C-level executive took me out to dinner one day to learn about DJing, he grabbed the tab. I sent a hand-written Thank You and dropped it in interoffice mail the next day. I then got an email saying how much he appreciated it, “classy move”. I don’t think he’ll ever forget me.

It might take some time to write out your cards, but for that exact reason they’re appreciated that much more. This year I wrote out fifteen cards for New Year’s. It took me about two hours but I bet I easily get a couple gigs out of that. It’s the cheapest ‘advertising’ I’ll do all year, but also the easiest way to stand out.

PS: A reminder to follow-up with your leads! I just booked a wedding afterparty as a result of my THIRD follow-up email via autoresponder.

Bedroom Bootstrapper

Do you really know how to use your mixer?

How To Use A Mixer

For over eight years did I lug around the gear to gigs, primarily using it as a conduit for easy microphone use, but I didn’t really know how to use a mixer.

My Traktor S4 had a mic input, but for the longest time I couldn’t figure out how to adequately use it during gigs. My second use for the standalone 12 channel mixer was enabling greater flexibility of audio connections. Many a time did my mixer get me out of a jam because I didn’t have the requisite adapters to hook into the house sound system. In addition it enabled greater volume control across various zones, where I ran TRS to the house system and RCA to my mixer which powered my own speakers.

Alas, it wasn’t until Rob came along and walked me through the standard options I had available.

Peaking Levels

The first thing he taught me was that you want your levels peaking just above the ‘zero’. That was news to me, as I always pushed my gear until I was flashing yellow. While there is still headroom, you want the flexibility in the event the source signal increases (eg. your song gets louder) or if multiple sources are combining (eg. you’re playing two songs at the same time). Anything above zero or ‘unity’ and your mixer is actually boosting the output, and vice versa for anything below it.

Mixer levels

Worse enough you’ll see guys living in red, clueless or ignorant of the fact they’re likely ruining the quality of sound and potentially damaging equipment. Below is a visual demonstration of what happens to sound when it is boosted too loud. The equipment you’re using literally can’t make it any louder. You lose the peaks, they slam up against the upper limit and flatten out, thus sounding like crap. Stay out of the red folks 🙂

 

Clipping waveform

Setting Your Gains

Now, how to set your gains! You can blast your music all over the venue to see where you start clipping out but this is practical and an amateur move.

To set the gain on your mixer without actually blasting your music there is a feature on most mixers called PFL or Pre-Fade Listen. It allows the signal to pass through and activate the volume meter (those pretty lights) without actually having to hear anything. If you have a Behringer Xenyx mixer like many folks do, activate PFL mode on the upper right of your master fader, then hit the solo button on the channel you need to set your gain on. Now you can adjust your levels without the venue going deaf! Setting PFL

Set your channel fader at zero and adjust the knob up top which you can see in the image below. If you are running into line 5/6 or 7/8 via two TRS cables, you can instead use the button to increase or decrease your level input. I now use these channels and finesse the out from my controller.
Inputs and Gains

Proper Inputs

Now for another rookie mistake: routing your controller or music source into the ‘Mic’ input instead of ‘Line In’. For many mixers the Mic input is the XLR input (the one with three small holes as seen up top). These inputs have greater ‘sensitivity’ to audio signal, meaning that the weaker signals microphones generate are heavily amplified compared to the signal your controller is sending. Your audio will sound much worse by routing your controller into a Mic Input. You want to use the TRS input, preferably ‘balanced’ cables (seen below). TRS Balance vs UnbalancedDon’t have TRS cables? Grab some patch cables!

Behind the decks view of getting more gigs.