VirtualDJ - Need help: tips for trying to dj a wedding!

Home userMember since 2016

So I've got a wedding coming up this Monday that I have been asked to dj for. This is a family wedding that I was sort-of dragged into against my will. To be honest, I've only had to do this for about two weddings that took place over six years ago. At that time, I had an idea of how to feel a crowd since I had assisted my brother who is a professional mobile dj at a number of events that year. It also helped that I knew exactly what people wanted at those weddings. The way I did it at the time, was I just used my PC and about 4 playlists in iTunes, set the auto-crossfade to different settings based on what was playing.

This time around, I am going to attempt to use Virtual DJ for the first time. I've been playing around with it for about a month and feel like it will give me quite a bit more control and better sound quality, so long as I stay organized and on top of things. I've disabled the setting that enables it to automatically change the pitch to match the bpm between both tracks. I'm playing a good variety of music, so I feel that it is better if I try to do this for now by hand. There will not be a need for hip-hop/electronic/house/alternative rock at this dance. I also know that the dance will go one of two directions; either I will have a dead crowd and I will play slow songs until everyone leaves, or I will get a crowd that actually would like to dance and I may end up playing up to 8 fast tracks in a row with about two slow in between.

The way I have set up my playlists, is I am setting up one slow-to-medium list. Basically I'm using the bpm to move the songs from slow-to-medium-to-slow, in a sort of wave-like fashion. I've set automix at a 16 second crossfade. Then I have a number of other fast playlists that work well together. IE: Country, Classic Rock, Oldies, Modern, Funk etc. These are generally a good mix of new and old in each category. Even though it says oldies, it may include modern songs that feel as though they fit the bill for that category. IE: Megan Trainor would go in that category because I feel that she fits that particular sound/style.

I'm wondering if it is better to have my playlists set up this way, since I feel they give me greater control over mixing, or if I should have one long playlist with fast songs on it from all categories? Another question is, should I keep all of my line dance songs together or distribute them evenly between the different playlists?

I am looking for any tips/advice I can get. I'm trying to keep things as simple and organized as I possibly can.

Forum: Music discussion