How do you guys mix??

I DJ dance music - not a mobile DJ - on the forum really to look at sound and like equipment discussions.

I have a very poor impression (and fair to say may well be very ill-informed and predujiced ) view of "the wedding DJ".

Is it just fade in fade out.

At the end of the day it's all about the music so it doesn't really matter - only other DJ ever noticed how good your mixing is technically.

Also how much do you get paid? Fair play mobile DJ has to lug round and set up all the equipment but think that is where my "wedding DJ" is laughing cause unless your Paul Oakenfold with a brand name which pulls punters on a flyer you will be ripped by all promoters as an up and coming DJ DJ.

We play what our audiences ask for, thats what we get paid to do . Sadly, the requests from a family audience are very rarely Paul Van Dyke or Paul Oakenfold, but then again, I guess you don't get many kids and Elderly people into clubs either, and when you advertise as doing family events, they are just as much part of the audience as are their requests.

You'll find a few Dj's here do both Mobile and Club work, and I suspect they'll be along very soon to post .

Welcome to the forum by the way.

Obviously DJ's are all unique, diffrent people, styles, music, voices, equipment, experience, loud, quiet, funny, not funny, interactive with audience, not interactive with audience, cheap, expensive...the list goes on and on

A basic genralisation.....which does not apply to everyone..matter of opinion...

The "club" dj may be better at mixing beats and perfect matching etc
He may well be up more on the latest tunes, he may well be able to read the crowd of what he is used to week in week out, he may know the tunes to get them on the floor at his specific club hes working at...makes him a good DJ in my view

The mobile DJ may be better at reading the crowd at any gig, as he would be more experienced in different functions from 5th birthday party to 85th birthday party....Weddings of all ages and styles.
He may well have to entertain more with the audience, as all partys are different.
He may well have to have a better idea of the older tunes people like at weddings etc...All makes him a good DJ too

I personally have more experience of mobile work, but am no better than the club DJ in comparison....I personally dont beat match and mix as such, but timing is important and you can Que up and play the right songs at the right time very succsessfully no problem without beat maching mixing etc

This doesnt make me a worse DJ for not beatmixing, just makes the job a little easier and less hassle, therefore concentrating more on the people and music they want, and things like watching if the bride and groom are ready for first dance, buffet announcements, cake cutting etc etc

IMO of course!


PS if your great at walk in clubs and mobile youve cracked it, but usually most DJ's do one or the other mostly i would say

Having said that, ive done a club a few times and loved it!

So in all...No matter what your taste style of job is....if your good at it....great stuff!

The mobile dj usually needs a wider range of musical knowledge.

Mixing dance is not normally needed, but mixing sets is. So you need to know what reggae tracks will run together well, without changing the rhythm too much, then maybe a set of"disco" tracks. Even a set of real cheese has to be thought out to keep the beat going.

It's all a matter of "horses for courses", you don't expect a flat champion to run in the grand national. It would fall at the first fence.

Mobile mixing is usually (percentage wise) of a lesser degree of perfection than club mixing - true.

The reason for this is that at mobile gigs, the music isnt pre-planned, pre-rehersed, pre-timed sets like some club DJ's use - nor, is the mobile DJ going to be playing only music within a narrow band of BPM, or straightforward notation/beats to the bar etc. Many shows are request driven to a high degree, with any remotely slung together "playlist" changing, choping and changing whats coming on in 3 or 4 records time, if not quicker.

For a mobile DJ, 30 minutes of the show, could easily encompass 3 or 4 different styles/genres of music, spanning eras, decades, tastes and tempos, all with mic announcements to build into the flow too.

been playing mobile for a while... and i have to say the actual mixing is not high on my list.......

making songs follow is far more important....and fading the 12" of tainted love at just the right time as the floor clears !!!!



I admit freely there are buttons on my cd player that i have no usage of, or real concept of what they do..... but i have a good cd player more for reliability, quick start etc.

Ditto the mixer.... my crossfaders never wear out.

I have beat counters once..... they look pretty!!!!

Do clubs most weekends and have done since 1982, mix a lot but when i do the odd wedding or mobile gig( about 12 a year ) i use mic mostly but do mix aswell. I would dare to say that most good club jocks will have started in mobiles as its the most difficult form of djing. a mobile jock can often do a club and make it work but i wouldnt put a club jock to play a wedding.

I do clubs, bars and mobiles and make about 4 or 5 times at a mobile that i do at a club or bar. Mixing wise I will mix anything at any of the gigs, I find that if you mix seventies or eighties tune there is less likely hood of people sitting down to a track they might do otherwise.

Occasionally I'll do some beat mixing at gigs but, bearing in mind most are weddings, it very much depends on the composition of the audience.

My Pioneer CDJ800 decks help, of course, since they have both Master Tempo and BPM readouts.

A few years ago I would get quite a lot of club/dance tunes on the B&G's advance request list but I have noticed a gradual change in that time and most couples seem to have very mainstream taste.

I can beat mix.... and i have a mobile disco

as said before the average wedding / party mobile disco DJ does not need to know how to beat mix tunes...

But every once in a while it is nice to be able to string a few songs together with out gaps just for my own personal fun...

Give me a Club or a Decent Bar and ill beat mix the entrie night :)

Can't mix

Don't need to

Never tried

I couldn't be bothered with all that mixing stuff, personally I like to know when one song finishes and another one starts. If the songs have all got the same beat to mix together it just turns into one long eventually dull song.

I remeber my hubby saying one night when he was out watching this DJ working really hard apparently mixing away, hubby couldn't tell the difference. Maybe because the DJ was so skilled? But hubby thought he was putting in alot of effort for little recognition. (It was only a pub and not a club)

As long as I don't clear the dancefloor when I fade in the next song I am happy

I mainly play two types of gig - Salsa nights and Latin party nights.

For Salsa nights, I hardly mix at all. The dancers really hate mixing. I might do it a few times (for example during a "birthday dance" - where the birthday person dances with everyone of the opposite sex in turn - I might need to mix a couple of tracks together to keep the music going until everyone has been danced with), but it's best to avoid it.

For the Latin party nights, the music is much more normal (Reggaeton, Dancehall, Hip-Hop, Latin Hip-Hop, R&B) so I do a fair amount of mixing (of various sorts, but including beatmatching).

Hi, welcome to the forum, I'm a mobile wedding DJ
Most of the evenig does require playing a wide variety of music to the audience and interaction to get everyone in the mood. But then when the 10.45 to 11.45 shift comes in, stringing songs togther with no gaps really comes into play and beat matching helps as the dance posse start getting in their moods to dance to upbeat music so I think it's fun - if you pick the right sounds.