I recently DJ’d a wedding in the Atlanta area and the bride requested that immediately following the first dance I play Uptown Funk and get everyone on the dance floor followed by a couple more upbeat songs and have a quick little party before the meal was served. Then continue the party after everyone was finished eating.
Well, as luck would have it, one of my speakers stopped playing 20 seconds into Uptown Funk. It was a rather large crowd and I could “limp” through the beginning party with just the one speaker and sub but the sound wasn’t as full as it should have been.
I ran to my truck and grabbed a backup speaker, ran back in and plugged it in in place of the dead speaker, nothing. Uptown Funk was almost over. I had two XLR cables between my mixer and the dead speaker. I mix into the second song and replace the first XLR cable with a different cable, nothing. I then replace the second cable and still, nothing. Well, there’s only one thing left, the cable going from my laptop to the input on my mixer. The only way I can change that is to lose sound for a second to both speakers. I wait for the second song to end, yank the cable out and say into the microphone, “Let’s hear it for the Bride and Groom!” But I said their names. While I was saying that and everyone cheered, I plugged the new cable in and sure enough it solved my problem without anyone ever knowing I had a problem.
From the time I lost sound from one speaker to the time I troubleshot and fixed the problem was roughly six minutes. Two of those minutes was waiting for the second song to end. That, among other things is what a professional DJ can do for you that an iPod or a hobbiest DJ cannot.
The show must go on! Any professional quality DJ should be able to do that repair on the fly. It’s definitely something you want at your wedding. If one speaker quits during the first party song and you have to go the remainder of the time with just one speaker, that’s not going to be very fun. ;-(
So the moral of the story is hire a good DJ who can insure you a great wedding day! YAY!
Ted — OUT!