Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their events.
Beyond the DJ Booth
DJ Gear Fails at 11,000 Feet: What Every Working DJ Should Know
A perfect set can’t save a broken signal path.. and that’s exactly where our night in Peru began. After a marathon climb to Cusco and a day at Machu Picchu, the after-party kicked off with the wrong rig, a cryptic “In Use” input, and five minutes on the clock. We walk through the split-second choices that kept music on and panic off: deploying a tiny travel controller, rethinking routing, and choosing simple and certain over fancy and fragile.
If you play on the road or rely on provided gear, this breakdown will change how you prep.
From there, we pivot to programming with purpose: cocktail and dinner covers that land across generations without killing the vibe. Expect field-tested picks like “Fast Car” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” plus clever mashup blends that spark recognition without stealing attention from conversation.
We also unpack a recent weather-battered outdoor wedding that tested our gear prep and adaptability, plus a story from Joe’s throwback arena night with Ja Rule and Nelly that sparked a conversation about nostalgia, tempo control, and how to balance genres to keep diverse rooms engaged.
Booth Heads, you’ll love the candid talk on upgrades, backups, and hearing protection - and how a simple “faster, better, or profitable” test keeps your setup bulletproof. Plus, we reveal why we returned a powerful digital mixer to prioritize reliability over bells and whistles.
And for community builders, we’re opening the doors to our Patreon with weekly Top 10 bangers from real events, bonus episodes, coaching, and record-pool hookups to sharpen your sets without losing hours to digging.
Whether you’re refining your travel rig, rethinking your programming, or just here for some good DJ war stories, this episode is packed with takeaways for every working DJ.
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
What's up, Boothheads? I'm Brian B, one of the co-hosts, and this is Joseph Bunn. We are with Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Hell yeah. You know, our goal with this podcast is to make you guys great DJs, and that could myriad a bunch of different things. Business, music, gear finds, all kinds of different ways. But that's our goal with this podcast is that we hopefully are giving you some things that will make you better and make you great, right? Make you think, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of word myriad.
SPEAKER_02:Myriad of things. Go ahead. Speaking of. You didn't mention it the last recording, but do you see the uh the little merch. The merch.
SPEAKER_01:Bro, that I mean, I love the design. Yeah. I feel like the guy that I hired killed that. The bootheads.
SPEAKER_02:So where can people get this if they want to get the merch?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it is going to be on the Patreon. It's on the Patreon. Right. But it can, but they can see. They can't see it. Oh, they can't even see it unless they're a member. Unless they're a member.
SPEAKER_02:Exclusive. So exclusive merch.
SPEAKER_04:Exclusive.
unknown:Exclusive.
SPEAKER_04:One and only.
SPEAKER_02:So on future episodes, we'll show you some other shirt designs. Yeah. You got one, right? Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm going to put mine on the next one. Yeah. You got a hat? I got a hat. How'd the hat work? I love it, man.
SPEAKER_02:Snapback? Yeah. No, it's not. It's a trucker hat, I think. No, but it's got a snapback. Oh, yeah, yeah. Snapback. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice. Okay. So, dude, I've been on the road. Uh, like I just mentioned before. Bro, you've been on tour. International trips in a row, which is really rare. Went to Peru. Was your wife home when you got back? She was, thank you. She actually picked you up at the airport. I had to lavish her with gifts. Wow. And uh handbags. And today I'm paying for it this month or this week because I'm home single parenting. So it's been it's been a lot, but it's all good.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, I heard some guy one time he was like, Man, yeah, I'm babysitting for my kids. And I was like, bro, that's called parenting. It ain't called babysitting when the child is yours, you idiot. I was like, you're so stupid.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that was like one of two continents I had left that I hadn't been on. What? Yeah, I've been to every continent, but Antarctica is the last one. I don't think I'm ever gonna get there. And now you've been to South America. And been to South America. Have you ever been to South America? I've not have not. Peru is amazing. Great food scene. You were in Machu Picchu? I was in my I did do that as well. But the elevation isn't really that Is Machu Picchu a a mountain or a town? It's a it's a mountain. It's one of the seven original wonders of the world.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a huge mountain.
SPEAKER_02:Um and why were you there? I was there for the engaged conference. Was gonna play one of the sets. I thought it was at Machu Picchu, but that wasn't the case. It was just You'd never played? I did play, but not at I thought I was playing on the mountain. Oh, geez. Which would have been epic. That would have been sick. But there's like no power. Right, right. Like nothing out there. In fact, the elevation really did mess with me. Yeah, because they tell you that, well, to give you perspective, and I will put a picture up here of me up on the mountain, but basically Colorado Springs is a good uh uh placeholder. It's six thousand six thousand feet up above above sea level. Right, exactly. Um Machu Picchu's 9,000. Yeah. Right? Which 3,000 you don't think makes a big difference, but it does. Oh yeah. But where they tell you to go first is a place called Cusco, which you take the train up to the, or actually down, you actually are at 11,000 feet in the air. And when I got off that plane, boy, I had to off the train or the plane? The plane, because I we landed, they tell you to go to Cusco first. Oh, okay, okay. They get used to the elevation. Yeah, because then you're going down. Okay, I guess. And you're not going up from that. Yeah, your pressure drops. So I took a little video, we'll put it on here of the um, I don't know if you can play it, but this is like just of the mountain range, so you can kind of see like how damn gorgeous this place is. Um, it's a two-hour hike that you have to do once you get there. Right.
SPEAKER_01:And you said all the girls were like trying to dress up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, even me, I wasn't dressed great, but for a hike, I wasn't expecting. I thought we were going a mile. I'm like, oh, I can do a mile. This was like just crazy, but um, it kind of leads to the segment, which is off the record.
SPEAKER_00:Uh off the record, let me talk my sugar on the ice tea. They throw a shade while I'm sipping on this ice tea. Don't care if you hate on like me. You know why? Cause this is a life. Record off the record, off the record, off the record. Say it with your chest. Got a microphone, check it. I'm gonna say what I want to say.
SPEAKER_02:So this is my rant. Um boy. I basically gave these guys, like the gear providers, my options for controllers, right? Okay. So I said a DDJ uh 1000 SRT, which is my go-to. I prefer that one. Sure. Or I can use the SZ. Or the Flex 10. I haven't played on it yet. Oh, okay. I would have. Uh probably. It's probably no different, right?
SPEAKER_01:Very similar to the 1000. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:So they go, go ahead. We can't find it. We got CDJ 3000s, which I have played on, but I don't play them regularly. You know, and they have the DGM 900. And I'm like, I don't have them set up in my house to make sure that I got the right cables. I don't want to deal with all of that. Right. So I'm like, firmware updates, software. Boy, we're in South America, bro. Right. So I'm like, you guys gotta have a town. Like, bring it in from Lima. You know what I mean? Like it's a major town, like a major city. Like, bring it in for this. I said, get me a controller. I have to have a controller. So they say we have the SC. I'm like, great, perfect. So we go do this thing. This, by the way, when you go to this, this is like 6 30 in the morning. It's an all day till 10 o'clock at night.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I get back, we have the after party. The whole train ride, which is three hours there, three hours back, just on the train. Yeah. Not including buses and all everything else. I'm like working on the set. I've got this thing dialed in. I'm so excited to play this. And people had been hearing, you know, South American music all week, and they're like, can we play something that we know? Like we can play. So I was like, give me the Brian B's treatment. I go there, they don't have the SZ. Oh boy. They have the Alpha Theta XDJ A Z four channel digital DJ system, which is like$3,000. Massive, but it's not laid out like any other Pioneer controller. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I I hook in. Um like first of all, do I even have the drivers? Right. Number one. You don't. I did actually. I don't know how.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Um, or it didn't require it. It just showed in use on the on the thing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm like, there's no knobs on the back of the of the internal controller where you can switch it to like uh uh you know, controller line or whatever. I can't get it off in use. And I'm literally supposed to go on in five minutes. And I'm like, dude, this is just dookie. Every story you tell is just anxiety ridden by me. So and I'm like, I don't understand how they don't have anything to turn this to. I like I don't know how to do this. So I go in there and I'll show it on another video.
SPEAKER_01:But you're not, are you Googling shit? No, I have like five minutes. Okay, right.
SPEAKER_02:So I run up to my room, I go grab my little travel controller, which is a piece of, you know, it works, it's okay. Yeah, but it's not meant for this. I mean, it's meant to practice. Yeah, right. I could I perform on it? I had to. I ended up so what I basically did is we plugged it into their mixer. I still couldn't get the line to show any line, even though I can hear it through my headphones and my thing. I'm like, it's this controller. I don't know what's wrong with it. There's no one here who knows how to operate. It's 10 o'clock at night, no one's there, no tech people. Right. So I'm like, do you have a spare mixer? Like any kind of spare mixer on a standalone. Just go in. Sure. So that's what we end up doing. And I play on this little bitty controller. Can't do a true Brian B show with this. I mean, I can fake it well, right? But it's not like a true thing that I've been working on with all these hot cues and different things. You just you're not used to it. You know what I mean? Yeah, no. Uh so my rant is basically gear providers. If you're gonna say you're gonna provide it, provide it. You and use the talent gets jacked with that kind of situation, especially when you don't speak the language. We got a translator trying to help me tell this other guy who supposedly knew the gear, like what the issue was. And I'm like, bro, there's no way to switch those from in use to like line. There's gotta be something. I don't know where it is. So I get back after the show's over with, which went fine, and there is a knob that says or a button, I'm sorry, that says mixer settings. It's digital mixer settings. In the menu or in the menu. Uh-huh. Right. I would have never found that. No. It's so I I just was curious, like, how do if you had to do a show, yeah, what would you have done in that situation? Like, to like, would you have tried to Google it? Because I th that was on my list, but I'm like, I don't have enough time to really figure this out. And what happens if there's something else on this mixer that I have no idea what's going on?
SPEAKER_01:Well, there's two, there's two things. If if something is not going right with SoundSwitch or whatever, when we do a show locally, right? I look at Saquon, I'm like, yo, start Googling this. Like the other day we were trying to find the utility menu in the Flex 10 to turn off, it kept going to sleep. Not during the show, but like it was going to sleep and then it would turn on the lights because the lights are running through SoundSwitch, which are running through the same computer. So it kept going to sleep. So we were Googling that, right? Just always look at Saquon like, yo, man, Google this. Let's fix it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:For me, man, and I've only done maybe one or two international things, and they were the same type things, wedding conferences. This was 10 years ago. I'll be honest with you, man, I just carried my the controller.
SPEAKER_02:That was gonna be my recommendation.
SPEAKER_01:I carry the controller I like. Oh, that you like.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Not not the baby controller, the actual I put a DDJ 1000. I can't remember if it was in one of those magma cases and I carried it on the plane, or if it was a road case. And that was the story about when I got to Mexico, and I think it came off the baggage claim and it was in a road case. Right. So it actually went under the plane, came off the plane, and I'm walking out of the airport with it in one hand and my my suitcase in the other, and a guy stopped me and pulls me in his back office. Yeah, it happened to me in Mexico this week. And I go, What's going on? And he writes down 1,000 on a piece of paper and slides it across the table. And I was like, I'll just go home, man. Like, I'm not even getting paid. Fuck this. And he goes, pesos, which is what, a hundred dollars? So I just pulled a hundred bucks out of my wallet and laid it up there, and they were like, thumbs up. And you know, he just put it in his pocket. Oh, totally.
SPEAKER_00:It was like airport security.
SPEAKER_01:He was like, You yeah, yeah, like airport security. He was like, hey, you can't be and I he goes, What is this? I was like, a DJ controller, you can't work in Mexico. You you you're not a you're not Mexican. And I'm like, with the green. And literally back office, writes down a thousand, yeah, slid him a hundo, US, and just rolled out with it. Yeah. So anyway, my my thing would be I would be so paranoid, I would have to take my controller.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the only issue with that that I'm always freaked out about is the electricity polarity issue. Even with a thing, I'm like, I don't want to fry my thousand dollar board or whatever it is. So I was gonna suggest at least like thank God I had a uh a baby mini controller with me. I think you gotta bring a backup no matter what. No matter what, if anything, just to make sure you have it. Yeah. And that saved me. I mean, I got through it, it wasn't like detrimental. I could still like do what I need to do. You know what I mean? It wasn't like the premium, but I just wanted to share that because I think that could be helpful for somebody who, if they're ever going international, dealing with it. Um let's move into some music. Let's talk about music. So, you might be wondering what that bumper's all about. So uh my girl is like growing up, man. She's listening to these music songs, and she's like just on it. So I run everything by her now. She's ahead of me on the music. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Alice is a six-year-old.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. She is, she's on top of me. She's no five. Five. She's crushing it on the music. So uh we were gonna do a list of you brought this list up of category of covers.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. You want to talk it through? Yeah, man. I mean, um the only reason I thought about it is really because of you. You know, I feel like a lot of your vibes lists, dinner lists, cocktail lists, when I listen to them or I look at them, or we talk about it on the show, you're like, Man, have you heard this version? You know, have you heard this cover of? And eight times out of ten, I just I want to hear the original. Right. And every once in a while, though, I'm I'm pleasantly surprised. Yeah. Or Randy will introduce me to something, or a guest will come up at a wedding and go, hey, have you heard so-and-so's version of this?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You should, you know, put it on your your dinner list or your cocktail list. I don't know though, going into this segment, that I've ever played a cover of a of a dance song. Um you know what I mean? Like as as I was thinking about this this morning that we were gonna talk about this, I'm like uh I'm just trying to think of Do you remember when we were younger and Bobby Morgenstein, shout out Bobby Morgan would make those are bad those records that were covers because you could get like 15 songs on one CD. Right. So it did September, oh what a night.
SPEAKER_02:But but they had it, they were re-recorded, re-recorded, and they were and they were extended versions, they were like eight or nine minutes long. He still makes money on those things. They're on Spotify. Shout out Bobby Morgenstein. So you wanted to go cocktail and dinner only, though.
SPEAKER_01:That was my theory.
SPEAKER_02:Which I is what I picked.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I'm asking, can you think of I'm DJing and I'm playing a cover of X? No. Me neither. And I think that's a good thing. Anyway, so what you got about it? What do you got? Yeah, man. Um, a couple just off the top of my dome that I play pretty regularly, and then I kind of hit up Randy for some other ones. Uh one of my favorite is I love this song. Uh the original Van Morrison, Days Like This is amazing. Uh, but Dermot Kennedy, you know, I love that guy. I mean, I've seen I haven't heard this.
SPEAKER_02:It's really Days Like These. I think that was on the like this. That was on my request list. Uh really? This last not the the cover, but the original. I th I thought it was sounds thin. The original Van Morrison. I mean, I listen, he's a legend.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, dude, yeah, Dermot Kennedy Is it beefed up? Sounds more modern? Not so much, man. It's still pretty stripped down, but I mean, in terms of I mean, I hate to say it, but I mean if you're comparing two Irish-born singers, uh, Dermot Kennedy wipes the wipes him all over the f the street. Like, I mean, Dermot Kennedy is probably one of the strongest singers live or on record I've ever heard. I've come that far.
SPEAKER_02:That's a dinner track for you or cocktail hour?
SPEAKER_01:It would be dinner. Okay. It's not swinging enough for cocktails. Uh another dinner for me is Radiohead recorded a song called High and Dry. Don't leave me. Anyway, this dude, Jamie Cullum. You know this guy? I know, I love Jamie Cullum. He recorded a version of High and Dry by Radio Head, and every single time I play it during dinner, somebody come up and be like, dude, is this a Radiohead cover? And I'm like, it is. Who is this? Jamie Cullum. Really good. Okay. Neither of these are on my radar. Um, and then some of these were given to me by Randy. I kind of briefly listened to these. Um have you heard this version of Gimme Gimme by ABBA by Lee Cabrera and Kevin McKay featuring Bleach?
SPEAKER_02:I believe I have it, but I don't remember it off the top of my head. Good? Uh that would be a for dancing or a cocktail or is it?
SPEAKER_01:I think it's cocktail.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I would not put any of these on a dance list. Again, I'm just saying. And I it's not like that now. It's for this. Uh I hate to even suggest this, but uh Randy threw out Joseph Vincent, a cover of Valerie, which I think I know Amy Winehouse didn't is covering that song, I think, when she sings it, but that song to me is just hers. Yeah. I don't I know it's not hers, but in my eyes and heart it is. Yeah. And those are the only ones I really uh he he listed one more. I don't know how to say this artist's name, really. Kina Granis, I think. Yes. Can't help falling in love. Uh no, uh Yellow Coldplay. Ooh. I have played that the Can't Help Falling in Love for ceremonies. Ceremonies a lot, yeah. Or for stance. Coldplay.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yellow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you you you you're a copplay?
SPEAKER_01:I d I am a copplay guy. I am a copplay guy. Definitely not taking my mistress to the show, though. I don't have a mistress. Strike that from the record.
SPEAKER_02:So I got five of them for you. I cut them up. Oh, yeah. So yeah. So my first one here is a shout out to Drew Pierce. That he let me know when this new album came up. I was aware of the artist, Jackson Breat. Do you know him? Or Britt maybe it's B-R-E-I-T. Don't know him. Bright? New record came out. He is not only doing cover, but he's also doing mashups with two songs together. So this is Blinded by the Light, which I absolutely love that song. Do you ever play a? I had a um uh breakbeat version of this back in the day that I play all the time. You still have it? I still have it. Send it to him. Yeah. Uh DJ Shiraz did the edit back in the day. Shout out DJ Shiraz. But uh, this is Blinded by the Light versus Mrs. Officer. Little Wayne. Bro, play it. And you'll hear the you'll hear it right in the intro, the little bit of that um of Mrs. Officer. Then he he does it later. He goes back and forth. So here it is. I played this for dinner last last week.
SPEAKER_04:Here we see my Red Up like it was another bottom in the night.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's cool. Right? Yeah. And then he does like the go back and forth between that and blinded by the light. It's it's a dope. All the the whole record is the whole record is like where he's doing two songs in one. Yeah. He does like um Love It on Me with the Joker, Steve Miller band. Damn. And he's and his vocals great.
SPEAKER_01:No, he can sing.
SPEAKER_02:And it's and like people were like, what is this? Yeah. And that was the first time I've dropped it at a dinner, but it it worked really well. Whenever. And people were singing it like crazy. I love that. So that's one. Um this other one's kind of older, but it's fast car, uh, the Tracy Chapman, but not the country version. This is um Tob Talk, which is actually one of the more rare EDM versions of it. I play it for cocktail hour if it's progressive enough. It's 117. Okay. Uh so Tob Talk feature in River. This is Fast Car. I like it because the drum isn't too EDM-y. It's just kind of punchy, but not fast.
SPEAKER_05:I want it to get to Lady Wedding. Maybe we can make the we can get some wet and it plays bad.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Just clean a lot like crisp.
SPEAKER_05:Maybe we'll make something.
SPEAKER_02:But I play that for doors open a lot. Play it for cocktail hour. Very cigo-y. Yes. But not overly kaigo-y. You don't hear a bunch of little bad. Very cygo-y. Talking heads. This must be the place. I think this was on my list. Was it? This was one of my alternate. Sure, sure. No, I had a different one. Oh, this one's great.
SPEAKER_01:I had Iron and Wine. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:You know them? I do know them. This is a good one. Uh, I like it because it's more beefy. Okay. But a place for dinner, too.
SPEAKER_04:It's where I want to be. Pick me up and turn it out.
SPEAKER_02:Sounds more modern. 110. Mix in and out of it. I love it. Not me either. I would only play this version. I think it's better. Yeah. Here it comes chorus. With my feet on the ground. I'm a turn beat this off. I know.
SPEAKER_04:It's okay. I know nothing's wrong. Oh.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, this is the guitar. Yeah. Good shit, good shit, Brian B.
SPEAKER_02:Two more here. Uh this is Everybody Wants to Rule the World, the Tears for Fears cover. But this is Borth or Tiger. Borth or Tiger. B-O-R-T-H-E-R. Borther Tiger.
SPEAKER_01:You sure you didn't misspell brother?
SPEAKER_02:I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_01:I'm pretty sure. This is like one of those mislabeled tracks that you used to download from LimeWire. Dude, the quick story. Let me interject a quick story. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Do it.
SPEAKER_01:Me and this dude named Kevin were at a restaurant one night. And it's a tiny restaurant, it's loud as shit. And this was 15 years ago at the beach. I remember what restaurant it was. Island Grill, right there on the ocean. And it's packed. It's a Saturday night. And we're he's drunk. I at that time I don't even think I was drinking. He's ape shit. And he starts talking about um man, that um that blink 182 song, the car's in the front yard. And I go, stop. I go, that's not blink. That's uh Lyd. It's a band called Lid. And he goes, no, no, no. And he's getting belligerent. The waitress has to come over and say, guys, calm down. And I'm like, I'm screaming in his face. You're a fucking software salesman, bro. I only this is all I know. I promise you, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I and he goes, no, dude. And he's it was we're getting louder, louder, louder, screaming across the table. I said, stop. And this was way before Spotify. You couldn't pull out your phone and even look at it. So whatever era that was. And I go, when it was iPod. And I go, when we get back to the house, we're gonna get out of the iPod and I'm gonna show you that you're wrong. And and and I go, and on top of it, and I said, if you really believe in what you're saying, we're gonna we're gonna do a thousand dollar bet. And he had it. And I said, and when you lose, we're going to aid him and you're gonna get my fucking money tonight. Screaming at him. I said, don't do this. I'm begging him, do not do this. You're a software salesman. I'm a DJ. Nope. Blink 182. I said, okay. We go back to the house, walk in. I could go get it. Go get your iPod. Click, click, click, click, click. He's turning the jog wheel. Hits play on whatever we had it cord wired into the speaker. And sure enough, he had downloaded it from LimeWire, and it's my own worst enemy by Blink 182. And so I take out mine and I go, here's mine. Blink or lit my own worst enemy. And I didn't make him pay the thousand dollars. But we were fighting in this restaurant over this song over a poorly downloaded lime wire song that he had mislabeled. Anyway, sorry.
SPEAKER_02:This version of it, the original is 87 beats per minute. Okay. This is 107. Okay. And you really can't tell a difference, like from the standpoint of like it's too fast or whatever, because that's like 20 clicks up.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's a great, great mix.
SPEAKER_05:Welcome to your hot tell for sure.
SPEAKER_02:I haven't played this during game. But it's just form four. Yeah. Easy to mix in and out.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, for me, I'm I'm like the last one, okay?
SPEAKER_02:This is Electric Feel, MGMT. Okay. This is by Mike Taylor. Uh, one of my favorite versions always gets a great reaction. Okay. Played it during dinner, progressive dinner this last week, and it went over really well. 110 beats per minute. Different. Very vibey.
SPEAKER_03:All along the Western flood. People lined up to receive. She got the power in her hand.
SPEAKER_02:Isn't this vocal just so good?
SPEAKER_03:I stopped in the Amazon.
SPEAKER_01:I love this dude. I'll stop in the middle. I need to go get on the DL. But you just have 800 million people that listen to this year.
SPEAKER_02:And you don't teach me how to swing. It won't be me sending it, it'll be somebody else. And I said, So, how can people get this playlist?
SPEAKER_01:They have to be at the Patreon. You have to be a member of the Patreon. Right. Uh either tier, right? Either tier. Would get that. And it's the it's the PDF of all these songs. Yes. Right?
SPEAKER_02:Or the playlist, if we can put some of these on a playlist. Oh, that's true. Yeah. We can do them.
SPEAKER_01:I think most of mine are on Spotify. Okay. Think of mine are two.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Those five for sure.
SPEAKER_01:So you'll get the PDF and the Spotify link, or is it just the Spotify link? We can do both. It's easy. Easy peasy, guys. So join the Patreon, patreon.com slash beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. There you go. Little plug, shameless plug. All right, booth heads, we made a move and it's a bold one.
SPEAKER_02:We officially launched a Patreon. We've got two tiers. One for$5.99 and one for$19.99. Basically the cost of a coffee or a cocktail, depending upon how you roll.
SPEAKER_01:Listen, this isn't some support us or we disappear kind of thing. You actually get some things that are useful that we think that you're going to need to run your DJ business.
SPEAKER_02:Like early access to batched episodes, bonus episode that we couldn't post publicly, maybe, and our weekly top 10 banger lists, songs that absolutely crushed at our events this week. You know, the stuff that you really want to steal from us anyway. But if you want to go deeper, jump into the booth backroom at$19.99 a month.
SPEAKER_01:That's where the extra love lives. Monthly prize drawings like headphones, merch, coaching calls. We've got Serato exports of our history, discounts on exclusive merch, and record pool hookups.
SPEAKER_02:Backroom members aren't just listening, they're actually shaping what this podcast is going to become and probably making your DJ sets better in the process.
SPEAKER_01:So stop texting us asking what remix was that and get in the booth for real.
SPEAKER_02:Patreon.com forward slash beyond the DJ Booth podcast. Choose a tier, grab your spot, and let's keep building. Booth heads, you know where to go. So continuing about music, you just went to a show. Little Jaw Rule Nelly, I heard.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, Saquon was there. Um, yeah, it was it was I'm surprised Jaw looks like he while back, looked like he was old, man. They all look pretty good. Jaw Rule was 1000% cut up shredded. Wow. Like opened the show, got out of this bed, went over and changed into his his outfit, like his Jordan's and his. He opened. Uh Chingy opened. Who did? Chingy. But we missed it. We missed Chingy. We caught the end of it. Yeah, we were late, late arriving. Right there. Right there. We saw Chingy on the screen from the VIP area, and then we made our way to the box. This is Lenovo? Uh no, outdoors at uh Coastal Credit. Too hot. It wasn't hot. It was an absolutely perfect night. Okay. Light breeze. They had the big ass fans going. Yeah. We're under shelter. We have a waitress. Oh, okay. I'd been drinking topos all afternoon. Like I came in there hot. Yeah. I knew I didn't have to drive. Yeah. And me and Saquon got on the strawberry vodka lemonades. It was we were sideways by the time Nelly came out.
SPEAKER_00:Talk about the guy that we had in front of us. Bro, it was this kid in front of us. You gotta add that video into the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:You have a video of it? Yes. Saquon got him. Okay. He was, he thought he was on the in the show. He was in the box in front of us, but he was doing like all these like choreographs dances.
SPEAKER_00:Bro, he was hitting the craziest moves out of his side. Like that.
SPEAKER_01:He would pull out the pistol, like wow. It was, we were, it was more entertaining than the show. But Ja came right by us. He had on this Burberry suit. I mean, we were going nuts, man. We had a great time.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was a great show, great throwback, great mix of all types of people, mostly older, you know, 40s and up, black, white. I mean, everybody's having a good time. It was all party music. It didn't feel like, you know, thugged out or Ashanti. No, no, Ashanti.
SPEAKER_05:He brought out uh City Spud.
SPEAKER_00:City's Bud. Oh wow. Murphy Lee. Oh, Murphy Lee. Jayquan. Jayquan.
SPEAKER_01:Jayquan hit the um hit the whatever. Everybody in the Tipsy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Tipsy. The original.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Wow. So I dude, I liked it, but it was a it was it was just such a great diverse crowd. Because then you also got to remember, man, that venue is very country heavy. So Nelly was. Went into that whole baby you're a song. And then he had another show with um Tim McGraw.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. Remember that song? Yeah, I do remember that song. So little bit. A little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. He did that. He did all three of those like back to back. So he had a little country segment.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_01:For the rednecks there.
SPEAKER_02:They're going across the country.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, hell yeah. It's a I mean, it might be going across the world. I mean, it was a big tour. Wow. They both did their thing, man. Okay. It was fun. It was, we had a lot of fun. Amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Let's see. What do we got next?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Gear Corner. Oh, what about shows? I've been playing. We've been on.
SPEAKER_02:You want to do one? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Do it. Hit it. Sure. Tell me about the rain. We were off for about a month from August 1st. I think I did that wedding where that there was no elevator, and me and Saquon was out of town. He had a hip-hop show, and I had to get another one of my DJs, thank God to help me. But we we were off for about 30 days. The only thing I did was play at Ashley's uh spin studio. We did a little thing where she was teaching the class and I was DJing the the ride. And then most of August we were off. And then we came back on the first week of September. We go to Elon, I don't know, hour from here. Gorgeous hotel. And and Saquon have played there multiple times. Saquon and I have been there multiple times for different kinds of events. Holiday parties, weddings, uh, this huge fundraiser we do every year. So I'm stoked. I'm like, man, new hotel, it's gorgeous ballroom, air conditioning. Nope. Start looking at the floor plan the week before, and I'm like, uh, why does this why does this say outside? Ceremony and tinted courtyard outside. But now keep in mind, we come we were coming off a week of like 78 degrees, and I'm like, maybe it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_00:It was a beautiful day in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01:Nope, it was not. If you remember, it was 93.
SPEAKER_00:It was hot.
SPEAKER_01:It was hot. But it was hot. So we're we're we're like, sun's out, it's 93 degrees, it's gonna be hot, but but that's okay. Yeah, dude, I promise you the last road case we rolled under this tent, a rolling burst of thunder. It was lasted like four seconds.
SPEAKER_02:Was it wind too? Nope.
SPEAKER_01:Not at this point, and then all of a sudden, we're like, I'm like, Saquon, give me an update. He's got his radar out, the wedding planner's coming over, like, yeah, it's about to get nasty. So we just we we don't even set up. We move everything to the middle of the tent. Was a nice tent, brand new tent. Did it delay everything? Only by a few minutes because the bride was like holding, holding, holding because she was hell bent that she was going to get married outside. And I'm telling you, it's raining sideways at five minutes till five. Yeah. And she's still going, I think we can do it outside. And finally, like they just scramble and open up a ballroom inside, and we move all, you know. Our ceremony rig is so easy now that it took two seconds. But it rained up until probably open dancing. Four or five hours. Rained through the cocktail hour, rained through the first dance.
SPEAKER_02:Was it one of those ones like before where it was coming in to the it was definitely coming in.
SPEAKER_01:They were having to squeegee the dance floor. The dance floor was soaked during the entire time. I always worry about like the formality dances. Oh, a couple people almost ate it. The back of my suit is soaked, the back of my legs are soaked because it's pouring off the back of the tent. I mean, we're just like, we're pushed all the way up on the dance floor as far as we can go. We all I at one point I was like, if it gets any worse, I'm gonna have to boil a roommate and just move the booth to the middle of the floor and let people surround me. Yeah. And just literally dance 360 around the middle of the booth. Yeah. And finally, right around open dancing, it stopped. Wow. We came off that. That was then we had the break week, which is kind of rare. We that's when we went to Nelly and Jaw Rule, and then we went back last week, did the double Umstead Hotel, again, horrible load in with that loading dock through the five-star kitchen down the hall. But me and Saquon came up with this little kind of what we call now the Umstead rig, smaller speakers, smaller lighting rig, blah, blah, blah, and got in and out quick. Left there, went straight to the next day, Donovan Manor. Big wedding, much better setup than we've been having there in the past. Took off, you know, reset the van, put the bigger speakers back in, the bigger lighting. Like it's just Were you wiped by the second? Do you want a double? I don't do that many. I don't do that many doubles. No, I felt pretty pretty good. Edit that out. I felt pretty good on Sunday, to be honest with you. Um and as much as I wanted to take the day off and sit on the couch and watch football, I was I had a phone call about this business opportunity. Then I went to look at a new piece of property. Then I I mean it was like next thing I know, it's three or four o'clock, and I'm like, damn, dude, there went my Sunday one day off. Yeah. It just anyway, no, I felt fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I don't want to do doubles or triples anymore. Right. But then I talked to Randy and was like, yeah, man, just did five events in a row Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They weren't all weddings, but I mean he had done like a 40th birthday party, a class reunion, a wedding, a wedding. Like any songs stand out for those two events that were like Um, I don't think we've really played anything kind of off the beaten path that that I you know what's been going on for me lately? You were talking about T-Paying when you walked in. Uh Best Love Song. Yeah. You ever play that? I love that song.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I played that at a few weddings this past summer, uh, brought about by this girl, Emma's wedding at the beach. She had it on the list, but this girl also had it on the list. Um, sorry, icemaker's running back there. But I'll tell you, man, the other thing that I did, um, I've had a couple of kind of heavier EDM weddings. Same. Like golden era EDM type stuff. And that one list I think I did. Yes. Um the Patreon. Yeah, Patreon in the Patreon was very heavy EDM, like reload Sebastian and Grosso.
SPEAKER_00:That was the the Elon wedding thing.
SPEAKER_01:The Elon wedding. Very heavy EDM. And they were going for it. It went crazy. But the main thing about it is I've been getting of several playlists lately from couples where it's too much 128. Yeah. And I I either I either have to tell them on the call I think it's a a little too aggressive, or I just start to interject my own get low or do you put any like I don't want to say trap, but like lower tempo, like something like that. I know what you're saying. No, I I usually would go back to hip hop. Hip hop. Just flip it up. Yeah. That's my that's my kind of go-to move. Stuff I know is gonna work. I love it. Just to break up the the 128. Yeah. And either get there just buy an echo out or a transition edit. So good. Yeah. Let's hit the gear corner. Let's do it. What do you got for us? The gear's here. The gear. The gear is here. Is here is here. Is here is here.
unknown:Is here is here.
SPEAKER_02:Well, by the time this drops, you'll have already celebrated another birthday. Yes, sir. So it's kind of a little small gift for you. I've been giving you so many gifts lately. I feel like this is called uh hearts. I think it's what it's called. It says on there. Does it say hearts? Well, it's hearts without a T. Oh, here. Here's Here's. I'm sorry. Here's yes. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01:He's good at messing up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, mess that one up. Here's you know, I go to a lot of these events and I need something to like block out the their earplugs. Well, we were talking about that for him the other day. So these are premium because if you turn it on the back, on the back, uh you can just turn that thing up. It tells you it kind of it drops it on the uh just turn it completely over. Oh, doesn't that say it? Oh, it's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02:So it drops it 25 dB maximum. Yeah. I don't know about the 19 decibels are does it say 17 decibels? 17. I don't really know what that means exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Noise reduction rating, 17 decibels. Tested attenuation. I got one.
SPEAKER_02:They got the case with it. Little mini case there in the case, so you got that too. So check it out, see if it fits your ear.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. And you can pick whichever tip you want. It's got large, small, extra small.
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think they're great. They I I keep them in my backpack.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I just pull them out when I need them.
SPEAKER_01:But this would be what you're going to a concert, you don't want to get blown out. Right. Or you're going to see another DJ.
SPEAKER_02:Right. I'm trying to find the price here.
SPEAKER_01:Is this an Amazon purchase?
SPEAKER_02:This is uh an Amazon. Yeah, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01:I think they're um probably$19.99.
SPEAKER_02:No. A little bit more. I spent a little bit more on you this year.$42.$42. Really?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, these must be good.
SPEAKER_02:They are good. And and and uh it's because of the fact that they can um uh they block out so much decibels, you know. They have cheaper ones that you can get that aren't that but dude, these are these areas. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Hold on a second. Now it's me having it.
SPEAKER_01:I was struggling with it too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01:I don't have fingernails.
SPEAKER_02:Look at you. That's the top. I always have problems with any of those like things that require fingernails. Yeah, you just put them in like this. I always cut my nails off. Oh, you don't see that side. Hold on a second. Yeah, I'm like, I can't. And then this just goes on this side, like this. Camera. Camera, and it's noise cancellation. So I mean, can you I mean I can hear it a little bit. You can hear me talking on it. I can hear you talking. Right. Yeah, but I mean it's very muted. Yeah. But that looks kind of clean. Yeah, they're not like and they make them in a bunch of different colors. So if you don't like black, you don't know black is key. You know, whatever you want. But just to have an extra pair to save your hearing, man. We were talking about this the other day.
SPEAKER_01:I looked at him and I said, Man, because he was running around shooting and stuff. Yeah, like when I think through the speaker, I'm like, I said, dude, don't end up like me, man. Seriously, you need to start wearing these at these things. You don't even this ain't even your damn full-time job. You're a music producer. You don't want to cook your fucking ears before you're 30. You know what I mean? Like totally. I'm gonna get you a pair of ears. All right, appreciate it. Good looking out. Happy birthday. Yeah, thanks, dude. Appreciate it. Let's hit the question. Okay. Um you don't have to fire it. Yep. How do you prioritize getting new gear compared to other business expenses? Is your philosophy for purchasing the same as it was when you were leveling up your company, or has it changed from Ian in Buffalo, Wisconsin? Buffalo? I didn't even know there was another Buffalo. Me neither. Interesting. Okay. What's your thoughts on this?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, yeah, when I was dumb, I just was like the newest thing, gotta have it. Let me just buy it. Yep. And I think uh I now I'm completely the opposite. Me too. Until it breaks, I'm pretty much riding the thing. Me too. And I think it's also just because, you know, you I you at least for me, I try to learn it to the best of my ability, whatever I get. Yeah. And now I'm like, when something new comes out, I'm like, will it make my job faster or will it make my performance better? Like those are like two big considerations that maybe weren't the top of the list before. It was just because it was new. Maybe, oh, I guess the third one would be can it make me money? You know? Yeah. Can I actually make money with this? Because sometimes I'm like, it could be brand new. Like a good example would be the um when the uh uh silent disco headphones came out. Yeah. I hit every planner and said, Listen, I want to invest in these. These weren't cheap back then. This is like 10 years ago when they first were like hot on the scene. Yeah. And um, they're like, Listen, even with those, we still are gonna have to stop because people are gonna be yelling because they can't hear what they're saying and they don't know how loud they're, we're still gonna get called by the cops. It's not gonna work for us. So I was like, could I I'm not gonna be able to make money. No one's gonna book this in our venues that are all outdoors to go longer. Because that was my thought. Yeah, we go longer, money DJ in and make them rent the headphones and this and that. Yeah, but that's like uh uh a scenario where it could make it didn't make me money, it was new, and I was like, can't pull the truck trigger on that. What about you?
SPEAKER_01:Um, man, that's a great question. I mean, I was sitting there as you were talking about it, thinking about like the stuff I bought over the last few years, and it was always can it make me money? And again, I did the same thing, either ping the couples or ping the venues and say, can we use this there or or is this gonna work there or can you sell this for us? Um, but secondly, it really is about is this going to make my life or my job easier? And that's the only time I really buy stuff. I mean, I do get a lot of free stuff, which is kind of uh a benefit of being a creator, I guess is what they call me. You just got the flexor.
SPEAKER_02:Why would you get the flex? Was that more about a look?
SPEAKER_01:No, uh, because I had a if you look, there's the other one, and it was skinned white already, but I like to have a double of whatever my go-to is.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So now it's like I've got a flex 10 here in the office if I ever make commercials or do a live stream or do a mix, and then I've got the one in the booth that I always have in the van. So at least I have a double of the same thing. Got it. The 1000, I'll probably keep it, but now I'm so used to the flex 10. It's like some of that. You want that? Yeah, I do. Done. We'll leave with it today because I've been trying to sell it. Oh, great. Yeah, take it. Done. That was easy. Um, and and and then again, I will also say this I am the anti-hoarder. When I don't use something, or it's back there collecting dust, or I bought it and didn't use it, or it didn't work out the way I thought it was, I sell it. Yeah. And I I always start with my guys, and then if they don't want it, then I'll just go to Facebook Marketplace. Love it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Hope that helps, Ian.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, hopefully that helps. So the bottom line is, Ian, uh, it is now for me, it's not a want thing. It is like, do I need it? Is it gonna be make the faster setup, faster, you know, strike, help my job, you know, better range on the wireless mic, whatever it is, like it's got to have some sort of true value for me to invest in it these days. Love it. The gear is not what people care about. It's it's your performance and the music and everything else.
SPEAKER_02:And I don't know if it's because of just electrical.
SPEAKER_01:Other than the command center, uh Bob Ungeared. Every DJ needs that. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I was gonna say technology, I feel like has evolved and everything's getting cheaper to make to an extent. So like there's just so much more out there nowadays. Everything's getting released, like there's a new thing every six months. Oh, easily. So I I think and now it's you have to whereas before you might get one new pioneer product a year, yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So like now it's you can be more choosy because of the upgrade. It's like the iPhone. Are you getting a new iPhone? I don't know. Are you? I wasn't gonna. I like I but I it took me two generations to get the 16 because I can't. It kind of took me a while to I didn't feel like it was that different.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_02:So like I don't like that's where I'm saying with like technology with DJ gear, it's the same thing, right? It's like a new controller, is the Flex 10 that much different than the 1000? No, you know, yeah. So apparently, if you get the Alpha Theta uh all in one DJ system, that is.
SPEAKER_01:So definitely the thing they gave you in Machu Picchu.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, be ready for a tech, you know, engineering degree to pull it off.
SPEAKER_01:One last thing about gear before we move on and and and close this episode out. So I was gonna build out a second booth. Yeah. And I was I've never used an external mixer, and then people that are listening to this are probably gonna shit their pants over that. But I was like, okay, you know, the I get that the microphone preamp on the controller is not that great, but it's not enough for me to want to put in an external mixer. So finally I was like, man, maybe I'll try it. And everybody's screaming about this new Allen and Heath CQ 18T with Wi-Fi, control it from your iPad, blah, blah, blah. I order it, shows up here. I start watching the videos on YouTube, and I was like, what the fuck am I doing? Like, I'm I'm 54 years old. I'm very good at what I do. Yeah, I know the gear really well that I own. I'm not going to sit here for two or three days and try and watch these videos and learn this mixer. That now is another thing that can go wrong. Another thing I can hit a button and screw up the whole show and have to rewire it five minutes before I'm going live or in the middle of the performance because I've hit a reverb button that I can't get off. What am I doing? Yeah. Send the whole thing back. Yeah. Nah. Ain't doing it. Anyway, shout out to the people that use external mixers. Yeah. Jeez. Anyway, are we wrapping this one up? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Let's thank our sponsor.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, DJ Event Planner, thank you as always for sponsoring Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. If you're looking for a CRM to run your business, this is the move. Or your booth. Or your booth.
SPEAKER_02:All right. We'll see you guys on the next episode. Thanks.
