As for school events, the budget for school dances will not be as much as prom.  Typically it is held on campus to help cut on cost.

The question that comes often is what is the cost to hire a dj and what is included. The djs can bring multiple speakers and lights to fill up the gym. I have seen djs charge 100 to 150 dollars an hour for school dances. The dj has to get a playlist ahead of time so the dj can play the music that the students requested.

Schools should select djs that have edited music so they will not have their vice principal run to the dj booth demanding to change an inappropriate song.

Also on the checklist is to see the dj reviews on google and on yelp to see if they have done other schools and can see their successes.

It would be good to have the dj visit the school to show them where they are going to set up. Some schools are not labeled easily so the dj can be driving around and not knowing where to park to unload. Ideally they want to drive close by to unload all their heavy gear.

Last but not least please talk to your dj about their dj crew. It is good to have the dj have one helper but when they are bringing 3 to 5 people to do a 1 to 2 person job, it just is not professional and can be a liability to the dj company and to the school.

  At some functions, I have an assistant with me who can get requests from students of a song they have to hear. Typically I have a list a week before that I follow, but I do take requests. Sometimes, I am doing the event solo so there is no one to take requests. Most often than not, a student will approach me right in the middle of a transition so they don’t have my all my attention. But when I m able to focus on their requests I will look it up and put it on my prepare list to have it close by so I can include it in the mix.

   I try to give all the students the attention that they want but it makes it difficult since I’m trying to keep the dance floor filled with paying attention to the lighting and the volume control. I have put down a notebook for students to put down their requests.  In the notebook, students are able to put the song name and artists.  Songs that have profanity or inappropriate I cross off since I cannot play them at a school dance. Once I see a song written a few times in different handwriting then I can slip it in. There were a few times students wrote their song in really big handwriting. Those ones are not played! This past week a student wrote please play this song and I will give you 10 dollars. Of course there was no student name but I thought it was funny so I played the song because the student was creative. I knew no one was going to be giving 10 dollars but it stood out.

TRAVIS SCOTT SICKO MODE

BENNY BLANCO, HALSEY AND KHALID EASTSIDE

MAROON 5 AND CARDI B  GIRLS LIKE YOU

JUICE WRLD  LUCID DREAMS

POST MALONE  BETTER NOW

DRAKE  IN MY FEELINGS

EMINEM  KILLSHOT

CARDI B  I LIKE IT

6IX9INE FT NICKI MINAJ AND MURDA BEATZ FEFE

KANYE WEST AND LIL PUMP  I LOVE IT

TYGA FT OFFSET  TASTE

MARSHMELLO AND BASTILLE  HAPPIER

DRAKE  NONSTOP

ELLA MAI  TRIP

KHALID AND NORMANI  LOVE LIES

LIL WAYNE FT KENDRICK LAMAR  MONA LISA

BEBE REXHA I’M A MESS

Mixers are the brain of the PA system. A forty-dollar mixer can work but at the same time people get what you pay for. The professional mixers I recommend is the Yamaha MG06X and his bigger brother Yamaha MG10XU.

The MG06X is the size of an ipad. You can connect multiple microphones to it and have so much control of the gain, highs and lows. Also it has buttons to mute out a microphone if needed.  A 2 dj setup can be connected with this mixer. The beauty of this mixer is it can be added with another music system and it gives you more headroom to add more volume if needed. Each channel has a gain and then the master gain can be increased. If a dj decides to just play music and use microphones off his dj set up it sounds a certain way. Most controllers do not focus on the clarity of the microphones. They have other attributes it focuses on. But if the microphones are connected to the Yamaha mixer, it is so much clearer and it gives the option of multiple microphones. The mixer can be purchased for 120 dollars.

The older brother Yamaha MG10XU is a force of nature. Four microphones can be connected with the mixer. The highs, lows, and mids can be manipulated plus it has 24 effect programs that can add to the channel such as delay, flanger and echo. This mixer is so much bigger than his little brother so you would need more space for it.  This mixer can be purchased for about 200 dollars.

Both can do the job and it depends on how many microphones are needed and how fancy somebody wants the effect to be.