having spent many years of being a wedding DJ in Manchester and covering most of Manchester’s different venues, I have developed a fantastic sense of what can only be described as ‘venue feng shui’ Naturally, some venues have a striking visual aesthetics which certainly contribute towards the over all feel and the decision to actually booking the venue. However, there are other aspects of a venue that can only be gained by the wisdom and insight of a very experienced DJ who has played many of the wedding venues within their area. Acoustics, room layout and sound limiters are three important considerations that probably wouldn’t even cross the Brides and grooms mind when viewing venues, but these important considerations can help make or even quash the evening celebrations and party atmosphere. The ideal room layout would contain all the guest in one space as opposed to a few separate rooms. It’s very difficult for DJ’s to create a party atmosphere when guest are distributed between two or more rooms. For example, Packforton Castle is an amazing looking venue, but with so many different rooms, its difficult for the DJ to ‘people watch’ so he knows what to play or indeed get people on the dance floor to groove the night away. ideal examples of room layout would be either Style Lodge near Manchester airport or the Fisherman’s retreat in Ramsbottom. All the guest are situated in one main room, so the DJ can see who’s tapping their feet, (People watching) and people follow people, in other words, when people start to get their groove on, other people follow suit. The acoustics are also very important, sound bouncing and echoing around a room most certainly is not pleasant experience for your guest. As the Tesco catch phrase states, every little helps, and good acoustics means an enjoyable musical experience. Bad acoustics can also make it difficult to talk to the person next to you without piercing noise bombarding your ears! Venues with not so good acoustics include most town halls, or church buildings (Manchester town hall and Manchester Monstrosity are not my favorite venues when it comes to acoustics) Finally, sound limiters!….these pesky nuisances are often installed where venues have residential neighbors. Some venues have them set extremely low and as people absorb sound, the more guest you have, the quieter the music will sound. Most venues will not be forth coming in volunteering the details of their installed limiter, always ask For those who are not sure what a sound limiter does……if the volume goes beyond the set limit, power is cut to the DJ or band!
RSS Feed
