I am DJ'ing at a wedding next month and am considering taking my PC and using EJ to control the music. I am wondering how many of you have done this and if it works as well as conventional methods i.e CD's.

Can EJ merge tracks or does there have to be a gap between them?

Thanks Demnos

After posting I found your post about the plug in. Does this still cause problems with EJ or are the bugs now fixed? I have installed it on my PC at work and am now using it with Winamp.

Excellent so far!!!

I will install on stand alone Jukebox when I get home and try it out.

Out of curiousity and totally off topic, but do you guys wear a traditional Kilt and play the sackpipe when you party? I sure would have if I was Scottish. Kilts and sackpipes are charming hmm.. maybe I should start wearing a Viking Helmet, a sword and shield when I party myself. Or maybe not, people might freak out

I use it for various barbeques and parties. People love it and here are my tips:

Get there early and if you are going to allow browsing by album, switch to that view and give it plenty of time to build that album list. You can have it doing that while you are finishing setting up the rest of your PA and lighting.

Shut down all unnecessary processes and services on your machine so that all available resources are available for the eJukebox and Winamp processes. Visualizations will run under the winamp process. For instance, if you are not connected to a network, you don't need those services running, you don't need the print spooler running and if you are not accepting media or connected to a network/Internet and you know your system is clean, you don't need your anti-virus programs running. If in doubt, practice what you can shut down at home before the show.

Don't use the visualizations if you have a slow machine with a low amount of memory. If you do have a fast enough machine, you can add appeal by embedding messages like "Contrats to the bride and groom" throughout the evening. I am planning to rent a projector for a luau in August and project it on the side of a house.

I have my my MP3s on a separate drive (D: Drive) from my OS and programs (C: Drive) mainly because I could not fit my music collection on the laptop's hard drive. I use a laptop and a USB drive. The laptop is nice because it has a battery so you have backup power if the venue has a power glitch or brown out. A small UPS might keep your hard drive protected but since you won't be writing to the file, you might be OK. This is a "Just In Case" because I have seen some very funny wiring in public places. PA equipment can sustain a hard shutdown, computer equipment does not like them. In addition depending on how big your equipment is you are putting an added load on the building's electrical supply. Most DJ rigs do fine on one outlet however; if you run lights, I would separate audio from all the other stuff on different circuits. People can deal with a blackout, that adds an effect (not intended effect, I will grant you) so as long as there is music, they keep dancing.

I am also VERY careful of what gets installed on my laptop. Run a couble of adware/spyware/malware scans on your machine. Spybot Search & Destroy, Adaware and Microsoft's beta version work pretty well. Other apps can cause havock in your system.

If you are going to allow people to use the program, print out a copy of the directions. I always request they keep the selection clean if there are going to be children. If someone puts on some 2 Live Crew with 8 year olds running around they are going blame you. Also use the Kiosk mode. I had a problem with some guy figuring out how to bump his songs in front of everyone elses which is not fair to the others.

I would also enable some sort of crossfade. The stock one is OK, I have see better. Don't stop the music if you can. Don't give them a chance to get back to their seats. If you do that, regardless of what happens they will have a good time. That is an old club DJ trick.

Good luck and I hope it works out well for you.

Thanks again guys for the advice.

I have been running a karaoke/disco on and off for the last ten years, but never used music straight off of the PC, just wasn't sure of the problems that I might face.

Fishy, we only wear kilts for special occasions, weddings etc. Don't play the bagpipes myself but when I hear them it always makes me feel very patriotic and makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up.

The best thing about foreign visitors coming to Scotland is serving them Haggis, watching them eat it and then telling them whats in it. Try google and find out. Excellent meal.

I would post a pic of me in a kilt but I can't work out how to do it.

For picture posting just use the button 'insert an image' in the toolbar underneith the font settings when you reply.

Sackpipes sounds great! Hehe I've heard about haggis, so if I visit Scotland one day I sure won't eat it. Not without knowing what it is at least. Lungs, liver, heart etc. from a sheep right? Cooked in the sheep's stommach. Yummie

I also use ej occasionally for smaller parties. Works great!

Can't get it to show. Does the picture have to be on the net or can you upload?

VWBUG, have you seen the movie "So I Married an Ax Murderer"...Mike Myers explains after ordering a Haggis that he thinks that most Scottish quizine is based on a dare.

I have heard what is in Haggis. No thanks.

Hope things worked out for you.