Joel is one of Beat Train’s several NYC Wedding DJs and has DJ’ed 100’s of weddings.
Joel was my wedding superstar. From the beautiful, perfectly timed processional to the first dance to the last wonderful drunken sing-along he hit every moment absolutely right. I wanted the ceremony serious and calm and I had some complicated instructions on timing and music. He nailed every single song all the way down to the super obscure Final Fantasy tracks I requested (random, I know).
It was also just as important to me that people had fun at the reception and got out of their seats and danced. Can I tell you that there was basically no time at which the dance floor was unoccupied the entire night?? People just wouldn’t sit down. Old, young, grouchy – even the “I don’t dance” types were up and loving this music all night long.
Anyone who has spent over a year planning a wedding knows that hearing that people had a great time is one of the ultimate goals in the whole process (well that and the magic vows exchanging moment). In the last 2 months since our wedding I have heard from over a dozen people that ours was the best wedding they have *ever* been to. Every single one of them mentioned the DJ and the fact that he somehow transformed a wedding reception into an all out dance party suited for absolutely all ages. How he managed this without being cheesy or playing any true dance music I don’t really know. But I am so grateful to have found him.
I should also mention that Beat Train was open, honest, easy to work with and even helped me to split out some of the cost at the beginning when I was a little tight on cash (Ari is super nice). If I ever have an occasion to hire another DJ, Beat Train and Joel will absolutely be the first on my list.
Joel Ortsman DJ’d our wedding in September in Brooklyn and did an awesome job! My husband and I both enjoyed working with him so much, from the first correspondence up through to the very end of the wedding. He was prompt to respond to my emails throughout the planning process and quickly got what we wanted for our music. From the cocktail hour to the dinner to the reception, the music selection was perfect. He was super accommodating even when we decided at the last(ish) minute that we wanted a “throwback R&B” cocktail hour. Guests loved it. The reception music made for a great dance party. It was a perfect mix of throw-back pop hits, hip hop and absolutely nothing cheesy (a priority for us!). Joel had a great demeanor during the wedding, he was assertive, but not at all pushy. He did a great job announcing toasts, first dances, etc and overall kept us all on schedule. Joel was organized, timely and professional. He brought the equipment we needed (included mics and a guitar cord). Overall, he was a pleasure to work with. We highly recommend Joel, and also Beat Train overall. They were easy to work with, responsive, and professional.
Joel Ortsman DJ’d for our wedding in October, and he did a fabulous job of integrating our music tastes into his sets. He was also a great MC, and overall just made everything easy for us and put on a great dance party. Highly recommend Joel! Beat train was also easy to work with, and the lighting package they provided looked great.
We chose DJ Joel of Beat Train NYC. In the shouting words of one of our guests during the reception on the dance floor, Joel was the “Best Wedding DJ ever!” He played every song on our must-play list, read the crowd and incorporated other great hits.
We picked Joel because we loved his Top 40 mix on the Beat Train site.
From the booking to the wedding day both Joel and Nick at Beat Train answered all of our questions right away with e-mail and in person meetings. He was so easy to work with and knew exactly what to play to make our reception one big dance fest and celebration.
One prime example of how awesome he was:
We showed a video during our reception and before we entered our cocktail hour, the person at the reception place who was playing the video had a thousand questions for us. When Joel saw this he intervened and told us to go enjoy our cocktail hour while he answers the questions.Joel chose a perfect balance of slow & fast songs for all ages. He even picked the perfect last song of the night that finished the reception with a bang. It turned out to be one of our favorite songs that we never told him about. That’s how good he is.
Everyone wished we could’ve gotten more time for our reception place so that we could hear more of the magic from DJ Joel. If you’re into great dance music and expect a crowd who likes to crowd the dance floor, we highly recommend DJ Joel & Beat Train Productions.
My wife and I booked beat train productions through Jake. He was incredibly helpful in accommodating us. Jake was able to make a last minute change for us to fit our needs. We were paired up with DJ Joel Ortsman. One word to describe him would be, perfect! He was incredibly quick to respond, professional, and helped make our day special. There was a Korean Pyebaek ceremony that he seamlessly coordinated for us. We could not have asked for a better DJ. All our guests loved his music selection and had a great time thanks to his hard work. We highly recommend Joel Ortsman.
We knew almost immediately we’d be booking Beat Train upon reading numerous reviews all over the place. We just didn’t know who we’d be booking. We met with the owner and although he was wonderful, we didn’t think he was the right fit for our personalities and had a feeling there was someone else who’d really click with us. So we met with Joel. Let me tell you about Joel… Picture an easygoing guy who can make you feel completely at ease when all you’re throwing at him are ideas that barely make sense in your own mind. He got it though. He understood it all. He made us feel so at ease that we almost forgot to send him the questionnaire he needed to put his schedule and the tunes together. (Sorry, Joel!) But he managed to make everything come together and made our vision come true and it was everything we hoped for and more. We wanted people to DANCE at our wedding, and let me tell you, the dance floor was CROWDED all night long!!! He had tunes to please the older crowd before dinner/cake cutting, and he had tunes to please the younger crowd after dinner… But to our surprise, his song choices were so appropriate that both groups were present on the dance floor all night long. Thank you again, Joel!!!
We weren’t looking for the cookie cutter “push and play” DJ for our wedding. Music is really important to us and dancing even more so. So we knew we wanted a DJ that could resemble playing in club or lounge; someone who had great talent in mixing songs to create a non-stop dance party all night long. We came upon Beat Train Productions by researching reviews and ratings online. After the great reviews and listening to their sample mixes online, we knew we found who we wanted to work with. We couldn’t have been more happier with Joel as our DJ. He worked with us on all music of every aspect for the wedding (ceremony, special dances, dinner, entrance songs etc). He was great in answering any of my questions and fast. We gave him a list of some songs and artists that we definitely wanted and he came up with the rest based on our tastes. On our wedding night everyone one was on the dance floor the entire night; I think some people may have missed the dessert because they were so wrapped up in the music. Till this day people talk about how much fun they had at our wedding and how they wished the dancing could have gone on all night! Joel was awesome! The experience, professionalism, talent and affordability Beat Train Productions has really given them a competitive edge with other DJ companies out there.
Joel was the DJ/MC at our wedding and was awesome. We had a pretty disparate crowd (lots of people in our age range 25-35 but also loads of people who were 50+ years old from our families) and he struck a great balance in choosing music that everyone could relate to. Announcement style was really professional, definitely not cheesy.
The rest of the office were also great in answering our questions and were very responsive. I felt at ease having Beat Train provide the entertainment for our wedding and they delivered a fantastic experience. Thanks!!
Joel DJ’d our wedding in the Hudson Valley and did an awesome job. We originally contacted Beat Train hoping to work with Elissa, but she was booked. We spoke to a couple of other DJs on the phone and got a good feeling about Joel. He played awesome music, didn’t do the whole cheesy over-MCing thing, and arrived super early to set up his equipment for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception.
This place has all the awards for a reason.
DJ Joel rocked his booth hard. It was SO MUCH FUN! And if all the people dancing for hours was any indication, he did a great job. There were dance circles, and people singing, and cheering when certain songs came on. We didn’t have a cake cutting song planned, and Joel played Uptown Funk which made me the most happy. He listened to all of our requests and made the music flow naturally.
He was also the liaison with the venue staff which I wasn’t expecting and turned out to be hugely helpful. He was a very calm, mellow presence and kept the night moving smoothly. It was Friday night, and that was how we did it!
Joel was simply awesome. We put him through the gauntlet, having him perform all the way from a 4 pm ceremony through a midnight dance floor marathon. Throughout the whole experience he was punctual, professional and played some great tunes. Highlight of the night was when he played Mmmbop by the bride’s favorite band, Hanson. Strongly recommend Beat Train and Joel.
Joel from Beat Train did a great job with our wedding. First of all Beat Train’s planning document was really useful in helping us organize our thoughts for the wedding. Second of all, Joel did a great job taking our inspiration from the song list and creating a really great dance music list for the guests. All of our guests complimented us on how great the dance music was and the overall flow of the night.
Joel was our DJ and he did a great job. He was professional and organized and helped us figure out the music selection for our Wedding. Our guests were hitting the dance floor and having a good time.
Beat Train is amazing! I 100% recommend using them for your event. My wife and I used them for our wedding in July 2013. After speaking to a rep at beat train, we narrowed the DJ’s down to 2 based on our music tastes. We selected Joel in the end. Joel was amazing. He was very easy to work with. We spoke with him on the phone and he also came over to our apartment to make sure everything was all set. We even played some songs to make sure they worked for the ceremony, intros, etc.
Joel was able to get all the songs we needed that I could not provide to him directly. He is an amazing DJ. The crowed LOVED him and we had so much fun tearing up the dance floor. Everyone kept saying how AWESOME the music was and it was one of the best weddings they have been to.
I personally think that music makes or breaks a wedding, and picking a DJ is a HUGE deal. My wife and I are so happy we went with Beat Train and Joel.
You guys are the best!
Beat Train set us up with Joel Ortsman, and our guests didn’t stop dancing for a SECOND. He read the crowd so well, and switched it up from Prince to Kesha to Motown to Pat Benetar. Everyone was telling us how amazing the DJ was all night. We couldn’t have been happier!
My husband and I found Beat Train Productions online for our wedding DJ and were so happy with them. We worked with Joel, who was friendly and professional and really read the crowd well throughout the night. We requested a few must-play songs, but generally let him design the playlist as the event evolved through cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing. We couldn’t have been happier with what we got!
Dance party greatness. We had an all-around fantastic experience with Beat Train for our June 2012 wedding. The process, from our first conversation with Ari to the event itself, was handled with top professionalism. We had DJ Joel, one of Beat’s New York-based DJs, and he did a great job. He incorporated his own dance party flavor in with our personal music preferences, and the result was a non-stop dancefest that we couldn’t be more pleased with. My husband and I have pretty specific taste in music, and yet we wanted a DJ who would bring his own creativity to the music selection. Joel met this challenge brilliantly. Did I mention we got married in a barn in the middle of nowhere? Not a problem for these guys. Beat Train, and Joel specifically, were great.
We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Joel was a talented and reliable DJ. He was always very happy to answer my questions (and I had A LOT of them), he was very easy going but incredibly professional. He showed up at our venue early to make sure he was setup in time to start and the music he played truly reflected our tastes and preferences. I give him my highest praise!
We hired Beat Train for our son’s Bar Mitzvah and we couldn’t be happier. We didn’t want the typical Bar Mitzvah fare and we didn’t want a DJ as entertainer / MC. What we wanted was the kind of music we listen to at home – a little indie rock, some jazz, some electronica, some standards and of course some music we could all dance to. We got that and more. After a initial phone conversation to explain what we wanted, Ari worked with Joel – our DJ – to put together exactly what we had in mind. I had guests pulling me aside to say they couldn’t believe they just heard New Order / Daft Punk / Beth Orton / Fountains of Wayne at a Bar Mitzvah party. Joel even played some personal favorites – songs that bring back special memories for our family. Of course the kids got Cha Cha Slide, Gangham Style and whatever else they wanted to keep them jumping up and down. And the grown ups got to get down to the B-52s. Joel was a professional – he took requests from the kids and the adults and kept pretty much everyone happy and moving when they wanted to move and enjoying the party when they didn’t. We’d definitely use Beat Train again and we would certainly recommend them to anyone throwing an important event.
Our experience with Joel from Beat Train Productions was amazing! He answered our questions quickly, played music that got our guests up on their feet, and turned down guests who requested music off our no play list 🙂 He was very flexible in adding more time at the last minute, and had an easy going, professional personality that made him incredibly easy to work with.
I’d like to thank all of you one more time for a wonderful job!!!! You made the party very special. Everyone was impressed with you and said that it was a lot of fun. I already got calls from friends telling me that they are considering you for their upcoming parties. You even got compliments from the management of the restaurant. You were the best!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH! It was really amazing!
Joel did an excellent job keeping our wedding dancing all night long! Beat Train Productions were quick and straight forward with prices and schedules when I reached out to them. They made the decision to go with them easy and I was so pleased I did!
Beat Train Productions was a phenomenal agency for our wedding in these uncertain times. When there was a hiccup and we needed to change DJs a couple of months out, the agency found us a perfect replacement at no extra charge. Joel did a fantastic job, playing music that meshed with our sensibilities and choosing tracks to match the mood of the reception. Can’t recommend Beat Train Productions highly enough!
We used Joel from Beat Train for our wedding this June and maaaaan, he was perfect. Joel was on-point all night, playing everything we wanted, adding his own touches, and keeping the dance-floor alive and raucous all night. Seriously, I cannot stress how wildly fun Joel made the reception. And the music / DJ was the #1 thing we got compliments for in the weeks since the wedding. Would recommend him and Beat Train (whose planning modules were super thorough and easy to use) a thousand times over. Thanks so much, y’all!
Highly recommend Joel Ortsman from BeatTrain to be your wedding or event DJ. He played everything we wanted in our music list for the night, all at the right timing too. Joe was very communicative and a pleasure to partner and work with on our long music list for 7 hours or so (ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception music). We wanted very specific songs that fit a range of genres from folk to classical, to indie, to electronica, and then a series of (decade-order) 70s, 80s, 90s dance faves. Everything was perfect and we had an amazing wedding. I received compliments from many guests on the music playlist. Thank you, Joel!
Joel Ortsman DJed the wedding of our dreams. From our initial conversation to the very last song, he really got us. Rather than imposing some cookie cutter program his playlist had us and our guests up and dancing all afternoon. We could not have asked for more. Terry and Sylvia
Beat train was a pleasure to work with. Highly organized. Joel was our wedding DJ. He was awesome! He knew just what to play and when. He kept people dancing and he was a great guy overall. Highly recommend!!