andythemusician

Keep it all radio edit clean, keep all the young kids and old grannys happy. Remember you can be playing to people between the ages of 2 years old to almost boxed up, so a good range through different eras and genres is good to have at your disposal. Check out http://www.weddingmuseum.com/tools/wedding-music-samples.htm and http://www.djintelligence.com/pages/mobilebeatprint.asp as they will give you an idea of songs to fall back on if you are struggling for ideas on the night, or are wanting to check your library to make sure youve got the popular requests.

Regards the dongle, each piece of DMX software comes with its own dongle. I've never heard of the one you just mentioned, so I couldn't say whether or not it works well, or if works with any software at all. Software is good because it is a bigger "console" at a cheaper price. You can get hardware interfaces for hands on control, but obviously more. Depends how crazy you want to get with programming lights really. I'd start with a basic controller until you work out what direction you want to head in.

Drop Skrillex as they enter the room. Collect monies at end of gig. Success!

Depends what you want to do. If you are happy with lights doing their own independent thing to the music, and just turn off different effects as you feel the need, stay with that. If you feel as though you want to have more control over the atmosphere and mood, and match colours and chases with the music (fast chases and fast tempo, slow scrolls for slow songs, cool colours for relaxing stuff, warm colours for harder stuff, etc etc) then DMX is the way to go. For stuff like weddings, you can set your fixtures to stay within the chosen colour scheme - something the bride loves. You can also use moving fixtures to spot stuff like the cake, people making speeches, etc. More flexibility if you need it. If you rocked up and the place where the speeches or cake was located was very dark, a mushroom light isn't going to help solve that! In terms of equipment, up to you. You can get either halogen, discharge, LED, etc fixtures that will do wash or moving beam or special effects. Depends on what you are wanting to do. And controller also depends on this - either a cheap DMX hardware controller or you can buy computer software to control.

Hazer enhances lights because you can see the beams, whilst it is thin enough to not affect the light output to any concerning degree Smoke detracts from lights because whilst you can see the beams, it is thick and actually reduces the light output. Basically if you ran the same light through each, the haze would allow the beam to maintain much the same intensity as it would dry, whereas the smoke won't. I know I'm being picky, but this is my job - I spend a lot of time trying to convince people to go for the right equipment they are after.

By the way - Watts = power. The more watts a smoke machine is rated at, the more power it will suck. Remember that if you buy a big 1200w smoke machine, that's half of a circuit already gone. It also doesn't mean that 'the more watts the more smoke'. Also depends on the fluid you use, what kind of dissipation rate, and how heavy it is. Remember a hazer could be rated the same amount of watts as a smoke machine, but it will output less due to the different fluid and design of the machine.

Internal amp on a speaker... amp in an amp rack... either of them will cause issues if they are in the same situation. Basically because they are the same thing, just housed differently! Usually the positive you can get from a passive system is the fact that you can place the amp rack in better conditions, whereas the powered option obviously means you can't because the speakers need to stay where they can be heard! Also, power amps have fans whereas powered speakers may just have heatsinks. Generalization of course. Jaz - remember that amps that are in use are never closed off. Both lids are taken off to create airflow. Another reason why there are recommendations to not stack amps directly on top of each other and to leave a 1U gap - to create more flow around each unit.

I'd got 12" and 18" sub. I tend to think if you have 15" of air moving, 18" isn't far off. 12" will be tighter and 18" will fill in the parts the 12" can't get. Technically this is shat on by the science of sound and acoustics, but in practice it seems to work best for me.

I have to Behringer B215As and I have to say they have kept up very well. Certainly looking to upgrade to something louder and better sounding (like JBL, QSC or EV). But if you are a beginner just starting out mobile Djing, then I would say they are a good buy - simply because I have done the same thing and had no issues with them.

Haha some of the visuals we had were freakin' weird... like a skeleton in high heels, and a girl with limited clothing wrapped in gladwrap. Weren't sure when we could have used them, unless we got some necrophiliac and other assorted fetish rave.

Extremely exy. Freaking bright as too look at when its at full power - had to drop it back so the camera could capture it and the lighting properly. The panels are 20mm spacing between pixels, and its indoor rated. They around around $1400 each panel - and thats 18 panels right there. Plus you need the 'brain' which fits into 1U - an extra few grand for that. Talking purchase here of course. The lighting there is 8 scanners, 2 barrel scanners, 6 LED strips, 4 LED narrow cans, 4 TRI-LED cans, as well as a hazer and a smoke machine. Plus about 13.5m of tri truss and four winch ups.

Forgot to mention - that's running Arkaos, straight from the laptop into the system brain and out to the panels. If anyone is planning on going to Rainbow Serpent next year, you'll see it in action!

Been playing around with some new toys... not mine, but the production company I work for use them. We were mucking around to make sure we knew how to set it up and map it correctly. And wanted to get some cool photos! Obviously there are more lights behind the screen. We are programming this setup this week and just threw the screen in front of it today.

Yeah. In a nutshell, an amplifier will amplify (key word ) a line signal from your mixer to a signal that is of suitable power to drive speakers. Good thorough reading though, Cupe. Nice.

Haha. Drummers.

Well, dude / dudette with turntables on a riser gets boring after a while. Sooner or later people will start experimenting with the visual to create more excitement. Same with bands. There are live shows of bands that alter the staging of the musicians, and it keeps it interesting. Adding in lighting fixtures and video elements in different ways keeps it fresh. And that's how a lot of people in the production business earn their bread!

If you don't gig much, then its not really worth it.

Remember you can also hire shit out. You don't have to own it all. For a hall that big I'd be more concerned about making sure you have enough sound to cover it. Last hall that size I did (it was about 30x16m plus a stage area) I used 2 subs and 4 tops with two of them as delays. In fact, I think I posted a few pics of that gig on here. Let me find it... http://www.ausdjforums.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5199 - it is the bit about the karaoke function. That cranked, and if it was recorded music, it would have cranked louder. Go for a rig similar to that size for that kind of hall I reckon - it worked for me! It's a gym your in, so remember there is going to be a shit load of ambience to deal with - too small a system and it will be muddy because you will hear the speakers the same volume as the echoes in the room! If they put down carpet and/or fill the room with people pretty well then this will help you out. Lights I only brought stage wash so I can't really comment there, but if it a school gig - bring plenty of wash light if it is primary school (not too bright, but bright enough for people to see whats going on) and if its secondary, go closer to a nightclub feel. You might want to think about spacing your gear out on different stands to get more coverage if you dont want to hire more.

^^ It's all departmental / government stuff. Same with gigs at council venues - the people running it don't give a shit, but they are required to check your gear is tested because that is the rules at all venues owned by the government. PITA.

What others have said - mobile DJ is there to create the atmosphere and play the songs people love to get them up dancing and having fun. They don't care if you are beatmixing like a baws or shuttling between 2 iPods - as long as they hear what they want to hear, there are no silences between songs, and the quality doesn't sound like monkeys balls. I'm talking about the 99% of people, not the 1% of people that know about production and DJing and judge the DJ by the equipment they have - which I am guilty of at times - I'm such a gear nerd!

You won't be able to fill the hall with that, but then again I am coming from a production side of things which is usually overkill for DJs lol. Make sure you space out your floodlights to fill as much floor space as possible, and if you can, set your chaser to have more than one globe on at a time. Some can do this - you can flick from 1-2-3-4 kind of chase to something like 13-24-13-24 or anything in between. It'll give you more light at a time. Laser won't do much without a hazer or smoke machine. I don't get why people get a laser and no atmos - all you will see is the laser on any obstructions - people or walls. The real effect is laser tunnels and scans above peoples heads that can be seen in mid air. As DJaz said, the strobe won't be big enough. You'd need to be talking a 1500w strobe to get enough punch. --- Here's some ideal situations for a 30x15m hall. Assuming you are using the ENTIRE hall as a dance floor: - 3 or 4 flown truss lines with maybe 4 moving heads on each - Grid behind the DJ with a video wall or LED strips / tubes Assuming you are using say half the hall for dancing and the other half for tables, etc, either: - One long truss span above the DJ with maybe 6 moving heads and some LED cans for wash - A few truss uprights dotted around the perimeter of the dance floor with one or two moving lights on each as well as some LED cans + hazer for all situations I know this is above and beyond most, but this will give you the nightclub feel. Anything less and you won't. Not trying to belittle anyone or anything, but just trying to give an example of the kind of size I would think is acceptable in such a hall to get a nightclub feel.

Yeah these aren't actually that bad. Can't drop them around the joint like you can an SM58, but they certainly do the job for the money they are. I particularly like to use these as the mics drunk punters may need to use (speeches, etc).

Of course, remember that if you have created your tune from samples or songs that are not .wav, then there isn't much point in burning your stuff as .wav. You can't turn back the clock there - once its mp3 its mp3. Sure you can make it .wav, but it will be a .wav with the compression and reduced sample size of an mp3. My apologies if you already realise this, but I'm sure someone will see this and learn something.

Festivals, arenas, big night clubs. Large line array kind of systems. Anything pumping through a sizable and reputable system you will start noticing it. But yeah, you would get away with it at the majority of places, and the times when you may not, the drunkness will cover

If you're playing live through really good systems you will probably notice the difference, particuarly closer the 20Hz and 10 to 20kHz ranges - thats where they start to falter. As long as you stick to 320 and not anything under, you should be able to get away with it majority of places you will go. I encode to 320 for space saving, although if I had limitless space I'd go wav!