Easiest maybe, but at £70 the set on their own it's getting on for the cost of a gas lift tripod for 4 bits of cylindrical metal. Hmmm maybe 35mm extendable speaker poles are a way to go.Originally Posted by Excalibur
Easiest maybe, but at £70 the set on their own it's getting on for the cost of a gas lift tripod for 4 bits of cylindrical metal. Hmmm maybe 35mm extendable speaker poles are a way to go.
Maybe a tenner and a friendly Blacksmith/Metal Worker could be a way to go, also.
Bring it on Peter
I may yet wander off and start a thread about them, as I intended to do. Watch this space.
If it helps get this one back on topic, that's not a bad thing.
Steve
Mad, bad & dangerous to know
www.corabar.co.uk
Better to study for one hour with the wise, than to drink wine with the foolish.
The opinions of Corabar Steve are not necessarily those of Corabar Entertainment, or any of its subsidiaries
Last night (for me) was one of those gigs that you wish you could play for longer because the guests are up for it from the first song until the last...
I was at a place called The Barn at Bury Court, a pretty big place (very long, I needed a telescope or binoculars to see right to the other end.....seriously), for a wedding.
Now, this wedding was booked last Summer after the Bride was directed my way by a friend who knew me. I won't say too much on here but she was panicking and very stressed at the time because she was being mucked about by another DJ / Supplier. That same DJ / Supplier (who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth), owes myself and others money. She'd booked, paid deposit and was apparently promised this, that and the other and then couldn't be contacted. A couple of other people on this forum know about this DJ / Supplier too .....anyway, the less said about that the better.
They were a lovely couple, early 30's and really up for a party. When I had my meeting with them a couple of weeks ago I was handed 3 sheets of song requests from them and their guests and I wondered at the time if it would go as well as it did because there didn't seem to be much 'middle ground' as such. It was either R&B and Current Chart or Indie. There were a few others in there but it was different to the usual fodder. There was over 6.5 hours of music and I only had 4.5 hours to work with so it would be interesting seeing what I'd miss out. There was no cheese (they didn't want any) and none of the usual suspects either (Abba, Whitney etc)...Ok, let's get on with it.
First things first eh.... If you've never been to this venue before then I hope this next bit helps you out...
Access is very simple - You can literally park outside the doors to 'The Barn'. Getting there is a bit of a pain though because windy, bendy, tight country roads would be an understatement and by the way, you are advised to put a different postcode into the sat nav and not the venue address because apparently you'll get lost (nice...NOT!). I only saw that when I was looking on their website yesterday at some of the photos of the venue.
Anyway, I knew well in advance that there was a sound limiter installed which is set at 92db - Ok, fair enough, I was prepared for that but I wasn't prepared for the stupidly low ceiling (again!) in the 'Disco area' so I had to drop the uprights on the ultimax yet again. With 2 x ADJ Revo III's hiding my lovely face I guess that was a plus point for the guests!
My first thought when I got there was "Why have they got a sound limiter installed?" - The venue is in the middle of nowhere for starters and unless there are people living on site (I couldn't tell) then it seems pointless. Again, if you visit this venue, don't let that put you off at all because (a) There are NO sockets in the 'Disco area' that are connected to the limiter and (b) The actual microphone to the limiter is placed around what must be around 100 metres (probably more?) at the other end of the venue (which claims it can hold 300 people). I don't think there's any chance you could set the limiter off unless you had a huge system. I decided to take just the Mackies but if I'd known there wasn't going to be any problems I would have added the Subs too for the 140 guests. I wasn't pushing my speakers but I'd like to have had a bit more clarity overall. I just didn't want to take any chances. Lastly, I was booked from 7.00pm - 11.15pm. When I spoke to the lady in charge on arrival I told her this and she said that the music had to finish at 11.00pm really but they gave you a bit of extra time and then the Bride & Groom are welcome to plug a media player into their system while the DJ packs away their equipment - Strange in my opinion. You either have a cut off time or you don't.....don't you?
First dance was performed by an acoustic duo and that was an Ed Sheeran song and then I followed with Eric Clapton - Wonderful tonight which was the Bride's Mum's favourite song who had passed away a couple of years ago. She danced with her Dad to that. After that it was full on party mode and everyone was up for it.
I never ventured away from the set up once so I don't know what it was like elsewhere in the venue but it was certainly rocking in the 'Disco area'.
I managed to get quite a lot off the big request list played and mixed up the R&B, Chart and Indie quite well I think. It wasn't one of those where the R&B lovers deserted the dance floor when the Indie came on and vice versa. Everyone appeared to like everything.
Last song of the night was Oasis - Champagne Supernova and the dance floor was packed solid with everybody singing along and it was a really cool moment too.
As the song faded out and I thanked everyone for a great night, the applause started and the Bride and Groom came over and thanked me and it was really nice.
The lady at the venue asked me for a card too and said she'd really enjoyed the night and that she was happy that I'd kept within the sound limits - As I said, it was pretty easy and from where I was standing, well....I reckon it was well over 92db.
I know this is yet another long winded report but I hope it helps some of you out who may have a booking at the venue in the future.
I was home by 00.15am and that was a bonus too.
Just gotta tell this one.
Did a gig for gary at Camberley ( well blackwater) , 65th birthday party , great song guide line, travel was easy , venue was great , people were great....................
Sound limiter was set far to low , still that did not matter.
I was asked to play background music for the first 30-45 minutes , no problem, after that I increased the volume to what I regard as background levels , oh no , i was asked to turn it down , I mean almost off
I even turned the sub amp off , so the sound was coming from the tops only ( 2 X 8" + horn) , so the evening progressed , same volume, In fact people talking moved the green lights on the sound limiter , the music did not.....
At 10:45 , the birthday lady comes over and says could you turn it up just a bit so we can dance , bare in mind the gig finishes at 11:30 , well six people danced for three songs , then went home , at the end there were only ten people left, well after the last song , journey - dont stop believing I approached the birthday lady and asked if everything was alright , she said it was perfect , lovely to see and talk to family she had not seen for years,and the music was great ( not sure how she could even hear it...lol) just goes to show...........
Daryll
darylldj.co.uk , serving hampshire , Surrey and sussex
Rub it in, why don't you?I think I may have had ten dancers in total at mine.
Same here. 50th birthday, mainly to be Old Soul, Motown and the like. Great music, but pretty much total apathy all night.
Strange one for me. Venue with a sound limiter, acoustically challenging with wooden floor, wooden panelled walls and plaster ceiling. So few guests only registered 2 green lights on the limiter twice! Had five more green before I even got to the red!
Had my first ever Golden Wedding anniversary last night. I trumped up to the hotel to set up in the afternoon cos I've got a stinking cold - and because it was a configuration of my setup I've not used before. 2 foot ultimax, gigAbar, 2 RGB clusters and my Alto 15s.
About 40 guests, full four course meal, speeches and a full HALF HOUR of disco. Finished at 10.45pm with many a happy guest thanking me for the lovely music (BG music from 7pm too) and a few taking cards. Before the gig I looked up the chart for this week in 1966 & found this ...
.. which had a rather nice effect on a lot of people. 'Congratulations' by Cliff also got an airing (Cliff was one of the lady's favourites).
Conclusions: If I get any more of these style events, I need:
A smaller PA (any more than -20dB on the mixer would've been way too loud).
Overhead bar for the Ultimax.
I toyed with the idea of putting a single speaker behind my lycra screen & running in mono but I thought the stereo sounded quite nice. Ah, I remember back when I started & stereo was just but a dream. (mono carts, mono mixer, mono amp... )
Nice one Daryll !
Seems like those dreaded sound limiters are beginning to make their mark on a lot of venues. I remember a time when they were (luckily) few and far between but it's almost as if they are in the majority of venues now. I have to say though that there are some venues I have been to (just like last night's one) where I don't understand why they have been installed. You could hardly call where they are situated 'residential'....
...Oh well, I have another one in another venue (Rivervale Barn) in 2 weeks time.
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