back up equipment

[Dragonfly]

Hello lovely people of disco land I have been meaning to ask this question for a month or so but keep forgetting .......

with regards to back up equipment is the best practice to have it all switched on set up ready to go incase of failure / freezing / crashing or just to have it with you set up but not powered up ???

the reason I ask this and what brought the question to the front of my mind is I did a school do just before xmas and on 2 occasions some little snot thought it would be funny to pull out the plugs !!! thus cutting all power to the rig instantly ,

now I know this can be very bad for any electrical equipment but upto now I have had my laptop running and my cortex running also cued up incase the laptop crashes .

my thought was though I could have lost both play out systems in one which kind of negates the point of having a back up policy.

In your professional views would I be better just setting up the other laptop and not having it powered up , just switch it on if the other one fails??

it probably sounds a really stupid question but it just dawned that i could lose both systems if there was a power cut , and yes i know i use powered speakers could the same happen here or is my laptop at more risk from sudden loss of power??

also with regards to back up I use a maya 44 external sound card would you recommend getting a back up one of these as well or am i just going overboard with the back up doing that?

there is a few other things id like to do with the 75 quid but obviously my playout system is the most important thing in my arsenal.

thoughts please?

[Vectis]

The backup to your Maya is the internal soundcard. Not quite as crisp and delightful, but good enough to get by.

Without UPSs and/or a generator you're always at the mercy of the electrical supply, it's just an occupational hazard!

[CRAZY K]

Hello lovely people of disco land I have been meaning to ask this question for a month or so but keep forgetting .......

with regards to back up equipment is the best practice to have it all switched on set up ready to go incase of failure / freezing / crashing or just to have it with you set up but not powered up ???

the reason I ask this and what brought the question to the front of my mind is I did a school do just before xmas and on 2 occasions some little snot thought it would be funny to pull out the plugs !!! thus cutting all power to the rig instantly ,

now I know this can be very bad for any electrical equipment but upto now I have had my laptop running and my cortex running also cued up incase the laptop crashes .

my thought was though I could have lost both play out systems in one which kind of negates the point of having a back up policy.

In your professional views would I be better just setting up the other laptop and not having it powered up , just switch it on if the other one fails??

it probably sounds a really stupid question but it just dawned that i could lose both systems if there was a power cut , and yes i know i use powered speakers could the same happen here or is my laptop at more risk from sudden loss of power??

also with regards to back up I use a maya 44 external sound card would you recommend getting a back up one of these as well or am i just going overboard with the back up doing that?

there is a few other things id like to do with the 75 quid but obviously my playout system is the most important thing in my arsenal.

thoughts please?

In those circumstances if the sound was lost due to some little ...........
I would inform the organisers you would go home if it happened again
or make an announcement, its downright lethal people doing that and who gets the blame if the little....gets his come uppance:(

I dont have back up set up to go because I have blind faith in the equipment--it is however not difficult to set up my back up quickly--also if working with a generator theres a risk there as well of blowing everything.

Not that you would offer to use your back up if the Jenny had just taken out your main rig:eek:

As I have mentioned using my onboard sound card on my laptop sounds fine through the Peavey Pro 15s speakers with Subs.

CRAZY K

[Dragonfly]

thanks for the swift reply Vectis , so my laptop is not at more risk than any other piece of electrical equipment?

[sleah]

thanks for the swift reply Vectis , so my laptop is not at more risk than any other piece of electrical equipment?

Not if it has a battery, which usually comes with laptops. Unless it's totally cream-crackered, the battery should last long enough while you restore power, or at the least shut down safely.
However if your using an external disk that has a brick, then just ignore me:rolleyes: ..... another good reason not to use external disks - less to go wrong:D

[JAMdisco]

I think there is a limit as to what you can carry regarding backup equipment. The only real way is to have 2 of everything and although some might do that I know I certainly can't afford to.

I have backup on CD which (when set up) can be switched almost instantly if my laptop freezes / crashes. However, my laptop is never used to connect to the net and all files are virus checked before loading on, so no real threat. Also I use a surge protection 4-way adaptor to plug the laptop into.

I do have an external HDD which now is a duplicate of the songs on the laptop and as they are fairly innexpensive will probably buy another to keep at home.

I can get by with one speaker by switching to mono if need be but if both blow then I'm stuffed.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

It is difficult to carry a spare of everything, but ultimately possible.

I have got more and more paranoid as I've got older and now carry:

Spare 10" mixer
Spare microphone and leads
Spare Echo soundcard
Denon H2500 as backup
Every kind of spare lead possible
Spare active speaker if working further than 10 miles away
Spare headphones
Ipod
Spare lighting
Spare lamps
Spare pants....(just kidding...!)

[Dragonfly]

Thanks for the replies chaps Daz have you got a link to the Echo sound card you use please??

ta muchly.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Thanks for the replies chaps Daz have you got a link to the Echo sound card you use please??

ta muchly.

http://www.gear4music.com/Echo_Indigo_I--O_PCMCIA_laptop_soundcardsefv_4.html?gad=COO_5foBE gjUTSM1_6-iXBi0mZL_AyDfv5AR

It's a PCMCIA card, so you'll need slot for it.

Apparantly they are bringing out a new product at the end of March to replace this as a lot of newer laptops don't have this slot.

I have to tell you though Dave, it was a pain sorting out the virtual outputs on it - I struggled. :(

[Dragonfly]

thanks for that may go for another maya eventually or have a search and see what other people use on here seem to remember someone uses one that cost a fiver ... which for back up to get me out of pooville may be good enough.

[Sapphire Disco]

I am also very paranoid about having to say sorry folks music gone down and I can't do anything about it, imagine 10 o'clock doing a wedding things starting to go well full dancefloor, then bang something goes how would you feel ?
Therefore the following...

2 Laptops
1 Hardrive player 80 gigs which also plays MP3 Discs & CDs
2 Mixers
2 Amps
1 i pod
2 Mics radio & corded
Spare leads ,fuses nuts & bolts, bulbs etc
Spare speakers but only take subs + tops with me
And 2 cars.

Makes me feel more confident, but I still worry.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

How do you drive 2 cars then Paul? :sj:

[Sapphire Disco]

How do you drive 2 cars then Paul? :sj:

Easy, one is auto so I don't have to change gears , the other is a little more complicated cause you have to remember not to put the brakes without depressing the clutch before you grind to a halt, otherwise you could stall it,that has happened:o , but really quite easy when you get used to it.
Obviously I don't drive them both at the same time, that would be impossible wouldn't it ;)

[Excalibur]

Us Dinosaurs, when we had finished laughing, would say " You just press play on one of the CD players!" ;) :D :D

No help to you lot, but funny all the same. :p :D :D

[Sapphire Disco]

Us Dinosaurs, when we had finished laughing, would say " You just press play on one of the CD players!" ;) :D :D

No help to you lot, but funny all the same. :p :D :D

Now let me think, what did happen to the Dinosaurs :beatnik: :)

[Excalibur]

Now let me think, what did happen to the Dinosaurs :beatnik: :)

We got very old! :p ;) :D

[PropellerHeadCase]

To answer the specific question:

I would have sufficient spares to make up as much of my system as possible not plugged in (and probably in the van if I don't have to park too far away) in case the cause of the failure was power-related (and thus likely to take out the back-up with the main) or location/incident specific (i.e. a one-off that is unlikely to recur that the spares are best well away from), but my main system always has redundancy built in so if it's just a hung PC or a mis-behaving CD-player then I can jump to the live back-up immediately.