Backup question.

[Excalibur]

Here's one which has been nagging away at me for ages. When we talk about backup, many folk refer to a spare laptop, or phone, or whatever.
What I want to know, is ( apart from the mixer ) how many folk are always running two discrete ( separate ) frontline ( ie something you could do a night on if needed, with access to your whole collection ) playout systems habitually? I know Corabar Steve has a brace of Denons in his case, and I think Shaun may have. For me it's laptop and Cortex.

I can't countenance not having two more channels ready to go permanently. Over to you folks, should be interesting to know, and if possible your reasons for not having a second playout permanently ready to go.

[Alchemy]

I also run two instantly swappable playouts, laptop and Numark HDMix

[Corabar Steve]

Yep, double Denons here.

[Jonathan Ford]

I carry a spare lap top, but it's in it's bag under the stand.

[djdave01]

ive got a cortex player ready to go all the time. also use it for background music.

[WWDJ]

Spare laptop in a bag.
Ipad on hot standby with around 1500 tracks on it.
2 soundcards wired into mixer so i could run 2 laptops if needed.

[Megamix]

two playouts ready but only one mixer - spare mixer would need setting up

[Shaun]

I know Corabar Steve has a brace of Denons in his case, and I think Shaun may have.

I used to. The other denon and spare mixer resides in the van during a gig nowadays. I just have the one playout in my main case, and a selection of gig tunes (with the djay app) on my iPad as a back up source. Should the mixer fail I can just plug the iPad straight into my active speaker and throw on a pre-made mix to allow me time to swap the backup flightcase over.

[Mark Wild]

Spare laptop but not running simultaneously, a 1 minute of waffling on the mic while I swap it worst case scenario.

[funkymook]

Macbook and 00DJ both up and running with their own controllers and independent connections to the PA (and I'll often swap between them through the night). iPad with DJay in the bag as a third back-up.

[Sapphire Disco]

2 Laptops & DDS80 so 4 play outs , although the spare mixer would need plugging in. I'm thinking of maybe getting a 1U mixer that could go into action at the flick of a switch.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I have the MC6000 running the main laptop and a netbook which has VDJ and also runs Daslight, then a line for my Ipad at the ready. If all that fails, I have another flightcased and cabled MC6000 with me too.

[CRAZY K]

Here's one which has been nagging away at me for ages. When we talk about backup, many folk refer to a spare laptop, or phone, or whatever.
What I want to know, is ( apart from the mixer ) how many folk are always running two discrete ( separate ) frontline ( ie something you could do a night on if needed, with access to your whole collection ) playout systems habitually? I know Corabar Steve has a brace of Denons in his case, and I think Shaun may have. For me it's laptop and Cortex.

I can't countenance not having two more channels ready to go permanently. Over to you folks, should be interesting to know, and if possible your reasons for not having a second playout permanently ready to go.

I suppose its all about confidence in the reliabilty of the product you bought and also in my case sometimes limited space and set up and packdown times as I travel long distances these days to find work.

It must be 6 years now running with Cortex and hard drives---one glitch only when a track obtained from an unknown source not played previously would not play and seized the machine--the Mini Disc was on standby so no problem.

Wont be repeating that mistake.

Sooo no I dont have both Cortex machines fired up because I cant see a failure happening because of the reliability of modern products.

I do actually have two ipods in the bag with all my music which could be used as a replacement source within seconds and sometimes one is fired up ready to go, always think if anything will go its the HD so have two spare ones in the bag and the extra Cortex Playout in the vehicle.

The Mini Disc is always on but doesnt have Disco Music on it but can be used as a temporary music source.

Lazy or complacent--no-- just nothing I have seen over the years makes me think theres going to be a problem --I have bought two replacement updated HDs so not getting complacent in that department following a problem but it was nothing that would break down whilst working.

The above blind faith does not extend to laptops for any other reason of logics or stats ( I know many people swear by Laptops) other than I had a bad experience some years ago--so forgive me as that applies to many things in life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mixer department is well covered--the Peavey Powered Mixer has its own input stage into which I plug my Phonic Mixer which I love so much just replaced due to noisy volume controls, I also have an old DJ mixer I pinched from my son which would get me through.

[dehayco]

In terms of able to swap to in seconds i have a CD Player for backup with a CD loaded all the time along with around 20 cd's in a wallet with me. I also have an old iPod plugged in ready to go.

In my rack theres a spare amp with power into it, all it would need is wiring up to the mixer with XLR cables and the speakons swapping to it so about a minute or so max. Mixer wise i cary a spare mixer with me put don't usually have that in the venue so i would wire directly into my amp from the laptop and run out and get it.

[katman]

I'm thinking of maybe getting a 1U mixer that could go into action at the flick of a switch.

that would be a Formula Sound Shadow then. :)

[Sapphire Disco]

that would be a Formula Sound Shadow then. :)

That's perfect thanks :)

[DazzyD]

I use 2 x laptops and 2 x CD players fed in to a 12 channel mixer so I'm pretty covered on that front. The mixers are powered mixers (mixer and amp combined) and would cause a gap in the music should I need to switch them. I would set two up together with a laptop and CD player through each one, meaning I'd only need to switch speaker cables over, but the reality is it they are quite big machines and I simply don't have the space to setup two alongside each other.

[Twinspin]

2x Sony Vaio laptops running Virtual DJ 7.05 Professional which run simultaneously which both have nothing on whatsoever other than the software and drivers these are fully optimised for music both of them.

The main Vaio runs on the midi channels and soundcards on the
Denon MC6000 on channels 2 and 3

Then i have an external ESI Maya 44 usb soundcard that connects to channels 1 and 4 on the MC6000 and into the 2nd Sony laptop so im getting good sound quality through either laptop.

So if anything goes wrong i just move fader on channel 1 or 4 up and cue a track up on the other laptop.

If all fails there. I have a third laptop which is my home one that i can get out of the laptop bag.

Fourth. My Iphone 4 with a monster cable stereo jack cable. I have plenty of music on that... Switch that to Airplane Mode so nobody can ring it while its playing music. I have also a small soundcraft mixer that i can plug in. I also carry to every gig a spare RCF 312A.

My 2 gig machines.

https://fbcdn-photos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/430455_10150558865940957_392169052_a.jpg

[funkymook]

A coach load of polite, happy, dancing guests, now that'd be a useful back-up!

[mattred]

I must admit I carry back up but I would need to set it up.
I have full trust in my playout. I use my laptop in an audio setting 6 days a week and never have any probs. My club residencies have industry standard (pioneer cdjs and djm mixer) and I don't believe any other backup and never seen any problem.
My iPad and iPod are available to plug in and play if my laptop went down (and I carry a bootable hardrive clone) I have a spare mixer and cd players in the van and a spare amp.
Even if I set those up unless I had the amp wired up to another set of speakers there is still a chance something could break the sound and I would have to swap leads. If it happens it's not a life or death situation and I can have music back on pretty quick. A joke about it on the mic and get back to doing my job.

I trust the equipment I have as its all high quality and I have owned since new so know how it's been treated. That will never stop those freak occurrences where something goes wrong but I believe I have reduced them enough to not have to set up 2 different set ups but deal with the issue if it were to happen

Matt

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I used to. The other denon and spare mixer resides in the van during a gig nowadays. I just have the one playout in my main case, and a selection of gig tunes (with the djay app) on my iPad as a back up source. Should the mixer fail I can just plug the iPad straight into my active speaker and throw on a pre-made mix to allow me time to swap the backup flightcase over.

Same here. Never had the main PO fail just an amp fuse go on me a few years ago. Touch wood been very lucky.

[Jason]

Netbook running DMX software, but also with VDJ and SD Card (and USB SoundCard).
This is plugged into my 2nd mixer with Mics, fed to the VMS4. Its not an instant swap, but I can quickly hook the 2nd mixer into the speaker XLRs and carry on.

I nearly had to about a month ago. Also carry spare PA in the van (2 actives).
Most phones would allow you to "get by", and so I also have a 3.5mm jack wired as the other Analog input on the VMS4 (which can also run as a standalone mixer).

I used to have a dual SD Card player - great bits of kit and load 2 SD card full of typical hits and you could probably end the night without doing anything else..

[Daryll]

Spare laptop and external HD in van , citronic dual SD player in the rack with a few thousand songs on , I do have a small Alesis mixer , but , I have never had a main playout failure to date..............

In regards to the SD player , if I have a wedding , all the B&G pre requests are copied to an SD card , always cued up for the first dance.

You watch , something will fail this weekend ........:D

Daryll

[CRAZY K]

I must admit I carry back up but I would need to set it up.
I have full trust in my playout. I use my laptop in an audio setting 6 days a week and never have any probs. My club residencies have industry standard (pioneer cdjs and djm mixer) and I don't believe any other backup and never seen any problem.
My iPad and iPod are available to plug in and play if my laptop went down (and I carry a bootable hardrive clone) I have a spare mixer and cd players in the van and a spare amp.
Even if I set those up unless I had the amp wired up to another set of speakers there is still a chance something could break the sound and I would have to swap leads. If it happens it's not a life or death situation and I can have music back on pretty quick. A joke about it on the mic and get back to doing my job.

I trust the equipment I have as its all high quality and I have owned since new so know how it's been treated. That will never stop those freak occurrences where something goes wrong but I believe I have reduced them enough to not have to set up 2 different set ups but deal with the issue if it were to happen

Matt

Good point regarding treatment of equipment---buy from new and treat like gold dust---it will look after you.;)

[djwiggy50]

Weird how most backups these days are of a digital format. Its like we've become afraid of our cd cases.......

[Corabar Steve]

Weird how most backups these days are of a digital format. Its like we've become afraid of our cd cases.......
Given that most of us have a digital system as our main playout, taking CDs as back up isn't exactly an efficient or practical plan

[chrisj]

I am not digital and use Numark CDN88 with Citronic mixer into Bose L1/B1's.
For back up I have another CDN88 in a 19" case with a Citronic mixer plus a 1U Chevin Research amplifier and carry a pair of RCF 300w passive cabs. If I should have failure of cd player or mixer I swap the cases over and output from mixer to Bose. Incase of Bose failure, seldom heard of, I still have amp and RCF's. I normally use the backup unit for children's parties.

[djwiggy50]

Given that most of us have a digital system as our main playout, taking CDs as back up isn't exactly an efficient or practical plan

Agreed,

However, call me old school but if modern technology lets me down, I'm gonna reach for the 'hard' copy of a song as a back up.

[Vectis]

Agreed,

However, call me old school but if modern technology lets me down, I'm gonna reach for the 'hard' copy of a song as a back up.

:confused:

[djwiggy50]

:confused:

Yup, strike up the one man band! :daft:

[dehayco]

Weird how most backups these days are of a digital format. Its like we've become afraid of our cd cases.......

I take CD's for backup, not loads but a CD wallet with about 30 CD's mainly filled with compilation albums with most of the big hitters on them. The newer stuff and also more music is on a iPod thats plugged in.