Never say never!

[Excalibur]

What a sound piece of advice. One which I always try to abide by. However, reports are beginning to come in of an unseasonally cold snap occurring in the Underworld, and I feel I may be in part to blame, having suggested that I'll do certain things " when Hell freezes over".

You guessed it folks, I did so many U-turns recently that I nearly bored a hole in the carpet.

At a recent School Gig, I worked without front line backup in the hall. Mind you, the van outside had enough kit in it to run two rigs and a band, so it was to hand, should something untoward have occurred. I ran from the laptop, with control from the DJ2GO. I even moved from track to track with the crossfader, adjusting levels with the volume controls on it. This was made possible by using my trusty Phonic mixer amp, which allowed me mic inputs galore, cut weight immensely, and dispensed with a playout case. I've also got plans for how to fit the emergency backup Cortex, once I get all the buttons working.

But there's worse to follow. :eek::eek::eek: I'm almost too ashamed to type this, it's so utterly shocking. I still can't really believe I did this, I keep pinching myself to check I didn't dream it. In time honoured fashion, in the car park of a motorway services, I took delivery of a pair of powered speakers. Yes folks, powered speakers. Ones with amplifiers inside the cabinets.* Worse still, inside the plastic cabinets. I shall forever have to hang my head in shame, and whenever I use them, I'll have to vehemently avow that they're not mine. ( Actually, they're not yet mine, I'm evaluating them at the moment, but I'm fairly sure I'll have to part with some wonga for them fairly soon )

They're not intended for a main playout rig, but for use as monitors for karaoke, when we've got the main PA so far in front of the singers that they can't hear the backing track properly. There's no room in the DSB for another amp to drive passive monitors, so these are the logical answer. I'll keep you posted re developments.


* To balance things a little bit, the member who provided these cabs for my trial is presently heading rapidly in the opposite directon. After a couple of bad experiences with powered cabs, he's presently buying up just about every example of large wooden "Marmite" cabs that appear on Ebay, and some very heavy amps to drive them. He had planned to put a few of them in a rack, but ditched that idea when he tried to lift the :Censored: thing. :D:D:D
To protect the innocent, I shall have to keep his identity a closely guarded secret.

[CRAZY K]

What a sound piece of advice. One which I always try to abide by. However, reports are beginning to come in of an unseasonally cold snap occurring in the Underworld, and I feel I may be in part to blame, having suggested that I'll do certain things " when Hell freezes over".

You guessed it folks, I did so many U-turns recently that I nearly bored a hole in the carpet.

At a recent School Gig, I worked without front line backup in the hall. Mind you, the van outside had enough kit in it to run two rigs and a band, so it was to hand, should something untoward have occurred. I ran from the laptop, with control from the DJ2GO. I even moved from track to track with the crossfader, adjusting levels with the volume controls on it. This was made possible by using my trusty Phonic mixer amp, which allowed me mic inputs galore, cut weight immensely, and dispensed with a playout case. I've also got plans for how to fit the emergency backup Cortex, once I get all the buttons working.

But there's worse to follow. :eek::eek::eek: I'm almost too ashamed to type this, it's so utterly shocking. I still can't really believe I did this, I keep pinching myself to check I didn't dream it. In time honoured fashion, in the car park of a motorway services, I took delivery of a pair of powered speakers. Yes folks, powered speakers. Ones with amplifiers inside the cabinets.* Worse still, inside the plastic cabinets. I shall forever have to hang my head in shame, and whenever I use them, I'll have to vehemently avow that they're not mine. ( Actually, they're not yet mine, I'm evaluating them at the moment, but I'm fairly sure I'll have to part with some wonga for them fairly soon )

They're not intended for a main playout rig, but for use as monitors for karaoke, when we've got the main PA so far in front of the singers that they can't hear the backing track properly. There's no room in the DSB for another amp to drive passive monitors, so these are the logical answer. I'll keep you posted re developments.


* To balance things a little bit, the member who provided these cabs for my trial is presently heading rapidly in the opposite directon. After a couple of bad experiences with powered cabs, he's presently buying up just about every example of large wooden "Marmite" cabs that appear on Ebay, and some very heavy amps to drive them. He had planned to put a few of them in a rack, but ditched that idea when he tried to lift the :Censored: thing. :D:D:D
To protect the innocent, I shall have to keep his identity a closely guarded secret.

An interesting observation regarding equipment and the mixer amp or powered mixer ---whichever you choose to call it--which has a role to play for Entertainers involved with work which is off centre from mainstream disco work.

I have an ancient HH MA 100 PA amp from the 70s which is still great for really small venues with a small mixer like my Phonic to front load it.

My main playout Amp/ Mixer is a Peavey XR600 which is a 600 watt per channel version of your Phonic.

Less sophiticated looking but just as reliable and good sounding as many other offerings.

its horses for courses and if the market place you are in does not dictate the Starcloth, Uplighting, Coloured Lighting ( sorry Par bars these days) and the more recent standard items of lighting then use of more basic approaches is less of an issue.

I operate in a less demanding market most of the time where the rustic look is expected so thats a bonus.

I am surprised to hear actives causing trouble again.

I thought we were past that stage and have used the low budget QTX offering for Rodeo Bull bookings without problem (apart from a duff jack socket)

For personal use I have not gone down the plastic speaker route--but as age moves on weight might eventually dictate I have to.:D

[Excalibur]

Legend has it that Lucifer's checking to see if he qualifies for the Christmas heating allowance. Why? Well, I've just downloaded two albums on itunes, that I've been searching for for many a long year. Prince Charles-Stone Killers, and Supercharge-Local lads make good . To ensure I don't get used to using this site, now that I've downloaded ten times as many tracks in two nights as I've done in five years, they send me the files in m4a, just so I have to convert them to good old mp3. I'm sure it used to be possible to get them as mp3 directly, but that facility seems absent. :daft:

[deltic]

What a sound piece of advice. One which I always try to abide by. However, reports are beginning to come in of an unseasonally cold snap occurring in the Underworld, and I feel I may be in part to blame, having suggested that I'll do certain things " when Hell freezes over".

You guessed it folks, I did so many U-turns recently that I nearly bored a hole in the carpet.

At a recent School Gig, I worked without front line backup in the hall. Mind you, the van outside had enough kit in it to run two rigs and a band, so it was to hand, should something untoward have occurred. I ran from the laptop, with control from the DJ2GO. I even moved from track to track with the crossfader, adjusting levels with the volume controls on it. This was made possible by using my trusty Phonic mixer amp, which allowed me mic inputs galore, cut weight immensely, and dispensed with a playout case. I've also got plans for how to fit the emergency backup Cortex, once I get all the buttons working.

But there's worse to follow. :eek::eek::eek: I'm almost too ashamed to type this, it's so utterly shocking. I still can't really believe I did this, I keep pinching myself to check I didn't dream it. In time honoured fashion, in the car park of a motorway services, I took delivery of a pair of powered speakers. Yes folks, powered speakers. Ones with amplifiers inside the cabinets.* Worse still, inside the plastic cabinets. I shall forever have to hang my head in shame, and whenever I use them, I'll have to vehemently avow that they're not mine. ( Actually, they're not yet mine, I'm evaluating them at the moment, but I'm fairly sure I'll have to part with some wonga for them fairly soon )

They're not intended for a main playout rig, but for use as monitors for karaoke, when we've got the main PA so far in front of the singers that they can't hear the backing track properly. There's no room in the DSB for another amp to drive passive monitors, so these are the logical answer. I'll keep you posted re developments.


* To balance things a little bit, the member who provided these cabs for my trial is presently heading rapidly in the opposite directon. After a couple of bad experiences with powered cabs, he's presently buying up just about every example of large wooden "Marmite" cabs that appear on Ebay, and some very heavy amps to drive them. He had planned to put a few of them in a rack, but ditched that idea when he tried to lift the :Censored: thing. :D:D:D
To protect the innocent, I shall have to keep his identity a closely guarded secret.


Is it absolution that you seek !!!

[Excalibur]

Is it absolution that you seek !!!

Confession is good for the soul, my son. I merely seek to show that there are few absolutes in this world. Let us hope that I can get these "active" speakers to work this aft. As far as I can see, I've got to plug the blighters into the mains!!! How confusing. :daft:

[deltic]

Nice to see you have some invaluable weapons in your armoury............ ingenuity and improvisation.:):)