Mobile DJ How to Make a Small PA Sound Like a Big Sound System

0:00 How long have you been a mobile DJ?

Alright guys, so it's a rainy day, you've done all you can, you've greased the cat's bum, you've watered the roses and you've made breakfast. The kids have gone to school and you're by yourself in the house scratching your bits going, what should I be doing? I'll show you. Right, first of all, the items I'm going to be using is some PA from QSC and also a light console from... What was it again? Light console! Now, how long have you been a mobile DJ? Do you enjoy being a mobile DJ? Do you get a buzz from being a mobile DJ? Do you like to try and impress and sometimes when you set your kit up, do you like to have that sort of smirk on the side of your face knowing that people looking at your setup and going, how on earth are they getting that quality sound with such a small PA?

Maybe you have or you haven't, but a few times what I've done is I've set up bass cabs in a corner somewhere and then I've had a couple of small speakers either side of the console and people have come up to me going, they sound amazing. Now of course things because bass is omnidirectional you can pretty much put bass cabs anywhere so long as they're in the room and you can get a damn good sound even though you've got maybe a small sort of satellite speakers either side of your console. For a while, I've had to put up with this. This is the frontage of the XPRS I've got and you can see it's broken. Now, this is wear and tear. Shit happens and you've got to put up with it. And I'll be honest with you, it doesn't look brilliant. I do need to clean that. Luckily, because it's at the side, it doesn't look too bad. But when you're doing a wedding and you want it to look professional, it's got to look professional.

1:54 These, course

So, what I thought you see is for weddings the last thing you want to do is and again all right it depends on the size of the wedding if it's a huge wedding for a thousand people don't watch this video but if it's for a couple of hundred Then watch this video. Now these are the K8 from QSC, they're powered speakers, 1000 watts and they're small, they're compact. I mean there's my hand, you can see it's relatively small, you can pick it up, you can carry it and there it is. So why on earth would I want to take just two of those and have one on either side of my console knowing that I wouldn't get any bass out of these? Let's go back a bit. You do get bass, they do have bass but of course in a small room at low volumes you crank them up in a big room and it's gonna sound not terrible but of course you're going to lose the fidelity so it's always a good idea to make sure you've got bass speakers with them and again if we look at the back you've got external sub

Normal and deep. So if you're using an external sub, you can flick them there. Normal, you're just cutting out a lot of the lower frequencies. And deep, you are using all the frequencies imaginable pretty much. They are quite pokey, but right, OK, check this out. Now, look at that. All right. Doesn't that look rather sexy? Now what I'm so pleased about, I mean I'm over the moon, is that these fit so snugly underneath the console. Now of course I would not just have the console like that. There is this, hold on, I'm going to try and do this now while I'm holding the camera as well. OK, you've got this bit here that fits over time. If I just put that there, OK. So that of course covers all the cables and your kit so people can't see any mess, even though you shouldn't really have any there anyway. So what I would do is I'd put some sort of scrim in front of that, some sort of cloth. Now again, a cloth, the bass is going to travel through and I have two bass cabs there. Alright, these are from QSC, let's have a look at the back as well. And there it is, alright.

4:25 KS212C, they are cardioil cabs

KS212C, they are cardioil cabs. So what does that mean? Well, what it means is that the bass or most of it will go forward and not towards the back. So if you think about it, I haven't just thought, oh let's put a couple of QSC speakers underneath here and promote QSC. No, the worst thing in the world you could have done Let's say you have some form of bass cab underneath there and have bass booming against your legs. Well, the beauty about these is that you have roughly minus 15 decibels of bass coming towards you where you're standing. Most of the bass, if not practically all of it, is going forward. So you're not going to be inundated with wafts of bass every time you put some drumming bass on or house.

Now also, alright, let's have a look. If I put the camera vertically you can see that there is no point, the bass cabs are just protruding out from underneath there at the back and same at the front. So they fit perfectly. This is so cool. Inside there. And I've got two of them. Now, if I'd have, say, used an 18, I don't think I'd have got two 18s under there. Maybe. But then they're very big. OK, you can get a little bit... They do have a lower frequency response. You can get a little bit more low out of them. But I like the idea of having those two there. So in my next wedding gig, I'm going to be setting up like this and I'm going to have two... The DJ Tutor is available for purchase at Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor is available for purchase

6:58 Lego, dink dink, carpet

I don't get it. How come you have got so much bass in your face? And I'm not going to tell them about those there, alright? I'm going to put some links in the description and I will finish off with saying practice and enjoy. And I'm not going to apologise about the mess in the room. This is a lived-in house. We have kids. Yes, we do have children because if you don't... Let me tell you something. If you don't have any kids... Then, when eventually you do have children, you'll realise that you can put something down somewhere and then you walk and you go back and you think it's gone. And you think it's you. But no, the kids have moved it. Or, you'll be walking down the stairs and all of a sudden you'll fall over a toy or worse, Lego. Talking about Lego, if anyone from the Lego, which is highly unlikely factory or company, or if you know someone who works for Lego...

If someone listens or watches this video, you need to make carpet, alright, Lego carpet. Because could you imagine having some random Lego carpet and then having Lego on that? It'd be like a nightmare, wouldn't it? You'd sort of, you'd be hoovering the carpet and all of a sudden you'd think, dink, dink, dink, dink, you're just hoovering up bits of Lego. It'd be like walking on, I don't know, on mouse traps. You'd have to be so careful where you stood because you didn't, wouldn't know if you were... Thank you for watching. And if you're interested in having a good quality console, I'll be honest with you, you can't go wrong. Yes, alright, it is expensive. You can get them second hand. But then if you're going to spend a fortune on the rest of your kit, for God's sake, alright.

Don't turn up to a hotel with £1,000 worth of PA and then ask the manager for a table to put your controller on because that's been a bit stupid, isn't it really? Practice and enjoy. As I said, there will be links in the description. Thank you very much. Nice one.

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