Mobile DJ, Questions answered. Thanks Mike!

0:00 In mobile DJing the name of the game is size and weight

Alright folks, had an email from Mike from Golden, Colorado USA and I thought it was a good email to do a video on so please put comments underneath here and more information if you've got it. Okay, in mobile DJing the name of the game is size and weight. You've got to keep weight down because no one wants to lug all the gear around and you've got to keep size down because it can't fit in your car or through a gig's back entrance, through the kitchen in some cases. In your experience, what tips and or certain products have you found to keep size and weight down while also keeping quality high, both sound and lighting? Okay, now I personally think now that a set of powered speakers is a good idea because straight away you cut out the want for having an external amplifier. And also nowadays we've got the likes of LED lights and quite a lot of them are very good. They're relatively inexpensive.

But maybe, let's say for a lot of people, they're quite expensive to buy initially. But believe me, over a period of time you will save a vast amount of money on not having to change light bulbs all the time or the dichroic bulbs and some of them can be quite expensive. So, for example, a small DJ setup, a couple of say 15 and horn powered speakers or 12 inch and horn powered speakers, a T-bar with a whole bunch of LED lights on is near enough fit. And if you work out size, you can get them into a sort of a medium-sized family saloon, family car. Right, number two. As any DJ starts up, they might buy a few new products in lighting or sound that aren't what they really want, but what they could afford at the time. As time moves on, they serve their purpose, but they were bought with the intention of trading them in one day. Alright, the question here now.

1:51 He'll just keep the box and then put the light in that box

At what point do you suggest trading in some of the cheaper stuff to purchase the bigger and better products of tomorrow? Well again, it's all down to how you look after your items. Now I am like a lot of people, maybe some items I don't look after them correctly. But you can buy flight cases, but of course flight cases there's a certain amount of cost. And there's a lot of people who, let's say, will keep their items in boxes. For example, the A1 Party DJs from Australia, when he buys a new light, what will you do? He'll just keep the box and then put the light in that box. Everything's square so it goes in the back of the van. So again, just so long as you look after the item and it's not scratched, it's still in working order, then theoretically there is still a certain amount of value attached to that. So of course you can sell it to a friend.

Stick an advert in a newspaper or even maybe bung it on eBay, save money up and then you can go to the next level and buy better kit. Alright, three, I know you love to set and forget it with your lighting. You seem to be a sound active or automatic guy only. So talking about DMX might not be your thing. Well I'm going to get into DMX a little bit more. But do you have any suggestions for combining different effects from different lights, LED, powercans, scanners, etc.? In other words, I know about the basics of DMX, what it is and how to program it, but what about the philosophy behind it? What makes a great light show? That's the question. What makes a great light show? Well, OK, admittedly, I'd just like to plug the damn things in and let her get on with it.

3:35 The ones that are just basically sound to light

But maybe here's an idea for you. Let's say, for example, you've got some cheap and cheerful lights that are just sound activated. And then you've got one or two that are, let's say, DMX controllable. Well, how about this? And I may do this in the near future. The ones that are just basically sound to light. If, let's say, you can get all of those on the same connector, in other words, to the same plug. I know this sounds very, very basic, but let's say you've got a switch on that plug. You've got a lead going to four basic sound-to-light lights. But then you've also got, say, two or three lights that are DMX controlled. What you could possibly do is the ones that are being DMX controlled have them on but set to off. So in other words, quite often with DMX, you can have the lights, the bulbs shining, but you've got a small little iris that fits over, so no light comes out of those guys.

So all of a sudden, for example, what you could do is you could just switch the power off on the small little LED sound-to-light units and then switch the DMX on and all of a sudden you've got a little DMX show. So what's happening? You've almost got two light shows in one. You've got the standalone flashy thing and then you've got the DMX light show. So what do you think? Again, I'm just chucking ideas at you. So I hope it's been a help and I'm going to finish off my toastie. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

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