Mobile DJ Speaker Set up for Large Dance Floors

0:00 Let's just imagine a dance floor like that

Right, so over the weekend I was doing an event in a marquee for about 400 people plus and it got me thinking about a great video to help you with speaker setup. So let's imagine you're doing a regular event, it's for a couple of hundred people maybe, dance floors, a good size maybe, it's five, six metres squared and if... You have any sense at all, you'll make sure that all of your kit is close at hand. So let's just imagine a dance floor like that. People are in that direction and in an ideal world you're setting up, by the way I've just cut my thumb, you're setting up sort of here. So you're going to set up facing the people and you're going to have your regular setup like this. Of course This isn't every single DJ setup. Here's a DJ booth, set speakers either side of you or maybe in the corners, and your lighting and so on. So everything is easily accessible, you can get to your kit if need be, you know, you don't have to worry about it being in a corner somewhere and so on.

Doing variations otherwise A would be here all day and I would have to go and get another 500 reams of paper. On the other hand, let's imagine now we have again our dance floor but instead of it being a few meters it's 20 or 30 meters. Now your normal regular setup would not be adequate at all. So how do we get around that? So again, let's just imagine you are set up, for example, here. There you go, that's where you're set up. And if you put a set of speakers either side, that is not going to be good enough at all because what about the people over here or over here or there or there? They're not going to hear anything because ideally you want a dance floor full of happy ravers and if your Doing such venues, sort of four, five, six hundred people, you know, you're going to have two or three hundred people possibly on the dance floor at one time. And when you get volumes of people like that, that's when the sound just seems to disappear inside them. They don't get the full grunt of sound. So how do we get around it? Well what we do is we have something...

2:42 You should have four, eight, maybe even 16 of them

The DJ Tutor offers a wide range of sounds that will get sound, of course, in all places, all corners. And you can do that very simply by rearranging your PA system. Now if you've just got a couple of speakers, two speakers, then of course you will not be doing big events. On the other hand, if you do big events, you should have more than two speakers. You should have four, eight, maybe even 16 of them. So instead of having two stacks Right and left, maybe consider having four. Now what you wouldn't want to do unless you were very careful and you were good at speaker management and cable management is have a sort of a stereophonic sound for stacks but by doing that what that means is that you know you're putting a set of speakers in each corner and you've got

The possibility of people sort of falling over speakers, cables and so on. Now what I recommend is something like this in one corner next to you so it's in let's say you can visually see it. You have a speaker set up in each corner but then what you do you have your regular setup here as well next to the DJ booth. So maybe next to the DJ booth you could have a set of 12 on stands and then in either corner that's maybe where you'd have your subs and also more mid and top. So why would you want to do that? Well let's imagine that this space is a good 10 or 15 meters across and deep it's maybe another 10 or 15 meters across. Well with your speaker setup in each corner That's great for the people close to that corner, but once you start getting into the middle of the DJ, sorry, the dance floor, that sound is going to be muffled and disappear. So by having a system close to you, it means now, if I just use some orange, it means now that in one corner the sound will travel here and reach a good area.

5:01 Best configuration of cables for stereophonic

And of course with the middle part, you're then going to get more sound like so. So you will reach quite a bit of the dance floor. Now you're probably also thinking, well what about the rest of the dance floor? Well, psychology works here. If you're going to use, and I will show you the best configuration of cables for stereophonic sound very shortly, but consider this. Have you ever thought about Some people may want to dance and have fun and listen to the music, but at the same time they don't want to be subjected with the high volumes. So by having a speaker set up like this in a line means that the people who want it loud can get close to the PA, the people who want to dance and still listen and have fun can be further away from the PA. And that does...

You will definitely have people who just want to dance. That's all they want to do, but they don't want to be subjected to ringing ears after the event. So, of course, by having the speaker system in a line means that you have an area where it's high volume, people partying and enjoying high volume. Further away, low volume, everyone's happy. That's a system that you can do. Now, last weekend I had something like this. I had the dance floor here, quite a long dance floor and I was positioned on the side of the dance floor. So what I showed you here probably wouldn't really work. I also had one over the opposite side and I had something in the middle as well. What I put in the middle was one sub and then I put small satellite speakers either side of the sub and the satellite speakers were actually facing roughly a sort of a 45 degree angle outwards like that and then the PA system either side

7:55 Went

The DJ Tutor offers a wide range of features and features that you can use to get the most out of your sound. If it's stereo because sub always, it's not a mono sound but you know with mid and top yeah you do need to make sure that you do have a right and a left. With sub it's not really that important so my speaker management was very simple I went from the one side of my controller out and then I went into The mid-top here, out of that into the sub here, out of that into the mid top then out of there into the sub on this side and out of the sub into the mid top here. That does seem a bit bizarre but it worked and then all I did on the other side I went into the sub here and out of that into the mid top. I was using the for the subs I was using the QSC cardioid subs they're the K212s

And then the mid-tops were the K12.2, 12 inch and horn. The K212s are two 12 inch, one facing forward, one facing back, eliminating quite a bit of the sub bass that normally would be rattling you. Here I had the KW181 which is a single 18 and either side of that I had the K8 so small monitors But still pack a punch with 1000 watt amp. And then on the right hand side, I had similar to the left, which was the K212 and the K12.2 mid-top cabs. So that's... Come on in you! So that is the setup that I had last Saturday. Okay, so let's have a look now. At a big dance floor, so let's imagine best case scenario, massive dance floor and you can set your PA up in four corners. So let's draw our dance floor, there it is. And now let's draw, and this is the wrong way of doing it. Let's imagine now we have stereophonic sound. Now stereophonic is four-way but it's still stereo.

10:14 I mean, because if I now draw a line

Let's imagine here's your DJ booth, and this is what most people will do, but this is the wrong thing to do. They'll go from the out into this speaker here on the left, and then from the left one to that side over there. Great. And then out from the right-hand side into the right speaker, out of the right speaker, into the next speaker along. Okay, so that's all right. I mean, because if I now draw a line... in the middle of the dance floor there you have right and you have left fantastic no absolutely stupid because you've only got right side there and you've got left side uh so what's wrong with that well let me show you how most nightclubs will set up their PA system uh no difference to the setup that's

12:09 All will be revealed very shortly

Take the orange as our dance floor, so bigger orange now, there we go. Orange is our dance floor and let's set the DJ booth up here and exactly the same, let's have our speakers in each corner, roughly 45 degree angle facing inwards like so. Now this is the correct way of setting up PA. So I'm going to come out of the left side here And then, or if you've got a splitter cable directly from your mixer, but let's just imagine you go from that speaker and then I'd come out and then I would go then into the opposite corner. All will be revealed very shortly. And then let's take another pen, hold on, actually I did throw one in the bin earlier on but it wasn't too good but it'll do for now.

And then go from, as you can see it's rather big, from here into this speaker and then out of there, let's just go round this way for argument's sake. But normally you're probably trying, if the public are facing you, then the less that's around that area where you're going to have a lot of footfall onto the dance floor the better. Actually yeah, let's do it this way then, so let's just think of footfall. So out and all around now to the opposite speaker, there. Alright, so now if we look at that, what we have here is we have right, because that's our right speaker, and we have right, the opposite corner. And then here we have left, and the opposite corner we have left. So why have we done that? Why have we not bothered to just go that side and that side? It would be so much easier.

If you're dancing here, right opposite the DJ you've got right and left. If you're dancing in this corner over this side you've got... Left and right. So wherever you are, you've always got a stereo sound instead of just being on the right hand side and only having right or on the left hand side and only having left. Alright, if you're dancing in the middle, you've got right and left. But what happens if you're over here and all of a sudden you play, for example, an old classic Lulu, You Make Me Want To Shout? Well, if you're familiar with that old school tune, you should know that on some of the mixes, one side is right and the other side's left. So you'd have some people listening to Lulu and the other people listening to just the sound of the track, the beat and so on. And I hope that's a help. All I will finish with here is the important part, is the cable management.

The last thing you must not do, and he said must do, definitely you mustn't do, is just have cables all over the place. It is vitally important that they are gaffer taped down or secured. You do not want people falling over cables because bearing in mind with a big dance floor like this, if you're here... Dance floor full of people and you have speakers quite far away from you, you need to make sure that nothing can be tripped over and you don't have to worry then about the possibility of cables being pulled out and so on. Alright, I hope that's been a help. Thank you very much. Practice and enjoy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.