Organising your own dance night Part 4, gear, pa lights ect.

0:02 Gear, what gear you need

Alright folks, this is the fourth video in organising your own dance night. In the first few we've talked about venue, we've talked about posters etc. In this one we're going to talk about gear, what gear you need. Right, first off don't expect that you can actually turn up to a night, set your little PA system up and think you can supply an essential amount of music to about three or four hundred people. Wrong! In fact, your system in your bedroom, even though it sounds loud, will not sound as loud in a huge room. So you'll need to consider one of two things. Either finding a friend who's got an adequate supply of equipment or hiring some in. Okay? So again, I don't want to go in depth because the trouble is you can digress and I could spend two hours just talking about basically what to do when you contact an actual PA company to hire gear from them. But...

If your friend, let's say, has got an adequate amount of PA system, then have a word, organise a price, get it. Do not contact five or six friends and get five or six friends to bring lots of PA and put it together because that just spells disaster. Two reasons. One is because I'll have everyone fighting over everything, saying my speaker's not loud enough and this, that and the other. Plus the fact, which is much more important, actually is number two, The first one is number three, what I've just said. Number two is of course the trouble is you'll have a mishmash of gear and it'll sound terrible. Number one is the fact that you'll probably end up blowing things because some speakers will be louder than others, others won't be as loud, some will need more power, some will need less. Forget it, don't go there. Two things, either go to a friend who's got enough gear...

2:17 It from this point of view

In other words, I would work on the principle of you looking at wanting thousands of watts as opposed to wanting only hundreds of watts. The other one, of course, is contact a PA hire company. They are the pros. They know what they're doing, explain what you want and they will either give you that equipment or maybe say you want some advice from them. They will give you advice. They have had years of experience, they know what they're doing. Now then, I work on this principle as well. I will always take, unless there's stairs and God knows what, huge big speakers. And quite often I'll have people say to me, why on earth have you brought those big speakers? Well look at it from this point of view. And I answer them by saying this, I can turn big speakers down, but I can't turn little speakers up.

So when you're in a dance situation and all of a sudden the crowd are going, more, more, more, give me more. Wouldn't it be nice to just wang up that bass a little bit? Because you know you've got a lot of what's known as headroom. In other words, the amplifiers, you know, the crowd are going, they're chugging along at 11 o'clock thinking this is brilliant. But you know the actual volume is really only on about 5 and 6 and you've got 7, 8. To work on. Never get a 9 or 10 because that's when it's just too loud. Well, not so much too loud but maybe you get to the distorted part of the evening which you don't want to do. But always make sure you've got ample sound. So again, that's why I said that earlier about having big speakers can be turned down, they can be as quiet as possible but then you can turn the buggers up as well, alright? Very important. Now then, so PA, make sure you've got a good amount of PA.

Because if people have turned up to your night and the DJs are fantastic, but the PA sounds terrible, well, you're in for a few problems. Lighting. Now then, less is more. Don't start going and organising these nights and having 5,000 lights all over the place. Initially, don't really bother much about lighting. I would say personally. Yes, you need good lighting. Maybe get a couple of lasers. In England at the moment you can buy green and red lasers for a couple of hundred quid. Maybe get two of those, try and hire them in. Have one either side of the DJ. Have a strobe light. They're always a good effect. And then just to put a bit of light on the dance floor, a couple of twister effects. NJD do some data moons, they're quite nice.

4:48 Behind the DJ

There's no need initially to have sound-to-light and have a light DJ in this or any other, just a couple of nice effects on the floor. Smoke machine is always a good idea. What is a nice idea as well is behind you, you can get these screens and you can have some guy on a computer with a little program. If you look at the Goldie videos, you'll see some guy with a computer in front of him, a laptop, and either side of Goldie there were those huge big screens with effects on. They're always a good idea because it's almost something to look at behind the DJ. So there you go. Now also, another point about your room is when punters walk into a room, they don't want to see a square box. They want to see something with style, something that's got a bit of a theme to it which is very important. So this is where backdrops come in, camouflage nettings, that sort of thing deck the room out.

But very important with regards decking the room out and with regards every single electrical item in that place. All the electrical items by law now in the UK have to be pat tested. I would say quite simply this, you could probably get away with doing an event and having nothing pat tested. But, this is the but, everyone's paid to come in. Halfway through the night everyone's dancing. Someone walked along who was, I don't know, something to do with the pack testing company and said could we have a look at your pack test certificate or nothing was tested. They could legally stop you there and then and then you're in deep shtuck. Secondly, with regards to the backdrops and all this other stuff, they've all got to be secure and when I say made secure, yes they have to be made secure so nothing can fall on anybody or you know what I mean.

But everything has got to be made safe from fire. That's very important as well because the last thing you want is some drunkard in the corner, you know, with his lighter just flicking nicely away at a, say, a camouflage netting and within two seconds the whole lot's gone up. So there you go, a tiny insight into the decor, into the PA, in the actual venue. And again, with regards to turntables, mixers, CDs, you've probably got that so you can take your own kit, alright? So if you're doing that... Liase with the PA company. Get to know them because those guys, if you look after them, they will look after you. A good sound system, a reasonable amount of lights and you're almost there to get in your own night. Practice and enjoy. And let me just pause this because we've got another one coming soon hopefully. See ya. Practice and enjoy. Practice and enjoy. Practice and enjoy.

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