The A-Z of Starting a Mobile Disco |
| Date Added: Mar 18, 2008 |
Selecting Disco Equipment
Whilst its true that disco equipment is becoming more and more affordable (especially from Thomann), there are still some worthwhile aspects to consider when choosing equipment for your show.
Whilst many different brands, or manufacturers’ equipment will work with other brands, not all “types” of equipment go together. There are some potentially expensive pits to throw your money, and/or reputation into.
This article is aimed at the newly starting DJ, but parts of it will also be of use to other, more established DJ’s. The article is split into sections for easy reading for those wishing to concentrate on just parts of a DJ set up. Here’s the first section now:
“Im’ a DJ….I’m a DJ”
Ah, but what sort of DJ are you? What sort of DJ do you want to be? Well, consider some of the options.
A Bedroom DJ – typically named after the room their gear is set up in. Except that a Garage DJ may not necessarily set up in the place where the car is kept. The Bedroom DJ, will often start with just some basic sound equipment, but loud enough to annoy the neighbours. This is a great way of a budding DJ finding out if he or she is destined for bigger things. Anything from doing a few parties ‘round at friends houses, or getting in practice for other types of DJ’ing, such as Mobile, Club, or possibly radio.
Only a few pieces of equipment are needed eg: A mixer and two music sources, headphones, and either a hi-fi, powered speakers (like on a PC), or a small amplifier and speakers. Not much else required, which is handy since there is no DJ income from bedroom DJ’ing exclusively. Since you’ve no paying public, music can be whatever you, (and your mates sitting on your bed) want to hear.
The bedroom DJ also incorporates the Turntablist, or “scratcher”. Mainly based in the hip-hop, and R’n’b genres/styles of music (although brief scratch effects are used in some more up-tempo dance genres too, as a quick fill-in, or mix tool. This aspect of DJ’ing often requires more upmarket, expensive equipment, and only the elite few are able to break even – but then its not about money and only their hours and hours (and months and months) of solitary practice get them the high level of skills which they need to “hold their own” at mates houses, and the occasional underground club on a Wednesday “battle” night.
A Club DJ – Yes, that cool dude, or chick up in the DJ booth, with headphones pinned to one ear all night, who strolled in with a small bag-full of records, and will be driving away from the venue 2 minutes after sliding their last record away. They will probably have started out as a Bedroom DJ, or mobile DJ, using bedroom audio gear to practice their mixing skills on (the way they blend one song into another).
With few exceptions, the music of the club DJ will be very upto date, indeed some minority club DJ’s will exclude great music from their collections, as soon as a particular track starts getting heard on the radio. This sort of commitment to “discovering” great new tunes, will be the main, ongoing financial outlay for a club DJ. Often buying several tunes a week, for just a few weeks play. Luckily though, the club DJ will get paid an agreed fee by the club(s), which they are working at. However, the club DJ’s fee is usually low, as the club owners normally have several budding DJ’s to choose from, and are providing all the equipment that the DJ will be using.
A Mobile DJ – A nightclub on wheels…Sound gear, amplifiers, big speakers, lighting, overhead stands, a work-beaten van in the carpark with a Yorkie on the dashboard, and a Cornish Pasty wrapper of the brand that only 24-hour garages sell, on the passenger seat.
With lots of bubbling, natural personality exuding out over the microphone, you’ve got to prove you’re not just a juke box. If you just want to play “your” kinda music, this role isn’t necessarily for you, unless you’re going to be able to afford to turn gigs away if they don’t sound like “your” kinda thing. EG: 18th and 21st Birthday parties Many mobile DJ’s will advertise, “Music for all tastes, and occasions”…it’s a cliché but a totally true one. A mobile DJ could be playing the latest dance grooves at 9:30pm, Tom Jones at 10:00pm and “It’s raining men” at just about half past ten…..
A couple of hours later still, while the village hall walls are sweating with the condensation of a happy crowd, the mobile DJ will be getting wetter than an otter in a washing machine, carrying load, after load of gear to the van, in rain, wind, and snow. – but usually to the almost-musical accompaniment of slurred chorus’s of “New York, New York” or “Angels”; driving into the dawn and climbing into bed (usually their own) to the hateful sound of the Dawn Chorus…(memo to self: Get more pebbles for catapult on bedroom windowsill).
Well paid, but the most physically demanding DJ’ing role, and requiring the most financial outlay for equipment.
OK?…still reading? Good. The above are very “typical typecast stereotypes” of the types of DJ’ing. There will always be exceptions, as well as plenty of “hybrid” or multi-skilled DJ’s who are mainly one sort of DJ, but also partially another sort of DJ too. EG: A DJ who spins the latest tunes at a club on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and happily plays “Dancing Queen” to a Bride and Grooms family and friends at the weekends.
What Equipment to buy:
In almost all cases, you’ll need a mixer. This is the “main control panel” for a DJ, allowing the DJ to “cue-up” (preview in headphones) Record Decks, CD-Decks, Tape players, Mini-disc players, Laptop computers, karaoke video players, MP3 players etc. Using the headphones to “cue up” allows the DJ to find the starting position, and adjust volume levels of each music source, all before the audience hears it.
There are many, many different makes and models, hundreds in fact. However, a very fast way of splitting the mixer market into manageable numbers is to consider how many music sources you are likely to want to use to play music from. For example: If you have a great collection of CD’s already, but no vinyl records (LP’s) then you may only need to get vinyl record decks if you’re planning on being a club jock, where the current, but diminishing, favoured medium is still vinyl; with CD rapidly increasing in club DJ popularity.
The greatest enemy to a DJ, is silence. The way that a DJ always(cough) has another tune ready to play, just as the last tune is ending, is simply by having more than one music source, eg: 2 Record Decks, or two CD-decks, two karaoke players, or virtually any mixture of these sources, with a microphone required for almost all professional applications. Whilst the audience is listening (and hopefully dancing to) one source, you’re cueing up the other source in your headphones, ready to play.
Fairly new to the proving ground of professional DJ equipment is the use of laptops, which, with the right sound card, can serve as two music sources, playing sound files from the laptops harddrive. The two outputs of the soundcard feed into two different inputs on the mixer, just like two CD-decks.
You can instantly help yourself to narrow down the bewildering array of different mixers, by asking yourself how many inputs and channels you are likely to need. For example: If you only want to mix between two CD-decks then that’s two channels. If you’re likely to want to mix between several sources at once, such as 2 x records decks, 2 x CD-decks etc, then a four channel mixer will be ideal.
If you’re mainly going to be mixing between two sources, but with very occasional use of a third, or fourth source, it is common for most mixers to have twice as many inputs connectors as channels. This means that channel 1 on the mixer (the left most volume slider) will have a switch at the top, where you can choose whether that slider looks at Input #1 (your record deck), or input #2 (your CD-deck) on the back of the mixer. The mixers 2nd channel would also be switchable between input #3 (your second record deck), and input #4 (your second CD-deck). This type of mixer, would be called a 2 channel, 4 input mixer.
Be aware that if you’re looking at connecting record decks to a mixer, it must have dedicated Phono/Record deck inputs, which “listen” much, much more intently for the extremely quite signals output from a Record deck. Such signals are a tiny fraction of the signal level of CD-decks and other “line level” inputs, such as Mini-disc players, PC Soundcards, Tape decks, VCR’s etc. Most mixers have a selector switch beside two of the inputs to allow you to choose whether you’ll be connecting “Line Level” or “Phono”(record deck) sources to those particular inputs.
Channels, or inputs for microphones are often excluded from the Channel count on DJ mixers. So, if you know that you’re going to need a microphone, make sure that the mixer you opt for, has at least one. It’s rare, but there are some DJ mixers which do not have a mic input.
Mixers also come in different sizes, however there are some standard widths. The most common standard width for audio equipment is 19inch rack mount, these often give spacious layouts of the controls. Scratch DJ’s/Turntablists will often choose a 10inch wide mixer, sometimes referred to as a “Battle Mixer”, these (almost) half-width mixers mean that theres little gap between the record decks, allowing rapid hand movements between the mixer controls and both decks.
As with most pieces of equipment, as the price goes up, so too do the level of features. At the medium to higher end of the price tickets, you could find more and more of the following features:
Crossfader: A horizontal slider, which allows you to fade one music source up (in), as you fade the other music source down (out), but with just one flowing movement, rather than having to slide two channel faders in different directions. For turntablists/scratchers, the crossfader will often be subject to incredible stress, and may need to be replaced frequently, so a mixer boasting a “User replacable crossfader” can save you a lot of servicing costs.
Fader Start/ Crossfader Start: This allows the action of you moving the fader to start the music source that you’ve just cued up. It’s the same as pressing “Play” or “Start” but requires less hands. This feature requires that the music sources have suitable “fader start” sockets on them.
Equalisation: (Or EQ). This allows you to change the “tone” of the music. A 3 Band EQ, would offer “Bass”, “Midrange” and “Treble”, giving you control over the low notes, middle notes, and high notes in the music, respectively.
Meters: These displays, which are commonly a “Ladder” of lights show you visually the signal level of the music source which you are cueing. Getting the signal level of the next tune, to match the signal level of the tune which is playing, will ensure you don’t “blast’em out” when you start the next tune.
Kill Switches: These are simple controls, similar to equalisation controls, which allow the instant, temporary, removal of the Bass, Midrange, or Treble of a music source, at the push of a button.
Effects unit: Some mixers have an effects unit built in. These allow you to add echo, or other effects to the music. Some units offer “pitch/key change” which can be directed at a music source (Rick Astley sounds just like Kylie at +3, and vice versa at –3….I think they’re the same person!). A typical effect is “Flange” which gives a mild, rising and falling “whoosh” behind the music.
Send/Return loop: This refers to the mixer having a set of input/output connectors for linking up an external effects unit. The Sends allow the mixer to pass signals to the effect unit, the Return allows the effected sound to come back to the mixer from the effects unit.
Music Sources.
What equipment you choose to play your music from will depend on a number of criteria (and how big your piggy bank is, how generous your parents are, or how good you are in picking lottery numbers).
Until a few years ago, vinyl records were the only music medium considered by DJ’s. Before that time, other music equipment simply didn’t have the level of control over the playback of the music, which DJ’s required. For example: A DJ interested in mixing songs together so that the beats match, will need a music source that can be speeded up, or slowed down to match the beats of the music which is already playing. Also, to be able to cue up music with split second accuracy, a DJ needs to be able to slowly rewind, or “backcue” the music to just ahead of the beat that they wish to start playing from.
The only DJ situation which is slow to adopt the newest formats are nightclubs and club DJ’s. This is a slow predictive circle. The club DJ buys vinyl (if they can still find it) because the club(s) they paly at only has vinyl turntables. The Club manager isnt interested in buying new CD-decks because all the DJ’s at that club use vinyl. Anyone seen the Chicken? Where did this egg come from? Which arrived first?
DJ’s who havent got their hands (and formats) tied, are looking at more compact, more flexible, and more creative music options. There are DJ versions of players for most music mediums including, CD, Mini disc and even Cassette tape.
With the possible and partial exception of club DJ’s, for the reasons mentioned above, which music medium you choose will stem from the what sort of music collection you have already.
Unless you’re a DJ already, or over 25, you may not even have seen vinyl LP’s, 7inch or 12inch singles. Every “Now” album that Granny bought you for Christmas was no doubt, suspiciously CD-shaped, despite the layers of sticky tape she’d used to hide the fact that it was the same wrapping paper as last year.
However, lets pay vinyl our last respects and take a look at Record Decks first of all.
“Buy a Technics” people will tell you. “They last forever”, you’ll be informed. “They’re the industry standard”, you’ll get tired of hearing before long. All true comments…(with a little bit of creative license on the use of “Forever”. If you bought a pair of Technics SL1200 (silver) or SL-1210 (charcoal/black) today, they’d probably last 20 years… which if you believe everything that gets branded around, is 14 years longer than “new” vinyl production has left.
However, the good strong torque (the “pull” of its motor, effectively), good resistance to acoustic feedback (nasty deep humming noises caused by room/stage vibrations) and good “groove-holding” stability, is matched, and in some cases, surpassed by some of the other records decks still available.
There are two main ways of driving a record decks platter around; either Direct drive, or Belt drive. The former giving more torque and better audio stability, like tiny variations in speed, called “wow and flutter”. Torque can also be important to turntablist/Scratch DJ’s, who want to rapidly manipulate a record back and forth, without the platter slowing down underneath the record. If you’re planning on scratching on vinyl decks then “direct drive” is almost certainly a “must”.
To a much, much less important degree, the shape of the tone arm, that holds the stylus and cartridge, can allegedly have tiny benefits for different types of DJ’ing. There are the straight tone arms, or more commonly, the (very slightly) S-shaped tone arms.
S – Shaped Tone Arms: Better audio reproduction. Less wear of records.
Straight Tone Arms; Better stability whilst scratching.
Its worth noting that the legendary Technics SL1200/1210 has been used worldwide for over 20 years for scratching, and that has a S-shaped tone arm. Copper bracelets cure rheumatism, Aliens live amongst us, and there are differences between S-shaped and Straight Tone arms…all those are open to debate at a later stage, right after I refuel my Venus MK IV planet hopper.
CD-decks.
Gone are the days, thankfully, where CD-decks had all the same buttons as each other, just in a slightly different layout. Unlike the diminishing range of vinyl decks, new models of CD-deck are appearing regularly, with more and more DJ friendly features.
Two general formats/sizes are available. 19 inch wide rack mount, which often come in two pieces – a control panel, and a drawer unit; and also all-in-one “table-top” or “flat-bed” units, which vary widely in shape, size and weight. Prices vary considerably, as do the features. Here are some of the features that todays modern CD-decks can offer (dependant on model).
Anti-shock: If you’re DJ’ing on a hollow, bouncy stage, in a hollow bouncy village hall, you’ll appreciate having a few seconds of Anti-shock buffer. This feature means that the CD’s playback wont be interrupted by anything other than a truly massive knock, or long-term vibration.
Frame-Accurate cueing: Every second of CD music is divided in 75 “frames”. A CD-deck with Frame Accurate Cueing, will allow you to cue the track to a very precise point.
Instant start: Just what it says on the tin…When you press “Play” the music starts straight away.
Seamless Loop: One of the newer tools of the DJ. This allows you to set a beginning point, and an end point within a CD-track, that will play to the end of the loop, and then, without gap or interruption, start playing from the beginning of the loop again, until you tell it not to. - At which point the track carries on playing from the end of loop as if nothing had happened (unlike a looping sampler, which just stops!). Great for lengthening intro’s of the Bride and Grooms “first dance” when you announce them, and they’re nowhere to be seen. Also great for turning any ordinary version of a song, into the extended version. Yes, you could have them “Dance the night away…” all night….. (Pssst: don’t do it with “Lets twist again”, unless you’ve got spare pacemaker batteries with you.)
Seamless Splice: For removing unwanted sections of song. Great for when a good song has one verse that lets it down eg: Swearing. Also perfect for using at the end of the night, when you’ve got 3 minutes left before the venue owner rips your mains plugs out of the wall, but a 4 minute song to finish with…again, just by setting a beginning point, and an end point, the section is simply ignored by the CD-deck.
Memo points: These allow you to store all those start points and end points for your seamless loops, seamless splices, cue points (starting points) etc. The next time you put the same CD in the cd-deck, and chose the same track. You’ll be ask if you want to load in the memo points that you set previously for that track, even if it was hours, days, or months ago. Saves you setting the same points up manually each time.
Key Lock: This prevents the vocals on a track sounding like Darth Vader, or Mickey Mouse, when you slow down, or speed up a track.
Alpha Track: Some CD-decks allow you to mix two different tracks off of the same CD, into different inputs/channels of your mixer – just like having two copies of every CD in your collection.
Laptops: Whilst DJ’ing with a laptop is still in its infancy, several DJ programs are available. Whilst their features vary from program to program. Certain key benefits of DJ’ing with a laptop remain true regardless the software used.
A laptop stores all of your music on its hard drive. This means that you can have a sizable collection of varied music, without carrying heavy, bulky CD or Record cases around with you. Similarly, you wont have to manually search 10 carry cases, squinting through the semi-darkness, looking for that copy of “James: Sit Down” that you just “Know is in here somewhere”. A couple of double-clicks later, you can be cueing the track up.
Whilst any record deck, microphone, or CD-deck can fail, leaving you to limp through ‘til midnight with a slightly slower “flow” between tunes, a laptop failure is something which could leave you with a lot of explaining to do in front of a bride and groom. So, its worth while taking precautions. Such as:
1 Only install Windows, and the DJ software on the laptop – never Games, or Internet packages.
2 Take regular backups of the music data on the drive to an external drive.
3 Consider taking the back up hard drive with you to gigs.
4 Have your original CD’s nearby, with CD-decks to play them on.
Of course, if funds allow, you could consider using a 2nd laptop to accomplish points 2,3 and 4, using it to mirror your music collection, but also acting as an instantly available backup which you can pull out and boot up in the event of system problems on Laptop #1.
However, whilst copying one of your existing CD’s onto the harddrive of your main laptop may well be legally “grey”. Copying the CD onto two different places, would surely be grey-er, than even Visage could fade to.
Amplifiers. “You wont hear anything without an amp, Granddad!” says Rowen Atkinson in the “Hi-fi shop sketch”, from a well known 80’s comedy show went. Indeed, they were right.
Your mixer will only send out a tiny signal from its outputs, typically between 775 Millivolts, and 1000millivolts (that’s 1 whole volt then). Some mixers can output 1100millivolts, or 1.1volts though, so be aware of such variances, as they can overload (clip) the amp and potentially damage the speakers that are connected to the amp to.
Whilst the most important figure of an amplifier could be argued to be its “Wattage” output. It’s also very important to note what impedance (the “load” measured in Ohms) the wattage figure relates to.
The Impedance, or Ohms that your amplifier will have to drive is determined by the number of speakers that you attach to each channel (left channel and right channel = stereo). Most speakers are rated at 8 ohms. If you link two 8 ohm speakers together, and then link one of those speakers to the amplifier, the amplifier will “see” the load increased to 4 Ohms. An amplifier has to work a lot harder to drive 2 ohms, than it does 4 ohms, or 8 ohms. Some amplifiers simply wont be able to make it ‘til midnight if loaded down to 4ohms, and fewer still behave long-term with a 2 ohm loading.
For example: “1000 watt amp - - - available for only £xxx.xx.” This simply doesn’t tell you enough, as the impedance isnt listed. An amp capable of producing 1000watts into 4 ohms per side will only offer around 500 watts if connected to an 8ohm speaker per side. Similarly the same amp could possibly be 1000 watts into 2 ohms, meaning only 500watts per side into 4 ohms, and only 250watts (roughly) per side at 8 ohms.
Consider too…What Watt is what? Amplifiers and speaker are frequently advertised in several differing measurements including: Total Power, Max Power, RMS (Root Mean Square), and the real joker, PMPO (Peak Momentary Performance Output), which is the maximum power in watts under perfect conditions that are impossible to achieve in practical use. No sound system can sustain its PMPO for more than a few milliseconds without being destroyed. With this in mind its best to look into RMS values when looking at Amplifiers and Speakers.
For the average village hall, hotel function room etc, it is generally considered that an amplifier capable of delivering 200 to 300 watts (RMS) per channel into 8 ohms, would be a good size to start with.
Speakers
The simplest type of speaker is a “Full range”. This means that the speaker handles the full range of sounds, including Bass, Midrange and Treble. Looking into the specifications of a Full range speaker, it may be described as 2-way, 3-way, or occasionally 4-way, which refers to how many speaker drivers, or cones, are inside the speaker, creating the sound.
For example: If you took the front grill off of a 3 way speaker, you would expect to see 3 distinct speaker drivers: A Bass driver (or “Woofer”) to produce the deep, low frequencies, a midrange driver, and a 3rd (often unusually shaped) driver (or “Tweeter”) producing the top-end, or high frequencies). Similarly, a 2-way speaker will commonly have a multi-purpose driver handling both the Bass and midrange, together with a separate tweeter, again handling the top-end.
A 2-way, 3-way, or 4-way cabinet will have a device inside, known as a passive crossover, which takes the hundreds of watts of power from your amplifier and diverts the bass part of the signal to the woofer, the high frequencies off to the Tweeter/horn etc.
An alternative to “Full range” speakers, is where a whole speaker cabinet is dedicated to producing just one specific frequency, such as a Bass Cabinet for lows, or a Horn cabinet for highs. A practical example of this would be that a Disco may have 3 speakers each side of their set-up. A Bass speaker on the floor, A midrange speaker on top of that, and a top-end speaker on top of the midrange speaker, Such set-ups can often get large enough to impress the guys that put up Stonehenge.
Where separate (frequencies) speakers are used then a device known as an Active crossover is used to split the sound into bass, midrange and high frequencies. Unlike the Passive crossover mentioned above, the active crossover does not deal with the hundreds of watts coming from your amplifier. Instead an Active Crossover connects to the output from your mixer, and splits the sound into different amplifiers. EG: In a 2-way crossover system, you would have the active crossover sending bass frequencies to an amplifier for Bass, and sending all other frequencies to a different amplifier.
There is also an alternative to separate speakers and amps, which can help to cut down on the size and number of items being carried. Active Speakers are simply a speaker with their own amplifier built-in, allowing you to connect the outputs from the back of your mixer, directly to the back of the Active Speaker. A mains lead to power the speaker is also required. The few active speaker models that are available tend to be either 2, or 3-way speakers, and generally sound as good as separates.
Disadvantages of active speakers are that they can weigh more than a similarly sized passive (ordinary) speaker, due to the additional weight of the amplifier within. Obviously with a passive speaker, you can lift the speaker on its own, which could be a key factor if you’re intending to do a lot of gigs with poor access eg: Stairs, or if you’re looking to place the speakers on stands or tri-pods single-handedly. For transportation however, the weight of an ordinary passive speaker, and an ordinary amplifier can be more (when added together) than that of an Active Speaker, since a separate amp would need its own sturdy casing, which an amp within an active speaker does not.
Also, as with any combined product, there’s the “lose one, lose both” aspect. If your Active speaker gets accidentally knocked off of its tripod, by some alcohol-filled wannabe can-can dancer, or dropped on its way down the fire escape steps to the van, both your amplifier and speaker could get damaged at the same time.. Also, the expansion capabilities of active speakers can often be less straightforward than with passive speakers and separate amplifiers, when you feel its time to expand your show.
Lighting
Whilst its been said, over the years, that a good DJ could do a disco with 4 Candles and an Amstrad. Theres a good chance that the audience might not think so. Indeed, the audience is probably the best thing to consider as you think about lighting. After all, it’s the audience that we’re hoping will benefit from the atmosphere created by our lighting; not “the DJ down the road”, in some “we’ve got more than you” game. Also consider this; Will the audience really notice the difference between this £700 lighting effect, and this £200 lighting effect?.
I’ve often heard lighting being “broken down” into two types: Lighting that shines onto, or into the audience, and then also lighting which the audience looks directly at. Lets look at the second one for a moment. Picture this: You’re at a function, as a guest. Sitting at a table, or standing at the bar (who’s for option 2 then?). You look over to the disco? Something that looks like a table, with some overhead scaffolding, with a few small boring black metal boxes (with a bit of a glow at one end) hanging from it, and wait, is that a dark silhouette of a man moving behind it? You think that there might be some patterns on the dancefloor, but you cant see that with all the other tables in the way. Apart from hearing that the music was coming from that end of the room, you’d almost be forgiven for not knowing that it was a disco set up over there at all.
Whilst light screens are considered by some to be “old-hat”, they certainly gave the audience something to focus on; something that said “The Disco is over here”.
Rather than two types of lighting, consider three distinct “parts” of the night:
§ Ambient lighting. Unless your doing a School Disco, or kids party, where the whole audience runs to the dancefloor the moment they finally manage to surge through the sports hall doors, people will generally arrive at a function at slightly different times, chat, take their coats off, get drinks. In fact, they’ll do almost anything but dance. For these times, some ambient lighting for the audience to look at is great. Slow colour changers/washers, or a rippling aqua/water effect projecting at the walls around the disco end of the room, an ultraviolet tube, a illuminated disco name light or moving message board… All or any of these ambient effects can take away the “industrial” look that your poles, stands, and metal boxes give off, and help to get the audience in the mood that the halls own bright white fluorescent lighting wont. This lighting is equally suited to keeping the mood during the “noshing” part of Dinner Dances, a buffet, trophy presentations, speeches, etc.
§ Normal dancing: You like to party, I like to party, everybody does…(I feel a song coming on…) unless someones made a huge mistake by booking a disco for the over 90’s Undertakers Reunion, at some point people are going to make their way onto your dancefloor, and Boogie, groove, or headbang along to the music until their mates tell them that their armpits are leaking too badly. Of course, its down to you, or your roadie, in-between magic tricks (“Watch me make this pint disappear”) to give them some exciting, colourful lights to dance under, or near to. There are hundreds of lights to consider for this situation, including simple “bare bulb” spotlights, floodspots (or Par cans), and dozens and dozens of projected effects such as moonflowers, mirrored scanners, and even moving head units.
§ Slow dances: The smooth vocals of some sultry, slinky songstress, couples on your dancefloor doing the “turn-around-slowly-while-cuddling-with-your-eyes-shut” dance is wonderful, makes you feel all warm and gooey in the tummy (or possibly lower, but we wont go there…). However, having the same rapidly flashing, strobing, spinning, whirling, psychedelic lights running that you used for the last few Trance/Techno tunes … isnt really helping the mood. Slow, gentle lighting such as a mirror ball with coloured spotlights pointing at it, or an Ultra Violet tube are ideal for such parts of the evening.
If you’re building up your lighting from nothing, then its obviously best to concentrate on lighting for normal dancing first, as hopefully this will be the dominant (ooh err!) part of the evening. Once you’ve got a variety (2 or 3 units) of lighting that covers you for normal dancing, then consider adding lighting for the Slow, and/or Ambient styles. (some of which will work for both situations).
However, if your initial budget will stretch. You could find a single, but expandable lighting solution, which could be tailored for every part of the evening, thanks to giving you complete control over all your lighting. That solution, is a control system called DMX.
Many types of lighting effects, from many different manufacturers are available with a DMX socket on them. This means that you will be able to link a DMX unit to a controller, and other DMX compatible units and control almost every aspect of the lighting effect.
The number of features on a lighting effect that you can control are referred to by the number of DMX Channels that are needed for that unit. For example: A “Scanner effect” might offer a colour wheel with 10 different colours, a gobo/pattern wheel with 10 different designs on it, a mirror that can pan left and right, as well as tilt up and down, you may also be able to dim the brightness of the bulb. Such a unit would require 5 DMX channels, for Colour, Gobo design, Pan angle, Tilt Angle, and finally Brightness.
A simple row of 12 lightbulbs (connected via a suitable DMX Dimmer pack) would require 12 DMX channels – with each channel controlling the brightness (from OFF to FULL) of each bulb.
Using a DMX controller, you could easily set a program which would allow you to use DMX lighting set to move, change colour, direction, patterns and colours very rapidly for your normal dance music, but in total contrast, move with slow, subtle grace during your slow dances.
Finally, if you’ve just selected and bought your entire disco set up and are eagerly awaiting your first gig, don’t leave anything to chance - Set the whole rig up in your garage, or lounge. This way you know that you’ve got every thing that you need.
The alternative could be that you set everything up perfectly at your first ever gig, only to find that the nearest wall sockets are 2ft further away than you can get to…you normally find out these things 2 minutes after the last suitable shop closes for the day.
More information on all aspects of DJ'ing can be found at:- http://www.dj-forum.co.uk
Recommended Disco Equipment Retailers
Thomann Sound & Lighting - Well respected and reliable disco equipment mail order supplier with very competitive & realistic prices!
DJ Superstore - Massive Online DJ Superstore - Lowest Prices!
DJ Bargains - Great Deals and Low Prices on Disco Equipment
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This site is here to help you find the perfect MobileDisco, DJ for your party. Please also come and visit our Mobile Disco Forum
Whether you are planning a small family gathering or a large event. Whether you are looking to hire a DJ for a work party, school disco or a good entertainer for your wedding reception or corporate event. We aim to help you find the perfect mobile disco.
The mobile disco's and independent DJ's advertising on the Disco Directory cover a wide range of musical tastes, a wide varieties of functions and an even wider range of areas. If you're looking for a karaoke, a themed party, a 70's disco you should find your perfect disco within our site . If you're a site owner please submit your site or submit articlesto the appropriate category.