A rave night, and notes on PA hire
On YouTube this video is called Gig log.6.6.2008 and tips on PA hire, Rave night
What this lesson teaches
A night with no DJing in it at all: two PA hires, which is a side of the business the rest of this stage barely mentions.
Job one: a fortieth with a band and a music player
The client has a band and does not want a DJ - they will plug a music player in between sets. So he supplies tripods, speakers, an amp, a mixer and a lead, and leaves.
And his comment on that is the right professional attitude: there you go, it's up to them. A hire is a hire. You are not there to argue with the client about what sort of night they should have.
The idiot-proofing - the best thing in this course
Here is the genuinely clever part, and it is a method anybody hiring out equipment should copy.
He sets the system up and tests it with a source plugged in, setting the level to as loud as they will ever need it to go.
Then he looks at the mixer and realises what it looks like to somebody who has never seen one: a panel of thirty controls, all of them capable of making the sound stop.
So he gets out the tape and covers every control except the one dial they need.
His explanation: somebody who has never touched any of this will look at a mixer and think oh my god. Faced with a panel of tape and one exposed knob, they think right, that must be the one I'm allowed to touch - and they are correct. Up for louder, down for quieter. They will see the lead and know it goes into the player.
He admits it looks absolutely ridiculous. It is also the single most effective piece of equipment design in the whole catalogue: you cannot explain a mixer to a stranger in two minutes, but you can remove everything they do not need.
And the amplifier goes out of reach
The second half of the same idea: the amp is behind a curtain, where nobody can get at the volume controls.
He has already set it so the system will go satisfyingly loud, but cannot be pushed too hard. So the ceiling is fixed by him, in advance, and the only variable left to the client is the one dial.
That is how you protect hired equipment: not with instructions, which nobody follows, but by removing the ability to get it wrong.
And why - the band scenario
He explains the thinking plainly. If he set speakers on tripods and left, the band might move everything - and then the people who hired it would have no idea how to put it back.
So the layout is also part of the idiot-proofing: speakers up high and out of the way on a balcony, the mixer secured with cable ties, nothing in the band's path.
Job two: a bigger system for a rugby club
The second hire, with a larger rig, a monitor, a smoke machine and effects.
And one further protection worth noting: he has a compressor in the rack, set so that if the users push it into the red it will not damage anything. The amp has limiters of its own, but as he says - just in case.
Same philosophy, one layer deeper. The equipment is going out unsupervised, so every safeguard it can carry, it carries.
And the rest of the night
Pizza, a bicycle ride round town without lights (don't try it at home), picking the kit up at two, home at three - with another wedding that night.
Which is the other half of what PA hire is: income from equipment that is otherwise sitting still, and a lot of driving.
Contents of the video
0:00 I've got two functions on tonight, but they're both actual PA hire
Hi folks, another gig log for you. I've got two functions on tonight, but they're both actual PA hire. One of them is in the Marine Hotel in Aberystwyth and it's a 40th birthday party. They've got a band on and they didn't want to DJ so they're going to have an iPod. There you go, it's up to them. So what I'm doing there is I'm supplying them with... A couple of tripods, some speakers, an amp, a mixer and a lead. And that's it. And they're going to plug their iPod in and have a rocking good night. Okay, and then the other one should be a little bit more interesting. I'm again supplying some PA system, but slightly bigger PA system for... It's a bit of a ravey night, I think. And that's in the Rugby Club in Aberystwyth. And that should be quite good fun.
So expect lots of loud noise very shortly. And we've got the lasers as well, and we've got a T-bar, we've got, well, what's happening really? And during the course of all this I'm going to go and have a pizza, so excuse me a minute. Right, I'm almost there, I just thought I'd actually add to this particular video, just to let you know it's the beginning, I've got to put dates down so you know where you stand, it's the beginning of June 2008. And it's a bit to do with mobile phones, it's got a lot to do with music. And basically what's happening is I'm sort of working with them and there's going to be a competition where a DJ can, or anyone for that matter really, but I suppose mainly DJs can go on and you can mix some tunes however you want. You can add sound effects and goodness knows what.
And then you can have your own mix on your phone. Now that is pretty awesome. That is pretty cool, so a little bit more of an insight into something I was on about in one of my previous videos. But hold tight with me here. Right, here we go. I'm actually at the event now. This is the Marine Hotel. And right, what I've done is I've worked on the principle of the idiot scenario. And that is... How can I put it? Well... Right, I'm not saying the band are idiots but if I'd have set my speakers up say one there and one there on tripods and then gone away, the band may have come along and just moved everything and then of course the people organising the event wouldn't know how to set the gear up. So what I've done is I've got the speakers up there, there's one over there, one on the other side on the balcony, now I've got the mixer there, it looks a bit precarious but
3:00 Up for louder, down for quieter
It's attached with my famous good old tie clips. What I'm going to do now is I've got the pacemaker there ready to test it on channel 3. Now in a sense that's probably as loud as they'll need it to go. They're also again idiot proof, alright? Now, I'm going to explain to them this is the only actual dial they need to touch. Up for louder, down for quieter. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to put some tape over this here because you never know, someone could accidentally do that and then they wouldn't know what the problem was. If I tape over that, and in fact I could probably just put tape over virtually everything, a little bit of tape. So in other words, someone coming in would think, right, there's tape over everything except that one. Maybe that's the only one I've got to mess around with. So I'll do that for you now, hold on. Right, there you go, I've done it. Now that looks absolutely ridiculous, I know. But when you're dealing with people who have never seen a DJ mixer in their entire lives, they'd probably look at all those buttons and go, oh my god.
But, someone now coming along who has not got the foggiest will look at that and they'll think, right, okay, they'll probably touch that. And they'll go, yeah, that's fine. They'll see this lead and they'll know that goes into the back of the iPod. So there you go. We're dealing now. What I'm trying to do is make it very easy for someone who's never ever touched any bit of kit before. Now notice as well, the amplifier is actually behind that curtain so it's out of reach. So no one can mess with the volume controls. What I've done, I've set this now so it will go very loud but theoretically they won't be able to push it too hard. Tell you what, I'd love a go on one of them.
4:38 Here we are, Ambrose Swift Rugby Club
Here we are, Ambrose Swift Rugby Club. It's quite funny actually, wherever I go someone parks that bloody dodgy van outside the place. Right, it looks a little bit messy but I know exactly where everything is. We've got the amp underneath there, hopefully they'll put something in front of the table. And I've got a... I think that's a compressor right at the top there. So what I can do is I can set that so it'll just stop people, I suppose if they do go into the red it's not going to start knackering things. The actual amp's got limiters on it anyway but you know, just in case. Got the cables there ready. Go into the mixer, got a smoke machine there, speaker, monitor, light up there, couple of lasers, there we go. Alright folks, in the background, bit of hip hop. Still at the rugby club, I've got some pizza on the go there if you can see it. I've just had a munch and later on what I'll do, I'll...
Jump on the bicycle and we'll have a little whizz around Aberystwyth. Naughty me though, because I haven't got any bloody lights on my bike, but don't try it at home. We're going to have a whiz with all the people as well here, and she'll speak to you in a minute. Managed to pick up the kit. Result? All was wide open, got in, everyone's still drinking, and I got the kit, so on the way back now. This is the seafront by the way, and the people standing over there are waiting to go into the bay of... Hotel, they've got quite a good function room in there and are they waiting? No, they're just chatting. Mind you I think a lot of the students have actually gone home now, it's that time of year but generally on a night like tonight at this time there'd be a crowd of people waiting to get in so I'm going to go home now, thank goodness. It's coming on for three o'clock in the morning and I've got another function tomorrow night.
Well, not tonight now actually, a wedding in Aburaira. Practice and enjoy.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
This video is part of
Related videos
-
How to Get a Better Fee for Your Mobile DJ Services
He disclaims it as not financial advice and notes that everything depends on where you are. Taken as a checklist of what justifies a higher…
