My VERY minimalist setup from yesterday.

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DJ Bobcat said:
Yeah... I've seen videos where guys are running a Bose Compact off a Duracell 600 battery pack, and they say it will last about 2 hours. That's enough time for a ceremony, but not for a party.
What battery pack do you use, and I wonder how long it might power one of my Alto TS112W Bluetooth speakers? That would make a great ceremony system. It has a mic input.
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I thought seriously about one of those Duracell units but the amp-hour rating isn't as high as a straight marine battery/inverter rig. I've often used an EV ZXa1 with wireless, mixer and laptop and it averages a 100-150 watt draw on power. I have no idea how long it would last as I've never tried draining it. As for "what battery pack", as I said, a simple marine (deep cell) battery from walmart. If you need to extend the runtime, just parallel more batteries into the mix. KISS applies.

EverStart Marine Battery, Group Size 27DC - Walmart.com
 
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Papa Deuce said:
Was my father in law's 90th birthday party yesterday. I had to pretend not to be a professional DJ because I didn't carry enough insurance for the place. I have a 1M policy and they wanted a 2M policy for a company to DJ there. So we just told them that I was the son in law who was just a hobbyist, and they were fine with that...... ( sounds like backwards thinking to me, but hey... ) But they said that for someone to DJ as a non professional, gear must be kept to an absolute minimum.
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Truly unfortunate that the world has come to this. In 1591, Shakespeare's Henry VI has an often miss-quoted line (because it is used out of context) were he was actually defending lawyers. Additionally, I'll be the first to acknowledge the fact that without lawyers we'd all be dead from putting plastic bags over our heads (due to the absent warning label). None the less, I much prefer the wrong interpretation, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers".
 
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Handinon said:
..."The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers".
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LOL... And yet, we continue to ELECT lawyers as our representatives in Congress, so they can make MORE laws that only a lawyer can understand. Wouldn't it make more sense if we elected regular people who have regular jobs, and have more in common with the general population?[emoji4]
Don't get me wrong, I have many friends who happen to be lawyers. However, there are a disproportionate number of them holding elected office.
 
BryanK said:
Would the Denon Envoi be suitable for a <60 person wedding ceremony outdoors do you think??
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That is NOT enough to cleanly project any sound outdoors! imo even the wind and birds chirping can put out a pretty substantial amount of NOISE!

It is amazing on how you can put together a setup in you house or back porch or shop, and think "that is all that i need" then you get to the site and there is 40db of traffic and people talking and wind through the trees and a breeze flowing away from the projection area! Then you find out it is not enough!

when your underpowered and driver challenged,,,,it is only going to get worse as the night goes on! Whenever i set up a sound system ANYTIME that is !!!! I dont not want any sap sucking squid in the audience to say or even think to himself..... I COULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB! with my Pioneer and my home speakers!


Here is my experience with this matter.


I was asked by my daughter and the high school soccer team to play some music at a game,,,,, so NOT getting paid!!!! i thought i will just put together one amp 100X2 and some small 8 inch tops connected to my iphone only! SOUNDED great at the house!!!!!!! plenty of volume i thought!!!!

WRONG WRONG ,,,,,,, the night sucked, my sound sucked, and i sucked, my daughter got 2 different comments, about how they thought that your dad was a DJ,,,,,, I was not asked to play another game! some other father (not a dj) went and bought 2 powered 15's 2 tripods and a mixer and a computer and TRUMPED me!
BOTTOM line is,,,, at that show I hurt myself on any potential customers! and worse ,,,, now there is another jacka$$ with 2 powered speakers calling himself a DJ now!
 
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Don't ever bring the minimum based on the price your getting paid!

Stop thinking about the Minimum! If your a professional MMA fighter,,,, don't get beat up in the street by a little girl.
 
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DJKLEEN said:
Here is my experience with this matter.


I was asked by my daughter and the high school soccer team to play some music at a game,,,,, so NOT getting paid!!!! i thought i will just put together one amp 100X2 and some small 8 inch tops connected to my iphone only! SOUNDED great at the house!!!!!!! plenty of volume i thought!!!!

WRONG WRONG ,,,,,,, the night sucked, my sound sucked, and i sucked, my daughter got 2 different comments, about how they thought that your dad was a DJ,,,,,, I was not asked to play another game! some other father (not a dj) went and bought 2 powered 15's 2 tripods and a mixer and a computer and TRUMPED me!
BOTTOM line is,,,, at that show I hurt myself on any potential customers! and worse ,,,, now there is another jacka$$ with 2 powered speakers calling himself a DJ now!
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Kudos to you for your transparency. Not just everyone would be brave enough to put themselves out there like that on a DJ forum. I also agree with you, and used to do a lot of sound projects at an elementary school where my wife was teaching. I always made sure I had plenty of sound and treated each event as a paid gig (even though I never took a dime for any of them).
 
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DJKLEEN said:
That is NOT enough to cleanly project any sound outdoors! imo even the wind and birds chirping can put out a pretty substantial amount of NOISE!

It is amazing on how you can put together a setup in you house or back porch or shop, and think "that is all that i need" then you get to the site and there is 40db of traffic and people talking and wind through the trees and a breeze flowing away from the projection area! Then you find out it is not enough!

when your underpowered and driver challenged,,,,it is only going to get worse as the night goes on! Whenever i set up a sound system ANYTIME that is !!!! I dont not want any sap sucking squid in the audience to say or even think to himself..... I COULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB! with my Pioneer and my home speakers!


Here is my experience with this matter.


I was asked by my daughter and the high school soccer team to play some music at a game,,,,, so NOT getting paid!!!! i thought i will just put together one amp 100X2 and some small 8 inch tops connected to my iphone only! SOUNDED great at the house!!!!!!! plenty of volume i thought!!!!

WRONG WRONG ,,,,,,, the night sucked, my sound sucked, and i sucked, my daughter got 2 different comments, about how they thought that your dad was a DJ,,,,,, I was not asked to play another game! some other father (not a dj) went and bought 2 powered 15's 2 tripods and a mixer and a computer and TRUMPED me!
BOTTOM line is,,,, at that show I hurt myself on any potential customers! and worse ,,,, now there is another jacka$$ with 2 powered speakers calling himself a DJ now!
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Moral of the story. Don't do freebies. If you do decide to do a "free event" Set up exactly as if you were being paid nicely to do a 150 person wedding.

...I personally don't do freebies...NONE...NADA. My time is valuable to me. If it is a charity I support, I would rather make a donation than spend my day or even 1/2 the day working the gig.

Free gigs lead to more free gigs. It's never worth it to do them if the purpose of doing them is to hopefully obtain more work out of doing the gig via exposure. It's also not worth doing them and doing the bare minimal, and chillax and do a half ass job either.
 
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Good advice, thanks! The only reason I'm persistent with attempting to "minimize" my ceremony set up, is that I only have 2 tops and a sub. I know, I know, where's my backup rig? Well, I can't afford it, so I don't have it. I'm looking for a simple set up for ceremonies where I don't have to keep breaking down and moving my gear over and over again.

Eventually I will have a doggone trailer with 3 rigs (part of my master plan, ceremony setup, reception setup, and backup rig/multiple room placements) :) Until then, I've switched to setting up one top, the sub, lighting in the reception area (no music being played since no one is there), and using one active/powered speaker with wireless mics as the ceremony accompaniment. This way, I only have to move one stand/speaker back to the reception area and plug in 2 cords to minimize dwell time between the cer/rec.

As ghetto as that seems, it's been working until I can get my profits up enough to cover what I already have invested, plus invest in newer/multiple rigs. The clients haven't mentioned anything negative about this setup, and I tell them at consultation that I only have what I have, so this is what I have to do. They understand, and for the price I charge, it's more than fair IMHO. Of course, as with everything, YMMV. Thanks again for the tips though so at least I don't sink any money into an inferior setup.
 
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As I said earlier it could be used for a small ceremony. But for me this would be a ocean or mountain ceremony were power is not an option. Would it be a setup that I would use for a ceremony as a normal system? My answer would be no, like all things these are tools and all have limited uses. I have done a couple ceremonies were this would have worked well. With the included mic system which works decently. I use this for a rehearsal system which it works perfect or just putting a speaker somewhere with no power but someone wanted music.
 
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BryanK said:
Good advice, thanks! The only reason I'm persistent with attempting to "minimize" my ceremony set up, is that I only have 2 tops and a sub. I know, I know, where's my backup rig? Well, I can't afford it, so I don't have it. I'm looking for a simple set up for ceremonies where I don't have to keep breaking down and moving my gear over and over again.

Eventually I will have a doggone trailer with 3 rigs (part of my master plan, ceremony setup, reception setup, and backup rig/multiple room placements) :) Until then, I've switched to setting up one top, the sub, lighting in the reception area (no music being played since no one is there), and using one active/powered speaker with wireless mics as the ceremony accompaniment. This way, I only have to move one stand/speaker back to the reception area and plug in 2 cords to minimize dwell time between the cer/rec.

As ghetto as that seems, it's been working until I can get my profits up enough to cover what I already have invested, plus invest in newer/multiple rigs. The clients haven't mentioned anything negative about this setup, and I tell them at consultation that I only have what I have, so this is what I have to do. They understand, and for the price I charge, it's more than fair IMHO. Of course, as with everything, YMMV. Thanks again for the tips though so at least I don't sink any money into an inferior setup.
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It's not ghetto, I happen to think yours is a perfectly reasonable approach. Kudos to you for having goals and making plans for expansion in the future.
 
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I have a pretty good little setup I can use if I need something more portable, but it kinda just evolved. Originally, I bought my Alto TS-112W's because they were on sale for the same price as the TS-112A's. The W's have built-in Bluetooth, though. I found the 12" speakers to be too much for my 15" subs, so I've been using TS-110A's, and my system sounds pretty nice. If I was going to do a venue with just two tops, the 10's would be too small and lack bass, but I'd probably use my 15" JBL's rather than the TS-112W's, so the TS-112W's are not getting much use.
However, I can use my Surface Pro with one or both of the TS-112Ws to provide a very portable sound system. It has two inputs, so hooking up a mic is not a problem.

Then, I purchased a pair of these...
51FiOaFqhYL._SL1000_.jpg
Amazon.com: 2-In-1 Wireless Bluetooth Audio receiver & Transmitter/Stereo Output /Just need connect to 3.5mm AUX cord on the TV ,Speaker,PC, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Tablets , MP3 Player Or Car: MP3 Players & Accessories
... and I'm currently using them to connect my main (home) stereo system to another system I use to play music to some outdoor speakers (mounted in the eaves by the pool). I have been using a (2.4GHZ) wireless transmitter between the systems for a few years, but would often get some hiss or other noise from interference on that band. With the Bluetooth there is no noise that I can detect, and it sounds just as good to me as the speakers hooked up to my main system, so no noticeable loss of sound quality that I can detect.

I think I could use these things to hook up my primary DJ rig if I wanted to. I don't know if I'll ever do it, but it might work if I was in a place where running XLR cables was a problem.
The only down side I can see with these Bluetooth devices is they are USB rechargeable, but they can't be used while charging, so I have to unplug the USB cable before they'll connect... kind of a pain.[emoji1] However, they seem to go quite a long time on a full charge. I've run them for 3 hours with no problem. I have no idea how long they'd last beyond that. I'll find out this weekend, perhaps, as I'm hosting a Mother's Day event and we'll be playing music out back all afternoon.
 
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I just don't trust blue tooth enough yet to use it at a gig. I have a Bluetooth receiver that plugs into my compact. I've used it for my backyard. Works fine. But it has disconnected a few times.

It's been rare, and very well could be th unit. I just don't need it enough to trouble shoot to find out. Computer or tablet with a cable works fine.
 
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Scott Hanna said:
I just don't trust blue tooth enough yet to use it at a gig. I have a Bluetooth receiver that plugs into my compact. I've used it for my backyard. Works fine. But it has disconnected a few times...
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Yeh... I'm with ya. That's why I'm testing it out here at home. I haven't used it enough to risk using it professionally, but we'll see how it tests out this summer. My Bluetooth speakers are pretty rock solid though. I've never used the Bluetooth capability at a gig, but I use them at home when I'm practicing for hours at a time, and they've never cut out; not even once. I'd use them at a ceremony and never consider it much of a risk.
 
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