3rd option: put the speaker on the tripod first, while it's still in a relatively low position, then grab the pole with one hand, hold it close to your shoulder and extend the tripod while holding the lower part of the tripod down with your other hand. While lifting the speaker with one hand might seem much harder than lifting it with two hands, because you can hold it close to your shoulder, it's actually not harder than lifting it overhead with two hands. And you can lift it higher this way.
Seriously great info Rick. Too many DJ's around here laughed at me for having the speakers so high and would always question me on it. On the flip side I always get compliments from the elderly saying the music and speeches were at a perfect level for them. Once the dance starts and you turn the speakers into the floor guests that want the music will gravitate to it. You even taught me about the 8ft rule, so thank you sir.
Sick videos man, my buddy has been DJing for a year now and i started with him a couple months ago. I have always been a tech geek and I must say I am hooked! Me and my buddy decided to go on our own and we are getting all new equipment. Your videos are my GOTO. Love it bud, keep it up!
8:30 Great you pointed this out. So many people are not aware of this and it's very important, especially for subwoofers. I always place subs within 2.5 feet or more than 8 feet from a wall, never in between, as that can cause cancellations.
Rick for a young man your very knowledgeable. I've learned lots, and for an old boy that's good. Knowledge is power, and if you think you know it all.... take up golf. 🤣🤣
Great tutorial /advice Rick, simple quick easy to easy understand with the diagrams/demos. What I do for the long rooms sometimes is use a wireless satellite speaker.
+WeddingDJBusiness that is also a very great option to do with long rooms if you have the ability to do it. Or even tap into the house system if they have one that sounds good
Dear DJ Rick, Great vid, lotsa tips for a musician DJing for schools. I always setup in a long skinny gym, actually half the whole gym. There's a partition in between. I've been setting up at the long end, not in the middle of the width. Your tip makes great sense! I'm doing the annual Halloween Dance tomorrow all day. I'm gonna try your tip about setting up width wise to see of it makes a difference after all these years. It does make sense, though. Cover the shortest distance. I always get the tops up above the heads of the crowd for better coverage and have been corner loading my little subwoofer. Your way should be very different for sure. Gonna be fun, in a good way to try it! Thanks for the excellent advice!
Hi DJ Shukes from pandemonium disco in my experience when I am booked for gigs in sports hall they erect internal gazebo so acoustics are improved excellent topics Rick Webb
Great vid - love this channel! I do want to say adding a third speaker to a two speaker set up will add a little bit of volume (approximately 1.76 db). The reason is because dB is a logarithmic scale. Doubling the speakers (assuming they are all at the same volume) will add about 3 db to the set up, but you can figure out how many dB's the additional speaker add by taking 10log(b/a), where "a" is the number of speakers you had in your initial set up, and "b" is the number of speakers in your new set up. So in this case if you go from 2 speakers to 3, you take 10log(3/2) which is right around 1.76 dB. If you go from 1 to 2 you take 10log(2/1), or just 10log(2) and that gets you right around 3 dB (This is log base 10, not the natural log). Sorry to get too mathy there, but anyway thanks a lot for all of these helpful videos!
OMG I donr that long way in the gym one time it wasnt great with the sound but the kids had fun, it was ok I made it throw the night and got good compliments.
Good tips you gave in this video Rick for the average mobile DJ's, but you know you could take the game a step higher if you spoke about pro placement to avoid cancellations and create real hotspots, since some configurations that you showed can create cancelations in the middle of the dancefloor depening on how far is a speaker from the other
+dj rick webb great video! I've been in pro audio and an active dj for over 20 years and everything you said was spot on for the beginner dj with questionable speaker placement. Especially about adding db and multiplying speaker counts. There's one thing I want to address and thats how you turn in the top boxes, HORN COVERAGE!!! If a cabinet horn has a 60 deg horizontal and 40 deg vert, if you turn them in and the placements are too far back ie a foot off the wall and spaced 10-15 feet apart one can experience the sudden FEEDBACK when making announcements on mic. I'd advise the beginner to map out the speaker placement to know how far to turn them in before show starts. In most cases I set up my speakers 12 feet apart and I set up in between them pointing straight a head with bottom of mid speaker at 5 foot 10 inches from ground but I use monitors on stands for my mixes that give me front fill. Also If a dj introduces them self at the venue to the event manager 30 days before event to do what we call a "site survey" they can ask how the room will be set up and can make requests on how there set up will work best to the venue. But if need be to where they may be set up on the wrong side of venue like you mentioned one can be prepared with enough cables to make sound system work. They can set me up anywhere and I always come prepared plus if need be they will (the venue) move there set up to help you if you ask in advance. Hope this is helpful
There are some errors in this video. Not trying to be rude or disrespectful. Most of my experience has been in live sound, and I carry out the technical side of things for our DJ. One thing I wanted to mention is that lower and mid range frequencies travel differently than higher frequencies. Higher frequencies are more directional than lower ones. One would not want to get their speakers "as high as they can", but an average height relative to where people would hear both drivers from the speaker as correctly as possible. When the music was being mixed in the studio, that's how the engineer's reference monitors were setup and the music mixed accordingly. Also, the manufacturers build the speakers in the same basic balanced way. Getting the speakers so high they pass over everyone's head now enhances the acoustical and reverberation properties in the room potentially causing "mud" and "boominess" effects. IF...you had to get the speakers drastically high to cover a large room you'd want the ability to be able to tilt them downwards. Which means, now you're possibly looking at trusses and rigging. Yes, higher frequencies have a higher peak amplitude, but also remember (such as according to the specs on a JBL EON 615) the HF driver is going to be operating at about 1/3rd RMS power as the LF driver. If you have a sub, the top's LF driver becomes a MF only driver if hi-passed, and the sub is operating around 2-3 times the power of the MF driver. IF YOU ARE RUNNING A SUB, YOU NEED TO HI-PASS FILTER YOUR TOPS. This creates headroom and clarity in your system. All that said, the power outputs balance everything out. The manufacturer already took care of this. Your job with speaker placement is getting them in a position to where all frequencies are able to take the most direct path to all ears as possible. Also, when dealing with multiple cabinets doing the same job (aka covering same frequencies and spaces) keep time in mind, and how those speakers could interact with each other. Most of us are probably not doing events that require arrays to be setup, so I digress on that lol. I always bring a digital mixing desk that our DJ mixer passes through. It allows for all processing, routing, and expansion capabilities that we may need at a gig. For example, I've had gigs where we ran time delays in a long narrow room. Or, places where we decided to run 2 speakers zones. Officiant miking, toast mic, DJ mic, or quick and dirty room tuning. I digress, but at the end of the day you all should do what you think sounds the best with what you have. Keep in mind, it's not all about the gear. It's how good you are at running it.
I done lots of discos with only 2 speakers, and never had the luxury of stands, i couldnt afford them at the time The closest i have ever got to having my speakers raised is when i have been on a stage, about 3 feet up, that was ok I actually used the fact that there was that gap right in between and at the front of the speakers to my advantage, it was a presentation night, so there was a guy with my mic stood right in front of me, and it reduced the feedback greatly 😁
Well I have to say Rick you’ve done it outstanding job on this one I agree with everything that you just said good job but if you want to challenging hall try hockey arena their lots of fun cheers man
Great tips for those who need it. But when you own JBL PRX or any other high end speaker at that level, you can place them any where in the room. You can even do outdoor events with no problem. All you do is turn them like you mention when it time to rock out. That's the reason why they cost so much.
When I get book I normally get my spot given by the hall or club manager with outlets with 120 volts to 220 volts on one breaker. So power doesn't trip and go out. That's the main problem Djs always had in the city.
Time stamping my notes 1:47 ; Yes. High as possible but rule as thumb... You want it to clear your head. Why? Soundwaves. 2:30 ; Yeah, sound waves. The less stuff it has to clear, the easier it can travel. It will actually make you LOUDER. =) 3:42; This is why (among other reasons) why some tops have that screw on knob. You can do it with speakers without one, but that technique it easier with stands with lightning knobs on them. Most industry standard tops have this. 5:28 Well, sort of. You need to double the wattage, which in turn is "doubling" the speakers. So If I want more sound from my 500 watt speaker, I would need to double it to 1000 watts. The dcb gain from adding additional speakers by the way is extremely minimal. If sound "quiet" when you walk around a room, adding speakers to fill those dead areas is helpful. The father you get from the sound wave source, the weaker the wave will be. So think about that when you factor in venue size. 6:48; In short, at the start of the night, facing them outward. Once the dance floor fills, face them inward. However, avoid how IN you go. Theres a sweet spot that you can direct them where you can be BUMPING but if a client needs to walk up and tell you something, you can hear them. 9:15; 1-8ft is correct. Never up against the wall. We fight a lot of demons that cannot allow us to have 8 feet. 14:23 ; Buy a boogieboard =) yeah but all that paper stuff, Rick is correct.
Great video, love to see a video on sub placement too. Is it better to have them spread out with each speaker or grouped together in front of the DJ booth?
+Dj B-Rod tops doesnt matter since they dont produce enough bass for placing them together to make a difference its more important to worry about the coverage patterns they produce. Subs are different as you will see in that upcoming video as coupling them increases there output
Forgot to mention, i love having my speakers on the floor, because you can feel the bass from them I only have tops, with horns and 15" woofers, there really good, there old wooden cabinets, but they thump really hard, and you can hear the music quite clear across the room even filled with people, and feel the bass Since i stopped doing discos, i have been buying more speakers for a different project, and now i have eight of those 15" woofer tops, running true 4kw, i have eight 500 watt amplifiers 😁 Its for a carnival ride though, so im gonna use the fact that im gonna have a chequerplate platform to reflect the bass and treble up off, and nobody at a carnival wants to hear the treble anyway, they just want thumping bass, well they do over here in the uk
Suggestion for a way to set up all tops? I currently run 4×15's and have a 12' top as a monitor.. should I pole mount all 4? Mount 2 and leave 2 on the floor? What's gonna give me the best sound without having a sub in my set up? Thank you!!!
All 4 on poles. The added bass of putting 2 on the floor really isnt worth the overall loss in ouput you will get because the sound will not travel. So yeah all 4 on poles
@@DJRickWeb awesome! Thank you! I do smaller rave type events (200 people), and people typically crowd the booth..I wanted to maximize my sound with what we have while still being able to have em run hard for several hours.. we do DJ change overs and each DJ brings their own controller/cdjs.. should I be running to ANOTHER mixer before going directly to the speakers as well?
Sub frequencies are non-directional. Wall placement is good to get a little more throw. However, if you are using more than 1 sub do not separate them and place them in the corners. Subs frequencies have some strange characteristics. The best way to place subs is to have next to each other or even other cabs. The subs will actually couple doubling their output. Let me explain coupling in case this is new. Coupling is very common in car audio. Have you ever wondered why most car sub boxes are double speakers? Manufactures build these boxes to take advantage of coupling. Basically, when 2 or more subs are placed next to each other they actually double the volume output using the same amount of power. Subs can also use your top cabs to couple somewhat as long as the tops are close to your sub cabs. This is why many Dj sub manufacturers put a pole mount on top of their subs. And here you thought it was just for convenience. You want to take advantage of coupling, especially as a mobile DJ. You get more power with less equipment. Send me a message if you need or want more information about coupling dynamics or anything audio related.
Double the power = 3db example ( made up power-db numbers not realistic output but db adding is ) 1 speaker 100w 50db Double 2 speakers 200w 53db double again 4 speakers 400w 56db It will be a lot of those speakers to get 100db ( double loudness )
More power, More power, More power. That is all you need. There is a reason large venues have lots of tops, lots of subs, and many big amps. By the way, school events are not beginner venues if you are doing large schools (>1000 students). I would rather do a wedding any day over a large school dance. Even the largest weddings your equipment would fit in a van. However, most of our school events require large trailers or large box trucks to transport the equipment. Our largest weddings require at most 2 people to do the event. Many of our large prom events require as many as 6 people just to set up and at least 3 people just to Dj and LD (light designers).
what are some good heavy bass drivers in a dual 12 inch drivers setup to provide bass in party environment for 100-80 people? and is this even possible with 12 inch subs? hope to hear some advice
Hi can you please discuss pricing and how much equipment to bring because many times you as a dj want to put as many lights and systems but people don't seem to have no ideas for example big gym they want 4 speakers when you really need double the system
Thanks for the tips ! Also I have a question about spl or Db or watts. How much do you need for lets say 100 people? Is there a calculation or with your experience to say you need 3 watts per person ? How do you calculate the amount of speakers for the number of persons with a gig. Sorry for my English. Thanks In advance!
Do you have any vids for how to make a single speaker sound good in a boomy or echoey medium sized square shaped room EG. an art gallery space that has no sound treatment and veneer tile panels on the floor (not carpet)
Same process you have two outputs from the mixer. Any more than that just link them to the first speakers and bring them up to the same almost peaking level.
Hi I have a pub of 1200sq ft dance floor area which is almost square in shape for which I purchased a mackie thump 15 A and mackie 18s sub along with their prodx4 digital mixer what more speakers do you suggest for a good sound quality from every sides for a dj gig....
in physics, then lower are the frequency's then they go widely (around the speaker box) and inverse then higher are frequency tnen more focused are the projection but what you think about to please speaker near to wall to increase low's by reflection from wall? just asking?
