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nextgen1

nextgen1

Mac Daddy DJ
Sep 23, 2006
3,178
784
65
Waterford, CA.
www.tngdj.com
Ok guys and gals here is a little project and I'm looking for some ideas. I will tell you mine and hopefully you all can help me with what I'm trying to do. This year later maybe in the deep summer. We will be changing our setup. It will be quicker and hopefully even more attractiive. I don't need speakers or TV's or different video screens. What I will be going with is the same equipment that we have now but it will be housed in the setup down below by SKB. Inside the rack I wish to incorporate some kind of rack mounted hard drive system maybe a minimum of 4 TB, I don't want to upgrade for a long time..

I do have certain ideas on this. It must be USB and ESATA I'm looking for it to be able to hook up to any laptop that is using Vista or higher. I will also be incorporating a front board maybe even one from Steve Cie. I wish to mount my LCD like I do in the current picture in front of my setup. Now please give me ideas if you have any. I want to use this setup for speed and will not be using a table thus my reason for the frontboard. Of course I will be adding a few LED lights to it as well.
 

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Love to help spend yer money Dave -- buy two copies of each of my 4 software packages, and I can PM you my PayPal email, for any extra you may want to donate to the beer fund :)


Other than that, I will make a suggestion...

If you hard mount a 4 TB array in your rack, how are you going to sync it with your master/backups...?

If I recall correctly, you are storing your setup in your van in a secure garage. When you add music/videos/etc. to your master drive array, you need to sync it to your working drive array, as well as the offsite backup. This means you need 3 x 4 TB arrays, that are easily connectible, and have good throughput to sync.

Something to think about... ;) :)
 
SoftJock Rick said:
Love to help spend yer money Dave -- buy two copies of each of my 4 software packages, and I can PM you my PayPal email, for any extra you may want to donate to the beer fund :)


Other than that, I will make a suggestion...

If you hard mount a 4 TB array in your rack, how are you going to sync it with your master/backups...?

If I recall correctly, you are storing your setup in your van in a secure garage. When you add music/videos/etc. to your master drive array, you need to sync it to your working drive array, as well as the offsite backup. This means you need 3 x 4 TB arrays, that are easily connectible, and have good throughput to sync.

Something to think about... ;) :)
Click to expand...

Most of the electronic stuff is in the house I can't stand the idea of my expensive stuff outside. I just add music about once a month and that's when I add to all my drives. I was thinking of having the array setup as one huge drive or atleast divided in half so that its a mirror to its self for back up purposes thus the reason for a large drive. I did find one place that for about 850dollars it is strictly ESATA and is about 8TB of space.

I figure with this type of setup I would not need a table and simple put my laptop on top and just plug everything in. Now do I need to do any of this? No but I like the idea or it and make my setup very quick and easy. On the front board side I really liked this and how easy it was to just setup and to pack away. It is the kind of stuff that I would love to use and it looks great and has ease of use which is the biggest thing for me here.


YouTube - I DJ NOW LED FACADE - EXCLUSIVELY AT IDJNOW.COM
 
jokerswild said:
I too have been looking hard at that particular SKB setup but need a ramp for my van to get it in and out you might also consider the mini gig rig if you don't need a lot of bottom space
Click to expand...


This setup bro is a combination of to SKB items one for the top and one for the bottom. It is not the roto case if that's what you think it is look it up online. I have a ramp also if I need it and remember my wife and I work together so she is always there to help lift even the heavy stuff. I love my wife she is the greatest person in the world. ) My wife works so hard at her day job and then is there with me for every event. She actually loves doing this with me and the brides really like that, its a selling point gentlemen.

http://promobiledj.com/2011/01/skb-expands-djaudio-rack-cases/
 
nextgen1 said:
Most of the electronic stuff is in the house I can't stand the idea of my expensive stuff outside. I just add music about once a month and that's when I add to all my drives. I was thinking of having the array setup as one huge drive or atleast divided in half so that its a mirror to its self for back up purposes thus the reason for a large drive. I did find one place that for about 850dollars it is strictly ESATA and is about 8TB of space.
Click to expand...


Dave,

It's imperative that you have three FULL and up to date copies!

One is the master/quick backup, one is the working array, and one must be kept off-site for re-duplication when needed.

A great big mirrored RAID array is worthless, if it all burns down together in the same building, or the power supply to that box crashes! ;)


When you put that much time and effort into ripping and building a media drive array, you have to plan for multiple redundancy, so you can do a quick rebuild, and do a gig in hours.
 
nextgen1 said:
This setup bro is a combination of to SKB items one for the top and one for the bottom. It is not the roto case if that's what you think it is look it up online. I have a ramp also if I need it and remember my wife and I work together so she is always there to help lift even the heavy stuff. I love my wife she is the greatest person in the world. ) My wife works so hard at her day job and then is there with me for every event. She actually loves doing this with me and the brides really like that, its a selling point gentlemen.

http://promobiledj.com/2011/01/skb-expands-djaudio-rack-cases/
Click to expand...

I forgot about the R104.... I had looked at that too but until now didn't know that a bottom existed that it could stack on thanks.... I now know what my next gear rack will be!
 
SoftJock Rick said:
Dave,

It's imperative that you have three FULL and up to date copies!

One is the master/quick backup, one is the working array, and one must be kept off-site for re-duplication when needed.

A great big mirrored RAID array is worthless, if it all burns down together in the same building, or the power supply to that box crashes! ;)


When you put that much time and effort into ripping and building a media drive array, you have to plan for multiple redundancy, so you can do a quick rebuild, and do a gig in hours.
Click to expand...



Rick right now I keep 4 hard drives that are the same. Two are with me at each event. One stays at home at all times and one lives quietly at my parents house. I agree that if it all takes a dump then it would be worthless. I would always keep a backup hard drive with me just to insure that at our events there is always a "Just in case" my question is what are your ideas on setting this up and making it work well.

You of all people would probably be the best to answer this. :tribiggrin: It helps so much to have this van. I can bring a table and table skirt that can live in the van so that if for some reason I could not use the array I would just break the system of the its platform and us it like I do now. Again best ideas to set it up and maybe best prices of places you know.
 
jokerswild said:
I forgot about the R104.... I had looked at that too but until now didn't know that a bottom existed that it could stack on thanks.... I now know what my next gear rack will be!
Click to expand...


Yep it got me exited as well. Plus the wife is with me on all this stuff as long as its later in they year and the money is there. I think the total investment would be around 2,000 dollars for everything I'm looking at. I just want a great look and great speed of setup
 
nextgen1 said:
Rick right now I keep 4 hard drives that are the same. Two are with me at each event. One stays at home at all times and one lives quietly at my parents house. I agree that if it all takes a dump then it would be worthless. I would always keep a backup hard drive with me just to insure that at our events there is always a "Just in case" my question is what are your ideas on setting this up and making it work well.

You of all people would probably be the best to answer this. :tribiggrin: It helps so much to have this van. I can bring a table and table skirt that can live in the van so that if for some reason I could not use the array I would just break the system of the its platform and us it like I do now. Again best ideas to set it up and maybe best prices of places you know.
Click to expand...


Glad to hear you have the multiple redundancy Dave :)

I could think of some nifty ways to do it (nice, ready built rack mount stuff), but none of them are inexpensive...


I would probably start with a rack mount drawer, and then attach a couple eSata/USB drives to that. Shouldn't be all that hard to do, and that way you could just pull the drawer out, and bring it in with you after a gig.

Pretty much like a removable drive enclosure, where the connections in the rack stay in place, and you just remove the drive enclosure/slide out tray.

You might also be able to find a rack mount that has 3 1/2" bays (empty server case), and just mount removable drives in them. That could be wired to an easy connection interface for your computer...
 
Randy A said:
I'd be concerned that your flat screen will get lost with a lighted facade.
Click to expand...

I'll second that motion.... as you'd loose a lot of the effect of the facade with a big honkin TV in front of it.... you may consider mounting the tv on a stand instead and separating the bass bins so that a lighted facade would be fully visible.
 
Randy A said:
I'd be concerned that your flat screen will get lost with a lighted facade.
Click to expand...


Also a thought of mine. Thus the reasons for asking for ideas. Please keep them coming. It might be that I will have to go with a different option instead of a lighted frontboard. Again this is for maybe towards the end of summer.
 
SoftJock Rick said:
Glad to hear you have the multiple redundancy Dave :)

I could think of some nifty ways to do it (nice, ready built rack mount stuff), but none of them are inexpensive...


I would probably start with a rack mount drawer, and then attach a couple eSata/USB drives to that. Shouldn't be all that hard to do, and that way you could just pull the drawer out, and bring it in with you after a gig.

Pretty much like a removable drive enclosure, where the connections in the rack stay in place, and you just remove the drive enclosure/slide out tray.

You might also be able to find a rack mount that has 3 1/2" bays (empty server case), and just mount removable drives in them. That could be wired to an easy connection interface for your computer...
Click to expand...

Now were talking and that's why I want you guys to spend my money. Right now for and ESATA system I can have it built for about 850 dollars with the hard drives installed. But for me I want it to be ESATA and USB so that any of my laptops using Vista or above can use it.
 
Dave -

I don't know if this is a viable alternative for your front facade or not. But here is my thought process:

Instead of mounting your video screen in the middle, how difficult would it be to trade that large screen for two smaller ones (not that much smaller!), and mount them on some sort of trussing or vertical stands on each side of your gig rig, with the facade in the middle? This way, you would have the screens more comfortably visible to more than those folks that would be sitting head-on in front of your set-up, and those that normally would be at tables to the left and/or right of the rig don't have to crane their necks to see the video.

I've drawn a VERY crude mockup in Microsoft Paint and attached it here as a .jpeg file. Again, I don't know if this is even viable or affordable, but I just thought I would mention it.

*I had some time overnight at work and was a little bored*
 

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Thanks for the thread. I too, have been thinking along the same lines after seeing Kevin's setup. I've currently got bit rolling tub that carries projector, misc cables, and other crap. I'd like to dump that and the table and just mount it all in a rolling rack unit and this looks perfect. Have you seen this in person to see how much storage it's got inside?
 
rickryan.com said:
Thanks for the thread. I too, have been thinking along the same lines after seeing Kevin's setup. I've currently got bit rolling tub that carries projector, misc cables, and other crap. I'd like to dump that and the table and just mount it all in a rolling rack unit and this looks perfect. Have you seen this in person to see how much storage it's got inside?
Click to expand...


Not sure on the storage Rick but I'm pretty sure you can go on the SKB site and get all that info. :tribiggrin:
 
nextgen1 said:
Also a thought of mine. Thus the reasons for asking for ideas. Please keep them coming. It might be that I will have to go with a different option instead of a lighted frontboard. Again this is for maybe towards the end of summer.
Click to expand...

I would skip the lighted front board as well-for two reasons- both esthetic, and only my opinion:

1) With other lighting and effects, as well as monitors, it may be simply too much, especially if working a smaller event.

2) I always felt that weddings ( when I still accepted them) required a different mood set than regular parties. Still fun, still light and energetic, but presented with a bit more dignity, as befits a formal occasion.

The lighted front board looks great at parties, but I always used the black for weddings.

Just a Luddite's very subjective opinion.
 
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