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I've got a small (<50 ppl) corporate gig coming up that just needs background music and a PA for announcements. Normally I would play some yacht rock and modern equivalent stuff. Basically, upbeat stuff but not fast dance music. I just learned that this gig could have a considerable Hispanic...

250 years is a pretty momentous number. I recall our bicentennial in 1976. The entire country was absolutely abuzz with patriotism. This year I see no similar feelings with the 250th. My wife and I are throwing an epic party but I am not seeing this elsewhere in great significant. All the...

Last night I had a small gig to provide a PA and background music for a client appreciation dinner/comedy show for a local financial advisement firm. It was a 3-hour event for less than 50 people at a local country club. Load-in and load-out was just a single short trip with a small cart. Set...

I used an old Behringer Xenyx1204USB as my travel karaoke mixer for many years. It isn't reliable anymore. I get occasional noise problems and some of the buttons now stick. It is not worth my time to fix it. I have been looking at something smaller and more robust. There are a few options but...

I just got a new laptop that is very nice but unfortunately, I could not get it with a 5 year, next-day in-home repairs warranty (which has paid for itself numerous times in the past). Therefore, I am thinking about what I may want as a backup solution. My choices are a cheaper laptop in the...

I like to pick up the phone and talk to people. Apparently, that makes me ancient in the world of business. Many companies seem to go out of their way to prevent you from finding their phone number online. Some just no longer publish one. You go to their website and they require all your contact...

Music at events has been popular for hundreds of years. Large events used to require large orchestras. Amplification allowed smaller bands to replace large ensembles. Portable media and playback systems allowed DJs to replace bands. DJs also offered larger and more varied catalogs and took up...

Have you guys heard of Fake Music? Fake Music is a project that reimagines popular songs in other genres using AI. Today I was listening to YMCA as heavy metal. The other day it was AC/DC as soul. There is Nirvana as 80s style pop. Black Sabbath as Funk. You get the picture... It is...

A large moving head fell on a woman at Coachella. A lot of people are asking where the safety cable was. Was a cable even there? Was it undersized? Was it attached wrong? Wind may have been a factor. I'm sure there is more to learn about this...

I have been meaning to post about this trick for leveling speakers for a while but kept forgetting till now. I regularly encounter places where I need to put speakers on uneven ground. I have two techniques for dealing with this. The first is to place the end of speaker stand into a PVC or ABS...

The other day I brought a single speaker for background tunes at a friend's bbq. When I expanded the stand, a screw fell out of one of the leg brackets causing the leg to flop around. The nylon insert locking nut for the screw was nowhere to be seen. Luckily I still had the screw and was able to...

Shure introduced their new SLXD+ series of mics at NAMM this year. This is probably the best system I have ever seen that is accessible for DJ level of price/performance. I am basing this conclusion on the following attributes: It uses the UHF band which has superior propagation over higher...

SCOTUS has knocked down the Trump's IEEPA tariffs last week. Trump then implemented global 10% based on Sec 122 of the 1974 trade act. What does that mean for us? A lot potentially. The 10% tariffs are a lot less than the IEEPA tariffs which depended on product type and country of origin. Some...

I'll be picking up a new PC soon. My preference is small and light, 14" and under 3 pounds. The problem is the available ports at this size. I want HDMI, USB-C and USB-A because I hate adapters. Many small and light models only offer USB-C. I have been checking the recent models introduced at...

Anyone planning to be at NAMM this year. I will be there Thurs and Fri if anyone wants to meet up. If you have heard about any new gear releases and want me to check them out, please post them here. I hope to return from the show with QSC's new CB10 battery powered speaker. So far that is the...

First there is the CB10, a battery powered 10" 2-way unit. From a spec perspective, it slots between the Everse 8 and 12. The specs are a hair better than the Everse 12. The 127 dB SPL output is 1 dB higher than the Everse12, and response goes to 51 Hz (4 Hz lower than the Everse). The more...

Been in Vegas the last couple of nights and every bar, restaurant and lobby seems to be playing the same type of music; modern remixes of old classics. The mixes can go from 60s to 70s to 80s and everything is upbeat and modern sounding. I can see how this might have universal acceptance with...

I provide sound for many charity gigs. It is common for someone to have a custom edited version of a song that they need to play for a performance. Maybe it is for a kids dance routine or perhaps a juggler that has his whole act on their playlist. These gigs are typically chaotic and poorly...

Ricky B has the first post on related to deals to be had. Anyone see anything else interesting?

I was wondering how many people use external sound cards instead of the sound card in their controller. I use Numark DJ2GO controllers but not their audio output. Instead I use ESI UDJ6 USB audio interfaces that support 2 stereo output pairs. I was debating getting the ESI Gigaport EX that can...

I'm sure we've all made some purchases over the years that didn't live up to our expectations. Maybe they didn't perform well or maybe the need you had for them disappeared or never materialized. I recently was cleaning out a closet and came across a few of mine. Portable MiniDisc...

When I got married the first time in the late 90s, photographers and DJs were quoting about the same amount (excluding upcharges for albums and framed copies). My daughter is getting married next year and the first few quotes she received are 2-3x what local DJs get. I know some of you here...

It party season around here lately. The nights are finally cool but not so cool that you need heaters. My wife and I have a reputation for hosting kick-ass events so everyone wants our help for their parties. They always want my playlists and sometimes I'll offer to bring speakers too. I decided...

In the last month I have had several USB-C cables fail on me. All of these cables were used for charging devices around the house. I tossed three such cables just this week. The cables were from multiple sources but most were probably from various Amazon vendors and some were a few years old...

QSC is dropping their mixer business (Touchmix series) as well as their power amp lines. Several speaker lines are being dropped as well. The following products are being dropped KW, KLA, E speakers All TouchMix mixers All power amps (GX, GXD, RMXa, PLD) I had been hoping to see an updated...