School & Teen Events Adequate or is he showing off?

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BlueLineDJ

DJ Extraordinaire
Jan 25, 2015
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I've been asked to provide MC and sound for a high school regional dance team competition coming up. The picture attached is the setup a previous DJ had for the event that is held in a large high school gymnasium.

If I was to do it, I would be able to use my 15 EKXs along with a pair of EV 18EKX subs. Would that be sufficient? I wasn't sure what the previous DJ had and if he was just showing off and had more than what he really needed and if what I had would be enough.
 

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A lot depends on how much of the gym you need to cover. I've been to HS Dance competitions (my daughter was on the HS Dance Team years ago) and don't recall the music horrendously loud, so I would think 15s over 18s would be sufficient for the dancers since there is usually only 20 or so out there at a time. Nothing wrong with Dual 15s or 12s over Dual 18s (that's what it looks like in the picture), but that firepower is more needed for a dance where you have lots of bodies on the floor. What you MIGHT need though, is a second set of tops out wide if you're on the long wall.
 
I know your not using the same gear as pictured, but using the picture as an example, if that was as Steve postulated the "long wall", then I might also have considered moving those double 18's horizontal and using 2 tops per side splayed a bit.
 
my daughter does competitive cheer and they play music for the routines and the BG music in between at a lower volume, and do announcements.

The competitions are at college basketball gyms and from what I can see the (cheap?) Djs use a pair of 15" tops, nothing more. The bleachers are open on both sides, the kids on one side and the parents/audience on the other. the speakers are on the floor facing the audience - great for the kids and judges, but much of the crowd is 9' or higher (up to second floor height) in the gym.
 
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Personally, I think he's just showing off. The funny part is he's probably making all of $250 to haul all that gear. My opinion, huge bass is not going to help the cheerleaders and very well may actually hinder them. I'd be much more inclined to go with 2 pairs of 15" tops. As for placement, if you have people on both sides of the gym (in the stands), then you'll have to do like this guy is doing and put the rig at the end of the gym. If people are on one side of the gym, I'd rather put speakers on either side of the "stage", facing the crowd, obviously with speakers facing the cheerleaders for monitoring purposes.
 
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If I am not mistaken (which I more than likely am) aren't those older model JBL's? The newer powered speakers are more compact and probably are just as powerful to a certain degree. Obviously 4 18" will be louder than 2 but to everyone's point, 2 newer powered 18" subwoofers will be sufficient and easier to carry than the set up pictured in the OP.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
They may be JBL SRX stacks .. if so, you can't ask for much more. For a prom, it might be needed .. and possibly someone told them to "bring what they brung" to a previous event (or they're angling for the next prom season), but in general, I've used a similar stack to cover 700 people outside, so a bit overkill .. though certainly will do the job.
 
If I were to bring that large of a sound system set up out, I would hire my brother to go along with me, and we would do this gig together. I would charge $2,900. ...That means I would never book this gig anyway
 
Wow. Is there a full moon out tonight?

I think I'll go to bed and just drop in in the morning to see who's left....

Keep it civilized boys and girls
 
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That's what I would have brought! That's why my sound sounds better than most.

Trying to do too much with too little. Some of you dj' s think about how much equipment not to bring!

The best sound comes from large speakers with a lot of power working effortlessly!

Effortlessly means not much more than idle. Never half throttle. If you need to crush the atmosphere ,,,the driver area and power can take you there!



Show some respect. That setup will make mincemeat out of your powered 12's on top of your single powered 15's.

Apparently he does not care how long it takes to setup.

I bet he didn't charge 3000 bucks either.

Somewhere along the line..... you got lazy ,,,,,and all you can fucking think,about is how much you can get for a gig and how little amount of equipment you have to bring!

Some of you need to choose another line of business of another hobby!

Since the context behind that image isn't known, it's tough to get wrapped up strictly in the my-rig-is-bigger or better-than-yours debate.

In our HS gym, music for these events is handled by a half dozen EV Sx100 speakers set up in the rafters .. no subs, and it's sufficient for the purpose. As I said, I used to go to many of these in different venues, as my daughter used to compete, and a pair of double 18s and double 15 tops was just never used .. ever .. not that it couldn't, but music "quality" just isn't a factor for these events .. they aren't dances and don't get run as one.

I used to bring a similar setup (Yorkville Unity tops over Unity subs) when needed .. but wouldn't for these events unless I was trying to show off ..
 
Of course portability is almost always a compromise in some way. We all know that.

I don't think anybody in this thread was disrespecting anything but you sure seem to be going out of your way to try and make a point that I don't think needed making.
 
Of course portability is almost always a compromise in some way. We all know that.

I don't think anybody in this thread was disrespecting anything but you sure seem to be going out of your way to try and make a point that I don't think needed making.
Yea. Your probably the only one that will read it. I took,it all down

My rant was out of line and it will just cause misery.
 
Awesome setup, I bet it sounds great! Those are some rock solid speakers! I think he is running what he has and is very clean setup! The equipment that I bring, could also be called overkill. Better to have enough than to stretch your equipment beyond its design! I like my set to be just a little more than idle!
 
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Awesome setup, I bet it sounds great! Those are some rock solid speakers! I think he is running what he has and is very clean setup! The equipment that I bring, could also be called overkill. Better to have enough than to stretch your equipment beyond its design! I like my set to be just a little more than idle!

It's always better to have too much than too little. You can turn it down anytime but you can't turn it up if it's not there
 
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