DJ/Mobile Disco

wiggyuk

wiggyuk

wiggyuk

Associate
Joined
1 Oct 2004
Posts
707
Location
Rowley Regis, West Mids
Hi all, I was wondering if any of you guys on here do mobile disco`s for weddings and things like that, I was thinking of getting a laptop and starting doing it myself, I would like some advise on what other stuff I would need to buy and how much I would be looking to spend to start off, I mean the speakers and stuff you can get second hand.
 
On a serious note I don't think getting in to this is cheap or easy so some serious research is needed. It's quite a competetive market and there are a lot of people with some very high quality equipment putting the kids disco monkeys of my youth to shame.
 
I always worried about PC based stuff, your show stops when it crashes.

You can pick up a good sized amp second hand fairly cheap, just be sure to get the biggest kit you can from the outset, else you end up getting a gig in a bigger room/hall and you can't fill the room.

Also the pc systems don't give you quite the flexability that a "proper" cd kit will.
 
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I can imagine you'd have to have a good setup before people would consider you.

A laptop and some little speakers wont really cut it with the hard hitting base beats of Tragedy.
 
SB118 said:
I always worried about PC based stuff, your show stops when it crashes.

You can pick up a good sized amp second hand fairly cheap, just be sure to get the biggest kit you can from the outset, else you end up getting a gig in a bigger room/hall and you can't fill the room.

Also the pc systems don't give you quite the flexability that a "proper" cd kit will.
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Really I thought MP3`s on a laptop would be way easier ?
 
I've used both and the pc based stuff doesn't give you the flexability and ease of use that you get from a big tray of cds. and you'll also look totally mickey mouse running the room from your laptop ;)

This isn't a cheap business to get into, i spent an absolute fortune on my kit. It doesn pay for itself, but it takes a while.
 
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gumbald said:
Steps version? :p



Not necessarily. A looks a bit unprofessional if all do you is plug an amp and speakers into a laptop. Where's your effects?
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I wouldnt of thought people would be bothered about effects at something like a wedding party ?

SB118 said:
I've used both and the pc based stuff doesn't give you the flexability and ease of use that you get from a big tray of cds. and you'll also look totally mickey mouse running the room from your laptop ;)

This isn't a cheap business to get into, i spent an absolute fortune on my kit. It doesn pay for itself, but it takes a while.
Click to expand...

But to start with I could buy second hand ?

What kit do you have, and how long have you been doing it ?
 
wiggyuk said:
I wouldnt of thought people would be bothered about effects at something like a wedding party ?
Click to expand...

Cheese like steps is brilliant for family gigs.

wiggyuk said:
But to start with I could buy second hand ?

What kit do you have, and how long have you been doing it ?
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Yeah, you can get 2nd hand stuff, like clean it up and respray some of the stuff before you show it off to your customers.

I played pubs/clubs/mobiles for about 13 years, mobile kit was a pro acoustics mixer, 800w MAR amp, kickass set of speakers that i built myself using Eminence cones & crossover, minidisc (essential for booze cruises, CDs jump like hell), graphic eq, some generic twin cd deck, built a handful of lightboxes, couple of scanners, etc, etc

Still got odds and ends of it in the shed!
 
I did this for around 2 years, finished in febuary. Basically the stuff you'll need is
computer, amp, mixer, lights, speakers and all the cables and stuff to go with it. I suppose you could probably get all this for around a grand.

We had around 2 or 3 "units" out per night which meant atleast 4 sets of equipment (incase anything failed) and we worked off computers, which were good for the most part, in the 2 years i was doing it i only ever had about 5 problems but we always got round them.

Also if you're doing it on a computer you will need a vast collection of mp3's, we had around 20,000 songs, didnt use all of them but we were able to play a lot of the more obscure requests since we had them :)



Weddings are fairly easy and generic but you wont make much money from just doing weddings, also have a look at any competition and who else are doing the same sort of thing in the area, see how much they are charging and stuff, it seems to take a while to build up a reputation if you're not the only one doing it.

edit : ohhh and we used pcdj red, works pretty well i found :)
 
If you wanted to do it the old way you need a pair of decks or CD decks, a mixer, an amp and a pair of speakers. Aim for about 300W per channel or more and make sure you've got 15" drivers in the speakers. 12" drivers I found weren't quite man enough to get any bass down in a larger hall and I'd have to use a bass unit as well, which was a 600W 18" driver with a 1KW amp on it.

People are quite happy with crap red/blue/green lights and glitter balls and a stobe is the ultimate crowd pleaser. Little things eh?

Budget about £1000 for the kit, more if you want to use Technics decks which are necessary because a) they are indestructible and b) they don't feed back like all the other decks I used.

Having said that the last disco I went to it was just an ipod shoved in a laptop in an amp with a guy watching it.
 
I hope you aren't thinking of becoming a catalogue disco?
Thats the name we give around here for someone who buys their stuff from Argos etc and usually the sound is crap.
If you're thinking about it seriously you need to spend £800 on speakers alone.
Theres nothing worse than a farty disco up the corner of a pub/village hall.
Something like this with built in amps would do for pubs - http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1...d_1.12.1.1/pages/index.php?sku=1.1.6.3.1-16-1
however go bigger and you need bottom end eg - http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1..._1.12.1.1/pages/index.php?sku=1.1.6.3.1-16-16

My mate goes out with this - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HK-AUDIO-ACTO...eZWD1VQQtrksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem but what a sound.

Also be aware that Disco's do get visited by the authorities now & then (my mate was visited 5 times last year) and they want to see if you have the original cd's if you are playing off a laptop or similar device.

Don't buy a strobe - most people hate them at weddings.
 
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