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Derek Paul

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Posts posted by Derek Paul

  1. Cant Trust Laptops Fully Yet

    in Digital D.J'ing Discussion

    Posted

    Always interesting to re-read old posts. 2½ years later and I still don’t fully trust notebooks, however 99% of everything I play is still via a notebook.

     

    I always have two notebooks up and running, and plugged into the mixer. Notebook one controls our Emulator screen and playing via a USB sound card. Notebook two is plugged in via a Denon 4500. I still carry the Denon 9000 cd players, just in case. Just can’t have enough back-up

     

  3. Distorted Sound?

    in Techie Talk

    Posted

    I had the same problem with my notebooks, and like BriMac I did not want to cut the earth plug out. As an experiment I did take a 1 foot extension cable without an earth plug and used that to connect the notebook. Just as Fester said “problem solved and no issues without earth to the notebook”.

     

    However I still did not like the idea of removing an earth connection that the manufacture has installed. So I solved the problem in two different ways. For my back-up notebook I use an Ebtech Hum-X. I am in the USA and have been unable to find an equivalent product for 240v systems in the UK.

     

    For my main notebook I used 2 Behringer MICROHD Hum Destroyer HD400. They are expensive at about £26 each, but it really did the job. And remember you need one for each stereo channel (i.e. if you use the headphone output you only need one, however if you use a midi controller with a soundcard sending 2 channels to the mixer, you need two).

     

    I have tried a Radio Shack product similar to the Skytronic Ground Loop Isolator. I have a few of these and after time everyone developed a fault on one or other channel.

     

    You can find both the Behringer and Skytronic products on Amazon.

     

  5. Funny Stories From Your Gigs

    in D.J and Karaoke Chat

    Posted

    Two quick stories, Fire Alarm first

     

    Back in the late 90’s I was playing a large conference room in the West Midlands. Over 500 attendees, dinner finished, orchestra finish, and its party time. The dance floor’s packed and everyone’s having a great time, when the fire alarm sounds. The whole hotel empties onto the car park, my 500 guest plus all the hotel guests. At some point word starts to spread that it was the “DJ’s Smoke Machine”. Now yes I was using a smoke machine, but I had checked with the facility that is was OK. However there is no way to explain that to the 100’s of disgruntled people stood on a cold car park at midnight. I snuck back into the building; I thought it safer than the car park.

     

    Time to Finish

     

    A few years ago, shortly after moving to the USA, I am playing a wedding in the middle of nowhere. It’s about 1am and the party is going strong, about 100 very drunk guests and me. At this point the local sheriff arrives (and I mean sheriff, silver star, cowboy hat and six shooter the whole deal). He walks up to me and simple says “Shut it Down.” I said I’d need to talk to the groom, who was paying, but without hesitating he told me he would confiscate my gear if I did not cut the music immediately. I look at the party and knew that just cutting the music was a VERY BAD idea. I tried one last time, I asked if I could play one last track, a slow dance, at a lower volume. I explained that he (the sheriff) and I were the only two sober people there. I think the realized the possible repercussions of just stopping abruptly, and agreed to a last dance. An hour later the gears in the truck, I’m paid and there is still a circle of very drunk guests surrounding the sheriff asking for “Just One More.” I have to give the guy a lot of credit, he just stood there saying “Sorry the Parties Over’ not once did he raise his voice or lose it, despite the very drunk questioning. I shook a few hands, said my goodbyes and checked that the sheriff was going to be OK. To this day I still wonder how long the he was there after I left

     

  7. New To The Forum

    in Introduce Yourself Here

    Posted

    One of the best introductions I've ever read.

     

    Welcome along Nathan. maybe you'll be teaching us something!

     

    Totally agree, great story and that’s the way to introduce yourself. I have been DJing for over 30 years (can't believe that), but I am still learning, so I am sure you will be teaching as well as learning.

  8. Linking Speakers

    in Techie Talk

    Posted

    I'm Afraid Fester is right, in order to help we need to know how the speaker plugs are wired. You could do this with a meter, but opening the back and taking a look is easier. No need to mess with anything at this point.

     

    I also think Fester is probably correct about modifications. If the internal wiring had not been changed your initial “Speakon - ¼ Inch Through” should have worked.

     

  9. What Have You Been Up To?

    in How was it for you?

    Posted

    Originally for the West Midlands, I now live and work in a ski resort in the Sierra Mountains of Northern California. It is a huge destination wedding market in the summer, However when you ask "What have I been doing lately" the answer is "Not a lot." There is only limited work in the winter.

     

    We have already played at a number of corporate events and weddings this year; however our wedding season really started this last weekend. Our next weekend without at least one wedding is November 17th

     

  18. Martin Robozap

    in Techie Talk

    Posted

    OK, Now I am really confused, LOL.

     

    Actually, that’s some really great info, I have copied and printed it to keep, (hope you don’t mind). I have had some very good experiences with Martin, some great units while in the UK. Now U.S. based I still have MX4’s and a Smartmac.

     

    Now if I could only figure out my Robocolor Mobile II’s :wacko:

  19. Tv Add Music

    in Music

    Posted

    I have been using Michael Buble as Dinner/Cocktail music for a few years now. Can't remember how many times someone has asked "Who's this singing". Highly recommend any of his CD's

  24. Cant Trust Laptops Fully Yet

    in Digital D.J'ing Discussion

    Posted

    OK a question for anyone, and everyone.

     

    While reading an intro from G-Bace (Gray), one of his comments struck me, because I am in the same place. His comment was "cant trust laptops fully yet !!!", and although I am almost exclusively digital (PCDJ-VJ, Dex and Denon HC4500), I still carry Denon DN9000 CD players to every gig. I have a quad core, twin hard drive notebook, which I use almost exclusively for DJing. I also carry all the music backed up on an external hard drive, but I still don’t fully trust the computer.

     

    What back-up do you guys carry in this digital age

     

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