norty303

I've got 2 Astra Moon Scans which were phenomenal value when i bought them direct (£100 each) about 2 years ago. Unfortunately they're not made any more.

Its a shame that they only take the 6" wheels. I use a lot of lense effects, 2 effects and a lot of cassettes which i don't think fit in these units.

Try looking at local hire companies and seeing how much it would cost someone to dry hire the kit you supply. That'll give you a good idea of how much you might be undercharging by. Perhaps you need to break down your charges to 'equipmant' and 'DJ services' so they can see what each bit costs. I hired and rigged 4 scans, 2 Destroyers, smoke, 2 UV cannons to a promoter at the weekend and charged £250 plus travel (and i did it cheap as it was a mate. Some of you guys must put in more than that PLUS sound system. Don't undervalue you or your kit.

This.... http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/substance/blade1.jpg http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/substance/blade2.jpg

Maybe if you tell us which amps you have we can tell you the best way to link them. As has been said, the best way would be to give them a separate feed from a booth output or similar, that way you can turn them down when you want to with affecting front of house sound level.

Yeah, the mic inputs are your problem. Basically you can either get aDI box and run into that from the mixer and then into the mic inputs, or run a phono lead into the phono (or marked 'tape' on some mixers) on the back. If your cable run is over 10 meters go the DI route.

Surely thats an oxymoron. If you're going to dance ALL night, anything smart is entirely innappropriate. We do most of our parties for ourselves and by midday the following day anything you're wearing is junk. Although the Missus does have a bridesmaids dress from a party in a squat [come fabric warehouse] in Shoreditch last NYE which comes out on special occassions.....

In case anyone else is interested i got this response on another forum If Denon are worse than Pioneer then i'm going to be VERY upet. I'm just about happy with Pioneer service, but having heard how Denon are sooo much beter than Pioneer, if they fail, i'll be ranting and raving from here to at least the end of next week....

I've got a Denon DN-S3000 for repair and need to know where i can get parts. Do they have a main distributor like Pioneer (SEMENedis) or is it purely through authorised dealers? I need a new Play/Pause/Cue/Eject rubber and 2 micro switches

Have you thought about some second hand Martin 518's? Rotating gobos and a 3 facet prism, lots of colours with a colour correction filter for even more variations. 250w discharge lamp and built like brick outhouses. Keep an eye on ebay, they come up regularly

Just to show how little difference it makes, i've had people who should know better come up and complement me on the good stereo image i produce from my mono system.....

If you are just looking at using a 6 core cable with dedicated XLR and power plugs/sockets on the end then i shouldn't see why not. The problem comes where you have a connector that could be plugged in or accessed incorrectly that is carrying power. Plugging 240v into a DMX socket would not be pleasant. If in doubt, bind the 2 separate cables together yourself.

Just to add to that, any decent speaker manufacturer with nothing to lose/hide will advertise their frequency responses at certain points, typically f3 and f6 (the frequency at which the output is 3db and 6db down respectively from the average). Many companies that advertise 40hz to 20khz don't tell you that the ends of that curve are -20db down on the average and thus inaudible. Also, don't take frequency response as an indication of where you should set the crossover point. Whilst a speaker might produce flat output up to 250hz it may start to suffer bad ripple and time domain issues

Ok, now you say that they're 10" and 12" that doesn't seem so bad. In my experience most drivers suffer some bad effects at the extremes of their response curve, and benefit from a low pass filter where they cross to the HF. Ofcourse you may have found a good driver which rolls off fairly pleasantly which lessens the amount of hardware in the box, which is always a good thing. Andy, which 10" did you use out of interest?

Do you own some very good subs? Or very large boxes tuned low? If the answer to both of those is no, then you'll be wasting power on frequencies that the box can't play at a level you'll hear over the frequencies it plays well, and also risk damage by overexcursion of the drivers as they'll be unloaded at those frequencies

I always (with very few exceptions) run in summed mono. Stereo is only really beneficial if you happen to be in the 'sweet spot' otherwise you just end up hearing the speaker you happen to be closest to. If you go into a venue that has their own PA and does mainly bands, you'll find its normally in mono anyway.

Unfortunately the customer that might have heard of a brand name won't necessarily have the knowledge to know whether its any good or not, just that they HAVE heard of it. (and in many cases the more often they have heard it, the better they think it is) If you quote names like Behringer, Carlsbro, Wharfedale, etc then you're likely to get a nod at some point. Mention Klarke Technic, BSS, XTA, ASS, etc and you're very likely not to.

Sometimes i'll get asked to provide sound or lighting for an event and money will be mentioned as being tight right up front. In those situations i'll ask them what their budget is and prepare a FULL quote around the price they mention. Normally we then go through and add on bits that'll make the most difference for least extra outlay.

As in work out what key the tune is in?

Thats quite a good demo, it really shows how snappy the gobo and colour wheels are. It's amazing how thats come on with lighter internal components compared to only a few years ago. My Martin 518's are significantly slower than my Robe lights. If you're worried about storage, i'd seriously consider getting some cases too. I think Thomann may well do some for them already.

If its good gear it probably won't have though, and will be backed up by a decent warranty from the manufacturer, even if the supplier won't extend one. Knowing that a QSC PL6 has been out and ragged to within an inch of its life for 20 gigs wouldn't put me off buying it in any way.

Pareshj - if you are seriously going to spend £900 on some scans, get something like those Eurolite's i PM'ed you about. Ok, they'll have to come from Germany but its not difficult to arrange, and they are 250w DISCHARGE effects, with dimming. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EUROLITE-TS-8-DMX-Sc...1QQcmdZViewItem There are a number of shops that do them, some even take paypal so its easier than the wire transfer. About £210 each with lamp. Edit: sorry linked to the ELC version, here's the correct one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EUROLITE-TS-255-DMX-...1QQcmdZViewItem

If its proper pro gear then ex demo could mean its been gigged. If i want to try out some prospective new amps, there are a number of the major manufacturers who will bring a rack to a gig so i can test in a real environment, and A-B test against current stuff.

Basically if you shift a magnet, get a new driver. The process involved in recentring a pole piece is simply too costly to make it worthwhile. I've had speakers drop onto their sides off other cabs, and the only things broken to date have been where the compression driver has ripped itself off the horn. Although they have all been neo magnets so the stress would have been significantly less than another magnet material.

I think that in some cases you do get what you pay for (Technics SL12xx decks being fine examples of something that are just 'worth' every penny), you can also get good cheap stuff (some Behringer stuff like the Ultradrive is obscenely good value for money) My speakers are home built but they are loaded with the finest drivers (for the application, not just the finest drivers available - big difference), because in that department, you tend to get what you pay for. I also use expensive amps because of the after sales support/turnaround if something goes wrong, and they perform very well