Good Value Bubble Machine

Posted in: Equipment By: Matt On: 19th Jan 2011

A bubble machine can be a good addition to any party not just a kids party! Using UV fluids to make the bubbles glow under UV light can look awesome, provided you don't use cheap UV fluid. However what's the best bubble machine to go for? You can spend between £14 - £380 on a bubble machine, the question is what's a sensible price to pay. Well I found the Chauvet B-250 Bubble Machine. The Chauvet B-250 sells for around £62.00, it is easy to put the fluid in the machine and the machine is easy to operate. Ideal for those with more sense than money.

Covering Your DJ Stand

Posted in: Equipment By: Matt On: 19th Jan 2011

Sooooo every DJ has some form of stand to put his mixer and his Decks/CD Players on but all those cables, cds and peices of kit can just look a mess to your audience. My DJ stand is a Standforce 6 foot wide stand that takes 5 minutes to take down and put back up. When in peices it is very small and is easy to transport but like most it's not that pretty. Ok so most DJs would opt for a Starcloth to cover their stand. They are the cheapest costing around £130 to buy they fold up making them compact and lightweight. However "oh dear" every DJ owns one of these and quite frankly I'm bored of seeing them used for discos, so what other options are there?

So there are the conventional light boxes ok so you dont see these around so much anymore. They'll set you back around £232 if you want something big enough to cover your DJ stand. There downfall is that they take up alot of space, they're heavy, and they're hard work. Ok so what else is there?

Well if you're willing to spend the cash there are now LED light boxes out by both LEDJ owned by Prolight and also American DJ make them. Well the one that caught my eye was the LEDJ Syncro Wall two 4 x 4 foot panels that stay in sync with sound to light preprogrammed patterns and because it's LED the patterns are far more bright and crisp compared  to conventional lightboxes that use triangles painted on a peice of plastic. The two panels would fold onto eachother to save as much room as possible and the fact it used LEDs made it relatively light considering it's size. The LEDJ Syncro Wall would have set you back around £800 but unfortunatly Prolight discontinued this product due to stability/reliability issues.

The Alternative is the LEDJ Syncro Screens. One Syncro Screen consists of two 1.5 x 3 foot panels that fold together, therefore two Syncro Screens is enough to cover a 6 foot stand. In the end this is what I bought. Unfortunatly these screens don't have a master slave system therefore to keep them in sync you need a lighting controller with a built in mic. Each Syncro Screen uses 194 DMX channels (97 channels per panel) therefore to sync two Syncro Screens you need a lighting controller capable of dealing with at least 388 channels. In total this set up will cost you around £1050 but it will really set you apart from most DJs and give you a fantastic disco.

Prolight is bringing out a new product called the LEDJ Qube Pix System it's bigger than the Syncro Wall and has far better animations/effects than any product so far. Also it's made up of 12 small panels put together making it easier to transport and store. You can see a video of it in action on Prolight's website. If you want to order you one of these it will set you back about £809. This wasn't around when I was looking and it is a cheaper buy than my Syncro Screen System but I can't say I have any huge regrets.

Lattice Barn Jam Nights

Posted in: Gigs By: Matt On: 19th Jan 2011

Ok so some may know of the Lattice Barn Pub in Ipswich others may not. Well the staff are lovely including the land lady. The locals are pretty good too. A peer of mine who does sound and light events too told me that Lattice Barn were doing Jam/Open Mic nights and that he was being hired as the sound engineer and providing the equipment needed for the event. He asked me if he could borrow some mic stands and I said yes. I went down and checked out the event and it was quite good fun and there was some good amount of talent there. Anyway my friend can no longer do the event so I took over back in September 2010. It only pays £30 for what is effectively a 6 hour job but it's good fun. The Jam night takes place once a month between 8:00pm - 12:00pm. All forms of muscians, singers and artsists are welcome. Below I've listed the equipment I provide for the event:
  • Mixer - Allen and Heath ZED 22FX
  • Amp - Intimidation 1400 Watt Stereo Amp
  • Speakers - 2 x Wharfedale 200 Watt (RMS) SVP-15 Top Speakers
  • CD Player - Numark NDX 800 (used for backing tracks and music between performances)
  • Microphones - 3 x EV N/D967 Microphones
  • Wireless Microphone - Trantec S4.4md Handheld Microphone
  • Microphone Stands x 3
  • Audio Signal Cables
I'm considering using a Behringer Feedback Destroyer Pro FBQ 2496 for this event but we'll see how things play out first!