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SOUND advice needed by an utter amateur

SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
edited September 2007 in Strut Central
I've been roped into handling the music for my Sister's wedding.Don't need advice on music (messing that up all on my own) but amstarting to freak out about the technical side of it. Here's the thing - the entire wedding, service & reception, is at herhouse, indoors. The house is large but she also has 100 confirmed guests.I wasn't too worried about getting equipment, because I figured for asmall space my home set-up of receiver, cd player, turntables & mixer would beenough, and that I could rent or borrow 2 pair of decent speakers torun off of it.But now I'm worried. Sound placement, in a crowded area, is touchy.I am running a serious risk of having the music be a nuisance or distractionbased solely on it's location, sort of one small area in a crowded house.So I guess my question is this - how important is it to spread out speakersin this situation and cover a large area, or can I just have the sound comingfrom the source area and not be irrelevant/annoying? And do I need to feverishlyrent more adequate equipment (no ayo) ?The main area where I'll be set up is 2 rooms that sort of look likea birds-eye view of a figure 8, with me set up in the top, facing out.Help.Alternate Title: HOW TO ROCK A HOUSE PARTY, BUT WITH AMBIENCE?!

  Comments

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    Oh, and one thing I should mention - most of the music
    will be pre-recorded, cause I want to hang at my Sister's
    wedding and have fun, but I am most likely going to do a
    live thing to get people dancing or whatnot. So that's why
    I say I kind of want it to be "background" music for much
    of the time, not so much rocking the crowd as a goal.
  • hugh_lucerohugh_lucero 485 Posts
    From experience hire some powered/integrated speakers - they are cheap, come with long cord options and will not give out. The last thing you want on the day is to blow your amp / a fuse / your speakers / have stress. I've seen this happen many many times before

    I'd suggest 4 * 15 inch JBL Eon's
    Sound is adjustable on each speaker, they come with stands too

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    ^^^ this is good shit! ^^^

    Thanks. That was perfect. I hope I can get those in time.

    Still taking any advice on placement. I guess with the 4
    speaker set up, 2 in the room with the system, and the other two
    in the adjoing room, on the far end, facing back, maybe at a lower
    volume? Well, I have the night before to set up, so I guess I can
    work it out then. I wish I hadn't put this part off until the last
    minute ... where's that Ako thread?


    lots of Sinatra & Al Green
  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    I wouldn't worry too much about any fancy speaker set-up. If people are going to be dancing / partying later, you'll need to load speakers, but if it's just for abmience you'll be ok with (good) hifi speakers. Also, if people are going to be dancing you may need to check the position of your table with the decks on, as it may bounce.

    I did something similar for my partents anniversary recently, and for the background music part of the day, I burnt a dvd full of mp3's and played it on random. If you have a dvd player capable of playing mp3s (most modern ones will) it works well, as you can just put it on and forget about it.
  • bass_feverbass_fever 974 Posts
    The aforementioned JBL Eons will work great or Mackie's version, the SRM450's which actually sound better...But, just put them on speaker stands to about ear level and aim at the dance floor, the party will be rocked!
  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    SoI, we rented the above joints for our wedding, which was all done on turntables, and in a bigass tent, and they got the job done.

    We rented through Daddy's Junky Music...around $200 for Friday/Saturday/Sunday. DON'T TELL THEM IT'S FOR A WEDDING. Prices will double if you do... just way you need it for a house party.

    That's all I remember...Sorry this is all I could offer for help .
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