Hi all, first post here.
Really looking for some advice or help on a problem I suffered last night and hoping someone here either uses the same equipment as myself or has had a similar problem.
So...yesterday i get to the wedding venue very early at 1pm to set up, the guests are due in at 630 for the meal so im very early and organised, there was quite a bit of lighting and uplighters and I got this done by around 4.
The audio side of things consists of 2 active wharfedale speakers on tripods and 1 active wharfedale sub which connects to the jack output on a Hercules DJ Console RMX which itself connects to a Macbook running virtual DJ software.
I also link a dual cd mixer (mainly as a backup and to control the mic) to the input on the back of the Hercules DJ Console RMX.
So...im all done and everything is working perfectly, all sounds great in the marquee. I went out to my van for an hour to listen to the rest of the football on the radio then returned at 5pm to start compiling their playlist. They are having music throughout the meal so I start playing from a Jazz playlist that is pre compiled in iTUNES. When playing through iTUNES the volume potential is quite a bit lower than when using virtual DJ. I then opened up virtual DJ to cue up and test the first and second dance requests, I then returned to iTUNES to turn down the volume on the jazz as there is now 2 songs playing over each other, one from virtual DJ and one on iTUNES. As i turned the volume down on the slider it also turned down the volume on the virtual DJ application which is something it shouldnt affect and never has in the past 3 years. My first reaction was to turn back up the volume on iTUNES which i did but the volume didnt return to normal, it was a lot quieter.
From this point onwards I am unable to get back the volume on not only virtual dj but also on iTUNES, its like something has reconfigured itself within the laptop. I wasnt sure at first if something had gone wrong with the speaker set up but i hadnt changed anything from when it was all working fine so it had to be within the settings on either the laptop or the virtual DJ. I went through the audio midi set up on the macbook and everything seemed normal.
I restarted the macbook but this made no difference. Its not something that has ever occured before so i was completely stumped.
Anyway, everything was fine for the background music but when I tried to use virtual DJ there was literally no volume at the mixers normal settings, all i could do was push up the gain but by the time i had got to 10 it was distorted, sounded dreadful and at normal disco setting was no louder than background music so I must admit I started to panic a little because I knew that under these circumstances I wouldnt be able to run a disco although I may just get away with the first dance if i pushed the gain up a little as its a quieter song anyway.
So the guests come in at 630, I took this opportunity to go home as i was quite local and picked up 2 spare speakers and an amp hoping that the problem was with the speaker set up.
I was thinking all this through as i was driving back and i started to think that the problem must be with the config on the laptop because obviously everything had been fine for an hour during sound checks plus there was that strange moment when the slider on iTUNES affected virtual DJ.
When i got back to the venue i had to wait until the short turnaround time after the breakfast and speeches were complete, but following this the problem still remained so i put a cd into the mixer. The speaker system was functioning perfectly but still not with virtual DJ and iTUNES so it is definately somethign within the laptop part of the set up.
I spoke to the bride and groom and explained everything which obviously concerned them especially i had a pre compiled playlist for them through the laptop. In the end I managed to get out their first dance, they then wanted Flo Rida "Low" which was just impossible so i switched to CDs on the mixer which i havnt used for about 2 years as a mixer. I havnt got anything on CD probably from the last 2 years as everything has been going through the virtual dj/hercules console. Anyway they were into their commercial rnb type stuff so i just raked up 50 or so CDs from the last 5 years that was similar artists but older songs and chucked in some Michael Jackson and some 90s favs.
The crowd were half sri lankan and half english, there was very little alcohol consumed and they were a very quiet crowd overall so if it was going to happen then it could have happened on worse nights, the couple also said that they expected it might have broken up by 11 as it was a lot of older sri lankan family. As it turned out the bride and her friends were up dancing for a couple of hours and i managed to see it through, someone even tried to book me at one point for a wedding next april, the bride was really happy at the end of the night and said the night went better than she woukd have expected even before the issues arose so in some ways i felt satisfaction that under the c[/LEFT]ircumstances at short notice i had been able to still put in a performance but it has left me feeling very anxious now until i understand the problem before next weekends 2 weddings. One thing for sure is that once a month im going to compile a cd of backup music just in case. I never relaxed all night and felt extrememly stressed as i take this job very seriously and always prepare well for a function, it has also made me anxious that a problem arose that i didnt know the solution to and left me feeling unconfident with my set up
If anyone uses this configuration of equipment or knows what the problem is your advice would be invaluable so i can start planning and looking forward to next weekend rather than counting down the days with fear
Really looking for some advice or help on a problem I suffered last night and hoping someone here either uses the same equipment as myself or has had a similar problem.
So...yesterday i get to the wedding venue very early at 1pm to set up, the guests are due in at 630 for the meal so im very early and organised, there was quite a bit of lighting and uplighters and I got this done by around 4.
The audio side of things consists of 2 active wharfedale speakers on tripods and 1 active wharfedale sub which connects to the jack output on a Hercules DJ Console RMX which itself connects to a Macbook running virtual DJ software.
I also link a dual cd mixer (mainly as a backup and to control the mic) to the input on the back of the Hercules DJ Console RMX.
So...im all done and everything is working perfectly, all sounds great in the marquee. I went out to my van for an hour to listen to the rest of the football on the radio then returned at 5pm to start compiling their playlist. They are having music throughout the meal so I start playing from a Jazz playlist that is pre compiled in iTUNES. When playing through iTUNES the volume potential is quite a bit lower than when using virtual DJ. I then opened up virtual DJ to cue up and test the first and second dance requests, I then returned to iTUNES to turn down the volume on the jazz as there is now 2 songs playing over each other, one from virtual DJ and one on iTUNES. As i turned the volume down on the slider it also turned down the volume on the virtual DJ application which is something it shouldnt affect and never has in the past 3 years. My first reaction was to turn back up the volume on iTUNES which i did but the volume didnt return to normal, it was a lot quieter.
From this point onwards I am unable to get back the volume on not only virtual dj but also on iTUNES, its like something has reconfigured itself within the laptop. I wasnt sure at first if something had gone wrong with the speaker set up but i hadnt changed anything from when it was all working fine so it had to be within the settings on either the laptop or the virtual DJ. I went through the audio midi set up on the macbook and everything seemed normal.
I restarted the macbook but this made no difference. Its not something that has ever occured before so i was completely stumped.
Anyway, everything was fine for the background music but when I tried to use virtual DJ there was literally no volume at the mixers normal settings, all i could do was push up the gain but by the time i had got to 10 it was distorted, sounded dreadful and at normal disco setting was no louder than background music so I must admit I started to panic a little because I knew that under these circumstances I wouldnt be able to run a disco although I may just get away with the first dance if i pushed the gain up a little as its a quieter song anyway.
So the guests come in at 630, I took this opportunity to go home as i was quite local and picked up 2 spare speakers and an amp hoping that the problem was with the speaker set up.
I was thinking all this through as i was driving back and i started to think that the problem must be with the config on the laptop because obviously everything had been fine for an hour during sound checks plus there was that strange moment when the slider on iTUNES affected virtual DJ.
When i got back to the venue i had to wait until the short turnaround time after the breakfast and speeches were complete, but following this the problem still remained so i put a cd into the mixer. The speaker system was functioning perfectly but still not with virtual DJ and iTUNES so it is definately somethign within the laptop part of the set up.
I spoke to the bride and groom and explained everything which obviously concerned them especially i had a pre compiled playlist for them through the laptop. In the end I managed to get out their first dance, they then wanted Flo Rida "Low" which was just impossible so i switched to CDs on the mixer which i havnt used for about 2 years as a mixer. I havnt got anything on CD probably from the last 2 years as everything has been going through the virtual dj/hercules console. Anyway they were into their commercial rnb type stuff so i just raked up 50 or so CDs from the last 5 years that was similar artists but older songs and chucked in some Michael Jackson and some 90s favs.
The crowd were half sri lankan and half english, there was very little alcohol consumed and they were a very quiet crowd overall so if it was going to happen then it could have happened on worse nights, the couple also said that they expected it might have broken up by 11 as it was a lot of older sri lankan family. As it turned out the bride and her friends were up dancing for a couple of hours and i managed to see it through, someone even tried to book me at one point for a wedding next april, the bride was really happy at the end of the night and said the night went better than she woukd have expected even before the issues arose so in some ways i felt satisfaction that under the c[/LEFT]ircumstances at short notice i had been able to still put in a performance but it has left me feeling very anxious now until i understand the problem before next weekends 2 weddings. One thing for sure is that once a month im going to compile a cd of backup music just in case. I never relaxed all night and felt extrememly stressed as i take this job very seriously and always prepare well for a function, it has also made me anxious that a problem arose that i didnt know the solution to and left me feeling unconfident with my set up
If anyone uses this configuration of equipment or knows what the problem is your advice would be invaluable so i can start planning and looking forward to next weekend rather than counting down the days with fear