Need Advice on djaying and Lighting any help would be great

[HoTDaWg]

hi,

im going to be hosting a dance at my school in march and i was wondering if there are any djs or people who understand the equipment who can help answer a few of my questions. Basically this is what i want to do:

For sound:
**sound system= a kind of black standing structure which when plugged into the correct outlets allows you to adjust the volume and frequency of mics. The sound system also features a cassette and cd player feature.
a laptop allows me to choose/change the songs->The audio is sent to a mixer->The mixer outputs the music onto our schools sound system->The sound system forwards the music to our gym's speakers and also onto additional speakers which we will be renting. [b]Is this possible?[/b]

For lighting:
**Lighting main control= a kind of setup we have at our school which you basically plug the FX into and which allows us to control the pot lights. it is this setup that basically all lights are connected too. This control has 8 on and off switches for the lights on the stage. and i believe 3 additional outlets so u can plug things such as lighting towers into it.
**FX= the fx enables us to adjust the brightness of whatever lights are connected to the lighting main control. our fx has a record feature where u can record a specific group of lights. our FX also enables MIDI and a flash feature. I dont know what model it is but i know the company is Strand.

our schools lighting FX is plugged into the sound system in order to have MIDI set up-> Now, im not sure if this is possible but an additional box is added to our Lighting Main Control which basically has more outlets so u can plug additional lights into it. The additional lights are lights which we will be renting such as black lights etc.->The rented lights are controlled through the FX and can be connected to MIDI just like all the other lights[b]Is this possible?[/b]

any help again would be greatly appreciated we have a very tight deadline for the dance because we still have to rent everything before another school rents it first. its complicated.lol. thanks again.

HoTDaWg

[ober]

No offense, but don't you think these questions would be better asked on an audio/video specific site?  We're a bunch of geeks that know programming.... not A/V.

[redbullmarky]

look up your local TV production company. also, some large music recording studios actually hire DJ audio and lighting equipment - at least here in the UK anyway. might be worth checking them out, even if just for getting a pointer in the right direction.

[.josh]

Sounds to me like someone chose the wrong person to take care of all of this.

[steelmanronald06]

I did DJ for my school.  Basically, get you some nice speakers and plug into a mixer board. Then get one of those headphones to mic input cords that you can plug into the headphone section of your laptop and the input of the mixer board. That is your sound.

Go to radio shack and get some strobes, perhaps some can color lights, etc.  Then go to a party store, Toys-R-Us is normally a good place, and buy a couple fog machines...Your all set.  All of the above sound equipment can also be obtained from Radio Shack.

[HoTDaWg]

excellent thanks. ronald. its funny guys, i got more help from phpfreaks than i did from a dj specific site called djforums.com. LONG LIVE PHP FREAKS! Whos laughing now u three doubters :P ;D

[steelmanronald06]

Ha Ha.  Well, I was going to do professional dj work but decided i didn't want to.  Let me give you a piece of advice. If you don't want to pay for equipment there is normally a free route to go, but requires a bit of pleading.

Call your local radio station that plays the same music you want the dance to have, ours was B98 (97.9FM).  Tell them your school is hosting a dance and you need a DJ, and if they would do it they would get advertisement for their Radio Station. Are you getting paid for this?  If so, cut them a bit of the money, but normally they will do anything for a bit of advertisement. 

[HoTDaWg]

[quote author=steelmanronald06 link=topic=120489.msg494335#msg494335 date=1167594423]
Ha Ha.  Well, I was going to do professional dj work but decided i didn't want to.  Let me give you a piece of advice. If you don't want to pay for equipment there is normally a free route to go, but requires a bit of pleading.

Call your local radio station that plays the same music you want the dance to have, ours was B98 (97.9FM).  Tell them your school is hosting a dance and you need a DJ, and if they would do it they would get advertisement for their Radio Station. Are you getting paid for this?  If so, cut them a bit of the money, but normally they will do anything for a bit of advertisement. 
[/quote]
thats actually really good thinking, but our school hired a dj before and we didnt like his work. our school prefers to do it ourselves, so this time i stepped up to the plate and said me and a buddy would take care of it. thanks for your help. we might try that radio calling idea next dance. thanks.

[SharkBait]

I do DJing for some local functions (private organizations, weddings, Company parties) and I use one of my computers for music, that goes into a 3-channel Stanton mixer out to 2x 550W Yorkville speakers.

I also do some lightning with whatever I can find actually ;)  Usual some crazy device that has 32 little windows and a spining/rotating colour disc that is low frequency controlled.

I personally wouldn't go through the gym's speakers, they aren't really designed for music, they are usually for vocals (annoucements etc) but I don't see why would couldnt pass your stuff into them.  I know at the highschool I went to when I played basket ball we would plug our cd players into the control panel and play music through the gym's speakers.  Not great for dancing though ;)