connecting Ipod to function room PA indtead of DJ

no1girliegirl

Connecting the Ipod to the hotels function room PA system seems to be a good way of saving money and I'm just wondering if anybody has connected their Ipod or even Laptop to a function room PA system and how did it work out??

I tested it on the function room and the quality seemed fine but any feedback from anybody who has actually done this would be appreciated.

clint_silver

no1girliegirl wrote: »

Connecting the Ipod to the hotels function room PA system seems to be a good way of saving money and I'm just wondering if anybody has connected their Ipod or even Laptop to a function room PA system and how did it work out??

I tested it on the function room and the quality seemed fine but any feedback from anybody who has actually done this would be appreciated.

Ive been playing function rooms in hotels in Ireland for 15 years, from memory I can only think of 2 venues out of about 150 that have a sound system thats half decent enough to play music through that would be good enough for a disco/function. The rest are only PA type announcement or background music type systems.
Ask the hotel/ what they think but you wouldnt want to be there on the night with people asking you to turn it up and the venue saying thats as loud as it gets.

If you really want to go that route you can hire equipment. Ring a DJ equipment hire company and tell them what you want to do and theyll gie you the equipment...
from an ipod youll need a stereo 1/8 inch connection to whatever connection the speakers take which if theyre active will either be speakon, 1/4 inch or XLR.
2 active 300w tops with stands will do you with a gobo light sitting in the midddle.
(easy huh? )

Name the hotel and either I or one of the other lads on here should be able to tell you whether the system is good enough. also where youre based and youll get the name of a good hire company.

If its 200e to rent the gear (most likely) you could get a pro dj for 300e if you look around and youd save yourself the hassle.

Savman

no1girliegirl wrote: »

Connecting the Ipod to the hotels function room PA system seems to be a good way of saving money and I'm just wondering if anybody has connected their Ipod or even Laptop to a function room PA system and how did it work out??

I tested it on the function room and the quality seemed fine but any feedback from anybody who has actually done this would be appreciated.

Please do not try this under any circumstances, for your own sake and that of your guests. Most hotel systems are primarily designed for speech and background music only, hence why they are small, hidden and unobtrusive. Frankly I'm amazed any hotel worth it's salt would even consider letting you do this, the likelihood is that you will blow a speaker when things get carried away on the night, helped by the presence of alcohol, no doubt.

It only takes 15-20 people on a dancefloor to soak up all the output from a normal PA that's designed for the task, so you're attempting to defy the laws of physics.

Do you even know how to operate a PA? Even a bog standard system will set you back €150+, and systems in that price range still won't really be up to the task.

Hiring a DJ would probably cost you double that but make no mistake, it would be money well spent. Anything else is a false economy.

For the record, I've seen this stunt attempted before, by a pair of student DJ geniuses and the result was the most pathetic thing I'd ever witnessed. It would've been hilarious if it wasn't so tragic.

Missus, hire a DJ ffs.

John Mason

my cousin done this for his wedding last September, it was perfect

we also done it ourselves for a 30th party in a pub, again no problems

Toots

I'd say hire a DJ too. I was at a 21st with maybe 50 people at it where they did this, and it was really awful. You could barely hear the music over the background noise of conversations etc. Nobody was dancing cos they couldn't hear the music, the dancefloor was empty the whole night.

Another thing is, how will you do things like requests? Or what if a song isn't a crowd pleaser? A DJ will be able to judge what sort of music is getting the guests dancing, and they'll take requests, an iPod can't do this. Most DJs also have a lighting rig of some sort too.

DJs aren't too expensive, about €500 should get you a good one and it'll definitely be money well spent. Also, if you do end up blowing a speaker or similar in the hotel, you might find it will cost you about that to replace any damaged equipment.

Clareman

I really wouldn't do this, as everyone else has mentioned, the sound quality will be very poor, but also, are you going to spend time putting together a play list for 4 hours worth of music? Also, who is going to pause it when the evening food comes out? What happens when a specific song is wanted? etc. etc.

Anyway, if you have your heart set on it, you could either hook the ipod directly to the central control for the hotel's sound system, just a straight cable usually, you'd have to look first and then get a cable, you could also hook it up to 1 of the microphone points in the room.

sweetie

Obviously, I would say hire a dj also but just wanted to add a recent experience from a top dublin city centre hotel.

Pa system was hired to provide for speeches at an event and during setup a
member of management informs (quite pompously) us that the room is wired for sound and wouldn't need our services. The system was left in situ as it was delivered and lo and behold when it came to doing the speeches the house pa wouldn't work and the hire Pa was used.

Any good dj will incorporate backup equipment in their transport in the event
of problems with the main system -don't risk the biggest day of your life being ruined for the sake of a couple of hundred quid.

hunnymonster

I've only been to one wedding where this was done and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I have similar tastes in music to the B&G and they played what they wanted rather than the genertic wedding stuff. I know DJ's will tell you they will adjust to your taste but sweet caroline is always going to be in there isn't it? It was quite a small wedding though so probably never more than 30 people dancing at any given time but the Hotel's system was well able to handle it.

clint_silver

hunnymonster wrote: »

I've only been to one wedding where this was done and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I have similar tastes in music to the B&G and they played what they wanted rather than the genertic wedding stuff. I know DJ's will tell you they will adjust to your taste but sweet caroline is always going to be in there isn't it? It was quite a small wedding though so probably never more than 30 people dancing at any given time but the Hotel's system was well able to handle it.

No, its not....

Theres a timing issue as well, AFAIR the venue OP is on about is a 2am finish. without knowing what time meals and speeches will finish, timing the night is important too.

Nasty_Girl

If you do decide to go down this route please please make sure you bring a backup iPod or mp3 player/laptop and charger.

I know that's obvious but you know

One other thing, can you set up the ipod so the songs blend into each other or will there be a small pause between songs?

clint_silver

Nasty_Girl wrote: »

If you do decide to go down this route please please make sure you bring a backup iPod or mp3 player/laptop and charger.

I know that's obvious but you know

One other thing, can you set up the ipod so the songs blend into each other or will there be a small pause between songs?

iPods wont let you mix with the onboard player, you can purchase an app to do it but very messy.

To be honest, despite advice from several posters to the contrary, if anyone is hell bent on doing your own thing Id recommend you dont use an ipod but use a laptop instead, it'll be easier to pick songs and playlists, youll need the same cables and you can use dj software to mix.
There are several free lite versions of pro software out there, ( every DJ will have his own favorite piece of software ), but this is a free (open source) tool that Ive demo'd and found decent for what it is.
http://mixxx.org/

Menas

Toots* wrote: »

Or what if a song isn't a crowd pleaser? A DJ will be able to judge what sort of music is getting the guests dancing, and they'll take requests, an iPod can't do this.

This is a key reason not to do it IMO. A DJ can see what is working and what is not working and adjust accordingly.
At our wedding, and we are touching 40, the DJ read the crowd excellently. He took our list of desired songs, played some of them and threw in a lot of other stuff that others in the crowd loved. Dance floor was popping all night.

Also, did a great job in 'seeing the night out' as 2am approached.

Breaktown

We're planning on doing this with a laptop. My Dad has his own gear so we can hook up to that. I don't mind making up a playlist and my H2B has loads of songs if there's any requests. I'm sure we'll find someone to keep an eye on things on the day.

clint_silver

Breaktown wrote: »

We're planning on doing this with a laptop. My Dad has his own gear so we can hook up to that. I don't mind making up a playlist and my H2B has loads of songs if there's any requests. I'm sure we'll find someone to keep an eye on things on the day.

Is it to dance to or to listen to? whats your first 10 and last 10 songs? What times last song? 2am? If your speeches end at around 8 o'clock, have you 6 hours of dancefloor music? Are your playlists broken up by genre? Is it levelled and has your media player mixing software?

Just some things to think about.

Super-Rush

Whichever way you go op make sure you let your guests know in advance. Some people like to dance remember. Unless you download specific Djing sofware capable of automixing your playlist you're at nothing expecting people to dance. Theres nothing worse than a 5 second gap between songs and a lot of songs have long intros and longer outros that you can't dance to.

Also you do need to know what kind of music goes together. Theres no point having ACDC blasting out Highway To Hell when its followed with Lilly Allen telling us all Its Not Fair.

It is your choice at then end of the day, but imo its the wrong choice.

jimmycrackcorm

you'd have to be an idiot to use an iPod. It can't play music anywhere near as good as proper pc software that will level and beat mix the music. If you want to in down this route then do the preparation before by selecting the right music sets and timing it for the night. A lot of pubs run automated systems now that play music well but the software and the choice of playlists prepared make all the difference. However a proper dj will make a huge difference. I know i wouldn't chance my wedding with it but a party would be ok to do it.

quad_red

Mmmm.

This is what we were planning to do but I'm having second thoughts now.

The venue is Fallon & Byrne. We were planning to use the band's speaker system with an ipod/laptop (the venue's PA system not being capable of running anything but background music).

With costs mounting we're trying to juggle a good few things. And the questions of:
Professional DJ
Professional videographer

are rolling around in my head.

prinz

OP, did that at mine, rented the equipment and hooked it up to a laptop. It was perfect. We had exactly the music we wanted, not what some dj thought we wanted etc. The volume worked, there was no blowing speakers/ drink mishaps/ etc. We got the speakers system for 250€ which included a technician to set them up for us, do the cabling for free standing speakers around the room, stayed in case of problems and then took it down after the wedding, all we had to do was make the playlist and bring the laptop on the day. Saved about €500 over having a 'dj'.

Toots

I think a laptop would be OK, it'd be easier to shuffle things around on that than it would be to use an iPod though.

sweetie

For my own wedding I premixed in advance about ten 20-25 min sections - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, britpop/grunge, electronic/indie, r'n'b/hip-hop etc. Each song was only about 2 mins and there were no intros or outros to break the flow. Connected the laptop to my pa (which I setup the day before the wedding) and set up the playlist on virtual dj. I had a mate who would skip to the next section if I gave him the nod but we pretty much played through the whole thing. Still had people dancing when I had to turn it off about 4 as we were retiring and I didn't want to leave the pa gear lying around. I still use the list as a sample for prospective clients as it covers all the bases required. I'd be happy to give advice on how to do this if anyone requires.

Breaktown

clint_silver wrote: »

Is it to dance to or to listen to? whats your first 10 and last 10 songs? What times last song? 2am? If your speeches end at around 8 o'clock, have you 6 hours of dancefloor music? Are your playlists broken up by genre? Is it levelled and has your media player mixing software?

Just some things to think about.

It's to dance to and I'm dividing songs into genres. I do intend to get some proper software. What sort of songs/genre should the first/last ten songs be?

denhaagenite

To be honest we originally wanted to do this and we warned off it by other people. I'm between two minds about it now, I can get my hands on equipment and lights easily enough. We were only going to be handing the dj a playlist that was perfected to a T and telling him not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, to deviate from it.

I hate the crap that gets played at weddings, by bands and djs. Maybe we should make this a poll but is the general consensus that it's only a good idea if you have the equipment? I know it sound cheap but I'm dying to save money on this, we don't want cash gifts from people...

sweetie

denhaagenite wrote: »

To be honest we originally wanted to do this and we warned off it by other people. I'm between two minds about it now, I can get my hands on equipment and lights easily enough. We were only going to be handing the dj a playlist that was perfected to a T and telling him not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, to deviate from it.

I hate the crap that gets played at weddings, by bands and djs. Maybe we should make this a poll but is the general consensus that it's only a good idea if you have the equipment? I know it sound cheap but I'm dying to save money on this, we don't want cash gifts from people...

generally they will play what the wedding couple request and as most
weddings will straddle the age range from toddlers to grandparents it has
cover all bases.

I would happily play a set of pavement b sides if a couple wanted

anyways, have a look at this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXj4P3iz2yg

clint_silver

denhaagenite wrote: »

To be honest we originally wanted to do this and we warned off it by other people. I'm between two minds about it now, I can get my hands on equipment and lights easily enough. We were only going to be handing the dj a playlist that was perfected to a T and telling him not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, to deviate from it.

I hate the crap that gets played at weddings, by bands and djs. Maybe we should make this a poll but is the general consensus that it's only a good idea if you have the equipment? I know it sound cheap but I'm dying to save money on this, we don't want cash gifts from people...

If you have the equipment. If you have the music. If you have the software. If you know how to use it. Do. If you dont. Dont.

Otherwise put your mixes together.

ok, auntie Pauline likes sister sledge...but youve downloaded the 7 minute version and youll be hoping for the end of the world near the end of it... but you dont know you should be using the 3:30 version....

Later on, put on some club, why isnt black eyed peas at 125bpm going into Kid Cudi at 128. I mean, Im mixing them ok arent I, why is the beat off, how do you kill the kick on this filter?

Later on, get some indie on, oh great some depeche mode, everyone likes depeche mode, lets play a 10 minute depeche mode mix....I love this song, place will be hopping......(will it?)

Maybe some killers or Leons or temper trap or vampire weekend or wolfmother or pixies or pumpkins or crooked vultures or metallica. Ah feck it I'll just listen to some of them for a while....

you still have 6 hours mixing to do for your wedding.... but really youve got 8 hours to do in case some of the songs aint working. In which case you should have 12 hours done cos if the first 6 hours didnt work, chances are the other 2 spare hours dont either.

If you get a good DJ and give him 10-15 songs and say you want all those in, he'll get them all in and he'll keep it all around that genre unless told to play a bit of cheese later one. If he knows his business he'll know the genre

If youve been at a wedding and heard a DJ play cheesey stuff that has most of the dancefloor full all night, its because he was asked to do that or he wasnt told anything at all, either way the floor is full so hes doing his job. If youre listening to a DJ play cheese that has the floor empty, youre not listening to a good DJ. But dont write off the other DJ cos you didnt like hs songs, judge him on the floor, not on the music.

It's to dance to and I'm dividing songs into genres. I do intend to get some proper software. What sort of songs/genre should the first/last ten songs be?

i put a link near the start of this thread on free software but even to play around with get lite or free versions of virtual DJ, pcdj, mastermix or traktor.

What first songs? well for me it differs every night, depends on the age of the crowd, what songs I was given to play, what songs the band finished up on, where the crowd are from, how long is left after the band... standard 2.5 3 hour gig with late 20s early 30s crowd would probably be some latest chart club music, R&B, if that was working keep it at that for 25-30 minutes, if Im getting requests for same type of genre then keep going. If some of the oldies are looking exasperated then maybe change it, michael jackson always works, but for me he needs a good bit of mixing, theres a lot of fade out fade in time on his songs, maybe some indie if the lads are up.. ramjam, acdc, stone roses, wannadies, really differs every night but Id have my regulars that I know work.
Last ten songs is the same principle as the first ten, whats the crowd like, could be all oldies up in which case Id go all rocknroll, could be rockin it with the lads, rage against machine, eminem, Gnr...... judge the crowd...try and have them hanging off the rafters by judging them with the right song at right time.
Im getting some songs ready now for thursday night, looking at last 3 weddings I played, the last song on each repective night was Nightboat to cairo by madness, all these things by the killers and dirty old town by the pogues. Different strokes for different Folks.

denhaagenite

clint_silver wrote: »

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If you have the equipment. If you have the music. If you have the software. If you know how to use it. Do. If you dont. Dont.

Otherwise put your mixes together.

ok, auntie Pauline likes sister sledge...but youve downloaded the 7 minute version and youll be hoping for the end of the world near the end of it... but you dont know you should be using the 3:30 version....

Later on, put on some club, why isnt black eyed peas at 125bpm going into Kid Cudi at 128. I mean, Im mixing them ok arent I, why is the beat off, how do you kill the kick on this filter?

Later on, get some indie on, oh great some depeche mode, everyone likes depeche mode, lets play a 10 minute depeche mode mix....I love this song, place will be hopping......(will it?)

Maybe some killers or Leons or temper trap or vampire weekend or wolfmother or pixies or pumpkins or crooked vultures or metallica. Ah feck it I'll just listen to some of them for a while....

you still have 6 hours mixing to do for your wedding.... but really youve got 8 hours to do in case some of the songs aint working. In which case you should have 12 hours done cos if the first 6 hours didnt work, chances are the other 2 spare hours dont either.

If you get a good DJ and give him 10-15 songs and say you want all those in, he'll get them all in and he'll keep it all around that genre unless told to play a bit of cheese later one. If he knows his business he'll know the genre

If youve been at a wedding and heard a DJ play cheesey stuff that has most of the dancefloor full all night, its because he was asked to do that or he wasnt told anything at all, either way the floor is full so hes doing his job. If youre listening to a DJ play cheese that has the floor empty, youre not listening to a good DJ. But dont write off the other DJ cos you didnt like hs songs, judge him on the floor, not on the music.

Well the problem is I haven't seen a full dancefloor for a while now. And 10- 15 songs?? That's only about an hours worth of music.... At your own wedding!! To be honest I would be gutted, the music is the most important bit to me as by the time the wedding rolls around, we will be legally married about a year and a half already... We just want great food and drinks, great people and savage choons .

We have a small knowledge of how to work the software and I'm leaving it up to himself to gain more, that youtube clip is complete bs- obviously there was absolutely no preparation put into it. They had a mic in front of a speaker dock and the venue wasn't a hotel, it was someone's back garden! And for some weird reason the bride and groom seemed to have to dance with every member of eachother's families.....

If we do this it will be with the proper preparation. Laptop, playlists, soundgear, lights. We're going to two weddings this year so we'll see how it goes. It's appealing to me not to have to think about it, and it's not really about the money, but even people I know who said they discussed with dj what to play- it just didn't realy come across to me on the night

prinz

denhaagenite wrote: »

If we do this it will be with the proper preparation. Laptop, playlists, soundgear, lights. We're going to two weddings this year so we'll see how it goes. It's appealing to me not to have to think about it, and it's not really about the money, but even people I know who said they discussed with dj what to play- it just didn't realy come across to me on the night

If you prepare well and have access to the gear I would definitely recommend going for laptop as source. If you do, it would be worth organising someone to stay with it though for the night. The guy who did our soundgear and lights watched the laptop for us.

clint_silver

Sorry, maybe misunderstood, on the 10-15 songs, I was intimating that they should be as a guide for genre's that the couple want played not that the 10-15 is all that would be played. If DJ on all night 8pm - 2am is 6 hours that will be played. average dance song mixed in and out is 3 minutes so youre looking at about 120 songs.

If DJ going on after the band DJ would usually play anything from 1.5 to 3 hours depending on band finish time and hotel last song time.


I take your point about asking DJ to play songs and half full dance floors, it most certainly does happen, I PM'd you a website with a couple of vids, see the dancefloor where Im DJing, dancefloor is full and heaving but it would have taken a while to build up to that, thats the kind of floor that can be got if right songs are played.. (Im only sending it as an example of what a full dancefloor can look like at a wedding, Im not touting business )

sweetie

here's some rules I think should be followed to do this properly:

1. hire a decent pa with sub (a single sub can often be enough) rather than just tops as decent bass will get people moving. make sure you have enough watts for the amount of people - rule of thumb is 5 watts per person but i would go as far as 1kw system like this if possible to give adequate headroom. an active pa will also be easier to setup and less chance of blowing speakers etc.

2. Use mp3gain to normalise all the songs to the same level

3. download virtual dj demo and if it has the option (like the full version) of
mixing the tracks for you (choose to do it using the option of remove intro/outro and you will fit more songs into your set and minimise people stopping dancing and wondering what the next song is ) and record the output to mp3/wav in sets of approx 20 mins

4. group songs by genre if possible rather than jumping to different genres as this can disrupt the flow on the floor - obviously one will need to move to other eras and styles of music and that's where a good dj will use bridging tracks eg. 80s to 00s you could use MJ 'wanna be startin' somethin'' mixed into Rihanna 'Don't stop the music' (they sample the same original song) or follow a seventies track with a hip hop song using a hook from another seventies song (a lot do but can be trickier)

5. have plenty of extra music mixed as if something isn't working you can swiftly switch to the next group of songs

6. use laptop ideally but have the mixes on a mp3 player (or cd) also in case of an issue with your playout source

7. make sure someone other than yourself is 'trained' with how the system works and can have a look should an issue arise

8. have a great night

i'm sure clint will add to this if i have forgotten anything

pm me if you require any advice on any of these or help with the mixing
cheers

clint_silver

covered everything sweetie. fair play. Anyone thinking of doing the DIY route should read the above post with care.

Only thing Id add is to have the mixes on cd as well, Im a complete and utter IT geek and use laptops every night but Im so happy Ive my tried and trusted playlists on cd beside me anyway. the old adage, Id rather have them and not need them then....

kingofslaves

Here is another view of iPods at gigs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KWWh6Sv2Nc

kingofslaves

Also you could always use this in the car park!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM3JbBVrZug