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Epic disaster during mobile dj gig
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Epic disaster during mobile dj gig

StanSilas 4:32 AM - 31 October, 2017
so Oct 27th, I was DJ'ing at a private party . There were about 250 people.

My set up :

Laptop :
Main : Lenovo 16GB Ram core i7 6th gen

Backup: Dell Inspiron 6gb ram (use it for only djing)

Controller:
Numark mixtrack pro 3 ($199) + serato dj intro

Audio Interface/Mixer:
Behringer Eurorack 1204FX mixer ($180)

speakers and sub :
pair of Brand New ALTO TS 212 1100watt powered speakers (~120 db SPL) ($650 for pair)
brand new Mackie Thump 18 inch powered subwoofer ($1200watts) ($667)

Mics :
brand new SAMSON wireless microphones ($249)

Lights :
2 Eliminator Katanas
1 ADJ GoBo
1 ADJ Micro 3D
1 Chauvet red green laser
Eliminator 1000W fog machine

So the gig starts at 6.30, I arrive at 4, finish setup by 5. Perform all sound checks by 5:15-5-20.

I double check everything, everything is perfect.


6:40 : guests start crawling in, 5 become 10 become 50 , I start playing light music.
Something sounds definitely wrong, ...
7:00 pm the crowd is around 100-120 . .
I start playing upbeat music to get people into the grove.
The speakers sound like they are bleeding, and the subwoofer like it were dead.
I check the gains and all levels everything is normal, I'm not even at 60% of the max levels.

7:30 , Speaker two dies randomly. Mics stop working. Shitty sound coming from subwoofer, and somewhat acceptable sounds coming through speaker 1.
I quickly connect my phone to the audio system in the venue and power down my setup, and then swap the inputs on the speaker (alto's have dual inputs).
I turned on my setup again, there is music coming through both speakers,

7:45 - 7:50 . . . Speaker 2 sound goes dead again. I panic, I run to the nearest GC and they kindly swap my broken speaker without any complaints about bill or anything along those lines.

8:15 I speaker two dies again, I swap cables and realize the output from the 2nd channel in mixer is dead , a an idea strikes my mind and I route the audio by daisy chaining both the speakers by using only the working channel from mixer.

8:20 people are dancing, and somehow they end up falling on the speaker 1, the stand gives away, and it falls to the ground shattering the stand into pieces. . while the falling speaker leaves a gash on my cheek while falling on the ground with a super loud noise, narrowly avoiding my head.

8:30-8:40 the subwoofer , which impressively shook the place in GC , now sounds limp , turning knobs doesn't help . . . there is no bass coming out of the speaker.

8:45 the mixer dies out on me completely. I run back to GC (they close at 9)
They have no mixers for rent, but they were kind enough to lend me a brand new xenyx mixer...

I return to the venue, there are ambulances and cops everywhere, it turns out that two kids while playing and jumping around, bang their head into a glass door, one starts bleeding and seeing him the other falls unconscious on the ground and causing him to convulse. . .

Every one is tense . .
9:15 - 10-10:30 no updates about state of the kids. .
10:45 update, that they are safe and out of danger. .
11:00 the sad crowd starts dismissing,The host pays me for the party , I politely refuse it.

Next day I go to GC, I return the equipment, thank them for their help.
I return home and break the mics and mixer into pieces and throw them away.


I have been dj'ing since 4-5 years (2 years club, 3 years mobile dj) but never have I encountered anything like this.
DJ Unique 5:24 AM - 31 October, 2017
SHIT!!!

What a horribly sad event for everyone.
Taipanic 5:00 PM - 31 October, 2017
Hate to say it, but this is why you don't buy crap equipment. Everything on your audio list has terrible reviews for sound quality & reliability - especially for DJ Dance music duty.
You are way better off renting quality gear until you can afford to buy quality gear.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you probably didn't have insurance either. If your speaker stand mishap hasn't scared you shitless of the very bad things that can happen than nothing will. If that speaker had fallen and hit a child you could be looking forward to a stay in a state sponsored living quarters and a lifetime of financial ruin.
To have that many failures of "new" equipment (even this low grade stuff) is unusual. I would really get with someone more experienced with running sound systems and confirm gain structures, limiter settings, proper wiring configurations, etc... It's easy to make mistakes and we all have things to learn - I still learn from every gig I do and various other resources and I've been doing clubs and events for over 30 years.
My advice would be to save enough money to by decent quality gear - at least a few levels from what you bought for this gig - gear that says, EV, Yamaha, QSC, Yorkville, JBL on the side of it. Until then, rent - you can get a good system for a night or two for under $100.
I would also try to team up (or tag along) with some experienced Mobile DJ operators. You
can learn a lot of relevant info pretty quick from a very good Mobile operator. Definitely a different skill set from club & pub work.
Glad you made it through & no one was hurt by anything you were responsible for. Take it as a learning experience and continue to improve your gear and abilities.
DJJOHNNYM_vSL3 5:11 PM - 31 October, 2017
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.
Rebelguy 5:41 PM - 31 October, 2017
Quote:
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.


That gear could easily be ran off a single 15amp circuit with no issues.
lvmez 5:48 PM - 31 October, 2017
Sounds like something electrical or bad cables.

Either way, I have to agree with Taipanic. I tell DJ’s all the time, only buy industry standard equipment. Even if it’s used. I am not a fan of controllers but I owned a DDJSX and had no issues.

Only buy QUALITY Speakers!!!!!! Even if they are used. Purchase HIGH quality mic.

Shake this gig off and learn from it. Good luck.
DJJOHNNYM_vSL3 7:22 PM - 31 October, 2017
Quote:
Quote:
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.


That gear could easily be ran off a single 15amp circuit with no issues.


I'm talking in terms of delivery from the door - Open Ground, Open Neutral, Open Hot, Hot/Ground Reversed, Hot/Neutral Reversed, any of those combinations can wreak havoc without it being turned up.
DJJOHNNYM_vSL3 7:28 PM - 31 October, 2017
BTW, why break up the mics, didn't they work?
Taipanic 8:11 PM - 31 October, 2017
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.


That gear could easily be ran off a single 15amp circuit with no issues.


I'm talking in terms of delivery from the door - Open Ground, Open Neutral, Open Hot, Hot/Ground Reversed, Hot/Neutral Reversed, any of those combinations can wreak havoc without it being turned up.


I did a gig around three weeks ago on a pool deck with some serious power issues. Made one of my new Yamaha DSR112s sound like it was blown, lots of distortion. The two other speakers daisy chained to it sounded fine so it wasn't a cable issue. Really bad hum through both the house system and mine when plugged in. A ground lift made the hum somewhat better and I knew the speaker was fine.
Mr. Goodkat 1:23 AM - 1 November, 2017
Quote:
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.


thats what i thought.
DJJOHNNYM_vSL3 11:15 AM - 1 November, 2017
Quote:
Quote:
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.


thats what i thought.


And then when I saw what type of outboard mixer he had, that was brought in to question as well.

Those Behringer's are great LITTLE mixers if you want great sound but at the cost of when they GO, they GO horribly, in the form of crazy hums and dumb stuff.

I've had 1 go that I would use for my headphone split cue, and another that I'm CURRENTLY investigating for the source of a nasty hum - can't verify if it's the device or power supply.
your momma 1:45 AM - 2 November, 2017
thats pretty rough.
dj_soo 6:37 AM - 2 November, 2017
the cheap behringers tend to have a short shelf life in my experience. I've had the 502 create an awful distorted noise and have a faulty power supply within a year and played on other's xenyx's that have exhibited similar issues.

Their newer, higher end mixers on the other hand have been getting some pretty good reviews - notably the X32, but that's at a much higher price point than their bottom end mixers.
StanSilas 9:09 PM - 2 November, 2017
Quote:
SHIT!!!

What a horribly sad event for everyone.


Yup. It was like a never ending nightmare!
StanSilas 9:46 PM - 2 November, 2017
Quote:
Hate to say it, but this is why you don't buy crap equipment. Everything on your audio list has terrible reviews for sound quality & reliability - especially for DJ Dance music duty.
You are way better off renting quality gear until you can afford to buy quality gear.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you probably didn't have insurance either. If your speaker stand mishap hasn't scared you shitless of the very bad things that can happen than nothing will. If that speaker had fallen and hit a child you could be looking forward to a stay in a state sponsored living quarters and a lifetime of financial ruin.
To have that many failures of "new" equipment (even this low grade stuff) is unusual. I would really get with someone more experienced with running sound systems and confirm gain structures, limiter settings, proper wiring configurations, etc... It's easy to make mistakes and we all have things to learn - I still learn from every gig I do and various other resources and I've been doing clubs and events for over 30 years.
My advice would be to save enough money to by decent quality gear - at least a few levels from what you bought for this gig - gear that says, EV, Yamaha, QSC, Yorkville, JBL on the side of it. Until then, rent - you can get a good system for a night or two for under $100.
I would also try to team up (or tag along) with some experienced Mobile DJ operators. You
can learn a lot of relevant info pretty quick from a very good Mobile operator. Definitely a different skill set from club & pub work.
Glad you made it through & no one was hurt by anything you were responsible for. Take it as a learning experience and continue to improve your gear and abilities.


@Taipanic. The points you make are really really true. The speaker crashing to the floor and the stand breaking into pieces itself left me stunned and shocked for a while. The implications of what would have happened had the speaker fallen the other way and not my way are beyond imagination. That hard reality sunk in as I was driving home that night and it made me feel very nauseous. It could have be disastrous for me like you said.
That day , I really really missed my EV-ZLX's and my JBL -EON subwoofer. The lust for new low cost equipment combined with utter foolishness and laziness to carry the heavier zlx equipment almost dearly cost me a lot of things. God indeed saved me for unforseen misery.

For the power cables , I was using only 14 guage hdx cables from homedepot. For the subwoofer , I was using a 12guage . I was using two supplies for two tops. I used another supply for subwoofer and the mixer combined.
Fog machine + lights were drawing from another supply.


My headphones were audio technica ath m50x , and I couldn't hear any buzzing what so ever.

Like many of you suspected, I too think that the problem must have begun from the facilities power supply. Because there is no way that such new equipment (although pretty cheap quality) would fail in a row. The sound coming from the speakers were also terrible.

the last point you make is very interesting. For far too long, I had relied on my own knowledge and youtube tutorials and stuff. Just because something worked for 2-3 years doesn't mean it may have been the right way to do it. It may have been pure luck or coincidence. While I will stay away from mobile dj'ing for few months, I will definitely learn the art from more experienced mobile dj's.
StanSilas 9:49 PM - 2 November, 2017
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
All that seems to point to a possible iffy power supply in the form of the room AC, or you not properly disbursing the power.


That gear could easily be ran off a single 15amp circuit with no issues.


I'm talking in terms of delivery from the door - Open Ground, Open Neutral, Open Hot, Hot/Ground Reversed, Hot/Neutral Reversed, any of those combinations can wreak havoc without it being turned up.


I did a gig around three weeks ago on a pool deck with some serious power issues. Made one of my new Yamaha DSR112s sound like it was blown, lots of distortion. The two other speakers daisy chained to it sounded fine so it wasn't a cable issue. Really bad hum through both the house system and mine when plugged in. A ground lift made the hum somewhat better and I knew the speaker was fine.


I tried something similar and ground lift made it a little better, When I daisy chained them they sounded fine. I'm just glad this is over. The hum was from my speakers was driving me mad . . . it was shrill and sending shivers through me.
StanSilas 10:00 PM - 2 November, 2017
Quote:
BTW, why break up the mics, didn't they work?


The microphones just wouldn't work, put brand new batteries in them, even with everything at max levels, they were only registering a faint level.

In addition to the samsons, I also purchased 4 NADY's lavalier microphones. off all the microphones, only 1 nady lavalier worked.

It was embarrassing and frustrating to say the least. Especially after having tested everything just before the gig. Out of utter displeasure , I broke them.

Whatever worse could happen at the worst time . happened together at the same time. (Ofcourse the fault being mine for making it conducive to ^. (although now that I think of it,
could I really have done something about the power supply by using some kind of stabilizer or converter etc.))
Mr. Goodkat 1:37 AM - 3 November, 2017
Quote:
Because there is no way that such new equipment (although pretty cheap quality) would fail in a row. The sound coming from the speakers were also terrible.


Happened to me at a wedding, i was just a side setup for after a band but i gave my simple setup power supply cord to a guy to plug in. He put it on another power strip along with his lights, which i did not know until i finished. sounded awful and i was hell embarrassed but it didnt ruin my equipment and at least i learned before it was anything too major of event( i only djed for a smaller room and about 30 ppl)
Taipanic 6:50 PM - 3 November, 2017
Quote:
Quote:
Hate to say it, but this is why you don't buy crap equipment. Everything on your audio list has terrible reviews for sound quality & reliability - especially for DJ Dance music duty.
You are way better off renting quality gear until you can afford to buy quality gear.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you probably didn't have insurance either. If your speaker stand mishap hasn't scared you shitless of the very bad things that can happen than nothing will. If that speaker had fallen and hit a child you could be looking forward to a stay in a state sponsored living quarters and a lifetime of financial ruin.
To have that many failures of "new" equipment (even this low grade stuff) is unusual. I would really get with someone more experienced with running sound systems and confirm gain structures, limiter settings, proper wiring configurations, etc... It's easy to make mistakes and we all have things to learn - I still learn from every gig I do and various other resources and I've been doing clubs and events for over 30 years.
My advice would be to save enough money to by decent quality gear - at least a few levels from what you bought for this gig - gear that says, EV, Yamaha, QSC, Yorkville, JBL on the side of it. Until then, rent - you can get a good system for a night or two for under $100.
I would also try to team up (or tag along) with some experienced Mobile DJ operators. You
can learn a lot of relevant info pretty quick from a very good Mobile operator. Definitely a different skill set from club & pub work.
Glad you made it through & no one was hurt by anything you were responsible for. Take it as a learning experience and continue to improve your gear and abilities.


@Taipanic. The points you make are really really true. The speaker crashing to the floor and the stand breaking into pieces itself left me stunned and shocked for a while. The implications of what would have happened had the speaker fallen the other way and not my way are beyond imagination. That hard reality sunk in as I was driving home that night and it made me feel very nauseous. It could have be disastrous for me like you said.
That day , I really really missed my EV-ZLX's and my JBL -EON subwoofer. The lust for new low cost equipment combined with utter foolishness and laziness to carry the heavier zlx equipment almost dearly cost me a lot of things. God indeed saved me for unforseen misery.

For the power cables , I was using only 14 guage hdx cables from homedepot. For the subwoofer , I was using a 12guage . I was using two supplies for two tops. I used another supply for subwoofer and the mixer combined.
Fog machine + lights were drawing from another supply.


My headphones were audio technica ath m50x , and I couldn't hear any buzzing what so ever.

Like many of you suspected, I too think that the problem must have begun from the facilities power supply. Because there is no way that such new equipment (although pretty cheap quality) would fail in a row. The sound coming from the speakers were also terrible.

the last point you make is very interesting. For far too long, I had relied on my own knowledge and youtube tutorials and stuff. Just because something worked for 2-3 years doesn't mean it may have been the right way to do it. It may have been pure luck or coincidence. While I will stay away from mobile dj'ing for few months, I will definitely learn the art from more experienced mobile dj's.


I learned so much going to a Mobile Beat show in Vegas several years ago - and that was after doing events for 15+ years. Though I am mostly a club jock, I always want to provide the best that I can for any event - great sound, programming, MCing, lighting, etc... I will never be as great an event MC as many out there but I have learned a lot from watching many of them and they remind me that there's always a higher level to achieve.
Even good gear breaks and situations arise. Having experience working with gear and having the right backup equipment (and enough of it) can make most issues transparent to the average person. I had issues at the last two events I did but most issues were either resolved or minimized enough to not be noticed by the guests.
Best of luck & keep pushing forward.