DJ Maye

To do a good job outside requires a lot more than a set of speakers. DJ’ing today is all about low end. People want to feel the music. To get good low end outside is extremely hard to do as you don’t have any walls to confine the sound. Last outdoor gig I had was done with a pair of JBL 528’s and a pair of the 518’s. That’s 6 18″ subs with about 600 watts to each. I could have used more. Even with 4 15″ tops people wanted more. Of course at 20 feet you could defibrilate someone, but at twice that distance you have half the sound. You will need subs. I’m not a fan of the Mackie’s and have to say that JBL’s PRX series is real nice. Especially the PRX 618XLF. Those puppies go loud and low. The QSC’s are a good box also. I really like the HPR 181 subs. The question at that point is plastic or wood boxes. K series or KW. Any way you look at it will require a serious outlay of cash.

The correct way is to mix with the faders!. To understand why, you might want to visit Harmony Centrals site and do a search on “Gain Structure.’ This is one of the primary reasons house tech’s have such disdain for DJ’s. Red lights blinking anywhere in a system,(be it amps, channel strips, or main output) are a warning. To many DJ’s don’t even have a basic understanding of how a sound system works. Do yourself a favor and get a basic understanding of how a high powered system works. The gain knobs should be set and left alone.