No luck...help with advice please

1: Lose the ZIP drive. Go to CD-ROM or Data DVD's. More reliable and you won't be hosed in the event of "click of death" to a ZIP cartridge.

2: All computers with build in audio suck hard. Best they can do is suck slightly less than hard. For a reasonable amount of money(say, $100 or less), get a USB interface that at least supports audio IO, preferable output, and preferable XLR, but 1/4" balanced/unbalanced or RCA are OK.

Now, if you're going to insist on the PC internal noise as crap internal sound, then do yourself a favor: ensure you have a LINE out(not headphone). Get an adaptor cable, which can range depending on length and mark it and keep it with you. If you're using a headphone out, you NEED an active direct box, and Behringer makes a nice compact stereo one for a nice price and it's rather clean. DO NOT GO PASSIVE!! The Behringer is less than $50 and if you don't have phantom power it can run off a 9-volt battery.

My suggetions for laptops:
DO NOT go with a glossy screen, the matte screens are better for "working", less glare and better visibility in high light situations.

Also, get a power strip to protect your gear or I'll teach your dog to bite you in the butt for not protecting your gear!

GO with an M-Audio device for your external sound option. Just a basic 2-channel version will work fine. Look for the sale items, you'll be fine. This is an instance where brand is important, but know what you need as far as features(stereo output) and then go cheap within the brand. I never have issues with the M-Audio drivers.

This all depends, doesn't it?

I use rack gear for my sound, so the sound card is more of a preference than anything for me. My stuff is OK, but I've never had an issue with the sound and equipment. But then again, I use SSL and MP3's for most of my music.

This is what I use:
4 Behrinnger Speakers:
2 Eurolive B215A & 2 Eurolive B315D
A Behringer Xenyx 1202
Vestax PMC Pro05IIIvca (I'm a hip-hop DJ)


Roymwr: FOr you laptop, you may just want to spend the goood money and get an Apple. If that's out of the question, you will want the one with a good CPU and RAM. . . .Most will do the job, but the more RAM is going to make a difference.
But prog are you going to be using by the way?

It really does depend.

CPU and RAM are critical, but an often overlooked bottleneck is using the internal boot drive of the laptop,. It's best to go with 3.5" 7200RPM drives, preferably with a SATA interface and in a forced-ventilation enclosure with a 1394(firewire) connection. You also want to avoid "green" drives that will "sleep" on you, or at least drives that give you the option to turn that on or off via a drive bios tool.

Internal desktop drives tend to offer better price and performance over the 2.5" laptop drives. Laptop drives are getting cheaper though but tend to sit in the 5400rpm and slower speeds. Good for storage, but not ideal for production work. Even a DJ calling up audio, tha's sufficient enough production to demand the slight cost ugprade to the 7200rpm drives.

10,000RPM drives are somewhat hard to find via normal retail routes. Plus, they just tend to be loud. They remind me of tiny little jet engines. Expensive, durable, speedy, but not practical unless you're making lots of money. By expensive, they are a sizable cost over a 7200RPM drive.

As far as the Mac/PC debate, just look at this:
Running ProTools M-Powered, I use this on my MacBook Pro. it's a 17" model with the 2.66 Dual Core CPU(upgraded) adn 4 Gigs of RAM. Running as a PC, the Mac version smokes the PC version. IF you go with the "overpriced" MacBook, just consider you can run BootCamp and Windows OS's(XP and Vista, true Win7 support coming soon but it can run currently), you get 2 laptops in 1. Now it doens't seem so overpriced now, does it?

Also, since it seems everything Windows wants a piece of the action, it can be difficult to optimize a Windoze machine for best operation. You have some apps that will run when they want(like Norton AV for example) and doesn't come in and out cleanly.

But, in regards to interface, this is an often overlooked issue as well. You NEED an external interface to ensure a decent signal. I'll accept a LINE OUT, but I detest headphone outs. It's the wrong thing for the job. Internal line outs tend to be noisy, thus making a direct box still a good idea. If anything, you might need a ground lift, which would be on the direct box as well. Plus, I did an event at an air force base, and those are RF noisy environments, even leaking into the AC. I had to disconnect the power supply from the laptop to ensure a clean signal. I only needed to run 1 song off it. With RF bleeding into everything, fighting noise was a constant problem requiring lots of cable tricks and ferrite cores to choke it out to get things to what I felt was a good usable level.

hey all, just checkin in to give an update. Got the fog machine approved today, no alarms tripped so we are good to go this Friday. I also got my Majestic LED in today to be my centerpiece this week. I had a question though. The smell from the ADJ 1200 fog machine, it that normal when you first turn it on? And will it disappear with use, kinda like that "newness" burning out of it. I am going to take it home tomorrow and run it for a while to see if it will disappear. Smells like burnt paper in away. If it is the newness how long do i need to maybe run it to break it in? Thanks an see ya all later.

Ohh i found that my Electra DMX will work in master/slave with sound mode only. It said that if no DMX single was detected it would use the sound activation. So this will be cool when my cable comes in. I got a DMX-512 data cable to do this, i think this is the one i need.

Roy

The new "burning" smell should go aware relatively quickly. What I would do is fire up the fogger, then give it 5-10 blasts, and by that, I mean shoot it off until it has to duty cycle. Let it warm up again, the blast away again. If it's still doing it after that, you've got a problem. I had that happen to my first Fog Storm 700.

If the smell goes away, then that should be the end of that permanently.

The Fog Storm 1200 as you've noticed, includes a wired remote. Just set it up so it stays handy and won't go anywhere.

Regarding the Electra DMX, let me know how that works out as I'm considering one. Yes, many fixtures without detecting DMX will go into sound active and/or master slave mode automatically. And you're doing right by ordering DMX cabling, but chances are you'll need more.

I am looking to replace my conventionals with DMX equivalents. But my Electra, Barrel Flex, Reflex and Rover are all low-draw items, so for me it's not an urgent item to address.

Thanks Chris, sure will let ya know how it goes. i have a new truss system i got to mount the lights on in a safer and better way, so we will see how it goes. But, i was wondering if ya all could give me some advice on a few things now i have this actual mounting system, instead of homemade stuff.

1. Would ya all have the Majestic mounted so it will go over the dance area for an sky like effect or aim it downward to the floor?

2. The Two electras will be doing their scans on the dance floor. so i think this will be ok.

3. The 2 minidancers will be aimed straight out along with the Beehive pointing slightly upwards (i think)

4. The Mega strobe will be aimed so not to be directly into dancers eyes but still able to do its job.

5. The duel gem i dont know what i should do with it.

But any suggestions would be great, up to this point i kinda aimed them where i could from the balconies, but now that i have an actual truss system with the t-bars on top (it is the ADJ 10 ft one with the t-bars on top for additional lights)i am at odds on how i should handle these lights.

Any suggestions would be greatly accepted.

Oh and smell on the fog machine lessened after i cycled it a few times.

Thanks again
Roy

Not familiar with the Magestic, not a fixture I'm currently investigating. It's kind of a 50/50 thing, at the floor or at the ceiling. I think aim it up. With the fog it should look cool. You don't want super bright stuff into the floor, it tends to annoy people.

The Electras: Then only place I could even begin to want to aim them is at the floor.

Mega Strobe: Sure, sounds like a good idea. Direct pulsing into the dance floor isn't necessary anyways.

Not familiar with the Dual Gem either.

As far as trussing: Put your Electras on the ends so they can hit different zones. Put your centerpieces around the center, evenly spaced, rotate them around. Supplemental lights on the outside in my opinion.

I like using the T-bars for Parcans.

Thanks much, will try this. The cable i got should be long enough to connect the 2 electras. Majestic over the crowd sounds cool and maybe i will aim the duel gem down at the floor for an alternate light during slow songs or when to switch things up with the electras.

Thanks and we will se tomorrow how it goes. Kids are pumped, i'm pumped, i think it will go well. The fog is going to make all the lights look very nice. I have been reading about how to not use alot of fog, just enough to show the beams sharply.

Thanks again and seeya all later

Roy

I did an easy sound job with a band called Insect a couple of years ago at SacHorrorFilmFest. SacHorrorFilmFest is one of my recurring events. Anyhow, that band had their own light show, and pretty much their own pre-mix, which I wish they gave me more control because it needed help.

They were using some sort of software package for either lighting and/or sequencing, maybe Compu or something. It was pretty well done. They'd hit the fog fairly heavy at times, but it was always tied to lighting design, like having the beams of the Revo really be sean. Don't know what fogger they had. Their show was tight and they were pretty good though. It was a good performanc.

My only suggestion is to maybe err on the side of caution and use less fog, but you're gonna mess up a few times, and that's just how it works. We learn. Don't sweat it, have a good time. If you're having a good time, the kids will have a good time, and that will feed each other. Hope all goes well.

I just finished wiring a 5-foot truss with 4 Mega Panels. It's part of my big show design, as well as will be part of my regular lighting rig in that configuration. I have it running right now in the background. No fog for me, don't have a decent fogger, and I don't want to lug my hazer out to this event. I will ask facilities management to see if they are OK with foggers and stuff going forward.

Hey just postin to let ya all know how it went. The 2 electras had to run individually. The cable i ordered would not fit, so Chris i cant give you any info on how they worked. The trus did well, it seemed a little top heavy so i put three lights (2 electras and majestic in the balcony). The fog machine was AWESOME!!!..kids loved it. no alarm problems and it made everything look so great. I cant believe i ran lights without it before. We have a middle/high school student body of around 200 students and i would say we had close to 120 students from school and surrounding county at the dance. (a nice turn out for our little school) All i heard all night was how the light beams looked so cool shooting through the air.

Thanks for the advice and helping to make this dance something the kids will remember. The seniors are now wanting me to set up for their dance in April and possibly the prom, so we will have to try to improve and see how things go.
Thanks again
Roy

Congratulations on your first lights outing. Mine was much simpler but still went well, but it was also years ago.

DMX comes in two flavors: 5 pin and 3 pin, so chances are you ordered a 5 pin DMX by mistake. It's OK, they are interchangable. There are two options: new ends or an adaptor. DMX only uses 3 wires regardless if it's 5 wire or 3 wire.

Order extra cables, it's worth it. I'm debating on ordering 200 or 300 feet of new pre-made cables, and if so, which lengths!

What trussing did you get? Front heavy might not necessarily be more than an impression.

Again, thanks for the update, congratulations and we'll be checking on you!

Oh cool thanks for info on the cables, i will look for adopters and see how it works out. I have the LTS-50T truss, it is suppose to handle 200 lbs and i had maybe 60 pounds total on it, but it just seemed that it was swaying some when alot of kids were dancing on that old wooden gym floor. (the floor is the same vintage floor placed down in 1959..Gym was built in 1929, but main school building was built around 1830s.)

Well i got off subject sorry (history teacher here lol), It was extended maybe 8 1/2 to 9 feet up. I decided to placed the electras back on balcony with the beehive and majestic (ohh by the way Majestic is very cool...kids loved it, I had it aimed up shooting over their head for high effects...very nice). I may try them again in different places.

Also i had trouble with the O-clamps on the truss i ordered for it... and the bolts that came with it for hanging put the lights in an awkward position. O-clamps would slip and the lights would not point out front enough...this is another reason i put electras back up high. Their angle with the clamps on the truss had their light scans about 3 feet from the DJ table. So anyone have suggestions how to keep o-clamps from slipping from the weight of the light. I had it tightened very well too. Almost couldnt get them back off.

Ohh if ya need a good strobe...i recommend the mega 800 ADJ watt one. It was so good this time with the fog that its affect was awesome through out the entire gym. This is also with some light coming in from foyer. Actually had a couple kids almost fall due to being disorientated. (They were fine, no medical effects. They was laughing the entire time.
Gym specs are about 140 feet by 70 feet with 40 foot ceiling. Strobe was great. Majestic beams shot out very far with the fog again the kids loved it in the air.

I want to get two LED beam scans to sit on the floor and shoot into the air next.

Thanks for any tips and ya all have a good week.
Thanks and seeya
Roy