DJ Booth System

N

Nate Tenney

Freshman
Jun 14, 2012
5
0
0
I am building my own DJ booth in a small venue. I am installing a Booth Sound system so I can hear my mixing better. From a sound quality stand point for myself and the club partons what is the best placement of these speakers? Behind me facing towards the crowd, infront of me facing me only. Up high and down low?

Thanks
 
Re: DJ Booth System

It'll have a half wall with half height plexi around the front and one side so like 30 inches of opening around the top to the venue. The other side is closed in by a wall.
 
Last edited:
Re: DJ Booth System

Facing towards the dj. If you have the proper fly points it is popular to hang the speakers towards the dj. Warning this becomes a safety issue for equipment and people below. It must be done by someone who knows what they are doing. No rigging off of handles etc. In a small booth you might be able to get away with some smaller size/lower profile speakers depending on your venue requirements.
 
Re: DJ Booth System

The first question is "where CAN you put them?" Regarding the overall size of the booth-the size of the speakers-access to gear in the booth and so forth.

Consider that some DJ's use monitor speakers that would be a good club rig for a lot of bands.

Also remember that our ears are designed to hear best from the front-so facing you is best (if possible). Also we hear best when the sound is straight on. As in face to face communication.

But "best" can mean different things. The best possible sound for the DJ may not be the best possible physical location and vice versa.
 
Re: DJ Booth System

Nate Tenney said:
I am building my own DJ booth in a small venue. I am installing a Booth Sound system so I can hear my mixing better. From a sound quality stand point for myself and the club partons what is the best placement of these speakers?
Click to expand...
Indirectly related, remember that regardless of where you locate the monitors you may not be hearing what the patrons hear. If that matters to you then it may be worth doing what you can to match level and response or at least learning how what you hear from the monitors relates to what the patrons hear.
 
Re: DJ Booth System

Brad Weber said:
Indirectly related, remember that regardless of where you locate the monitors you may not be hearing what the patrons hear. If that matters to you then it may be worth doing what you can to match level and response or at least learning how what you hear from the monitors relates to what the patrons hear.
Click to expand...
Of course that depends on if the DJ wants to hear what the audience is hearing. In many cases it is more about "them" than the audience.

A friend of mine recently provided for a very famous rapper and DJ. On a stage that as about 15' wide (performance area) 6 2x15" wedges were not enough. So he brought out his normal 'loud DJ rig". It consisted of (on EACH SIDE) 3 Danley TH118's and 2 SH46's. It was "enough". A nice club rig-with a "throw" of about 7'.

Of course the artist is just about deaf-so it HAS to be that loud. I wonder what brought on the deafness????????????????????????????????????????
 
Re: DJ Booth System

Nate Tenney said:
I am building my own DJ booth in a small venue. I am installing a Booth Sound system so I can hear my mixing better. From a sound quality stand point for myself and the club partons what is the best placement of these speakers? Behind me facing towards the crowd, infront of me facing me only. Up high and down low?

Thanks
Click to expand...

From my crash-course in Nightclub management:

Put a couple really high power mid/high speakers at head level around 2 and 10 o-clock. if they are higher tilt them down, and likewise if they are lower tilt them up, so the speaker's axis shoots right into the ear. You don't need or really want the sound going out into the house, your dancefloor PA should adequately cover that.
Think "Texas Headphones" style like used for drumfills. Putting speakers behind you is just as pointless as guitarists with their amps behind them at knee-level.

Every DJ wants different things from the monitors, some want it ridiculous (louder than the mains) others don't want them at all.

From a logical standpoint, you would like to hear what's going on in the house if you are controlling the level out there. But if you have a sound crew or club manager controlling the house volume it's not as important.

Here's what I've had the best luck with in small-booth installed monitors: (all with rigging capability -use any other box or monitor at your own risk)
EAW DC-6 (discontinued) or UB82 (essentially the same)
EAW DC-5 -not sure of current equivalent (it's a sideways 12+2 box -probably the VR21 would work)
Community iW28 iBOX SERIES
EV Electro-Voice*FRi Series
Grundorf GT Series - Full Range : GT-1601 -flown sideways
-and for something larger and almost indestructible:
Grundorf GT Series - Full Range : GT-2002 -flown sideways

You may need a sub if your not getting enough off the main ones. There's never one that will be enough :) but in a smaller booth, compact is the key.
I also recommend more power than you think you'll need and then processing. Multiband limiter, HPF and some EQ -obviously a DSP is ideal and if your main processor as a set of spare inputs and outputs you could use that, if not then a stack of analog gear would work. Set your limit so that the speakers can maintain an overdriven hash of highly compressed music indefinitely -take heat and duty-cycle into account. Having a larger-than-needed amp also helps in that it doesn't run as hot or spin it's fan as hard.
 
Re: DJ Booth System

Thanks guys for all of the responses!

I decided to go with some home Bose speakers. Not the highest quality but they do the job on a very tight budget. I mounted them facing the DJ and it definitely helps with the mix quality!
 
Re: DJ Booth System

Nate Tenney said:
Thanks guys for all of the responses!

I decided to go with some home Bose speakers. Not the highest quality but they do the job on a very tight budget. I mounted them facing the DJ and it definitely helps with the mix quality!
Click to expand...
So I guess we were talking about some very different levels of DJ's here. What is fine for some doesn't even make a set of headphones for another.

HENCE the reason to FIGURE OUT THE REAL NEEDS FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Without that-answers could go anywhere.
 
Re: DJ Booth System

Nate Tenney said:
Thanks guys for all of the responses!

I decided to go with some home Bose speakers. Not the highest quality but they do the job on a very tight budget. I mounted them facing the DJ and it definitely helps with the mix quality!
Click to expand...

Urm good luck with that I guess? I hope you have some sort of solid limiting on those or they are going to be toast really quickly. I also hope you haven't "flown" them in any way, shape, or form as they are not rated to do so.
 
Top Bottom