r/mobileDJ

Hi all. hope you’re well:) I am looking to buy a full audio system for live concerts of around 400-500 people- or even more.

I have my own live band- one that I’ve put together over a period of the last 5 years- and have hosted my own live music shows at my own expense (twice in the past 6 months with crowds of 200 and 400 people respectively).

I’ve noticed that the cost to hire the equipment was quite expensive ( some may even call it exorbitant)- around ZAR 15 000(Rand) per show- roughly 1000 USD. I am thinking of buying my own equipment to use for my live shows and to hire out when not in use (I have another company with bakkies/ pickup trucks to transport and staff to assist and safe storage space) so infrastructure is already in place.

I would like to ask for any good advice/suggestions on the types live concert style audio equipment that would be suitable for this purpose- before I go to the audio shop- and would really appreciate any tips on what to look out for/be wary/careful of.

My budget is around ZAR 400 000 or 30K USD. Would really appreciate any tips/advice. Thanks!

I'm undecided, i want to start doing some live sets and I have a few questions.

Are the Yamaha DBR15s worth it? (two units)

Is the difference really that big compared to the DXR12 or 15 MKII?

Is there much difference between the DXR12 and 15 MKII?

Anyone have any experience with oopsk lights. Reviews look good, but you never know with stuff light that. They have a light bar that I'm interested in.

I need a powered (active) PA system that can handle outdoor DJ sets for up to 200-250 people. High-quality sound, loud, and from a reliable brand. What do you recommend? Maximum budget: €3000

I started DJing a while ago and I want to invest in a high-quality PA system capable of handling outdoor parties for up to 200 people. I'd like two speakers and a subwoofer; I've seen brands like Yamaha, JBL, and RCF, but I don't know which one to choose. I'd like to have around 2500 watts RMS.

With summer coming, the kids parties are ramping up. I want to get a trusted source for clean edits of the popular songs. I know I cam edit them in my DJ software but I'd rather have a trusted source that has specifically edited song that would work for kids parties. I already have Tidal.

What are you using? DJ pool? If so which one? Or is there another hack that I'm missing?

Just like the title says really. My daughter will be three this year and I've been the primary parent for her during the day. My wife works from home as well but is in her office at least six hours a day, sometimes more. Just wanted to see if anyone has any tips or tricks for me. Any time I feel like I get a good routine going with my kid she breaks it and I either have to start the routine over or abandon it completely. If I can get a little vulnerable, I don't feel like I'm getting to where I'd like to be because I can't properly practice or organize my library without having small hands pressing random buttons, having to constantly get up and prevent her from doing silly kid things, or I'm getting climbed on. The only time I really have to work on anything is pretty late at night once both my kid and wife go to bed, and by then I'm just exhausted and know I have to get back up early again to do it the next day.

My parents moved into town within the last year and it's helped a little but they've both gotten day jobs which kind of negates some of the plans of me bringing my kid over to their place more often so I can get a break and work on things. There's a small bit of toxic masculinity in me that's telling me to suck it up and work harder, but I'm trying to be better about asking for help. Anyway, didn't mean for this to be a whole journal entry lol. Any tips are appreciated. 🤙🏾🤙🏾

For anyone who DJ's mitzvahs, the search for proper hora music is grim. I've used a lot of different ones over the years. None of the classic/traditional ones hit right and then you have the over the top EDM banger versions which might work in New Jersey but not anywhere else.

Two of my good homies here in the Bay Area who are touring DJ/artists as well as multi-instrumentalists (and DJ mitzvahs on the side) went into the studio to record a modern medley that solves this problem. It's well-mastered with proper kick drums and bassline so it can be easily mixed into modern dance tracks without sounding off (rather the fade in/out I normally have to do for the other versions).

They made three versions - the full track, one for melodic accompaniment and one that is just the backing track for musicians to play along to. It's now my go-to!

Current setup: Toyota Sienna AWD. Works fine but I’m outgrowing it. Ready to upgrade.

I service the Bay Area (SF, Oakland), Napa, Sonoma, Sacramento, and Lake Tahoe — so I’m dealing with everything from dense city parking to mountain passes.

Two options I keep going back and forth on:
Option A: Pickup truck + enclosed trailer
Option B: Ford Transit (or similar cargo van)
For those running the van route — high roof or low roof? I love the idea of being able to stand up and load/unload without contorting myself, but I’m genuinely worried about parking. SF and Oakland have a lot of garages with low clearance. Finding street parking that fits a high roof van in dense neighborhoods sounds like a recurring headache I don’t want.
Questions:
1. Truck + trailer people — do you regret it? Backing into venues, parking in tight lots, disconnecting just to park somewhere… is it worth the flexibility?
2. Van people — high roof owners specifically, how often does clearance actually bite you? Is it manageable or is it a constant thing?
3. Any van models besides Transit worth looking at for this use case? (Sprinter, ProMaster, NV2500, etc.)
4. AWD/4WD matters to me for Tahoe runs in winter — how are you handling that?
Appreciate any input from people actually gigging in metro areas.

Appreciate any insights y’all have!

Serato DJ here doing mainly wedding gigs. Just curious if y'all take a backup laptop for the inevitable dickhead spilling a drink in your system. Do you carry a backup and what do you use to sync them?

I'm doing the load-out math again. Currently lugging two 22 lb spot movers in dedicated cases and my truck Tetris is a war crime by gig 3 of the weekend.

Looking to swap to something I can two-up in a 23"x18"x16" SKB injection tote, ideally under 15 lb each so I'm not throwing my back out at 1am pack-out.

Here's what's on my shortlist after a week of forum-hopping (mixed bag because the sub-15 lb beam shelf is tiny):

• ADJ Pocket Pro, ~7 lb, ~$269. Baby spot not really a beam, but it keeps showing up in "lightweight mover" searches so I'm noting it for completeness.
• Chauvet Intimidator Beam 140SR, ~16 lb so slightly over my weight target, $649-799 each. Real big-brand 5R beam but 4 of them is most of my truck payment.
• A handful of "compact 9R beam" fixtures floating around in the $250-400 range. Three or four brands show suspiciously identical product photos, can't tell which actually engineer their own optics vs rebadge a common OEM shell. The one that looks least like a rebadge to me is Betopper's CLB260, since their product page shows their own optics module. The others I'm not going to name because I don't want to drag whoever else in that band might actually be doing real work.

The 9R category is what's tempting me because beam movers are what I actually use 80% of the night, but I cannot tell from product pages which of these "9R compact" units are real private-mold engineering and which are just OEM clones with different stickers on the same shell.

Has anyone actually weighed and toted these? Looking for "I packed 4 of X in a Y tote and they survived 30 gigs" not "the spec sheet says 11 lb."

Also if anyone has fan-noise data at 6ft I'd love that too.

I have been told by some that I could roll with just the speakers alone, but so many have said I need to get a sub or subs. I originally was looking at the QSC KS112, getting two to rock one per speaker But lately the Electro-Voice ELX-200 18SP has caught my eye because of cost/weight and I could probably just roll with one of those. Thought? Thanks everyone! I'm also open to suggestions

OK so I've been quietly stalking this sub for combo recs for like 4 months and finally pulled the trigger. Posting back because everyone here helped me dial it in.

Constraint set:

• Total under $1500
• Must fit in a 2019 CR-V trunk + back seat folded down
• 1 person load-in (I'm 5'7", I have to be able to lift everything)
• Real wash + real beam, not just a GigBar

What I ended up with:

• 4x compact 9R beam movers, ~12 lb each, $$320 each ≈ $$1,280 → wait, too much
• Cut to 3x movers + 2x small wash heads with zoom, $$200 each → $$1,140 + $$400 = $$1,540 → still over
• Final: 2x 9R compacts + 2x small wash heads + 1x small fog machine I already owned → $1,040

Pack-out reality: 2 beams in one tote, 2 wash in second tote, fog + cables in milk crate. Stacked: tote → tote → crate, all behind the back seat. Subwoofer + speakers in folded-trunk area. One person, 4 trips from car to load-in.

Wash heads do ceremony + dinner light, beams come out for reception. Fog kicks in when beams kick in. Honestly looks 3x more expensive than it cost, my last bride literally asked if I "rented from a real lighting company."

Anyone running similar. What wash heads are you happy with at $$200ish? Mine are fine but the dim curve at low end is okay-not-great and I'm wondering if there's a $$250 option that would have been worth the upgrade.

It seems excessive for me but also don’t know how common this is.

Hey everyone, looking for some help on starting my mobile DJ business. I used to throw parties and do gigs with my band but we don’t play that much anymore, so now i have all of this equipment sitting around. Here is my current setup:

2 Alto TS415 2500 Watt 15in Speaker
2 Alto TS18S 18in Powered Subwoofer
Numark Party Mix Controller
Mac Laptop
Party Lights

This idea started when family asked if I could DJ for their party. I dont have experience mixing or actually DJing, but i know music. What i did was get Tidal, and use VDJ to mix songs, and that’s it. No crazy transitions, just good music. Every party i’ve done so far, people loved it and i give credit to the sound system because it bangs. Anyway, I want to see if i can take this a step further and start getting paid. I want to see if anyone has a similar experience and what my next steps would be to start booking gigs and treat this like an actual business. I work as a firefighter so it would be nice to get extra income. Looking for any recommendations! Thank you.

So I've been running 4x LB150s as my main movers since last August. 18 weddings + a couple corporate gigs later, here's what I wish I knew on day 1.

Good stuff first. Zero failures. One had a sticky pan once after a humid outdoor reception in Charleston, fixed itself after 20 min in the AC. That's it.

Things I'd do differently:

- Stop running them in auto mode. Built-in shows are fine for warm-up but during dinner the strobe-y bits make the room feel like a club at 6pm. Plug into DMX, build 3 chases (warm wash / dance / first dance dim), call it done.

- Get the safety cables on day 1 not day 17. I had one slip a clamp at a venue with a low truss and now I don't go anywhere without 'em.

- Fans are louder than I expected. Not a problem in a 200-person ballroom but during the ceremony in a small wine cellar I had to repoint two units away from the aisle. Real take: don't put movers within ~6ft of any officiant mic.

- About 10 lbs each = my back is grateful. Two per case, all 4 fit in the CR-V with totems still going in.

Anyone else running these long-term? Curious if the pan motor noise gets worse past year 1, mine still feel quiet but I want to know what to listen for.

Just purchased an RCF 8003 used from guitar center for a great deal. Has minor cosmetic marks from use but nothing major when I got home and tested it. It sounds wonderful from the front but there’s a rattling sound coming from the back. There are no screws in the caster wheel mounts due to castor wheels being mounted and removed before the last owner sold them. It audibly sounds like the sound is coming from the holes that don’t have screws in them. Do I just need to either mount some new wheels or put screws in the holes to fix this or do you think there’s a deeper problem?

Best speakers without breaking the bank. LD Maui 28 G3 or Evox J8?

I'm getting into the wedding DJ business and I need to get my speakers for my set up. I don't anticipate doing crowds bigger than about 150 at decent, midsize venues (think community clubs, halls) What I care most about is ease of transport, can still make the dance floor feel it but all without breaking the bank upfront. I drive a Honda civic so need to fit it all in there for now. I know I could always upgrade later on once I've gotten a few gigs under me. My plan is to buy two column speakers and work with that for a bit. I understand two tops and seperate subs will be more powerful, but just interested in the columns for now. I have been extremely interested in the Maui 28 G3's and the Evox J8's. Need opinions on both? Are they built to last? Can I push them hard enough without terrible distortion in these settings I described? I appreciate it!

I didn’t listen when they said buy nice or buy twice. I bought the Alto TS18S for my wedding/event rig. Nothing special, I’m running with two Mackie Thump 215’s. Was hoping to upgrade those soon, but the Alto blew after about 18 months.

I felt like it did a pretty good job for what I’ve used it for. Just ordered the RCF SUB 708. Anyone here use it? What are your thoughts? Will I feel an upgrade?

My thought process is that I’ll use this one until I can upgrade my tops. Then eventually add another 18.