Hi, I've offered to provide some music at the open day in our local park. The only snag is I'm not going to have enough volume. I curently run two rigs together, one is powered by a peavey 750w+750w amp into two 8ohm cabs and the other is a small 300w+300w amp into two I think they're rated at 150w each. I know its not a lot and I have visions of the wind blowing my sound away and people walking up, cupping their ears, asking what did you say??? Given that I'm not getting paid for the event has anyone got any ideas how I can maxinmise the output I have? Otherwise I might have to give out some tin cans on pieces of string so people can hear the music!!

Loz I am presuming there will be other things taking place at the same time at this event ?.. you dont want to overpower everything else that is going on around you ...

You will be surprised at how loud your music will sound towards the front of your setup , although It will sound quiet to you behind your stand, as there are no walls to reflect anything back to you as there are in a closed room/hall.

Just keep an eye on the clip lights as you will be tempted to push it further than usual since you cant hear how loud you are playing.

test it in your back garden

If you dont think its enough you could always hire extra sound if you think what you are being paid justifies it..

I think you'll be surprised at how loud that will sound

For one thing, make sure that whatever power (Mains current) they're offering you is up to the task...

If your sound system is putting OUT that much power, its got to be drawing in MORE...however, I dont know of any "rule of thumb" with audio watts VS mains current watts/amperage - so you'll need to check the Amplifiers own specifications for TOTAL POWER COMSUMPTION or MAX MAINS POWER LOADING/RATING either on the back of the amplifiers, or in their handbooks.

If they're running a 3000watt generator, and are already running say, 4 x 500 watt halogen lights off of it...you've only got 1000watts spare...your amplifiers could eat that easily...your mixer and decks, on the other hand (and a backing light) may only draw a couple of hundred watts, if that.

Echo can be a formidable enemy when trying to cover large outdoor area's, and as you mention, wind drift. Forget beat mixing totally unless you've got local monitor speakers, or even better, Split Cue on your mixer...if you try to mix with the sound coming from a speaker 50ft away, with a bit of wind drift in their too, delaying things, you could be trying to mix with a sound that happened a fraction of a second ago.

Place speakers high up to gain distance/coverage, but low down gives more "punch" in some designs of cab. Also, placing the speakers together (EG: Bass bins) adds DB's to the overall effect, but as Chris Says, I think you'll be surprised how far your system will go...

If you're going to be near the all-too-common PA caravan...you may be able to feed your mixers "Tape Out" sockets to their PA mixer, enabling you to get your sound "out" to the far sides of the arena etc....but be VERY mild with your EQ's....those horrible old PA horns dont usually like anything other than midrange.

Also...make all your announcements S l o w e r .... The drift and speaker distances etc will make things less easy to understand for your listeners...so do all you can to make it easier...slower...announciate words as clearly as possible, without sounding like a member of the royal family... dip music really LOW behind voice overs etc.

Remember too the main rule of hosting events...That is, see what the other stands will give you for a free plug of their stand.. When I did the local carnical a couple of years back, the nearby Burger van got lots and lots of mentions....as did the beer tent...

On that point, remember too that you might be a long way away from a toilet....longer than most records last... (unless you've got seamless loops)

I agree with Gary, you will be surprised how far the sound will travel. I did a open air disco at a school bbq last year only using my trusty 2 x300W set up..... we had requests from people living half a mile away! One thing you may get is distant reflections off buildings.

Thanks guys for your thoughts I feel alot more reassured

Or do what i did at a recent open day using 3.4k and get compl aints from half a mile away!!!!! Oooooops!!

lol - when we first tested the RC ric we had just one bin (out of 8) out in my mates driveway - stuck 5K into it and one of the corrogated roof plates fell offf the garage over the road, hit a car parked outside and left lovely scratches down it - the bin was back inside the garage quicker than anything!