Warning... New Gear Doesn't Equate To Reliable

I had a nightmare last night. My trusty faithful Vocopro mixer is still in a shop for repair, so I made the decision to buy a brand new mixer, and when i get the Vocopro back it can be my spare and I can finally retire off the the Gemini which is my current backup.

I bought a studiomaster fusion...not top of the range but certainly not cheap. Maiden voyage for it last night. I set it up at home and run it for a few days. Apart from it not kicking out the same power as my old one, it was working fine. I arrived early at the hotel and did a really thorough sound check....everything was fine.

During background music I noticed that bass bin and top on the right had suddenly become silent. I immediately change to spare XLRs, still no sound. I by passed the bass bin to the top....still no sound. The right output from the mixer had died. So i fed a lead from the top on the left to the bin on the right and i had full sound just in time for the disco to start.

It gets worse.

My new shure mic, that was fine during sound checks suddenly had incredible feedback.....so i reverted to the old kams for the remainder of the night.

During some speeches, I went to alter the mic settings on the mixer and they'd all packed up.....so it ran flat all night.

There's more.....

The headphone socket packed up!

Then in the last half an hour channel one input dies, so i was restricted to auto playing from one channel.

I had my back up mixer at the ready but that is really a last resort because its old, doesn't have XLR connections, so I can only plumb in one speaker, and it would have meant down time while I swapped them over.

The gig was my M&S Annual dinner, I did it last year and was desperate to hold onto it. The good news is the floor was packed all night, everyone was oblivious to my nightmare and the organiser thanked me and said I was on again for next year!

Moral of the story: Don't trust new equipment. Back ups are essential ....and even when the world is falling round your feet, keep a smile on your face and noone notices!

Now....can someone pass the valium?????

Ow! Sounds a nightmare Sandy!

It sounds like you did all you could to test it out. I also run essential bits of hardware for a few days before its first gig.
I work in electronics/software development, and a typical product failure is a "bathtub" shape, with many failures found on arrival with failures improving over time until the product starts to age, and then wear and tear starts to take its toll.

For my day job - we run a "HALT" test, which is essentially vibration and temperature cycling until the product fails. We then fix the problem (and roll that into the design) and continue until the reliability is greatly improved. I would assume this isn't a common test for commercial products. (my designs are oil/gas industry)

I do take back-up gear, mainly a Laptop and spare mixer+mics+cables. My Speakers are active, so doubtful if both would fail.

Well done on holding it together and keeping the repeat booking! I think this is one difference between experienced DJ's.
They may be able to mix and run a good party, but its hard to do this if you have no back-up.

I'm still fairly new to the scene, but have worked in front of clients on previous day jobs - so used to keeping things running and acting cool!

Jason

Sounds like you were very unlucky but did well to hold it together without the punters being effected.

I would think the Shure issues are due to the mixer mic section going wrong, but to be sure test it on one of the Bose PAS. Plug the Shure receiver into line one of the PAS but its important to use unbalanced, just take a jack from unbalanced on the receiver to the centre of the combi socket on line one of the PAS and set the preset curve to SM58, you should be able to achieve a high output standing more or less straight in front of the pole as they have excellent feedback rejection.

As for the mixer it'll have to go back and insist that a replacement be really well tested before its sent out to you.

The Studiomaster Fusion is one of my most favorite mixers.

I have sold so many of them it's unreal - and out of about 300 sold, I must have had about 4 back for warranty repairs.

It's good to hear you held it together well there Sandy.

good to hear that its normally a good mixer. Bearing in mind this was its first gig I'm hoping that it will be replaced with a new one and not just repaired because I've no confidence in it now. I'm going to set it all up in the dining room tomorrow and just check all the faults in calm surroundings!!! I know there is nothing I can do about the right output as that was definitely dead, but I've a niggly suspicion that the channel 1 input failure may have been a womanual fault. The vocal failure was definitely the mixer because I hadn't touched them since the sound check.

Sad thing is I usually really enjoy this gig, great crowd all up for a laugh (the Irish know how to party)....but last night I was on tenderhooks and counting down the minutes praying for 1 oclock!!!!

I'm glad you said that Craig as it was me that said the Fusion was ok, I have known lots of DJs using them and loving them with no issues...hopefully it will get replaced and that'll be that.