Speakers for laptop and backing tracks

[littleplum]

Hi Folks

I did my first solo gig yesterday. About 40 minutes of Gershwin era type stuff for my mum,s over 60's group. I had some backing tracks on my laptop that had come from some c.ds. For some reason one was recorded on the disc louder than the other 2? my first question is, is there a way to level them up so that I dont have to manual turn up just those affected tracks?

Question 2 is to boost my laptop I used my pc speakers, they did the job but I think I need something a little bit more powerful. My local 2nd hand shop has a small guitar amp for £15, do you think that would be any good and if so how do I connect it to the laptop?

As you can probably gather I am not very technically minded.

Thanks

Dave

 

[Taz]

If you use itunes on your laptop you should be able to set the volume I think its in the tools drop down menu (I cant check cos I'm not on my own PC)
Regarding speakers and amplification, if you have a look on the devils junkyard (or similar) see if you can pic up a household stereo amp and some reasonable speakers, 100 watt would be ample for a small venue and simply play your laptop through that. Very cheep and cheerful.

 

[jonf]

Regarding speakers and amplification, if you have a look on the devils junkyard (or similar) see if you can pic up a household stereo amp and some reasonable speakers, 100 watt would be ample for a small venue and simply play your laptop through that. Very cheep and cheerful.

And a better bet than a guitar amp which will add distortion. Just be wary of using it louder and louder, as eventually domestic kit will burn out if used for protracted stage volumes.

 

[c9off]

If you are using your laptop, then media player 10 is able to control levels, here is the link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/howto/samevolume.aspx

I believe the system is to rip into mp3 using these settings... there are a number of other add ons, here is a thread relating to winamp (free download player):

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?postid=1882580

lastly, powered speakers, sourced from the headphone socket, will (with a decent bit of kit) blow your listeners' knitting away!

Have a look at ebay item 110418038710 for instance, I have two sets of similar, one £90 ish the others £40 ish, both are great....

hope this assists

 

[Saxlicker]

A great solution if you have iTunes, iPod
http://www.brookstone.com/sl/product/9601-ion-portable-pa-system-ipod.html

Simply use the sound check function on iTunes/iPod to level the volumes of the backing tracks.
Plug in the iPod and this thing has a battery that is supposed to last 6 hours at high volume. It will also charge the iPod if you wish and has a seperate instrument and microphone socket, each with their own gain control.
Wheels, extendable handle, reasonable microphone included.
I think it's still around £145 in PC World.

 

[Pjonah]

Or try NCH Wavepad Sound Editor, its free and its brilliantly easy to use.

 

[littleplum]

Thanks

Hi Guys

Thats a lot of ideas you have given me. I found the info regarding i tunes and media player very helpful (I use media player)and I will be having a go at that. I like the speaker on wheels but that is out of my budget. I did think about the thing that Taz made for his busking (that is my next challenge). I will keep you informed as to what I decide but the guitar amp is definitely out.

Cheers Folks

Dave

 

[Jules]

And a better bet than a guitar amp which will add distortion. Just be wary of using it louder and louder, as eventually domestic kit will burn out if used for protracted stage volumes.

I was going to jump in with that- guitar amps are designed to 'colour' your sound so are best avoided. keyboard amps or those designed speficially for acoustic instruments would be ok though...