Protecting Gear in Harsh Environments

[chrisj360]

Apologies for the long-winded post in advance….

So as long as I get a ticket (still crossing fingers), I am hauling my system to Burningman this year for an official theme camp. I have read from other people on the burningman forums about protective measures ranging from covering the speakers in trash bags to just wrapping them in fabric to even spraying the drivers with scotch-guard. I was wondering if anyone here has any tips or tricks for how they protect their gear in outdoor/harsh environments (I would love to hear the thoughts from any of the Australian members doing bush parties, it seems like a similar environment).

I was thinking about wrapping the speakers in the big plastic wrap stuff typically used to wrap stuff for pallet transport and then covering them in fabric. I know I'll lose a few db but would rather have the gear come back alive than be able to have the maximum db (we aren't an official sound camp anyways so we are limited to rule of 90 db at 20' which won't be a problem ). Two Otops and two T30's (i know the ratio for outdoors should be 2 subs for each main, but this has to run off of my one generator) To protect the amps, I was thinking of sealing some furnace filters with duct tape to the front and back of the amp case, with a hole mostly sealed with tape out of the back for the cables to run in and out of.

It will only be me dj'ing or if someone else is, I'll be close by. All limiters have been set properly and checked.

Has anyone successfully done the aim the subs at the ground at a 30 degree angle to use the ground as a boundary? How did you go about doing it? I was thinking of building a couple small sawhorses for the subs to rest on for doing this.Should I attempt this or should I just v-plate the speakers without boundary reinforcement? Any other suggestions? The other option I am thinking about is aiming the subs at the RV, would that create a sufficient boundary?

Any other thoughts or suggestions anyone can offer? What am I missing?

I know from seeing the photos and seeing in person the dancetronuts car that they don't cover their subs or speakers at the burn, am I being overprotective?

For transport, I know I read an old post a long time ago stating the speakers need to be covered if transporting them in an open trailer, which will be the case, but I can't seem to track it down with the search function. If I just cover the speakers in the plastic wrap, will that do the job for hauling them on an open aired trailer behind an RV? Or should I cover them in something different?

If any board members are going this year, swing by 7:30 & K to find our camp "Huddleville" and say hi!

Thanks in advance for all the help,

Chris

[gdougherty]

The ground is your boundary. That's half-space. You won't get enough of a boundary from anything else to worry about it. For your volume requirements you should be fine.

You could get some cheesecloth, dye it black and use that, or just black grill cloth. I'd just be looking to minimize dust in all the nooks and crannies. You could also use a big piece of grill cloth as a full-rack filter screen. Wrap the rack and clothes-pin to allow airflow. As much as possible keep it in the shade to help avoid baking directly.

[sine143]

in my opinion, it would be worth it to install proper grilles with acoustic foam on your gear now.

I like this grille material, and being 30" tall means it will fit the t30s nicely

http://www.parts-express.com/flat-metal ... x-30--262-

back it with some acoustic foam (which is likely cheaper sourced from somewhere other than Parts express and you are good to go.

Heres a pic of that flat grille installed on one of my other subs.

[Tom Smit]

@ sine143: do you mean this one? http://www.parts-express.com/flat-metal ... 0--262-898
PE said it couldn't find the part that you linked.

[DJPhatman]

For the T30s, this grill.

For the O-Top 12s: I like this grill.

[Grant Bunter]

Thin garbage bags to cover your tops. Then dress em up with open weave cloth to make them aesthetically pleasing. You won't lose much output that way.

The suggestion of grille and foam for subs is good.

Don't just place the subs on the ground.
Sit them on blocks of 4 x 2 cut to length so they aren't simply swimming in dirt/sand etc.

Get amps and electronics well off the ground too.
Any chance you have, cover your mixer, and if applicable, CD players etc, with closed weave cloth. Keep a nice appropriate sized soft bristled paintbrush handy and de dust with that regularly.
People simply walking by will kick up enough dust to go straight into your amps, the closer they are to the ground, the more that happens.
Lots of old school amps had a fairly thick filters (but open weave) on them. Whatever you use, you don't want to impede airflow.

And when all is said and done, I know, after every gig, at least in outback Australia, that as the cabs and gear come out of the truck, they are going to have to be washed down on the outside, and everything de dusted with an air compressor and blower attachment on the inside.
That includes electronics.
Particular attention should be given to amps (pop the lid and blow them out, the cooling tunnel too) and channel faders on your mixer if they are the linear type...

[jimbo7]

Has anyone successfully done the aim the subs at the ground at a 30 degree angle to use the ground as a boundary? How did you go about doing it? I was thinking of building a couple small sawhorses for the subs to rest on for doing this.Should I attempt this or should I just v-plate the speakers without boundary reinforcement? Any other suggestions? The other option I am thinking about is aiming the subs at the RV, would that create a sufficient boundary?

I made this outta scraps to aim it at the proper angle to the ground. Since I was only using 1 T24 and the "listening area" was a good 40ft away, it didn't blow your socks off, but you could hear it (to be honest I was only running at about 12v max).

you could throw this away or burn it after you're done

[escapemcp]

As for the transporting the cabs in a trailer thing... I asked the same question after I had thought someone else had mentioned it (and I also couldn't find the previous thread). I got the response that it doesn't matter and it was just a BFM myth (and there's not many of them about!). Of course, don't face the opening of the subs into the path of travel.

This advice is the response I got to the same question. I have not tested this and I take no responsibility for the accuracy or correctness of this (just in case the lawyers are prowling ).

Limited to 90dB... that's proper suckky! My impression of BM has just gone massively downhill.

[chrisj360]

As always, thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge and experience. I'll definitely be looking into the grill suggestions and building something to rest the subs at the 30 degree angle.

Does everyone think that angling them at the ground is better than just having the sitting normal with the v-plate or would the results be about the same either way (I think it's about +3 for the v-plate and +6 for boundary reinforcement right?) ? Trying to think of a way to v-plate and fire at the ground but that light bulb hasn't come one yet.

escapemcp: the 90 decibel rule is only for non-official sound camps within the city and is still negotiable if your neighbors don't care about loud music (got to keep the neighbors happy or you might find all of your cords cut or missing one morning). If you're with an official sound camp they place you at the ends of the streets so the sound is firing into the open desert and not at a neighbors camp or the rest of the city. Official sound camps can and are as loud as they want to be (here's one camp's set up: http://i.imgur.com/h38Yfkw.jpg).

We should all go one year with everyone bringing their set up to combine for a BFM massive!

Cheers again everyone,

Chris

[Bruce Weldy]

Just use the v-plate. That's better than leaning 'em over...that's not the boundary loading that everyone talks about - they mean walls inside a building to get the 6db.

[escapemcp]

Shows you what I know about BM. I thought it was exclusively in the desert.

+1 on Bruce's advice. You're already getting the boundary loading from the ground whether you tilt or not. The tilting option is there to increase the path length of the horn, but doesn't affect SPL in any significant way. The increased path length resulting from tilting is to improve low end - I think

[sine143]

BM is exclusivly in the desert. its just so huge that the whole "camp" is a "city".