TheTogfather
09-10-2007, 06:38 AM
Okay, I've mentioned it on these forums before, but I'm planning to have my 30th birthday party be a Rock Band party. My birthday is the 25th of November and it looks like we're having a party the night of the 24th (Yes, I realize what a release date delay would do, but I'm not thinking about that, ok?) I'm letting my wife and others deal with things like location, food, drink, beer, etc...ya know petty stuff. I'm in charge of the important things...basically getting a fully functional stage up and running for Rock Band. Thing is, I don't really know how to do that.
Basically we're getting a VFW hall (think large basement-like, open room). Half of it will be tables, chairs, and bar area, the other half will be completely open, and in the corner of that part of the room, we'll put our stage. So basically here's what I've figured out so far, and what questions I have:
1. Building an actual stage. I'm thinking that cinder blocks and sheets of plywood will be fine for this, am I missing anything? About how big should it be? How thick does the plywood need to be to hold four possibly large rockers? Is the width of one block high enough?
2. Game and TV screen set-up. This one I can mostly figure out. I've got a 360, so I'll most likely have one wired guitar, one wireless. I can add USB extensions as needed to make sure everyone's got the room they need. As for the TV screens, I want to use the PAX set-up and have 2 32-inch widescreen LCDs (or similar) on each corner of the stage facing the band. I wasn't going to put any TVs facing the crowd, will this be ok? I'm not really worried about the audience getting to see the gameplay footage, everyone will get their turn to rock. What's the easiest/cheapest way to get those 2 32-inch LCDs? Anyone know a place that would rent these out maybe? Does any place have a good enough return policy that I could find a 'problem' with each of them after buying and get my money back?
3. Sound system. Here's where I really fall apart. I want this to be as concert-like as possible, so some nice loud speakers are pretty necessary here. Is this also something I could possibly rent? How would you hook up the audio, as an output from one of the TVs? Is it absolutely necessary to get a mixer/amp or whatever or is there some cheaper/easier option I'm missing here? It doesn't really have to blast everyone out of the room, just be loud enough to be authentic.
4. Lighting. This isn't absolutely necessary, but I would love to get some stage lighting going too. I really have no idea how this stuff works though. I was also gonna go w/ a smoke machine, but my friend reminded me that my 360 and TVs might not like that.
There are plenty of other details to work through (Like how do I get 3 other people to practice enough in 4 days to be able to play decently through a whole opening set, how do I get total newbies acclimated to the game quickly, how will I deal with people wanting to play Bon Jovi over and over and over) but I can figure all that out. These items listed above I am need of help with though. One thing I had considered was maybe finding a local DJ that would come and let me use his equipment...we wouldn't really need him to play music at all, but would still pay him for the use of his sound system and lighting...that would kill two birds right there. Would that be doable you think? Anyway, any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
Basically we're getting a VFW hall (think large basement-like, open room). Half of it will be tables, chairs, and bar area, the other half will be completely open, and in the corner of that part of the room, we'll put our stage. So basically here's what I've figured out so far, and what questions I have:
1. Building an actual stage. I'm thinking that cinder blocks and sheets of plywood will be fine for this, am I missing anything? About how big should it be? How thick does the plywood need to be to hold four possibly large rockers? Is the width of one block high enough?
2. Game and TV screen set-up. This one I can mostly figure out. I've got a 360, so I'll most likely have one wired guitar, one wireless. I can add USB extensions as needed to make sure everyone's got the room they need. As for the TV screens, I want to use the PAX set-up and have 2 32-inch widescreen LCDs (or similar) on each corner of the stage facing the band. I wasn't going to put any TVs facing the crowd, will this be ok? I'm not really worried about the audience getting to see the gameplay footage, everyone will get their turn to rock. What's the easiest/cheapest way to get those 2 32-inch LCDs? Anyone know a place that would rent these out maybe? Does any place have a good enough return policy that I could find a 'problem' with each of them after buying and get my money back?
3. Sound system. Here's where I really fall apart. I want this to be as concert-like as possible, so some nice loud speakers are pretty necessary here. Is this also something I could possibly rent? How would you hook up the audio, as an output from one of the TVs? Is it absolutely necessary to get a mixer/amp or whatever or is there some cheaper/easier option I'm missing here? It doesn't really have to blast everyone out of the room, just be loud enough to be authentic.
4. Lighting. This isn't absolutely necessary, but I would love to get some stage lighting going too. I really have no idea how this stuff works though. I was also gonna go w/ a smoke machine, but my friend reminded me that my 360 and TVs might not like that.
There are plenty of other details to work through (Like how do I get 3 other people to practice enough in 4 days to be able to play decently through a whole opening set, how do I get total newbies acclimated to the game quickly, how will I deal with people wanting to play Bon Jovi over and over and over) but I can figure all that out. These items listed above I am need of help with though. One thing I had considered was maybe finding a local DJ that would come and let me use his equipment...we wouldn't really need him to play music at all, but would still pay him for the use of his sound system and lighting...that would kill two birds right there. Would that be doable you think? Anyway, any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
