help with live sound

[the Life Aquatic]

So the bar I work at has an odd (imo) setup for the music/djs and what not. Theres a DJ booth that has a mackie mixer which feeds into another mackie mixer(both mixers are the same size) behind the bar which goes through an a few EQs and then two power amps(one for each channel)

Now I dont know everything about live sound and mixers but im thinking the Mixer in the DJ booth is unnecessary and overkill.

The DJ booth its about 10 feet from the mixer behind the bar. The cables travel maybe about max 30 feet after being routed through the ceiling and crap.

I was told by the guy who set it all up that the mixer in the DJ booth is needed so the DJS can get there signal from the booth to the main mixer because the signal straight from their outputs isnt strong enough and the mixer in the booth puts out 3 volts which helps boost the signal so it can make the distance and power the speakers because we have several and they need a lot of power.

I hate the mixer in the booth cause the DJS play around with it and most dont know what theyre doing. And the inputs on the main mixer from the booth are constantly in the red.

I said why not get an active DI box to boost the signal, dude told me itll bring a lot of hum into the chain.

I feel like this whole set up is overkill for a small bar and isnt needed. Shouldnt the power amps be what boosts the signal enough for the speakers? Isnt the mixer in the DJ booth putting out the same level signal that the main mixer is sending to the speakers? Anyone able to chime in?

[Decibill]

This all sounds very suspect. Most PA mixers have preamps or a gain control for boosting mic, instrument and line level signals. There shouldn't be an issue with the DJ's signal being too low. There could be impedance issues happening too that the "guy" is mistaking for gain issues. If you can, I would deconstruct the system and rebuild it with the proper gain staging, using one mixer only.

[the Life Aquatic]

Wish I could but he's our "fixit" guy and taked care of everything in the place and his "live sound" guy at the sam ashe around the conrer said this is how its gotta be. This fixit guy said hes has DJ equipment and use to DJ trance music back in the day. didnt say if he DJed out or just at home, but i assumed he somewhat knew the equipment. He's a damn good electrician, but i just dont think it translates to music equipment the same way.

[Decibill]

Well, I've known plenty of people with solid "credentials" that should, in theory, give their opinions some validity. Just because that sound guy works at a music store does not by any means serve as an indicator that he knows how to run live sound. People learn how to do things the wrong way all the time and since it's the only ay they know how to do it, to them it is "right".

[The4455]

You can remove the dj mixer and replace it with four stereo D.I. boxes or however many you need. These will take the low line level signals from the turntables and use a step-up transformer to increase the voltage to mic level to go into the mixer and then mixed accordingly.

Although your guy knew one thing, he took care of the problem in a bad way.

[bongoben]

You don't need the DJ mixer. It is unnecessary and will only result in them turning things up too high which, if not comped/limited to an extreme, can hurt the system worse. If the DJ's setup doesn't have XLR outs then a stereo DI (i.e. Radial Pro D2) is all you really need.

(edit)Source... I've been a live sound engineer for 15ish years... setup numerous systems and have worked way too many DJ/Turntable/plug-in-an-iPod shows. I don't know everything but I feel like I'm right this one.