Does anyone else practice out of their car?

[WTFumbles]

I went to the skate park today, for the third time, to practice. I hook my Mixtrack Pro (don't laugh, I'm new, and it works for me!) up to my 4-channel front-/rear-amp and my mono sub-amp, connect the Mixtrack Pro to my laptop, start my car, open my doors and begin my set. I always do nonstop, unrehearsed sessions; I think today must've been four or five hours. Mostly house, some techno, some hip-hop, some dubstep, mostly house. The people skateboarding and biking seemed to like it. I had a few people come over and introduce themselves and mingle a bit.. other people gave thumbs up when I'd glance at them.

So... anybody else do anything similar?

[LmnLm3]

I've never even thought about the car, but I have been thinking about how to busk as a dj haha - but that sounds pretty dope - depending on the type of neighborhood, I bet they enjoyed it, too.

how much fuel do you use up, though? (lol)

[DJ Sunshine]

Glad I'm not the only one using my sweet car audio system as a mobile PA

[Jester]

thats what those tonium pacemakers are cool for

[bmwnutfrombirth]

I've done this. I have an iPod adapter for my deck, which is actually just two female RCAs. the real fun comes when I go on road trips; the girlfriend drives, while I dj with a laptop at my feet (with the required car power adapter), the VCI-100 on my lap, and the Audio 4 stuck in the glovebox, along with a portable usb 2.0 hard drive. I've played for two hours at a time like this. It's awesome!

[SpeshulEd]

You run your car for five hours while you play, doesn't the exhaust about kill you?

My battery would be dead if I left my stereo play without the car running to charge the battery.

[m00n]

You run your car for five hours while you play, doesn't the exhaust about kill you?

as long as he isn't in a garage or shop there is no difference then being stuck in traffic. Mother nature is a beast.

[SpeshulEd]

I dunno, I guess I'm just sensitive...standing near the trunk with the car running would knock me over after about 5 minutes. I guess standing near the front of the car would solve that issue. *shrug*

[WTFumbles]

My car is pretty good at killing the smell of exhaust fumes, but I can definitely understand why you'd ask that question.. If my car were burning oil or something, it'd be pretty horrible.

As for burning fuel, the first time I did this, I did a 2-hour set. I didn't know how much gas I'd burn up, so I put in 10 gallons (half a tank, I was on E when I got to the station). After I finished up, I still appeared to have half a tank :O

So yesterday, I tried again. I put in about half a tank, did my 5 hour, and I think I maybe lost a gallon. More testing required, but it's cold today and kinda raining. Yesterday it was about 66 outside and clear.

Here's a pic of my old setup (it's nothing to look at, but it works):


Two foldable TV dinner tables haha. They were killer on the back, and I didn't have enough space for my game controllers so I couldn't use cue points. To rectify the problem, I bought a 4' folding table meant for camping that extends up to 36" high from overstock.com ($49 shipped), and built myself a Laptop stand:


With the new table, my Mixtrack is at the perfect height so I can control it without bending over at all, and my laptop is right at eye level so I don't have to look down at it. The only issue I had yesterday was the brightness of the laptop screen; wearing white made it hard to see the screen because I could see my shirt's reflection (glossy screen), but the problem disappeared around nightfall. I can replace the screen on my laptop but it wasn't impossible, so I'll just see how it goes. Besides, it makes it so I have to beatmatch by ear when I can't see traktor clearly hah!

I'll take pics of the new setup (I also bought 20' cables so I could be further from the car).

And yea everyone seemed to enjoy it. People driving by slowed down to look and listen, people exercising (running/biking) gave smiles and waved. I even had a lady come up and ask if I wanted to perform at a blue's festival in May. Erm... is it possible to mix Blues music?

[SpeshulEd]

Oh yeah, most cars won't burn much gas just idling.

Many many ages ago when I was still in high school, my car was usually the stereo for outdoor field parties. It would run for hours and hardly any gas would be gone. Gas was also $1/gal back then, so it didn't matter so much.