The person you email is the person who shows up.
Max Troyer runs the night — DJ and MC. For rooms over 250 a second tech comes along to run lighting live.
Gobo Studios · a DBA of Monterey Skates LLC · Monterey, CA · (831) 264-8797 · gobostudios.com
Pricing
Prices, published.
Most DJ companies will not put a number on a page. That is a problem if you have to submit a budget request before you are allowed to contact a vendor. So here are the numbers.
School dance packages are priced by headcount, on a three-hour base, with the gear listed for each tier. Add-ons are flat. Travel is published. Nothing on this page moves depending on how your date sounds.
Three-hour base Setup and teardown are not on your clock Monterey and the Central Coast
School dances
Priced by how many students are in the room
Room size is the thing that actually drives cost. Two hundred students in a cafeteria and seven hundred in a gym are different sound problems, different light rigs, and a different load-in. So the packages are cut by headcount.
The sizes are a guide, not a rule. Each package lists the crowd its rig covers comfortably — but if you have sixty people and you want the whole room lit, book Deluxe. Pick by the look you want, not just the headcount. Every price below is for a three-hour dance. What moves between the packages is fixtures and speakers, not crew — one person runs the show at every size, so a bigger room buys more light and more sound rather than more people. That is also why an extra hour is the same flat rate at every size. Travel outside the seven towns we cover is the only other thing that can move the number, and that policy is published further down.
| Room size | 3 hours | Sound | Light | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Compact
Sized for about 150 Middle school socials, small formals |
$850 | 2 × 12-inch powered tops on stands, 2 wireless mics | The lit DJ booth — 3 moving heads and 12 PAR fixtures | 1 (DJ / MC) |
|
Getting Warmer
Sized for about 250 Winter formals, club dances |
$1,150 | 2 × 12-inch tops, the 15-inch subwoofer, 2 wireless mics | One lighting cart plus the booth — 9 moving heads, 24 PAR fixtures, and 6 wash bars | 1 (DJ / MC) |
|
Double Down
Sized for 250 to 500 Homecoming, most proms Typical prom size |
$1,550 | 2 × 12-inch tops, the 15-inch subwoofer, 2 wireless mics | Both carts and the booth — 15 moving heads, 36 PAR fixtures, 12 wash bars — plus the 60-inch animation screen and the large laser | 1 (DJ / MC) |
|
Deluxe
Sized for 500 to 700 Large proms, grad nights |
$2,050 | 4 × 12-inch tops — mains plus fill for the far end — the 15-inch subwoofer, 2 wireless mics | Everything above plus six 48-inch wash bars placed around the room, so the light is not all coming from one end | 1 (DJ / MC) |
|
Ultra
Sized for 700 to 1,000 Big-school proms, all-class rallies |
$2,650 | 6 × 12-inch tops so the back of the gym hears the same mix as the front, the 15-inch subwoofer, 2 wireless mics | The full rig: 15 moving heads, 36 PARs, 12 wash bars on the carts and six more around the room, animation screen, and laser | 1 (DJ / MC) |
|
Custom Build
Over 1,000 |
From $3,200
Quoted after a site visit |
The full system, with a second 15-inch subwoofer added if the room needs it | The full rig, placed to the room | 1+ |
- Prices are for a three-hour dance on a single load-in. Extra hour: $225, flat.
- Rallies and daytime events use the same tiers. A rally is usually shorter and needs more microphone than dance floor — say so on the enquiry and the quote reflects it.
- Two events on the same day at the same school — a rally in the afternoon and a dance that night — are one setup. Ask; it is cheaper than two bookings.
- A quote holds for 60 days from the date it is issued, so it survives your approval cycle.
In every package
What you get before you add anything
Every package below is a complete show, not a starting point. The list here is included at every headcount. The tier only changes how much room the sound and the light have to cover.
Phone requests — no paper slips, no shouting.
Students scan a QR code and request from their phones. Your ASB advisor holds the approve button, so nothing gets played that you did not clear. It runs on KaraokeFlow, which we built.
Clean versions only.
Radio edits at school events, every track, no exceptions. Send a do-not-play list and it goes in before doors.
A written run sheet.
Grand march, court presentation, awards, the last song, the lights-up cue. We build it on a planning call and you get it in writing.
A purchased library.
Every track is bought outright or comes from a professional DJ pool subscription. No rips, no YouTube audio. Karaoke tracks come from licensed commercial catalogues.
Setup and teardown outside your hours.
We arrive 90 minutes before doors. You booked three hours of music; you get three hours of music.
Spares on the truck.
A backup wireless mic, a second laptop, and spare cable, every time.
One invoice.
Anything we do not own for your room gets sub-rented and priced in. You see one number, not a rental line and a labour line.
| Add-on | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Extra hour | $225 | Flat at every package size. What changes between the packages is fixtures and speakers, not the person running them — so an extra hour costs the same whether the room holds 150 or 900. Nothing extends without an adult in the room saying so. |
| Extra powered speaker | $95 | With stand and cable. For an overflow room, a courtyard, or a check-in table. |
| Extra wireless microphone | $95 | Every package already includes two. This adds another for awards, court announcements, or a principal who is not going to share. |
| Wash bars — all six | $200 | The six 48-inch bars placed around the room, added to a package that does not already include them. Set to your school colours. |
| Large laser | $100 | Added to a package below the 250-to-500 tier, where it is already included. |
| 60-inch animation screen | $100 | Beat-synced visuals beside the booth. Added to a package below the 250-to-500 tier, where it is already included. |
| Projector and 9-foot screen | $275 | Senior slideshow, sponsor slides, countdown, karaoke lyrics, or a live camera feed on the dance floor. |
| Off-hours setup or teardown | $250 | For when the gym is only available in the morning and the dance is at seven. Setup immediately before your event and teardown immediately after are always included. |
Add-ons are quoted at the prices above and do not change with headcount. If you want something that is not on this list, ask — most things are cheaper than you would guess and the ones that are not, we will say so.
Booking the karaoke, not adding it?
The station above is karaoke added to a dance or a party that already has a DJ. If the singing is the whole evening — a birthday, an office party, a going-away night — that is a karaoke party, it is quoted like a private party, and the page has what the night actually looks like.
What you are paying for
The light is the part they remember
A gym with the house lights off and nothing in it is a gym with the lights off. The rig is the difference between a dance and a room where a dance is happening.
Everything in the packages above is fixtures we run ourselves, on a rig we built for our own venue. The moving heads, the wash bars, and the haze are driven by SceneRig — our own software — locked to the beat coming out of the DJ software, so the room moves with the track instead of on a timer. Nobody is standing at a laptop guessing.
Beat-locked, not timed.
The lighting engine reads live BPM and beat phase from the DJ rig at 20 Hz and holds phase. When the track drops, the room drops with it.
Programmed before we arrive.
Your colours, your look, built and previewed on a stage visualiser before load-in. School colours are the default. Send us the hex codes if you have them.
Haze, used properly.
Water-based haze is what makes a beam visible. It is included from the 250-and-up tiers, and it comes out if your fire panel or your site policy says no — tell us early and we light the room differently instead of arguing about it.
- No travel charge in Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Seaside, Sand City, Del Rey Oaks, or Marina. These are the towns we can load in and out of without the drive changing the day.
- Everywhere else: $1.75 per mile, each way. Measured by road from Monterey, not by air, on the shortest sensible route. Carmel Valley, Salinas, Castroville, Watsonville and the Big Sur coast all fall here.
- Past 120 miles, or a load-out that lands after 1 a.m.: one night of lodging at cost, agreed in writing before you sign anything. If it is not in the quote, we do not bill it.
- Parking, tolls, and ferry at cost. If your campus needs a permit or a gate code, tell us on the enquiry and we will handle it in advance.
- No fuel surcharge. No travel-time hourly. The mileage rate is the whole of it.
Outside the Central Coast entirely — the Bay Area, the Valley, further south — ask. It is often still worth doing, and the quote will show you exactly what the travel adds.
Everything else
Corporate, birthdays, graduations, karaoke parties
Same rig, same person, different shape of evening. These are quoted rather than packaged because the sound and the talking matter more than the headcount does — a hundred-person awards night with six presenters is more work than a two-hundred-person birthday.
Corporate and awards
from $1,200 for four hours
Podium sound, presenter mics, a clean run of show, and background music that stays under the conversation until you want it not to. Holiday parties, launches, sales kickoffs, and awards nights.
Private parties
from $950 for four hours
Birthdays, anniversaries, graduation parties, retirement parties, and karaoke parties. Dance floor lighting included, karaoke available, and the same phone-request system so the room picks the music.
Karaoke nights for venues
from $450 per night
A recurring karaoke night for a bar, a brewery, or a rink. Host, mics, songbook, and the QR-code request system. Ask about a standing weekly rate.
A small wedding is possible by enquiry. Choose the wedding option on the enquiry form, tell us the size and the room, and you will get a straight answer about fit before anything is quoted.
Procurement
Paperwork, without the back and forth
Written for the business office, not the dance committee. If you need something on this list that is not here, ask on the enquiry form and it comes back with the first reply.
We accept
- District purchase order
- ASB or student-activity check
- Booster or parent-committee check
- Site or department budget
- Card and ACH for private and corporate bookings
We provide
- W-9, returned within two business days
- Vendor registration packet, filled and returned
- An itemised quote with every line separated, suitable for attaching to a requisition
- An invoice on your terms — net 30 against a district PO
How a date gets held
You send the enquiry. The first reply tells you whether the date is open and what it costs.
Say yes and the itemised quote comes straight back. The W-9 follows within two business days.
A date is held when a signed PO or a 25% deposit lands. Until then it is available to whoever gets there first — we will not pretend otherwise.
We will hold a date seven days without paperwork while your approval moves, if you ask. One extension, if the board meeting is the problem.
Balance is due the day of the event, or net 30 on a district PO.
Changes and cancellation
- More than 30 days out, the deposit moves to another date within 12 months.
- Inside 30 days, the deposit is not refundable — the date has been off the calendar.
- A date change with more than 30 days' notice is free, subject to availability.
Note
On insurance. Coverage is being placed through the ADJA and is not bound yet. There is no certificate to send today. Ask on the enquiry form whether your district requires one and when, and you will get a straight answer about where it stands and the date it binds — before you commit to anything, not the week of.
Note
On campus clearance. California Education Code 45125.1 requires Live Scan clearance for contractors working on a K-12 site. That process is underway and not finished. It takes roughly two weeks. If your district requires clearance before we can be on site, say so early on the enquiry form so the timing works.
The software side
The tools, and what they cost
We run the shows. That is why the tools work. Two of the four are for sale today and the other two run our own rig every week.
KaraokeFlow
Free
$0
Free forever
One venue, 100 songs, two singers. The whole request flow, at home.
Home
$5 / month
$50 / year 2 months free
Unlimited songs and singers, kiosk display, venue branding, filler music.
Recommended for working KJs
Pro
$15 / month
$150 / year 2 months free
Everything in Home plus VirtualDJ integration, the Digitrax streaming catalogue, and pitch shift.
Studio
$50 / month
$500 / year 2 months free
Multiple venues, multiple KJ accounts, API access, singer analytics, custom domain.
Yearly billing is ten months for twelve. Cancel any time.
VDJ REST API — free
A VirtualDJ plugin that exposes VirtualDJ's internals as REST/JSON on localhost:8082. macOS and Windows. No VirtualDJ Pro licence needed.
SceneRig and GearMaintain — not on sale yet
SceneRig drives the DMX rig at the events on this site. GearMaintain tracked a rental fleet through a full season. Both are real, both are running, and neither has a public price yet.
Before you submit the budget request
Questions we get from the people who sign
Can I get a price without a phone call?
Yes. That is what this page is for, and the enquiry form gives you a number in writing. If you want to talk it through afterwards, call (831) 264-8797.
Do you do weddings?
The calendar is built around school, corporate, and private events, so that is what the packages above are cut for. A small wedding is possible by enquiry — choose the wedding option on the form, tell us the size and the room, and you will get a straight answer about whether we are the right fit.
Are you insured?
Coverage is being placed through the ADJA and is not bound yet, so there is no certificate to send today. Tell us on the enquiry form if your district needs one and by when, and you will get an honest answer about timing before you commit.
Are you cleared to work on our campus?
Live Scan clearance under Ed Code 45125.1 is in progress, not complete. It takes about two weeks. If your district requires clearance before we are on site, say so early.
Who holds the music licence for our event?
The venue or the event organiser does — that is how US copyright works, and it is not something a mobile DJ can hold on your behalf. Most districts already carry it through their facility use agreements. Your business office will know. What we can tell you is where the music comes from: every track is purchased outright or from a professional DJ pool subscription, and karaoke tracks come from licensed commercial catalogues. No rips. No YouTube audio.
How do you keep the playlist appropriate?
Clean versions only, every track. Students request from their phones and your advisor approves each one before it goes in the queue, so nothing reaches the speakers that you have not seen. Send a do-not-play list and it is loaded before doors.
What do you need from the building?
Two dedicated 20-amp circuits for the packages up to 250, four for 500 and above, and a load-in path that is not a flight of stairs. If the gym runs on one breaker, tell us — it is fixable, but not at 6 p.m. on the night.
How early do you arrive?
We arrive 90 minutes before doors, every time. Setup and teardown are never inside your booked hours — you pay for show hours only.
What happens if the dance runs long?
Extra hours are $225, flat, and nothing extends without an adult in the room saying so.
Can we see the rig before we commit?
Yes. Ask, and we will show you rather than describe it.
Do you take a deposit?
25%, or a signed district PO. That is what takes the date off the calendar. Full terms are in the procurement section above.
Next
Start with the date
Two steps, about two minutes. The first reply tells you whether your date is open and what your event costs. Not “let us schedule a call.”
Or call (831) 264-8797. Monterey and the Central Coast.