Welcome to the Loud & Clear Sound Rental home page. I'm Dennis P., the owner and, most days, the whole company. If you need a sound system for an event and you don't want to rent a pile of equipment you don't know how to hook up, you're in the right place. I rent complete, working PA packages, I deliver them and set them up, and if you want me to I'll stay and run the board so you can enjoy your own event.

I don't sell equipment and I don't take a deposit on your credit card and hand you a box. Every rental comes with all the cables, stands and power strips it needs, tested the day before, and my instructions taped to the mixer.

All prices are per day (an "event day" — pick up or delivery the day before, back the day after, no extra charge for that). Weekend events are usually a one-day rate too. Sales tax is extra where it applies.

Need something in between, or a multi-day rental (a weekend festival, a three-night school play)? E-mail me with the dates and I'll quote it. Multi-day rates are a lot less than the day rate times the days.

What's not included: the CD player, the band's instruments and amps, or a DJ. I have a wireless microphone available for a few dollars extra if you ask ahead. I do not rent karaoke machines. I get asked a lot.

This is the question I get most, so here is the honest answer. It depends on three things: how many people, what kind of room, and whether there's a band.

A rule of thumb: if you're not sure which package, it's the Band Package. Nobody has ever complained that the sound system was too good. People complain when the best man's toast was inaudible.

• Delivery and setup are included within about 25 miles of Oakdale. Farther than that, I add a mileage charge; I'll tell you what it is before you book.
• For the Band Package I always set up and test it myself. That's not optional and it's not extra. I want to hear it working before I leave.
• The Small PA you can pick up from me if you'd rather, and I'll walk you through it in the driveway. It fits in a station wagon.
• I need about 90 minutes before doors for a band setup, 30 minutes for a Small PA, and access to the room (somebody with a key!). I need two standard outlets, preferably on different circuits, and I'll ask you where the breaker box is. I always ask. Once you've had the power go out during the first dance, you always ask.
• Pickup is at the end of the event or the next morning, whatever works. If I'm running the board I tear down and load out myself.
• You are responsible for the equipment while you have it. Rain, spilled punch and dropped microphones happen; I'm reasonable about it, but the rental agreement (one page, plain English) says what's what.

Updated September 24. Homecoming season is here and it's my busiest time of year after June weddings, so if you're planning a dance, book early. Right now:

• October 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23: Band Package is spoken for on several of these; Small PA still available most dates. E-mail me with your date and I'll tell you the same day.
• October 30 (Saturday): BOOKED. Both packages. Sorry — Halloween weekend went first.
• October 31: Small PA available.
• November: wide open except for Thanksgiving weekend. Good time for church events, craft fairs, banquets.
• December: holiday parties are starting to come in. Company parties and church programs, get your date in by early November.
• New Year's Eve 1999: I have had a lot of calls. I am taking one event that night and it isn't booked yet as of this update. First deposit gets it. And yes, I've thought about Y2K — nothing in a PA system knows what year it is, so if the lights stay on, so does the music.

I'm one guy with one truck, so I can only run sound at one event per night. I can do a Small PA drop-off and a Band Package on the same day if the timing works.

I ran sound for bar bands for twelve years, from 1985 to 1997 — four nights a week, every kind of band you can name, every kind of room from a VFW hall to a county fair grandstand, on equipment that mostly worked and a few pieces that didn't. I learned what feedback sounds like a half second before it happens, how to make a drummer happy with his monitor (you can't, but you can get close), and how to get a whole system into a van in 40 minutes in the rain. When I got tired of getting home at 3 a.m. I bought my own gear and started Loud & Clear in the spring of 1997.

Since then I've done about 200 events: weddings, high school dances, church revivals, a rodeo, the Oakdale summer concert series, more retirement parties than I can count, and a couple of battle-of-the-bands nights at the rec center where I got to watch some kids play their first real show. That's still the most fun I have all year. (Hi, Static Cling. Third place is nothing to sneeze at.)

I'm a member of the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce and I've got references from churches, schools and brides you can ask for.

The fastest way to reach me is e-mail; I check it every morning and evening, even on event days.
[email protected]

Or leave a message at (555) 555-0147 and I'll call you back the same day, usually from the truck.

When you write, tell me: the date, the place, roughly how many people, and whether there's a band or a DJ. I'll quote you by return e-mail. A $50 deposit holds the date; the balance is due the day of the event, cash or check.