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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

A Trip Most Worthwhile: Community, Technology & Education At LAB DemoFest 2009

Another big reason I took the trouble to attend this thing was the presentation by Bill Hanley. This was the deal-maker for me

I have a keen interest in the history of live sound reinforcement, the gear that was used way back when, and the associated advancements of technology.

I’m also very interested in new technology, even if the price tag of the cutting-edge stuff means the chances of me using it any time soon are a pipe dream.

And, I also like to just hang out and talk shop with other sound guys.

A recent event planned by some ProSoundWeb community members, loosely termed “LAB DemoFest 2009,” combined all of these things and more.

It was not unlike a trade show, except better in some ways, a smaller, more personal event.

Held over the course of two days at the Wachusett Village Inn & Conference Center in Westminster, Massachusetts, DemoFest offered product displays, technical presentations, and live performances all taking place in the same room.

A cash bar on the evening of day one and buffet lunch on day two were also provided by the host facility in the main event room, along with the normal bar and on-site restaurant.

To get there I had to drive the entire length of I-84, and then some, but the round-trip of more than 500 miles was well worth the effort. I’m pretty sure that dozens of audio professionals from all levels of the industry that were on hand - some of them traveling even greater distances to attend - felt the same way.

The bulk of DemoFest planning was done by David Nickerson, with Jason Dermer supplying a rig consisting of EONA ADRaudio loudspeakers and an APB-Dynasonics Spectra console, a 24-channel side-car, and as sweet a rack of outboard as you’ll ever see.

EONA ADRaudio and APB-Dynasonics were not only represented by the presence of their gear, but also by the attendance of company principals. This was also the case with Rational Acoustics. These folks weren’t just hired hands sent to represent these companies, they’re the guys whose names are on the door.

Other manufacturers displaying products included Allen & Heath, Danley Sound Labs, Lectrosonics, EAW, Sennheiser, Shure, and Soundcraft.

On day one, David Missal of Sennheiser and Tim Vear of Shure each gave an individual presentation of their company’s products, served on a panel for a discussion of advanced RF topics. They did a lot to quell the apprehension so many of us have over the new FCC rules. Apparently, the sky is NOT falling.

Other highlights included Jamie Anderson of Rational Acoustics providing insights on the use of Smaart, and Brian Doser’s overview of recording live shows with Pro Tools.

Another big reason I took the trouble to attend this thing was the presentation by Bill Hanley. This was the deal-maker for me.

Bill Hanley is as close to a living legend in live sound as there will ever be. He was at FOH when Bob Dylan came out with an electric band at Newport, and he designed the sound system for Woodstock. He may even be the first guy to ever use stage monitors. (OK, I won’t hold that against him.)

Mr. Hanley is a treasure chest of live sound anecdotes. He also gave the event one of its biggest tributes by deciding to stay and attend day two, noting that “he felt the need to be with his kind.”

Thanks Bill, I’m honored to be thought of as one of your kind.

Be sure to check out Dave’s Photo Gallery tour of DemoFest.

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Fun & Challenges (Or Fear & Loathing) At The New House Sound Gig

When did it become some sort of luxury to know if the knob you're turning is making it sound better or worse?

I can’t believe I have been at my new house gig for a couple months now.

Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

I wasn’t there when they brought in the gear and set it up, so some things are not the way I would have set them up.

The mixer is on top of the outboard rack, like you’d do with a portable rig. Bending down behind a rack is not the best way to hear the tweaks you’re making. When did it become some sort of luxury to know if the knob you’re turning is making it sound better or worse?

I’ll change this as soon as I figure out where to move the rack so I can operate it without bending over, while also still leaving enough room in the alloted space at front of house for the light guy.

We don’t have a light guy on duty every night, so I suppose I could just use up all of the space and let the light guy fend for himself, but this makes me a bad guy. Why is it when the light guy is a crybaby, it’s ME who’s being inflexible?

I’d have figured out how to do this sooner if the front of house position was not located back in the corner where I can’t hear the PA all that well. (You know, like most every club.)

The system was installed on the day of the club’s first show, so in order to save time, they didn’t run the drive snake. The loudspeaker processor was moved to the amp rack, and everything is hooked up with a single 24 x 4 snake.

This eats up two mic inputs on the snake, since we need six channels to do L&R as well as four monitor sends from FOH. It leaves me with 22 inputs from the stage and no spares.

Oh yeah, and lighting needs a channel, and when the light guy brings in his extra stuff, he needs a channel too. So now I’m down to 20.

But wait! There’s more!

A DJ rig behind the house left stack needs two channels as well. So now, my Midas Venice 32 can receive all of 18 channels from the stage.

Strangely enough, though, we’ve already hosted our first “national act” without any production issues at all.

Just the same, I really need to get in there and run that drive snake… One of these days…

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

When Is A House Gig Not A House Gig?

Long story short, the gig that was supposed to be a minimum of two nights per week turns out to be more like two nights per month

My gig as house sound man at the country bar just ended after a little over a year. The thing is, it never really started.

The first few weeks went fine. The soft opening went very well. Crowds during the grand opening weekend were huge. There was a very nice system installed in the bar. (Two EV MTL-1 subs with two EV QRx 212/75 tops per side, all driven with plenty of QSC power, house console was a Midas Venice 32, and plenty of outboard gear.)

But one band, who has a member that fancies himself as the owner of a production company, and likes to peel the paint off the walls of every venue he plays in, told the woman who books the bands for the venue that they just have to use their own sound system. How else could they be sure they have the ability to peel the paint off the walls?

Now, I have no problem with a band bringing in their own system. Even if the band’s attempt to look like a big, fancy, extra special outfit actually makes them look bush league. Hey, it’s one date on the calendar each month.

The problems arise, however, when this practice makes the person booking the talent start thinking that the house PA system is now optional, and offers to increase the band’s pay if they supply their own sound.

Long story short, the gig that was supposed to be a minimum of two nights per week turns out to be more like two nights per month - the original deal included middle-of-the-week things like Karaoke and line dancing nights at no charge since the room was providing eight or ten nights of work for two guys every month.

Once weekend bookings started going away, an attempt was made to salvage the situation by lowering the system rental price and only having one guy to do the gig. The attempt failed, and the new system at the new club that everyone was so excited about turned into free storage space for the gear, with an occasional gig thrown in.

This is not a good way to make a return on the investment.

Things began to spiral downward. The place cuts back its hours, gets rid of the head chef, and hires a new manager.

The new manager, who does not know the arrangement between the sound company and the venue owners, tells new bands booked into the club that the club has a sound system, and gigs are done with the system being used for free. Everything becomes a jumbled mess of miscommunication.

It becomes clear that this club installation has gone terribly wrong, and needs to be pulled out. 

While the sound company is making room in an already cramped warehouse for the gear, they get a phone call about a new club opening up, which just happens to need a system installed to support live acts three nights a week, at minimum.

It’s like magic.

The house gig that never was is a house gig again.

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

More Gigs Are Booking Last Minute, And Details Can Be Sketchy… But All’s Well That Ends Well

Micing for success on the frontlines of a big deal in Pennsylvania - high school district jazz

Ever since my most recent steady house gig became not quite so steady, I’ve been banished to a 14-foot straight truck to do gigs that usually come at the last minute.

In fact, last minute gigs have become the rule instead of the exception. I used to consider getting booked for a Saturday gig on the prior Tuesday as a tight timeframe. Lately, Saturday night bookings are arriving on Saturday afternoon.

The gig I’m writing about here, however, was booked well in advance by these standards - the call came on Monday for a gig to take place the following Saturday afternoon. But not to let me get too comfortable, most of the details were kept sketchy.

I was told it would be sound for a high school jazz band. When I arrived at the gig, it turned out to be a district jazz festival.

I don’t know how it is in other areas of the country, but if you’re a high school musician in Pennsylvania, districts in band, chorus and orchestra are a big thing. What they do is pick the best musicians in the region and bring them together for a couple days to put together a performance.

This particular district event was a big band jazz orchestra, 18 players strong. The front line included six saxophones - three tenors, two altos, and a baritone. Behind them were four trombones, followed by a back row of four trumpets. The rhythm section included piano, (both acoustic and electric) guitar, bass, and drums.

Normally for jazz gigs (and also mostly because I care), I automatically break out a selection of microphones to augment the basic rock ‘n’ roll mic package (Shure SM57s, Sennheiser e835s, etc.) already on the truck.

For this gig, I ended up placing seven mics, but actually used only six after being instructed not to use the one above the drums.

A spaced pair of Samson C01 large-diaphragm cardioid condensers served as my primary mics, positioned about eight feet apart and six feet in front of the horn section. I used these two mics to get the “meat” of the entire group of horns. Also, this configuration puts the stage-right mic of the pair at almost exactly center stage.

There was a roving solo mic located in front of the saxes that could be moved around by the band director during the performance.

Two more condensers - Audio-Technica AT813a - resided among the trombonists for the trumpets to use as solo mics, and also, these allow me to sneak a little extra trumpet into the mix if I need it.

The sixth mic, on the grand piano, was a beyerdynamic MC 834 condenser. There was plenty of time before the final rehearsal to tweak this mic, and rehearsal proved short and sweet, with it all sounding great.

Coming up to show time, everyone seems happy, and I’m confident things will work out well. The kids play a great concert, but my own “performance” has a couple rough spots. Some solos start a bit soft, others a bit loud, yet nobody runs screaming from the room holding their ears.

I do the mix on a Midas Venice 32 console, with two Electro-Voice QRx212 loudspeakers per side driven by two QSC RMX5050 power amplifiers. This PA covered the room - a 600-seat high school auditorium - quite well.

Overall, I’m pleased with the way things turn out, and the band director from the host school raved about what a great job we did to the sound company owner.

For me, it’s another satisfied customer, and most importantly, repeat business.

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Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Are You Always ON? A Bit Of Perspective For The “Amrchair Audio Experts”

A live show is supposed to have a little hair on it. I mean really. Get over it.

It’s Super Bowl time, and all the experts on the ProSoundWeb forums are telling us how they just know what parts of the halftime show were ‘live’ and what were pre-recorded tracks. Or whatever.

Pre-recorded tracks can make what is already a technical nightmare a bit less terrifying to those involved. As long as it’s the same person live and on the recording, what’s the big deal?

Oh yeah, just because the video is out of sync with the audio does not mean it’s because the audio is pre-recorded. Audio/video sync has its own special set of complications that a lot of us who deal with just audio don’t really understand.

Then there is the discussion of the distortion that could be heard when Bruce Springsteen yelled into his microphone at the start of the show. We also know how live musicians hit harder at show time than in rehearsal.

I’d certainly be annoyed if the distortion at the beginning continued throughout the performance, but it was taken care of, and the show was all good.

Hey, a live show is supposed to have a little hair on it.

I really think all these “Armchair Audio Experts” need to lighten up and just take pleasure in a show once in a while. I mean really. Get over it.

It doesn’t really matter if you could have done a better job, or conversely, if the technical aspects of the production would send you running for the hills - you’re still just a part of the audience. Like 94 million or so other people.

Sit back and enjoy the show.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I Scored A Great Deal On Speakers… (But GPS Rules!)

Or, how I shopped on eBay but learned to love my TomTom...

I just scored an incredible deal on eBay. Three Yorkville Elite EX350M loudspeakers.

They are primarily a monitor wedge, but they also have a pole cup and can be used as a speaker-on-a-stick. They are a B&C loaded 12” x 1”, and have a nice shallow (as in closer to horizontal) angle that works best with the monitor up close and personal, the way a lot of people like their monitors.

How incredible a deal? Try three of them for $50. The catch is I’m located in Western PA, but have to pick them up in Jersey City. Not a problem.

But this is not about eBay deals. It’s about my first use of a recent gift I received for my birthday, a TomTom GO 930T GPS unit.

I do a lot of traveling by automobile, and welcome this new hi-tech gadget. I input the address of the location of my new eBay purchase and get a route. The route says it takes just under two hours to drive to my destination.

I look over the route, and where I am going is close to the highway, and on a main road in Jersey City, so I figure the trip will be a piece of cake.

I am not a stranger to big city driving, and know the megalopolis of North Jersey is not for the faint of heart. But my trip is planned for a weekday after rush hour, so I had no worries.Then again, traffic can be bad for no apparent reason, so I just hope for the best.

The trip out is gloriously uneventful, except for what I see in the west-bound lanes at the drawbridge that goes over the Passaic River. The road home is a two-mile-long west-bound parking lot.

Bummer.

I get to my destination and load up my goods. For the drive home, I fire up the GPS and have it calculate the way home.

.

What’s this? It’s taking me to I-78? Yes!

The magical GPS box has routed me around the traffic stand-still via I-78 and the New Jersey Turnpike, and all I did was press a button that said “Home”.

Yeah, that GPS, ya gotta love it.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

I Run the Gamut from Low-Paid Labor to Low-Paid Master of All I Survey…

Greetings and welcome to my new ProSoundWeb Blog. My name is Dave Dermont. Some of you may know me as one of the moderators on the ProSoundWeb forums and author of the occasional article in Live Sound International.

This is a blog of the day-to-day trials and tribulations of someone working in the sound reinforcement jungle of night clubs, street fairs, festivals, and corner bars, with an occasional peek at some higher profile gigs from the viewpoint of a lowly stage hand or loader. Yep, I run the gamut from low-paid labor to low-paid master of all I survey.

Don’t look here for stories of world travel with famous people. It’ll be more like stories about people who are semi-famous, used to be famous, or are about to be famous. I will not to drop names just to show everyone how cool I am, but I suspect I might fail at this from time to time. I will not hesitate to let everyone know what festivals have the best corn dogs.

It’s also a safe bet that I’ll go off on an occasional rant.

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