Two Good Friends up to Good

I came into possession of a small stool, a purchase at a yard sale. Make that a farm yard sale. It came out of a barn, and I imagine it being used for milking the cow and/or repairing the tractor, or both, and/or more. It was in bad shape. A bare wooden seat attached by fours rusted screws to a rusted metal base. But I saw beyond the problems and envisioned a nice utility stool for any number of uses. So I picked it up for $1.50 and took it home.  It did not sit a day before I took it apart and lightly sanded and painted the base. I found rubber feet at Home Depot for a couple bucks to prevent scratches or snags. And then I stopped. The wooden seat was left bare, unfinished, sitting in my garage. Good enough and ready for those time to time utility functions. Until one day, it disappeared. I did not notice it missing for what I later learned had been a couple weeks. Then when I finally did , I didn't give it much thought. Sharon must have appropriated it for use at the church or upstairs in a closet, or whatever. It didn't matter. It would find its way back to the garage eventually. And then it returned. Sharon, had appropriated it. Only after coming up with the idea of having the seat painted to look like a guitar. Yet another of her unique gift ideas. Now, if I had said paint a guitar on a round piece of wood, what does your mind envision? Now ask that same question to friend #2 in this story, Alan... I pause as I write this. A long pause filled with moments of the many memories of a very special artist and friend who uses his endless palette of talent to bring color and light to other peoples lives. I have witnessed his creations of costumes to entertain children of all ages, stage props that look so real that you have to get close to assure yourself that they really are painted card board, signs with personal  messages, the yearly personalized birthday card, the yearly Christmas card, etc, etc, etc, and on and on. So many things. Each, a unique expression of love demonstrated through his artistic talent. The stool is another example. A "Martin" guitar, personalized just for me. In the right light and from the right distance, I can almost hear it playing. What a gift. I keep it close by. One of a kind. Both the stool and its creator. A friend.

The Final 2012 Summer Show

This past Thursday evening, 7pm and Weeden Park, Lawrenceville, NJ was the last summer show for the Whiskey Girls band. Another terrific show. They rocked in a country sort of way. Two funny comments made by the band. First, Kim asked how many country fans were in the audience. A few hands went up and she responded thats not many. Rick's response was welcome to the heart of country, Princeton, NJ. Then later in the show, as the sun was going down, and in between songs, Kim commented that the bugs are becoming louder than the band.  Outdoor Summertime shows!

As for the sound, all the sound system related pre-show study and new eq paid off as the sound was probably the best this system has produced. There may have been 200 or so people in the park and the sound was as crystal clear in the front as it was in the back. The setup recommendations by  Mackie on their boards, i.e. unity gain, etc, provides the clarity and the Crown Xs900 with 1200 watts through the four JBL MR 825s on the main packed the punch. I am sitting there in the background of the this photo absolutely amazed at the the sound this system produces and enjoying so much the fruits of my labor in studying how to use it.  

Something I  finally got around to trying was the use of  the bridged mono configuration on the two monitor amps. The new monitor configuration included two distinct mixes. One was the vocalist mix on three speakers up front and the second was a drummer mix on one speaker in back. Not wanting to use only one side of an amp for the single speaker, and concerned about an unbalanced load on the other, I bridged the Ross for 800 watts and the Crown Power Tech 2 for 910 watts. Talk about a difference. I loved the reaction of Kim and Stephanie when they did their sound check. Plenty of volume AND no feedback, thanks to the additional eq.

I also accumulated alot of understanding on the use of parametric eq over the past couple weeks.  I was able to warm up an acoustic guitar and tune in the vocal by providing a smoother balance across the mids.

And although I did a lot of study on the use of compression, I bypassed the individual compressions dbx 1046, on each vocal mics and the acoustic guitars for this show but left compression on the right and left main channels. I was on the fence on this. I believe the mix is more pleasant to listen to with  less dynamic variation across the mix but a musician likes the control. The photgrapher, Craig. (more photos here) although complimentary on the sound, commented about the variations in the mix and how you would need to ride the souund through the show. Beside being a great photographer and extremely nice guy, he has a excellent ear. The compression would have addressed that. ....Next time!

Thanks to the Whiskey Girls band for the chance to pursue a passion and play with my toys.

A Musical Summer in Central New Jersey

 

Shows

A chance meeting with the person responsible for the sound at the annual Pittsburgh music festival ignited an early interest in sound reinforcement. I remember seeing one of the shows while I was attending school downtown. My attention was captured by the cabling, speakers, equipment, all going unnoticed by everyone else because the sound was just so well done.

I seriously considered a career as a sound engineer, but computers were a sure bet, so in years to come, sound became my hobby.

Kim, a friend from church, asked me to do sound for her band, "The Whiskey Girls" pictured at left, at three outdoor shows this summer.

The first, a Thursday evening show in the park, was rained out after only 4 songs. Man it blew in. But  thanks to a good friend who got me into the fire service, helped me many times at other venues and happened to also attending that show, my equipment was packed up quickly and spared water damage.

The second show was also in jeopardy of rain out and was moved in doors. See the video here.

Sound Decisions

Over those two shows, I found that I was having trouble with feedback in the monitors. I just did not have the equalization that I needed to be able to get the volume the band wanted.

Using what I had was begging Peter to pay Paul So, I began looking for a second equalizer.

Like most of my equipment, I found a dbx 215s on Craigslist being sold by another amazingly talented local musician, Keith Kenny.  I hope to go see him at John and Peters later this month.

I moved my dbx 266xl and the dbx 215s, in that sequence, into the main insert and moved my Behringer Composer and Peavey Q231FX onto the two monitor channels.

The Peavey has FLS, Feedback Locatoring System, which is implemented as a red led above each of the 31 frequencies on each channel that lights up in varying levels of brightness based on the signal level of that frequency. It helps you to quickly identify and cut the culprit frequency.

I have been experimenting with the monitor signal this weekend inside of a shoe box sized sun room. Check out the cuts on 2k and 2.5k.  It was necessary to get nearly unity volume in that room. Those same deep cuts will not be necessary at the outdoor show.

Thursday is the next Whiskey Girls show at Music in the Park. I am hoping to give the band a better monitor sound with hopes that it will help them perform at their best.

I moved the dbx 266XL compressor/gate and the new eq onto the main insert. The 266XL had been on channel 5&6 aux 3 and used for acoustic instrumentation and/or group vocal micing. This will eventually be missed but I must at least have a gate on the main.

Thursdays show will be the maiden voyage for the new eq. Its fully functional and a pro quality piece of equipment. I had been looking for a dual 31 band because I have always had a 31 band eq on the mains. But with a budget you have to take what you can get. The 215s was brand new in the box from craigslist. The specs are terrific, At the outdoor show, I am certain 31 band on the eq will not be missed.  We will see how it performs at the next indoor show.

Overall, its a good upgrade to the system. As with every change there is give and take. I have pushed this system a long way and there is still so much more I can do.

Like us all, I wish I could make a living on my hobbies.