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.