Sound board Stuff

We have a family band. You can check it out at: www.thecluffs.net. I don't play an instrument: I write the checks and do sound. When I watch my family perform on a stage and recieve the applause that they get it brings a sense of pride and satisfaction that has to be experienced to be appreciated. All and all, it's an equitable arrangement.

I've recently learned how to set up a sound board where the sound is really good. So, in the interest of passing on some of that goodness to you out there, I offer Ken's 10 rules to running good sound for a show:

1. Tune the monitors first. The monitors should be loud enough in small venues that we typically play in that they could carry the show... almost.
2. Aim the monitors, especially when there’s a reflective surface, like a wall behind the performers, so that the sound from the monitors scatters away from the microphones. That will allow you to push the monitors much louder than you can otherwise.
3. You need to trim the sound for the monitors/musicians differently than how you trim it for the house.
4. The trim lights on the gain should blink just occassionally. If they blink a lot or they are on solid, the gain is to high. If they never blink... it’s to low.
5. Set the main mix and monitor mix to unity. Trim the channel feeds to control the volumn that goes out the main/monitors.
6. Channel EQ is for fixing up a performer’s voice or the audio signature of an instrument.
7. The main EQ is for adjusting the mix to the accoustics of the house and the speakers.
8. You adjust the EQ using a set of monitor headphones and the PFL
9. You adjust the mainEQ with your ears listening to the sound.
10. Mute any mike that isn’t being used.

Here's a bonus rule... :)

11. Typically you also use EQ to control feedback, provided your EQ bank can hit the frequency range in which the feedback is occurring without taking the surrounding frequencies out in the process.

Where to begin!??

So many issues, so many decisions. I feel like the little Dutch boy staring at a dike that is leaking like a sieve and wondering... "Where do I start? Which is the worst leak that needs the most attention now?"

Our government today is a constitutional republic in name only. In reality, we are a classic Greek democracy. And if you don't understand why that's a problem...then you are victim of the next two problems.

As I see it, the best control on government behavior is an educated, informed and civic-virtue minded populace. We have very few people like that today. The majority of American's today are neither well educated nor well informed nor civic minded. They tend to look upon those who are as modern Don Quixote's.

That brings up another major problem: the public education industry in America today is not designed to produce well educated, civic-minded people, let alone people who want to know what their government is up to. Schools today are designed to produce children who are comfortable living under the chains of socialism and content to hold menial hourly-wage type of jobs making someone else rich. (To all you public school teachers out there...I'm not talking about you, but the system you work within. There is a huge difference... more on that in a future post.)

This wouldn't be such a grave problem if it weren't for the fact that so many checks on government misbehavior have also been removed from the Constitution! We have judges legislating from the bench in a direct usurpation of power. We have the president likewise usurping power and legislating by executive fiat. We have the bureaucracy legislating simply because it can. We have a Congress that is so self-absorbed in making enough money to run for office it doesn't care about these ills. And, as mentioned in an earlier post, a major structural check on spending has been removed as a consequence of passage of the 16th and 17th amendments.

And lastly, we have a news industry today that regularly lies to the American people. The guardian of our liberties, the free press, has been co-opted into an entity that now works to undermine those very liberties the Founder's thought it would protect.

Despite this, I am not discouraged nor dismayed. I am convinced that God does have a hand in the affairs of our nation. He wont do our job for us. But those who commit themselves to the work at hand, will receive his help. And for that reason alone, I'm confident that things can be changed for the better.

That's good ... That's bad

In homage to a comic skit I saw as a child on the TV Show "Hee Haw" I present...

Joe says to Harry, "Hey, Harry did you hear that Becky's iBook died last week?"
Joe: "Oh, that's pretty bad. How's Shawn gonna get his schoolwork done? That is bad."
Harry: "No, that's good. They needed a newer notebook anyway, so they went out and bought themselves a brand spankin' new MacBook and they gave their notebook to their dad."
Joe: "Oh, that is good!"
Harry: "No, that's bad. The iBook was still busted and not much more useful than a big paper weight."
Joe: "Yep, that's bad. So now their Dad is stuck with this busted notebook."
Harry: "No, that's good, their Dad got on the Internet and learnt how to fix the darn thing. And he fixed it, so now it works!"
Joe: "That is good. He's always wanted a mac notebook."
Harry: "No that's bad, his wife don't like him playin' on the Internet, especially with them thar macs. So he's gonna sell it on ebay."
Joe: "That's pretty bad, can't have the missus mad at ye. To bad he's gotta sell that thar iBook."
Harry: "No, that's good. He figured, he can get near $350 for the thing."
Joe: "$350! That is good. He'll be able to spend all that money on somethin for his missus."
Harry: "No, that's bad, he's gonna buy two more busted iBooks. Said the spirit told him to do it."
Joe: "Yep, that's bad, 'specially listenin' to spirits. I knows which spirits he was listenin' to and it wasn't the ones ye hear, but the ones ye drink!"
Harry: "No, that's good. He's gonna fix them too. He figures he can make about $200 per machine that way and by'n'by will get himself a new sprinkler system, a new computer fer himself and a serger fer his wife. And so, she's happy."