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1000 umbrellas posted:Freelance engineer chiming in from Austin, TX. I've been here for a year, worked in NYC for 6 before that. Total of 10 years in the business. Ask me about : So it's basically Portland, OR? For context, I'm a guitar player who's used to guerrilla sound builds from DJing parties in rural areas, whose bass player is a Brooklyn-based producer/DJ/performer who's played on 5 continents with artists like Bill Laswell and John Zorn. It's the two of us in the band, with our backing beats running out of a Macbook/Scarlett thru a PA behind us when we don't have a dummer. (Last drummer to play with us was KJ Sawka, which was a hell of a treat!) Two mics, two instruments through amps, and a subharmonic synth Y'd off the bass guitar into a sub or PA. Our punch list is short. We're pros. We play punk-ish drum n bass shoegaze, so being loud and distorted is part of the show. This is not hard. We're constantly stunned at how poo poo Portland is for playing live music if you're not traveling with an army of personnel to run interference as everything goes wrong around you. Just got done last night playing a benefit gig where no fewer than 2 other bands asked to use our PA, despite there being a PA on hand. As we were hauling gear in, another girl was leaving in tears, ranting about how she would have brought her own gear if she'd known there wouldn't be any for her to use. The promoter promised us a sound guy and proper hardware; he gave us each a dime bag of quartz sand from a beach somewhere instead. No, it's not drugs. It's sand. From a beach. IT'S WINTER IN PORTLAND. WHAT KIND OF rear end in a top hat ARE YOU? On the upside, Lagunitas provided free beer, so at least I was able to get lit for free.
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Feb 12, 2018 01:16
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Harton posted:Had a tryout this weekend with a new guitar player and bass player. They had a full practice setup with an electronic drum kit and an amp so we just went there with a guitar and some drumsticks. Dude had a full PA in his basement but they were all turned down so low that it was like we were whispering to each other. loving amp was a peavy and sounded shrill as gently caress, no matter what I did to the eq I couldn’t get it to not sound like I was playing through a smoke detector. I’ve never played so quietly in my life and the practice didn’t go very well. It wasn’t god awful but I didn’t leave with the excitement I usually feel after a righteous jam session. I thought about this thread title and it really rang true. If they aren’t willing to crank the volume there is probably a reason for it. If the neighbors aren't calling the cops on you, you aren't doing it right. This is why I no longer live in an apartment.
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Mar 5, 2018 21:06
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Harton posted:Lol right? I remember shopping for my house and planning on where I was gonna put the jam room vs proximity to my neighbors houses. Can’t just buy anywhere or anything when you plan on having drums and amps going at all hours of the night. Also, if you're looking to rent studio space, be sure the other people in the building know you're going to be loud. Just because the guy you're subletting from says it's cool doesn't mean the building owner won't flip out when you're working on mixing down breakcore tracks at 2pm on a Wednesday. I think the only good solution is to have a house with some land around it, and maybe a detached garage or full basement to play in.
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Mar 6, 2018 00:48
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Mastigophoran posted:At any rate, got it all wired up, colour coded stickers on cables was a cool idea for sort of, figuring out what I wanted to achieve, but on stage, there's lights, and in pink light, green looks like grey, so, maybe write some stuff on there too. Fortunately all our cables look different so I could still tell them apart, but, it was annoying. Ugh, I hear you on that. I try to keep a headlamp with each of my live gear bags for those situations.
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Jul 22, 2018 01:59
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Colonel J posted:Hi, my band is planning to start playing live this summer and I have a few questions about metronome tracks and starting sound effects. I'm the drummer, so I think I should be the one controlling this stuff. My bandmate and I are in a Godflesh-alike configuration with both of us on guitar/bass, and the beats are on backing tracks. We use Ableton and a MIDI foot controller (the Behringer FCB-1010, specifically). The Ableton file has two columns of tracks, which alternate (left column track 1, right column track 2, left column track 3, right column track 4, etc). The two pedals on the FCB correspond to the volume on the left and right columns, so we can fade between tracks for smoother transitions. Each button on the FCB is assigned to start a track. The tracks themselves have BPM info, so the tempo adjusts automatically when each track is loaded. One of the buttons is always keyed to stop all playback. If you've got more tracks than buttons, I believe there's a way to make one button simply advance to the next track. The downside is that fat-footing the buttons can lead to some awkward transitions, so it helps to rehearse with the full rig. Ableton can also link to other computers running Ableton, which is how we do our set when we don't have guitars. Hook up a couple of keyboards and loop controllers, patch both laptops out to separate PAs with external soundcards, and off we go. We can fit that whole rig in a couple of suitcases and still have room for clothes. Dirt Road Junglist fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Mar 7, 2019 |
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Mar 7, 2019 00:39
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I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this question, but I figured it might be somewhat related. My dumbfuck ex/bandmate moved to Germany and left some of his gear with me. He just sold his Ampeg SVT 410HE 4x10 cab (this thing: https://ampeg.com/products/classic/svt410he/ )...to a guy in Boston. The cab is in my storage unit in Hillsboro, Oregon.  I'm a former professional eBayer, but this is outside my skill set. I've found some suggestions online, but a good number of them ended with, "But really, don't ship amps if you can help it." So, the plan so far: - Get a similarly sized box from a guitar shop - Put a sheet of stiff cardboard over the front grill - Wrap entirely in several layers of bubblewrap - (There are no casters, thankfully) - Put it in a box - Float that box inside another box with hard foam or folded cardboard corners - Pay $$$$$$$ to FedEx to carry this fucker across the continent Am I doing it right? I've seen reports saying they've had cabs delivered with speakers torn loose, magnets broken off, and other stupid shipping damage. Is there a way to pack the inside of the cab with, like, towels or something? Or is that a worse idea?
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Mar 13, 2019 23:53
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ickna posted:Serious answer is a proper road case and LTL freight. Plausible answer is crate that bitch up with foam, plastic wrap and wood, strap to a pallet and LTL or air freight. Well, at least I live in a port city where LTL and air freight are readily available. Thanks! Just found out he also sold the corresponding tube amp. Pray for me.
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Mar 14, 2019 00:44
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ickna posted:When you ship the amp, make sure it keeps the top facing up or the tubes are gonna have a bad time. Pack it so it rests on top of at least an inch of dense foam for shock protection. We rent these out in road cases or strapped to set carts built that way, and they travel fine even on bus trailers that get banged around a lot. If you're paranoid, you can pull the tubes and and wrap them separately in their own box. Oh yeah, definitely pulling the tubes. I had to ship a rack-mount tube compressor a while back and I packed the tubes wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed into toilet paper tubes with the ends crimped and taped. I don't trust shippers to pay any attention to the orientation arrows on boxes.
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Mar 15, 2019 19:06
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Has anyone here replaced a fader on a Mackie mixer? My friend's CFX16MKII got a fader post snapped off by a drunk at a show. Sound On Sounds says the CFXxxMKII series came in 12–, 16– and 20–channel versions, and it looks like both the legs and the resistance on the fader in the photo match the one on Full Compass. I mean, if nothing else, it's a cheap part. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mackie-cfx16-mkii
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May 9, 2019 23:31
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I’m surprised there isn’t latency compensation built into those feeds somehow. No doubt there’s a good reason why there isn’t, but it seems like a technical issue you could theoretically solve for through automation somewhere?
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Sep 26, 2022 19:09
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Thank you! That's all super interesting 
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Sep 26, 2022 21:40
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 09:38 |
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That just surfaced a buried memory of my first gig, where I was DJing off a desktop computer hooked to a 2ch scratch mixer, then out to a portable PA. The guys providing the PA hooked everything up on their end while I was setting up mine, but then my audio was barely audible on their speakers. “What input is it in?” I asked. “Phono!” “The gently caress? Why?” “Because you’re a DJ!”
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Oct 31, 2022 19:18
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