Today we are in the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Gemini Sound has been hired to provide our racks and stacks. They brought in 24 EAW KF760 and 24 SB1000. All Crown Macro powered with that red face EAW porcessor. I am not really into the KF760. I am not really into boxes that don't contain a 15" driver. You can do all you want as far as cabinet tuning/porting and processor settings, but to me it comes down to surface area. A 15" driver has that much more surface than a 12" and moves that much more air. Maybe I am oversimplifying things here. Maybe I am not.
Coverage was somewhat spotty but it worked OK.
Not my first, second or even third choice as far as boxes go, but we make do with what we have. Tim did what he could with it like he always does. The venue should have been scaled down a bit to concentrate the audience into a smaller area. That would have helped as far as PA coverage. But advance tickets had been sold and the venue could not move all the ticket holders in the front row stage left/right to the second tier of the balcony. So the audience was spread out forcing us to cover more of the room than we should have. It could have been worse. It has been worse.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Guadalajara
Yesterday was canceled but will probably be rescheduled for some time in the next 2 weeks.
I am honestly glad that they canceled the second night in Mexico City. That place scared the shit out of me.
Guadalajara was a lot like Mexico City. The same rig. The same complaints about the rig. Actually even more because tonight the subs/low boxes were not able to be placed directly underneath the DVdosc hangs because of truss tower legs being in the way. Oh yeah, no one told me that the gig was going to be in a tent/non permanent structure.
I am honestly glad that they canceled the second night in Mexico City. That place scared the shit out of me.
Guadalajara was a lot like Mexico City. The same rig. The same complaints about the rig. Actually even more because tonight the subs/low boxes were not able to be placed directly underneath the DVdosc hangs because of truss tower legs being in the way. Oh yeah, no one told me that the gig was going to be in a tent/non permanent structure.
Monday, September 05, 2005
End of the night in Mexico City day 1
End of the first night.
The second night of 2 at this venue has been canceled due to the floor deflecting an uncomfortable amount. I kid you not. The floor in this place was moving more than any floor I have stood on. I had 3 guys holding the desk down as it bounced all over the ez tilt which was bouncing all over the floor. Tim was holding down his laptop which was sitting on top of the D2 and 737 in a rack. I turned around and saw Lucas who was on a 2 foot high riser and saw a tech holding onto his Hog 3 for dear life. I could not accurately move faders or knobs at times. Lucas had the same problem.
The TM, PM and some venue officials made multiplied trips out to FOH and felt it first hand. Later the PM said to me "I have known you for 15 years and never saw the look of fear on your face like I did tonight." This was only the second show in this venue. A concrete, cinder block box with a corrugated steel roof. A multi purpose room that was not designed for live music. No room treatment of any kind with the exception of light weight curtain covering a third of 1 wall. 100 - 200hz was just all over the place. It calmed down somewhat with 6 thousand bodies. The PA did an adequate job. 4 DV subs flown next to the 12 DVdosc hangs would have made my day. But it didn't work out that way. We wound up with12 flown DVdosc a side and 3 Meyer DS2P stacked on top of 8 CD218. Somehow Tim got it to sound ok. Which doesn't totally surprise me because I have seen him take piles of crap(literally)and get it together. That is part of the fun, joy, challenge, call it whatever you want, of renting racks and stacks each night. I feel like I should charge bands more for situations where they are not carrying full production. I know I am going to have long, difficult days trying to make sense of what many sound companies provide. But I look at it as a learning experience. Getting to use some boxes that I might not have considered. Next week is a Nexo Geo T rig. On the few occasion I have used the box I had some complaints about it. Like the lack of a 15" driver. That and the fact that it looks like missing parts of the death star. Tim brought up the idea of using Geo T with CD12 subs to augment the low end. Maybe we will get to try it.
Craziness.
The second night of 2 at this venue has been canceled due to the floor deflecting an uncomfortable amount. I kid you not. The floor in this place was moving more than any floor I have stood on. I had 3 guys holding the desk down as it bounced all over the ez tilt which was bouncing all over the floor. Tim was holding down his laptop which was sitting on top of the D2 and 737 in a rack. I turned around and saw Lucas who was on a 2 foot high riser and saw a tech holding onto his Hog 3 for dear life. I could not accurately move faders or knobs at times. Lucas had the same problem.
The TM, PM and some venue officials made multiplied trips out to FOH and felt it first hand. Later the PM said to me "I have known you for 15 years and never saw the look of fear on your face like I did tonight." This was only the second show in this venue. A concrete, cinder block box with a corrugated steel roof. A multi purpose room that was not designed for live music. No room treatment of any kind with the exception of light weight curtain covering a third of 1 wall. 100 - 200hz was just all over the place. It calmed down somewhat with 6 thousand bodies. The PA did an adequate job. 4 DV subs flown next to the 12 DVdosc hangs would have made my day. But it didn't work out that way. We wound up with12 flown DVdosc a side and 3 Meyer DS2P stacked on top of 8 CD218. Somehow Tim got it to sound ok. Which doesn't totally surprise me because I have seen him take piles of crap(literally)and get it together. That is part of the fun, joy, challenge, call it whatever you want, of renting racks and stacks each night. I feel like I should charge bands more for situations where they are not carrying full production. I know I am going to have long, difficult days trying to make sense of what many sound companies provide. But I look at it as a learning experience. Getting to use some boxes that I might not have considered. Next week is a Nexo Geo T rig. On the few occasion I have used the box I had some complaints about it. Like the lack of a 15" driver. That and the fact that it looks like missing parts of the death star. Tim brought up the idea of using Geo T with CD12 subs to augment the low end. Maybe we will get to try it.
Craziness.
FOH guy in Mexico City
24 Dvdosc
16 SB218
6 Meyer something or others because they couldnt get me any DV subs.
2 Meyer MSL4 for front fill
Typical day.
First day of tour.
We are renting everything for the 3 shows in mexico.
They did actually get us 2 PMDRH for FOH and monitors.
They didnt get me a distressor, 901 or DV subs.
Tonight i am using an Avalon 737 on Paul's vocal.
I fell in love with the API 512c mic pre into a 550b eq then into a distressor and finally a 901. a lot of kit there but it sounded great.
In a few days we will be on our regular Firehouse provided desks and i will have all the outboard i want. Truth be told I can do the show with no outboard at all, but a Distressor and a D2 make it nicer. The on board delay just isnt that functional to me. I did 1 tour wihout a D2 and had a really hard time with it. Today they wanted to give me a 2290 but I said I would rather have the D2. It is easier for me to get around a D2 than a 2290. Makes me think of a conversation I had with a very well respected and accomplished FOH guy. He told me he was once asked by a rep from a hi end reverb company why he didnt carry any of his companies studio qulaity verbs. FOH acknowledged that the hi end reverb company made the best sounding units, but they were to difficult to navigate, and that made them unfriendly to FOH guy. I know the units he was referring to. That story stuck with me. A lot of what this guy has shared with me has stuck. I am using all the on board verbs, doublers, and distortions from the PM5D.
I am sitting at FOH now waiting.
Waiting for the sold out venue to fillup with patrons.
They are apparently having a difficuly time getting all 6 thousand fans in to the place.
The usual cast of characters is out with us.
Tim is with me at FOH, Anti is monitoring, Lucas is making me blind with Andy's help. Ally and Bobby are still still lookjing after the gear. Our PM just bought his house.
16 SB218
6 Meyer something or others because they couldnt get me any DV subs.
2 Meyer MSL4 for front fill
Typical day.
First day of tour.
We are renting everything for the 3 shows in mexico.
They did actually get us 2 PMDRH for FOH and monitors.
They didnt get me a distressor, 901 or DV subs.
Tonight i am using an Avalon 737 on Paul's vocal.
I fell in love with the API 512c mic pre into a 550b eq then into a distressor and finally a 901. a lot of kit there but it sounded great.
In a few days we will be on our regular Firehouse provided desks and i will have all the outboard i want. Truth be told I can do the show with no outboard at all, but a Distressor and a D2 make it nicer. The on board delay just isnt that functional to me. I did 1 tour wihout a D2 and had a really hard time with it. Today they wanted to give me a 2290 but I said I would rather have the D2. It is easier for me to get around a D2 than a 2290. Makes me think of a conversation I had with a very well respected and accomplished FOH guy. He told me he was once asked by a rep from a hi end reverb company why he didnt carry any of his companies studio qulaity verbs. FOH acknowledged that the hi end reverb company made the best sounding units, but they were to difficult to navigate, and that made them unfriendly to FOH guy. I know the units he was referring to. That story stuck with me. A lot of what this guy has shared with me has stuck. I am using all the on board verbs, doublers, and distortions from the PM5D.
I am sitting at FOH now waiting.
Waiting for the sold out venue to fillup with patrons.
They are apparently having a difficuly time getting all 6 thousand fans in to the place.
The usual cast of characters is out with us.
Tim is with me at FOH, Anti is monitoring, Lucas is making me blind with Andy's help. Ally and Bobby are still still lookjing after the gear. Our PM just bought his house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
