The AudioArt Blogs

I have recently returned from a trip to the great Northeast. I made my usual June excursion to the Laconia Motorcycle Rally. The event was an eight day event this year. In years past there was a problem with the first Friday and Saturday of the event in that these were not officially rally days. The noise ordinance kicked in at 10:00 PM. At some point this seems to have changed. For several years there was no outside music scheduled at the ‘Spoke because of the ordinance problem. I did not go up last year because of a date conflict, but Rush told me that the music went on in the tent on Saturday without problem. That was also the case this year.

There were two concerts scheduled this year. The first was Bang Camero on the first Saturday night. The other concert was Edgar Winter on the last Saturday. Between we had the current ‘Spoke schedule of events. There was one other major promotion for this Rally. Jay Allen had set up an East-West build-off between Paul Cox from the East and Chica from the West. The finals were held the last Saturday of the event. Between the Build-off and the Concert I don’t know if I have ever seen more people on property.

I picked up the gig at the Harley Rendezvous this year. This allowed me to spend a couple of leisurely days with my brother, who lives between the events. We had a good visit. My brother always has an interesting outing planned. We went to see a cemetery at Barre, VT. Barre is the home of a granite monument company. The company provides the stone workers a suitable stone and many have carved their own monuments over the years. I took some pictures and will be posting a gallery on Number One Pictures soon. For a change I suggested another outing. There was an impressive local artist with whom I worked a few years ago at the Laconia Rally, Mama Kicks – Lisa Guyer. She has a more or less regular gig in Manchester, NH. I had wanted to catch the show since the time that I worked with her, so we drove down and listened for a while. This was a bar gig on home turf with other featured musicians, so I did not get a full dose of Lisa, but I could certainly see the talent that I remembered.

The Harley Rendezvous is an old biker party. It has been run for the last 38 years. This is a big party on private property near Albany, NY. There were two stages and a Biker Rodeo. Since there was not room in my trailer for a full concert rig and the second rig for the Day Stage, I found a local contractor to cover the events on the day stage. I carried the Concert PA for the Main Stage and the announce system for the Rodeo.

There were two concerts scheduled for the event. The first night was Gator Country, mostly former members of Molly Hatchet. They were not carrying an engineer so I was able to mix the show on my SAC computer. The SAC computer is a full virtual digital mixing environment and is my preferred mixing environment at this time. I did all of the shows in Laconia in the box and all that I mixed at the Rendezvous as well.

The other show was the Kentucky Headhunters. Steve Wilson, KH foh engineer, was tempted to use the SAC system but was not really prepared, so declined. I had attempted to advance the date but had not made contact with them. I have worked with them many times over the years, so advancing the date was not a big deal, but I would have alerted Steve to the digital option and suggested that he check out the demo.

There was one bit of excitement on this trip. Of course, it is always hard to get out of Daytona. I got on the road in the late evening instead of the morning of my departure date. I drove until it was ill-advised to carry on and then pulled into the first rest area in North Carolina. When I woke up I pressed on toward my goal. This dumped me into New York City at around 5:30 PM. That is not the time that you would want to drive through the city and southern Connecticut.  It took over an hour and a half to go probably around 30 miles before the traffic began to thin and move a little better. I made the first rest area in Rhode Island and pulled in for some more sleep.

I proceeded toward my goal in the rain when I awoke in the morning. I made it past Boston and finally got to New Hampshire. I got on I-93 and proceed deeper into the North country. About 30 miles south of Laconia there was a clunk and a jerk. I looked into the mirror to see my 8 and a half by 20 foot trailer growing smaller. I applied some brake to the truck and the trailer began to get bigger again, too fast. The hitch had broken and the trailer was loose. I have around $150,000 invested in the concert rig and had a significant chunk of work scheduled on the trip. This could have been a major personal disaster.

This is the truly amazing part of the story. As chance would have it the trailer broke loose as I was approaching an exit on the Interstate. The trailer rolled straight but followed the crowning of the road. The trailer took the exit, narrowly missing the exit sign. There is a lot of granite in the North-East and they use granite blocks for curb stones along the exits. The trailer straddled the curb on the Interstate side of the exit and rode to a stop. I got off the Interstate and looked the situation over. I then drove into town and was directed to the local Advanced Auto Parts store where I picked up a new hitch, a new ball, and a hitch wrench. I also picked up a replacement safety chain to replace the one that had broken (the second chain had popped off, probably when the first broke).

With the replacement parts in hand I went back out to the trailer. I jacked it up and got it on the new hitch. The wiring had been cut when the trailer was riding the curb, so I went to the service station that had directed me to the auto parts store. They provided me with some butt splices and the crimping tool to repair the wiring. There was a local man that had offered help in jacking the trailer while I was getting things back together. I tipped both him and the service station mechanic $5.00 and spent about $60.00 at the auto parts store. There was no damage to any of my equipment, but I should have the frame member that rode the curb reinforced.

This whole episode took around an hour to resolve, after which I proceeded on to Laconia. I unloaded the trailer and proceeded about my business there.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been exploring the world of digital audio for the live situation. I decided to put together the SAC – Software Audio Console system. I have just completed the system and am beginning the test procedure. I hope to use it live at a club gig next weekend.

I have been posting progress reports on the I Built My Computer site. If you are interested in the adventure you can read all about it there. I built a dedicated computer for use with the system. If it performs up to expectation I may build one or two more instances of the system over the summer. One would be a smaller system that would be more compact for the smaller gigs and club dates. The other would be a full concert system.

The system that I have now built is a 32 channel system that I plan to use for events and conventions. The club rig would be probably 24 channels and would be significantly less expensive to put together. The concert rig would be on the order of 48 channels and have some other requirements that will make it more expensive.

This has been fun on several levels. I got to build another computer. I have been learning about digital audio. Both of these are areas of special interest to me. It will be interesting to put the new system into service and see how it works in the live sound world.

The Blog is now sporting a new look. One of the frequent updates to the WordPress software was released recently. I had been using a modification of the default theme, but each WP update replaces all the files in the default theme folder. That means that all my customizations are lost.

I have been using a rather generic third party theme on many of my other blogs. This theme allows me to make the blog look much like the rest of the site. While I have not maintained the AA Sound site design for this blog I did change to the third party theme. WP does not disturb that folder on update. I do like the new design and may continue it through the rest of the site when I do an update to the AudioArt Sound site, bringing the site and blog in line as far as design is concerned. Please leave me a comment about how you like this design and if you think that I should implement it on the rest of the site. Thanks

I am exploring entering the digital audio age through an software audio console. There are some very enthusiastic supporters of the software. I have been researching this approach for the last few days. The options seem to be nearly endless.

The software will handle 72 channels of audio and has flexible internal virtual patching. I am way behind the curve as far as digital audio in concerned so I have to learn nearly everything. A hazy picture of what is necessary is beginning to form.

I was thinking of getting this together for BikeWeeK, but the more I read on the subject the more I realize how much that I have to learn before I will be ready to implement this solution. Possibly by Myrtle Beach I could have this system up and running. If I do go this route I will probably carry at least two complete systems, and possibly three, out to Sturgis in August.

Taking this approach will eliminate a huge amount of equipment. The house rack will be an unnecessary item as all of the functions will be built into the software or added via plug-ins. The snake and split are not needed. The software allows the FOH and 24 stereo monitor mixes to be operated for a show. The actual mix can be done from a laptop that can be located anywhere in the venue thanks to wireless technology. It would not be necessary to  have any wires from the stage to the mix location. The monitor tech with a laptop could stand right beside the musician while doing the initial monitor mix and hear what the musician is hearing without a cue wedge.

Even writing this entry gets me more excited about the possibilities. There are truly huge advantages to this system. It will give the possibility of doing small gigs with a full featured system without carrying large amounts of equipment. For the hotel gigs there will be no wires to tape down. For parties one can mix from anywhere in the room. There is the possibility to allow the musicians to mix their own monitors. The 24 monitor mixes are all stereo, so all in-ear mixes can be in stereo.

Beside audio, computers are of great interest to me. I have been a computer hobbyist for several years. This system will allow me to enjoy two of my areas of interest at the same time. I am looking forward to the challenges of getting this system into operation.