HI again James,  
    
  Sorry, bumped a button, ended up replying to part II before  
  part I.    
    
    
  You wrote:  
    
  > YEah I know, that's the other thing frustrates me, was  
   RW> drummers who didn't tune the kit properly, expect me to  
   RW> solve their problems with technology, such as noise gates  
   RW> on tom mics, etc.  OFten any signal processing I had  
   RW> available  
   RW> was needed elsewhere, i.e. the bass man who can't play with  
    
  JB> Revisiting my last issue: White-lithium grease kiddies! One dollop  
  JB> on each of your drum-pedals will make you squeak less, and just  
  JB> *might* improve your playing. Tommy Lee (NOT a fan, but an admirerer  
  JB> of his professionalism.) was quoted as spouting off about a certain  
  JB> model of Tama bass drum-pedal, and that he could hear the click of  
  JB> the metal banding used to connect the foot-pedal to the cam. The  
  JB> bass-player from Motley Cru [Umlaut omitted for lack of time/concern  
  JB> on the topic.] Nicky Six, [?] was waxing over that "That's just too  
  JB> much detail, Tommy!" on the topic, but it is FAR from a "mute"  
  JB> point! [Duplicitous meaning *purely* unintentional, but *I* found it  
  JB> funny! ;-] If a band of leather and one well placed rivet can  
  JB> improve your product and you DON'T do it, what does that communicate  
  JB> to the professionals that you are trying to impress? Sally in the  
  JB> front row will tolerate the clicks every time you "kick" the  
  JB> bass-drum, but there's idjiats like Tommy and me in the audience  
  JB> that will pass judgment on you as a musician for *dozens* of these  
  JB> issues.  
    
  Indeed this is true, and what I've always argued.  All those little things  
  add  
  up to a lot.  I always thought GHost kick  
  drum pedals were well built, but the old sPeed king was  
  still my favorite.  
    
  JB> I explained to a local cutie, that a modern PA rig, or even a  
  JB> moderate recording studio begins to resemble a passenger jet  
  JB> cockpit. I don't think she could envision it, but some of these  
  JB> manuals *alone* require an engineering degree, and a masters in  
  JB> linguistics to reverse the logic used to to write such scuttle-butt.  
    
    
  YEp, often translated from Japanese or something to English  
  as well.  
    
  JB> Heck, even a JBL car amp with a built in active crossover has me  
  JB> frustrated at the moment! I've NEVER had a reason to suspect their  
  JB> specifications (Which I *just* found on the back side of the back  
  JB> cover page.) but the document was intended for the Thump-And-Bump  
  JB> crowd, and I expected at first view that a lot of stuff I find  
  JB> interesting would be glossed over. (The slope of the crossover  
  JB> band-passes. PS current dumping? ...) Regardless if it was  
    
    
  YEah I can relate.  I've never been into automotive sound  
  that much, but I've always heard that one should take the  
  specs they give on those things with a good dollop of salt.  
    
    
    
   RW> with the snapshot automation.  THat was a day from hell, two  
   RW> blind guys trying to figure out interfacing that thing with  
   RW> two Alesis adats for a session.  I was glad my buddy still  
  JB> I have to admit to the breadth of my ignorance regarding your  
  JB> "limitation". Pardon me, but isn't this *truly* the blind leading  
  JB> the blind?   
    
  YEp, we were sure having fun, finally we said to heck with  
  it, hooked up the studiomaster and went analog into the  
  decks, got rhythm tracks down.  
    
  JB> I hope to get more into it in the Hinton's echo, but I utilize a lot  
  JB> of brackets, abbreviations, and just stupid contractions that I  
  JB> think might appear "cute" to the sighted. I *was* wondering how this  
  JB> translates through your voice engine/Braille monitor?  
    
  OFten when just reading it doesn't give me the punctuation,  
  but when replying I"ve got the configuration for an editor  
  showing me such things, for obvious reasons.  
    
   RW>   YEah I can relate.  A buddy of mine who services  
   RW> broadcast transmitters is always telling stories about  
   RW> people wearing watches rings and the like and   
    
   JB> Welding classes are down the hall? Cripes... Imagine how many ways  
   JB> "talent"  finds to ruin a modulator's gain structure? [...]  
   JB> neighborhood a "free show". What a  "clipping mess" that product  
   JB> sounded like!  
    
   RW>   sOme people shouldn't be allowed near such  
    
  JB> Ya, and there's a reason they make those little adjustment  
  JB> screwdrivers out of plastic *besides* the potential that you could  
  JB> spot weld it to the mother-board.   
    
  Some folks are just too dangerous to themselves and others  
  to be let out without a keeper     
   RW> things.  A friend of mine in upstate NY was arguing for a  
   RW> poster in an internet forum to acquire a large format  
   RW> Yamaha digital for a church monitor console because setting  
   RW> could  
   RW> be passworded.  I argued for good old analog, because the  
   RW> "praise team" didn't have sound techs even for front of  
   RW> house, talent adjusted it themselves.  
    
  JB> Hm... I *think* I'm on the fence on this one. Give the pastor an  
  JB> index card containing the instruction to return the board to unity  
  JB> gain and flat eq, then hire a tech for a day to balance it up for  
  JB> the snapshot??? Let the "talent" tweak away, and when the mess gets  
  JB> too smelly... No, I think a simple automated board would be my  
  JB> preference. If the pastor is astute, he could be left with a second  
  JB> index card on how to store and recall a snapshot for when Dwain  
  JB> comes in with his bass guitar. Maybe it depends on the  
  JB> pastor/volunteer tech, and their ability to learn?  Maybe a high  
  JB> resolution snap-shot of a balanced analog board could supplant the  
  JB> automation?   
    
  YEp, or, you lock up the limiters, the eq and all that in a  
  closet, and give them familiar controls, nobody but your  
  visiting tech who comes by once in awhile tinkers with the  
  stuff in the closet, or the locked rack.  
    
   RW> have those parametric eqs on all the groups and that, along  
   RW> with compression gates and the like, but folks who are  
   RW> boiling hard just to remember to count down to the fourth  
   RW> knob on the keyboard channel if you need more keyboard in  
   RW> your in-ear monitors and turn that one up are going to even  
   RW> have a tougher time selecting things in the menu structure  
   RW> from hell.  Then, since they use in-ears, if some bonehead  
   RW> happens to defeat the limiters that protect his eardrums  
   RW> and deafens himself then he sues the church.  THere are  
   RW> reasons  
   RW> we professionals advocate that anybody monitoring through  
   RW> those earbuds or headphones should strap a brick wall  
   RW> limiter across them.  
    
  JB> For the love of the Lord... YES! A friend told me those in-ear  
  JB> dohickys had a built in limiter/compressor. Not so?  
    
  THey do have, of sorts, and they'll work, but often they're  
  on the transmitter, and can be defeated.  Even then, a good  
  limiter such as an Aphex dominator you know will do its job. Sharp transient  
  spikes can do some awful things to you.  
    
   RW> All you need is somebody defeating that because they suffer  
   RW> from the principle of mild, as in "make it loud dammit"  
    
    
  JB> I now have a new acronym I can "take to the bank".  Yes, I know  
  JB> all to well what you mean, though. Blue Oyster Cult, I saw  
  JB> attempting to destroy a FOH system by trying to "MILD" it.   
    
  DIg it!  That "mild" isn't original with me, a guy I know,  
  Fletcher at Mercenary Audio in Boston, Ma. coined that one.  
    
   RW> up professional dressed, actual shoes on feet, ready to  
   RW> work.  
    
  JB> "Actual shoes *on* feet..." That's *so* funny in so *many* ways!  
    
  YOu wouldn't believe the guys I've seen show up for a load  
  in and set up with sandals or flip flops.  WHen somebody  
  works for us doing a remote if they're working overhead  
  flying stuff I tell him or her that you *will* get a hard  
  hat from the truck, and it will be on your head.  
    
  JB> My mind is repeatedly returning to a PTSD incident were the pick up  
  JB> "lighting tech" couldn't undo the knot on the auditoriums' truss  
  JB> during a tear-down. This *special* guy found the quick fix to be to  
  JB> pull out his Buck knife and let gravity do his work for him,  
  JB> dropping the truss and ALL the pars to the stage four-feet from a  
  JB> BRAND NEW Gretch snare I had just crated, and closer to my head. I  
  JB> think that was my turning point if I was going to waste any more  
  JB> time with *that* band of thieves. Cripes, if I need steel toed boots  
  JB> AND a hardhat to play rock and roll, I needed to find a new  
  JB> profession!  
    
    I've seen that before, watched a guy drop a wrench  
  which barely missed me on the deck one night, same sort of  
  situation.  That's why if they're flying stuff overhead I  
  insist folks working for us wear that hard hat.  
  I watched another guy drop a weight from a line one night  
  and do some pretty good damage to a piano.  HE was tied off  
  up there luckily, but the arbor for the weight was too long  
  a reach, and he dropped it.  IF he hadn't been tied off not  
  just would the piano have been damaged, but he might not  
  have survived the night.  
    
   RW> everything that goes down in documentation is written by the newbie,  
   RW> even if he doesn't understand it.  tHen we go over  
   RW> his session log after the day's work is done, and we  
   RW> explain why he was told to make note of that.  This means making  
   RW> notes of the position of every knob button and fader on the  
   RW> console, what's patched where on the patch panels, etc.  
    
  JB> That's an interesting point the layman can't seem to grasp. Your  
  JB> workday doesn't end when the tape is stowed. Heck, I'll bet most  
  JB> would think the tape says on the deck! To power up, AND to shut down  
  JB> is a sequence in itself. A neighbour *just* expressed, "I'll learn  
  JB> to play the guitar in three months, and get the quantity/quality of  
  JB> chicks you used to." (It's the same *arse* that I can't teach how to  
  JB> wrap a cord, but he's crass like me and a LOT of fun to poke with a  
  JB> stick. ;-) I didn't bother to get into callous management, or how us  
  JB> musicians are #2 in line for carpal tunnel and repetitive stress  
  JB> fractures, but I tried to explain the time commitment before you  
  JB> step foot on your first showcase gig, even IF you're an art-school  
  JB> punk band with better haircuts than equipment. Cripes, if he saw the  
  JB> price of *one* good guitar cable alone, I bet he'd learn how to care  
  JB> for the friggin' thing.   
    
  I"ve seen plenty of them.  Back in the day often you had  
  better recalibrate the machine before you started work that  
  day too.  I"ve been in this business decades, and I still  
  learn something new every job it seems.  
    
  Regards,  
             Richard  
  ---  
   * Origin:  (1:116/901)