I have been investing quite a bit of time lately to studying various philosophy, religion and new age disciplines and I’d like to share with you some of the practical insights I have had in regard to utilizing some of these techniques in the world of audio.
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What you are about to read may contain content that is distasteful to some people therefore, if you are one of those people, please cover your eyes when you get to the offensive parts.
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It seems as though the world is collapsing around us as people are losing faith in a system that has let them down. Powerful people who are supposed to be leaders and role models have betrayed our trust, and even the elected officials that ran on a platform of hope and change are viewed with a wary eye.
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To quote Gordon Gekko from the 1987 Oliver Stone movie, Wall Street: “The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got 90 percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around, pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you.”
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Now that my son is a high school varsity wrestler I have the great opportunity to spend most of my weekends inside various gymnasiums and it was on one of these wrestling outings that I found myself in Hamburg Pennsylvania screaming and yelling just like one of the wrestling dads I vowed to never become.
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Happy New Year! The news is back, and due to the ingenious way the media filled in with two years of election coverage, barely anyone noticed that it was even missing. Before the start of the election coverage there was a good two years of Britney, Paris and Lindsay gracing the headlines with their partying ways—flashing skin, doing jail time, going to rehab—basically entertaining the masses with their wild and crazy antics.
Read More »Every event has a budget. Whether it is a speech for 20 people or for 20,000 people, a children’s birthday party or a concert at an amphitheater, a one-off or a long tour, make no mistake about it there is always a bottom line. We in the FOH community spend many discerning hours reading, learning and debating about which company provides the best products, the technical aspects of said merchandise and the proper ways in which to use these commodities. It is our job to know impedance, phasing, frequencies, speaker placement, microphone placement and coverage as well as how to set up and use the equipment to achieve the best results for its intended purpose. When a client calls upon us to provide audio for their event we have to know which equipment to bring and how to design the system that best suits their needs.
Read More »“It’s the economy stupid,” and despite it all we still carry on with our business albeit on shaky ground. Fortunately, the bulk of the summer touring season ended just before the disastrous reports from Wall Street became headline news — thus leading us to wild speculation regarding what the future might hold in store for the upcoming winter and spring season.
Read More »What’s in a name? We live in a culture of branding and brand names. We wear company logos and names on practically every piece of clothing we own. From bags and jewelry to T-shirts, jeans and footwear, we have all become walking advertisements for clothing manufacturers, loudspeaker companies, microphone producers, bands, audio consoles, speaker cables, beer, motorcycles, cars, sports franchises, cymbal makers and on and on ad infinitum. In the last millennium, there was a phrase, “you are what you eat,” which was used to describe the pitfalls of choosing the wrong diet.
Read More »At this time of year — when the members of our celebrated audio industry descend upon one town or another and fill massive convention centers with miles and aisles of new, state-of-the-art audio technology — my thoughts turn to control. After all, every item on display at AES is purporting to present the user with more control of their mix along with the promise — spoken and unspoken — that each new piece of technological wizardry will offer a newer, faster and more efficient way to manipulate and manage the mechanics of their audio world.
Read More »I caress the smooth spool of solder as I wait in anticipation for the soldering gun to heat up. I strip the rubber from my cable just enough to give myself a workable amount of copper, and with heated iron in hand, I touch the tip to the end of the solder melting just enough to coat the end of the cable. I repeat the process over my solder point and leave a perfect shining spot where I then touch the end of my cable and hold for a moment before I release the iron. A thin line of smoke wafts up and tickles my nostrils with its delicate fragrance. Ah, I love the smell of solder in the morning.
Read More »I have devoted quite a bit of this column space to the virtues, struggles and wages of the audio labor force. I am still convinced that the best equipment is only as good as the people using it. That said, I believe that free enterprise and competition make for good business. Audio, lighting and staging companies make their money not on labor, but on the equipment itself, and therefore, equipment-based companies assume the responsibility of placing a fair market value on each piece of gear that goes out the door.
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