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The Goose Is Loose

Produced over the course of the Halloween weekend, the Vegoose music festival in Las Vegas, Nev., featured jam bands, punk bands, fringe bands and mainstream headliners spread out over three days and the city of Vegas. Bands such as Widespread Panic and the String Cheese Incident played out in late night gigs at clubs closer to the casinos [Interview with Chris Raboid And Brad Blettenberg of Widespread Panic is on page 26 –ed.], while the main show was concentrated on the grounds of Sam Boyd stadium in the city's southwest corner.

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It's the Most Weirdest Time of the Year

OK, here it comes again. As we approach the end of the year, I find myself with a tendency to get Serious. Sorry, it's a character defect that I continue to work on, to little avail.

While I want to review the year and take some time to reflect and be grateful, it is an insanely busy time of the year. Here at Timeless World Headquarters, we are up to three monthly magazines (FOH, PLSN and Stage Directions) plus the annual Event Production Directory. (By the way, that little reference guide that so many of us turn to in time of need is finally going electronic as well as print. That's good news — especially for those of you who spend significant time on the road — but it is a hellacious amount of work to get it into the new format.) Plus, I have a couple of side projects (including trying to front a large band again — just how stupid am I?) that make time even tighter.

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Academia Heats Up for Live Sound

You can tell you've got a growth sector when more people want to sell services and products around it. For instance, there's a business in iPod accoutrements that's almost as big as iPod sales themselves. If the education sector is any indication — and it is — then live sound is a bull market.

Several key college and universitylevel media technology operations have been ratcheting up their live sound offerings. Full Sail in Orlando has a training area about the size of an airplane hangar to support the show production and touring courses that they upgraded in 1998, from a component of the audio engineering path to its own 13-month degree program.

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GFCI and Sound Systems

Any sound person who has been in the biz for a while usually has a GFCI tale of woe to tell. Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) are those pesky receptacles found in bathrooms, kitchens and outdoor locations to prevent a shock hazard when water and electricity could mix. Unfortunately, the National Electric Code (NEC) requires GFCI circuits if the public (read: musicians) has access to outdoor electricity. There are exceptions on GFCI usage for carnival vendors, sound and lighting gear and other utilizations where the public normally is not likely to engage electrical appliances directly.

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Working in a Wireless Wonderland

Already a classic children's book and animated television program, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! also became a hit movie with Jim Carrey and a popular musical theatre production that has run seasonally in San Diego for eight years in a row. Now, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical is tantalizing Broadway in its first holiday run. The Grinch team does a great job of replicating the look of the book, collecting a good ensemble cast, and delivering a charismatic Grinch (Patrick Page). Sound designer Tom Clark, one of the powerful triumvirate that is Acme Sound Partners, took on the show without having been involved with the original production. He treated The Grinch as if it was a brand new show. The 70- minute production moves quickly but does not overwhelm the audience, nor does the unobtrusive, but well-layered, sound design.

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The Phantom Power Menace

Dear Anklebiters, I have a mixer with a global on/off switch for phantom power. If I am using just one or two mics that need power, will it hurt anything else to leave it on?

Charles Cox Moapa, Nevada

Paul: Condenser microphones require a polarizing voltage and power for their built-in amplifiers. Sometimes provision is made to supply this voltage directly through the microphone cable. The procedure is called phantom powering, and the most common phantom supply voltage available in mixing consoles is 48 VDC, although 24V supplies are widely used. Most phantom powered mics can operate on a wide range of supply voltages, from as little as 1.5 volts or 9 volts up to 50 volts.

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The Devil Is In the Details

Hey, friends, if you are reading this article because you missed church last Sunday, you've come to the wrong place. Even though I attend church regularly, I cannot offer any absolution for your sins. However, if you want to create better sound at your home church or get some valuable insight into the mechanics of house of worship installations, you're talking to the right guy.

In this particular issue we will be looking at personal monitors (a descriptive term for monitoring headphones that fit inside the ear canal) for the worship team (that would be a descriptive term for the musicians/singers that lead the congregation in worship songs). There are a variety of PM products available on the market, and certainly PMs are by no means new phenomena. So I am not going to explore the different manufacturers or the pros and cons of wired versus wireless systems. You get out there and do your homework on what products will serve your particular client, and I will try to add some insight to the rest of the process.

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FOH At Large

Call me archaic, but I actually find the English language to be a great way to express ones thoughts, regardless of intent or purpose. From relaying simple instructions in concise terms to loquaciously waxing poetic, the English language, when used properly, is capable of conveying thought and feeling with nuance and elegance. This does not mean that we need to roll our "R's" or speak in Shakespearean English, but as intelligent people we must find a middle ground between "Wherefore art thou?" and "Where you at?" Starting with the president of the United States on down, spoken English has become a lost art or, at the very least, simply modified to the lowest common denominator.

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On the Bleeding Edge

There are some things in the music business that never change. For instance, record labels will always want to repackage a band's old material. History has shown that "Greatest Hits" packages are an easy (and cheap) way to do this. After all, the biggest expense of a new release — studio time — is minimal for a re-package. Ditto for the concept of a live recording. The band is performing anyway, and by the time they've played their 25th show, they're pretty well rehearsed, so the label decides it's time to record a concert for release on CD in stereo and on DVD in 5.1 — and that's where life on the road gets complicated.

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Regional Slants

Bob Forbes is taking the opportunity to breathe. As the president of SPL Systems (www.splsystems.net), a regional sound company who strikes while the proverbial fair and festival iron is hot, Forbes has recently finished a five-month-long run of festivals around the company's Chicopee, Mass. headquarters.

This past summer, the SPL crew worked at 17 fairs in the southeast Massachusetts and northern New York state region that included the Barnstable County Fair in East Faimouth, Mass., Ulster County Fair in New Paltz, N.Y. and the Duchess County Fair in Rhinebeck, N.Y., as well as the Eastern States Exposition ("The Big E") and the Big Y Balloon and Music Festival in West Springfield, Mass.

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'Twas the Night Before Curtain

'Twas the night before Christmas; the deadline was tight.

The tempers were flaring; there was no end in sight.

The ground plans were hung on the walls without care,

While hundreds of box truss were flown in the air.

The Clients were nestled all snug in their beds

While us in production were banging our heads.

The script had revisions; the computer had crashed.

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Who the Hell Is Widespread Panic and Why Do They Keep Following Me Around?

Chris Raboid and Brad Blettenberg are a good team. Covering FOH and MON plus production for Southern rock jam band Widespread Panic, they have become "part of the family" with a band known for going through sound guys with almost Prince-like regularity — Chris has helmed FOH for five years, and Brad has been camped out at the side of the stage for a decade. FOH caught up with the daring duo on the band's Halloween show in Las Vegas (you can't tell, but the singer is wearing a chicken suit in the pics) and got a glimpse of a crew that has both the chops and the balls to hang with a band that regularly takes things to the edge of the musical abyss without ever falling over. And this band that has never had a radio hit was touring with one of the most cutting-edge and best-sounding systems we have heard in a long time. Here's how they do it.

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