A Barking Dog

In this report from the Opelika-Auburn News Quantegy (the old Ampex guys) have closed the remaining plant in the US producing open real recording tape. And they did it in a rather shitty fashion. The employees clocked out for Christmas break and returned after the holiday to no trespassing signs and changed passcodes. There was also a report this morning on NPR Morning Edition. (which IMNSHO hasn’t been the same without Bob Edwards)

A check with the usual suspects for 2″ tape up here revealed that they haven’t had any Quantegy 2″ in a while and demand was falling rapidly over the last several years. I’d imagine an offshore concern to pick up the slack as the NPR story indicates, there is still possibly a niche demand for open reel tape.

I haven’t talked to Pat and Brenda in a while but got something today that some of you might be interested in. Syn Aud Con is now offering what looks like real world system operator classes. They’ve always done well with upper level training but really haven’t offered something like this before.

Details at http://www.synaudcon.com/operators.htm

The next thing I saw there was something that is very near and dear to my heart. Power, grounding and noise troubleshooting. The panel looks like a Who’s Who of Buzz Killer dudes. Neil Muncy, Bill Whitlock, Jim Brown and Bruce Olson. A real “Buzzapallooza” if you ask me. It’s in July in the prime of touring season so I’m hoping I can make it. Has the brainpower to be one of the most informative tech events all year if not the decade.

Details at http://www.synaudcon.com/Workshop05.htm

I’ll be at NAMM this year blogging the show and reporting anything that’s real interesting, to me anyway, directly from the show floor. If anyone has anything they would like to show me, drop me a line and I’ll swing by and check it out. I’ll be there Thurs 20th and Fri 21st. If anyone wants to meet up, let me know.

I hear the OSM might leave the mountain and come out west to check it out.

One fo the great puzzles after the LAB gained critical mass was how to nurture folks new to sound reinforcement so they don’t drag down the signal to noise in the higher level forums. After much debate, we came up with the LAB Lounge which Dave Dermont (Another Dave or AD) has run in an impeccable manner given the complexity of the task. The Lounge was intended as a place where there was a more relaxed attitude than the LAB that was more tolerant to beginners and those with less experience. The idea was to nurture or mentor these people as to the ways of professional audio. In spite of the hard work of AD and others, we’ve failed on a massive scale.

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