A Barking Dog

World Champ

Originally uploaded by Dave Stevens

World champ smokes US karters in national race.

World Champ

Originally uploaded by Dave Stevens

World champ smokes US karters in national race.

More Winter Testing

Originally uploaded by Dave Stevens

First competition race in more than 3 years.

As the Summer 2k7 ABD winds to a close, (actually this started about two months ago) this being the final post of the Summer 2k7 season (which at this point is now Fall), much has happened in this last several months. We went from having a technically deficient show in terms of sound systems and design to one of the most elaborate designs and implementations not only on this block but in the in the biz as a whole. Even after a year, I’m still amazed, but no longer perplexed by the scale of what we do. No longer am I overwelmed with a gigantic performance space that encompasses several thousand square feet over six stories and more than a million gallons of water.

But it’s not come at some expense. The compressed time frame of our recent “enhancement”, (sound is awesome, but a reported 6 mil worth of lights looked like shit to me) unmanagable colleagues and demands from upper management make the technical nirvanna secondardy to the petty politics, greed, arrogance, incompetence and ignorance that seem to permeate my existence on the gig at this point. Just like with touring, it became not fun to come in everyday inspite of having one the best gigs in the biz using some the most advanced tools available. The horseshit factor outweighed any enjoyment that might be derived from such a job. It’s not like I didn’t like those with which I work, as I do. It’s just that I have a different veiw of Varisty than some of them did. Or at least in my mind, I think that I do. I do enjoy the genre of the modern circus style Las Vegas production show in the terms of scale, scope and artistic endevor. You’d never find me doing some of the things the performers do. Ever. Well, except perhaps imbibing on a favorite spirit at the Artisan or Peppermill.

It’s a bittersweet time, full of angst and indecision. As Ed says, “but I know that I know I don’t want to stay”. So I left. About six weeks ago I put in my notice, much to the “disgust” of English John, our leader. I don’t know that disgust was the word he was looking for. I’ve only voluntarily left one gig before, work of Sid for the “riders that go for great distance”, or the “riders that are very tall”, as Jordy would say. I did mention that after nearly a couple of decades, I did run into Jordy in Spain again? I mentioned that in the Euro 2k6 season when we were doing the castle tour. Still have some great castle gig video. I should post that one of these days. I should also not cuss, bathe regularly, brush my teeth and not be such a crusty old fuck. But that’s not likely to happen either.

Much like an infant in a shit laden diaper, it was time for a change. Not that I didn’t like the show or the people I was working with, I did. But the challenges were few and a couple of the personalities I had to deal with made the gig less than fun. I told the powers that be that I left the gig to pursue greater opportunities. That’s partially right. But I also didn’t have any shirts with a rainbow picture of the sun with French writing. Well, Quebecious anyway. I figured that if I was going to spend the back nine of my career doing this kind of show (with an outstanding benefits and good compensasion package) I might as well be doing it with the people that are considered to be the top of the class. Even if they are based in Canada, err, I mean Quebec.

So if this is such a good move, why is it bittersweet? Other than the fact that Fuel record is on Dave’s iTunes now? I had (and still have it) it pretty good. I was instrumental in redesigning and programming a big ass monitor rig on one of the most complex shows on the planet. I was working with (mostly) some pretty cool people. But after a year and a half I was going nowhere. I need to be the lead dog on the sled team. I can’t stand looking up the other dogs butts on the sled, particularly when I think I can be faster than them. On tour it was easy. Cut the mustard, be good at your gig or your ass gets shipped out. In LV Strip world, don’t work like that. If you’re kind of good enough to do the gig, don’t piss anyone off too badly and don’t invite any lawsuits, they’ll keep your ass around no matter how much you know or don’t know about doing mission critical pro audio. To me, that ain’t right. Know your shit, do it well or get the fuck out. It’s really that easy.

As wistful as I am for the touring days, it would take a call for a long term gig where Rog and Dave brought the inflatable pig and styrofoam bricks for the wall to get me out of retirement. And somehow I don’t think I would be on the short list for the call.

So what did I do? I started over. Again. Shit. Part of this is having to work my way back up from my former life of being the big swinging dick on the desk to being the guy on deck that makes sure that all the IFBs, ear mons and mics are working. About a hundred packs at this point. No, really. That’s an assload of batteries. And not counting wireless com. Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forward. Of course, the trick is to know when the time is right and see the payoff at the end of the tunnel. Otherwise you’re just going backwards. And that’s the bittersweet part. Knowing that you can do the heavy lifting but being relagated to what one might consider crap work. That, my friend, is what separates the men from the boys, the Varisty from the Jr Varisty.

Based on a post on the theater sound list I decided to undertake a bit of an experiement, though hardly scientific. Which is my point in my response. Many times, if not the majority of the time what we do is more a factor of the application rather than the science we use to do this sound thing. While we need to have a good understanding of the mechanics of audio, we really need to know how they fit into the big picture.

The discussion was regarding the parallel spliting of microphones with regards to sound reinforcment applications. Jim Brown and Bill Whitlock presented AES 118 in Barcelona “A better approach to passive microphone splitting” (paper 6338) Full text is available at http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/AESPaperSplittersASGWeb.pdf

While the research presents compelling arguments and data for reasons not to Y split mics it fails to address practical and business concerns and offer a comparison of real world parameters aside from what is very comprehensive test data. In other words, plugging a mic in and using it in an app without all the test gear and using perhaps the most important audio test gear, human ears. My point is that even with the science, in a real world SR application one will be challenged to tell in the majority of cases which mic is Y split and which mic is transformer split. The paper does an excellent job of explaining the phenomenon though it doesn’t address the use of lower cost transformers when used degrade or change the audio more than a Y split would, particularly on the low end with high amplitude apps. To me that’s been much more noticable than Y spliting. Also, the current breed of active mic splitters add thier own signature to the sound, offsetting many times the subtle differences in esoteric mic pre amps. In practice I’ve found the results of using active mic spllitters and inexpensive transformers to impact my app more than the results of Y split mics. Given the same level of other equipment, talent, environment, etc.

I had hoped to make a more comprehensive comparison but due to time and other restrictions, I won’t be able to at this point. This weekend I trade my polyester blend polo shirts from the swanky dive on the Strip for some tee shirts with a picture of a yellow sun at another dive down the street where they do the same sort of thing. This time, though, instead of flying 90lb french chicks through the air then dunking them in water, we’ll turn the beach into a forrest and then into a mountain and fly 90lb asian chicks through the air but with no real water to dunk them into.

Here’s what I did for the mic split comparison. Using a PM1D V2 with the new mic preamp cards, supposedly based on the XL4, the LMY4-MLF or as we call them, the MILF cards. I used a Neuman KMS-104 with 100′ cable and split it with a standard Y into two channels of the PM1D. I routed the preamp out (pre HPF) of each channel out of a DIO MY4-AT (Lightpipe) into a Digidesign 192 I/O feeding a Pro Tools HD2 system @ 24 bit/44.1kHz. One file is the direct, unsplit sound of the mic. On the second pass two mono tracks recorded the indentical source concurrently in real time and the mic in the second track is used. The most difficult thing for me was keeping the mic technique consistent between tests.

I’ve uploaded the files at http://roaddog.com/video/split_test/file1.wav and http://roaddog.com/video/split_test/file2.wav . I’ll leave it to our gentle readers to decide which is which or even if so inclined to run a transfer function test to see any differences or if that test matches the differences in what one preceives between the two files.

EDIT: I’ve opened comments for a while so if you have anything to say, post it.

Dave

Jesus has been to see us a few times over the last month or so. He should. Near as I can figure, and I ain’t no math major, he’s pumped about 25 mil, cold hard cash into the joint in the last few months. Mostly all good though some, in my not so humble opinion, not. If you want change the world, shut your mouth and start this minute. This week we also bid a fond farewell (err, not exactly) to our visiting lighting design team. More like don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. Most of them were pretty cool, all of them high end established pros in the biz.

The Princess of Darkness is special though. She’s touched. If she were an Absolut commercial, it would be “Absolut Batshit Wacky”. The arrogance doesn’t bother me as much as the lack of respect for the 200 other people working on the show. Consider this, someone sets up a huge creation zone in front of what is one of the busiest departments in the show. Then complains about how we go in and out of our offices. Sorry you set up in front of one of the most trafficed places in the production. What’s more sorry is the lack of support from upper management and the propensity to kiss her ass so hard that they may likely suck out a turd. Everyone thrown under the bus all because the Princess has been nominated for several awards from that Tony guy and she’s in the favor of Jesus. Still haven’t found that Tony guy, I hear he doesn’t like sound guys. And it looks like shit. But what do I know, I’ve only been doing this and enjoying live shows for more than three decades.

Sweetiebabycookiehoney, we don’t give two fucks about how they do it in New York. This is Vegas, baby. And if New York wasn’t such a run down shithole, we’d consider buying it. But they don’t have 24 hr booze, gaming and quality hookers so it doesn’t quite fit our business model. Well, they have that, but not legally so we can give the State a taste. That’s what we sell here, kids. Fun and fantasy. And we tax the shit out of it. And no one complains.

At one point the Princess proclaimed to all within earshot that “this is how we do it at the highest level of lighting”. If by that, Princess, do you mean wash the stage with so much lighting you can’t see what’s happening then move the lights not in time to the music? It looks like a Full Sail graduate’s time at a Whole Hog in the Martin booth at NAMM rather than a multi million dollar lighting design by some acclaimed Broadway designer. But then what do I know? I’m only some broke dick ass that’s done rock for the last few decades.

Well what the hell is the point, Dave? Glad you asked because I was ready to go on another tangent. The point is, no matter how good you are, or more importantly, how good you THINK you are, don’t be a dick. In the long run it will bite you in the ass. I know this from experience. Also, don’t think because you are good at one thing and got really rich from it, don’t think you can be good at other things automatically. I call this the “transitive property of having your head firmly in your ass”. You’re good at what you’re good at, and that’s it. It’s really is that simple. Too bad Jesus doesn’t get it.

Dirty hair and titty rings sold separately.

The buzz/panic/hysteria mode in the pro audio and production biz is the (now old, really old) news that the FCC has been and will continue to auction off portions of the spectrum currently used by TV and wireless devices such as ear mons, mics, comm, etc. Some rather poorly informed souls attribute this to powerful lobbies of the electronics industry. It’s a bit deeper than that. In 1993 Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which gave the FCC the power to allocate portions of the spectrum, thus creating a competitive environment for the “product” (the public airwaves) and therefore driving up the price that the private sector was willing to pay, creating if you will, a market value for something that had previously been allocated via such methods as lotteries and comparitive hearings. As any noob with an eBay account can tell you, the best way to get a feel for the worth (or in some cases the perceived worth) of a good or service is to put it on eBay. In 1997 Congress extended and expanded the FFC’s authority over the matter. And that brings us to where we are today and are heading in the next few years.

Anyone that’s done any touring in the last few years or is working in a harsh radio environment, for example NYC is well familiar with the ever crowded spectrum. With the advent of DTV, space we used freely for the last several decades has been displaced by the new format TV channels. Over the next couple of years, the analog UHF channels will go dark. Some of this spectrum is already taken. For example when the DTV legislation was being hashed out, it was agreed that UHF band would be sold to the highest bidder. All other uses be damned. No one thought what that would do to unlicensed users of that particular spectrum. So, what the fuck dude? What’s going to happen? Well hell if I know for sure, or that anybody knows. In fact I started writing this episode about 10 months ago after attending a private meeting held for my pals at the Sirkus of the Sun, who are kind enough to invite someone that works for the Redheaded Stepchild of that genre of show to informal technical gatherings, not including the Drinking Club with an Audio Problem. The Dark Menis is good like that.

Here’s the deal, most everything but much of 700 mHz is gone, sold to the highest bidder. While it might look like we are fucked harder than Doogie Howser in prison, it’s not quite that bad, yet. I mean the wireless spectrum deal, not prison sex. There have been some proposals to allow us to coexist in the spectrum, but we’ve been skirting the law for as long as there have been wireless mics and ears. Truth be told we been scofflaws the whole time. Now I’m not going to get all sanctamonious like my pal Jimmy B did on the Theater Sound list, because A) that’s not reality, and B), because unlike JImmy, I push faders for a living and not pencils and I know what it takes to gig in the biz. Big difference between designing a rig, and doing a gig. Easy to write on the Interweb about how things should be (hey Dave, aren’t you doing that now?) and how things really are (hey Dave, don’t you always tell us how “things really are”, or at least how you think they are in your world, Dave?). Well yes, yes I do.

Well, what should we do? OK, cool, for starters, either A) get off your young disenfranchised asses, or B) get off your cynical, jaded old asses and make sure you are informed on the subject. Start at the FCC Auctions page. Lot’s of skinny on what The Gov(tm) is planning to do, or at least what they think they are planning to do. Remember, this government is the same one that can’t get water to thirsty disaster victims much less get them off their roofs during a flood or provide the troops that proudly and bravely (my balls certainly aren’t that big) serve us with the proper gear for such a dangerous job. If the gov can find a way to fuck it up, they will. And we’ll all end up paying for it. Don’t matter if you’re Red State or Blue State, you gotta agree that we haven’t been exactly Varsity over the last several years when it comes to this shit. Bet none of you could shoot a guy in the face and get away with it.

The kats that build this wireless shit have a stake in what happens, but unfortunately don’t have the bankroll that those supporting it do. Shure has a page with Whitespace information on what’s happening. Now most of you should know this already. All the lobbying that the wireless manufacturers is going to pale in comparison to what will really be the driving factor in how this will sort out. Bigtime sports. Imagine a Superbowl without wireless mics, comm or IFB. These days, it couldn’t happen. Do what you want, but don’t fuck with a guy’s Superbowl. Personally, I could give a shit about pro football or the Superbowl, but if it saves us some spectrum for radio mics, I’m all for it. The reality is (at least Dave’s reality) that in the last minute we’ll be granted space in which to operate our devices legally (unlike now) because in the end, money and power always wins. While we have really neither, broadcast has both as does high end political TV and corporate and doing events of the scale to which we have become accustomed is going to require some space to facilitate radio devices. It’s ironic to me that the same event that caused so much uproar showing Janet’s titty as a sign of “indecency” is likely to be the same one that saves us some spectrum so we can use our shit. I suppose indecency is in the ey of the beholder and I find it more offensive than showing the beauty of a human body that to report yet another human body mangled or destroyed. But that’s just me…