Changes.

[nevetslab]

Doing repairs on the current all digital consoles can be a real challenge. We have some DigiDesign Venue SC-48 consoles here at CenterStaging, along with lots of Meyer stage monitors, subs & FOH cabinets, all self powered. One of the Venue consoles took a dump, so in the process of trying to open up the console, which used # 4-40 FHMS hex drive (1/16" hex) screws to secure the large panel......yup...you guessed it. Every hex drive tool I had would just strip on a few of the 20-30 screws that secured the panel, refusing to unscrew. I ended up having to bring over the Foredom hand grinder, fitted with a cut-off disc and cut slots into those screws so I could use a bladed screwdriver to open the bloody thing up.

Both of the SMPS's that run the console were down, and very tedious to extract. We did manage to find an outfit up the SF bay area who serviced them, otherwise we were looking at some $$ for replacements. I've had to dig into one of the Soundcraft small digital boards, which was knocked off the table and stopped working. Broken connectors, and some broken wire terminations to the motorized faders, so it wasn't so bad. Biggest problem I had was NOT having the password to get the unit up and running to check it out!

[rjb]

In town, we have a festival (Bluesfest) that takes place downtown, with a few very large stages in addition to smaller ones. People who live several blocks away will often complain about the loudness. It strikes me that their complaints likely stem from the long wavelengths of the deep low end, which the guys at the mixing desk, a mere 100yds away, can't hear.

Maybe that festival hired the same sound company that did Artscape the year Emmy Lou Harris played the main stage. Sitting directly in front of the sound booth, I felt like I was gonna have a heart attack. The bull fiddle was cranked so loud, with so much bass content, that it rattled my chest cavity. That might be the "right" way to mix electronic dance music- but not acoustic country music.

-rb

[Enzo]

My mother would often complain my music a]was too loud. I would be playing a table radio in my room in the basement, door closed, and she would be in the far corner of the house upstairs, stairway door also closed. Up there - I checked - my music was audible but not remotely loud. I could determine the song playing but that was about it. But to mom, if she could hear it up there, that meant that where I was it must be "too loud".

[Leo_Gnardo]

Maybe that festival hired the same sound company that did Artscape the year Emmy Lou Harris played the main stage. Sitting directly in front of the sound booth, I felt like I was gonna have a heart attack. The bull fiddle was cranked so loud, with so much bass content, that it rattled my chest cavity. That might be the "right" way to mix electronic dance music- but not acoustic country music.

-rb

I wonder if Emmy Lou knew. I doubt she would approve. Our local coffee shop owner had a similar complaint about a David Bromberg show he attended at our local 1000 seat theater. Bone crushing volume - that ain't right! My reply: "If I had been mixing, no such problem." I still get compliments from a double show evening I mixed with B.B. King about 25 years ago. Loud enough to sound full. Well balanced. Didn't even have a sound check. What's the problem with mixers these days? Not everybody wants to be McTallica, nor should they be. There's a place & time for that, and it's not everywhere, every time.

[Mark Hammer]

But I assume you have all had the experience of minding your own business, when you wonder where the construction blasting is going on, only to find that you were hearing a Honda Civic's sub-woofer from three blocks away, as it came down the street and passed you.

It's not the "volume", in the sense of the entire spectrum. It's the low stuff that disperses omnidirectionally and carries like whalesongs across the ocean. People within 100yds of the stage simply can't hear it, but the folks 4 blocks away sure as hell can.

[The Dude]

Ah yes! The $3,000 stereo in the $300 car. Plenty of those annoying things around here. I don't think some of them even bother with mid/high speakers, as long as it goes boom boom boom and rattles the neighbor's walls.