I run across humans that choose a way of life of ruthless self perpetuating greed, and also those that choose selflessness to the point that it becomes cripplingly hindering to their own health, livelihood and then all those that have balance somewhere in between with strength in direction moderated by compassion and patience, for people, for the environment, for the critters and for their own selves. As long as I just keep remembering not to forget to stand mid teeter totter, all is good.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

I went to a few shows and once again was baffled by what I heard so I thought I would share some illusive and amazing secrets of mixing a rock show with any engineers or engineers to be out there:

1) Make it so you can hear all the instruments and vocals.

2) Make the instruments sound somewhat similar to what they actually are.

3) Have some sort of concept of either how loud the audience wants to hear it and how loud the band wants to be presented and try to make the appropriate humans happy.

For some reason, these three basic concepts escape many a sound engineer. So I have compiled a list of helpful hints:

If a high percentage of the audience is holding their ears or leaving, that is usually not so good.

• You can typically assume that the percentage of the audience that would prefer to hear it really loud with feedback howling is lower than the percentage of the audience that will be ok with it a bit lower in volume and not feeding back.
• Hearing the lead vocal is more important that the effects on the snare drum. Though I have no actual hard evidence of truth to this, I have noticed that if I watch the moths of the audience members, very few if any are singing along with the snare drum effect sound.
• The kick drum may be channel #1 on most stage plots. That does not automatically mean that the kick should also be #1 in volume.
• Make a live tape of the show with a mic in the audience, if the you can't hear all the instruments and understand the vocals on the live tape, it is highly likely that the audience had the same experience.
• If a venue has a whole bunch of low mid boom to it, EQ it out. Don't be shy, don't just live with it, take it out. Boomy room sound = bad! The most common issue I see with sound engineers mixing in larger venues is that they do not deal effectively with the room resonances. Typically it will be between 120 and 180 hz in arena type rooms. Please, please, say bye bye to the room resonance and then be happy along with 10,000 of you new best friends.
• Things that hurt your ears a little bit are usually excruciatingly painful to the bulk of the audience that has not been exposed to near as many shows as you have. Ouch = bad. Exception: If the audience is really drunk you can turn it up really loud and they usually don't mind
• If you are so buried in the console that you are not watching the band or anyone else around you, then you are most likely mixing for yourself and you are most likely out of touch with the band/audience interaction. The band/audience interaction is pretty much the whole purpose of doing a live show in the first place so not paying attention to it may not be the best plan.

Ok, got, cool!

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

Finally I have both had the time and figured out how to convert the old video files I have and actually get them to upload properly. Here is a video of some roadie wanderings back in 2002 on the Pepper's By the Way tour. Random antics and hopefully amusing and interesting enough. This has been up for a while but the video was not working right, now it is!  At least mostly.  For some reason the video moves faster than the sound, but hey, I am not a video guy.

 

Sunshine in Southern California rules!

Dave Rat

1"As long as expectations don't exceed experiences, everyone has a wonderful time."

Is the thought I was writing in a response and I then I started to ponder various experiences I have had in the past that made me happy or bummed and there is a clear correlation. I started to think and found that my verbal terms for the view angle of open expectation is 'big eyes,' curious and wandering. The mind set of 'anything can happen, hey come on, lets go see what it will be!' versus 'first I want this and second I want this and if this does not happen I will be so bummed.' Dating, rock shows, job interviews, and vacations all so often see humans with less than exuberant views on their outcomes when people involved don't moderate their expectations to leave room for the unexpected to occur. I have found personally that if I do the things I enjoy because I enjoy them, with big eyes and curiosity rather than pre writing the story line, that positive outcomes flow freely. And that is exactly how the blog posts unfold into existence each morning when I scan over the pile of recent thoughts, experiences and photos to see where the words I type will wander hopefully not getting too lost and ending up in the dreaded desolate forest of boring. Good morning!!

How about today we take a look at a Rat Sound analog snake splitter system?

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Ok for all you non nerds involved in voyeurism of the nerdy ways here is quick run down, while true audio nerds can skip this paragraph. OK, you know how there are mics on stage and they pick up the sound. Also, if you have been hanging around blog world for a while you also know that the Peppers, as most mid to large bands do, have two sound engineers. Our monitor engineer Daniel, is on the side of the stage and mixes the sound that the band hears and the Front of House engineer out front in the audience, me, mixes the sound that the audience hears. In order for the sound from the microphones on stage to get to both places, sound systems have something often called a 'splitter.' Though on the surface all it really is, is a glorified "y" cable, in actuality, they are complex, expensive and if anything goes wrong with it during a show, the outcome is not so good.

Rat Sound is currently based on a 56 channel XLR in, dual W-4 out hardwire splitter system with an external transformer W-4 input and either one or two W-4 outputs depending on the unit. Plus each splitter incorporates a triple 20 channel patchable sub snake array.

The large top box is the XLR input dual W-4 output unit with audio ground lifts on each input. The next unit down with the white blue and violet surrounded connectors allows sub snakes to be connected to the splitter system. You will notice the 60 numbered XLR cables dropped over the top, those are coming from the associated color coded sub snake connector. The cables allow the sub snakes to be patched into the splitter and stay patched over the course of a tour. The bottom box is a Rat built transformer splitter unit. When one of the main splitter W-4's is connected to the input of the transformer splitter, the transformer split provides 2 isolated W-4 outputs also creating a third split that can be used for a recording truck or other need.

The modular design that has evolved over the years with Jon Rat really doing an amazing job in developing the final result. The flexibility and capabilities of this setup makes the complex world of stage wiring fairly easy, reliable and versatile. Oh, and here is the 20 channel stage box

As far as the 6 channel and 12 channel stage boxes, they direct patch via XLR rather than multi pins like the 20 channel boxes.

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

I can only hope that my bloggery offerings exceed your expectations. Speaking of that, any bloggery requests? Yes, I know more roadie cards is one I need to do and am hoping to soon, what else? What do ya 'all want?

Dave Rat

There are several non-human things with which my life, as I have chosen it, I consistently depend. My laptop, my cell phone, my car (not so much lately) and to some degree, my camera. Avoiding losing these things provides a constant and often humorous challenge and yes, I do lose my car in just about every parking lot. Additionally, since my world of motion is so inter-woven with these items, it brings me great pleasure to assure that the ones with which I chose to interact are optimized for my particular desires. So with that argument built up as a self justification, I set out out and purchased the new sexy Blackberry 8800. Ooooh! Smaller, built in GPS, plays videos and holds a micro SD card so I can send pics from my camera. I may even figure out a way to blog from it now that I can get my camera pics into it. Excited about my new acquisition, I show Dave Lee who immediately invokes a durability test

It is an on going roadie joke that when anyone gets something new and fragile that we try and politely "take a look" followed by pretending to bite, step on, twist, disassemble and in any way possible, cause dismay to the owner. Dave Lee did very well, pay back is a bitch and I deserved every second.

So we are at the airport terminal and take a shuttle to the lounge that is like a mile away in trailer that requires the shuttle bus to traverse several runways. Fortunately for the plane riders, a wise man has placed this useful notice assisting a safer journey for all.

To the plane and yumm! Read this menu,

wow, does that not sound delicious or at least interesting? Well, being the adventurous eater I am, I am all good with giving it a shot. I under estimated the potential. Oh my, and then I remember that I have already learned this last and perhaps every time I fly to Japan.

I love sushi, I love clean simple healthy foods. I do not love slimy gelatinous and rubbery items of unknown origin. I do not love fish goo, and though the pic does not represent it's full glory, I do not understand why such great lengths of complication would be taken to transform what was at one point, perfectly good food into complex fish flavored jelly.

Simple clean healthy foods, how hard can it be?

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

The realization that I have been ignoring my fellow and fellowess sound nerds struck me and brought a sad feeling to my heart so I pondered a bit and came up with this to share.

One of the big issues with subwoofer arrays is that they provide significant sound in front of the stage and considerably reduced sound levels off to the sides. Early in the blog days I describe the method we use on this Pepper's tour to increase side sub coverage and made up the name "Sub Cannons" for them. Well, not ever tour or show has the flexibility to build the stage as part of the sub woofer array sooo.....

Here is a simple method of increasing that horizontal dispersion of sub woofer coverage utilizing the side firing sub cannon method with all the subs are stacked in a straight line. This setup is useful both indoors and out and allows you to easily alter the amount of low frequency energy you provide off axis to the people on the sides. The main subs on send 1 are facing forward and have zero time offset. The side firing subs are pointed outwards at 90 degrees and delayed incrementally such that their acoustic focus is 90 degrees off axis. The delay times listed on the drawing are based on a 2 foot deep subwoofer and a 1 foot spacing between the subs.

In order to envision how the setup works, think of the main subs including the first (non spaced) side firing sub as one system which I have circled in red. Think of the spaced side facing subs as a second system. The main subs form the typical forward facing sub array that is quite common and tends to lack adequate side coverage. The fact that the zero time delay sub on the end is pointed sideways is of little or no consequence. Now think of the the +3 feet delayed subs as waiting for the sound from the subs behind it before it radiates it's sound. Then the +6 feet delayed sub waits for the sound of the combined zero delay and +3 delayed subs before it radiates and finally, the +9 delayed sub waits before radiating as well.

This incremental addition increases the volume for the listeners off to the sides while having a relatively minimal effect on the listeners in front. The setup works quite well and is easily adapted to various venue types. If you increase the side firing sub spacing, increase the delay times accordingly. The delay time in feet of each increment is (cabinet depth in feet) + (spacing in feet). So, if your subs are 2 1/2 feet deep and you space them 18", then you would use 4 feet of delay per increment.

You can alter the ratio of the quantities of forward firing to side firing subs as well as the quantity of side firing spaced stacks to achieve different coverage's and volume levels as well. The real beauty of the setup is that it does not require any complex measurements, it transfers well from venue to venue, you can keep all your settings intact as long as you keep your spacing's on the side firing subs the same and if the sides of the venue need more sub you just turn up sub send #2.

Cool cool, if ya give it try, don't forget to let me know what ya think and how it works for you.

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

The not afraid to nerd it up,

Dave Rat

Bus ride to Des Moines, ice storm outside and doing a bit of bus bunk computing.

Back and running and all just seems to pick up where it left off. Currently the biggest challenge with these tour stops and starts, lays in the band's laps. Production wise, the trucks are loaded and still how we left them on the last gig, business as usual for us. Whereas the band guys take playing every show the best they can to heart and are caught balancing well needed breaks with hitting the ground full speed. It kind of reminds me of athletes in a way but rather than training for an event, they need to stay constantly in shape. To much push and they burn out, not enough and they become unsatisfied with the shows. The constant self pressure to strive, is an impressive trait and those that have it, often end up in amazing places and lives, like our our musical Peppers friends have.

And here is something I have been meaning to do for a while, have a look around Milwaukee gig from FOH perspective

http://www.ratsound.com/360_pics/mil_foh.html

Speaking of perspectives, have a look at an empty arena from Anthony's point of view

**** Nerd Speak ****

Stuff breaks. I guess "breaks" is a bit of a catch all for the various forms of malfunction that the various items decide to embrace. Today our broken thing adventure involved what we call the Eventide H3500. The reason we call it that is that those are the words written on the front. What this thing does is something we soundies call "effects." Now, I am not one that is big on effects and with my setup only having a grand total of two, I pretty much use about 1/3 of the norm for shows half the size. The good part is that I don't really need a lot of effects with this band, the bad news is that with only two units, I really really do need and use them and losing one is a big deal. Furthermore, the units I like are neither new nor easy to find nor particularly special for that matter. Just simple older dependable easy to use and solid sounding effects boxes. I leave all the "buy the latest and greatest gizmo to the engineers that feel thave it still run, electronics often are similar and depending on what it is, there are usually a bunch o bits that ya don't really need. In this case, it was a small capacitor that most likely helped with keeping RF noise down. What really matters is that not only does the unit work but also it is a tiny bit lighter as well!!

**** New! Scott the Lampi Cartoon Series ****

How about a little cartoon series made by Scott to join our bloggery space?

**** End! Scott the Lampi Cartoon Series ****

Finally, ooooh, look out the bus door over here, yikes, looks like the damn storms are fitting to chase us again, oh well.

with my setup only having a grand total of two, I pretty much use about 1/3 of the norm for shows half the size. The good part is that I don't really need a lot of effects with this band, the bad news is that with only two units, I really really do need and use them and losing one is a big deal. Furthermore, the units I like are neither new nor easy to find nor pe offender.

Now for some finger crossing that it was just a spare and we did not really need him in there anyway as we plug the unit back in and .... Hurray! It works!!!

Some may ponder why they would put spare blobby blobs in there and logic would dictate that it must of had a purpose but that is not always the case. Just like you can take a bolts out of a car motor and have it still run, electronics often are similar and depending on what it is, there are usually a bunch o bits that ya don't really need. In this case, it was a small capacitor that most likely helped with keeping RF noise down. What really matters is that not only does the unit work but also it is a tiny bit lighter as well!!

**** New! Scott the Lampi Cartoon Series ****

How about a little cartoon series made by Scott to join our bloggery space?

**** End! Scott the Lampi Cartoon Series ****

Finally, ooooh, look out the bus door over here, yikes, looks like the damn storms are fitting to chase us again, oh well.

The watching out for and making huge water messes, but worth every second,

Dave Rat

PS, Foa anyone interested, I did an interview for Guitar Center a few months back that just came out.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/interview/daverat/index.cfm

I was hesitant at first but when I saw that several of my musician friends had done them too, well, I gave in. The crazy thing though is that it's all well known musicians and then me, Dave Rat the roadie!!

http://www.guitarcenter.com/interview/

How funny is that! This is not going to help me out with trying to shake the "5th Beatle" heat I keep getting. Eeeek!