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!

 

 

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Or actually, just Nerd Speak in general. If you have been to the show or have been checking out the pictures you may have noticed that there are several video devices that Scott and Grier have designed into the show. The bulk of them are low resolution Versa Tubes that form the back drop and the overhead "spines." Additionally there are four high resolution video screens behind the band that move. These things are are not only crazy cool but stupid heavy. They move up and down plus ride on tracks from side to side forming several "looks" throughout the show.

Though on the surface this may seem simple enough, like many things on a grand scale, there are levels of complexity beyond what meets the eye. In order for these screens to safely slid from side to side on a portable track that can be setup each day, much attention must be paid to the varying loads they present to the overhead rigging structure. The mastermind behind this is our Australian techno genius, Raff.

Each motor that supports the track holding the screens is equipped with a load sensor that is connected to a laptop computer. During the show, in real time, in order to follow the cardinal rule of "gear fall out of sky = bad," Raff monitors the weight that each motor bears and has the ability to adjust the various motors with each move so that the weights are balanced and within the structural capabilities of the hardware. Here is a shot of the motor weights in the "parked" position.

**** End Nerd Speak ****

I have no complaints, the tour is awesome. That does not change the reality that it wears on me. The initial challenges and momentum has subsided and now it is about staying focused and keeping my head together. Another hotel, another city and the only thing that is consistent is the timeless sensation of the show itself. Combine that with the fact that my future is determined by an unfolding set of shows that appear in the form of pieces of paper and emails that list various cities we will travel. When does the tour end, where will we go? I have about as much idea as you do. Heck, half the time I find out about confirmed shows on www.pollstar.com long before schedules appear in world. No complaints, it just is the way it is as my future unfolds.

I do know we are going to Japan again as tonight we did a production dinner to discuss logistics.

Boy are there a lot of logistics in moving a show like this around the world and though I have seen it and am involved in it, it never ceases to amaze me.

Oh! I have been so meaning to grab some shots of Gnarls Barkley and here is a quick one I took, I need to remember to take some more.

That's it for now. The Charlottesville show was cool and the venue was a bit more compact sounding, I am at the point now where I look at the seat coverings and ceiling height and already know how the gig will sound before we even turn on the system.

Hey, I will not guarantee that I will do it and I know I have not been making enough time to respond to all the blog comments, but I do read them all, and if you have any requests that you would like to see me cover, post away and I will see what I can do. Just keep in mind that I am all about the techno end and roadie side of things and steer clear of the inner band stuff and any band related things when they are off stage.

Upcoming things .....

Some coverage on the touring monitor system (I should have hit that long ago)

Some shots of Flea's bass rig and perhaps JF's stacks ass well.

Till soon I write again,

Dave Rat

So yesterday, after the Christiania adventure it was fly-time to Stockholm

Waking up to a morning wander with Scott for a change to find some coffee for a change. Open fire on the street is not common at home unless there are a bunch of red trucks zooming around it.

Hey, look, water that looks like sound

and as we drive toward the gig we spot an alien space ship

that has landed and most likely is on a mission to abduct and probe the Swedish people for the secrets to making the perfect meatball or perhaps to pick up a few things at Ikea. Oh, wait a minute, that's not a space ship, that is the gig.

**** Little Mini Sound Nerd Speak ****

In order to mix in the dark or more precisely, in order to mix without needing to look at the console, I have set up a few brail like markers. Here you can see from my right hand's point of view that I taped ear plugs on the 'gated toms' and the 'non-gated toms' VCA's. These soft squishy fader nipples allow me to locate them easily. Typically I do not use such distinct markers but the non-gated toms' VCA is in a dangerous spot between my pre-compressor master VCA and post compressor VCA pair. A slip up to either side while dropping the non-gated toms would mean turning off the sound for the entire show or turning off vocals, Kick and Snare, hence the foam plugs. For more on pre/post tom gating, check out Day 181.

**** Little Mini Sound Nerd Speak ****

The ready to go home but still happy to be here,

Dave Rat

**** Advanced Sound Nerd Speak ****

Warning! Super sound nerds only, everyone else should skip this section to avoid a brain owie.

So I covered a cool gating trick back on Day 181, now it time for a compressor technique that I find exothermally useful and is another of the secret foundations of mixing a rock show Dave Rat style. As live engineers we live in a spontaneous and real time environment, the less time we waste mucking about with stuff, the more time we have to actually focus on keeping the sound together. Described here is a method that not only will assist you in keeping the band's dynamic levels manageable, but it will also allow you to alter all your compressor thresholds without leaving the center console area. On an analog setup, this means you don't have to go to the outboard rack bend over and try and read the labeling on the knobs. On a digital console, this means that you can avoid sifting through a pile of compressor menus.

The trick is to assign each instrument type (for our purposes vocals are an instrument) to both a VCA and a subgroup. Then bus the subgroups to your L and R or matrix. For example; Take all your vocals and assign them to VCA 1 and also assign them to stereo subgroup 1 or mono subgroups 1 and 2. Then insert a pair of compressors on the vocal subgroups. This is where it gets cool. So now, since a VCA is really just a remote control for the channel faders, when you increase the vocal 'VCA' level it turns up the vocals pre-compressor causing more compression. When you raise the vocal 'group' faders it raises the post compressor vocal level, increasing volume after the compressor. If you raise the VCA while lowering the group faders then you are in effect lowering the threshold's of the compressors without changing the volume and without physically (or mentally in the case of digital boards) leaving the center of the console. Raising the group faders while lowering the VCA in effect raises the compressor thresholds resulting in reduced compression.

Follow me? Ok, so now repeat that same pattern on the guitars in stereo, bass in mono, kick and snare paired together mono, toms in stereo and cymbals in stereo and in this description you would end up with 10 subgroups (4 stereo and 2 mono) and 6 VCA's. You now have full control over pre and post compression levels on every instrument type. Further more, since you are compressing vocals as an overall stereo unit, if one person sings it may just barely compress but when all three singers sing at once, you will get more compression. This means that unlike using channel compression, with subgroup compression your overall vocal level will be more manageable. Same goes with guitars and so on. Pairing up the kick and snare and adding slight compression helps balance the two out a bit, fatten their sound and only ties up a single comp. I personally aim for equal level on kick and snare so the comp'ed pair helps dial that in.

If all that is not enough, check this out! Take your 7th VCA and assign all your inputs to it to make it an 'input master VCA' and then assign all 10 of your compressed subgroups to the 8th VCA making it an 'output master VCA'. This now is the most powerful of all as you can turn up input master VCA 7 and drive all your comps into compression while lowering output master VCA 8 to maintain a constant volume. These two master VCA faders give you the ability to change the over all dynamics of the entire mix similar to what a compressor on the Left and Right bus would do. Except this is better because each instrument group is independently compressed so the instruments are not all pushing each other down in volume.

And the reason this is so cool is that it will bring you one step closer to reaching that goal of being in total control over everything necessary without having to look away from watching what is going on and only moving your hands and remaining relaxed, happy and enjoying the thrill of the show. Hey, wait a minute, that is kind of like driving a race car.

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

I have known Mike Watt perhaps for 25 years. He used to be in a band called the Minutemen that played shows with Black Flag and other SST bands that I recorded and later did PA rentals for in the early eighties. When the Minutemen's Singer/Guitar player, D. Boon, died in 1985, Watt went on to form fiREHOSE, another very cool and legendry punk era band. Anyway, good tunes and good people to be found and now Mike is here with us, awesome!

In his very Fugazi-ish manner, Mike Watt carries on the super cool, drive your own truck, book hundreds of shows a year and creates, lives and plays music in it's purest form.

He has opened for Peppers before and Peppers once again have done as Peppers so often do and have brought in a long time friend and someone they musically and personally greatly admire, as the opening artist,

**** Roadie Observation Segment ****

I know that everyone has often wondered "How do all those roadies keep themselves looking so damn good?" As you know, today's modern roadie is nothing like it's hairy predecessor known as the Hippie roadie. What you may not know is how that evolution occurred or anything about roadie grooming habits, until now that is. Seen here, in an extremely rare photo of roadie Cliff, grooming roadie Joe while both are clearly residing in the natural roadie habitat, also referred to as the gig.

**** End Roadie Observation Segment ****

It is always comforting to feel safe. I especially feel safe when I am guarded, which is why we were all so excited to see these safety monitors with machine guns at the gig. Wow, I can't even begin to tell you how much better I feel now. Whew, all good. You know, you just never know when one of those gun things will come in handy and look!, they seem to be headed towards roadie Rusty.

**** Advanced Sound Nerd Speak ****

Warning! Super sound nerds only, everyone else should skip this section to avoid a brain owie.

So I covered a cool gating trick back on Day 181, now it time for a compressor technique that I find exothermally useful and is another of the secret foundations of mixing a rock show Dave Rat style. As live engineers we live in a spontaneous and real time environment, the less time we waste mucking about with stuff, the more time we have to actually focus on keeping the sound together. Described here is a method that not only will assist you in keeping the band's dynamic levels manageable, but it will also allow you to alter all your compressor thresholds without leaving the center console area. On an analog setup, this means you don't have to go to the outboard rack bend over and try and read the labeling on the knobs. On a digital console, this means that you can avoid sifting through a pile of compressor menus.

The trick is to assign each instrument type (for our purposes vocals are an instrument) to both a VCA and a subgroup. Then bus the subgroups to your L and R or matrix. For example; Take all your vocals and assign them to VCA 1 and also assign them to stereo subgroup 1 or mono subgroups 1 and 2. Then insert a pair of compressors on the vocal subgroups. This is where it gets cool. So now, since a VCA is really just a remote control for the channel faders, when you increase the vocal 'VCA' level it turns up the vocals pre-compressor causing more compression. When you raise the vocal 'group' faders it raises the post compressor vocal level, increasing volume after the compressor. If you raise the VCA while lowering the group faders then you are in effect lowering the threshold's of the compressors without changing the volume and without physically (or mentally in the case of digital boards) leaving the center of the console. Raising the group faders while lowering the VCA in effect raises the compressor thresholds resulting in reduced compression.

Follow me? Ok, so now repeat that same pattern on the guitars in stereo, bass in mono, kick and snare paired together mono, toms in stereo and cymbals in stereo and in this description you would end up with 10 subgroups (4 stereo and 2 mono) and 6 VCA's. You now have full control over pre and post compression levels on every instrument type. Further more, since you are compressing vocals as an overall stereo unit, if one person sings it may just barely compress but when all three singers sing at once, you will get more compression. This means that unlike using channel compression, with subgroup compression your overall vocal level will be more manageable. Same goes with guitars and so on. Pairing up the kick and snare and adding slight compression helps balance the two out a bit, fatten their sound and only ties up a single comp. I personally aim for equal level on kick and snare so the comp'ed pair helps dial that in.

If all that is not enough, check this out! Take your 7th VCA and assign all your inputs to it to make it an 'input master VCA' and then assign all 10 of your compressed subgroups to the 8th VCA making it an 'output master VCA'. This now is the most powerful of all as you can turn up input master VCA 7 and drive all your comps into compression while lowering output master VCA 8 to maintain a constant volume. These two master VCA faders give you the ability to change the over all dynamics of the entire mix similar to what a compressor on the Left and Right bus would do. Except this is better because each instrument group is independently compressed so the instruments are not all pushing each other down in volume.

And the reason this is so cool is that it will bring you one step closer to reaching that goal of being in total control over everything necessary without having to look away from watching what is going on and only moving your hands and remaining relaxed, happy and enjoying the thrill of the show. Hey, wait a minute, that is kind of like driving a race car.

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

Sound Nerds who followed the last section, feel free to skip this part as it is for our non sound nerdery friends.

**** Non Sound Nerd Speak ****

Here is a little guessing game, can anyone guess what this is;

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

The excited to tell you many secrets,

Dave Rat

Maybe most recognizable thing about this place is the crosswalk out front where four amazing musicians created history by walking across the street and putting the photo on their album cover. A less known fact, that may interest you, is that there was another band that walked across that same street and also used it for their album cover but this other band did it many years earlier and was fully clothed rather than just wearing socks on their cocks and was known as the Beatles.

I am not sure whether I am thrilled or bored. On one hand I am sitting inside the legendary Abbey Road studios where so many timeless recordings were created that I wont even begin to mention them. On the other hand, I am having a clear deja-vu of why I took up live sound rather than the recording world and the slow motion tedium of watching molasses drip would be a bump up from sitting here in a recording studio. I am just a crazy live audio guy, like a fish out of water, sitting in one of the earth's most legendary studios surrounded by a bunch of amazing recording humans with the some of the best toys on the planet.

Hey, lets go take a wander but first let me warn you, some of what you are about to see may cause anxiety in and is the equivalent of hard core pornography to audiophiles. The first thing that jumps out as unusual is either roadie Manny has taken the small pill and shrunk to Alice in Wonderland size or that is one huge Plasma TV. It says something about 103" inches on the back.

And turing to our left is a pile of what looks to be speakers pushed off to the side. I believe they are Bowers & Wilkins 800 series. Did he said they were only $ 20,000 or so a pair including the power amp?. Notice the little fluffy white ears on the speaker on the left that someone has stuffed in to stop it from rattling.

As we keep heading around the studio I carefully circumvent a hazardous rubbish pile of mics. For you microphone buffs, they are just a heap of AKG C12's, some U49's U89's, U87's and pile of other assorted near perfect condition original release "valve" mics. I figure another $ 100,000 in hardware is just laying around.

The studio's control room has another piece of historic audio in the form of a tiny Neve console. I guesstimate that it is about 72 channels wide and I will bet it costs many many tens of dollars.

**** Highlight of the Day ****

Lampi Scott and I persuaded a personal tour of the Abbey Road mic collection from Lester who has been there since 1970! What we got to see made the utility mics in the studio look a bit boring. Wow! For you shoe loving ladies out there, this was the equivalent of touring an archive of the footwear worn by every legendary Hollywood actress over the past 60 years. "And these were the shoes that Marilyn Monroe wore when she met President Kennedy and over here the shoes Lana Turner wore when her daughter allegedly murdered Johnny Stompanato, see the blood spot." Each mic is a work of art as these are the best of the best ever created and hundreds and hundreds of them. I was pulling them off of shelves, each had a history and story, amazing! Plus Scott video taped the whole adventure and I even attempted a few Ali G style stabs at humor by repeatedly asking which of the mics were best for recording underwater. Thank you Lester!

But that was earlier and this is now and now I sit on a comfy couch two naps into the day. Andrew Scheps is the man who heads this world up from the recording side while roadie Daniel and Manny have their hands full with a complete monitor setup. I get the privilege of getting to sit and watch what to me is the equivalent eight hours of moving the rhododendrons around the house after redecorating. My presence is that of "just in case" and a a bit of consulting-ish words that never materialize.

**** End Highlight of the Day ****

**** Begin Sound Nerd Speak ****

Gating Drums - Tip of the Day

If you have the spare inputs available, "Y" the drums that you want to gate into two channels each. Then insert gates on one set and not on the other. Assign one VCA to the gated drum channels and another VCA to the non-gated channels. Now you have full control over whether your drums are fully gated, non-gated or anywhere in between with the slide of the VCA's.

This is handy thing if your band plays soft songs that don't fire all the gates but you want tight gates for the loud songs. Also, by setting a 50/50 mix of gated and non-gated, it acts like and expander with soft hits extra soft and loud hits that jump out.

On a side note, do you remember way back on Day 125/126 when I got distracted into rock show thermodynamics? Well, soon afterwards I polished those thoughts up a bit and sent them into a magazine for a column I write called "Rat Tales" and they just published it in the November issue.

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

For the final adventure of the studio day, Peter takes Scott and I for a quick look at Studio 2, the room that the Beatles actually recorded in, for a listen to the acoustics and a cool memory.

Everyone there was wonderful to meet and watch work. What I will remember most is the way that there was a certain awe and appreciation that radiated from the sound people employed there. There workplace is a museum of infinite audio significance, and they know it and love it.

The still missing the excitement and heart pounding thrill of a live show,

Dave Rat