Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Here comes summer sunshine and time to jump back in to making the world a louder place to live in. Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new album coming out at the end of August directly followed by a world tour schedule that keeps rolling through 2013. Bye bye home. well, not really as Peppers tend to travel a 3 week on, 2 week off pattern so I wont totally disconnect from the world I currently live in. Plus with my daughters now 15, I am planning to have them take turns coming out to visit on and get in some travels and adventures. Oh, and the first gig is in Hong Kong, never been so its always cool to go to a new city.

But before all that kicks in, I will be out for all of July mixing Soundgarden for a one month North America run. It just all comes at once. Unfortunately I could not take the upcoming Blink 182 tour as it overlaps both Soundgarden and Peppers, but at least two of the three bands I mix have schedules that fit well enough.

Whenever I head out on the road for a major full production tour, I try and formulate some sort of useful or memorable adventure to attach to the travels. On Rage Against the Machine tour in 1996, I decided I would learn HTML and build a web site, back when it was not a point and click process. Unfortunately "Way Back Machine" did not capture the images of the old Rat Site but here is a link to the archive.

And if you are not familiar with Way Back Machine, it archives the internet so you can see web sites as they were, way back when.

Google beta site 1998

Enron from start to collapse

The very first Twitter Web Page

I find it both interesting and useful. I use it to look up old specification on audio gear that is no longer made and with a bit of digging there is all kinds of seemingly long lost info that is still around.

Speaking of way back, way back in April Rat Sound provided the gear for our 11th Coachella Festival and our 5th year supporting Stagecoach Festival, except this time there were three weekends instead of two and a the Big 4 show with Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth kept us in the desert for three weekends with 7 semi trucks of gear.

Oh, so back to useful and memorable, one tour I learned to weld and had a 200 amp welder shipped to my hotel and made an electric gocart, another tour I learned to scuba dive during a week off in Bali, but mainly I try and focus on the fact that I have a giant sound system at me disposal and try and figure out some sort of new or improved way of presenting large scale audio.

So, for these tours, so far, I have four things on my plate:

1) I have a new sub setup that appears to be an improvement over the Vortex/Orgasmatron configuration

2) I have worked out a sub woofer processing method that should reduce if not eliminate the two primary nulls realized from two spaced sub sources. I did some youtube vids on subs setups and I look forward to testing the new processing.

3) As the sound world clamours deeper into the layered menus of digital control, the amount of information involved with mixing is growing exponentially while the amount of useful information we have access to becomes buried and diluted. Maybe it is all my punk rock anti follow the flow tendencies or perhaps I just want a simple clean controllable environment to mix in. Either way, I am excited about adding big giant VU meters to my setup. http://www.dorrough.com/ There is more to this than just a having a big meters as these provide some valuable insight into the sound being reproduced directly in line with my mixing strategy.

4) And more down that line, I had a great time mixing Paul Van Dyk in the Sahara Tent at Coachella this year. Two inputs, both Left and Right. I made a point of running the audio in a direct super clean path and used some Tonelux Mic pre's, EQ's and went directly into the amps from there. The sound quality difference over the more complex audio path from the normal setup was audible and preferable So, I am going to do some work on cleaning up and reducing the complexity of the audio path to get a cleaner sound to the speakers.

Ok, that's it for now, except one more thing. I officially declare the recession over. Just as it took a year for the realities of the recession to penetrate deeply enough into the depths of our economy for all to agree that it actually existed, the recovery will be denied by those late in the healing process until long after positive momentum is firmly entrenched and and driving the powerful core economic direction in a positive direction. Unfortunately the late healers involve employment figures and housing prices, so bemoan if you wish but the reality is that now, right now is the time that point that 5 years from now you will look back and go "man, I should have blah blah blah'ed back then because the people that did are on top of the world."

Ok, that's it for now, I will try and get some regular pattern for blogging again now that I am getting back into touring mode. In the mean time to fill the spaces between the blog posts that actually require me to sit down at a computer, I will continue doing updates and such via twitter and Facebook as well as posting links to stuff on daverat.com. Cool cool and see ya'all soon!

Dave Rat

I love my pockets empty except for a cell phone and the omnipotent brightly colored ID tag dangling from my belt loops. The sensation of pure freedom. A single page road map defines my 'must do' events for the day. So grounded and clear the world becomes. The biggest challenge is to try not to lose any physical object that pretends it is important. But what is expended to drop into this reality of unsustainable wanderlust? This world of tour, pure motion of a bus rolling 60 while home slowly rotates with the spin of the earth. Where to plop myself down mentally and at what balance determines happiness or misery. To stay fully immersed in the world of home while my body jumps through all the extra hoops enduring mishaps and chewing through time in order to drag home a paycheck and some stories? Or chose the perception that everyday is beautiful in every way, regardless of how miserable it may appear. There are no problems, just an endless stream of puzzles to solve as each day a brand new city is delivered to feet. When I first quit my job at Hughes Aircraft to rent out small PA systems with a van, I leaped from that cliff into the ethereal structure less world. I remember taking off my wristwatch and crashing it into the ground as I swore off being chained to concept of time. I remember sitting in Mark Mahoney's tattoo studio as I asked him to keep enlarging the photo copy of the rat intended for my forearm. Bigger, bigger, bigger, I wanted the tail of my first tattoo to be visible even when I wear a long sleeve shirt. I wanted to make sure I would never be able to work for anyone offended by it. I wanted it to remind me to be adventurous, curious and to have the endurance to succeed regardless of the obstacles. I wanted it to remind me never to forget that barriers and strings are only as strong as I allow them to be. I realized I am guided by the failsafe wrench-thrower built into my mind. As if a part of me already knows where I am headed and happiness is only felt when the right decisions are made. Wrong turns down paths un-righted cant help but turn sour into depression, anxiety, anger, frustration and finally destructive wrench-throwing irrational actions that break the pattern and hopefully end up forcing a me to change directions.

Well alrighty now how about a bit of soundnerdery fun?

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Ok, I have written about grasping a consist ant reference points with headphones, an analyzer and physical settings. I did a video and wrote about my take on what EQ's what in a sound system. Here's something pretty simple that is another piece of the 'get a sound system to sound good' adventure.

There are various ways to EQ a sound system. Voice mic, pink noise, familiar cd, tone sweep, pulse and EQ on the fly. Over the years I have put much thought into the concepts of perception of sound versus tonal balance. Part of the method I use to EQ a system is keeping an eye on tonal balance over time. The tonal balance of a show is constantly changing. Having a readout such as an RTA or spectrograph gives a series of visual snap shot or shots with a history. What is often overlooked and tends to be more relevant is the overall tonal balance averaged of the course of a longer time periods. Our ears are forgiving and enjoy the short time frame tonal diversity yet if certain frequencies are dominate over a longer time frame, it can be undesirable. With short period time averaging of a few seconds or less we see these lines moving around but it is difficult to accurately see the trend of which frequencies are persistently too loud. By using a longer averaging time of 10 seconds or longer, you can tame the readout so it gives a stable read out more similar to what we see when using pink noise. Now with this stable line it becomes much easier to EQ the system with music as a source. Taking this further, if you do some long period averages with your test CD and save the curve when you have a desirable system tuning, you can then display this curve over the live band's real time long term average and keep yourself tonally in check over the course of the show.

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

And may as well share some snapshots.

Finding the show times of the various bands requires a bit of research.

Iron Maiden, gotta love the old school big rock!

So I have decided to try something new for this tour and mix sideways. Mix with my left, band in front and free hand for a drink in the right. Hey drink is far from the board and clear view of the system analyzer, racks and band. All good!

Found a friend!

I must admit, like the Ting Tings

Our mighty drummer

And meet Triggerfinger, rocking show, super cool and one of those groups of people you just instantly like and can hang with.

Alright. just finished Germany show 2, festival three on a K1 rig and the off to Hamburg.

The ever confused,

Dave Rat

Back Again

First Blink 182, now Soundgarden, hey I am the reunion guy! Oh, if you are in to the sound nerdery stuff, I have been pretty good about getting videos up on youtube about various sound world things. I really try and cover subjects or explanation that are off the beaten path. Check out either http://www.youtube.com/user/www73171 or http://daverat.com/ if you are into that kind of stuff.

Oh and while I am doing shameless plugs, if you need any sound or video gear, give Daniella or John Karr a shout and they will hook you up.  Rat keeps low sales margins, will gladly give you real world advice and if you ever have any issue with anything we sell ya, we will take care of it and get you dialed in and happy.

Finally the first batch of Rat NL4 Sniffers are coming in next week and though I have not seen the production final, the photos I've seen are really cool.  The web site is still being worked on but to check out the products as they become available take a peek at http://soundtools.com/  

OK, time for some ramblings and adventures

**** Back in the Day ****

Rewind twenty years back to the most grueling non Black Flag tour I have traveled. Three of us across on the bench seat of rented bobtail truck, following the band busses and hauling the monitor rig and FOH drive.

Danzig, Soundgarden, Corrosion of Conformity, Warrior Soul after Boston
07/27/90 Santa Monica Civic, Los Angeles, CA
07/28/90 Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA
07/29/90 Wilson Theater, Fresno, CA
07/31/90 Horticultural Center, Salt Lake City, UT
08/01/90 C.I. Sports Complex, Denver, CO
08/03/90 Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL
08/04/90 Central Park Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
08/05/90 First Avenue Club, Minneapolis, MN
08/07/90 Mississippi Nights, St. Louis, MO
08/08/90 Bogart's, Cincinnati, OH
08/10/90 Latin Quarter, Detroit, MI
08/11/90 Agora, Cleveland, OH
08/12/90 Metropol , Pittsburgh, PA
08/13/90 Concert Hall, Toronto, Canada (cancelled)
08/15/90 Citi/Axis, Boston, MA
08/17/90 Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
08/18/90 Airport Music Hall, Allentown, PA
08/19/90 Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
08/21/90 Ritchie Coliseum, College Park, MD
08/22/90 The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA
08/24/90 Huger Street Concert Hall, Columbia, SC
08/25/90 Center Stage, Atlanta, GA
08/27/90 Houston, TX
08/28/90 San Antonio, TX
08/29/90 Unicorn, Dallas, TX
08/31/90 Celebrity Theater, Phoenix, AZ
09/01/90 UCSD, San Diego, CA

I was doing monitors and Danzig was easily the worst artist to work with, still to this day, that I have ever encountered. That said, misery in retrospect is always a great story and there were some really memorable times. Us soundies, Brandon, Karrie and I had an ongoing battle with the backline/merch truck. I think Brandon sent me this pic a while back.

 

I remember threading a bass string through a six pack of empty beer cans and attaching the contraption via another bass string around the exhaust pipe of their truck and then using some gaff tape to hold the cans against the muffler. A few miles out on the freeway at 3 am, the gaff tape melts, the cans drop and drag and bounce and we honk and zoom by with huge smiles.they pull over on a pitch black highway to the mysterious clanging sound.

At another gig they trapped poor Brandon in the back of our truck and sealed the door right after tossing in a brick of firecracker. We heard this banging sound and opened the truck to a huge smoke plume and a human comes coughing out. Tiger balm on their truck seat, an Estes Rocket launcher fuse attached to an M70 attached to the dome light in their truck and on and on the pranks went. Glenn Danzig once took a swing at me mid show, the feisty little fighter he is. And everyday we found endless amusement in the eight foot high drum riser with a giant foam skull that had lights behind the eyes, we called it "Bullwinkle."

Anyway, for as much as Danzig was comic humor with a bad attitude, Soundgarden was pure heavy intense power and awesome to watch and cool people. We got on great with COC and Warrior Soul. After the tour we all went our separate ways, Rat Sound was really not very big at the time and Soundgarden took off and went with Showco for sound for the next twenty years.

So here I am two decades later doing front of house rather than monitors and mixing one of the early bands that took a chance and took a little punk rock sound company on tour with them.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Sound Tip!

Ok, all you soundies should know that when setting up your main PA if you put all the subs stage center, you get pretty much an omni pattern or a fairly even coverage left to right but it tends to over sub woof the band. With newer cardioid setups you can reduce the 'band kill' a bit but still having the band 3 feet from subs that are trying to shoot low end hundreds of feet is bound to cause issues.

Here is a plot of two low sources spaced about 18"

So we space our main PA subs out and put a pile stage left and a pile stage right. This gets the subs father from the band but gives us a a power alley down the middle and reduces the low end off to the sides. While practical, their are several undesirable side effects like the creation of a power alley and diminishing low end off to the sides. If you have been following this blog you will know it is something I have spent much time on.

Ok, now check this out! First the good news; here is one of those rare things in our sound world that is super easy, has no real negative side effects and improves the quality of what we are trying to achieve. That bad news? All you front of house engineers do not get to enjoy it because it is a stage monitor tip. Think about the coverage pattern of two spaced subs, hot in the center, quieter off to the sides, where would that be useful?

How about drum fill? Rather than stacking two subs directly behind the drummer, what is you spaced those two subs apart and put one on either side? Then your sub response would look more like the plot below:

Now, with the drummer in the perfect hot spot. and the rear lobe fairly harmlessly behind the drummer, we now get a bit less bleed into the drums and less bleed to other parts of the stage. Pretty much you would be intentionally creating a power alley just for the drummer. Want to take the concept further? Use three subs. One behind the drummer and one to each side. Either physically place them equidistant from the drummer or if space behind is an issue, use time delay on the rear sub so all three subs are timed to hit the drummer at the same time.

The cool part about the triple setup is it creates a perfectly timed focal point of low end on the drummer but the low end tapers off as you get further down stage as well, reducing the drum sub level heard by the singer.

The effect of this is not overly dramatic but it is audible, usable and another useful tool to add to your sound tool box.

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

I am actually in Scotland right now, out with Blink 182 doing production rehearsals. I will try and get caught up on more of the Soundgarden adventure and will have plenty on Blink to come as well, but for now, how about some pictures?

I actually have quite a bit to do mixing soundgarden so I did not really have a chance to shoot show pics without screwing a cue, but here is the pre show Vic Theater

So though I do not do it often anymore, this Soundgarden gig was just myself as a sound engineer and every bit of gear was supplied by other vendors. For the monitor rig and FOH drive, I had the great pleasure of working with Carlson Audio. They did a wonderful job and best of all I had the honor of long time friend Allan Bagley as my FOH tech. Thank you Allan!

Whenever possible I try and carry extra subs. Even if I just use them as an effect, having a bit of nitro boost never hurts. For Soundgarden at Lollapalooza I pondered this for a bit, hmmm, what can I do that is kind of cool and unique? Hmmm, oh I know, what about giving some quad 21" subs a try? A few phone calls and Hello Cleveland! Thank you Ryan McCauley and all for making this happen.

How were they? Well, keep in mind the Clair I5 rig had 24 subs already which worked quite well. I used the McCauley's as Infra-Subs and eight of these 500 pound monsters, each on its own 14000 watt Lab Gruppen, put up a solid match for SPL and definitely hit some lower frequencies. Ooooh, I love playing with big toys!

Here is a shot from stage of FOH mix during the wee hours of our 7 am line check load in.

And back the other way

I watched a bit of Wolfmother and that is about all I got around to shooting

And to try and end up in the current time frame, this is my sound world for the Blink 182 non-festival gigs. Notice the compact XL4. Other than a couple of Rat racks, this one is all SSE gear from the UK.

Ok, off to go sort out some crazy mechanical spinning drum riser. Let me ask you this. How do you run a snake to a spinning turntable drum riser that flips end over end? Hmmm, good question and Steve Walsh and I are knee deep in unraveling this conundrum. Will let ya know as soon as we figure it out and also know if it works :)

Dave Rat

Rat gets about 2 to 3 inquiries a day from humans looking to work for Rat.  That equates to about a 1000 a year.  I must say it is one of the most difficult things I deal with and though I try to respond to all the ones that come to me personally, I must admit that when I get busy and I have 20 or so backed up in my in box, more than a few get lost in the mix, for that I apologize.  I am truly honored and appreciate the interest in working for Rat.  I also fully support the concept of following your dream and doing all you can to get there.  So it is really tough to respond to these requests.  While I do not want to disregard the inquiries, Rat rarely hires new people except if we meet them and are impressed by their work ethic, skills and we also are in need of adding someone and the person comes highly recommended by someone that already works with us.

So I have been pondering the answer to the question "How do I get in to the pro sound business and get to work for a company such as Rat?"  And what I am realizing is that if your plan is to try and get hired by a sound company supplying systems to highly desirable bands and tours, you will first need a stellar skill set, reputation, work ethic and have some highly respected people that are willing to recommend you.

But the quandary is "How do I develop that skill set if I cannot get hired to prove myself?" Excellent point and one that I face myself over and over with each new level not only as a tech and an engineer but also as a sound rental business as well. I did not get here by walking into a killer gig.  I did not reach this point by expecting someone to hire me based on my potential. I did not look for 'getting lucky' and in general I avoid the whole lottery success concept.

While those rolling the dice for a shortcut to happiness are plentiful, it is the ones willing to build their happiness that are desirable.

I chose to work very hard for a very long time and definitely grueling beyond anything I would ever expect from someone else. So the answer is simple.  "Do your time,  earn your credibility, establish yourself as one of the best at what you decide to do."  Whether that means digging the trenches in audio boot camp of misery or studying software and specifications and mastering the mental side of in this highly competitive industry, it is those that are most willing to push the hardest that are most likely to come out on top.  And by pushing the hardest I am talking about pushing to the point of obsession, borderline insanity and when everyone else throws in the towel for the day, you just getting warmed up. Being willing to forgo the luxuries like nights off and sleep and all the other stuff that so many normal people enjoy.  Most people will not gravitate to the top, most people will settle for mediocrity and that's why it is called mediocrity, because that is the realm that the majority reach, and there is nothing wrong with that, it just is not the path that will most likely get to traveling the world with rock bands as a successful sound human.

So when you can answer the questions with confidence and credibility: "what makes you exceptional?"  "What have you done that is above and beyond to develop your skills?"  "Can you truly say that no matter how bad it gets, that you've already voluntarily been through worse?" It is then that you are at the point where you should be able to pull the gigs that you dream of pulling.  Until then, get in those trenches and have a blast kicking ass on the most grueling gigs you can get your hands on.  Trust me, it builds character and if nothing else it will make for some great road stories when reach the next level.

Well, post Coachella haze and all went quite well. Memories of the volcano and desert sun fade, and little by little as I eradicate desert dust from my clothes and everything else I brought for the ride.This was the year of delay clusters and regionalizing the coverage into expandable/contractable real time coverage areas.

It's been a while since I blogged as my focus time has been limited a bit by the many adventures surrounding. So here are some photos I have collected. I actually took most of the pics this year on my phone and sent them to Daniella and they were uploaded here:

http://tinyurl.com/2v7vqzt

Ok, so lets go wander around the festival!

Jay-Z sound check Thursday night

Looks like a bit of console pollution

They actually broke down the entire main stage and all the delay clusters and reset them elsewhere for Stagecoach.

Enter Stagecoach

And I must admit it was a long two weeks but awesome fun and so happy to get back home

DR

To start with, check this out. Let's say you were wondering "Hey, I wonder how I could find a Youtube of Dave Rat and Scott the Lampi venture to a Japanese bath house" So you then decide to ask Dave Rat "Dave Rat, where would I find a Youtube of Dave Rat and Scott the Lampi venture to a Japanese bath house?"

"Hmmm," I say, "Funny you should ask that question because I can help with that!, here let me help you"

http://tinyurl.com/cryf62

Ha! Thank you Jon for that! Next in the agenda of notes to share, lets all give a shout out to Greg Cameron for helping with the Rat Message board. I have known Greg since the Black Flag days when he was the drummer for a band called SWA. Oh and also to Erock for his help with Roadiepedia. I really appreciate and am honored by the assists.

Next up, just a snippet of the press releases about the new K1 system

http://tinyurl.com/d7wmv6

And while we are giving shout outs, I would like to send a huge thank you to all the Rat Coachella crew that made it all happen. This is a huge and complex festival with some real heavyweight bands that need precision on every stage on every day

Coachella
1 Main Stage FOH Roz
2 Main Stage FOH Greg Nelson
3 Main Stage System Scott Sugden
4 Main Stage Mon Derek Van Ord
5 Main Stage Mon George
6 Main Stage Patch Master Mike Arnold
7 Main Stage Patch Matt Fox
8 Main Stage Wedges/Power Tyler Arnold
9 Main Stage Stripper Manny Perez (cable stripper that is)

10 Outdoor Theater Stage FOH Nick Brisbois
11 Outdoor Theater Stage FOH Jamie
12 Outdoor Theater Stage Mon Billy Flores
13 Outdoor Theater Stage Mon Jared
14 Outdoor Theater Stage Crew Chief/Patch Master Jim Jorgenson
15 Outdoor Theater Stage Patch Taka
16 Outdoor Theater Stage Patch Jason

17 Sahara Tent FOH Jim Lockyer
18 Sahara Tent Mon Chris Rymarz
19 Sahara Tent Crew Chief Ronnie
20 Sahara Tent Patch Kyle Rogan

21 Mojave Tent FOH Bryan Worthen
22 Mojave Tent Mon Steve Walsh
23 Mojave Tent Chief Neal
24 Mojave Tent Patch Phil Reynolds
25 Mojave Tent Patch Sara

26 Gobi Tent FOH Andy Turner
27 Gobi Tent Mon Johnny B
28 Gobi Tent Crew Chief LBC

29 Rat Sound Systems Coordinator - All Stages, Jon Monson
30 Festival Audio Consultant - Dave Rat

Once again an all star crew comes to join us. The crew is a collection top engineers, 'A' class techs, key Rat personnel and loaners from other companies that all come together. Truly wonderful to see all our friend for a few weeks in the desert.

Now, I have a bunch of pictures I will try and chew through bit by by before I get distracted or forget. So lets meet the crew!

Nothing like an arm stretch photo series, Meet Andy Turner who rocked the old school Rat Trap system in the Gobi tent. The toughest part about hanging with Andy is trying to stop laughing.

Bryan Worthen AKA Brian Rat Jr. setting up FOH for the Mojave and a Rat from way back.

The legendary DVO patching Main Stage(who also has a you tube video you can check out if you can find it).

If you look carefully you may be able to see Grandpa getting ready for some dancing in the Sahara Tent, though he is well hidden.

Daniella, who heads up Rat Sound Sales department, was working in the main Goldenvoice office.

Jamie is our awesome Rat Shop Manager and y'all know Nick the Fly

Jim, pulling cable. Hey, go see Chad Smith playing with Chikenfoot and say hey to Jim who is doing monitors. Also down below is George, another old school Rat, and the very hard to capture on film Jon Monson, the head of Rat Sound Rentals and ochestrator of all Coachella sound equipment and crew.

Ha! Lee, also known as Happi-Lee who you should recognize. Lee has an amazing ability to blink with a camera flash and have every pic show up with his eyes closed. Though I foiled that by using the red eye reduction setting. I have like 50 pics of closed eye Lee!

Matt Fox, a newer part time Rat that we are honored to have join us.

Neal, our in house Tequila expert.

Taka is awesome, and you should see him with his new mohawk!

Ronnie to the left who comes joins the Rats when not on tour with Bad Religion. It is good to have Ronnie around if you spill something. Rico is one of the newest Rats and helping us in the tout account aquisition area.

We had a Rat dinner with all that could attend right before Stage Coach. The crew Rats we have not met yet today are Scott Sugden is super brain L'Acoustics human and was the key to getting us dialed on the K1. Jared who I ended up having a great time hanging with way to late that eve slurring stories, is back there standing behind Daniella. Steve Walsh a top notch mon eng and super cool is sitting between Jon and Jim. Milk whom has ventured west and just told me the other day he has wanted to join us Rats for years, welcome Milk we are honored to have you! Finally Paul is more concerned with food than the picture but we love him anyway. He came to join us from L'Acoustics as well and we hold him personally responsible for Rat being broke and having this big new toy. Well, we hold Christian Heil responsible as well for designing the magnificent PA beast.

I should have more crew pics and wish I had been more vigilant in capturing everyone. But hey, there is always next time.

I feel kind of bad for not sharing some technical sound nerdery avalanche upon you so how about I cheat and send you to a thread on Pro Sound Web I feel is important reading for those interested in cardioid sub setups.

http://tinyurl.com/dmbdqa

And with that bye bye for now. Oh, and I am excited to say that in order to keep my mixing skills, happiness and sanity intact, I have taken a short tour with Juliette Lewis and the Romantiques and will be in doing some club and festival gigs in Spain and the UK starting next week. So if your around, come say hello at a rock show!

Dave Rat

Coachella is massive and magical. For sure by now if you follow world of musical news, you have heard at least two things about Coachella 2009. "Paul McCartney played a legendary two and half hour show and the sound was shut off after the Cure went ten minutes over curfew. And surely too, each of these two event descriptions were peppered with some form of journalistic opinions. The heart wrenching moment of Paul's song dedication to his wife on the anniversary of her passing and of The Cure continuing to rock some of their biggest hits to tens of thousands while drenched in a time stopping sonic silence. So being that the there is so much to tell of this weekend's desert adventure, it seems so most logically right to describe it in the wrong direction and start from the end.

Arms in the air eyebrows raised in bewilder, I look at MC, the sound engineer from The Cure and one of the best audio engineers I know. And while his band continues to play, in my normal speaking voice raised above non existent sound I apologize. There was no other option. With the polo field equivalent of house lights on, the band continues to play song and another and another in the surreal time stoppingly endless state we are trapped. "What happened?" Yet the answer we already know, it is the "why" that is still unfolding. Police on the radio's demanding a stop to sound from the massive stage, a promoter trapped in the middle between threats of cancelled future festivals and a crowd of multi thousands and a band playing harder than ever oblivious to the un deniable absence of 350,000 watt PA system pumping their tunes into hungry ears.

"Oh tragic" says the articles, debacle and mishap tossed around as if some huge error was made.

What really did happen? Did the promoter ruthlessly shut of the sound? Was there some behind the scenes conspiracy? Did the band accidentally play past some deadline unaware? Did someone forget to inform someone else or was a mind changed mid stream? Or perhaps, just perhaps, The Cure in their punk rock playfulness, decided to test the limits with a smile just because they can. Just to un bore the masses from their own lives by giving those that wish to say, like me, something to talk about. Mystique, stories and press exploding from the event lifting the notoriety to new levels beyond the quite impressive performance itself.

But as far the putz who threw the bottle at the sound board, come on, don't be so shallow as to miss the enjoyable complexities of the bigger picture, you missed the gear but it was close and hey, you could have hurt someone!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Though in the music world, the incredible performances by too many bands to name will keep blogs and articles buzzing, there was something even more significant that occurred at this Coachella, at least from a sound nerdery perspective. I know what you are thinking and yes, it is true. The Coachella Main Stage saw the the unveiling of the largest L-Acoustics K1 system ever assembled. In my honest and true opinion, I now feel it is confirmed that this PA is truly the newest, latest, greatest and best sounding large scale sound system in existence. Never before have I heard such an overwhelmingly positive response. Not only from the world class engineers we had the honor to work with but from the promoter and humans in general. I am tempted to try and describe it further but it feels too awkward and since hearing is believing I will stop and leave the opinions to others to create.

I know I have been sluggish at blogging and I will try to get back to the enjoyable patterns I miss and left behind. You see, behind the silence and bloggery smiles, I have been immersed in taking on the most challenging financial project of my life. You know when you watch Texas hold'em poker and they get to the end of the game and there is that "all-in" bet? Well, for Rat Sound to get this K1 system, it was kind of an all-in plus all the futures of all-in's for a while to come like an all-in of all all-in's. And hey, I do my fair share of stupid stuff and the best I can tell I can be so good enough at messing things up that I have it covered for a few other people as well, but then there are things that are clear and there is no doubt in my mind and I know must be done right. Purchasing the K1 system was one of those things. When Jon Rat came to me and told me about it coming out, I was skeptical, when Jon arranged a trip to France to hear it, I was skeptical, when I heard it and what it can do I knew there was no alternative. This is the best and we must have it. The fact that the planet earth was in the largest economic down turn since the great depression was just an annoyance. A really big scary and challenging annoyance. And in a nut shell, that is where my mind has been, in a nut shell.

Anyway, you are looking 8 K1 subs, 15 K1's and 3 dV-Dosc per side in the main hangs and 8 K1's plus 3 dV-Dosc per side in the side hangs. On the ground are 32 SB 28's set up as cardioid subs with some Sub Cannon timing (you can't see the 4 subs in the middle). I hope to get into more detail at some point as the setup is super cool with new and refined concepts. The only issue we ran into was that the K1 has such a clean and wide coverage, the side hangs were too wide. I am confident the KUDO would have been a better choice but we used them all in the Mojave tent. Anyway, I hope to dive into all that in the coming weeks.

Oooooh, look at the size of that thing! The whole 'banana' term that is used to refer to line arrays is going to need to be re though. That is one big hang at nearly 40 feet in length

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

Okey Dokey. Sleep and stuff and mental preparation for Stage Coach festival next weekend! Ha, I am so happy to be doing gigs. And speaking of gigs, I took a short little tour in the UK and Europe in May.

The finally getting out and about again,

Dave Rat

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

So I found this interesting

http://www.audioprointernational.com/news/625/JBL-rocks-Rio-with-Gabisom

and I was happy in that one of the larger festivals in the world has adopted the double hung PA concept and an honor that something I spent so much effort on, is catching on. And saddened a bit as well that the company did the press releases as if they had come up with the concept on their own. Which is entirely a feasible possibility as the idea of a side by side PA makes a lot of common sense. Had I not been at that same festival:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4FUJA_en___US237&q=Gabisom+Rock+in+Rio+Vertec+Dave+Rat

on the last Peppers tour while touring with a double hung PA, I discussed the concept with that same company, it's feasibility and advantages. Otherwise, I would have given them the benefit of the doubt that they stumbled on the same idea. That is not to say that the Peppers tour was the only time versions of a dual system have been implemented, though to the best of my knowledge, the Peppers tour was the first time it was implemented to increase the headroom and clarity of a large scale line array system.

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

**** Other Nerd Speak ****

So, what else is up? Well, I thought this was cool. A 6 Stroke gasoline engine that improves efficiency by adding water injection and expansion strokes while increasing cooling and eliminating the radiator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crower_six_stroke

Kind of a unique and creative way to massage existing technology in a refined direction.

**** End Other Nerd Speak ****

Me? well, I have been reading emails and notes an such sent to me but lax on responding much. So strange how time slows down and all the gaps fill when I stop moving around the world quickly. The question I so often heard, "Where do you get all the time to write the blog?" is now one I find myself asking.

Speaking of time and being honored, I am taking the time to travel up to AES as I have been asked to speak on a workshop forum discussing microphone techniques.

http://www.aes.org/events/125/livesoundseminars/session.cfm?code=L8

Fair enough, I can handle talking about that and what is really cool is that I will be on the forum with none other than Dan Healy. Some may ask "Who is this Dan Healy guy?" Well, Dan not only mixed the Grateful Dead for many years but also was involved in developing the "Wall Of Sound" PA.

http://dozin.com/danhealy/house.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Healy_(soundman)

Oh and if any of you are coming to AES, please come say hello!

And finally as a last note in this picture less blog, I thought this was interesting:

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-cows26-2008aug26,0,3764260.story

Cows naturally prefer to point north, according to Google Earth images. Hmmmm, if credible, it does lend itself to us earthly critters being a bit more perceptive than those who thought not may have thunk.

Dave Rat

The Coachella and Stagecoach Festivals are about 180 miles from home out in the hot and often windy desert. As seems to be the case with any adventure, there is a lot to be seen and learned. Fortunately I was pay attention enough to grab a few pics.

Whoa! Check out this massive propeller farm!

And a bit later I look to my right and what do I see? ...........

Continue reading "Who Woulda Knew!"