Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

I would so love to share some in depth observation or revelation of usefulness that would leave all that read these words with a smile. Hopefully by the time time I finish writing this entry, I will stumble upon something down those lines but in the mean time I will offer a brief update on my wanderings.

Though no one like a quitter, I did take a small break from my break from mixing bands. Actually, it does not really count because I'm not against mixing, just trying to see if I can both survive and not tour at the same time. Anyway, off to Santa Monica to fill in for my good friend Craig Overbay who mixes Weezer.

The morning radio shoot was not a major enough of an event to fly Craig down from Seattle so I got the honors to fill in and actually quite enjoyed it. Here is a live video from the radio show:

Cool how the Rat made it in, not so cool that the camera has trouble finding a focus. For those of you who may not be familiar with Weezer's actual Pork and Beans video, it is really cool! They went and found the people that did the most popular YouTube videos, flew them all out to the same place and filmed a Weezer video based on the YouTube videos. This site has a link to the Weezer video and then links to the original video from which Weezer built it. It is worth a watch as some of them are really funny!

http://valleywag.com/392972/weezer-undestands-how-to-work-youtube

And while roaming the world of web, check this out:

http://www.metafilter.com/74482/Rat-Sound-the-original-punk-rock-sound-company

I received an email asking Rat was ok with a post on MetaFilter and to be honest, I had not heard of it before. Anyway, I guess I am in the minority there cause after the post went up, I got a bunch of emails from people who saw it.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

What else, oh! I went to see Radiohead at the Santa Barbara Bowl and they were touring with the new L'Acoustics K1 system.

Here you can see 4 K1 subs per side at the top of the array, 8 K1's per side, 3 dV-Dosc per side and 3 clusters four SB 28's configured 3 forward and 1 facing backward in each. Also there are some assorted deck fills. As expected, the system was clean, clear and impressive, nothing surprising other than how darn great it sounded! I want one! This is destined to be the sound system by which all others will be judged.

While in the sound side of things and in web cruising video mode, check out this video EAW made covering the MicroWedge features. Love to hear comments on it.

On a less cheery note Dolby has announced that their state of the art processors http://www.dolby.com/professional/live_sound/Products/lake_processor.html

will be discontinued and users have less than 30 days to place all orders for any units that they will ever need for ever and ever.

Since its introduction, the Dolby Lake Processor has helped the world’s top touring sound companies and performing arts centers to improve the performance of their systems and has been widely recognized as the state of the art:

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As Dolby looked to the future, we observed an accelerating shift toward integrated speaker processing, equalization, and digital audio networking into amplifiers and powered speakers. As a result of these observations, Dolby and Lab.gruppen developed a program to take advantage of this trend by creating an amplifier that integrated DLP technology. So the Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q Powered Loudspeaker Management system with “DLP inside” was launched to great success—and we understand that more models will be introduced soon.

With the success of the Lab.gruppen project, and to align Dolby with our future corporate strategies, we have decided to exit the Live Sound business. As a result, we are announcing the final production run of the DLP, after which we will discontinue its manufacture. We have allowed the next 30 days (through September 30, 2008) for you to calculate your needs and to place final orders. This final production run will be set to fill the open orders we have as of the close of business on that date. Delivery schedules may vary from our previous norms, so please plan accordingly.

Dolby is committed to supporting both the DLP and Lab.gruppen’s efforts for the future. We will provide our standard warranty coverage and one-year of software maintenance on this last run of DLPs (see the attached Warranty Statement and End User License Agreement for these details). Dolby is no longer developing new features for DLP or Lake Controller software after release 5.1.

We would like to thank you for your support and hard work as we built this business. Your dedication and enthusiasm for the Dolby and Lake brands was a key component of the success we achieved. We are gratified to know that DLP technology will live on through our partnership with Lab.gruppen and we wish each of you much success in the future.

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All I can say is Yikes! So glad that Rat Sound went with XTA processors, and my heart goes out to the companies that are mind crunching the decision of whether to stock up or liquidate their DLP inventory.

Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, as drastic as this notice seems, it does highlight something interesting. Just as the Line Array caused a monumental shift in pro audio, I believe we are at the doorstep of another massive shift and the days of the "dumb amp" in cutting edge audio is over. These new generation of smart amps are incredible. Things like being able to sense the impedance profile of the speakers connected to it and tell you if the system is wired wrong and what type and how many of each speaker type is connected to the amp is just the beginning! Exciting stuff so perhaps rather than loose too much sleep over last years processor, may as well start diving into next years Procamplifier.

And for the smaller companies? Well, expect a lot of cool used amps and processors to show up over the next few years as we audiots make this painfully expensive step forward into yet another new realm.

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

Other news and such, I had the pleasure of seeing Jack Johnson

and Bob Dylan as well, as I got out and about and I really need to figure out a new system to remind me to bring my camera. The whole "attach it to the Peppers laminate plan just does not work well anymore.

 

"How was Prince?" I keep getting asked. Well, I saw a lot of bands the last few days and several that I really like. The two bands playing here though that held the most hype were Roger and Prince. As I lay in my after show hotel bed rolling over in my mind the few nights past, a contrast dawns on me clearly. Prince with a magnificent show, skills immaculate add in Sheila E, Morris Day and a show that was refined and rehearsed to every detail of talent and impact perfection. Roger's presentation was built on decades of concepts and ideals and talent as well, bold statements, perfect alignments of technology and vision. What is it about Prince's show that has my defenses up and Roger's show that I feel trusting? It was the the words still resonating that were forced into my own and everyone else's ears, that define it best, "What's My Name?, Say My Name!" and watching the crowd respond quasi-unified act as commanded and I realize that Prince's show is all about the perpetuation of the 'ME' that is the 'him' that we are occasionally allowed to call Prince. In what I am sure is was an unintended yet amazingly perfect 'ying and yang' contrast, Roger Waters' show carried message after message focused on the benefit of the 'WE' that is 'us' as a human group and individuals sharing the planet that surrounds us as "Don't be led to Slaughter" floats away on an inflatable pig.

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

Enough of that and lets take a look at the main stage. 15 deep V-Dosc with triple dV's under, 6 V's over 6 dV's on the side hangs and a thundering 40 Rat Subs across front. 8 of which are loaded and processed separately as they are Rat Super Subs and quite a bit more powerful than the standard Rat subs. As things develop down that front, I will share more in time.

Each day FOH changes a bit and consoles come and go with the various bands, here we have a pairs of Digi Design Profiles, Midas Heriti 3000's, Yamaha PM5D's and one Lee.

Out in the field there were eight surround sound clusters loaded with 6 to 8 V-Dosc.

Two left, two right two mid field pointing toward the stage and two rear field pointing toward the stage. Plus the midfield clusters had Kudo on the back side as delays and the stage left clusters had ARC's acting as VIP fills. All in all, there was a whole lot of everything everywhere which would account for why we needed eight semi trucks to haul the sound gear out here, yikes!

While we are sound nerding out a bit, check out the new EAW MicroWedge 12's rocking the Outdoor Theater Stage

And loading into the Sahara Tent.

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

But more important than the gear, cause anyone with a wad o cash can mish some mash together and end up with a pile o boxes, how about let's start meeting the crew!

**** Mini Ratchella Crew Special Part 1 ****

Grandpa rocks the old school Rat shirt working the Sahara tent.

Hoover bunnies the FOH duties on the vintage Rat rig in the Gobi tent.

Continue reading "Me versus We"

How cool is it when time loops back on itself and the past becomes the present from a differing point of view. When I was 16 I was listening to music as loud as the headphone/stereo combo would get, lost in a state of timeless bliss trying to pick out all four guitars on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young live album, 4 Way Street. I was 15 years old when I bought the just released Pink Floyd "Animals" record and are there actually a pig sounds in the recording or is it just the swine references that make it seem like they are there?

Anyway, fast forward 30 years and here I sit surrounded by hundreds of surround-sound speakers sprawled out in a giant field. The reality did not hit me until the show and I heard my memories in real time. Me and my friends that built, run and operate this evolving entity called Rat Sound are providing audio for Roger Waters! Who would have knew! Ha, that rules! And not only that, since the moment the show ended and I got done pinching myself, I have been drilling to find memories of a show that was more impressive and amazing.

If if that was not enough, check this out. You know the big pig that is all over the news that got away? The $10K award for finding it pig?

Well, check out piggy's front right paw:.....

Continue reading "Time Circles and Gatherings"

Yumm, the self indulgence of wanting something and having it come to you is a wonderful sensation. Such is the case with many things and one of those things is room service. Oh the anticipation, what delicious delectable's will appear on the push cart covered in metal caps.

With expectations nearly as high as the prices, surely a feast fit for a king will soon arrive as of course I am the king of this rent-a-room for at least another 4 hours. The unveiling occurs, stunned my heart skips a beat, behold upon thine eyes the magnificence.

Where to start and how to proceed races through my mind as I find myself devouring the radish chip. How could they have known that I love fancy cut radishes on slightly soggy chips and poached egg balls on micro toasts?

Today we play Amsterdam, or more accurately Nijmegen (pronounced nigh-megen) and I was slated for an hour plus van ride into the gig but there has been a change of plans and the vans won't be coming. With the 'main show' crew already onsite and myself doing a bit of straying from the roadie herd into the band camp, it looks like we will be taking an alternate form of transport over the traffic jam.

I love adventures and have been in these things several times but they never cease to feel like they are about to fall out of the air. Noisy and a bit of motion sickness but view was wonderful. Next stop, rock.

And there she blows, full double hung V-Dosc rig plus side hangs totaling 90 of the big boxes pushing sound from the main stage. Plus loads of subs!

And a few our friends that came to listen

Some people get a better view of the show than others and if you look in the lower left of the picture above the picture above, it looks like our pal in the hat is going to get the short end of the stick. But not for long as mini super hero Scott the Lampi points out the predicament and rally's the FOH'ers to grab a few road cases and some plywood for a fix.

Then, a few days after the gig, our friend in the hat sends Scotty an email, I guess he does some video work and is known as the Rolling Dutchman.

If you have looked at a lot of show photos, you may notice something a bit different in the shot below.

For some of the shows on this tour we have added full motion video screen in front of the sound system. These "soft," flexible and fairly transparent video screens do effect the sound a bit but the cool look factor is huge.

Night night, good morning! Wake up time and fly to Belgrade, Serbia. I admit I expected some surprises entering a land I have never been to

But it did catch me a bit off guard to find out that they do not allow dogs to smoke cigarettes when cats are nearby.

Next episode, lets take a look around.

Dave Rat

**** Ponderings ****

Great sound is just an opinion. As a sound engineer, it is very important not to forget that. Opinions are fluid and need no basis in fact or logic and with music, technically perfect often equates to boring, as the music world quickly discovered when drum machines were invented. There are humanoids that love and bask in the endless quest of capturing perfect recordings of classical music and connoisseur themselves into frenzy focusing on every detail. I have met and listened to a few of these "oh you have to hear this!" audiofoolery setups and sat there and closed my eyes and not once did I go "Holy shit! for a second there I thought an orchestra snuck in hear and started rocking out while I had my eyes closed." But what I did hear is something that was their opinion of amazing sound. And after all the hype and build up about how great it is, I find my focus riveted to finding the flaws, (but hey, I am a sound engineer, that's what I am supposed to do, right? Then I think, hmmm, what if I happened upon that same sound system in a pawn shop? I may go "Holy shit, it almost sounds as if an orchestra just snuck in here and and started rocking! How much for that stereo system?"

**** End Ponderings ****

So Coachella is has much to see and while in a wander. I found bikes, but nowhere did they go.

While I do enjoy a good bike ride and I am often quite happy to go nowhere, combining those two concepts at a music festival seems a bit less than attractive. These were not normal bikes though, well, actually they were normal bikes but they did something cool. See the little motor to the belt? Ever had your cell phone go dead at a three day festival? Here is a way for you to pedal that power back into the phone, very cool and part of an energy awareness exhibit. So we wander on and in no particular order have look at some of what I see'd and did. Bjork played and had some cool keyboard sequencer thing that he moved little things around and sound came out that no one could figure out what it was.

I mixed Chuck Dukouski's band CD Sextet in the Gobi tent

So I got to mix the largest and smallest stages and is was cool to mix on at a Rat Trap System which I have not done forever. Say hey to Ian who came to visit and Chuck.

I got to meet DJ Shadow

and

Catering did not suck

We all know the importance of driving a sexy ride and when your cruising such sweet vehicle as my rickety Rat cart clearly was, irresistibility is just one of the perks.

The Peppers crew hotel was far from sucking as well.

Stability is formed by the third point in a triangle. Like on a bicycle, you go to park and trying to balance it on two wheels and poom, over it goes but if you put down the .......

kickstand, it makes it all better, badabing. And finally for today's installment, DJ's use headphones to do their deal and to get a nice clear powerful sound. Well, we also know that bigger is better, check out these headphones!

For you techies out there, that is four 18" speakers, four 15" speakers, four 10" speakers, two 2" horns - per side stereo tri amp with subs on an aux send. Turn that up and I bet it would make your heart tremble. I think we may have a new entrant into the **** Ingenious and Practical Sound System Design Award **** contest.

Ok, off to do things that humans do.

Dave Rat

Five stages, each unique and each with a sound system to suit and being that this blog somehow relates to sound, I may as well cling to that for a while. The Gobi tent is the smallest yet small is a matter of perspective. And while yes, in some things bigger is better, that train of thought does not slide well into the world of music and more than saying mega masses and huge distance is better than intimate up close and connected. And so goes the Gobi tent where a mixture of our future main stage artists commingle with eternal fringe. It was hard to photo the tents but I do have grainy cool shot.

Ooooh, the huge Midas XL4 driving a ground stacked Rat Trap 5 system, for all the audio fans out there. Next in line is the Mojave tent which have a bit more of a "rock" vibe.

The tent had a flown L'Acoustics Kudo rig

and also was the where I saw my personal favorite of the bands that I had neve heard of or seen before, Gogol Bordello

Pirate gypsy music with a punk rock edge and an amazing fiddle player and a whole crazy circus vibe, oh my, how happy was I? Quite indeed, I will have to seek out a CD and see if the thrill prints to plastic. The largest of the enclosed areas is the massive Sahara Tent and it is all about DJ's and dance and bands that follow that groove. Speakers were everywhere and so many sub-woofers you could blur vision. Like a magnet for beauty and motion wonderful to watch but my motions were too widespread to let myself get wrapped up in the trance. Here is an early day shot of the back side. As you can see, speakers are criss cross firing and that repeats through out the tent creating a surround sound setup consisting of a multitude of V-Dosc and dV-Dosc and way too many subs.

The "Outdoor Theater" is the next in line and ran a nice V-Dosc rig.

And finally, the Main Stage as seen from the VIP area. If you look closely you may notice that there is the fully hung dual V-Dosc rig with two 15 deep banana's per side, plus 3 deep dV-Dosc plus 6 V-Dosc and 6 dV-Dosc per side as outer fills.

Up until today seeing the rig hang was impressive but today is special. You see, this is the first time that the Peppers touring setup of a double hung system has made is into an actual festival gig and it was no easy task. While this brings me much glee, I am also getting a bit worried. Many hoops were jumped through, many strings pulled and due to logistics, the dual rig that I so vigilantly fought for had to stay up for the entire festival. Being that Rat did not have the equipment to cover it, Rat sub hired the additional speakers at considerable cost which needed to be covered somehow and that is not even the part that worries me. Oh jees, what have I gotten myself into?

To be continued..

Dave Rat

 

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Due to the far awayness and the timeline of travel, we have left behind the Rat PA system in the US and I will be working on regionally hired sound systems in Australia and Japan. The stuff we carry with us we have paradoxically named the "global gear" which consists sound wise of the band's backline gear, the monitor system, my front of house console and outboard gear, the Pro Tools recording rig and two large tigers. As far as the main PA system is concerned, we do our best to mirror image it as best we can. The success rate of getting identical gear varies from country to country but for the most part, we can get pretty close with the main difference usually being that we can only get the Rat Subs from the Rat Shop. I will miss them dearly but the V-Dosc SB 218 subs can get pretty close with some audio massaging. So here is the sub cannon setup built with SB 218 triple stacked rather than the double stacked Rat Subs.

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

For all y'all that have yet to do earthly traveling down under or to the UK and also happen not to live in those regions, you may not be familiar with the black gooey substances with a strong savory odor known as Marmite in England and Vegimite for the Aussies. Though the two are a bit different and there are several other versions available like Bromite, they all carry the common trait of being an emotionally and passionately dividing line of opinion. Talk about a love hate/hate thing, this stuff is one of the top contenders of acquired taste or immediate revulsion depending on your culinary adventurousness and childhood exposure. Personally I hate the stuff. Or at least that is what I used to say before I started thinking. "Hmmm, so many people love this stuff, it smells like crap and tastes even worse but wow, the people that love it truly love it and it seems to make them so happy." So one day many years ago I set aside my closed minded bias and asked an English friend to make me up a Marmite toast and gave it a shot with big eyes and curiosity and you know what? It was good! Spread super thin on hot buttered toast, I understood and added one more thing to my life that makes me happy.

It is not for everyone but once you get it, yumm! Oh wait, look! Some magical face has mystically appeared on my Vegimite toast and I was going to sell it on Ebay but alas, I could not help but eat it up.

Hmmm, I wonder what is in here, this smells delicious as well

Show tomorrow!!

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