FYI - Lesson relearned

[glass50]

Did a SAC/SAW job last night that reinforced something I all ready knew but failed to remember. Had set up for 8 member praise band. Was supposed to MT record last set. Set SAW to record and started last set. When kick and bass played all speakers (mains & 3 mon mixes) crackled at peak sound. Turns out I had left SAW monitor option set rather than off. Both SAC & SAW were feeding outputs together which I guess was doubling gain before hitting ADA8k outputs. No overload indication anywhere. Took me about ten minutes (with my analog back ground) looking for bad electronic drums, bad channel, or bad cord before I remembered that audio was perfect before I turned on record. I shut down SAW which cleared the crackle. I did miss recording last set. Realized about ten minutes later where I went wrong.

BTW: Congrats to Bob L. on MGM Grand show. Must have been great fun.

I SACed an Iranian traditional band (Homay & Masden) in Dallas a while back. I worried about language problems during sound check. The band leader sat down in the middle of 800 seat auditorium and started giving instructions in Farsi. A local tried to interpret for me at at FOH. I picked up my notebook (without power adapter), went and sat down beside the band leader. He got happy by pointing at the display and using hand signals. I think the versatility of SAC blew his mind.

Both this show and last night where complimented as best sound ever with emphasis on clarity in both house and monitors.

[Mark Stebbeds]

peak sound. Turns out I had left SAW monitor option set rather than off. Both SAC & SAW were feeding outputs together which I guess was doubling gain before hitting ADA8k outputs. No overload indication anywhere. Took me about ten minutes (with my analog back ground) looking for bad electronic drums, bad channel, or bad cord before I remembered that audio was perfect before I turned on record. I shut down SAW which cleared the crackle. I did miss recording last set. Realized about ten minutes later where I went wrong.



I had a similar ... but different ...experience in Cleveland this weekend ...with "dual input" issues. A huge arena show with many acts with fast changeovers between sets. We had our own mic input box and most of our own mics because we were the headliner, but during the show I was having problems with what appeared to be odd delays coming out of nowhere and "hollow" sounding channels. It was a short set cut down by the schedule, but after the show we found out that a couple of mics from the previous acts were left plugged in to channels I was using.

I managed to pull off the mix by making the important stuff louder, but there were some confusing "looping" moments.

My lesson learned is too make a lap of all stage input boxes before going out to FOH, to make sure some goofball doesn't have a live mic sitting behind our back line plugged into an input channel I'm using.

Mark

[RBIngraham]

I had a similar ... but different ...experience in Cleveland this weekend ...with "dual input" issues. A huge arena show with many acts with fast changeovers between sets. We had our own mic input box and most of our own mics because we were the headliner, but during the show I was having problems with what appeared to be odd delays coming out of nowhere and "hollow" sounding channels. It was a short set cut down by the schedule, but after the show we found out that a couple of mics from the previous acts were left plugged in to channels I was using.

I managed to pull off the mix by making the important stuff louder, but there were some confusing "looping" moments.

My lesson learned is too make a lap of all stage input boxes before going out to FOH, to make sure some goofball doesn't have a live mic sitting behind our back line plugged into an input channel I'm using.

Mark

So you were in Cleveland and you didn't come to visit me? :p

[Mark Stebbeds]

Actually, I was thinking of you and tried to chase down a laptop to find your contact info and invite you down, but it was a crazy day. A lame excuse I know, but the crew was a thrown together bunch of bozos and I spent all day covering my you-know-what.

http://www.theqarena.com/events/moondog_100327/

Plus, I was advised that we exceeded our allotted guest list only to find out near showtime that tickets were released.

Maybe next time.

Mark

[Trackzilla]

That sounds like it would have been a hoot! Out of curiosity, mind telling which band you were running? I've run The Turtles on a few occasions, they were great to work with :p

[RBIngraham]

Actually, I was thinking of you and tried to chase down a laptop to find your contact info and invite you down, but it was a crazy day. A lame excuse I know, but the crew was a thrown together bunch of bozos and I spent all day covering my you-know-what.

http://www.theqarena.com/events/moondog_100327/

Plus, I was advised that we exceeded our allotted guest list only to find out near showtime that tickets were released.

Maybe next time.

Mark

Well I was only joking as I'm sure you know. Yea, local 27 can be hit or miss. There are some good hands around here, but most of the good guys have house gigs.

No worries, next time you're around let me know and we'll have to have a beer or other beverage of choice....

[Mark Stebbeds]

Well I was only joking as I'm sure you know. Yea, local 27 can be hit or miss. There are some good hands around here, but most of the good guys have house gigs.


The union stagehands were fine. The sound company crew was having a boatload of ground hums and buzzes and bacon frying problems exacerbated by the all of the stage changes ...and I think some of that crew and the backline crew were just temp help that didn't know the systems very well.

Mark

[Mark Stebbeds]

That sounds like it would have been a hoot! Out of curiosity, mind telling which band you were running? I've run The Turtles on a few occasions, they were great to work with :p

I was running GFR, but lent a hand to everyone else who showed up without a crew at all. Mark and Howard from the Turtles are great guys and very easy going. They're Happy Together.:-)

Mark