Here’s another excellent room I’ve been mixing in recently…Free Chapel in Gainesville, GA.  My friend Dustin Whitt has done an excellent job tuning this PA and overall giving the room some love.  It’s hard to go wrong with Meyer MSL4′s, CQ2′s, and 650P’s.  I cut my teeth professionally almost 10 years ago on rigs just like this one so this is kind of like coming home.  Enjoy the photos from a Night of Worship there last night.

]]> http://www.cordernotes.com/blog/blog/mixing-at-free-chapel/feed 0 http://www.cordernotes.com/blog/blog/gwinnett-church http://www.cordernotes.com/blog/blog/gwinnett-church#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:34:49 +0000 timcorder http://www.cordernotes.com/blog/?p=2750

Posted in blogProduction

Posted in blogProduction

One of the perks of my new position with Moyers Group in Atlanta is the ability to mix freelance on the weekends for some really cool churches around the greater Atlanta area.  This past weekend I spent the day with Dustin Whitt at Gwinnett Church mixing monitors.  For those of you who are not familiar, Gwinnett is North Point’s newest campus, launched just a few weeks ago.  At this point they do not have a permanent facility, so they meet weekly at the Gwinnett Center, a really cool arena & convention center complex in the area.

As you’ll see from the photos below, this is portable church like I would expect you’ve never seen before.  Two 53′ semi’s full of equipment, at least 16 fly points for the lighting grid, a big ol’ Meyer PA (8 MICA’s per side, HP700′s, Venue Profile at FOH & Monitors) add up to the best portable church experience I’ve ever seen.  When you combine that with the quality of artists and communicators in the North Point family of churches, the result is incredible.

It is an honor to serve with this team.  Check out these photos for more about my day.  If you’re in town, you really should come check this place out.  Sunday evenings at 6p.

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Posted in blogDECADEFeaturedProduction

So I’ve shown you the cool official photos from our DECADE photographers and you’ve seen media samples from the service itself.  Today I’m going to share the snapshots I took with my phone throughout the two days.  Production fans will probably enjoy these most of all since they really show nuts and bolts of the process.  Enjoy!

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for…

These are raw, but I decided I am ok with putting them out there so you can see what raw looks like.  Are there some mix things I would change…sure.  Is everything perfect…no.  But there was such a spirit to what happened and I believe that translates to these videos in a way that supersedes everything else.

For more cool content, go to Youtube and search for “NLC Decade”. There are a few videos out there that really capture what it felt like in the room and I’m really pleased with how things translate.

Enjoy a glimpse at DECADE!

So if you’ve been following the series, you saw a few posts ago that the PA was a very large d&B J-rig.  Let’s just stop right there for a second and enjoy those words hehehe.

In this post we’re going to talk about the drums and keys rigs for DECADE and some overall direction things we’ve learned the past few months at NLC.

We’ve gotten our drum sounds as far down the field as we’re able with what we own, but it is in the plan for this year to replace our kits and go for a more vintage, timeless sound.  For DECADE, I took that future direction for a spin by renting a Ludwig Classic Maple kit from SIR in Nashville.  16×20 kick, 13″ and 16″ toms, and two snares – one for each guy…a 6.5×14 Black Beauty and a 6.5×14 Supraphonic.  For cymbals, I spec’d Zildjian…  17″ K Custom Dark crash, 19″ K Dark thin crash, 22″ K Custom Dark ride, and 15″ A hats.  Overall a very classic sounding kit and it sounded AMAZING!  I think this kit (or one very similar) is now at the top of our list for purchase this year.  My philosophy is to go for classic, timeless sounds that will translate to lots of different styles of music and sound good over many years.

I received a few questions regarding the Sub-Kick you may have noticed in some pictures.  If you’ve never played with one before, personally I’ve really enjoyed using one – especially with a nice and small, tight kick drum.  You put the condensor mic inside just as usual – in my case a Sennheiser E901.  Then add a bit of channel delay to line it up with the Sub-Kick on the outside.  High pass the E901 so the Sub-Kick takes care of the thump from the kick and the E901 handles the attack and character of the drum.  The combination sounds really really good on a well-tuned kick drum.

For Keys, we’ve been experimenting with a more software based approach as of late with strong results.  We own Yamaha CP-300 stage pianos that are used every week but I’ve wanted to enhance the quality of the sounds for a long time.  We spent some focused time over the past few months listening to demo’s of newer stage pianos – ideally looking for something with really killer sampled piano tones that can also do organs and strings really well.   There are a few options out there that seem to do both – the Nord Stage 2 piano, the Yamaha CP1 being two of them.  The problem is that both of those sell for upwards of $4,000…outside my budget with all of the other pressing needs to address.

The solution for us is the Native Instruments Komplete 7 collection, along with Ableton Live.  For a few weeks prior to DECADE, we experimented with using MIDI to trigger sounds from laptops since our players were content with the feel of playing on our CP300′s but we just weren’t crazy about the tones.  Now with a smaller secondary keyboard on top and MIDI going from both into a laptop, there are amazing organs, strings, electric pianos, and auxiliary percussion at our fingertips.  Combine that with Ableton Live to generate click tracks for the band and you have a really powerful package.

In the samples that you heard yesterday (if you missed them, go up to the media tab at the top of this page and you’ll find them along with a few others) the piano downstage was the Native Instruments New York Concert Grand.  The keys position upstage is running Live to trigger clicks and some tracks, along with Native Instruments exclusively for all of the other sounds generated.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you may remember my journey with Receptor and sampled piano libraries when we replaced an acoustic grand at Kensington with a piano shell from Slam Grand and sampled sounds a few years ago.  Now that was a little while ago so I disclaimer with that, but let me tell you how impressed I am with the grand piano samples in Komplete.  The ability to control three different lid positions, key noise, and pedal noise is amazing.  When you hold down the pedal, you hear the “dampers” let go of the strings, the voicing sounds great, and its low in resource requirements so it runs great on our Macbook Pros.

For the piano rig downstage, we just came out of the laptop into a stereo DI and went from there.  The upstage keys position was more complex.  We used a Digi003 interface to give us up to 8 line outputs.  Outs 1/2 and 3/4 were two stereo keys stems.  One stem was primarily keys sounds, the second a few loops and percussion sounds.  Outs 5/6 were some stereo ensemble tracks and Out 7 was click.

In the near future, I’m planning to roll out a Mac Mini on stage in our regular setup that will run Ableton Live and the Komplete bundle.  We’ll connect MIDI from our CP300 and from the secondary keyboard, then add a M-Audio Fast-track Pro interface so we can have two stereo discreet outputs and we’ve got our new keys rigs for our two main campuses.  Why the Mac Mini?  It will give us a dedicated machine that stays off the internet and is kept production ready for this singular purpose.  It is also clean, low noise, and has good reliability.  Finally, by keeping it connected to the network, our players can screen share into it for programming and control simply and easily.

As you can imagine, it required a tremendous amount of detail to pull off an event like this.  I’ve received a bunch of requests to release the production documents and so here we go.  I think most of this will speak for itself so maybe it would be best to just open up the comments section to questions if there are any.

Production Binder (49 pages, includes room drawings, script, input lists, lighting notes…given to everyone on the crew)

Worship Information (the specific information for the worship team)

Crew Information (the specific information given to the crew approx 3 weeks before the event)

I’m sure there are better ways to do most of this, but I’m just showing you my way.  There were some lessons that came out of this, especially with the service documents themselves.

There are a ton of people on stage throughout the service.  A TON.  I went back and forth on how best to document this – using generic VOX1, VOX2, E/G 1, E/G 2 titles or using everyone’s names.  I eventually settled on names as I knew this would be best for all of our volunteers who would be operating.  However, this was not best for the Majestic Crew who didn’t know anyone by name.  Especially in audio world with so many mixes, it would have been easier for them had I created a version of specific documents that was more generic.

The production schedule was intimidating to create.  Because we were trying to keep our catering numbers as low as we could, we had to make sure as many people as possible had time in the schedule to go off site and eat.  We kept the on-site number to under 40 in most meals and this was a huge win for our budget.

The script was created in Numbers so it would translate easily to iPads, the building maps done in OmniGraffle, and Majestic drawings in AutoCAD, and most of the credentials lists done in Google Docs.  One note about that…we use Google Docs extensively at New Life Church and normally it is an awesome tool.  However, once we got on site at Verizon, internet connectivity was extremely spotty and inconsistent.  I’m REALLY glad that all of the important documents were created outside of Google Docs so we were able to maintain access.

Again, if you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments section.

I’m in the middle of a series documenting the process for DECADE, New Life Church’s tenth anniversary service we recently completed.  If you missed the first two parts, make sure and catch it in the archives.

It was really important to us to maintain the look and feel of New Life Church even though we were doing an event in a potentially larger than life venue.  So we very intentionally selected a level of production system that would be the right fit for the space, especially in regards to the audio system, while not being so over the top that it would overshadow the content of the service itself.  The service was really just a longer version of our normal weekend and we wanted the production to match.  So no LED walls, a modest lighting rig that could provide beauty and wow, again without being over the top.  The most striking part of the entire set was the huge 22ft x 6ft letters that spelled out DECADE.  There will be a whole separate post on that from our set designer, Angie Brown, at a later date.  We went the direction of these letters to give the whole stage a NLC feel by creating something stunning in a “non-tech” way.  Often times those of us in production think the only way to create wow is through the latest and greatest technology…LEDs, versa tubes, Chroma Q, you name it.  Our creative team was 100% correct with this one that often times the best and most impactful design maintains simplicity and achieves the wow in the most low-tech way possible.

For those of you who are interested in the nuts and bolts of the systems you will see in the event video, here’s the overview.

Audio

(64) D&B J-Series Loudspeakers & Subwoofers in the air
(14) D&B B2 Subwoofers on the ground
(47) D&B D12 Amplifiers
56,400 Watts of amplifier power
46 input channels
FOH – Avid D-Show Profile w/Protools HD system
Monitors – Yamaha PM5D
26 Channels of Shure UHF-R Wireless Mics & Sennheiser G3 Wireless In-Ears
56 Channel Whirlwind Snake with 3-Way Transformer Splitter
(4) 16 Channel Whirlwind Sub-Snakes

Lighting

(32) Martin Mac 2000 Profile/Wash, Martin Mac 600 Moving Lights
(28) Martin Stagebar 54S LED Wash fixtures
(12) Arri 2k 10” Fresnels
(12) ETC Source 4
(6) Thomas Crowd Abuse Lights
Whole Hog III Console
ETC SmartFade 1248 Console
DF-50 Hazer with Fan

Video

(2) Barco SLM R12+ Projectors (12,000 ANSI Lumens)
(2) Draper 12ft x 21ft Projection Screens
(4) Panasonic 58”/42” Plasma TVs
(5) Panasonic HPX-370 Cameras
Panasonic HS450N 16 Input HD Switcher

Stage

One of the most important values we had in organizing the crew for DECADE was to utilize as many of our volunteers as possible.  We knew there would be many areas of load-in and load-out where we would need to rely on the Majestic crew and local hired hands, as no one on our team has experience in rigging or large builds of this scope.  However, once we got to the service execution portion, the ultimate goal was to give our core leaders the chance to raise the bar, work with some of the best of the best in the Majestic team, and hopefully be challenged to take what they learn back to our regular services.

With this in mind, we created the crew roster with lots of redundancy in roles – partly to involve as many people as we could and partly to ensure many hands make light work.  Looking back, I think the staffing level was just about right.  I’m not sure I would have changed anything.

Here’s the overview of the positions we filled with our team…

- Service Producer & 3 Assistants – lead the service elements, content, and overall direction of the service, call service cues

- Production Manager & 2 Assistants – lead the production of the event by interfacing with the production vendor & crew, venue, local union stagehands, and NLC Wired team

- Stage Manager & 2 Assistants – manage the event production script, maintain the schedule for rehearsals, manage stage transitions and people to/from stage

- A1, A2, A3 – positioned at FOH…A1 mixes the event audio for the room, A2 is the script manager – calling music cues to the A1, A3 is on com with Service Producer for video cues and countdowns

- M1, M2, M3 – positioned in monitor world…M1 mixes monitors and was from Majestic, M2 is wireless wrangler, M3 manages the stage from an audio perspective – communicating monitor changes, making sure everything goes as planned

- Audio Assistants x2 – all things audio…stage setup, runners, cabling, band setup, you name it.

- LD – lighting designers and operators came from Majestic.  I didn’t think we had anyone on our team who was ready for this challenge so we leaned heavily on Majestic in this area.  This was definitely the right call as evidenced by the LD walking out of the venue on Saturday night before I did with a completely programmed, gorgeous lighting show.

- Video Director – from Majestic

- Video Assistants x2 – script management, calling shots and keeping up with what is coming next, knowing names for our people on stage, maintaining the NLC look and feel.

- ProPresenter x2 – we set out to use two ProPresenter machines…one for anything lower third and one for full screen playback.  We ended up only using one machine but we were prepared for two.

- Shader – operating the camera CCUs

- Camera Operators x5 – camera positions were two center, two handheld (one stage left and one stage right with tripods to land in during the message), and the 30ft Cam Mate Jib (operated by Majestic)

- Each camera had a grip assistant assigned.  This person’s function differed based on the camera.  For handhelds, they fed cable, kept the op’s path clear, and so on.  For stationary cams, it gave us a backup in case anyone needed relief or couldn’t come through for some reason.  We tried to get as many of these people seat time behind the camera as we could.

- Stage Crew x2 – these guys handled any moves needed on stage during transitions.  Mic stands, table and stool on and off, communion elements to the pastor, etc.

So if you are keeping track, that equals 9 team members from Majestic:  production manager, 3 audio, 3 lighting, 2 video and 30 staff and volunteers from NLC actually operating the event.  Add an additional 10 or 12 stagehands helping with the DECADE letters load-in and other projects around the arena and you get a sense of the scope we’re talking about.

In wrapping up this part, I have to brag on these people a bit.  I’ve been doing this production thing professionally for over 10 years now.  In that time, I’ve worked in large and small churches, arenas and theaters with lots and lots of different people – union/non-union, staff/volunteer, you name it.  I’m convinced I’ve never been more proud of a team than our Wired team serving at DECADE and what God allowed us to experience and accomplish for Him and for NLC – the way everyone stepped up, gave this event everything they’ve got, rolled through the changes and challenges, dealt with the nerves and uncertainty of producing something so epic, and served so gracefully through it all.  DECADE would have never happened without every one of this team serving and giving of themselves to something that is far bigger than any of us and worth our entire life!

From New Life Church:  Neil Greathouse, Nathan Pruzaniec, Bryan Barnard, Drew Spurgers, Kyle Basham, Jenna Wilson, Jason Hollis, Mindy Corder, Jade Gay, Emily Stockdale, Seth Jeffrey, Ken Barnes, Jack Benson, Nick Keith, Everett Ellis, Markus Turkia, Shelly Weir, Pamela Floyd, John Sketoe, Brent Hill, Robert Floyd, Derek Lewis, George Perkins, Bill Cunningham, Jim Rice, Doug Avra, Braeden Gregg, Gary Morrison, Brett Brownderville.

From Majestic Productions:  Ryan Bates, Jeremy Dodd, Derek Seal, Christian Hahn, Joey Davis, Ethan Frazier, Kyle Shepherd, Jeremy Seawell, Chris Ferrari

Thank you everyone!!

If you’ve been following my twitter for the past few months, you’ve seen me refer to the most challenging project I’ve ever been involved with or led, New Life Church’s tenth anniversary service called DECADE.  My role for this event was to lead the execution of the production at Verizon Arena in Little Rock, with 9 contracted production staff, 21 local union stagehands, riggers, and electricians, and 41 volunteers from the New Life Church Wired team.  I’m going to take a few posts to detail much of the process that went into this event in hopes it will be helpful to other churches considering undertaking a similar type of event.

To celebrate ten years as a church, I first learned of the vision last summer to host a service where we could have everyone from our 5 campuses together under one roof.  In Arkansas, there are only several venues that could hold that size of a crowd so we quickly knew we were headed to Verizon.  The arena has an in-the-round capacity of just over 16,000 or just over 13,000 in an end-stage configuration.

The most important decision was the production company we would partner with for audio, video, and lighting systems.  I knew all along we would need to hire someone – there was no way we had the kind of inventory, resources, or expertise necessary to even consider doing the event ourselves.  In early fall I interviewed 6 different options, both local and national.  From the document presented to our executive team when we made our final choice, my criteria in selecting a provider included:

- Single point of contact production company to be solely responsible for entire event (audio/video/lighting)

- Large worship team (including ensemble) = 48 channel audio system with separate monitor desk, large scale arena PA system (d&b, Meyer, etc)

- Lighting system to deliver similar experience to what we create at the GLR campus (modest moving lights, bright colorful stage, excellent lighting for video)

- 2 large screens on each side of stage for video playback & IMAG (21’ x 12’, 12k lumens minimum).  Lyrics to be keyed at the bottom of the screen over live video during worship.

- Multi-camera IMAG system with Jib for side screens & capture

- Multi-track audio recording and video capture capability so we can capture the event for potential future release (worship CD recording, highlight reel to web, etc)

In the end, we hired Majestic Productions based in Summitville, IN and this was by far the best decision we’ve ever made.  During the interview and bidding process it was clear that Ryan Bates and his team “got” our event in ways others missed.  Their bid was the most complete, including things not even on my radar that I would need such as a 4 channel com system, confidence monitoring, video distribution gear to the building, etc.  Ryan and Majestic acted as our single point of contact and him and I spent much time on the phone from October until the event in February.

Even if you’ve never heard of Majestic, I promise you that you are familiar with their work.  Since 1997, the Majestic team has provided production for events such as Passion, Catalyst conferences and Catalyst West , Orange, Youth Specialties, Chris Tomlin, Jeremy Camp, Gaither Homecoming, Hillsong United, and on and on.  For an event like DECADE, it was important to me that our partner be completely comfortable with what we were trying to accomplish as I knew the timeframe for rehearsal would be tight, we hoped to utilize as many of our Wired volunteers as possible, and expertise was everything in getting it right the first time.  It was comforting to our whole team that while this event was a huge deal to us, it was just another service to the Majestic team.

Over this series we’re going to first talk about production systems, then crew, the documentation we created, and finally some media samples from the service.  Come back tomorrow for the next post…

Long time, no see…

Life has once again gotten in the way of regularly contributing to this blog and I sure do miss it! Hopefully I’m only days away from being able to share more about the journey of the past few months.

Until then, I ran across a blog post from Dave Rat, who I’ve shared from in the past, about breaking into the industry and building a career in professional production. It is great insight from a great engineer and well known company owner.

If you aren’t following him already, you can find Dave’s blog here…

“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.”

If you work or serve in any level of production, I have a resource for you that has come through for me a number of times now and I want to share!  I think I’ve written about them before, but regardless…

Audiovend is a wireless rental specialist – Shure & Sennheiser, Lectrosonics, wired & wireless IEM, Comm – if its wireless, they deal with it.  They also have a very large inventory of specialized mics and wireless capsules.  I first learned about Greg Stevens and Audiovend a few years ago when I needed to rent 12 string mics (DPA 4061s).  One of my friends suggested talking to Greg due to a recommendation from DPA.  They were very easy to work with and provided exactly what I needed for the weekend.  On top of that, rental rates for such specialized mics were fair and reasonable.  It was a win/win for everyone.

Since that time, we’ve done a couple of other similar rentals for special service elements.  A few months ago, however, a unique opportunity came along for us to partner on a higher profile and that event’s success is the inspiration for this post.

Every summer, Kensington does an outdoor baptism event at a local park/beachfront.  Hundreds of people participate to declare their love for Jesus, with several thousand spectators lining the beach to picnic, celebrate, and support.  This event is always one of the highlights of the year.  As a part of the production needs, we have utilized waterproof microphones in the water so that the pastors can make things more personal for each participant and lead everyone through the event.  The concept is REALLY cool and the event hinges on these mics’ success, but for the past several years of attempting this, the execution has been marginal due to poor support from our previous vendor – a large national rental company.

After last year’s experience, I suggested that we seek out a new direction this year and approached Greg for his help.  He designed a Lectrosonics 6 channel system with waterproof transmitters and headsets, helical antennas, and the needed distribution and cabling to remote the antennas 100 feet from the receivers.  Everything was shipped to us to arrive the day before the event.  It was sent in such a way I could unpack, make the necessary RF and audio connections, and be good to go.  Greg did a frequency coordination plan prior to shipping so when the system arrived, it was ready to rock.

Below is an excerpt of the email I sent Greg following the successful evening…

“…Everything worked as it should for the entire event.  This event hinges on these wireless working and your system delivered for the first time in several years of trying!  The headsets sounded really good with little channel EQ, lithium batteries saved the day – we powered transmitters on at the beginning of event and made it all the way to the end with no battery swaps, helicals were great – no RF issues at all.  It was so great to be able to turn the transmitters on and go because the frequencies were all taken care of from the start.  In the past the team has always had to guess and tune with mixed results.  Everyone on our team was very impressed.

You have a raving fan in Kensington – we’ll certainly be making this an annual thing   You made me look very good today but I know you and your team are the real heros.  Thanks again for all you do!”

What is most ironic is that Audiovend provided a similar set of actual gear as our previous vendor – I think the biggest difference was their proper planning, implementation, and improved RF distribution.  Greg and the team are obvious experts at the art form of wireless audio systems.

If you’re also placed in situations where you need to deliver wireless solutions for high-profile events, I HIGHLY recommend Greg Stevens and his team at Audiovend Wireless.  His expertise is vast, his prices fair, and the service and support is excellent.  He’ll make you look very good as well!  Let him know I sent you…

Murphy’s Audio Law #10: “The probability of having sound system failure is inversely proportional to the amount of time remaining until the performance.”

We’ve all experienced it: there were problems with load in or set-up, time is short, the system is set-up with only a few minutes to spare and of course, something works improperly or not at all. Although the first instinct might be to take a “shotgun” approach and start checking plugs, connections, cables, etc. in a random fashion (i.e. “panic”), a tried-and-true troubleshooting method will almost always find the problem with less effort and in a shorter amount of time.

The most basic troubleshooting technique (after “is it plugged in?”) is the “Divide and Conquer” method. This involves identifying the good parts of the system as well as figuring out which parts have failed. Not only can these working sections be eliminated as the cause of the problem, but they can also be used to test other parts of the system.

Let’s consider an example: a mic channel at a mixer is dead while others are operating properly. The good news here is that you can use one of the working channels to isolate the problem.

First, unplug an input connector from a working channel on the console and plug it into the dead channel. If the bad channel on the console now works, the problem must exist before the console, back toward the mic.
If it’s still dead, the problem has to be after that channel’s input (bad channel, dirty insert jack, wrong assignment, etc.) Either way, about half of the system is eliminated.

Let’s assume the first condition above – the console is OK. The remaining part of the system can be divided in half again by doing same thing at the stage end of the snake. That is, after switching the cables back to where they were on the console, plug a cable from a known working mic into the offending channel on the stage box. If the channel stays dead, the problem has to be in the snake. But if the channel comes to life, the snake is eliminated and the problem must be between the stage box and the mic (the cable and/or the mic itself). In this case, substituting either the mic cable or the mic will identify the problem.

The same technique can be used after the the console too.

One amp not responding? Take the input cable from another amp that is working (AND handling the same frequency range if its a bi-amp or tri-amp situation – DON’T TAKE A BASS FREQUENCY line and plug it in to the offending amp that’s feeding horns!). If it starts working, put things back and move back toward the console – maybe to the crossover. Try reversing the left and right signals starting at the console and moving toward the amps. When the problem switches from one side to the other, you’ve found the problem point in the line.

As said before, the tendency, especially under pressure, is to start substituting cables or wiggling connections in a random manner. Although you might just get lucky and hit on the defective component, it’s very easy to put yourself into an endless circle, trying this and that, without really getting a handle on where the problem lies. This is especially true if a section has more than one defective component.

Practice an organized troubleshooting method and you’ll “Divide and Conquer” your problem every time.

3/16″ Clear Plexiglas

90 degree brackets:  http://www.abctarget.com/product1~P~P174.htm

Total Cost:  $240

I’ve mentioned briefly our new piano setup but now that I have a great sample to share, I thought I’d go into a bit more depth on what we’re doing.

The shell is made by Slam Grand Pianos.  It is a 7ft 4″ model based off of the Yamaha C7 shape.  Gary Raffanelli at Slam Grand did amazing craftsmanship and was so easy to work with.  His company builds piano shells for practically everyone who’s anybody – TV shows, touring, casinos, etc.

Inside the shell is a Yamaha CP33 Stage Piano that we use as a MIDI controller.  We chose this board based on the recommendation of some of our keys players for its realistic feel.  Even though we don’t use the internal sounds in the CP33 as a part of this setup, its great to know that its built in piano tones are still pretty strong and a good option to have available in a pinch.  But for realistic feel when playing, the CP33 is pretty awesome.  The Graded Hammer Effect action gives all keys an authentic resistance that increases from the top register to the lower – just as on an actual acoustic piano. Which means that you can naturally pound out thunderous low notes with your left hand and let the fingers on your right dance and fly with the high notes.

Then the electronics are based around a Muse Research Receptor and Synthogy’s Ivory.  When we were planning to go the digital grand route, I felt strongly that a sampled library with a few choices of pianos and tones would be the most flexible option and a great investment rather than just using a digital stage piano.  The best one we’d heard was a Yamaha CP250 but even then, it was missing realism to me.  It still sounded digital.

The challenge was how to execute a software library in a consistent, reliable, and simple package on stage.  No one was very excited about relying on a tradition computer setup – even if it were a Mac based solution.  Enter the Receptor.  The RECEPTOR was designed to do just one thing: run virtual instruments and effects in a live context.  It utilizes a highly optimized, super-efficient OS and kernel that runs on a dedicated 64-bit processor-based hardware to make VST plug ins available without needing ProTools or Logic and a traditional computer setup.  The best part is that you can operate Receptor from the front panel (which is what we do on a week to week basis to load from our patch library), connect a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to the back of the unit and see the plug-in GUIs, or remote control the unit via Ethernet (allowing the ability to change settings from a computer at FOH during rehearsal).

Synthogy Ivory sounds great. The creators sampled three different pianos – Yamaha C7 Grand, Steinway D Concert Grand, and Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Grand. Each key is sampled at 10 different velocities with several pages of customization options for how the piano responds, dynamic range, effects, tuning, how it is mic’d, etc.

Kudos to my friends at Willow Creek for putting us on to the Receptor & Ivory.  The result is a natural sounding solution that sounds like the real thing. Now we are able to use the grand on our stage almost every week.  Its become a staple just like our drum kit, which adds a lot to the look of the band.  Best of all, there’s no feedback, piano tuners, or inconsistent results.  The piano always sounds great and can be placed in the mix in ways that were never achievable with our acoustic one.  Most importantly, this package has been rock-solid reliable.  I highly recommend Slam Grand, Receptor, and Ivory.

Below is a video from a prelude a couple weeks ago with a traditional jazz quartet. Check it out to see for yourself…

Christmas 2008 was my first experience diving into SMPTE, MTC, and VTR decks so that we could sync our primary Beta deck with ProTools for audio track playback.  In order to start this discussion, I thought it would be a good idea to start out with SMPTE 101.  Brent Hoover wrote a great overview over at the study hall on ProSoundWeb.  Below is a summary of his thoughts…

What is Timecode? 
Timecode is simply a way of recording a “time” along with either a visual or audio event. This allows you to say, “The beginning of the song is at 0 and the cymbal crash happened at 2 minutes and 53 seconds.” The information is then stored along with the audio or video medium so that, as it is moved from device to device, the time information stays the same.

The most commonly used timecode format was developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Referred to as SMPTE (pronounced Simp-Tee), it was originally developed to synchronize sound for film but has since been adapted for video as well as audio-only use.

The other commonly used timecode format is Midi Time Code (MTC), which was developed by Chris Meyer and Evan Brooks for Digidesign.

How does Synchronization work? 
Imagine that you and a friend have the only two watches in the world, so that you have no time reference other than your own watches. You need to meet at an exact time later that day. No watch is exactly accurate – maybe yours is a bit slow and your friend’s is a bit fast. Over the day the result is that there is a 10-second difference between your two watches. While it may be okay with your friend that you’re 10 seconds late because he likes you, it would be very bad for a cymbal crash. In audio, even delays of a fraction of a second with doubled vocals can be noticeable.

The next day, in order to circumvent the 10-second time difference, you and your friend work out a system. You pick one person as the Master and one person as the Slave (it’s that kind of friendship). The Master calls the Slave on his cell phone and tells him what time it is every few seconds, and the Slave resets his watch to match the Master’s. While this system may be an annoying prospect for human beings, it works quite well for machines. Similarly, in every timecode set-up you must determine which machine is the master (there can be only one) and which are the slaves. Usually the constraints of the machine will define who is master and who is slave. 

How would I use Timecode? 
Sync-to-Video - The simplest video sync scenario works much like this: a VHS tape has LTC on one of its audio tracks (it is the Master). The device to be synced (the Slave) reads that timecode and chases it. The tricky part is determining which type of SMPTE frame rate to use.

When using SMPTE at 30 frames-per-second (fps), one second equals one second. Unfortunately, NTSC color video does not run at 30fps — it runs at 29.97fps. Why in blazes does it do that, you ask? Well, let’s just say that video, like life, was simpler when it was in black-and-white. But when color was introduced, they decided to cram that little bit of color information in the space left by .03 frames.

At 29.97fps, a second of material is no longer a second, but just a hair longer. While a few hairs may not matter to you and me, they matter a lot to people in television who make their living selling seconds, so these people came up with a solution called “drop-frame”. This means a few frames are dropped so that SMPTE time matches with real time.

So we have SMPTE at rates of 30fps, 29.97 “drop” and 29.97 “non-drop”. All that really matters on a basic level is that you need a tool that can handle all these different frame rates, and you must know exactly what frame rate the video you are syncing with is using.

In the next post on SMPTE, I’ll go over our setup and implementation, along with some learnings from an intense production process.