An audio greeting to Majorgeeks

Hey Abby Sue, listen to Drexel's, he says hello to you!!

Cindy didn't want you to miss it!!

 

Yep, I was raised mainly by different Nannys. There's even a few Nanny Schools around, called by that name.

 

No studio mixer here; little 6 channel Mackie mixer, around a decade old maybe, with rotary volume pots instead of sliders. Phantom power and the pure Mackie sound (or lack of it ). Pretty versatile for a little box. But I haven't used it since coming down south, so it's gone through 2 moves and hasn't been unpacked after the last one. And yeah, those condensers mics are phantom powered; I need to mixer to use 'em.

 

Much more handy than my great 16+4/4 channel Studer mixer (the first 2 channels are VALVE work VERY well for bass DI.. puts back the warmth and saturation lost by the DI). Each channel has 3 band EQ, compete with mid-shift. (ooOOOooo). Its got 2 auxes... which you can patch to the TB box on two seperate headphone jacks (handy for the drummer who doesnt want drums in his ears

The +4 is the 4 mono HL inputs with rotary volume pots (the four channels in between the compressors and the sub-group faders) This one also has the studio talkback module added onto it, and I've got a TB box which has been lovingly nicknamed "robotron"

The compressors are subgroup limiters or channel compression (when using the patch in/outs). Rather useful when doing digital recordings to make sure you don't clip on the input (errgh)

And people say "You can't POSSIBLY know what all of those buttons and knobs do!!" ... like, well, yeah, actually, I'd be a bit useless if I didnt ... which is usually followed up by "What does that one do then?" *sigh*

Very sweet setup for mixing and maxtering, especially with my Yamaha Power amp and some monitors (nicked from a friend for a couple of weeks)

One problem with it : I've only got one stereo subgroup linker (in other words, a piece of plastic that goes on the faders ) but thats okay since the other two groups are used for mono outputs usually (first two drums /room, the next bass, the next guitar)

 

LOL. All my recording/sound reinforcement was either simple or using other people's equipment. If it was simple, I used this:

http://www.mackie.com/pdf/archive/ms1202_om.pdf

Pretty versatile for something that fits in a briefcase, but obviously not up to covering a live band. Great for bedroom recording though. Long obsolete, Mackie doesn't show any actual photographs anymore.

 

NEARLY all my sound reinforcement was simple AND using other peoples equiptment

Sucks, don't it?

Last gig I was using someones crummy "ProSound" power amp (400W for a FOH system. Oo, the power! ) which actually cut out about half an hour into the gig because it overheated cause its fans wern't working properly. That, or the carpet case it was mounted in didnt give enough airflow (what kind of idiot puts a poweramp in a carpet covered box?!)

Not to mention the fact that its "clip protection" thing was going off during the soundchecks.... when there was no sound going through it. Hmmmmm....

By the end of the gig people were coming up to me and saying "I cant hear the PA!!" Like, yeah, not my problem...!

 

Don't get me started on junk equipment! Most of my work was for a couple of churches that at least had adequate and reliable equipment, but I got "volunteered" to do the sound for some weekend retreats where I'd find a pile of crap on the floor on Friday afternoon and have to figure out how to make something useable by Friday evening. PA work was no big deal, but they wanted recordings of all the special speakers, and I absolutely HATED putting something on tape that sounded like crap. Which is why I started accumulating my own gear. Playing around at home is fun too. Besides the Mackie, my favorite piece of gear was a DBX two channel/stereo compressor/limiter. Great for filtering out low level room noises and keeping speakers within a useable range. Made riding gain much easier.

 

Ooo, nice! The bassist in the band has a DBX and it really does rock! Makes the sound a lot more clean and rounded, and managable too.

My own rack gear consists of a chorus box, a Yamaha SPX digital effects unit and a tape deck, which isnt really a rack mount unit, but hey!