recital 2005

The recital went well, for the most part. There were a few mishaps with the music (I forgot to update the playlist after yesterday's rehearsal) but I recovered semi-gracefully. The house was packed. Every ticket had been sold, and there were even some people leaning against the walls in the back (I assume they were those parents who think they're entitled to a free seat.) One thing I definitely liked more about Moon HS's setup was that the sound board was in the back of the house. At the Beaver show, the light and sound boards are both in the right wing, and neither of us could see/hear very well. Monitors are a poor representation of the overall sound. Moon has their own light room, high up in a recessed alcove, so that's cool too. The show runs much more smoothly when the crew can see and hear things from the audience's point of view.


There was some drama discussed, involving some ungrateful students at the studio, and Paula was steaming after the finale, but luckily it had nothing to do with the crew this time.

Todd, my dad and I went out with Paula and Frank after the show to the Ground Round. We ordered like 9 appetizers between the 5 of us, and man did I get stuffed and buzzed. They shared some rather interesting stories about their trip to Europe, which included a stop in Amsterdam. What story, you say? Use your imagination ;)

I can't wait 'til next year. I'll have learned the board and made some improvements on my song mastering techniques. My goal is to completely eliminate recordings from cassette *ugh*. Tomorrow I'm heading over to my grandpap's to finish up some yardwork, and then it's back to Morgantown! I miss my baby...

rehearsal woes

Ok, so I run the audio for Paula Scriva Dance Studio recitals. It's alot of fun, mostly. Paula opened a new studio in Robinson this year, and so the recital is at Moon High School (near Robert-Morris University). When dealing with a new venue, you sort of expect things to be a little rough until you get used to the staff, equipment, etc.

Today's rehearsal, however, was a complete nightmare.

They have a massive sound board. 24 channels, and a rack with a fairly complicated equalizer and FX box. I've run previous recitals right out of a PC, straight into the rack. Boards are new to me. This one had been vandalized recently (a rival school's students had cut all the cables,) so I expected the worst.

I ran the mini stereo line out of my sound card with a 1/4" adapter into one of the channels on the board. I then spent the whole day trying to figure out why most of the vocal tracks were weak or missing. We hooked up a subwoofer to one of the monitor channels, and that seemed to help a little bit for Sinatra and such, but still something was missing. We wired, rewired, fiddled and tweaked the thing until I thought I was going to give up and go home.

Finally, thinking maybe it was a product of the vandalism, we contacted a service tech to come out and take a look. As it turns out, the board connectors were all mono jacks. Man, did I feel like an idiot. He gave me an XLR splitter to 1/8" and we were good to go. I feel bad, because it was my fault the whole time, and the school had to pick up the tab.

Now I'm interested in learning my way around a board and a rack. If anyone has any tips on how I should get started learning this on my own, feel free to send some my way. I'm not able to drop any cash on this endeavor just yet, so keep that in mind.

-mixmaster eGaTS signing off-

You are Vicious from "Cowboy Bebop"!
You are IRRITABLE evil.


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damnit, i hate drama.

the places i've been...




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create your own visited country map

What Kind of Geek are You?
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DOB
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Your IQ is	very high
You are a	computer geek
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Your weakness is	chocolate
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You are: A SCHEMING VILLAIN: You are Cinderella's dead mother.

Which evil scheming fairy-tale character are you?

hmm...

batman begins

So I saw the midnight premiere of Batman Begins with Danielle, Eryck, Gary, and some of his Pizza Hut friends. It was all I'd hoped for--and so much more. The plot goes back to the comic roots of the legacy. No spoilers here yet, but maybe more later when more people have seen it. The cinematography was excellent in my opinion, despite people saying it was too bright and close up most of the time, particulary during the action sequences. There wasn't a concentration on the action. The focus was more on the perception of the action, not on the specific technique. Bale played the role perfectly. He does for Batman what Brosnan did for Bond. I can't wait to see the next one.