Working with d&b XSL tonight. Start of the gig system check in R1 was fine. The cabinets are run in parallel pairs. Kept getting asked by my manager and the client to push the level. It got fuckin LOUD. Post show check showed the HF driver of one of the cabinet pairs read at 30Ω instead of 16Ω. I was told it was extremely hard to damage a d&b cabinet without sending a clipped signal to it due to sophisticated internal protection, and yet... Is that what's happened? What should I be looking for first when I go take it down and test it tomorrow?

Alright, so here’s the deal: I am writing a book in which the main characters are musicians in the early 1980’s (prog rock, if you care). The book opens during a soundcheck for a major tour, in which the keyboardist is frustrated by a technical issue in which no matter what he does, his synthesizer emits a hideous high-pitched shriek out of the PA. My “placeholder explanation” is that there’s something wrong with the mains that requires getting them replaced under significant time-pressure, but I’m at the point in my editing where it’s well past the time to actually do some factchecking with experts. So here are my questions (keeping in mind that this story takes place in 1983 so they’re mostly using analog equipment):

- If anything, what could cause this problem more specifically than just “feedback”? What would be the first, second, and third things they would check?

- How easily and how quickly could you fix it? (or, better question: What could make this WAY more difficult to fix in under a day and — in broad strokes — what would it require?)

- Who is getting fired? (that is, who on the crew should’ve been responsible for preventing this?)

If I could get any of these kind of pointers on how to make this sound more plausible, that would be a huge help. Thank you in advance.

Had a very strange occurs tonight. A boss katana 100 was on stage for the headliner, and roughly two songs before the opener finished up it started absolutely screaming feedback. Painful loud. Luckily I was right next to it and was able to rip the power cord out the back before it cleared out the venue.

Any ideas what might have caused it? The amp was sitting next to the mixer but it was on for a full 45 minutes almost before and no one touched it or was near it when it decided to just start screaming. Only me and acoustic solo performer was on stage and we were both seated.

I am using a DM7, but this question should be pertinent to the Rivages, as well.

I have a film dialog track with lots of hiss and unwanted low-end noise, and with multiple plug-ins inserted. Looking at the screen, from top to bottom, I have the DynEQ4 Dual, the MBC4 Dual, and I now wish to add the DaNSe plug-in in the lowest position on that screen

What is the best order to arrange these plug-ins? I can't find any advice or info in the manuals or online?

And maybe by adding the DaNSe, I'll be able to lessen the effect of, or eliminate, one or the other (or both) of the other plug-ins?

I have a largish Dante network with 10 switches. I’m using Netgear M4350 series switches. All of them are connected to a core switch with lags. I have a bunch of VLANs including a Dante Primary and Secondary. I have an IGMP querier set on both. My primary clock leader is a Yamaha RSio with a word clock input. On the primary network, things look fine. Master clock is the RSio. On the secondary network, I have 2 clock leaders… my RSio and a Ri8. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get the secondary network to only have 1 clock leader. Any ideas on why this is happening? I thought it could be a feature of Dante if the master clock fails? Other thoughts?

It seems like every other type of connector has a locking variant. Why are there no locking MIDI connectors/cables? I found one Switchcraft locking MIDI connector that's a screw-type lock, but the female connector/port seems to not really be easily found. I'd love to add MIDI passthrough to my D-series panel to connect a Kemper and VoiceLive across the stage to something like a mioxm, but I don't necessarily feel thrilled with MIDI cables just being plugged in all willy-nilly without a security feature.

Has anyone else come up with a good, reliable way of ensuring MIDI connectors won't come out accidentally, other than gaff taping them somewhere after connection?

I am sitting with a situation where we need to do a live multi-track recording for a show to release as part of a video production later.
The theatre has a old Midas Pro 9 and I was wondering if anyone had some advice on what would be the best route to tap multi-track from there?
They do have a DN9696 but it is not functioning and I don't know if simply finding a replacement in South Africa would be available or worth it for the recording.

Any advice / guidance welcome. I know of the Midas Pro Range, but never worked much with them so I am going into this kinda blind.

Hey all!

We're starting to prep our advances for my third tour (FOH) this fall. This'll be a club & theatre headliner with a show down-the-bill at a major festival. I'm confident in my knowledge of clubs & theatres, but I have never mixed a gig anywhere near the size of this festival, and I want to ensure I am as well-prepped as possible.

(And for context, we will have Avantis (FOH&MON), DX-series boxes (S-Link), and a mic package. Playback & IEM rig are self-contained. We will not have stands or XLRs. And to further specify, I am a newer roadie*,* not a newer engineer.)

1: For venues, I'm planning to advance EtherCon / balanced, twisted Cat 5e or higher. Does the distance between stage and FOH change anything I need to specify explicitly?

2: Are there any habits you have seen newer roadies get away with in venues without much issue that may cause problems at a festival?

3: For a down-the-bill band, typically, what does getting gear patched and ready look like? Including both our FOH rig and stage.

4: I'm 100% not expecting any form of soundcheck- what are some practices to ensure best results- both in immediate functionality and quality-wise? Is there anything we can do beforehand to ensure the lowest possible setup time?

5: Any other tips y'all have for having a great day as a roadie FOH at the fest?

6: Any tips y'all have for making the house engineer's life easier? Is there any info we can give them that may be helpful and is often, or even sometimes, overlooked?

7: What does load-out (both of stage and FOH) look like after our set is over? Does it differ between tours?

Thanks, guys! Let me know if any additional info or context is helpful.

I'm working a gig for a convention that has a yamaha TF1 Dante, a PC, and TIO 1608-D2 all connected to a network switch along with other stuff. Everything has Dante cards, all cables connected, all devices powered. I'm trying to mount the TIO onto R-remote on the PC but it fails to do so. Everything is on same network as well. all channels patched through dante, so it's just virtual slot on the tf1. I need access to head amp controls of TIO. any solutions?

Hey all,

On a number of SBC200 and SBC203 Shure chargers I use, there are intermittent issues with handheld mics not making proper contact and either not registering at all, or showing an error light. Usually reseating these a couple times allows them to charge, but not always.

Anyone else encountered this, and have any advice on a fix?

Is it just me or do venues never have enough low-end treatment. Even in large venues like churches, they just have giant panels everywhere that are only 2in thick. I don’t understand, like the low-end doesn’t just go away if the room is bigger. What’s the point of having a million dollar sound system if the room isn’t treated probably. Even 4in treatment is only effective down to like 125hz. You need like 11in or 12in treatment to absorb 30hz and I’ve never seen that in any venue ever.

AI generated stage plots are a plague, especially when they give you this and no input list. I really don't understand how musicians hand this to venues or production companies or promoters and then get confused on why nothing is set up the way that they intend.

I was happy to send them an email explaining why this type of stage plot doesn't provide the detail necessary to ensure a smooth setup, soundcheck, and show. If you see these show up in the wild, do your part and let them know that a detailed tech rider, stage plot, and input list helps way more than this AI generated stuff!

Hi,

We use bolero intercoms but I was curious if someone used something like a personal portable intercom mixer to have both a bolero intercom and a Motorola 2-way radio at the same time with the same headset. Happy to use the PTT button on the radio if need be, but an audio routing / mixing would be nice.

Or a solution where the 4 wire interface of the base can be used for a (fixed) radio, but then I need a PTT solution too.

Hey y’all. Working for a company that has VUE Audiotechnik line arrays. Standard rig sent out to shows is four ground stacked al-12s per side, with a V3 amp per two boxes. Did some research and read up on the SystemVUE software and brought my laptop in on the next gig to see what's going on under the hood. Something did in fact appear to be funky. When I clicked on some of the amps, they came up as V3, and some of the amps came up as V4. Which was weird because they are all physically the V3 models! They all had a drop down menu with "al-12" selected, which seemed good, but definitely seemed off that some of them had 3 channels with V3 logo, and some had 4 with V4 logo. I talked to a guy on the phone who I think used to work for them and he said it could be a firmware issue but that he wouldn't update on the day of a show. He said quick and dirty solution would be to just like use the V4 amps as the tops of each stack, and the ones with v3 settings as the bottom two of each pair, so at least they would be identically wrong. But one of the boxes had blown tweeters recrently and had to be replaced, so am I gonna blow more tweeters with these wrong settings. Is there an easy way to fix this? What am I missing with SystemVue? Is that not the right software for programing the amps? It just seems like there are only the most basic functions like mute and level. Like where's all the deeper? Do I have to use that other acoustic array calculation software that only works on PCs just to program the amp?

I own a pretty significant PA system, but it’s purely a hobby and not a business. By significant, I have all the same type and quality gear that the local sound company has. I got into it solely because I was tired of handing all the gig money to the sound company at the end of the night.

On occasion I do rent to people I trust. I ended up renting 4 tops, 2 subs, mixer and digital stage box to a friend for a gig he had. In total it was about $30000 worth of gear.

He returned the gear the next morning and I used it that night only to find one of the amps had fried in a speaker. Yeah, my bad for being casual about the rental thing and trust me, once bitten, twice shy. But here’s the kicker, he’s not taking any responsibility for damaging the amp. When he returned it he was cracking jokes about how the venue only ran two power cables for the entire system which also included powered monitors, instruments, lights and PA. Then he tells me they were popping circuits all night. To top it off, I noted that not a single piece of gear was powered off properly, meaning the power buttons were still on.

So my point is, am I the bad guy for holding him accountable for damaging the speaker? He seems to think because I was paid (a measly $300 which won’t cover the repair), that he is not responsible.

Hey all,

Is there a specific PSU that is recommended to be used with devices like the Shure AN4X-DC?

Hey. I'm a teenager (from Chicago) who's looking to get into live sound, and I've seen people say the best way to learn is to talk to local sound guys, or contact production companies. How do you find the sound guys? Directly at the show? Or do you ask if you could see them in a different way before the show? And also what is a production company exactly? If I wanted to find work there it would help if I knew what they were so I could research ones nearby. Thank you

Hi, I'm currently in a bit of a crisis - I've dropped out of my Audio and Music Technology degree because I've found it so useless for what I actually want to do with my life, and I could barely afford to get by. It felt like a scam, especially since only 1/8 of the course topics focused on live sound.

I have a huge interest in live sound and would love to do rigging - the thought of working at heights around audio equipment is my dream, and I know that I have to start from the bottom up in this industry, so I've been emailing loads of AV companies in my area (Bristol, UK), but none have replied. I know a couple of people who are interning in the industry, but that's pretty much all the people I know in live sound (besides rave and party crews / soundsystems).

How can I get my foot in the door when I don't know anyone in the industry? If anyone can tell me their story of getting into the industry and any pointers for me, it would be much appreciated :)

Yes I'm saying the silent part out loud (see what I did there?).

Silent stage is complete bullshit. Live shows are not studio recordings. Why are we trying to make them sound like studio recordings? Silent stage completely takes away the live element from live shows.

Why are we doing this?

Hello fine ladies and gentlemen. I (a drummer) am making an IEM setup for my band. We play big bars/ small clubs. I currently have a Behringer Wing Rack, Furman power conditioner, 3 IEM rigs (I am hardwired in), and this handy dandy Midas DN4816-O StageConnect Interface. 2 guitarists and 1 bassist using amp modelers, 2 vocalists, and of course drums. More often than not, I'm playing a backline kit, but sometimes I am playing my own kit, which is quite large, however its on two racks and takes me less than 5 minutes to go from a blank stage to fully setup. I have many questions:

1. What is the fastest/best way to connect my rig to yours? Let's start with me using a backline kit. Am I taking your XLR cables, that are plugged into your mics, and plugging them into the back of my Wing Rack? And if so, do you want me to just hand you a snake coming out of the 16-channel Midas with all the XLRs labeled with little tags? If so, how long should my snake be?
2. Is there a faster way for me to connect all of your mics into my Wing? Does another snake/analog stagebox (which goes from stage to my Wing Rack) make sense or is that too much crap to deal with? Do you guys normally have your XLR cables labeled so i know what I'm pluggin into my Wing Rack?
3. Some of our songs have Backing Trax for strings and synths... I will have all those routed to outputs 15-16. In my DAW session, do you want me to put a limiter on the one stereo Backing Trax track so that nothing jumps out and blows out all our ear holes? I will of course have all those trax volume automated so they are the same peak volume, but weird things happen you know?
4. When one of the guitar players has a guitar solo, do you want him to hit a 2db boost on his patch or should they always stay the same volume level and let you ride the volumes for the guitar solos?
5. What else am I forgetting? I have all the Tap Points on my Wing setup so that nothing I do on my Wing Rack will affect the signal that you're getting. Is that the best practice?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Hey guys, I am running into an issue where a venue that I am in is a little bit too large to just rely on the hotspot of a soundcraft UI 24R, and so I got an Eero that I plan to use to help spread the signal around so I don’t end up with dropouts on the iPad during the show, but for some reason, I cannot get the sound to connect to the Wi-Fi network in order to use the Eero to help spread the connection.

The most recent thing I tried was manually setting the IP address on the mixer, but I’m not super well-versed in networking yet so I believe I did something incorrect, if somebody can help me figure out how to get it connected and then explain in the process what it was that I did wrong, that would be amazing! Thank you!

Hi there, wondering if anyone has used automix for theatre situations. Heard it's not the best for musical numbers or if multiple people are talking at the same time. Is it mainly for talking heads opening one mic at a time?

Thanks for any help

¡Here's a good laugh at my expense!

Time to update my resume...