Monday, September 19, 2011

We don't get all our cool toys till Peppers hit Cologne in October when the full K1 sound system, lighting and custom stage setups all come together. In the mean time I've been messing with more of an assortment of hardware than a tuckstop trollop. The downside is that even though these are mostly our own shows, I start from scratch every gig with a different PA type, brand, size and configuration, festival style. The upside is I get to meet local vendors in each city and tune up my chops on a variety of rigs. I like puzzles, I like a killer perfect sound system even more.
So far I have had Meyer Milo rigs in Columbia and Peru, a JBL Vertec rig in Chile, an Adamson Y10 in Costa Rica and today in Argentina I am doing a Double Hung mixture with a D&B J and JBl Vertec bananas per side. Next I have a single hung V-Dosc in Sao Paulo followed by Double hung Vertec for Rocking Rio festival.
It's a patching and routing paradise, switching between hung and double hung. The way I deal with double hung is I return my sub group compressors into two sets of groups for each instrument. One set of suibgroups sends to the inner system hangs and the other set to outer. This allows me to put vocals or any instrument in either system on the fly.
Since I ran out of subgroups, I have vocals, guit, bass and kick/snare doubled up so in can hit either, while, toms, and cymbals hit the inner d&b rig and percussion and keyboards are dialed into the outer JBL rig.
Rocking Rio will be the first time I have mixed on a Double Hung PA that I did not specify. The PA vendor, Gabison has been running with that setup ever since 2008 or so, not long after Peppers rolled with what I believe to be the first worldwide version of the configuration.
If you want to know more about the theory and implementation of the double hung setup, do search in ratsound.com/cblog for "double hung"

Ok, and the photo run down in a guessing game order:
A blue Peru 3 wheeler
Scotty looking for his set list in Chile
Hugging Salt and Pepper ghosts rule!
The empty gig in Chile
Happy birthday to fearless leader Gage!
For hot sauce fans, the Peruvian Ahí salsa is awesome.
A couple flight pics of the Andes
Anticipation
Our cool support band the Foals
Josh's gutar tech Ian, knees after every gig.
The massive Peru venue from the outside
And finally happy birthday Clara all growed up to be an amazingly cool, smart and vibrant gal and cheers to her talented, inspirational and truly wonderful dad I have had the great honor to know and call a friend for many many years!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

4 comments:

  1. what's written at the back of a lighting designer?

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  2. Dave! Really great show last night in bs.as. I was who went to salute you there, it was nice to "meet" you! Hey, what happened in that little shutdown at the middle of the show?

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  3. I saw the Peppers in Argentina. To me, the first couple of songs were a ball of bass and cymbals, could barely hear the guitar and I couldn't hear Anthony at all. After the 3rd song or so, all the instruments sounded clear and distinct and I really enjoyed the show! A little volume for the guitar at some points, wouldn't have hurt either.
    I left a comment on your twitter, but was hoping to be more constructive here with the extra space. I know how you work hard to guess the audience's ears and maybe you'd appreciate the feedback :)

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  4. So let's hear the power of thqt single hung V-Dosc tonight. I'll pass by the siundboard if it's not too crowded. Have a great show!

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