Euro Peppers Adventures Continue

So before I continue the Euro adventure updates, a brief pause to reminisce about a few highlights of the US I have left behind.

While touring east of the Mississippi how excited was I to catch one of the final performances of the T-Bone steak tour of Waffle Houses! 

In my beautiful home town Oxnard Shores (not just s pretty name), there is a guy who lives down the street from that makes boomerangs in his garage.  Whilst driving home a few weeks ago, Mmy daughter and I spotted this sign. Looks like he is bumping up his game from just making them to offering lessons as well. Clearly his entrepreneurial genius is shining through. My biggest concern is that the huge crowds of people flocking to master this new skill will crowd the streets and overwhelm the neighborhood. Especially being that he failed to put his street address or any form of indication of where he lives several blocks away. 

So meanwhile, I am rocking out on a European Peppers tour. Sunderland, show 2 at the Stadium of Light

Which turned out to be a bit of wishful naming.

The glory of tour sometimes seem to be endless. Hey look! Someone bought the crew dafter show dinner Yay, free sandwiches! Gosh, feeling loved right now!

Oooh, and wine too! Well, actually Scott and I just peeled the stickers off the sandwiches and stuck them on the wine as well to cheer every one up a bit more.

Sunderland show went well and was wet, wild and fun and next up, a bus and ferry ride to Dublin

And Dublin wanders

Oooh, waveform interference patterns from omni-directional duck sources

So far so good

Building the rock show and I had not noticed seeing the cable wrap method of creating cable looms before

Fantastic seminar in Dublin! Thank you all for joining!

Uh oh! Hmmm.  I deal with sound limits quite a bit but this one is especially concerning and in retrospect I wish I had flat out ignored it. Combined with the wind gusts it as it definitely left me with a much lower sound quality in some area than I ever wish to offer. 

Ahhh, but the sadness and dismay I felt was quickly melted away once I cast mine eyes upon the  glorious after show feast bestowed upon us.

Check out the trash truck in Amsterdam with the remote control arm that grabs the trash and huge underground container

And remote controller guy.

Sound Ponder of the Day

So imagine some scenarios in a free field with minimal reflections

1) Take a high fidelity musical signal split it into two signals delay one of them 3ms and then electronically re-sum them back together. What would that sound like? 

2) Take the same high fidelity musical signal split it into two signals, delay one of them 3ms and run them into side by side speakers.

3) The same as #2 but move the speakers 10 feet apart.

Now place a mic in each of the 3 scenarios such that the mic hears a 3ms offset between the speakers.  In the first two scenarios the mic would be centered and in the third, slightly off center.

Now take measurements of the split and electronically/acoustically 3ms offset recombined signals 

Finally listen to all three scenarios.

Which scenario sounds best? Which sounds worst?  Which measures best? Measures worst?

Now add in 1 more scenario:

4) The same signal into a single speaker, no delay, no split, no recombining.

Which sounds better to our ears, scenario 3 or scenario 4? Which measures 'better with test gear, 3 or 4?

Now compare scenario 2 and 3 by moving side to side several feet, bot measurement wise and by listening, which is more consistent? Which sounds better as you move around, 3 or 4?

Hint:

Home stereo speaker placement has evolved to optimize the way our ears enjoy to hear by spacing the sound sources (speakers). Measurement microphones are blind to the direction sound radiates from, our ears are not.  Our minds calculate direction sound originates. Our ears factor out comb filtering issues from spaced sources, microphones do not.

Day 4 Sunderland and Show 2 of Peppers Euro Stadiums

Ah the thrill of setting eyes upon the glorious destination after an arduous journey. Bypassing the airport arrival hotel and opting for a few days in London, a train ride to Stevenage, UK finds here.  Just an endless fence away from what is hopefully as beautiful inside at the outside presents.

Never did make it to downtown old town but the nearby shopping area was hopping.

And I love experiencing something new everyday, turns out that in order to take food off of the Holiday Inn hotel premises one has to sign a release waiver so the hotel is not liable in the event that I am idiot enough to leave the food to rot, then eat it, then get sick, then am smart enough to determine the hotel food was responsible for making me sick and convincing enough to persuade someone to help me try and sue them. 

But all is not lost as we head to the show site

And the wires get wired, see here, Radek, Jim and Ulf performing a a three tech console patch

And oh the fans did come!

Got to hang with Lars for a few

As the glorious English weather adorned us with attention

And though setup went well, leaving was a bit more of a challenge.  Wet muddy gear trapped for hours, getting FOH and the delay clusters out was just the production challenges, turns out the punters got jammed up a bit as well

I don't mind the rain though caution is wise when wet is around.

And there are things that are important to mind

So after an overnight to Sunderland where now I sit eagerly awaiting show #2 I gaze upon the glory of a beautiful stage!

Ahhh, but no complaints as look at all that K1 system!  Including delays, 96! plus 54 SB28's and another bunch O KARA and K1 SB that I have not counted yet. Big toys are fun and I have a stellar sound sound crew.  Ok, off to wander and see the support bands.

Oh and finally, check out Leif's time lapse from the Peppers US Arena tour.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7nbJCv_T9EYSTVHTGdPU0hKa0k/edit?pli=1#