Dave Rat Blog - changes of plans

So, seminar Frankfurt is not going to happen and will be postponed to some future date yet to be figured. Instead I am heading over to do a sound check which of course is my first priority.

Peppers rarely sound check but starting up a new tour leg and with our new monitor engineer Bob Lewis on board, getting some quality check time is important. It's great to have Bob out as well as we miss Tim Engwall whom has graciously and amicably relinquished the position.

Well alright, off to give a listen to a bunch o sound gear in Gelsenkirchen. Oh, this the same place Peppers played for that Stock Car Race TV show last year.
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Dave Rat Blog - New journey

Town car off to Lax and a schedule to rival the punk tour days.

22 fly
23 arrive
24 seminar Frankfurt
25 Show Frankfurt
26 fly Prague, seminar Prague
27 show Prague
28 fly Zagreb, seminar Zagreb?
29 show Zagreb
30 fly Bucharset, seminar Bucharest
31 show Bucharest
1. show Sofia
2. off Sofia
3. fly Athens, seminar Athens
4. show Athens
5. fly Beirut, seminar Beirut
6. show Beirut
7. Fly Istambul, seminar Istambul
8. show istambul
9. Fly Tel Aviv, seminar Tel Aviv?
10 show Tel Aviv
11 fly home or stay and seminar Tel Aviv
12 fly home

Yay! A day off in three weeks or at least wishful thinking and Kim and I will end up self destructing. We will be traveling light, fast and nearly independant of the actual tour.

Sustain-ability test and how cool would it be to be able to go on tour as a sound engineer without the band?

Oh, and I will try try to blog the unraveling sanity I somehow feel we are heading towards.

Bye bye to Sammy and Madeline just melt my heart and at least I was in town for the first few days of their senior year.

Well alright, off to Frankfurt and hey, I included a reference pic of recommended minimum package labeling in case you ever need to ship something.
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Dave Rat Blog - New Toys

Well the home town LA and Oakland shows are done and all seemed to run well. Surreal to be surrounded by so many long time friends immersed in excitement. 

Some cool stuff happening with the SoundTools products and slowly but surely filling out the product line.

www.soundtools.com

The Switcher: A 3 in 1 out XLR switcher.  On Chili Peppers tour we use one, with Anthony's main vocal mic on channel A, a spare mic on channel B and a wireless mic on channel C.  Anthony can grab any of the three mics and our monitor engineer can switch to it instantly for both monitors and FOH.  The mic of choice just shows up in my main vocal channel. No more of that ClearCom calling and warning of a mic switch. Plus, all three mics show up in my already EQ'ed channel.  It is totally the best way to deal with mic switching

The Swapper: Same as the Mic Switcher but it is a 2 in 2 out unit that allows you to preview the spare mic before switching to it or test the mic on another board channel after switching from it.

Both units work with mic level or line level and can be used for a wide variety of other A/B and switching applications.  Plus the tubular housing fits in a mic clip.

1/4" Sniffer/Sender: Same as the XLR Rat Sniffer/Sender units except it is 1/4" TRS.  These 2 piece units allow the testing of 1/4" tip/sleeve and tip/ring/sleeve lines and you do not need to have both cable ends in the same location. Plus they can be used in conjunction with the XLR Sniffer/sender units

More products to come soon. 

In seminar world I took a break on the last run to regroup a bit with the exception of Tampere Finland which went really well. Thank you Pauli! So now, Kim and I are back on track with the most adventurous seminar schedule yet. We have moved the sessions to days off in the evening instead of show days to reduce the stress and potential overlap with gig issues.  If you are interested, shoot an email to seminar@ratsound.com and see you soon.

• 24th August-Seminar in Frankfurt
• 26th August-Seminar in Prague
• 30th August-Seminar in Bucharest
• 2nd September-Seminar in Sofia
• 3rd September-Seminar in Athens
• 5th September-Seminar in Beirut
• 7th September-Seminar in Istanbul
• 9th September-Seminar in Tel Aviv

Other cool and curious stuff:

There are few business-humans that I hold respect for but one is Jack Bogle.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/business/john-bogle-vanguards-founder-is-too-worried-to-rest.xml

Next up in curiosities is check this out

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679248/dutch-kids-pedal-their-own-bus-to-school

And who would have known there are such things as a Ligor and a Tiglon!

And finally for today,

9 great mechanical principles and inventions

Well alright.  Off to take the daughters to a soccer game and 2 days before I am off to Europe.

Dave Rat