Amiga, Makerbot and Line Arrays

Anyone remember trying to render graphics or print anything other than text from a computer in the mid 80's? I recall having to wait till sleep to hit the render button with a 50% probability that the computer will crash, only to end up with a crude version of the graphic that took another whole eternity to to create and when it finally came to printing it out after 20 false starts to get the layout formatting correct between lock ups and those darned reboots that required a reload of a shit ton of floppy disks because hard drives were not yet a common consumer item of affordability.

Well, the reason this comical now but frustrating then memory comes to mind is my adventures with 3D printing. Though nowhere near as archaic, the nuances of creating printable drawings and sit and wait adventure while the little nozzle moves around squirting hot plastic brings back those old memories. For those not familiar with how the most common 3D printers operate, basically all they are is a hot glue gun nozzle attached to a plastic wire feeder that can move around in the X and Y axis and a plate that moves up and down in the Z axis while it squirts hot plastic in hopefully all the right places to end up with what was on the computer screen.

Line Array Adventures!

(as promised to answer a twitter question)

OK, so how about taking a look at some aspects of line array HF design? One of the major challenges with designing a line array is getting the sound to radiate out of all places of the enclosure at the same time. This may sound more trivial than it is. Sound likes to radiate outward in circular waves like rings from a stone dropped in water. But line-arrays need sound to radiate more like a flat stick shape from each horn.  If you just use a horn that has a tall narrow opening, the sound will exit the shortest distance first which is the middle and still have an arc shape as it leaves the horn/waveguide.

To get around this, there are several methods that the various manufacturers employ with varying degrees of success. I will divide these up into the three basic types/approaches and gives a brief description of some assets and issues with each as well as a few links to patents from the manufacturers.

The Equal Path Length Waveguides

Three examples of companies that patented this type are L-Acoustics, Adamson and Turbosound.  The concept is to create a waveguide wherein the the shortest distance from the horn driver diaphragm to anywhere the sound can exit, is exactly the same (or of a predetermined minimal offset).

L-Acoustics does this by first determining the distance from the driver to the top/bottom of the waveguide exit, which is the longest distance.  Then designing the waveguide shape such that the sound travelling out of the middle area of the exit has to travel an equal distance. The patent explains it in depth.

The L-Acoustic Patent (1988) by Christian Heil

Since L-Acoustics had already patented the most simple and direct design, indirect designs started being developed. Nexo came up with an interesting method. How about sending the sound from a compression driver down a horn and reflecting the sound off of a curved surface such that the reflected sound was correctly timed by the time it leaves the horn. 

The Nexo Patent (2000) by Francois Deffarges

Adamson came up with another work-around. I heard rumors that some potential infringement questions that arose but I guess the patents were differing enough that Adamson's held. Basically what the Adamson design does is it divides the process into two parts.  The first part over corrects the sound wave so it comes out the top and bottom of the initial waveguide first and the middle last.  Then the second part lets the sound wave expand naturally in the secondary waveguide.  The two waveguides are designed such that the over correction and natural expansion combine to have the sound exit the secondary waveguide at the same time.

The Adamson Patent (2003) by Brock Adamson

Another way to try and solve the equal length conundrum is to divide the sound up into a multitude of smaller tubes of equal length and then rejoin them at the exit. This is the path that Meyer Sound and  Turbosound followed to develop their line array waveguides as shown in. 

The Meyer Sound Patent (2001) by John Meyer, Perrin Meyer and Richerd Herr

The Turbosound Patent (2008) by Dickie Laurence 

You can almost feel the minds churning to create a solution to get in the line-array game. In general, my experience has been that the more complex the design is, the more room for error, resonance issues and unwanted reflections.

The Multi-Driver Designs

This concept goes back pretty far and I was able to find a patent by RCA from 1927. Basically it is simply using a higher quantity of smaller drivers instead of one, two or three larger 2" drivers.  This gets the sources close together and all radiating at the same time.

The RCA Patent (1927) by Carleton Haigis (you will need to view the pdf)

So with L-Acoustics having a patent on the simplest most direct solution in 1988 and the other 'equal length' concepts to get around the L-Acoustics intellectual property patent yet to be concocted, companies started coming up with various multi-driver contraptions that basically use a multitude of long narrow horns with on each.

The Clair Patent (1999) by Richard W. Lehman

Unlike the L-Acoustics and Adamson solutions, the Clair multi-driver approach does not fully create an output where all the sound radiates at the same time. Instead there are a bunch of smaller arcs, one from each horn/driver.  The more drivers the better but the drivers tend to be physically a bit of an issue limiting the maximum quantity. Though Clair did an admirable job by employing nine 1" drivers I believe in their I5 rig, every other driver offset to the left or right so the vertically fit in the box.

Another version of the multi-driver as implemented in the JBL Vertec systems was just to use 3 drivers and not really be too concerned that the sound all leaves the horns at very close to the same time. Though this was consistant with the JBL design in that the Vertec system allowed for much more drastic angles between boxes as well.  I huge asset in versatility and a detriment in sound quality.

Also there are some other designs that utilize diamond or other shaped 'obstructions'  in the horn that assist in aligning the timing of the sound leaving the differing parts of the horn

Here is another multi-driver patent that I am not familiar with any large format systems employing but is interesting as well,

Nakamora Sound Labs Patent (1993) by Hisatsugu Nakamura

The No Waveguide Solution

Hey, why not just use a ribbon driver? That's what we want, right? All the sound to radiate at the same time in the vertical domain. I do feel that ribbons logically are the best solution, practically though, there are some challenges. Conventional drivers are most efficient when centered in the gap and as you drive them harder, there is both a mechanical limitation can be a decrease efficiency. This parallels other components in the system to a degree. Most ribbon designs have a perforated magnet in front and behind the ribbon, not only are there artifact from sound passing through the perforation, the harder you drive the ribbon the closer it gets to the magnets creating almost a sonic expander.  Yes, electronics can correct for this perhaps. I do believe major headway has been made in increasing the efficiency and frequency response of ribbons but in my opinion, they are just not yet fully on par with the top level voice coil driven systems, yet.

Other Stuff

A couple other older patents where we can see designs that control the distance sound travels to leave a horn

http://www.archpatent.com/patents/3303904

http://www.archpatent.com/patents/3027964

An older form of line arrays were products like the Shure Vocal Master. 

A few advantages of the equal path length designs is simplicity and that conventional drivers that are readily available can be used.

Multi-Driver Minimal Waveguide

The multi-driver designs can get costly very quickly but they do allow for separate amplification and processing of each driver. Which brings me to what I believe to be the best version of the multi-driver design is currently what EAW has implemented in the new ANYA system, just as I believe that L-Acoustics has the best version of the equal path length design, Anya has the best multi-driver design.

EAW's solution was to develop a very compact, high power 1" dome driver and use 14 of them on very short waveguides, therefore minimizing the timing errors to the lowes of the multi-driver designs to date, almost forming a perfect ribbon.  Except unlike using a ribbon, each segment of the ribbon can be independently processed and new levels of control realized that no other system has capabilities of accomplishing.

Here is a link to a video that explains more

EAW ANYA

If it sounds like I am a fan of the L-Acoustics design and EAW designs, you are correct. If you think that I am a fan because Rat Sound owns both those systems, you are incorrect.  The reverse is true. Rat owns those systems for many reasons and one of which is that I believe that the HF waveguide design is a core and critical aspect of line-array design, and also I have a special affinity for the early innovators with the most finessefull solutions. Yeah, 'finessefull' is not a real word but it should be as it is so useful.

Ok, enough brain dump.  How about a few pics to lighten the load.?

So we make the Soundtools.com products at Rat and Bryant orders some new tube samples and normally this would be just a simple misprint but....

Ha! Rock and roll.... Off to the big rock show.... I bet you cant come up with any other one-liners. 

One of the wheels broke on the Midas Script Scroller 

Here is what the good wheels look like 

So I printed a new pair of wheels on my Makerbot2 3D printer, and back to good again.

I just had to share this. Left to right, my mom, Mark Schoenfield (former step brother), Me, Steve Schoenfield (other former step brother), my sister Tiffany and my brother Phil. And this was only a tiny smidge glimpse of the oddity of my previous life as David Levine before I somehow was renamed Dave Rat by my pals and peers.

Oh yeah! Did a 9 day train trip in Europe with Daughter Sammy.  It was her turn as Maddie and I did a solo pair run 2 years back. I would not trade those adventures for five worlds!

Not disturbing enough to make you want to poke out your mental eye but a fashion statement none the less

And just a pic that makes me smile from the the trip up to Anchorage for a few Peppers gigs.

Ok, that's enough.  And tomorrow one daughter moves out into an apartment with roommates and saturday the other is off to college in New York. Could not be more proud and filled with apprehension of a major life shift at the same time than I feel right now.

Dave Rat

The Probability of Aliens

Oh so many amazing facts, urban legends and hard to imagine news stories constantly streaming from numerous directions. How does one sift through and distill which ones to believe and which to discard? My mom and others constantly send me absurd email "facts" that are nearly always an urbane legend or biased political lynching thinly veiled as humor . To which invariably,after a brief search, I respond with a link to a version of the same story on snopes.com discrediting it's credibility and their breakdown of fact versus fiction. Conversely, exciting new inventions with incredible potential really do exist and new ones are popping up all the time like this molecular graphene material that they say is so strong that the point of a pencil could  not pierce it with an elephant balanced on the other end of the pencil

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=balancing-act

Anyway, the one common denominator seems to be that unbelievable stories turn out being some combination of fact, exaggeration and fiction intertwined. So where does that leave us with the existance of aliens? Do they or do they not exist? Have they visited earth? Well, I sure as heck don't know and even if I did see, touch or hang out with them who would believe me anyway?

But, just out of curiosity, how about we take a look from the viewpoint of 'probability.' And since I don't really know the actual probability that aliens exist, lets just look at two possible probability extremes:

1) We consider a very low probability aliens exist and therefore there are very few if any alien worlds out there.

and

2) We also consider a high probability aliens exist, therefore resulting in a high probability that there are numerous alien worlds out there.

If #1 is true, then other life forms across the universe, including us would be hard to find due to scarcity and the probability of  inhabited worlds being prohibitively far apart would be high. So most likely the probability of these very rare aliens visiting earth would be very low.

If #2 is true, then the probability that aliens have visited the earth at some point in time could be fairly high because aliens are everywhere and cruising all over the place. The probability would also include aliens not only finding us but also also finding tens, hundreds or even thousands of other inhabited 'earths'.

Also since probability dictates that a random sample from a group will most likely fall somewhere towards the middle of the bell curve or normal distribution, it is highly probable that as far as life forms go, us earth humans are somewhere right around average, mediocre, and from the perspective of the outside alien life form, we humans are boring, most probably. Now I know we humans love to feel like we are special and the thought that all our humanly selves and our fabulous creations are not worth more than a quick snapshot as an alien spaceship passes by seems a bit harsh, but it is important to realize that research shows that it is highly probable that our viewpoint of ourselves is strongly biased by illusory superiority.

Which would mean that if there are aliens and if they are close enough and smart enough to find us and visit, then most likely we will be fairly irrelevant to them anyway. So, do I believe in aliens?  Perhaps that is the wrong question.  I prefer to look at the world through levels of probability and the associated outcomes rather than tying myself to rigid beliefs when it comes to unproven concepts. What is the probability that aliens exist and probability that they have visited earth and what is the probability that multiple governments can effectively keep a secret? Heck, I don't know but if aliens do exist I guess I 'd feel special if they slowed down for more than a snapshot.

So on to more relevant adventures

Hey, I am super excited and honored to announce that Rat Sound has hired Paul Freudenburg as our general manager. We have worked closely with Paul for many years while he was with L-Acoustics heading up K1 sales for The Americas. Over the past 33 years Rat has grown from a few speakers in the back of my car to a  multifaceted pro audio company offering international touring sound systems, pro A/V equipment sales, installations and manufacturing of SoundTools products. Managing the growing Rat world is a significant challenge and over the years we have gone through multiple transformations while holding on to some core concepts: great gear, great people, don't take the shortcuts, over the course of time - quality combined with honesty and ethical lines will result in positive results. Each of Rat's departments are individually successful as is Rat as a whole.  Next step is to bring all the Rat departments closer together further increasing the quality of services we provide and consistency throughout. Oh, and especially exciting to me is I hope to have more time to work on new speaker and soundtools designs as well as adventure out for seminars and other creative projects.

EAW ANYA

So at Coachella the EAW ANYA was debuted and we got a first time real world listen.  Rat Sound's position toward taking in a new system is:

"We at Rat do our best to stay aware of new technology and pro audio innovations. We believe that making an investment into a non L-Acoustics large format system that merely offers moderate differentials in maximum SPL, size, weight, sonic signature or deployment features is not worth adding the resulting incompatibilities to our rental inventory. Any large format expansion we do will be focused on products with either a very strong established client demand or something so unique and revolutionary that it solves issues not addressed by conventional line systems"

Well, so far, from everything we have seen, the ANYA System is the first system that is truly unique. The rig dead hangs straight, no "J" shape.  That means the techs can come in, hang the PA first and fast up and out of the way, like we used to in the good old days.  Then after the system is hung, the vertical dispersion can be adjusted to cover.  Set a mic near the barricade and tell the system to find the mic and start covering there, set another mic up in the back of the venue, tell the system to stop covering there. The system then electronically covers the space in between the mics.  All done after the fact, no more dropping the system to change angles, no bumping motors and trying to fudge to cover a new section that was opened after the system was flown. Furthermore, coverage can be increased or decreased in real time, while the band is playing if need be. The system can aim straight up or straight down. a single box can have  up to 180 degree vertical coverage, as can a full 32 box deep hang.

Based on these capabilities, Rat Sound will be taking delivery of an ANYA system later this year and see ANYA an exciting compliment to our L-Acoustics inventory.  A new tool with a differing feature set and differing capabilities. Our commitment to L-Acoustics products is also growing as well and have already placed a substantial purchase request in for more L-Acoustics gear later this year/early 2014.

Wayne Foreman 

1961-2013

So so sad to say goodbye and lose a wonderful friend and magical human. For all those that knew Wayno and his passion for life and huge smile, you are super fortunate. I just posted a super cool video of  Wayno giving a tour of a meal he was cooking for Chili Peppers. Also check out Wayno's Catering 

Sooo, on a less somber note, hey! my twin daughters both graduated high school with honors and I feel like such a proud nerdy dad. Plus both are going to college, a challenge I never quite conquered.

And for now, I guess that's all to share.  Lobby call soon and off to go to the gig as Peppers are playing Firefly Festival in Delaware tonight.  Hey, I think this may be a state I have never mixed a show in.  That leaves only Alaska and one of the Dakotas and I will have worked in all 50.

Changing Patterns

My current ponder revolves around changing patterns. Now that I am relatively home for a while after spending a significant portion of my life over the past two years globe travelling, the impact of pattern change takes hold. Patterns, routines, and predictable familiar outcomes feel simultaneously as desirable as monotonous. Mono-tonos, a life of singular tones and right now that makes me happy. Surfing in the mornings, seeing the mostly retired C-Street surf crew and having breakfast at one of the three main destinations that each day gets determined as if some brilliant new idea was proposed. Vagabond, Busy Bee, Main Street, each with a half century or so legacy of relative insignificance other than being a consistent detestation for a predictable meal.

Meanwhile this surf and breakfast routine recycles whilst I come and go on my travels. With each trip to far away lands, the allure of the assorted destinations begins to fade into a routine of it's own.  I realize that I set up a routine as a launching pad for adventures. Without a predictable life pattern, an adventure away provides no contrast, no thrill. I wonder if this internal motivation to build structures to launch from is purely playful or perhaps founded in something more instinctively fundamental. While washing my hair with a nearly empty giant bottle of Bed Head shampoo I briefly side-thought into whether I would buy the same brand next time, and then skip to the same thought about soap and then expand to all the familiar products and the contrast between repeating purchases or switching to new flavors. Could it be an instinct based in self preservation, to establish patterns for efficiency then alter them for safety? Perhaps one shampoo or soap cleans most but not all types of undesirables away and not switching brands allows an accumulation while switching provides a fresh, not necessarily better, but different angle of attack. Maybe to be too predictable in the routes we travel allows predators or competitors to gain advantage? Coaches of sports teams being replaced after a bad season only to get a job with a different team, why would a new team hire a losing coach? Repetition becomes stagnation. A well balanced and successful company bringing in new talent purely to open new avenues and keep things fun, interesting and growing. The creation of patterns so we can comparatively disrupt them. Something about this whole concept makes me happy.

Not only am I mostly home from tour but this is that last summer, so perfectly timed, before my daughters Maddie and Sammy graduate high school with honors that exceed any level I ever reached scholastically and then head off to their respective colleges on the east coast. The world of Rat Sound is doing really well and some new exciting news soon to come.

I believe that in life nothing ever stays the same. The illusion of stability only occurs when the observational time frame is overly limited.  Sufficient expand the time frame perspective and change will always be evident. So if that is taken to be true, then everything can be perceived as either growing or deteriorating, expanding or contracting, solidifying or crumbling. To stop is to begin the process of deterioration, motion is life and a healthy balance between change and consistency is happiness.


So, speaking of restaurants, I have decided to share my favorite the three sets of three, one for each meal that are in my home dining pattern. I thought about driving around and taking pics of them all but then decided that I will post them after I eat there and also remember to take a picture.  All of the restaurants are have a settled in feel and something about them makes them wonderfully unique. So first up is:

For the lunch - Spencer Makenzie's super clean tasting, fresh and a unique Cali-Mex food. It is so hard to find a quick meal that is not heavy or greasy but their grilled fish and shrimp tacos, the ceviche, they make their own cool hot sauces and the fresh cabbage/lemon that seems to be the building blocks they create from, always leaves me feeling refreshed after eating there. Plus their little logo drawings are awesome.

And on to next in the list of scribbles I jotted to blog about. Peppers at RFK Stadium 1992..Peppers and crew all headed to DC to do this Free Tibet concert and it was a bit of mess.  Fruciante had recently rejoined the band, there was no real band management at the time, it was pouring down rain and and there was some growing tensions between the Free Tibet organizers and the Peppers tour manager at the time. I guess some details did not get sorted regarding whom would pay which expenses, the organizers were pissed that Peppers' costs were higher than expected, the tour manager felt that since they were doing the show for free, expenses should be paid and the band members were kept out of the loop and then it starts to rain, really rain, torrential downpour, and thunder, and lightening and BOOM! Lightening strikes inside the stadium. Panic, smoke or steam, paramedics, cancellation and rumors flying.  Someone got hit, several got hit. A girl, a cell phone she was holding, others nearby. Pack it up.  Off to the hotel.

The scramble and the decisions to reorganize, and something is not good.  They are squeezing bands into the schedule that cancelled yesterday but on the new schedule, no Peppers.  So what now? One thing is for sure, it always sucks to be cancelled.  The unfulfilled feeling, travel, setup, expectation then nothing. Now the band members know something is amiss though I am not sure how much they were made aware of. "Why were we cut? We want to play." but to no avail, the organizers will not budge, perhaps by grudge or wedged between too many bands and a curfew, either way, an amicable solution was not only not realized, there was a distinct "no way the Peppers will play" sentiment being propagated by someone in charge.

And the the hush info starts to spread. We are staying on site till the show ends.  Be on call when Pearl Jam starts.  Ok, there is a plan on the down low.  A secret coup. Pearl Jam, the Day 2 headliner takes the stage and plays a great set and then walks off the stage before the encore. The backline techs all head out and do their thing and after several minutes instead of Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers come out and play four songs on Pearl Jams' equipment, to cheers from an audience that had been informed Peppers would not perform. The bands took it into their own hands. The band members of Pearl Jam and Peppers worked together and created a solution that others were not capable of accomplishing.

Soooo, we are at the airport not long after, I can not recall if it was the next day or in a different city. The Peppers'  band and crew, somewhat shell shocked by the roller coaster adventure and we are just getting out of the town cars and beginning toward the check in counters when the tour manager's cell phone rings. He hands it to Anthony and heads over to talk to the town car driver, they chat for a minute before Anthony gets in the car and drives away. "Hey where did Anthony go?" I here someone say. "A change of plans, he is staying, that girl, the one hit by lightening has just awakened"

Chili Peppers at the Free Tibet 1992 concert in RFK Stadium

Ok, I have reached my bloggery time limit.  I write with my laptop on battery and must complete the project before the battery dies.  

DR

Yay for adventures we love to remember

Well alright, Peppers rocked an afternoon gig as the finale performance of the Environmental Summit in Portland, Oregon.  It was super cool to see and hear the Dalai Lama rap about all kinds of stuff. The guy is super lovable, humble, happy and is really good at saying things that make a lot of sense.  I especially liked the way he answered a question about what to do' when one is faced with issues that feel  insurmountable, yet one cares so about deeply them to the point of dismay' or something down that line but worded more eloquently. So in response he says something like "When an issue can not be solved, just do something else that is also positive instead." Anyway, whether that's what he meant or not, I find the concept that regardless of the size or solvability of the task at hand, what is really important is the state of mind we maintain when approaching the challenge or put another way, it is unhealthy to be so passionate about an issue that it makes you miserable and it is a more wonderful and successful choice to embrace positive productive mindsets.

This was not my first close proximity to a Tibetan Monks adventure. Back in '94 when I was mixing sound for L7 on Lollapalloza tour some of the Dalai Lama's Tibetan monks performed a prayer chant on stage to open the show.  The Monks, invited by Beastie Boys Adam Yauch, being somewhat budget conscience or just plain humble, were travelling in a rickety old dilapidated tour bus.  Well, a vintage tour bus in itself is not necessarily a bad thing but add in the persistence of the mechanical failures (think 'no air conditioning with a ton o monks on an over stuffed bus on a summer tour') and even more challenging, the fact that the social qualities of a bus driver tend to be proportional to the age and quality of the tour bus they drive.

I can't remember his name but I would regularly chat with the somewhat scraggly long haired tour manager who had the task of making sure a dozen or so non English speaking monks checked into hotels, showed up for lobby call, rocked their opening slot gig on time and found vegetarian meals across the US. All the while doing his best to convince their irate hillbilly bus driver that "no these are not some wacko robe wearing cult members smuggling drugs or creating terrorist plots."

Meanwhile the Monks were super polite and so curious about everything that looking after them was akin to herding cats. I recall one show but I don't remember the city where I was doing what we sound engineers do on a festival tours after an overnight drive straight into the next show, we wander aimlessly around the venue between catering, the bus and in my wanders I stumble across some back stage video games with unlimited free credits. I proceed to park myself there for a while when out of the corner of my eye, I spot one of the red and yellow robed monks looking over my shoulder. So after I die, I turn around, look at him, look at the game, look at him again and motion the international sign for "would you like to join" by pointing my hands in the direction of the open joystick and buttons for player #2. I motion again and finally, cautiously, reluctantly he begins to to move forward, I start the game, select his character, grab the control on his side and show him how to move the player around and push a few of the action buttons and then return back to my player. Walk to the left, then to the right, I get close he backs away, he comes closer and WHAP! I punch him in the head followed instantly by a feeling of remorse. I look over at him for a reaction and he is locked intently fixated on moving his little scantily clad female character. His little 'she' backs away sort of doing circles and aimlessly kicking  and punching air as he tries to discover the controls while I walk over, kick him in the head, SPLAT! specks of blood fly and I feel terrible again. The rest of that round and the one more round we played after was pretty much spent doing these little dances and I decided I would walk up and try and get in front of his punches and kicks, occasionally succeeding. After the second round, and as in awe of the absurdity as much as feeling traumatized by not knowing what to really do, I step back from the game, turn to him and smile, he smiles, he bows, I bow, I wave, he bows again and I walk away a word never spoken.  And that was the first and last time I played Mortal Kombat with a Tibetan monk.

Dave Rat Blog - Art, Adventure and .....

Art, Adventure and ......

I have been pondering the art of complaining. I see it in others and am dismayed when I find myself immersed in it. Complaints are often descriptions of circumstances or situations that we are trying to convince other people that somehow have happened beyond our control. While indeed many things are beyond our control, the attitudes that we embrace to face challenges, remain fully within our power.

When something goes wrong or fails to meet out expectations, somewhere inside our minds we make a choice of whether to use anger, frustration or in general 'go negative' or perhaps we find a way to laugh and joke about it and grab a hold of a way to minimize the negative impact and probability of recurrence.

Happiness is a decision, happiness is a skill. 

For some it comes naturally, for some it takes practice and others remains illusive. Regardless, happiness is not a stationary state but rather, a trajectory, a direction headed. This motion can come from inside us or an outside influence. If I find myself waking each day trudging through the realities of my life and if suddenly a phone call with a new opportunity comes, happiness follows if I am open or able to accept it. Otherwise if I am closed to the option, the opportunity may have the opposite effect and I feel even more trapped or down trodden. The passive 'wait for someone else or something else to bring happiness to me' mindset is a perfect scenario to become a chronic complainer. 

Hmmmm, what are complaints and are they actually bad? My take is that complaints are pretty much exactly as they are meant to be; a process of annoying others such that others may feel inspired to do whatever it takes to stop you complaining or join to in whinging with you. Fair enough and at times perhaps a useful process, but for the complaining process to work, the complaints need to be well directed, used in moderation and have some sort of resolvability, else they serve no purpose other than making the complainer a less desirable human.

Who would you rather hang out with? The constant complainer over every little unsolvable thing or the person that smiles and overcomes even the most traumatizing of challenges? Which would you rather have other people perceive you to be? 

People that non productively complain are just the people that have not taken control and accepted responsibility over their own happiness trajectory.

Alternately, we can make an internal decision to accomplish a task or set a goal and as we progress in the desired direction, happiness builds. With each goal and step, however slow or small, we can gain more and more control over our direction and happiness and become less of a powerless ship adrift at sea awaiting currents and wind to bring us to land.

And on to more curious things!

Yay! I bought a Makerbot Replicator 2! Ooooh, the idea of having mind pictures become real in plastic.  All I need to do now is commit to learn some 3D software. I typically use Corel Draw now for designs and such and am pretty well versed in it. I do not need perfection, just the shortest time frame between concept and rough prototype would be ideal. Suggestions? Do I really want to commit to AutoCad? CorelCad? SolidWorks? Blender?

Back in time rewind, first a bit too far, here is an old page from the legacy Rat Sound Web Site with a bunch of cool old punk rock flyers and such

http://www.ratsound.com/tours/early/flyers/

And then forward to Peppers tour in Cape Town

I must say I really like it here, cool people, everything is interesting and truly look forward to returning.

Plus, people often talk about being well grounded, well I can honestly say that South American power is well well grounded. Holly crap, that is like a 50 amp ground pin on a standard wall outlet. What kind of catastrophe are they preparing for?

I did a sound seminar on show day and another super group of sound humans! Great questions and I know I keep saying it but it amazes me how universal

Awww, so cute, just a tiny little 60,000 capacity stadium, feels so small.

The show was fun in Cape Town too. Last night of tour and the roadies gather at the watering hole



 we really do have a great group and after nearly two years together the camaraderie is strong

Just for fun, I remember this growing up, my mom is the blond gal in this commercial. Crazy to see it after all these years!

I guess I should really cover some sort of sound subject.  Hmmmm, well my current ponderings are focused on expanding and refining a few of the fundamental concepts I have been exploring in the sound seminars.

1) Nowhere in nature do multiple unrelated sounds radiate from a single source, yet with audio reinforcement/reproduction we do it all the time.

2) Nowhere in nature does the exact same sound radiate from multiple sources, yet we do it all the time with audio reinforcement/reproduction.

3) When the same sound radiates from multiple sources we must address polarity, time, distance and phase issues.

I believe that these concepts hold the critical clues to solving issues and gaining control of comb filtering, sub woofer arrays, steering, sound coverage, sonic realism, power alley and the list goes on and on.

Dave Rat Blog - Home and Away

Yay, home at last and not for a second unhappy with the awesome adventures of travel. Happiness is found in contrast. Life is change and the same with non living things as well and nothing ever stands still.  Everything is either growing or dying, building or crumbling, brightening or dimming.  Nothing nowhere nohow is in a perfect state of stability.  Only the illusion of stability exists when we look at things for relatively short time frames in relation to the life span of the entity in question. If we take this concept that everything is in a constant state of flux, to heart, and apply it to our own humanly selves, we could look at it as we are faced with a decision: To grow or fade, to learn or stagnate.  To stop doing new things is to turn the corner toward fading. Without sadness we would not know what happiness is, without challenge is boredom.

Anyway, babbling ramble aside, looking forward to being home is partially what drives me to find adventures abroad. The adventures make 'away' worthwhile and home too long leaves me longing for adventures and round and round again.

On my way to Rat this morning after awesome fun surfing (but brrr 40 degree cold), I heard an interesting interview about our ability to focus

In my sound seminars, I talk about the importance of keeping the bigger picture in focus while paying attention to the details and I though this was a very interesting observation of human nature. Perhaps this explains why we as sound engineers tend to get so caught up in trying to make perfect sound while overlooking the true purpose of the live event we do sound for.

Here is a link to some more info:

In Plain Sight

and now let's travel back in time to last week in South Africa. Our current and very cool cool Monitor engineer, Mark Vanderwall lined up a crew outing to Lion Park!

And while waiting for the tour and looking at things I saw these

 The craftiness of creating with whatever tools are available is very cool. The ancient art of basket weaving but using telephone wire and creating a wide variety of colorful items. 

More telephone wire art

So once we got going, as expected we saw Zebra

And lions coming closer

And catching bits of flying meat from our caged truck

And really close, this is not a zoomed picture!

As if that was not close enough, say bye bye caged truck and hello to a purring cheetah!

And the little ones are just too cute and no where near as scary.

And here's the crew, caged truck and all

Yay! super cool and check it out if you are ever down in Jo-Burg

Lion Park

But tour is not all fun and games, we are out here for some serious business of making a ton of noise and gathering masses of humans together for good time.  Check out this massive 100,000 capacity venue.  It holds around 85,000 for a rock show and it was either sold out or really close to it.

And from above, actually this is a little mini model version

From the inside

And was super happy to have a good sized L-Acoustics K1 system.  Here you can see them strapping in the sub arrays as well. 32 K1, 30 V-Dosc, 32 SB28's plus dV-docs and Kara underhangs, some deck staked dV-dosc, 3 delay clusters each with 8 V-Dosc and 3 SB28 in cardioid config and a shit ton of dV-Dosc hung around the upper perimeter decks.

And just to be safe and since there were no noise restrictions, I lit that PA up and drove it hot.  Hey, it was just delivered the week before and it was a brand new K1, no better person to break 'er in than I!

Ok, I get the idea that they do not want carts parked there but the stadium also owns carts as well. 

"what? we sold all our golf carts again!, aaargh"

The band right before peppers was Die Antwoord

Flea went out and played a song with them but I did not grab a pic, was too mesmerized or in shock, not sure which, they were as interesting as catchy as disturbing

http://www.dieantwoord.com/

 Next up off to Cape Town, not really but this blog is already so long, I'll split it in two.  Also, I really need to get some actual work done too

Oh, and as a closing note, Robert Scovill's blog post is an interesting read I recommend

http://www.splnetwork.com/blogs/run-your-lives_the-lawyers-are-coming

Rock on!

Dave Rat Blog - Next Stop South Africa

Ooooh, since we fly so much in our world travels and occasionally run into humans carrying overwhelming or irrational fears of flying versus the realities of statistics, I did a bit of keyboard research and found this

Airline Accident Rates

But taking the ponder further, What are the odds of winning the lottery? Being eaten by a shark or dying in a plane crash?

What are the Chances?

And a last little bit while we are sync'ing some perceptions with reality I found this quote that seems naturally logical to me to be appropriate:

"Notwithstanding that fear, the odds of being in an airplane accident are incredibly small. Accidents occur at a rate of one per 1.2 million flights, and the odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11 million [sources: Clarke, Ropeik]. The odds of dying in a car accident are around 1 in 5,000, so you're much more likely to die getting to the airport than you are flying in the plane [source: Ropeik]"

from the Discovery web page:

Odds of Surviving a Plane Crash

Well alrighty then and saying bye bye to Perth, soon to hop aboard an Air South African 11 hour flight to Johannesburg. Yay another new city! Oh and for all those that whine or whinge about plane flights and fears, are scared of swimming in the ocean because of sharks or generally let fears clip adventure from their lives, it's your lucky day, look what I found! The perfect solution (pun intended)

And ordering info:

"as and aid in relieving wind in babies and infants"

Ok, and back to actually important things like whether or not a music at a rock show is loud or not, whether we can spot a wild kangaroo and taking a swim in a new ocean.

So after all the sound concerns for Perth:

Turns out I had plenty of headroom and was quite happy with the sound levels and it was another fun show. 

And as always, if seminar friends show up at the gig, I welcome them on the mix riser if there is room, or even if there's not room.

Then back to the hotel

A good night's sleep and thank you James for rocking us the cool ride for a day off adventure to Margaret river

Ahh, and I get to jump into the Indian Ocean!

 

No waves this time

But were way more successful with the Roo spotting

Yay, beers are only $10! Not only that, a tiny bowl off peanuts were a bargain at $3.50.  Oh my, crazy prices everywhere for us spending the low value US dollar

Heck ya, motherboard for a badass laptop!

Ok, after the string of goofy me pics, I feel I should share something remotely soundish and useful.  Here is a copy of  an Excel spreadsheet I use to help decide whether Rat will buy equipment to add to our rental inventory and the aspects of cash versus lease versus loan.

http://www.daverat.com/Rental vs Lease-Purchase_blog.xlsx

and an older blog post that explains a bit more

http://www.ratsound.com/cblog/archives/376-Important-Things-and-Stuff.html

Cool cool. Off to professionally plane sit!