| me: marty lester out of Austin, TX
us: "Everywhere Audio"
gig(s): i'll try to keep this brief, but it's quite a story...
i got booked for 2 different shows during SxSW...one thursday and one
friday. the thursday gig was an afternoon party at a club called the Velvet
Spade. show was 4 hours starting at 2pm...4 bands. outside, on their patio.
after finessing the P.A. company, i fix it so they send us a split and we
record to Alesis HD24XR (our main recorder) via 3 presonus Digimax
pres. i rent us a van to set up in the parking lot because i don't
have an actual mobile truck/van yet...and the passenger van with all
but the back seat removed has worked before. the client was Island
Records UK, by the way.
gig 2 was to record Harry Shearer's "Le Show" at a Presbyterian Church
just off the main drag of clubs on friday at 6pm-8:30pm. i wanted to
use the HD24 as well, but Harry requested a Protools system as he
has one and has to mix the show saturday for broadcast (at my
day job studio, Tequila Mockingbird) on sunday. i therefore had
to rent a PT rig 'cause i'm too poor for the moment to own my own.
i would use my 16 channel splitter i've just purchased, a rented
Millennia 8 channel mic pre (amazing) and 1 presonus Digimax
for a total of 16 inputs. i would then use the HD24 for redundancy.
still with me?
well...2 weeks before the events, i find out my thursday party
is actually friday. the folks who contracted me never actually
told me that the thursday gig was moved to friday. so i'm double
booked. i bet more than one of you know that special cold sweat
feeling...
well, i get my partner to cover the Velvet Spade gig, rent some
gear to cover what would have been shared between the two
nights, and tell my client "no problem...." while my sphincter
un-puckers.
how did it go?
the Velvet Spade set up was almost flaweless. the PA company was
solid...they fed me a fan-out. they mic'd everything i needed (i don't
own enough mics yet to cover every possibility), let me hang some
shotgun mics on the P.A. risers for audience mics, and were
generally calm and easy to work with. so around noon, i head
up to my church gig to set up...walk in with gear right as an
A.A. meeting is conviening and get curious looks from everyone.
i'm the first one there from the production crew. no P.A. guys,
no stage manager, no one. i start getting set up and my
Protools rental guy (thanks Brad) shows up w/ the rig...we
load it in, test it, and i continue. not 15 minutes later i
notice i'm not getting good clocking anymore (i'm using
the ADAT ins from the Digimax as my clock master for PT).
i try everything i can...use word-clock, disconnect this, re
connect that. i call Brad back over and we discover the lightpipe
in jack on the 192 digital card is bad. fortunately, he has
2 dig. cards on the 192 so we try the 2nd one et viola! perfect.
sphincter un-puckers again, and i continue. i decided to use
my MOTU Traveler/iBook combo as a redundant backup for
the PT rig, which worked flawelessly. i must say i'm very
impressed by the Traveler/iBook. i don't know if i'd trust
it on it's own yet...but i'm close to trusting it.
anyway, the gig went almost pefectly. the church sounds incredible...i
can post a pic if anyone wants. Lyle Lovett stopped by for a couple
songs, an incredible piano player named Henry Butler from New Orleans
closed the show and blew us all out of the water. Judith Owen and
Harry did a few songs, and an amazing singer who's name escapes
me also sang a tune. all great.
i learned a ton from all this, and even had a bunch of fun.
thanks for tuning in...
marty. |