Brock

OK Brock. I think a while back you said you work on stages. Judging by what Tools for Stagecraft sells you have one of the most gadget oriented jobs out there. Just what do you do exactly? If you really work on stages do you use lots of tools/gadgets?

If he had bizarre light bulbs for a $2,000 photometric calibrator (thanks Brock!), I bet he has access to just about anything. People who work "behind the scenes" in theatre or TV are usually surrounded by all kinds of technological marvels that us mere mortals can only dream of.

But I'll let him answer your question in full.

Boss,
Brock don't actually *work* no more. He got promoted some time ago, and now he plays with gadgets, feet up on the desk, and just tells other people to do the work.

lightlover

LOL I wish. It is true I just got a promotion. For the past 7 years I have been "House Audio" for a 2000 seat road theatre, and a 220 smaller "black box", last year we did 301 performances. Basically we do shows from Barbera Mandrell, to Cats, to Symphonies, to Penn and Teller (one of my favorites) to George Carlin (in two weeks actually). So I used to either run the sound for the show or help the road guys with their gear or some of their gear and some of ours.

Now I am a Technical Director, so I am in charge of the sound, lights, stage management, well basically all the crew. I schedule the crew, figure out how many we need for a call, if we need to rent anything. A lot more paperwork then I like. We also opened a remodeled 900 seat old theatre downtown last month, so I have been really busy with both theatres.

But yes I get to play with all kinds of bright lights, and get to use my flashlights a lot

It's a lot of fun being a sound guy. Not only do you get to use gadgets, but everyone around you is into them also. I am constantly comparing tools and gadgets to my friends and co-workers. Several of them have benefitted from my using this forum for flashlight advice. The people around me now have Photons and Arc AAAs and ASP Triads and Scorpions and 6Ps and such.

Brock, how long have you been doing sound? I'm sort of in the same situation. I was the head (actually the only full time) audio guy where I work until recently and did all the shows. Now that we have some more employees and a lot more equipment, I do more operations and the occasional sound gig. We are more of a sound reinforcement company. We are the guys that would come into Brocks theater and either provide all the sound, lights, stage, set, etc... (if they don't have any) or suppliment what they already have.

Is it appropriate here to talk about what sound equipment we use? If so... well... um... what ya' got?

Actually I've been wanting to talk "shop" with Brock and any other experienced sound guys out there. Anyone up for some audio questions?

You guys who have an excuse to be spending this kind of money really have me green.

I had to work as a carpenter for quite a while just so I could justify the tens of thousands of $$ of tools that I wanted to buy. Now I guess I'd better check the want ads at the local theaters!

I know there is Alt.Stagecraft for this kind of stuff... Not that I mind it here, tho.

I should mention the guys there were nice when I was asking questions.

PhilAlex is a stage hypnotist, and was asking questions about microphones and such...

Nice buncha guys..

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tree:
It's a lot of fun ... Is it appropriate here to talk about what sound equipment we use? ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Tree,
this is the Café Forum - you can talk about anything here.
Also, there is no such thing as Off-Topic in the Off-topic Café !!

lightlover

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by *something ridiculous ?:
Also, there is no such thing as Off-Topic in the Off-topic Café !!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, you'll notice that's why I'm here a lot. Staying on-topic seems to not be in my genetic makeup.


[Moderator Edit - UBB code fixed for Darell ...]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by *something ridiculous ?:
Tree,
this is the Café Forum - you can talk about anything here.
Also, there is no such thing as Off-Topic in the Off-topic Café !!

lightlover

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think I have been warned once before
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=22&t=000201

that's it, from now on anything goes!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PhilAlex:
I know there is Alt.Stagecraft for this kind of stuff...
Nice buncha guys..<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Thanks, for some reason I can't get that in outlook express. Actually I stayed away from newsgroups way back when I had a dial up account and tried to access a pro audio newsgroup and was getting thousands of messages every day. I guess it's time to look at them again.



---edit--- as of now I can't seem to get any newsgroup.

i, too, am an 'audio guy'...

i got my start doing outdoor shows in washington, dc...you know, like earth day, the NOW rally, taste of d.c., million man march, etc...i started building stages, but after a few weeks of non-stop 20 hour days lifting steal and 4x8 foot wooden decking panels (you can actally carry two of these at once, one on each shoulder...mostly balance ) i got tired (literally) of this...i moved to lighting for awhile, but the company i was with didn't have any moving lights and i didn't know enough to actually LD the shows, so this got pretty boring also...so then i started doing sound...

that was about 8 years ago...now a-days i freelance locally which i much more enjoy because i get much better money and i can stay home with my son more...i mostly do A1 stuff for 'industial', or corporate, audio...fairly boring stuff but sometimes it's fun (the technical side is always fun, it's trying to stay awake during the show that's the hard part)...i do get the occasional good band still tho...

i've also tried reading some of the news groups but found there were way too many messages to keep up with...also, it seemed that most of them were just bickering back and forth about mostly opinion-oriented stuff anyhow...all the engineers i've met in my life, not one of them does the same thing the same way...part of the reason i find it interesting ...

20 years ago did tech stuff at a small theatre and went to a lot of Broadway shows. Have not been to much lately but went to a national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar two years ago and was amazed at the lights-motorized movement and color changes. I'd love to play with a new set-up. But life tends toward more responsible things now and a theatre job would be at least an hour from here.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tree:
I think I have been warned once before http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=22&t=000201

that's it, from now on anything goes!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I had a vague memory that it was you !

Yup, I *warn* y'all: if you want to stay On-Topic, or talk about mere torch issues you oughta post in another Forum ......

This Forum is for the Real Big Stuff !!

lightlover

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by papasan:
i, too, am an 'audio guy'...

...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We do lights staging and sets also, and staging is by far my least favorite part. Just too heavy .

I used to freelance and made more money doing it, but the prod company I work for now keeps me local and about half the year I can keep somewhat normal hours. Most of the time corporate audio is right up there with watching grass grow. That's why I chose the company I work for. My other choices would have done mostly all corporate audio where this company does a lot of concerts along with the usual corporate stuff. As a matter of fact I should be in Hunter, New York in August for the annual festival we usually do. The one thing about corporate audio, it's where the big $$$ is.

And your absolutely right about no two audio engineers doing things the same way. Which leads me to my question. Lately we have been doing these all night 30something "raves" (boy do I see some sights from these). You know, DJ's playing for 8 hours straight with me providing a monster PA, lights etc... I usually provide waaaaay more then they need so I can safely get to the godzilla volumes they want the music at. Anyhoo, I wanted to know if any of you have tips on avoiding low end turntable feedback in the subs. I can usually EQ it out (4-5db down at 40 and 60 Hz) but that usually takes away from the punch of the bass. Isolating the turntables from physical contact vibration does not work, so it must be transmitting through the air. I have 4 Meyer 650-p's and 4 Meyer MSL-4's per side for about 800 people. For those who don't know sound that would be like using a 500lm M6 to find your way to the bathroom at night!! (way too much) I thought of delaying the subs 30ms or so. When I get some free time at work, I'll have to set it up in the warehouse and try different things.

Sorry *something ridiculous ? I guess I just feel guilty, like I'm stomping all over a post about Brock.

I'll start a new thread with my audio question.