Friday, May 26, 2006

Mac Rogers


Who doesn't love Mac Rogers? That is the scripted character name of our newscaster character. We finally shot "her". Yes, Mac Rogers is a female newscaster. Played by Catie Zambri. In the flesh.

That link above is to the actual Mac Rogers' blog. But there's more:

George Hunka has a blog too. He doesn't know it but he's actually covering for me right now, covering for Daryl, at the Source today.

Time to make some holograms. . .

La Gioconda


I feel a lot better now that we're renting a Yamaha DM1000 with an Aviom card for La Gioconda. That'll make things much easier. I went out to Nancy's place yesterday to select gear she's lending for La Gioconda.

JC from the Scoldees had printed this out and showed it to me and Nancy. My two favorite things. Bunnies and pancakes!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Ato Again


Why do I keep posting pictures of Ato? Well, with these pictures, who wouldn't? He's the one on the right. He doesn't even need a gun.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Blogdesign

OK, so other than the cute picture of the fox, that previous post was a bit confused. I'm thinkin' maybe I need a 16-pair mult. We're still short a decent delay and a reverb. I need the delay more than the reverb. Live would be vastly easier if we could just get the band moved off-stage. We shall see.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Designing on a Blog


  • This part of the blog must be appallingly boring to anyone who would read this. But I gotta put these thoughts somewheres.















    La Gioconda Input List
    1. Donya KB L (Scott's Neve L)
    2. Donya KB R (Scott's Neve R)
    3. KB #2 mono (Whirlwind DI -- Audio Precision 1)
    4. Percussion L (Audio Precision 2)
    5. Percussion R (Audio Precision 3)
    6. Stick (JDV DI used as a line driver)
    7. PCC 160 Left (Audio Precision 4)
    8. PCC 160 Center (Audio Precision 5)
    9. PCC 160 Right (Audio Precision 6)
    10. Upstage microphone (Audio Precision 7)
    11. Spare(Audio Precision 8)
    12.

Multiband Dynamics -- Samplitude

I'm just publishing this so I have a place to get to oit anytime I want.

Samplitude User Board -> Multiband Dynamics: "Sams MBD is better than a lot of expensive plugins when set up well.
Years ago it was said by mastering engineers to be worth the price or the program alone!

Unfortunately the presets are rotten and the default 'comp max' has wrongly implemented sliders.
- also in any mode the sliders don't represent the range that you can really adjust, so this makes it even more difficult to use.
Don't worry about the above though - the compressor mode rocks !

Here is a mastering setup mini micro tutorial:

First thing - set up a master limiter as MBD in 'compressor' mode doesn't have one by default.
I prefere the old limiter for this - go in the master routing section and uncheck 'use advanced dynamics' - close. Now right click the dynamics button in the master section.
Set threshhold to -0.01db .

Open MBD and change the mode to Compressor.
Choose four bands.
Set threshhold to around -15 or -20 depending on how loud your material is.
Set the ration to 3.8 for now.
Un-check 'link all' and set the outputs of each band to +8 +6 +5 +4 (left to right).
Now set the Attack and Release to 50/50, 30/30, 20/20 and 06/10
Adjust the frequency bands too - start with (top to bottom) 0.16, 0.64, 3.47
Use the 'OUT (All)' slider to get the output matched to the bypassed volume when comparing - don't forget that we're altering the EQ by compressing the bands seperatly but this isn't a problem, more a tool for smartening the sound up. Re-adjust the indiviual band-outputs to maintain the original frequency response.
Now for the fun (but very controversial) part!
Use the 'OUT (All)' slider to krank up the volume - watch the RMS display i"

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

designing on a blog redux

So, for Ed's show I've got two (possibly stereo) keyboards, a percussionist, and a Chapman Stick fer cryin' out loud. Will "La Gioconda" be like "Shock the Monkey"? We'll see. Anyway, that's at least seven feeds right there. Then there's another three from the stage. I wish we could afford a real monitor matrix. Pleh.
Here's equipment from One Dream Sound:
1x 12 pair mult 100' ($100)
1x 8 chan mic pre ($100)
3x km184 (200)
3x pcc160's
$544 total

NANCY SIRIANNI’S BORROWABLE EQUIPMENT LIST

MICROPHONES
--------------
Senheiser 421 (good low-end response)
AKG 223
EV RE-20
(6) Shure 58's
(4) AKG 1000's (shitty but good for overhead)

PA SYSTEM
-----------
with TEAC 8 channel board - has proprietary cables
and 2 speakers

SPEAKERS
---------
(2) ns-10m'S
(2) Yamahas (by her TV)
(2) JBL's (large)

CABLES
-------
(2) 50 ft. (male 1/4 inch phono TO male 1/4 inch phono)
(1) 50 ft. (extension)-(FEmale 1/4 inch phono TO male 1/4 inch phono)

HEADPHONES
-------------
(4) AKG 240's

AC POWER
----------
Many Extension Cords with Surge Protectors and Breakout Boxes
PLUS: Roll Out Extension Chord with 6 Plugs

SCOTT'S STUFF THAT SHE HAS ON LOAN
---------------------------------------
Neve Pre-Amps (a pair) - Newly refurbished
(1) BLU baby bottle mic.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Robot fight day, er, 3. . .


Yup, our third attempt to get this one shot! But we figured out what the problem(s) was and then we promptly broke both of the robot's knees. It was like the Mafia was there. Anyway, we repaired the knees (notice that Mike Kessell, who built the robot, was NEVER on the set for the actual OPERATION of the thing! ;-)
It's going to take a while to build this composite, but here's frame 5 of six seconds of video!