Gigs

[RoadRanger]

Saturday I did a sit down dinner for 520 with a live band. The 5 GHz wireless was flawless. I used a Griffin Survivor case for my iPad for the first time. It was a lot less scary carrying it around in a case vs "naked" and the built-in stand worked great on a table. The venue set up a small table for me about half way back in the room - it was nice to have a "home" .

[RoadRanger]

Tonight at a micro joint about 3 miles away:
The Village Pizza, Restaurant & Lounge
22 Woodstock Ave West
Putnam, CT
On the border of Woodstock just before the Woodstock Fair on 171.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/66433_437364229683252_1522354920_n.jpg

[jlb]

Perfect gig for the DL. No room to move and twirling, beer guzzling hippies everywhere. Mixer comes into view around 2 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_aFBkjYEE

[RoadRanger]

Perfect gig for the DL. No room to move and twirling, beer guzzling hippies everywhere. Mixer comes into view around 2 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_aFBkjYEE

Awesome, great sound !

[RoadRanger]

My gig last night went well. Stoopid small joint, the 4 inch high stage was barely deep enough for the drummer so everything spilled out 6 feet, even the mic stand for the kick. No place to set up side stage so my amp rack and DL1608 sat on the sub on the right against the wall. Much to my amazement it didn't vibrate off. The Danley TH-Mini subs I have are pretty solidly built so don't vibrate much. Access to the DL1608 was difficult so I just set the trims during sound check and left the break music on shuffle all night and muted it during the sets. I'll have to play around with airplay some more but I think the problem there is that the airplay receiver app dies if it is in the background and you stop sending music . I only had one circuit but my efficient and superlight class-D amps and RCF 310A tops were OK with that. I have the option of bridging the sub amp for 1200w into each sub or running in stereo with 400w into each, the latter was fine for this place. Bridged probably would have popped a breaker. Oh, and I still love my amp rack - 3 amps totaling 6 kilowatts and only 35 lbs .

[jlb]

Nice^.  I am finding myself using the DL for most of my shows. I am getting old and lazy so this is a perfect fit for me. Between the processing in my ITechs and the DL I have lightened the load. My small, JBL rig, two tops two subs and six wedges fit in my 4-Runnner. No more hauling around my trailer for <300 person gigs.


Nice job on the forum RR. Thanks!

[RoadRanger]

My rig fits in my Scion Xa hatchback. My wedges are 10" coaxials and I too carry 6. I actually own eight but can't really fit all of them  .

[LennyG]

Really looking forward to our first gig with the DL1608 next Saturday.  I've been trying to prune-down our hardware, and this will really help.  This lets me get rid of the big soundboard and its power supply/EFX road case.  Now that we all have IEM's the wedges are gone, and our PA equipment is now simply the DL1608, two Bose PAS's, and one small road case for the wireless receivers.

Rehearsal was great with the 1608.  I think the gig should be awesome.

[RoadRanger]

two Bose PAS's,

Which model?

[LennyG]

The original Bose PAS, with the large semi-round base below the column, and two subs per side.  This was the first model, before they came up with L1 or the new skinnier models they sell now.  I originally got them in 2002/2003 for a mobile DJ business my wife and I had.  We've since sold that business but kept those speakers because I've just never heard anything that sounded better, and was as easy to haul around.  I've used them in my last two bands and everybody loved them.  In my current band it is the sole source of amplification, as we run all the mics and instruments through them (no separate guitar amps).

No snub on Mackie, but I haven't heard or seen any speaker that was better for the audio quality and emission dispersion/projection (about 160° horizontal and 25° vertical).  I know folks complain that they're pricey, but if you put them behind you the way Bose recommends (we don't since we use IEM's) you've just saved yourself from buying wedges and power amps.  Cuts way down on stage clutter.

They're not for everyone since they're only good for groups up to about 500 or so.  Anything larger though and you're probably playing someplace that provides a concert-level sound system.

Speaking of concerts that reminds me of a Toby Keith concert I attended where each side of the stage had racks of the new Crown amps (64 x 8,000 watts ea).  I figured they put out in excess of 500KW and you could feel it.  During the sound check the drummer hit the kick, and it was like a sucker-punch to the chest.     It was loud, but every bit as clean as using the Bose in a small venue.

[WK154]

I thought that I should show the other side of the spectrum of Gigs. Here is our annual fund raiser called "Concert for the Cure" held in an 850 seat auditorium. We raised $41K+ over the years for cancer research, have been at it for 5 yrs. The gear at present consists of 2 JBL Eon 15 G2's and a DL1608 feed by four Sennheiser 835 wireless, two Rode NT3 (wireless for the choirs), and a wired Heil Pr35 (new toy) with a SD Sc1 ADK (Guitar).  Three pieces of gear all on wheels.  Other than the annoying mute problem everything went smoothly. Sixteen talents in less than 3 hr. Sound check for most was the first couple of bars. My wife is retiring after 21 years  from teaching music at WRMS. Here is a sample of the show on U tube.   http://youtu.be/uxniSNVjX5g   . You might recognize our emcee for 4 yrs. and entertainer Deacon from ABC's "Nashville" along with his daughter Taylor. Both song writers and singers as you might have guessed.

[Oddeotek]

In addition to using the DL1680 with my cover band, I am also using the new mixer for broadcast television. I am the courtroom audio engineer for TruTV In Session and am currently mixing the Jodi Arias trial in Phoenix. I have 12 phantom powered condenser mics around the courtroom in addition to a feed from the house system. I use an Apple Express router connected to my iPad mini and sit in the back of the courtroom next to one of our three cameras and mix what you hear out in tv land. This is my first trial with the DL1608 and it has performed flawlessly since we hooked it up. I was using a very nice Yamaha LS9 digital mixer for the last 5 years but this tiny Mackie has eliminated a ton of spaghetti and made my setup a lot easier. We have to tape down all of the mic runs and try to keep everything as clean as possible (too many lawyers around in case we have a trip-and-fall) because the judge has the final say as to whether we can even have cameras in each case. I feed the mains out to our satellite truck and a 40 output audio/video media bridge for the rest of the networks. I have to admit, I felt a little naked in court without a large mixer and a lot of cables around me for the first week. Now, I can't imagine mixing any other way. If you haven't tried using the iPad mini to control your DL, give it a try. It's like playing a video game.

[RoadRanger]

^ Very cool ! I also have an iPad mini and I now have it in a Griffin Survivor case. I leave my iPad 2 docked. The mini is much more fun to mix on as long as you don't have sausage fingers . Is your iPad mini "naked" or do you have it in a case? Do you bring a backup iPad? How about a backup DL1608 or at least a spare power supply? Spare router? I'm just curious how you big-time guys do things .

[dpdan]

I have two iPads, and two routers, if it is a big venue I use the Apple Airport Extreme (stronger signal) or so they say and I believe it is stronger..., if it's a smaller room I use the Airport Express and enjoy the convenience of Airplay.
I did buy a second power supply from Mackie and that sucker was about 70 bucks with shipping... what a rip-off. I keep my Allen & Heath MixWizard in the van just in case.

I still use my Allen & Heath GL2400 32 channel board and two 8 space racks of gear along with the 900 pound snake  for certain jobs, outdoor concerts etc, I still can't believe what we can do with just this little iPad and 1608 mixer. I mean, no EQs, no gates, no compressors, no table in the back, no extension cord, no snake, no gaff tape at $30 a roll for taping down across door entry ways, not to mention the time it takes to haul all that stuff in and out. It's just incredible for so many jobs that simply don't need any more than what it can provide.

And another thing...
when you think about it, the reverb and delay on the 1608 doesn't eat up two aux sends. When I use my Allen & Heath GL2400 32 channel board, I can afford Aux 1-4 for monitor mixes, aux 5 is reverb, and aux 6 is subs. I am left with using a subgroup for vocal and brass delay. I still love an analog console because there is a knob for every single thing and it is always in the same exact spot throughout the entire concert. It is impossible to be anywhere near as efficient at making ballistic, fast changes to the mix when we can go straight to the knob we want. EQ, gain trim, reverb time, delay time, sub level, the list goes on and on, so for me, analog consoles still reign supreme in my books as long as it is not for mixing theatrical shows with 140 cues, then a digital console is king.

In a few months, I will be doing a theatre show with about 15 wireless mics for all the actors, all those mics will be connected to the 1608 and snapshots will be used to store and recall scenes. The outputs of the 1608 will be fed into a few inputs on the GL2400 and added to the mix of orchestra pit mics and anything else. Should be cool!

And why on Earth did Mackie call scenes "snapshots"    I guess whoever decided that is the same person that has no problem with the location of the mute buttons, and sees no reason to color code what "snapshot" is loaded.  Oh well,  some of the most simplest of things that are so screwed up just blows my mind every time I use the 1608. It's a love/hate relationship. I love the mixer, but hate the mentality of some of the programming of the Master Fader App, but I'm the idiot beating a DEAD horse.    Please prove me wrong Mackie!

Sorry to drift off topic...  

 

[Oddeotek]

^ Very cool ! I also have an iPad mini and I now have it in a Griffin Survivor case. I leave my iPad 2 docked. The mini is much more fun to mix on as long as you don't have sausage fingers . Is your iPad mini "naked" or do you have it in a case? Do you bring a backup iPad? How about a backup DL1608 or at least a spare power supply? Spare router? I'm just curious how you big-time guys do things .

I have the iPad mini in a Rocketfish canvas case with rotating stand. It makes the mini look like a small book when it's closed and gives the mini a thicker feel that seems more comfortable and easier to hold. I still have the Yamaha LS9 out in our equipment van if we need a backup for the DL1608. There is no spare power supply but this is also the first trial with the Mackie as a mixer and it was my idea to buy one to try it out for our purposes. Coming to the television world after being a lifelong musician, I was amazed at the "money is no object" attitude that I see for the broadcast quality equipment that we use in live tv. One of the CNN crew was showing me a new LED light that they had been trying out to replace a heavy and expensive fill light called an HMI. It was over 9 grand! And they were using 3 of them! In court, we are using cameras that cost about $15k each and have lenses that, by themselves, are another $13k. That doesn't even include the pan and tilt modules and stand for each one and the controller, since we control them robotically.  They were fascinated with the Mackie mixer and were blown away when I told them that it cost under a grand. Heck, when I'm doing interviews, the portable 4 channel Wendt mixer that I use cost over $3500. I could probably do the same thing on a $100 mixer and no one would notice.