Informational Blog about Sound, Staging and Lighting 

The lure to do as many events as come at you, and therefore have a LOT of work, is sometimes irresistible, but try to not take on clients that don't want to pay for certain, extremely necessary items, like A.C. POWER. If the client won't spend the right dollar amount to make an event a complete success for BOTH of you...then RUN! Let some other company fall into the pit. Especially notorious is the client who just does not understand that you can never have enough A.C. Power to make all those lights and big sound they so desperately wanted, run well. So when the facility fails to provide adequate power, who is the first person that get's blamed? YOU! Why? Because "you are the professional that should have known better." Of course, you advised the client of the need for power before the event, but they reassured you that "everything will be fine...the hotel told me so." DON'T BELIEVE IT. Check it out for yourself, before you walk into these dangerous waters.

So the bass player in one of the bands shows up without an amp...how do you put him/her directly into the PA? Easy, use an ACTIVE Direct Interface (commonly known as a DI BOX). The Radial J48 DI Box will do just the trick, and allow you to put the bass directly into the PA system. Just be sure that the Phantom Power from your console is ON (the Active DI requires it). There is a simple way to test for Phantom Power, and it is described on the J48 itself. However, you will NOT need the Radial J48 if the bass guitar contains it's own internal preamp. Easiest way to know this is to check whether or not there is a battery compartment on the bass somewhere, or ask the bassist (but he/she may not even know).

We added FOUR (2) HUGE 21-inch subs to our inventory. Designed and manufactured in USA by an Anaheim, California company called Stagegear, Incorporated (http://www.stagegear.com). These babies knock down walls! We will rent a PAIR of them for only $250.00 which INCLUDES a QSC PowerLite PL380 8000-watt amplifier and DBX or TDM electronic crossover (customer picks up gear).

A lot of folks ask me what the "best" microphone is for getting the acoustic guitar(s) live, and of course my response is always "depends", or "none--the musician should have a pickup installed if playing live." However, as a general rule of thumb, a good condenser microphone seems to always do the job best, especially a Shure SM81 or AKG C1000-S (the vintage stuff, not this new "Made in China" garbage). The AKG comes with a PPC1000 Polar Pattern Converter, which changes the pickup pattern from cardioid to hyper cardioid. This makes the microphone even less sensitive to sounds arriving from the sides and rear, resulting in higher gain before feedback when you use monitor speakers on stage.