Dave Rat Blog - Virginia

Oh my the days blur together into the fog of tour. This is the part where we settle into a groove. Everyone knows their gig well enough to become comfortable yet not smooth enough to be harmonious. The shows are smooth and rocking and sometimes I feel like I am stuck on a merry go round. Oh, I can of course jump ship from the tour and hack my way from city to city or shack up on bus rides into parking lots waiting for hotel rooms. But hey, I have never really been one to find compatibility with patterns, rules and structure. I crave a bit of chaos and unexpected in my life. Ha, tour life becomes predictable.

I do really enjoy doing the seminars. Everything except the final moment. Blah blah I rap and chat for 4 or so hours about a wide variety of all things sound and then ok, that's it. And every time there is this awkward silence. At first it shocked me, then I started trying to lighten things up. Best I can figure it feels like a watching a show and the band stops mid set ore something. Mental note, must work on the end o seminar.

How much does it hurt our hearts to say goodbye to MCA? Oh man, such sad news and yet he left us with so many musical memories we love to remember. I met Adam back in 1994 on Lollapalooza when I was mixing L7. Spent some nights wander various cities and hanging a bit.

And thinking back a bit after reading the news today and seeing this article http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/05/boy-on-a-bike-becomes-moscows-tianamen-image/

I reminisced about 1999 MTV gig when Chili Peppers played in Red Square Moscow, the police presence and the excitement of the fans.

Chris Warren signing autographs!

The Russian police form arm linked human barricades that split open so riot shielded special teams can zoom in and extract people before beating them with rubber clubs.

Ok, off to Virginia - DC Seminar.

Rock on!

Dave Rat Blog - Peppers US Leg 1 Done Homeward Bound

One of the most exciting aspects of rock and roll touring is that you get to carry a really giant passport and so my travels continue.

Say hey to the Memphis Seminar crew! What I am striving to do is communicate a universal theory encompassing live sound. Our purpose in live audio is not perfect sound, rather it is way more important, our goal is to help create unforgettable memories. So understanding and controlling the wave forms from where they are created, through the gear, back into the ears and then looking at ways to improve the audience experience as whole. 

How can we not be awed by innovation! 

And speaking of awe, nothing more thrilling than a TV filmed gig to really raise the roadie spirits. Though I must admit that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame folks were super cool.

But once the Roots started rocking Beastie Boys songs, it was really cool.

Got a bit of Axl-less GnR. Oh well, not a big Axl fan anyway.  He once tried to fight Karrie, mydaughter mom when she was doing monitors for them at Perkins Palace in Pasadena in the late 80's.  Never liked him.

The Peppers' speeches were heart felt and cool

Got some Peppers rock

A huge party jam

Back to the hotel by 3am and then a 7 am load in to do a benefit for Obama campaign volunteerism

And about to hit send as they are calling my name to get on the plane home.  Alrighty then, a few days home and off to Coachella.  

Rock on!

Dave Rat Porta-Blog RRHOF

I came into this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction adventure lumping the event in with award shows like the Grammy's and Academy Awards. You know that reality TV mentality that survives off of pitting artists and actors against each other in events that they never intended on competing?

The hypocrisy of award shows where popularity versus talent clash as and if too much attention to obscure talent is paid, the audience shrinks and if too much of the pre contrived bias toward following profits shows through, credibility dwindles.

And as walk through the RRHOF museum I realize I was wrong, this is really cool, standing at a display between the Clash, Blondie, Fear, Black Flag, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and more, I found my era, at least the forming of adventures that brought me here and it sure felt good to stand there.

Shhh, I found after that I was not supposed to take pics, but hey, if iwe followed all the rules, rock and roll would never have existed to have a hall of fame for me to the break the rules.

Dave Rat Blog Friday April 13 RRHOF

Oh, I so hate working TV gigs. Being a sound guy at a televised concert is like being a fine chef working at McDonalds, it is all about pleasing the masses and the importance of my gig in the bigger picture is somewhere between annoying and meaningless.

The deal is that the attendees are such a small fraction of the people that will see/hear the concert via TV and other recorded mediums that as long as what I do is less than catastrophic, the internal venue sound is crazy low on the list.  That said, Gary Lanvy is heading up production and way on his game and a pleasure to work with. It is great to see Bryan Olsen and all the Firehouse guys and so in good company, a nice big dive into the clusterfuck hurry up and wait world of constant changes and piles of complexity.


Welcome to the Red Hot Chili Peppers getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! And personal tanti aside, it is cool to see such a great group of guys that worked so hard, so long get recognized.

Sort of cool to have production in the theater that is behind the stage, Mission Control!



Some gratuitous shots of Chad's kit fully mic'ed

Flea's rig with the custom super close to speaker beta98 setup

And so goinf to miss all the Santigold band and crew.  You all are awesome and see ya at Coachella next week!

**** Sound Tip ****

I pull the fader knobs off of 250HZ and 2.5K on the graphic EQ's I use to EQ the main system. I then tape them to the back of the unit so they don't get lost.  

The missing fader knobs allow me to feel where 250 and 2.5K are so I can EQ without actually looking at the EQ. It is faily easy to count my way to any other frequency very quickly as the frequency doubles every three faders. Three faders down from 2.5K is 1.25K and so on.  This allows me to be able to find frequencies quickly in the dark and also EQ the system while standing and listening without having to keep moving my head, losing my sonic reference point. 

Dave Rat

CD's, albums and MP3's are an attempt to capture a sound, a feel and a state of mind then presenting it using the technology that was prevalent at the time. Mono, then stereo and now surround sound but nowhere in the creation of the actual music do multiple instruments radiate from solitary sound sources. In the real world each instrument occupies a unique place in the physical space that surrounds us. We now have the technology to offer recordings that more distinctly mirror the actual spacial context of the original source.

The mindset of the recording industry and delivery system is entrenched in limiting the end user. Limiting the control over the mix and over dynamic range to plop prepackaged music into our laps, which is fine for those that desire it.

In live audio we do not face those limitations, we do not have to play by those same rules. Nothing says we have to pass through the stereo paradigm as we strive to amplify and connect the essence of the artist offering it to those that wish to immerse themselves in the experience.

So seminar world continues and the unexpected complexities of this adventure are awesome

Thank you Carl for hosting at the Raleigh Theater, the largest venue I have ever "played" to a sold out audience of  a couple 6 packs.

 

Greensboro crew, so sorry I spaced a photo in Charlotte

And thank you Kim, I really could not do these without you.  The seemingly simple task of getting a dozen audio humans together is was miles beyond what i expected.  Kim is out here on tour with me arranging rooms and taking care of logistics. Also thank you Daniella, Danalle, Jessica and Cassi back at Rat as well. I really appreciate all the work you all are doing to make these seminars happen.

And back to the rock show, say hey to Kelo, sound eng for Santi Gold and beyond cool with great mixes.

Tomorrow is our our last Santi Gold show and I must say that one of the highlights of each day is Iku, Ian and Ray coming to hang at FOH during peppers set, gonna miss you guys.

Yay Santi Gold!

Ahh and back to the other reality of a Cracker Barrel bus stop awaiting hotel rooms

Seth and Monkey

And what better time to get the tools out, completely disassemble my camera and fix the flash from dropping it a few days ago

 

And for the best spirally adventure award, I go swimming in the morning, and lose one ear plug.  Of course I swim with my only set of molded ear protectors. An vanishing between m the pool and my room is my right ear plug.  The Proximity Hotel staff was awesome, they even brought in someone to search the elevator shaft and scouring every inch between no success.

Ha, and only hear a radio call at the gig the next day.  Yep, of course none other than Narci, our production manager found an ear plug in the elevator.  Aaargh, happy, and thank you!!

Dave Rat Blog - Columbia April 7

Seminar #4 went great in Raleigh, it was a small group of three, (thank you Hal, Tracy and David!) so we held it at the venue in a spare room. Doing these sound speaking things is very interesting and gets me really thinking and focused on audio, ha, for a change! As I do more of them I am realizing an underlying theme that forms the foundation of how I approach audio reinforcement. The same theories I follow to deal with sub coverage are what I use to mix the show, work with bands/techs on stage volumes, mic the stage and tune the sound system.

Establish reference points to filter out the human bias, make sure signals always combine in the most constructive ways and figure methods to derive useful information from test gear and predictive software that actually looks like what we hear. All the while questioning conventional practices

And here we go to rock Columbia South Carolina.

Oh and a mid show pic of my FOH RTA during Maggie. Its all about long averaging to see what our ears hear. And ignore the pegged 4K filter. Its fried on my ancient DBX RTA 4000

Dave Rat Blog Seminars and Rock Show #2

Here we go with the second show.  Thank you to all who came to my seminars in Tampa and Orlando.  Forgot to grab a Tampa pic but here are my Orlando sound friends. So great to hang with you all and hope you found it interesting and informative. Oh, and thank you Kim, I could not do these without you!

And after the show, since I had my motorcycle at the hotel, I took a leisurely torrential downpour ride to the gig in shorts of course.

Then packed it up in it's nice little tour home for safe travel to city three.

New toys! Yes the digital snake to FOH rocks, as do the shorter speaker cables but more importantly check out the sexy new "Script Slider" I got for the console.  It rolls back and forth, allows me to pile things on the console and move them easily and is a center console flying drink deflector all in one!

And just as I was heading to write this post, Tommy LBC informs me I am needed at mix position. 10 mins till support starts and oh my, 8 channels gone dead.  Hmmm, huge issue but worries, as the Midas H3000 has computer bypass switches on each channel, no biggie, will roll with no VCA's tonight on that bank of 8 channels. No they are not labelled and yes, I do need them as I use them all..

What I am more excited about and easily makes up for the dead computer is the ButtKicker drum thumper that Jim and Seth have mounted for me on my FOH mixing chair. Well, I dont really sit during the show but just in case I want to, it will rock me and the rest of FOH friends, one human at a time.

And lastly and far from leastly, say hey to Bones.  My little Chihuahua Whippet pooch.  He has not felt well since I left, pretty sure it is because he has not been eating and he fainted a few days ago.  Don't worry though as he is doing better now but oh, how the unexpected can hurt my heart.

And off to to get show ready.  Next sound seminar is in Raleigh, NC and wow! I am really honored by the interest in the seminars and sound humans wanting to join me with something I so much enjoy doing.