Read what Nataly Dawn had to say about the Small Business Musician.
Feb 142013
February 14, 2013
Nov 252012
..I think the apocalypse has arrived
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Category/Loudspeakers-and-Studio-Monitors.aspx?s=B300
November 25, 2012
Aug 312012
Remember when everyone switched to digital consoles? You won’t need to carry those racks of gear anymore. No more outboard eq, comps, gates, effects etc. Less truck space equals fuel savings and less money for trucking. Fewer seats taken up means more money for the promoter. Everyone wins!
Uh, yeah. Maybe not so much. Even now that I’m often on shows with the best digital consoles in the world, guest engineers are still carrying outboard gear. Hardware preamps, compressors, effects. Sometimes a laptop full of plugins and an analog i/o interface. And now it seems that the Waves Live package is gaining ground. With platform specific and generic interface options, Waves Live can provide a plethora of plugins for your digital console. But, what do you need to make it work? A Sound Grid Server, Host computer, Interface cards for your console or a generic i/o, plus all the relevant software and plugins. So here we are once more, buying more gear to add to our supposedly self contained consoles.
Truly, everything old is new again.
August 31, 2012
Mar 112012
Frugal Audio clients, The EDU Edge LLC, have released their book and audio book The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview. The audio book was recorded and edited by yours truly. And the whole project has been a long effort for Mike & Bill of EDU Edge.
Please check it out and be sure to recommend it any young teachers you know who are facing the interview process.
You can find purchase options for the audio book and print materials on their site or you can get directly to the audio book on CD Baby.
March 11, 2012
Feb 012012
I appreciate that not everyone will dig her music, but Julia Nunes is the best example I’ve seen of how the new music industry can work. No major label, no management company. Millions of hits on Youtube, opening spots on national tours, Bonaroo etc. Two inexpensively produced albums that I’ll bet paid for a big chunk of her college tuition, and now, her third, Kickstarter Funded album. Julia set out to raise $15,000 on Kickstarter. The final number was $77,888!
It can be done. It’s about how hard you work, how good the music is, and developing a really strong fan base.
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
February 1, 2012
Jan 102012
I just saw a forum post requesting some very basic help with an audio problem. A newbie question as it were. In and of itself that wouldn’t be a big deal. But, the fella in question is working as a lead mixer in a pretty major facility. So I ask myself, how does a guy get a job like that without knowing the basics. Dig into his background and there’s the answer in two words: Full Sail. ‘Nuff said.
January 10, 2012
Nov 102011
Well, the Frugal Audio guy has been out of service for a bit due to health problems. Hoping to be back at work by December but that depends both on how I feel and what the doctors will allow.
Still, the last few months haven’t been without activity. Shows at the local venue included Gordon Lightfoot, Soul Asylum, Starship, Rare Earth, Martina McBride, John McDermott, Jeff Foxworthy and more. In addition, covering for an injured coworker kept me pretty busy over the summer with general operations and maintenance too. Also had some factory training on the Biamp Vocia system that’s being installed to handle paging & background music throughout the venue. The main room is getting a new L-Acoustics Kudo PA that I’m looking forward to working with when I get back.
Thanks to Audio Images for throwing a few extra days of work my way this summer. First at the Hard Rock Cafe in Niagara Falls and then at Kingdom Bound Festival. It had been many years since I last worked a major Christian festival. It was interesting to see what things have changed and what hasn’t. Also fun to see which artists and crew remembered me from years past. Got to catch up with a few old friends and made a couple new ones too.
The Frugal Studio is undergoing yet another software upgrade. Though it was only this past spring that I upgraded to Sony Vegas Pro 10, I decided to pony up and move right into version 11. They bundled it with some extra software and made the upgrade price pretty attractive. However, this also necessitated a move to Windows 7 64 bit. So far all the software installation, including dual boot with the old XP setup, has gone pretty well. Hardware upgrades will have to wait a while. but fortunately I don’t tax the system too heavily. I have added a total of 5TB of storage to the studio in the past six months. So, for the moment, there’s plenty of room for new work and to organize and backup older material.
Lastly, just this week I had the chance to get out and visit with the old boss, John Michael Talbot. In nearly ten years together on the road, we never played a date here in my hometown. Yet, JMT was able to book a few multi-day parish missions in my area this trip. We spent some time catching up and I stayed for the first part of the evening. It’s a much scaled down version of our previous tours. John Michael’s carrying a small Bose PA with no lighting. He, Viola and helper Peggy are traveling by minivan, no bus. It’s great to see them going at it and doing what God asks of them even in these most difficult times. Surprisingly, that little Bose PA doesn’t sound bad at all either! Things like that might just put guys like me out of business!
More updates will come as I have new info and the time to post. As always, if I can be of any help to any of my readers be it live event production, studio production, install design or anything else- please just drop me a line or give me a call.
November 10, 2011
Sep 132011
I was just reading an article by a pretty well known production designer. Talked about his choice in consoles, pre visualization tools, integrating video and lighting elements, trying to balance current tours with designing for upcoming events etc. I’m sure the fellow is good at his job. Better in fact, than I could ever be. My ideal concert lighting design pretty much stops at 180K of conventionals and some random goodies. In audio land, I regularly mix on highly sophisticated digital consoles in situations where a simple analog console would do fine. I-mag seemed like a nice idea when guys like Springsteen started playing stadiums. Now, one venue I work uses it in a 2500 seat room.
So the question on my mind today is why? Do we really need or want all this? Did folks come to hear a concert or to see a flashy multimedia show? To see a live performer or to look at his face on a big screen?
Guys like George Burns played soft seaters with thousands of seats with no PA, no I-Mag, and crap for lights.
Burns was a star.
September 13, 2011
Jul 202011
Been a busy summer so far. I’ve had a bunch of local shows including Daughtry, Tonic, The Wailers, Oh What A Night and a great show with Dave Mason.
Local poet/artist Eric Johnt was in the Frugal Studio with some video editing for his exhibit at the Arts Enrichment Center.
Zeo Brothers had me along for the Momentum Conference in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Spent the week mixing monitors and doubling as system tech. Aaron Keyes was the worship artist for most of the week. Had the full compliment of EV XW12 wedges to supplement in ears on stage and the EV XLd rig flying out front. Gotta say I really like the XLd PA. Compact, easily handled by one or two guys and it sounds great right out of the box. Felt a little old loading out staging alongside 25 year olds though!
Aaron Keyes
July 20, 2011
Jun 112011
Software update in the Frugal Studio today. Went ahead and paid for the upgrade to version 10 of Sony Vegas Pro. Have had it running on the laptop without issue for a few weeks. Time to install on the big machine. I’ll leave version 9 installed too for the time being just in case.
I’m not a super creative, visual arts kind of fella. But, I’m a pretty darn good nuts and bolts video tech and editor. Most of what I do in the Frugal Studio (in addition to audio mixing/editing) is archival transfers, simple restoration, presentation edits, special purpose DVD authoring. If you’re looking for help with a project don’t be afraid to ask!
June 11, 2011