I'm glad you asked! I work with you,
your designers & planners to ensure 2 main goals:
1. Excellent Client relations at all times.
2. Very high quality live sound.
How? Well to start with I've been doing this for over 15 years, I've done
everything from 16 mix concert monitor rigs, to reggae bands in the swamp & most
everything in between. I've spent a lot of time in ear training, & I've had the
extremely good fortune to work & apprentice under some fantastic front of house
mixers. My background in music & synthesis, gives me a very solid understanding
of the nature of sound, i/e: how we understand speech, I can be very technoidal
when necessary.
However, in addition to my technical prowess, I have fantastic show presence,
this is why I'm so rare, I'm exceptionally good with local crews, I'm very
diplomatic & non emotional with clients & cast. The show is all that matters.
You've never had an A1 that can react as quickly, efficiently, and most
importantly as positively as I can. And, have fun doing it, no matter what else
happens.
When I work as an A2 this means looking out for my front guy's well being,
(coffee), always having spare everything right there, and looking ahead rather
than waiting for dragons to bite us in the ass. We can & will do it. (or else
we'll all go to the bar, my treat) Want to hear more? Ask some of my clients.
Second, I use This is a JBL Smaart on a laptop PC with Earthworks reference microphones to precisely dial in a room & system. This amazing software results
in "maximum gain before feedback" out of any speaker system which means in most
cases, that the mic's in the show sound great, with plenty of headroom on the
channel to spare because it doesn't need to be loud. The result is clear, rich
sound, without feedback! It sounds so simple doesn't it?
This allows me to devote my time to dealing with the "big picture" & things like
video rolls & what's coming up next, rather than worrying about feedback when
the person on stage walks in front of the speakers, etc.
I was the first sound engineer in Orlando to use Smaart. When I came home from
the Grease tour in July 1997 with it I was met with skepticism, and even laughed
at for "using a computer to set a sound system". The funny thing is, that many
of those same A1's who laughed at me now have their own laptops and are using
Smaart on every gig. I've also trained a number of local sound people on it's
use.
Using JBL Smaart has revolutionized the way I tweak a system. The results are
clearly stunning compared to an "ear balanced" system (this includes my own
ears) and give me a good starting place to maximize the given performance space
& system based on the situation. This is part of the ear training I spoke of
above. Almost 6 years, tweaking systems with it, I know what flat sounds like.
And perhaps more importantly, I know what flat does not sound like as well!
On stage monitors I've actually had "problem acts" ask me to turn the wedges &
fills DOWN, due to the incredibly flat response I've obtained using this
program! They're simply not used to hearing that much detail.
It also sets delay times down to the hundredth of a millisecond, presto, bang on
delay alignment. Is it lunch time yet? Understand this, if you haven't heard a
system accurately tweaked using this program, you're missing out big time. It's
THAT good. I'm that good, and your show deserves audio that's THAT good as well.
I now swear by it.
In addition to my show presence, I've also had a fair bit of technical training.
I've been to rigging school with Harry Donovan & Jay Glerum, I've been to VDOSC
School with Bernie Broderick, and I've recently completed the JBL VerTec class
with On Stage Audio in Las Vegas.
Speaking of Las Vegas, I'm moving there this summer.
C.G. 7-03
321-662-5195