The Mixer in a Box

The BCASCA Jamboree is an annual event with which I have been evolved since its inception. BCASCA is the Brevard Caribbean American Sports & Cultural Association. The event was held Labor Day weekend for several years, but consistent bad weather and a hurricane caused them to change the date to Memorial Day weekend a few years ago.

There is a good bit of Island music both from live entertainers and a DJ. There are also the necessary announcements and some raffles and drawings. This is a two day event that runs from 9 AM to 7 PM (or so).

The weather the week of the event had been very wet. There was rain in the morning of set-up day that delayed the start of festivities. Because of the rain we got started at about noon. The weather did co-operate for the rest of the event. There were threatening skies and a few drops along the way, but nothing that slowed the event down. One of the bands was canceled on the opening day. They were from Miami and the weather was too uncertain at the time that they would have had to get on the road to drive to Palm Bay.

One of the filler acts that played to compensate showed off the quality available with the SAC system. There are always hand drummers in this crowd. There was a Sax player that was asked to play a medley to fill some of the time. He invited a couple of hand drummers to accompany him. With the SAC rig I had the best hand drum sound that I have ever heard. The Sax player had already played so I knew that I had a great Sax sound, but the hand drums were amazing. You could hear the fingers slid across the skins.

The second day of the event both scheduled bands played as well as the dance groups and track artists that were scheduled. The first band, Alize, I work with several times a year. The other band from Jacksonville has played the event the last three years. During the second band’s set there was an old gentleman in the crowd who was introduced as Byron Lee’s former bass player (of 35 years). Byron Lee is one of the primmer acts in the islands. After the show I stopped to say hello to the artist. He was effusive in his praise of the quality of the sound. This was made possible, in part, because of the quality of the SAC mixer that was driving the system.

This is always a good event. The island people are wonderful. There were vendors and rides for the kids. It is a good family event. The Palm Bay Regional Park has come a long way in the 12 years that the event has been held there.

Myrtle Beach Spring Motorcycle Rally – 2009 was the first motorcycle rally for which I used the Software Audio Console. The motorcycle rally business makes use of some SAC features that I had not had opportunity to use up to this point. For a rally there are typically multiple performances by various acts on consecutive days during the event. There are also two or three bands a day.

With the SAC rig I am able to save the mix for the band, including monitors. The first day I do the mix for the band. At the end of the show I save the mix under the band’s name. The next time that the band plays I am able to recall their mix and setup. This is a great convenience and improves the flow of the event because there is no time wasted on subsequent shows by the same band. The same thing can be done with shows and opening acts. The show artist can sound check and then the show mix can be saved. The opening acts can be mixed as necessary using all channels and when it is time for the main act the show mix can be recalled.

The rally itself was shortened due to local politics. There was a question as to weather the rally would go at all. The venue that I support ran for six days instead of the normal nine days. The overall attendance was poor, more because of the negative publicity than the poor economy. The local people are most unhappy with the current administration. I am hoping that things get better by the fall, as the little bump in income is always nice.

Overall the SAC rig performed flawlessly. During only one mix session there were two slipped buffers, but no audible clicks or pops. I suspect that this was caused by the wireless system. I set up a remote on stage so that I could take care of monitors from stage. In fact, our main act for the rally had a knowledgeable player and he adjusted monitors several times during the shows. This feature also adds to the professionalism of the presentation as there were no calls for monitor changes over the microphones. I think that I have a bad antenna with the new wireless card that I put in the remote computer. I hooked it up to a friends computer and there was no improvement in signal versus no antenna. I will do some further testing to confirm this.

The third time out with the SAC rig was the benefit event for Reuben Morgan aka ‘The Lounge Lizard’. Reuben has been a figure on the local scene for many years and has done much for the community in the promotion of live music. He has been stricken with a debilitating disease and so is unable to work for a time. The community came together to support him in his time of need.

The event was held at the Coliseum complex in Daytona Beach. There were three stages with entertainment through the afternoon and evening. I had been asked to mix the sound for the main stage. Nine area bands played in a ten hour period. I took the SAC rig in and used it to mix the show. We drove the house racks and stacks from the SAC output. There was good volunteer stage and provided backline equipment, so the band change overs went smoothly.

The SAC rig performed flawlessly and the sound quality was outstanding. As always, the SAC rig was a pleasure to use.

The second event for which I used the SAC rig was the Church of God – Cocoa office state women’s conference. This annual event is held in a hotel conference room in Orlando, Florida. There is a good deal of music with the COG conventions. There is typically a full band, 6 praise team mikes plus a solo mike, a wireless mike for the podium and a couple of other mikes for vocals. The sermons need to be recorded to CD for copying and sale usually when the service is over.

I had set up a starter mix session with the inputs that I expected to need and the necessary in/out assignments. I had done some general presets as far as monitor levels that I expected to  be requested. Set-up and the whole outing went a lot more smoothly than the first gig. I had set a second set of outputs for my record output and done the channel assignments so that I was ready to record. I also had taken a small Yahama mixer to handle the input/output interface with the CD recorder. Everything worked pretty much as planned and the event went without a hitch.

I will be putting up a gallery that will include a couple of pictures of the setup at the convention as well as some other gigs.

The first gig with the Software Audio Console was a local band gig in a small club. The band was a RainLord reunion. The club was Finn’s in Flagler Beach, Fl. Rainlord was a popular bar band in the area for many years. I worked many shows with them back in the day.

This show was really too early to have taken the SAC rig out. I had just put the system together. I had had an issue with slipped buffers. I got the machine stable on the day of the show, but there was not even a real burn in period. In addition to that I had no experience in using the system, but you have to start somewhere.

I got to the venue without so much as a starter mix session. I did not even have channel assignments for input or output assigned. I had to do all that at the venue. This took more time than it needed to because I did not know my way around the system all that well.

We got the band up an running and everything went relatively smooth. There were many comments about the quality of the sound. The system worked like a champ.

The second night there was someone there to record the show. This meant figuring out routing for more outputs so that he would have a source. I didn’t do that the best way, but I did get the job done. I should have used one of the monitor consoles and dedicated that to him. It would have been easier for both of us.

It was a good experience. I had a convention coming up the next week. I really needed the ‘hot’ time with the system