Blog.

Warning:  This post is technical in nature.  If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, don’t worry, you’re still a normal person who just hasn’t ascended into “geekdom”.

In my last few months in my new job, I find my anal-retentive tendancies will not let me be satisfied with “good enough” and I’m always listening and watching for ways to improve on what we have at CFC.  Approxamately a month ago, our main audio system’s DSP started flaking out and we had to replace them or be left with a sound system that looked good, but didn’t actually put out any sound.

That would be a problem.

As much as I like looking at the huge EAW cabinets, I would rather listen to them and enjoy the sonic properties for which they were purchased.  So we replaced our old BSS Soundweb Original units with the newer BSS Soundweb London units, threw in an EAW UX8800, and started programming.  As the original program had been tweaked a number of times, it was definitely time to take a fresh look at what was done, why it was done, fix a few problems, and iron out the wrinkles.  The result was a much more dynamic system with significantly increased clarity and imaging.  Since I don’t have any system evaluation tools such as EAW’s SMARRT, everything had to be set the old fashioned way: by listening.  After tweaking crossover values, fixing the system delay’s (which cleaned things up tremendously), and playing with parametric EQ’s, we settled on a “good enough for now” setting that has worked up until now.

Thanks to a women’s conference I worked this weekend, I had the time to sit back and evaluate several aspects of our audio/video/lighting systems and came to a few conclusions.  First of all, the lighting on the front of the stage isn’t even, which severely affects one of our camera positions, and two, thanks to Kathy Triccoli, I discovered that the new system is particularly harsh with sibilant’s, mainly the “esse” (“s”) sound.  Kathy is a powerful and dynamic vocalist that when paired with the Shure KSM9 reveals all the flaws within a sound system.  Couple that with the new track I discovered from Meredith Andrews, and I am now determined to identify the offending frequencies in the system and smooth them out.

There will definitely be some more system EQ work, but what I’m delving into now that is new to me is the concept of “de-essing” using the sidechain of a compressor.  If you’re reading this, know what I’m talking about and have any tips, please share, as I’m always in need of good mentors.

For all you other readers that are now completely lost, you can now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

You need to check this girl out.  She has some serious God-given talent and a voice that will rock your world.  Listen here.  (Be sure to listen to the accoustic version of “You’re Not Alone” at the bottom of the list, it’s absolutely stunning) Check out her blog.  That accoustic track is joining a small list of “test tracks” that I consider are exceptionally well recorded songs that I use to check the sonic properties of sound systems.  If you follow contemporary Christian music, you’ll definitely be hearing more from her…

I bought new tires for my new car today and on the way back from dinner my wife joked about me having a mid-life crises due to the sports car and the fact that I shaved my head.  Actually, Heather and our friend Chalyce talked me into the head shaving, so I have to fault them for that one, although I like it and will probably stay bald for the foreseeable future.  You’ve heard people talk about how much heat you lose through your head?  well, it’s absolutely true.  I get cold much easier than I did when I had some semblance of hair, but never fear, I bought a couple of caps to keep my cue ball warm this winter.

Anyway, because some of you have been asking, I’ll include some pictures of the car, which is a 2006 Infinity G35 coupe.  I bought it from a guy on Craigslist and got it $2,500 under bluebook and about $15,000 less than what a 2008-2009 model with the same features would cost.  It’s practically new, as it was babied and only had 23,000 miles on it when I picked it up and it still smells new.  Anyway, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.