Mix Blog Live: It Ain’t The Gig, It’s the Commute
Steve La Cerra just had his second gig since the Covid outbreak, and while it went better in the house, the same could not...
Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now
Steve La Cerra just had his second gig since the Covid outbreak, and while it went better in the house, the same could not...
In his first indoor gig of the Covid era, Steve La Cerra finds that while the crew and backstage areas followed protocol, it was...
Steve La Cerra recalls the human side of Bruce Swedien, how they met over a story about Neumann M49s and how he ended up...
With only a few weeks to go in the semester, Steve La Cerra is crossing his fingers that the classrooms at Mercy College stay...
Steve La Cerra jumped on a plane last week, headed for Pittsburgh on his first fly-date since the shutdown in March. The airports, he...
With The Met canceling its entire Fall Season, along with others across the country, it's looking more and more like mid- to late-2021 for...
Steve La Cerra returned to school last week, and everything you've been reading about education during the pandemic is true; but he's making it...
To find out what concert one-offs are actually like these days, Steve La Cerra called a friend who mixed front of house in mid-August...
With uncertainty growing ever greater in the concert touring industry, Steve La Cerra finds that cluster parties and pop-up live events can be damaging...
As of July, time's up on the 600 MHz band for wireless system users, and Steve La Cerra looks at options out there as...
Steve La Cerra worked last weekend! And he found that while the logistics of prepping for a live "drive-in concert" were a bit nerve-racking,...
Steve La Cerra looks at a couple of surveys taken during the pandemic and is crushed to learn of the value the average consumer...
The hunger for live music is real, and with very few outlets outside of looking at a screen, artists and fans are turning to...
When the 2020 concert season was canceled, it left a lot of supporting businesses throughout the country in a tight spot, including some favorite...
The city of New York sure knows how to rally in times of adversity, from supporting front-line workers to helping the poor when they...
Besides spending many weekends on the road at front of house, Steve La Cerra is an audio educator; over the the last month he...
The coronavirus COVID-19 has essentially shut down the 2020 summer touring season—and cost Steve La Cerra his usual weekend gig. So are stay-at-home, "intimate"...
“All New York City Public Schools are closed.” When I hear those words, it usually means there’s a significant snowfall in the area and...
Frustration with a show’s backline provider led to a couple trips back to the warehouse, an angry phone call and, ultimately, resolution. A normal...
When a Rack Tom channel on a rented digital console started showing up across multiple scribble strips during soundcheck, Steve La Cerra did everything...
Steve La Cerra knows that after years on the road, gear can take a beating. So when possible, he likes to take out some...
Steve La Cerra mourns the loss of one of his real heroes, the drummer Neil Peart, who lived life with passion and grace, not...
The Ampex 351 was working, but relatively noisy, so Steve La Cerra started replacing tubes; he found that not all tubes are created equal.
Having a tough time staying in the holiday spirit? Here’s some music to lighten your mood, in no particular order… The Christmas Song, The...
Has it really been three months since we last visited the Ampex 351 Audio Dinosaur? I estimate that I’ve logged 200,000 miles since the...
Eighteen eighty-one, United States. President James Garfield is assassinated. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company. Billy the Kid escapes...
Most audio engineers are familiar with the term snapshot memory, a method by which all (or at least most) of the settings of a...
A few nights ago, some of my coworkers were discussing the song “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish, the video for which has collected more...
I’m lucky to have a close-knit family and we often find excuses to get together, whether it be for a holiday, a birthday or...
One of the issues that I deal with on a constant basis is making a P.A. sound good for the front rows of a...
I almost never have the luxury of touring with production, so on any given show there are a ton of variables in the P.A....
When last we left my Ampex 351 Audio Dinosaur, I had installed a newly rebuilt power supply, ensuring that all sections of the 351...
July 5, 2019, 11:30 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time I return to my hotel room after a gig at the Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Ariz....
At the close of the first episode of “Resurrecting an Audio Dinosaur,” my lovely Ampex 351 tape machine channel was alive and working—though I...
You’re looking at the electronics for a single channel of an Ampex 351 tape machine that was built in the early 1950s. Ampex manufactured...
Brooklyn, N.Y., 1979 My friend John is a year ahead of me in the same school: John Dewey High School in Brooklyn. At the...
The wheels of progress never stop grinding, especially when it comes to digital audio, so it’s no surprise when manufacturers of digital gear introduce...
On April 17, 2019, one of my classes had the opportunity to participate in a very special event. Held in the Rotunda, Mercy Hall...
I don’t like surprises, at least not while I’m working. I think a lot of engineers feel that way, and that’s part of the...
February 27, 2019: Tonight I’m working the O2 Institute in Birmingham, England. Originally constructed in the early 1900s as a Methodist congregational chapel, the...
Friday, January 18, 2019, 2:00 PM I hate touring in the winter. A projected Snowpocalypse has the media in a frenzy. I’m worried about...
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to a NAMM Show, though throughout that time I’ve consistently attended annual AES Conventions. What I...