Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: A Concert in Your Living Room?
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"...
Mix Blog Live
Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: Coronavirus Fallout
“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...
Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: What’s With the Tape on the C#?
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...
Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: Rack Toms for Everyone
When a Rack Tom channel on a rented digital console started showing up across multiple scribble strips during soundcheck, Steve La Cerra did everything...
Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: TLC for an XK-1c
Steve La Cerra knows that after years on the road, gear can take a beating. So when possible, he likes to take out some...
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Mix Blog Live: Lessons From The Professor
Steve La Cerra mourns the loss of one of his real heroes, the drummer Neil Peart, who lived life with passion and grace, not...
Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: Resurrecting an Audio Dinosaur, The Final Chapter
The Ampex 351 was working, but relatively noisy, so Steve La Cerra started replacing tubes; he found that not all tubes are created equal.
Live Sound
Mix Blog Live: Music for the Holiday Mood
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Resurrecting an Audio Dinosaur, Episode 4
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Newberry Opera House
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Back to the Future
Most audio engineers are familiar with the term snapshot memory, a method by which all (or at least most) of the settings of a...
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Mix Blog Live: Is It Live, Or Is It???
A few nights ago, some of my coworkers were discussing the song “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish, the video for which has collected more...
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Mix Blog Live: Best Show Ever
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...
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Mix Blog Live: The Expensive Seats Aren’t Always the Best
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...
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Mix Blog Live: No Excuses
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....
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Mix Blog Live: Resurrecting an Audio Dinosaur, Part 3
When last we left my Ampex 351 Audio Dinosaur, I had installed a newly rebuilt power supply, ensuring that all sections of the 351...
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Mix Blog Live: The Power of Chicken Nuggets
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....
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Mix Blog Live: Resurrecting an Audio Dinosaur, Part 2
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Resurrecting an Audio Dinosaur
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Victor Jay Solotoff, 1945 – 2019
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...
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Mix Blog Live: O Ware, O Where
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Formation, Transformation and Deformation
On April 17, 2019, one of my classes had the opportunity to participate in a very special event. Held in the Rotunda, Mercy Hall...
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Mix Blog Live: Sonic Limitations
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...
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Mix Blog Live: A Tale of Two P.A.s (In the Same Room)
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...
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Mix Blog Live: Follow That Plow!
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...
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Mix Blog Live: AES@NAMM Goes Big
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...
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Mix Blog Live: New Year, New Gear
Test driving new gear is always fun, so I was excited to be returning to the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, N.Y., this past weekend....
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Mix Blog Live: The Real Deal
Diva: dē-və (noun) 1. An exceptionally talented and famous female singer, usually in the realm of opera music. 2. A famous female singer of...
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Mix Blog Live: Of Microphones and Models
The other day a friend of mine asked me about a microphone modeling system that he recently saw online. The basic idea is that...
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Mix Blog Live: Life Through the Lens
I’ve never mixed a Blue Oyster Cult show where the band didn’t perform “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” If I recall correctly, about 10 years...
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Mix Blog Live: A Peek at The Peak
This past Friday I worked a show in Jim Thorpe, Penn., at a venue called Penn’s Peak. Established in 2003, Penn’s Peak kicked off...
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Mix Blog Live: Power Steering
The idea of “steering” a P.A. is nothing new. Renkus-Heinz and EAW have been producing steerable loudspeaker arrays since the early 2000s (the ICONYX...
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Mix Blog Live: AES—Where Inquiring Minds Go
One of the things I like best about going to an AES Convention is connecting with friends and colleagues in the industry, and as...
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Mix Blog Live: Put a Toll Booth in It
I’ve lived in New York City for my entire life and I’m noticing an alarming trend. My friend Richie puts it this way: “Take...
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Mix Blog Live: Just A Little Bit…
When my guys headline a show and there’s a support act, we make every effort to make them feel welcome. We do however have...
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Mix Blog Live: Don’t Cut Off Your Nose…
Any gear nut can tell you that one of the issues in dealing with vintage gear is the availability of parts. You may be...
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Mix Blog Live: The Yamaha NS10 Reborn
Just when you thought that Yamaha NS10Ms were going the way of the dinosaur, Avantone has introduced what appears to be a redux. Engineers...
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