Blog
Mix Live Blog: What’s on Your List?
Mix blogger and longtime FOH engineer for Blue Öyster Cult Steve La Cerra considers how and why his input list has evolved over the...
Mix Blog Live
Blog
Mix Live Blog: Five Silly Questions…
FOH engineer/Mix blogger Steve La Cerra is on the road with Blue Öyster Cult, and has noticed that he's needed to ask questions that...
The Wire
Insights In Sound – Andy Burton, Musician/Composer (Episode 35)
He’s a walking musical lexicon who’s toured with everyone from Cyndi Lauper, Ian Hunter, and John Mayer to Rufus and Loudon Wainwright. For most...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Rental Gouge
Ever on the road, live sound pro Steve La Cerra recounts a wretched rental counter encounter—and considers how other touring acts will be affected...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: At Home, On Tour
The Boss reopened on Broadway a few days ago and has announced plans for a 2022 tour, though the two types of performances are...
The Wire
Insights In Sound – KC Mancebo, Entrepreneur (Episode 29)
From artist management and event production to licensing, fashion design, and running a label, KC Mancebo’s career has been an eclectically diverse and winding...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Ready, Set, Go
With Foo Fighters playing next week at a sold-out, full-capacity, vaccination-required Madison Square Garden, the concert touring industry is seeing its first signs of...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Two Gigs in One Weekend!
Steve La Cerra is getting back into the rhythm of the road after setting up travel, backline and the FOH mix for two shows...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Get That Chip Off Your Shoulder
The ongoing, worldwide shortage in ICs is delaying product manufacturing across nearly every industry, and pro audio, it appears, will be taking a back...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Ten-Foot Kick
We like loud, we like clarity and we like dynamics. That's what we do in live performance. But now is not the time to...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Spring Training
Steve La Cerra was back at FOH last weekend, and that proved to be the easy part following a 17-hour journey from New York...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Muscle Memory
After a long hiatus, Steve La Cerra settled in at FOH for his first gig of 2021 and, for a brief moment, found that...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Vegas Reopens at 50 Percent
While not a long-term solution, the move in Las Vegas to open venues at up to 50 percent capacity (or 250 people, whichever is...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: GRAMMY Time
Grammy Week and Music's Biggest Night will look a lot different this time around, but as Steve La Cerra points out, the performers are...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Well, At Least Someone Cares
While the public cheered recent announcements of limited-capacity venue reopenings, Steve La Cerra looks at the economics and calls it a non-starter; meanwhile, he...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: RTFM
In teaching a lesson to a student about following the proper steps for a project, Steve La Cerra ends up following his own advice...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Virtually NAMM
Steve La Cerra really wanted to go to Anaheim this year to find new products and catch up with some colleagues, but mostly he...
Blog
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: My First Indoor Gig, Front to Back
In his first indoor gig of the Covid era, Steve La Cerra finds that while the crew and backstage areas followed protocol, it was...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Memories of Bruce Swedien
Steve La Cerra recalls the human side of Bruce Swedien, how they met over a story about Neumann M49s and how he ended up...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Holding My Breath
With only a few weeks to go in the semester, Steve La Cerra is crossing his fingers that the classrooms at Mercy College stay...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Business as Unusual
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: A Steep Climb
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Which Group Am I In?
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Surviving Sturgis
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: We Need the Good Kind of PR
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Check Your Wireless Inventory
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Flash Your Headlights
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,...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: The Real Numbers
Steve La Cerra looks at a couple of surveys taken during the pandemic and is crushed to learn of the value the average consumer...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Meet Me at the Drive-In
The hunger for live music is real, and with very few outlets outside of looking at a screen, artists and fans are turning to...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: A Slice and a Coke
When the 2020 concert season was canceled, it left a lot of supporting businesses throughout the country in a tight spot, including some favorite...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Rise Up, New York!
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...
Blog
Mix Blog Live: Zooming High(er)-Quality Audio
Besides spending many weekends on the road at front of house, Steve La Cerra is an audio educator; over the the last month he...
Blog
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"...
Blog
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...
Blog
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...
Blog
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...
Blog
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...
Blog
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...
Blog
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.
Blog
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...
Blog
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...