college class for sound engineer?

[Big John]

My local community college offers evening classes for "community enrichment". We got a class schedule in the mail last week (we get one each quarter). The wife signed up for a wellness diet class, so I figured I'd sign up for something. Lo & behold, they offered a sound engineer class at the exact same time as the wellness thing. Yes, please.

It starts tonight, and I'm looking forward to it. I've run FOH, monitors, and lights for some big shows in the midwest when I was younger. I'm always curious to see how others approach this stuff. I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and be as dumb as a box of rocks from day 1. I might hit him with a few zinger questions later on. At any rate, this should be interesting, seeing how a community college evening class presents this information.

 

[Ed B]

Sounds cool. Keep this thread going. I'd love to hear about it. Good luck!

 

[Razzle]

Wow, that sounds really cool.

 

[Lyrica]

i got to learn a few things from someone trained in it though I never got the chance to take a course. I'm jealous enjoy it, soak it up, and then pass on all your knowledge to us! lol. well, soak it up at least lol

 

[Brians Evil Twin]

If they get too snooty, ask them why balanced cables are better than unbalanced.

The correct answer isn't "because they can run farther" or "because they're balanced".

 

[Big John]

I'll have some good ones to throw at him for the last class. Stuff like "How does cable capacitance affect phantom power and vise-versa?", and "Do contact piezos work well with drums as gate triggers?", and "How do you compensate for digital conversion latency with delay towers?", and of course "If somebody wants more kick drum in their monitor, does that make them an idiot?"

 

[edro]

Ask the instructor to roll up a mic cable in front of the class...

 

[rxbandit]

Ask the instructor to roll up a mic cable in front of the class...

Over/under or get out

 

[edro]

:d

 

[Maynar]

Over/under or get out

I just put a half-twist in every wrap and it works fine.

 

[Freddy G]

Clap your hands once beside the instructor. Ask him how many times he heard that clap from your hands....the answer is twice. First, in the one ear that was closer to the clap and then in the other ear. The time delay is how we subconsciously triangulate where a sound comes from.

 

[THDNUT]

Ask the instructor if it's ever ok to turn up the suck knob.

 

[martin H]

I'll have some good ones to throw at him for the last class. Stuff like "How does cable capacitance affect phantom power and vise-versa?", and "Do contact piezos work well with drums as gate triggers?", and "How do you compensate for digital conversion latency with delay towers?", and of course "If somebody wants more kick drum in their monitor, does that make them an idiot?"

Interesting: let me see...

[1]How does cable capacitance affect phantom power and vise-versa?"

Phantom power is DC. Therefore, the only effect of cable capacitance I can see is that it will provide a small smoothing effect on the supply? I have heard that it can make a difference in the likelihood of damage when "hot plugging" or unplugging a phantom powered mic, but you shouldn't do that anyway;

[2] Do contact piezos work well with drums as gate triggers?",

I've made a number of good drum triggers with contact piezos. The provide a fairly messy signal however, and need some processing to prevent multiple triggers from the same hit

[3] How do you compensate for digital conversion latency with delay towers?

A delay tower is not usually used to compensate for digital latency. Its used to delay the signal sent to speakers at the back of the auditorium so it time-aligns with the signal that had traveled form the stage and front speakers

Presumably you can overcome digital latency in one signal by delaying everything else to align with the delayed signal from the digital unit. This has its own problems, however as the acoustic output of the amps/drums cannot be delayed, and your entire PA signal is now behind the direct signal form the amps

[4] "If somebody wants more kick drum in their monitor, does that make them an idiot?"

If your'e in a stadium, possibly not. On a 20X15 stage, the two requests that make me cringe are "can we get more guitar in the monitors" and "can we get more kick drum in their monitor"

Having played drums in live situations, it is, however actually quite hard to hear your own kick drum from behind the kit, and several drummers tell me they like a little kick in the drum monitor so they don't wear their right leg out all night .


C+?

 

[martin H]

If they get too snooty, ask them why balanced cables are better than unbalanced.

The correct answer isn't "because they can run farther" or "because they're balanced".

I'd say both answers are true....just not very informative.

 

[Big John]

Update: man, did I have the wrong idea going in. The instructor is fricking on the ball. There's 7 of us in the class. 4 mix at huge churches, one's a college musical director, one's a retired former head of a college electronics department, and then my dumb ass. There were so many mixing jewels being handed out that we kept the instructor there 32 minutes after class time was over, picking his brain like mad. He's toured as the FOH and monitor guy for A-list rock bands from the 70's thru the 80's, orchestras, symphonies, and Broadway shows. We start next week's class in the performance theater with the college's Soundcraft GB8. What I thought was going to be a ho-hum class is in reality going to be one the most exciting and informative college courses I'll ever take.

 

[rcole_sooner]

That is cooler than a polar bear's bottom in a butt dragging contest!

(I guess that comment sorta fits your avatar too.)

 

[Chicago John]

Update: man, did I have the wrong idea going in. The instructor is fricking on the ball. There's 7 of us in the class. 4 mix at huge churches, one's a college musical director, one's a retired former head of a college electronics department, and then my dumb ass. There were so many mixing jewels being handed out that we kept the instructor there 32 minutes after class time was over, picking his brain like mad. He's toured as the FOH and monitor guy for A-list rock bands from the 70's thru the 80's, orchestras, symphonies, and Broadway shows. We start next week's class in the performance theater with the college's Soundcraft GB8. What I thought was going to be a ho-hum class is in reality going to be one the most exciting and informative college courses I'll ever take.

There's usually a pretty good reason why the man standing in front of a classroom is the man standing in front of the classroom...

 

[martin H]

Update: man, did I have the wrong idea going in. The instructor is fricking on the ball. There's 7 of us in the class. 4 mix at huge churches, one's a college musical director, one's a retired former head of a college electronics department, and then my dumb ass. There were so many mixing jewels being handed out that we kept the instructor there 32 minutes after class time was over, picking his brain like mad. He's toured as the FOH and monitor guy for A-list rock bands from the 70's thru the 80's, orchestras, symphonies, and Broadway shows. We start next week's class in the performance theater with the college's Soundcraft GB8. What I thought was going to be a ho-hum class is in reality going to be one the most exciting and informative college courses I'll ever take.

Enjoy John. Sounds like you have a great instructor . Sound is a fascinating field that gives me about as much enjoyment as actually playing nowadays.

 

[THDNUT]

Does the instructor have any good groupie stories?

 

[Laggspike]

I wish I was there lol