It's not a matter of if you'll have problems it's a matter of what you do when you have problems that make you good at what you do. That may be why I truly enjoy your videos. By sharing your problems it helps the rest of us be better prepared. Great job as always and remember, at least they didn't have an 85 dB volume limit, or you weren't outside in the rain, or there was not enough power near the stage. Perspective is a wonderful thing.
I got 30 years on the touring game . I can share this - there’s no point stressing over the small stuff , as when the shot really hits the fan you have nowhere to go emotionally . So ride out the world calmly and when you really need that adrenaline and stressful energy you have it in reserve to get you through the long days and nights and onto success .
Happy new year! Great show as always, I use to hate having to rely on the house system/lighting rather than use our own. Hard wire, hard wire, hard wire - the three essentials to a successful light show! The trouble is it takes ages to set up to only solve an issue that happens 1 in a 100 times. The strange thing is that probably nobody noticed during the show as they didn’t know what you wanted to do. Well done in overcoming the issue, I really enjoy your ‘real life’ videos. Looking forward to a great 2025.
Thanks for your continued support! Agreed that it’s for the 1% time that the unknown happens. We were very lucky we had a good soundcheck and were backed up by the house lights which as you said, no one knew any different! 😮💨
Overcoming major obstacles is very much part of providing professional production at an excellent level. This video illustrates the value of the years of experience that The Sound Couple has, and how they apply that experience to promptly dealing with the kind of difficult problems that might arise during a gig. I particularly appreciate the time Bart took to show us the steps he took to troubleshoot the network problem that arose at this New Year’s venue. As always, those of us who carefully follow the videos of Bart and Stacy appreciate their willingness to take us along on their many gigs.
Hello Stacy and Bart ! You are great! It's so good to see honest people doing their job with all of their heart. Sometimes (my poor opinion) you take it too much to your heart. I'm 61 and an old musician. And for me it's very interesting, that all the china gear is most of the time working. Otherwise we would have to take for every little piece of gear a backup to take with us. I'm really woundering how rear something is broken. As I can see, you have always a lot of things in your truck for the gigs but less backup gear. I your videos it also seems that you are perfect working together. Alone for this I have to say a big " Chapeau " !!! Thx for your doing that videos what are helping us to avoid issues. Please excuse my bad english. Have a good New Year! kind greetings from Vienna/ Austria Wolf
thanks Bart and Stacy for another great video... i have felt your stress level many times... and it's never a good time. Thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge... keep the music going.
Hey Bart, Joel Potter here. Potter Sound Consulting down here to the south in Des Moines watching your video. The New Year’s Eve 2024 and I feel your frustration. Good job. Knock on some wood for the double jinx.
no matter what happens to you guys, you are always very resilient. happy new year, looking forward for what you guys have in store for this year. bring on 2025. Nathaniel :-)
Happy new year! Thanks for working so hard on these videos. Totally understand how frustrating it must be to deal with the sporadic PreSonus issues and networking issues. Super impressive that you had the Airport Express backup and got everything working again so quickly.
Bart. I'm a long time viewer. I appreciate your videos. I watch them all. I would love to get into live sound, but it's a whole other beast. I'm a mobile DJ, and apply some of the things you mention in practice. Thank you. Happy New Year.
Your backup plan worked and you got it done!! I’m still poking around with digital stuff right now. Debating on changing. Learning a little bit on routing. We are still using all analog mixers for now. Thanks for explaining and showing what went wrong. Hopefully it can help others in the future.
If analog is working for you, I don't see any reason why to change. We went digital primarily for the expanded busses, compact size, and tablet mixing.
@@thesoundcoupleI do like the digital stuff you have shown. The easy of setup and takedown. And I do like the ease of running cat5/6 vs analog snakes. We do have a 4 channel cat 5/6 snake we use for small stuff or sub snake. Of course we don’t do much full bands. We do a lot of bluegrass and acoustic stuff. Look forward to your next video!! Thanks!
Happy New Year Bart and Stacy. You guys are fabulous. I love your videos and want to thank you for taking time to make them. It’s above and beyond especially when you run into issues. You bring us right along felling the pain as well as the joy of success. I’m looking forward to more adventures with y’all. DeWayne, just another local sound guy relating to your work and play.
Happy new year all the way from Scotland. I never miss a vlog from you guys. Bart you need to stop being so hard on yourself, things do go wrong and its a high pressure environment you work in. Keep on doing what you are doing and I look forward to future vlogs.
Hello! Thanks for being a faithful watcher! At times this can be high pressure, but with hindsight, we get to learn from it and hopefully less stress in the future.
Sounds like a solid event with a problem resolved. And then fully resolved back home. I'm the same way - in the moment I have a hard time troubleshooting something whereas later I can often resolve it in short order and am kicking myself that I didn't get it in the moment. Lessons learned whether it's the first gig or the 1000th. Well done, team!
I completely agree with your advice regarding redundancy, backups, testing and plan B. (Fellow IT guy) I also appreciate your humble honesty walking through problems and possible mistakes and helping us all learn with you. I recently switched to Swisonic routers and HPE rack mount switches to clean up my mixer rack. I also use a Presonus 24r and an A&H CQ20b for backup/main. Keep up the great work and keep the videos coming!
Really enjoy your videos, I think I learnt more from this video than any of your others (although a lot of the networking was way above my head) great honesty throughout and hopefully smooth sailing ahead. Keep up the good work
Thanks Paul! Appreciate the feedback....the networking portion we understand was not for everyone, but sometimes it's just good to hear things to expose yourself to concepts..we tried to keep it short and there's no quiz! Thanks again for your comment and watching!
Thanks Bart and Stacy, congratulations on solving the problem. Your videos are important from a technical and human point of view. Happy New Year and warm greetings from Gorizia, Italy.-
Happy New years! The mistakes or equipment failures are valuable lessons. I’ve got many stories and shapes how PAs go out and are used. I did a RUclips NYE gig log as well, went relatively smooth except for the band… anyway, good info and video
Great Video (as always) You did a great job of recovering and making the show happen. I am the same sometime in the heat of the show if something fails it is hard to settle down and think it through. You two always get er done !!
This Midas table is excellent, it's interesting that the house has a very interesting sound and lighting system! (high level) Congratulations on yet another top video talking about the experience that each event has its own specialization in particular,,,
Bart keep doin what ya do. Time is the ultimate constraint. We only get one shot to make a show on time. You are simply time aware. It makes us ALL anxious. Playing hodge-podge pa is always fun. Why aux sub? So we can clean up the low end. No vocals or OH mics in the subs. On large rigs it really helps. Wifi mix should not be used as the main control surface. It WILL at some point fail and leave you high and dry. The desk should be your main interface as its hard for a fader to malfunction. Every show I still learn after 30 years of A1. A1 is problem solver oh and mix after fixing all the problems. You are kick'n brother.
Thanks! Lot's to unpack in your comments. Suffice to say, your points are valid...we went with our rack mixer for a few reasons....partly with the budget and info we could obtain, it was the most convenient and seamless way to integrate and for us to fit everything into the car. We have really come a long ways on our wireless and it's damn near rock solid. We did a video a couple years back on console vs. tablet mixing what hits on your points. Lots of opinions on aux fed subs too! ruclips.net/video/ftzx_EsBLuQ/видео.html
Hi Bart and Stacy, Happy new year from a francophone (excuse my english) from Montreal Quebec Canada. I totally feel your stress in "show mode" and i also sometimes feel it while operating our podcast studio when we sometimes have live broadcasts and when little things go wrong. Our brain simply cannot think straight. I totally admire the emergency doctors that deals with human life in stressfull situations those people are heroes. I am a semi pro sound guy and also a network and computer engineer so i am giving you my diagnostic and suggestions regarding your network problems with the information i have of course since i may be missing some details. You take what you want ;) First, what could cause the DHCP to stop working while enabling the wireless bridge is three possible factors : a) It may be possible that the wireless network you are bridging to may already have a DHCP and since you cannot have 2 on the same network, that may create conflicts. b) It may be possible that your router automatically disable DHCP when bridging to another network assuming the other network will provide IP addresses. c) It is possible that the other network uses the same IP addresses range as yours and create IP conflicts. My little suggestions to avoid network problems regarding DHCP : 1) For critical hardware that you ALWAYS use on your network like your router, your console, your IPAD, etc... use static IP addresses and carefully maintain an excel file of all of those. I normally reserve the lower IPs to static IPs like 10.2.2.1 to 10.2.2.99. And connect each other using IP address and not host names. This will always work even without DHCP and DNS servers. If you know your console is always 10.2.2.10 you will always be able to connect to it. 2) Setup the DHCP to assign IPs from higher IPs like 10.2.2.100 to 10.2.2.250 and use it for less critical client devices like monitor iphones, light fixtures etc. 3) Change your network class C to be different than the widely common default network on all domestic routers like 10.0.0.0 or 192.168.0.0. The 10.0.0.0 is a private class A where you can use almost anything as the second, third numbers. So use your own Class C like example 10.20.30.0 to 10.20.30.255. This way you reduce the chances that you may have class C conflict when connecting to another network using the default class C over a bridge or a VPN. 4) If you want to upgrade to more robust network gear, check out Ubiquity products ui.com/. They have great all-in-one router+switch rackmount solutions that you can use with long range wireless bridges with a lot of features like network scanning and channel optimisation. Hope those little suggestions will help you a bit. Keep doing your videos, i love watching them.
Really appreciate your insights on this one....I agree on #3. The other points we could have a nice debate! Understand your points, but in this case, this was more user error and your theory about what happened sounds the most plausible...however, the bridge did not APPEAR to work which shouldn't induce failure...perhaps I should have disabled my hotspot on my phone to confirm. Bottom line, I will never make this mistake again!
@@thesoundcouple Like i told you, i only tried to raise some possible issues with my other points. To be honnest, I do not completely understand the "bridge" feature on your router if it's using the WIFI from your phone as a WAN network or trying to bridge both WIFI network together. I would need to study the doc to understand it and have a debug session to confirm exactly what happened. But anyway, if you are now OK and know not to use this feature, that should be fine ;)
16:14 this is the way to do it! I always have my showflies set up where my LR mix gets sent to matrixes for LR/Sub/Front Fill/Record, or whatever I need. I can literally walk into any situation and give the house guy whatever they need. from a simple LR, to fully broken out. I normally keep stereo and mono versions of my FF matrix as well. This way I can treat my LR buss with a bit of pseudo mastering, and send it to all required PA zones via matrices. All these zones can be processed as required with EQ/time alignment etc... right on the matrix edit after watching the rest: I'm no IT guy, but I wonder if using static IP's to begin with would be a better idea? especially if it's 95% of the time your own devices connecting. The other thing I would think about doing at gigs like these, is having a wired backup, be it a laptop, or what have you, at FOH. often times venues already have Cat lines you could use in place, which would make it super quick and easy. End of the day, stuff like this is why I try to never leave any critical connection to wifi. it's just too unstable/unpredictable for me to trust.
Thanks for supporting our approach! We had our MacBook USB connected, but in this situation, the mixer was in back so not a good place to mix a show. With our solid sound check, it worked out while we worked on the issue. Using DHCP is really fine...in fact, using static address's could make things really challenging in the case of a complete network change.
We use Luminair - We did some overviews on it here: ruclips.net/video/2GGTSC97t_Y/видео.htmlsi=caukSos4ypnp5kz7 ruclips.net/video/TO0NaHthk0w/видео.htmlsi=i9vbHQMbt1l190GZ
HYN Bart & Stacy - Glad the gig went well, despite the hurdles and extra stress. I've found regular training and full system knowledge helpful - especially when you are one of a tech team (say at the church or in an audio company). As an individual I may have only been shown some of the system or only received part of the training as the Boss or Senior Tech controls the full job - but if someone is away or part of the system fails - finding a "Fix" can be difficult and impacts the gig. Having a handy list of IP addresses or routing instructions also makes things easier in a pinch.
You bring up a great point that can be forgotten about - At least in set up, Stacy has been "cross trained" - but if left by herself - she would've been up a creek without the paddle!
Happy New Year to you, the Sound Couple. Timing and connunication is a part of Planning. A good plan is great; a poor plan is @#$%^ Nice load-in spot. "Lesson Learned" on the PreSonus mixer. It probably happens with others. They have a nice venue wrt audio and lighting infrastructure, and lots of room to store your stuff. I have a couple of the Airport Expresses, not in service, but they were rock solid. The phones should have been a good backup to the hotspot! What device is the primary wifi router? You might consider labeling your device (router) bag so you can see what is in it without opening the bag. In closing, what was the final culprit and cause?
For some reason, enabling the wireless WAN bridge on the router created some sort of loop. It could have been a double whammy...that caused a problem with me selecting the wrong option and I meant to select Wireless WAN, not bridge.
Hey Bart, it might when putting things in bridge the router expects “the other side” to handout ip addresses. Bridge can be nasty. If you just connect to the wan port, the router creates a new network on the lan side of the network, so the 10. range. The router then routes the other traffic from lan to wan.
The biggest thing I’ve learnt over 40 + years in live production is “have a plan B”. On gigs where reliability of control is essential I will run an Ethernet cable in addition to my AVB cable so I can have a laptop running UC connected to my rack mixer in case I lose the FOH mixer. After sound check I copy the FOH scene to the rack mixer in the event I need to run from it at any point. HNY from down under 🖖
That's the really nice thing about the PreSonus console and it supporting USB as a mixer controller as well. We would suggest also to back up the project/scene to the computer. If we had a catastrophic failure with the mixer, we could be up and running much more efficiently with our back up mixer.
Do you think that - perhaps - the frustrations could have been averted if you were more willing to mix on their console? Sort of a balancing the BS involved. Another great video. Will you be at NAMM by any chance?
Yes....if there was more time and we knew exactly who/what we were dealing with, perhaps. If we go back, we may consider that if it's with the same band. I guess you need to consider that the band is paying us from their pockets so we need to make sure we are able to do the job the best we can....otherwise, they should save the money and let the house run their board. Kind of two sides of this coin. Oh and NAMM - no, not this year, but it's on our list for the future!
As someone who works in IT, I feel the pain with live audio networking issues. It’s really hard when you’re in the band, and there’s and issue and they don’t understand sometimes a fix takes a little longer when you’re having to mess with router configs on the fly.
Would you be willing to share your network specs? Is a static IP address important? Why do you need a switch? I use a WiFi LAN for my gigs but I do run into problems from time to time. Would be good to leverage your best practices! Thanks for all you do.
Thanks for your questions! I personally don't feel the need to use a static address. If your network is solid, it's just not a problem for your gear to be assigned address's. Hard coding address's could present their own set of issues. Bottom line, you just gotta go with what works for you. We have the switch because we ran out of ports on our router. The switch just allows you to extend the number of network ports. Your problems are likely wireless interference as any wired solution should be solid on a good network. We only use 5Ghz and used software (WiFi Explorer Lite), to find the most reliable channel...once we locked that in, our wi-fi works well. The quality of wireless outer can play a big role in this. We have a good one. But as we proved in the video, the Apple AirPort Express worked well too!
You need to get one of those rack mount router the domestic type you’re using not really made to do what you do the waves router would most likely suit your needs go check out the specs Bart happy new year to you and Stacy
Power of 10, the band we feature on many of our videos, has a lot of issues with their Waves router....we have tried to troubleshoot it extensively, but cannot find a common thread...it keeps dropping clients and the admin page will randomly not load. Can't force the issue, it just randomly occurs. Unfortunately, it's not mine and I can only do so much to try to help...but if it was my router, it would not be sustainable issue for me. We opened a ticket, but it's out of warranty and they really can't offer much.
@ sounds like an issue with the waves doesn’t say much for the router according to the big spread on their page it should be indestructible,maybe a software update could be the issue iOS has changed a couple of times and could be upsetting the dhcp would be the first thing I’d be looking at,second of all do they check the waves website for updates and make sure it’s working correctly before a show?. I know thats not your issue Bart but it certainly helps if the have a handle on things and not blindside you at the gig. Education is imminent for the power of 10,not your job to babysit them .
@@petershute3580 Yeah, we checked for updates, it's on the latest. They talked about getting a new wifi router in which my response is you should have the best. I suspect that either there is an issue with the router (we have factory reset, etc.), or it's someone's compromised device that is essentially DoS'ing the WiFi. The latter is pretty hard to troubleshoot when time is not allocated to test....they are musicians, they want to show up at late as they can, play, get paid, and go home. This is sort of a downside of bands owning tech....Their primary workaround was to get a device that can be hardwired to the mixer so at least the mixes can be controlled from that (USB connected). It's too bad this issue just needs to linger on and when I see the heads shake in disgust when their phones won't connect....I have done everything I can, including opening a ticket with Waves that went nowhere.
@ nice,big ups for Waves!,typical just when you need a hand they drop the ball,well the band need to get in touch with the manufacturer and sort their problems get their end squared away,know their system and get you guys up to speed,only other thing I can think of is a software issue between what your using (IOS) and weather they are using Mac or ibm. Could be a bug in there or signal issues,i know you run an extender but do they,I know 2.4gz is pretty much terrible and most things work on the 2.4gz band it would be good to have the manufacturer start producing 5gz products I know there’s a few out there but not enough to get you away from the other signals floating around most venues. Anyway good luck Bart -on to the next show!.
We use a bit of reverb and short delay. Taste's have changed/evolved over the years but we tend to use them on the light side....in part because we tend to work with good vocalists and our job is more to support...not compensate. Always make sure you you mute them between songs!
@@thesoundcouple I agree completely. While I don't mix bands (I'm not that talented), I'm a KJ and mix Karaoke (canned music but live vocals), so the basic principle for vocals is the same. I have a Presonus 16.4.2AI (wish it wasn't only Apple compatible, everything I have is windows or android compatible), but for Karaoke I've found that analog seems to work better and faster (every singer is different and you don't have to deal with multiple menus to dial them in, especially when you have more than one singer) , so I'm using a Mackie 1604 VLZ4 with a Lexicon MX200 for effects . My standard effects are Vocal Hall with a Studio Delay (just a smidge for music with just a hint of effects and adjust as needed for vocals). I remember reading some time ago and I've taken to heart is that unless you are trying to achieve a special effect, the best effects is one that you really don't notice until they're missing. This was driven home a couple of weeks ago when the power brick for the Lexicon died so there were no effects. Most of the bar singers didn't notice, but my regulars (especially the one's who want loads of effects) and I could hear the difference. That said, even though a lot of the info you give still goes over my head (for sound and I'm still learning lighting), I'm still picking up and applying lots of good information (to be honest, I know just enough to be dangerous (basically enough to get myself into trouble, but usually not enough to get out of it, but having a heck of a lot of fun in the process. LOL)). Thanks, KarenB
Hey Bart and Stacy, from what I've heard, PreSonus mixers seems to have a bit of a bad representation in terms of reliability, may I ask why you have stuck with PreSonus consoles for so long, instead of moving to Midas or A&H?
That's a great question....sometimes I wonder myself. IMO (seriously, only my opinion...I have no clue, but you asked 😁), the platform has a lot going on for it with some nice software features and integration with a solid hardware platform (arguably minus AVB). The challenge I believe is they have great ideas being driven by someone in charge saying "good enough...get it out" and they are lacking resources to do it right (Fender is not making it better). They don't fully understand the damage that causes to the brand and the impact it has to users livelihood...perhaps they know and are ok with this if the numbers are working. I think most of us would rather see them focus on quality (even raises the prices if that what it takes ) with less, instead of more and get it out the door....but what does a customer know? I am a beta tester and have experienced first hand frustration on seeing things that seemingly don't meet the threshold of anyone caring and watching it blow up in the hands of customers when released...so I sometimes see it twice. Don't think my role gives me any great powers or insights....I just get the software before the public does and we are asked to report REPEATABLE bugs if we find them. Issues like this in the video are not repeatable, so they don't exist in their eyes....until this mentality is fixed, it won't change. So the answer to your question? I have an opportunity to try to make their product better for the all of you using it....when everything works (which it mostly does), it offers me the best experience of any other platform I have mixed on.
So with the hotspot that was unfortunately left behind… do you normally just connect that to the WAN port of your router (no setting changes)? I’d love to get more information if that has been a cost effective and dependable solution for you. Obviously, the phone hotspot is cheaper per month. Did you have any success attaching the phone hotspot to your network? Between mobile live sound, DJ, and karaoke… let’s just say I also need a dependable cost effective solution. I’ve recently gone as far as getting a Starlink satellite with a pause-able roam account to allow for coverage when I’m outside of dependable cell service (think remote weddings/live sound). I’d still love to land on a fail safe solution that allows a “wireless internet receiver” (phone, hotspot, Starlink, etc.) to feed and share internet to a fail safe stage LAN. Thanks in advance if you have time to reply or would like to work together on it.
Yes, with the ATT hotspot router, we have recently switched it to be wired to the WAN port of our internal router. The performance has noticeably improved over using the wireless WAN. This is part of the reason why I screwed it up, because it's been awhile since I have made this change on our router. I should really test if the phone hotspot works though using the right setting. Using the Netgear hotspot is not cheaper, but it is more reliable than the phone ($55/month) Part of it too is that we need our phone on us and we use them to do videos and we are walking all over the place. We need something that will be stationary and reliable. Where we live, ATT has pretty good coverage, but the cellular network strength is what you are ultimately dependent on for how good it will work for you.
@ I’ll be watching to see if you figure out the phone hotspot settings. Well, I’ll be watching regardless. 😆 I normally use the iPad I’m mixing with for videos so my phone can camp at the hub, but I hear you on that. I currently have ATT as well, though coverage can be an issue in my area… especially when compounded by signal drop within many venues. I plan to experiment with bridging the Starlink from my vehicle into the venue for more remote locations. I’ll definitely give the Netgear hotspot a trial run. Thank you both so much for sharing what you do and of course for the reply! I’m an Audix dealer as well. Feel free to hit me up if you need anything on that front or have related questions.
@@vadjrob That sounds good...thanks! I did try again to get the WAN bridge to connect to my iPhone hotspot and it didn't' work. Not sure why is isn't able to find the hotspot wi-fi beacon of the iPhone. Not going to pursue it more as that's why we got the hotspot....just don't forget to bring it!
Audio glitching happens with EVERY brand. It just sucks when that's how the night starts. I rarely recover well from equipment glitches like that either.
Bart and Stacy. Was this NYE 12/31/23 into 1/1/24 (ie a year ago from today)? If so, how well were you able to apply the lessons learned and the intended approach of “being zen” (my words) to the work you did across 2024? What do you want to change, add, enhance for 2025? Or if this was just a few days ago (speedy editing!), how do you think 2025 will be different for you?
Yes...we put this one together quick! We skip ahead to meet the timing of NYE so this was '24. You ask a good question... In general, we felt that we were down more. It seemed like we never got on a roll and too many gigs could have went better. We did have a record year in revenue but perhaps that's the issue in that we work too much so we may cut back a bit in '25.. Some people have been asking...we have regular jobs as well, so these gigs are after putting a full week of work in and we aren't getting any younger!
Nice FOH location, Hoe do you cope/deal with keeping FOH safe where there is nothing in a room ? Keeping the happy/drunk people AWAY from gear (FOH) ???
Seriously, there is a lot of luck and trust...same as the weather! This is simply a reality of the types of gigs we do. We have insurance and try to make smart choices and do the best we can to make sure our gear stays safe.
Venues such as casinos are notorious for 2.4GHz traffic congestion, often plays havoc on wireless networks / AP's being used for mixer control, we have found ourselves here resorting to a Apple Airport Express router also, it seems the more you invest in wireless network infrastructure (including P2P AP's / meshing), the more susceptible to issues. Don't ever leave home without that Apple Airport 🙏☺️
Stacy's World has got it going on Luminere is where the DMX is from When the band you see It's Stacy's LEDs Nothing can go wrong When Stacy's lighting up your song
I have used lots of presonus gear since having the ACP88's back in the 90's and several other things over the years and its OK when it works but in my experience Presonus gear always stops working after a while. I have had several ACP88's at my old church and they all started dropping channels. Got them repaired and after a while the same issues. Had some firewire interfaces and they crapped out. Better get rid of that presonus gear before it lets you down big time.
Rhino still uses a RM32 that just keeps going...they are gigging all of the time! I dunno...it's truly hard to know how good any of this stuff is. It seems like it's luck of the draw sometimes. I had a few ACP88's and never had a problem. I do remember having at least one that was actually made in Baton Rouge...and later ones that said "Made in China"...that was sad.
Interesting, my wireless LAN setup is a cheap Xiaomi 5Ghz router, SSID broadcast and 2.4Ghz disabled. I have a backup, identical router (they're USD 12 each in China) setup exactly the same (SSID, password etc.) should the first one ever fail. Background music is run through a Bluetooth 5.2 with battery device from a phone with 5G. I'm thinking about a UPS although power is very reliable here. However on NYE party night, a neighbor cut the powerline to the venue at 1am 🤣 A fist fight almost ensued, police came, power was restored but the band was replaced by a not so loud DJ for the rest of the night. Of course western new year is not as important as Chinese New Year, nonetheless 1st of January is a national holiday, but I guess the neighbor gets regular disturbances from the venue.
@@thesoundcouple so the Martin Audio W8VDQ is a two box in one solution. Top part of it is 10x100 degrees and the lower 20x120 degrees and since it has a bump at the bottom for the distance pole, you can't mount 2 boxes flat to each other this means it will have dispersion overlap that can cause cancellations and the dispersion will be all funky from top to bottom horizontally 100,120, 100 and 120 again. The correct system to have there would have been 3xW8LM+W8LMD or 2xW8LM+W8VDQ.
@@thesoundcouple Absolutely! Due to the unwanted overlap, it was probably cancelling itself out. VDQ on it's own is an awesome one box solution, giving you a nice asymmetric coverage (the top 100x10 portion throwing far and lower 120x20 spreading at the front, also you can pad the lower portion -2db to give it an even nicer even SPL)
Me that has worked on Midas Pro series mixers before would probably have mixed on the house console, if i had to possibility to know which console they had beforehand i would have prepped a showfile in midas pro offline editior (Despite it needing to run on like Mojave (Old version of MacOS) ahead of time. in your situation, if there's one thing ive learned over time is that, yes your under a time constraint, but take a step back, take a breath and rethink, Since standing there pulling you hair out is never gonna help. And as you said, sometimes digital gear like this does have a fluke from time to time and its nothing to beat yourself over as it does happen. Any friendly and good house engineer will understand you if u tell him later on that its was a fluke and that a restart fixed it! But anyways in the end it did work out and thats what matters, Same with the IP address issue, just step back, think logicaly and then proceed. I know its hard under pressure but this has helped me so much in the past
Fair point...we have thought about it at times. We feel there are a lot of good things about the system, but failures or flakiness weighs heavy to the other side of the equation.
Happy New Year Buds, so, here is the typical example I was talking about some time ago, commenting on one of your works, for which having the faders and the equipment physically in your hand saves your life. Then also the experience of having used other mixers is sometimes a great thing to bring home the work (the Pro 1 is a very high quality desk and sounds awesome) without too many thoughts and stress. Sometimes my colleagues make fun of me because I could sleep in the flight case of my mixer but inside there is everything I need to have a peaceful sleep. Good work guys and see you next time!
It's not a matter of if you'll have problems it's a matter of what you do when you have problems that make you good at what you do. That may be why I truly enjoy your videos. By sharing your problems it helps the rest of us be better prepared. Great job as always and remember, at least they didn't have an 85 dB volume limit, or you weren't outside in the rain, or there was not enough power near the stage. Perspective is a wonderful thing.
I was laughing at the last part. So.Very.True! Appreciate your comments and sticking with us!
I got 30 years on the touring game . I can share this - there’s no point stressing over the small stuff , as when the shot really hits the fan you have nowhere to go emotionally . So ride out the world calmly and when you really need that adrenaline and stressful energy you have it in reserve to get you through the long days and nights and onto success .
Good advice...thank you!
Happy new year!
Great show as always, I use to hate having to rely on the house system/lighting rather than use our own.
Hard wire, hard wire, hard wire - the three essentials to a successful light show! The trouble is it takes ages to set up to only solve an issue that happens 1 in a 100 times. The strange thing is that probably nobody noticed during the show as they didn’t know what you wanted to do. Well done in overcoming the issue, I really enjoy your ‘real life’ videos. Looking forward to a great 2025.
Thanks for your continued support! Agreed that it’s for the 1% time that the unknown happens. We were very lucky we had a good soundcheck and were backed up by the house lights which as you said, no one knew any different! 😮💨
Overcoming major obstacles is very much part of providing professional production at an excellent level. This video illustrates the value of the years of experience that The Sound Couple has, and how they apply that experience to promptly dealing with the kind of difficult problems that might arise during a gig.
I particularly appreciate the time Bart took to show us the steps he took to troubleshoot the network problem that arose at this New Year’s venue.
As always, those of us who carefully follow the videos of Bart and Stacy appreciate their willingness to take us along on their many gigs.
We honestly have gigs that go well! I feel like we are on a roll, but many to share that went fine. Thanks Dean!
Hello Stacy and Bart !
You are great!
It's so good to see honest people doing their job with all of their heart.
Sometimes (my poor opinion) you take it too much to your heart.
I'm 61 and an old musician.
And for me it's very interesting, that all the china gear is most of the time working.
Otherwise we would have to take for every little piece of gear a backup to take with us.
I'm really woundering how rear something is broken.
As I can see, you have always a lot of things in your truck for the gigs but less backup gear.
I your videos it also seems that you are perfect working together.
Alone for this I have to say a big " Chapeau " !!!
Thx for your doing that videos what are helping us to avoid issues.
Please excuse my bad english.
Have a good New Year!
kind greetings from Vienna/ Austria
Wolf
Thank you for your comment. It’s always helpful to hear other perspectives.
Hey Bart and Stacy! Hello from Pennsylvania, great job, I learned something today!!!
That's great to hear....thanks for letting us know!
thanks Bart and Stacy for another great video... i have felt your stress level many times... and it's never a good time. Thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge... keep the music going.
Thank you so much for taking the ride song with us!
You guys are my favorite sound channel and I appreciate everything you do. Have a great 2025!
We really appreciate that! You are the reason we do what we do!
Great video Bart. Thank you for sharing them with us!
You're welcome!
Hey Bart, Joel Potter here. Potter Sound Consulting down here to the south in Des Moines watching your video. The New Year’s Eve 2024 and I feel your frustration. Good job. Knock on some wood for the double jinx.
Hi Joel! Thanks for watching and commiserating along with us!
I really enjoy learning new things from ya’ll! Keep up the good work!! :)
We're glad you find our videos helpful!
Love the way you fed the mains into the subs! Awesome.
Appreciate that Cole - it was kind on the fly and was trying to save time after the time it took to get things rockin'!
I totally understand the struggle, lol.
no matter what happens to you guys, you are always very resilient. happy new year, looking forward for what you guys have in store for this year. bring on 2025. Nathaniel :-)
Thank you! Lots more coming!
Happy new year! Thanks for working so hard on these videos. Totally understand how frustrating it must be to deal with the sporadic PreSonus issues and networking issues. Super impressive that you had the Airport Express backup and got everything working again so quickly.
You’re welcome! Thanks for coming along for the ride. 😊
You've been my standard for time set goals!
Bart. I'm a long time viewer. I appreciate your videos. I watch them all. I would love to get into live sound, but it's a whole other beast. I'm a mobile DJ, and apply some of the things you mention in practice. Thank you. Happy New Year.
Thank you! That's great that we are able help out our cohorts in the DJ world...much respect!
Your backup plan worked and you got it done!! I’m still poking around with digital stuff right now. Debating on changing. Learning a little bit on routing. We are still using all analog mixers for now. Thanks for explaining and showing what went wrong. Hopefully it can help others in the future.
If analog is working for you, I don't see any reason why to change. We went digital primarily for the expanded busses, compact size, and tablet mixing.
@@thesoundcoupleI do like the digital stuff you have shown. The easy of setup and takedown. And I do like the ease of running cat5/6 vs analog snakes. We do have a 4 channel cat 5/6 snake we use for small stuff or sub snake. Of course we don’t do much full bands. We do a lot of bluegrass and acoustic stuff. Look forward to your next video!! Thanks!
Happy New Year Bart and Stacy. You guys are fabulous. I love your videos and want to thank you for taking time to make them. It’s above and beyond especially when you run into issues. You bring us right along felling the pain as well as the joy of success. I’m looking forward to more adventures with y’all. DeWayne, just another local sound guy relating to your work and play.
Thank you for supporting us for all this time DeWayne! Fortunately or unfortunately, we are not making this stuff up!
Barth and Stacy, have you a great New Year and this kind of problems keep us alert from new surprises that make part of the Show. Congratulations
Appreciate your comments!
Happy new year all the way from Scotland. I never miss a vlog from you guys. Bart you need to stop being so hard on yourself, things do go wrong and its a high pressure environment you work in. Keep on doing what you are doing and I look forward to future vlogs.
Hello! Thanks for being a faithful watcher! At times this can be high pressure, but with hindsight, we get to learn from it and hopefully less stress in the future.
Sounds like a solid event with a problem resolved. And then fully resolved back home. I'm the same way - in the moment I have a hard time troubleshooting something whereas later I can often resolve it in short order and am kicking myself that I didn't get it in the moment. Lessons learned whether it's the first gig or the 1000th. Well done, team!
Thanks...It's always comfortable to know you are not the only one.
I completely agree with your advice regarding redundancy, backups, testing and plan B. (Fellow IT guy) I also appreciate your humble honesty walking through problems and possible mistakes and helping us all learn with you. I recently switched to Swisonic routers and HPE rack mount switches to clean up my mixer rack. I also use a Presonus 24r and an A&H CQ20b for backup/main. Keep up the great work and keep the videos coming!
We appreciate your comment...thanks!
Really enjoy your videos, I think I learnt more from this video than any of your others (although a lot of the networking was way above my head) great honesty throughout and hopefully smooth sailing ahead. Keep up the good work
Thanks Paul! Appreciate the feedback....the networking portion we understand was not for everyone, but sometimes it's just good to hear things to expose yourself to concepts..we tried to keep it short and there's no quiz! Thanks again for your comment and watching!
Thanks Bart and Stacy, congratulations on solving the problem. Your videos are important from a technical and human point of view. Happy New Year and warm greetings from Gorizia, Italy.-
You're the best Paolo! Appreciate your on-going support!
Happy New years! The mistakes or equipment failures are valuable lessons. I’ve got many stories and shapes how PAs go out and are used. I did a RUclips NYE gig log as well, went relatively smooth except for the band… anyway, good info and video
Thanks- it seemed like it was a good party…but yes, as we demonstrate…there is the other story we share that most don’t see.
Great Video (as always) You did a great job of recovering and making the show happen. I am the same sometime in the heat of the show if something fails it is hard to settle down and think it through. You two always get er done !!
Thanks for sharing! Makes us feel we are not alone!
This Midas table is excellent, it's interesting that the house has a very interesting sound and lighting system! (high level)
Congratulations on yet another top video talking about the experience that each event has its own specialization in particular,,,
You’re welcome!
Bence işinizi gayet iyi yapıyorsunuz. Çok keyifli bir video teşekkür ederim. İyi yıllar.
İzlediğiniz için teşekkürler! Bunu takdir ediyoruz!
Happy new year Bart and Stacey!
Happy new year!
Feliz año nuevo!!
¡Gracias por ver! Feliz Año Nuevo también.
Bart keep doin what ya do. Time is the ultimate constraint. We only get one shot to make a show on time. You are simply time aware. It makes us ALL anxious. Playing hodge-podge pa is always fun. Why aux sub? So we can clean up the low end. No vocals or OH mics in the subs. On large rigs it really helps. Wifi mix should not be used as the main control surface. It WILL at some point fail and leave you high and dry. The desk should be your main interface as its hard for a fader to malfunction. Every show I still learn after 30 years of A1. A1 is problem solver oh and mix after fixing all the problems. You are kick'n brother.
Thanks! Lot's to unpack in your comments. Suffice to say, your points are valid...we went with our rack mixer for a few reasons....partly with the budget and info we could obtain, it was the most convenient and seamless way to integrate and for us to fit everything into the car. We have really come a long ways on our wireless and it's damn near rock solid. We did a video a couple years back on console vs. tablet mixing what hits on your points. Lots of opinions on aux fed subs too! ruclips.net/video/ftzx_EsBLuQ/видео.html
Hi Bart and Stacy,
Happy new year from a francophone (excuse my english) from Montreal Quebec Canada. I totally feel your stress in "show mode" and i also sometimes feel it while operating our podcast studio when we sometimes have live broadcasts and when little things go wrong. Our brain simply cannot think straight. I totally admire the emergency doctors that deals with human life in stressfull situations those people are heroes.
I am a semi pro sound guy and also a network and computer engineer so i am giving you my diagnostic and suggestions regarding your network problems with the information i have of course since i may be missing some details. You take what you want ;)
First, what could cause the DHCP to stop working while enabling the wireless bridge is three possible factors :
a) It may be possible that the wireless network you are bridging to may already have a DHCP and since you cannot have 2 on the same network, that may create conflicts.
b) It may be possible that your router automatically disable DHCP when bridging to another network assuming the other network will provide IP addresses.
c) It is possible that the other network uses the same IP addresses range as yours and create IP conflicts.
My little suggestions to avoid network problems regarding DHCP :
1) For critical hardware that you ALWAYS use on your network like your router, your console, your IPAD, etc... use static IP addresses and carefully maintain an excel file of all of those. I normally reserve the lower IPs to static IPs like 10.2.2.1 to 10.2.2.99. And connect each other using IP address and not host names. This will always work even without DHCP and DNS servers. If you know your console is always 10.2.2.10 you will always be able to connect to it.
2) Setup the DHCP to assign IPs from higher IPs like 10.2.2.100 to 10.2.2.250 and use it for less critical client devices like monitor iphones, light fixtures etc.
3) Change your network class C to be different than the widely common default network on all domestic routers like 10.0.0.0 or 192.168.0.0. The 10.0.0.0 is a private class A where you can use almost anything as the second, third numbers. So use your own Class C like example 10.20.30.0 to 10.20.30.255. This way you reduce the chances that you may have class C conflict when connecting to another network using the default class C over a bridge or a VPN.
4) If you want to upgrade to more robust network gear, check out Ubiquity products ui.com/. They have great all-in-one router+switch rackmount solutions that you can use with long range wireless bridges with a lot of features like network scanning and channel optimisation.
Hope those little suggestions will help you a bit.
Keep doing your videos, i love watching them.
Really appreciate your insights on this one....I agree on #3. The other points we could have a nice debate! Understand your points, but in this case, this was more user error and your theory about what happened sounds the most plausible...however, the bridge did not APPEAR to work which shouldn't induce failure...perhaps I should have disabled my hotspot on my phone to confirm. Bottom line, I will never make this mistake again!
@@thesoundcouple Like i told you, i only tried to raise some possible issues with my other points. To be honnest, I do not completely understand the "bridge" feature on your router if it's using the WIFI from your phone as a WAN network or trying to bridge both WIFI network together. I would need to study the doc to understand it and have a debug session to confirm exactly what happened. But anyway, if you are now OK and know not to use this feature, that should be fine ;)
Happy new year
Happy New Year to you too! Thanks for watching!
16:14 this is the way to do it! I always have my showflies set up where my LR mix gets sent to matrixes for LR/Sub/Front Fill/Record, or whatever I need. I can literally walk into any situation and give the house guy whatever they need. from a simple LR, to fully broken out. I normally keep stereo and mono versions of my FF matrix as well.
This way I can treat my LR buss with a bit of pseudo mastering, and send it to all required PA zones via matrices. All these zones can be processed as required with EQ/time alignment etc... right on the matrix
edit after watching the rest:
I'm no IT guy, but I wonder if using static IP's to begin with would be a better idea? especially if it's 95% of the time your own devices connecting. The other thing I would think about doing at gigs like these, is having a wired backup, be it a laptop, or what have you, at FOH. often times venues already have Cat lines you could use in place, which would make it super quick and easy. End of the day, stuff like this is why I try to never leave any critical connection to wifi. it's just too unstable/unpredictable for me to trust.
Thanks for supporting our approach! We had our MacBook USB connected, but in this situation, the mixer was in back so not a good place to mix a show. With our solid sound check, it worked out while we worked on the issue. Using DHCP is really fine...in fact, using static address's could make things really challenging in the case of a complete network change.
What app do you guys use for controlling lights? As always, great work. Learning a lot from you guys.
We use Luminair - We did some overviews on it here:
ruclips.net/video/2GGTSC97t_Y/видео.htmlsi=caukSos4ypnp5kz7
ruclips.net/video/TO0NaHthk0w/видео.htmlsi=i9vbHQMbt1l190GZ
I can relate to the network problem. it got me swapping XLR cables on several occasions. I even thought of migrating from the Studiolive eco system.
That's in part why we got our x32...but the 32R is just so nice!
HYN Bart & Stacy - Glad the gig went well, despite the hurdles and extra stress. I've found regular training and full system knowledge helpful - especially when you are one of a tech team (say at the church or in an audio company). As an individual I may have only been shown some of the system or only received part of the training as the Boss or Senior Tech controls the full job - but if someone is away or part of the system fails - finding a "Fix" can be difficult and impacts the gig. Having a handy list of IP addresses or routing instructions also makes things easier in a pinch.
You bring up a great point that can be forgotten about - At least in set up, Stacy has been "cross trained" - but if left by herself - she would've been up a creek without the paddle!
Happy New Year to you, the Sound Couple. Timing and connunication is a part of Planning. A good plan is great; a poor plan is @#$%^ Nice load-in spot.
"Lesson Learned" on the PreSonus mixer. It probably happens with others. They have a nice venue wrt audio and lighting infrastructure, and lots of room to store your stuff.
I have a couple of the Airport Expresses, not in service, but they were rock solid. The phones should have been a good backup to the hotspot! What device is the primary wifi router? You might consider labeling your device (router) bag so you can see what is in it without opening the bag. In closing, what was the final culprit and cause?
For some reason, enabling the wireless WAN bridge on the router created some sort of loop. It could have been a double whammy...that caused a problem with me selecting the wrong option and I meant to select Wireless WAN, not bridge.
hey! great video! and (Happy New year) cheers :) @TheSoundCouple
Thanks, and Happy New Year to you as well!
Hey Bart, it might when putting things in bridge the router expects “the other side” to handout ip addresses. Bridge can be nasty. If you just connect to the wan port, the router creates a new network on the lan side of the network, so the 10. range. The router then routes the other traffic from lan to wan.
Thank you....when we have our real hotspot with us, that what we do.
The biggest thing I’ve learnt over 40 + years in live production is “have a plan B”.
On gigs where reliability of control is essential I will run an Ethernet cable in addition to my AVB cable so I can have a laptop running UC connected to my rack mixer in case I lose the FOH mixer. After sound check I copy the FOH scene to the rack mixer in the event I need to run from it at any point. HNY from down under 🖖
Thanks for your comment! You never know when that backup plan will be needed. 🤣
That's the really nice thing about the PreSonus console and it supporting USB as a mixer controller as well. We would suggest also to back up the project/scene to the computer. If we had a catastrophic failure with the mixer, we could be up and running much more efficiently with our back up mixer.
Do you think that - perhaps - the frustrations could have been averted if you were more willing to mix on their console? Sort of a balancing the BS involved. Another great video. Will you be at NAMM by any chance?
Yes....if there was more time and we knew exactly who/what we were dealing with, perhaps. If we go back, we may consider that if it's with the same band. I guess you need to consider that the band is paying us from their pockets so we need to make sure we are able to do the job the best we can....otherwise, they should save the money and let the house run their board. Kind of two sides of this coin.
Oh and NAMM - no, not this year, but it's on our list for the future!
As someone who works in IT, I feel the pain with live audio networking issues. It’s really hard when you’re in the band, and there’s and issue and they don’t understand sometimes a fix takes a little longer when you’re having to mess with router configs on the fly.
Thanks for sharing...the band was understanding. It was the club I was more concerned about since they were trusting us with our skills and gear.
@@thesoundcouple Hopefully since you know the house audio tech he'll understand and they'll have you back so you can show what you can really do.
Would you be willing to share your network specs? Is a static IP address important? Why do you need a switch? I use a WiFi LAN for my gigs but I do run into problems from time to time. Would be good to leverage your best practices! Thanks for all you do.
Thanks for your questions! I personally don't feel the need to use a static address. If your network is solid, it's just not a problem for your gear to be assigned address's. Hard coding address's could present their own set of issues. Bottom line, you just gotta go with what works for you. We have the switch because we ran out of ports on our router. The switch just allows you to extend the number of network ports. Your problems are likely wireless interference as any wired solution should be solid on a good network. We only use 5Ghz and used software (WiFi Explorer Lite), to find the most reliable channel...once we locked that in, our wi-fi works well. The quality of wireless outer can play a big role in this. We have a good one. But as we proved in the video, the Apple AirPort Express worked well too!
You need to get one of those rack mount router the domestic type you’re using not really made to do what you do the waves router would most likely suit your needs go check out the specs Bart happy new year to you and Stacy
Power of 10, the band we feature on many of our videos, has a lot of issues with their Waves router....we have tried to troubleshoot it extensively, but cannot find a common thread...it keeps dropping clients and the admin page will randomly not load. Can't force the issue, it just randomly occurs. Unfortunately, it's not mine and I can only do so much to try to help...but if it was my router, it would not be sustainable issue for me. We opened a ticket, but it's out of warranty and they really can't offer much.
@ sounds like an issue with the waves doesn’t say much for the router according to the big spread on their page it should be indestructible,maybe a software update could be the issue iOS has changed a couple of times and could be upsetting the dhcp would be the first thing I’d be looking at,second of all do they check the waves website for updates and make sure it’s working correctly before a show?.
I know thats not your issue Bart but it certainly helps if the have a handle on things and not blindside you at the gig.
Education is imminent for the power of 10,not your job to babysit them .
@@petershute3580 Yeah, we checked for updates, it's on the latest. They talked about getting a new wifi router in which my response is you should have the best. I suspect that either there is an issue with the router (we have factory reset, etc.), or it's someone's compromised device that is essentially DoS'ing the WiFi. The latter is pretty hard to troubleshoot when time is not allocated to test....they are musicians, they want to show up at late as they can, play, get paid, and go home. This is sort of a downside of bands owning tech....Their primary workaround was to get a device that can be hardwired to the mixer so at least the mixes can be controlled from that (USB connected). It's too bad this issue just needs to linger on and when I see the heads shake in disgust when their phones won't connect....I have done everything I can, including opening a ticket with Waves that went nowhere.
@ nice,big ups for Waves!,typical just when you need a hand they drop the ball,well the band need to get in touch with the manufacturer and sort their problems get their end squared away,know their system and get you guys up to speed,only other thing I can think of is a software issue between what your using (IOS) and weather they are using Mac or ibm.
Could be a bug in there or signal issues,i know you run an extender but do they,I know 2.4gz is pretty much terrible and most things work on the 2.4gz band it would be good to have the manufacturer start producing 5gz products I know there’s a few out there but not enough to get you away from the other signals floating around most venues.
Anyway good luck Bart -on to the next show!.
OTIMO ANO NOVO PARA VOCES COM MUITO EVENTOS . ABRAÇOS RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL
Obrigado por assistir! Feliz Ano Novo também!
Did you roll off the hi end on your matrix for the subs ?
Yes!
Would you take some time to talk about vocal effects. When, why, and how to use them.
We use a bit of reverb and short delay. Taste's have changed/evolved over the years but we tend to use them on the light side....in part because we tend to work with good vocalists and our job is more to support...not compensate. Always make sure you you mute them between songs!
@@thesoundcouple I agree completely. While I don't mix bands (I'm not that talented), I'm a KJ and mix Karaoke (canned music but live vocals), so the basic principle for vocals is the same. I have a Presonus 16.4.2AI (wish it wasn't only Apple compatible, everything I have is windows or android compatible), but for Karaoke I've found that analog seems to work better and faster (every singer is different and you don't have to deal with multiple menus to dial them in, especially when you have more than one singer) , so I'm using a Mackie 1604 VLZ4 with a Lexicon MX200 for effects . My standard effects are Vocal Hall with a Studio Delay (just a smidge for music with just a hint of effects and adjust as needed for vocals). I remember reading some time ago and I've taken to heart is that unless you are trying to achieve a special effect, the best effects is one that you really don't notice until they're missing. This was driven home a couple of weeks ago when the power brick for the Lexicon died so there were no effects. Most of the bar singers didn't notice, but my regulars (especially the one's who want loads of effects) and I could hear the difference.
That said, even though a lot of the info you give still goes over my head (for sound and I'm still learning lighting), I'm still picking up and applying lots of good information (to be honest, I know just enough to be dangerous (basically enough to get myself into trouble, but usually not enough to get out of it, but having a heck of a lot of fun in the process. LOL)).
Thanks,
KarenB
How did you actually connect to the house system? Was the Pro 1 bypassed?
Yes, the Pro 1 was bypassed...they provided XLR cables with each run.
Hey Bart and Stacy, from what I've heard, PreSonus mixers seems to have a bit of a bad representation in terms of reliability, may I ask why you have stuck with PreSonus consoles for so long, instead of moving to Midas or A&H?
That's a great question....sometimes I wonder myself. IMO (seriously, only my opinion...I have no clue, but you asked 😁), the platform has a lot going on for it with some nice software features and integration with a solid hardware platform (arguably minus AVB). The challenge I believe is they have great ideas being driven by someone in charge saying "good enough...get it out" and they are lacking resources to do it right (Fender is not making it better). They don't fully understand the damage that causes to the brand and the impact it has to users livelihood...perhaps they know and are ok with this if the numbers are working. I think most of us would rather see them focus on quality (even raises the prices if that what it takes ) with less, instead of more and get it out the door....but what does a customer know? I am a beta tester and have experienced first hand frustration on seeing things that seemingly don't meet the threshold of anyone caring and watching it blow up in the hands of customers when released...so I sometimes see it twice. Don't think my role gives me any great powers or insights....I just get the software before the public does and we are asked to report REPEATABLE bugs if we find them. Issues like this in the video are not repeatable, so they don't exist in their eyes....until this mentality is fixed, it won't change. So the answer to your question? I have an opportunity to try to make their product better for the all of you using it....when everything works (which it mostly does), it offers me the best experience of any other platform I have mixed on.
So with the hotspot that was unfortunately left behind… do you normally just connect that to the WAN port of your router (no setting changes)?
I’d love to get more information if that has been a cost effective and dependable solution for you. Obviously, the phone hotspot is cheaper per month. Did you have any success attaching the phone hotspot to your network? Between mobile live sound, DJ, and karaoke… let’s just say I also need a dependable cost effective solution. I’ve recently gone as far as getting a Starlink satellite with a pause-able roam account to allow for coverage when I’m outside of dependable cell service (think remote weddings/live sound). I’d still love to land on a fail safe solution that allows a “wireless internet receiver” (phone, hotspot, Starlink, etc.) to feed and share internet to a fail safe stage LAN. Thanks in advance if you have time to reply or would like to work together on it.
Yes, with the ATT hotspot router, we have recently switched it to be wired to the WAN port of our internal router. The performance has noticeably improved over using the wireless WAN. This is part of the reason why I screwed it up, because it's been awhile since I have made this change on our router. I should really test if the phone hotspot works though using the right setting. Using the Netgear hotspot is not cheaper, but it is more reliable than the phone ($55/month) Part of it too is that we need our phone on us and we use them to do videos and we are walking all over the place. We need something that will be stationary and reliable.
Where we live, ATT has pretty good coverage, but the cellular network strength is what you are ultimately dependent on for how good it will work for you.
@ I’ll be watching to see if you figure out the phone hotspot settings. Well, I’ll be watching regardless. 😆 I normally use the iPad I’m mixing with for videos so my phone can camp at the hub, but I hear you on that. I currently have ATT as well, though coverage can be an issue in my area… especially when compounded by signal drop within many venues. I plan to experiment with bridging the Starlink from my vehicle into the venue for more remote locations. I’ll definitely give the Netgear hotspot a trial run. Thank you both so much for sharing what you do and of course for the reply! I’m an Audix dealer as well. Feel free to hit me up if you need anything on that front or have related questions.
@@vadjrob That sounds good...thanks! I did try again to get the WAN bridge to connect to my iPhone hotspot and it didn't' work. Not sure why is isn't able to find the hotspot wi-fi beacon of the iPhone. Not going to pursue it more as that's why we got the hotspot....just don't forget to bring it!
Audio glitching happens with EVERY brand. It just sucks when that's how the night starts. I rarely recover well from equipment glitches like that either.
It can really throw you off your game for sure!
Bart and Stacy. Was this NYE 12/31/23 into 1/1/24 (ie a year ago from today)? If so, how well were you able to apply the lessons learned and the intended approach of “being zen” (my words) to the work you did across 2024? What do you want to change, add, enhance for 2025? Or if this was just a few days ago (speedy editing!), how do you think 2025 will be different for you?
Yes...we put this one together quick! We skip ahead to meet the timing of NYE so this was '24. You ask a good question... In general, we felt that we were down more. It seemed like we never got on a roll and too many gigs could have went better. We did have a record year in revenue but perhaps that's the issue in that we work too much so we may cut back a bit in '25.. Some people have been asking...we have regular jobs as well, so these gigs are after putting a full week of work in and we aren't getting any younger!
Are you still using the same light controller and setup as demonstrated previously in another video some time ago.
Yes we are. They were controlling the freedom sticks and the floor movers.
@thesoundcouple Thanks for the reply. I happened to post the question before seeing the comment in the video on both.
DrumSknz for the win! The drummer is using a stretch mesh cover on his kick.
Great catch!
Nice FOH location, Hoe do you cope/deal with keeping FOH safe where there is nothing in a room ? Keeping the happy/drunk people AWAY from gear (FOH) ???
Seriously, there is a lot of luck and trust...same as the weather! This is simply a reality of the types of gigs we do. We have insurance and try to make smart choices and do the best we can to make sure our gear stays safe.
😂😂😂.. the CC was on and it said fart and Stacey.. check it out
We noticed that too! 😊
Venues such as casinos are notorious for 2.4GHz traffic congestion, often plays havoc on wireless networks / AP's being used for mixer control, we have found ourselves here resorting to a Apple Airport Express router also, it seems the more you invest in wireless network infrastructure (including P2P AP's / meshing), the more susceptible to issues. Don't ever leave home without that Apple Airport 🙏☺️
Thank you...Thank you! These are solid! That little thing worked great in that venue!
Stacy's World has got it going on
Luminere is where the DMX is from
When the band you see
It's Stacy's LEDs
Nothing can go wrong
When Stacy's lighting up your song
😂😊
I have used lots of presonus gear since having the ACP88's back in the 90's and several other things over the years and its OK when it works but in my experience Presonus gear always stops working after a while. I have had several ACP88's at my old church and they all started dropping channels. Got them repaired and after a while the same issues. Had some firewire interfaces and they crapped out. Better get rid of that presonus gear before it lets you down big time.
Rhino still uses a RM32 that just keeps going...they are gigging all of the time! I dunno...it's truly hard to know how good any of this stuff is. It seems like it's luck of the draw sometimes. I had a few ACP88's and never had a problem. I do remember having at least one that was actually made in Baton Rouge...and later ones that said "Made in China"...that was sad.
Interesting, my wireless LAN setup is a cheap Xiaomi 5Ghz router, SSID broadcast and 2.4Ghz disabled. I have a backup, identical router (they're USD 12 each in China) setup exactly the same (SSID, password etc.) should the first one ever fail. Background music is run through a Bluetooth 5.2 with battery device from a phone with 5G. I'm thinking about a UPS although power is very reliable here. However on NYE party night, a neighbor cut the powerline to the venue at 1am 🤣 A fist fight almost ensued, police came, power was restored but the band was replaced by a not so loud DJ for the rest of the night. Of course western new year is not as important as Chinese New Year, nonetheless 1st of January is a national holiday, but I guess the neighbor gets regular disturbances from the venue.
Thanks for sharing…interesting story!
Try Wing Rack
The biggest concern is the size.
Everyday is a happy new years not just Dec 31. This is ridiculous
We are happy!
And that's why I stay analog.
May have to bang on it a few times....but that usually straightens them out if they are acting up!
@@thesoundcouple Oh yeah. Works for me all the time.😁
So yeah, thats not a correct way to deploy the W8VDQ, some of these setups just make you sigh.
Would like to know more!
@@thesoundcouple so the Martin Audio W8VDQ is a two box in one solution. Top part of it is 10x100 degrees and the lower 20x120 degrees and since it has a bump at the bottom for the distance pole, you can't mount 2 boxes flat to each other this means it will have dispersion overlap that can cause cancellations and the dispersion will be all funky from top to bottom horizontally 100,120, 100 and 120 again. The correct system to have there would have been 3xW8LM+W8LMD or 2xW8LM+W8VDQ.
@@Velkus96 I wonder if that's what contributing to their inconsistent coverage....probably is.
@@thesoundcouple Absolutely! Due to the unwanted overlap, it was probably cancelling itself out. VDQ on it's own is an awesome one box solution, giving you a nice asymmetric coverage (the top 100x10 portion throwing far and lower 120x20 spreading at the front, also you can pad the lower portion -2db to give it an even nicer even SPL)
I'd buy a switch by a known brand, not whatever weird thing you ordered.
It’s more like a hub. I will test it thoroughly but wanted it as compact as possible.
Me that has worked on Midas Pro series mixers before would probably have mixed on the house console, if i had to possibility to know which console they had beforehand i would have prepped a showfile in midas pro offline editior (Despite it needing to run on like Mojave (Old version of MacOS) ahead of time. in your situation, if there's one thing ive learned over time is that, yes your under a time constraint, but take a step back, take a breath and rethink, Since standing there pulling you hair out is never gonna help.
And as you said, sometimes digital gear like this does have a fluke from time to time and its nothing to beat yourself over as it does happen. Any friendly and good house engineer will understand you if u tell him later on that its was a fluke and that a restart fixed it! But anyways in the end it did work out and thats what matters, Same with the IP address issue, just step back, think logicaly and then proceed. I know its hard under pressure but this has helped me so much in the past
Thanks for sharing your thoughts....appreciate it!
Dude get away from them PreSonus mixers (ProSumer 🙄) they had one at a church I used to work at and I hated that piece of crap.
Fair point...we have thought about it at times. We feel there are a lot of good things about the system, but failures or flakiness weighs heavy to the other side of the equation.
Happy New Year Buds, so, here is the typical example I was talking about some time ago, commenting on one of your works, for which having the faders and the equipment physically in your hand saves your life. Then also the experience of having used other mixers is sometimes a great thing to bring home the work (the Pro 1 is a very high quality desk and sounds awesome) without too many thoughts and stress. Sometimes my colleagues make fun of me because I could sleep in the flight case of my mixer but inside there is everything I need to have a peaceful sleep. Good work guys and see you next time!
Thanks for sharing!