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Thread: Bo's "Jerry Day" gig

  1. #1
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    Bo's "Jerry Day" gig

    'Made it to the "Jerry Day" gig, (in celebration of Jerry Garcia and naming of the McLaren Park Amphitheater in his honor), that Bo was doing sound for in San Francisco today.

    'Got there about 9AM, after the heavy lifting but before sound check, but was a little disappointed because being outside, very little was needed in the way of EQ, so I didn't really get to see SmaartLive put through its paces.

    That said, the day started a little cool and foggy, but by the time the music started around noon, it was clearing up pretty good, and it wasn't long before the sun made its appearance.
    Bo was there with his new Midas desk, ('way kool!! ), and also has an additional smaller Midas board patched in, due to the fact they need some 18-19 mics just for the two drummers.

    I have to say - Bo has one of the coolest sound rigs I can imagine - small enough to have around for yourself, but still capable of dooing major sound gigs! Below is his FOH setup, after sound check but before the gates opened:



    Once the music started, it didn't take long for the crowd to really get going. The first band up was a five piece bluegrass band, but they really knew how to get down with a bunch of the Grateful Dead's acoustic stuff.

    The second band up was "Grapefruit Ed" - - a Grateful Dead cover band, complete down to even having two drummers and a keyboard player that also doubled on pedal steel. I have to admit - they have their act down. One of the vocalists had Jerry's voice down so well that you could almost be fooled if you closed your eyes! Below is a pic of "Grapefruit Ed", followed by a partial pic of Bo hard at work:





    If you look close, you can see those great new JBL SRX712 monitors of Bo's - really light, and I was also really surprised how small they were.

    I didn't get much in the way of pics of the sound system, but speakers consisted of Bo's EV cabinets, plus some Bag-End stuff added on, including the subs. I'd never seen these subs before - one cabinet per side, (about 4'x3'), that each had four 18's, but the drivers face each other in a "slot" in the front of the cabinet, "squeezing" the lows out this slot. 'Not sure about the theory behind them, but they seemed to do the job.

    I had to leave fairly early in the afternon, so I didn't get to hear the later bands. But even by then, it was turning into a pretty good size crowd. Here's a couple more pics - one kind of angling down to the stage, and the other a shot up from one corner of the amphitheater, (you can barely see Bo in his yellow shirt at about the middle of the second pic):





    Lastly, Bo with a thumbs-up - 'everything's cool!



    It's obvious Bo has a real handle on what he's doing, and by the way he was dancing around behind the board, it's also obvious he was having a good time. The sound was fine, but I think Bo needs to get some more SRX stuff - JBL all the way!!! But it really did sound good, regardless! 'Way to go, Bo!

    Anyway, I had a great time. I wish I could have stayed longer, but 'had some other stuff to do. Maybe Bo will check in later with some more insights.

    John

  2. #2
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    Thumbs up Looking good

    Hey, thanks for all the pictures and commentary.

    Hopefully we'll get comment from the man himself.

    Look at all those long-haired women! Nice.
    Last edited by Titanium Dome; 08-08-2005 at 09:06 AM. Reason: additional spice
    Out.

  3. #3
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Titanium Dome
    Hopefully we'll get comment from the man himself.
    Me?? I got little to say... It was perhaps the funnest day of my life, and certainly my personal pro-audio apogee.

    The bands were amazing, REALLY great to work with and for - appreciative, cooperative and very communcative. It all flowed nearly seamlessly through the four set changes.

    In sequence we were treated to:
    www.harmonygrits.com
    www.grapefruited.com
    www.sethaugustus.com
    www.mysterycatsband.com

    Me and the Grateful Dead: Once I found them, I followed the Grateful Dead faithfully from 1972 to the time of Jerry's death, which occurred while I was in Boulder and there joined the conga wake on Pearl Street. At every single Dead show, I stuck fast at "Dead Center", right in-front of FOH. I saw something like 72 shows. London, Redrocks, Starlite KC, StL, Denver, Oakland (numerous times and one with the Who), CalExpo-Sacramento, Ventura, Buffalo, Rochester, NYC, Austin, Syracuse, and more. I exchanged many a thumbs-up with Healy, at the desk. My dream was to one day get my grubbies on those faders, and give it a whirl. Yesterday was as close as I'll ever get, and it was an incredible rush. All that energy, all that dancin' all around you, and you GOTTA dog the busses, constantly. Can't let it go down; can't let it fry a speaker. We were running at 0 to +12dB, some peaks to +18dB (pfl - the Verona will give you +21dB w/o distortion, but egads... ), and SPL 98-100dB at FOH. There's a lot of the "show" you miss, 'cause your eyes are glued to the artists, the input gains and all busses, the comp/limiters, the gates, the EQ's and the CD-R, and you are B-U-S-Y!.

    Grapefruit Ed was SO MUCH FUN to engineer, you cannot believe - very true to the artform. But they are an enormous challenge. Two kits (19 channels), there were 5 channels of Leslie and Keys (2), 4 vocals, 2 elec. guitars, bass and pedal steel. 32 inputs, flat out. Damned wind really picked-up, and swirled a 400Hz ghost around stage all day. Mon's were up so loud it was almost impossible to avoid the feedback, but we worked it, hard.

    With me all day - my right hand and acoustic teammate - was engineer Gary Wood of Aural Aritists. Couldn't have done it without him. There were times we were both booging so hard behind the desk it was all we could do to not grin our faces off!!

    Thanks, John, for coming around. Hard to chat as much as I wanted - kinda busy... It was great to have a Forumite there to see the scene, and enjoy the fun. Great sound, I'd have to say - we got damned lucky!
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  4. #4
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by boputnam
    It was perhaps the funnest day of my life, and certainly my personal pro-audio apogee.

    Sorry we missed it! Glad it went well... see you there next year?

    Widget

  5. #5
    pelly3s
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    Bo what are you using for EV boxes? I have double 15 and 2" boxes with EVX155's with ND 6's on 60X40's and they are my favorite boxes, and I have some single 15 boxes with the same horn setup. They are great. The single are a stretched out delta max box. You've got a nice looking setup going there

  6. #6
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pelly3s
    Bo what are you using for EV boxes? I have double 15 and 2" boxes with EVX155's with ND 6's on 60X40's and they are my favorite boxes, and I have some single 15 boxes with the same horn setup. They are great. The single are a stretched out delta max box. You've got a nice looking setup going there
    We only used some of my mains for "fills" directed into the rows and open area front of FOH.

    Each "fill" comprised one QRx 115/75's - I laid them on their flat side (+10° pitch). I had rotated the horns in the cabinet to +15°/-35° in that position, giving a resultant +25° and -25° vertical wash, and 75° horizontal wash. Worked really, really well. They were stacked horizontally on one QRx 118s, each side. The sound in front of FOH was really smooth, clear.

    All mains were "managed" through the BSS FDS-336T. We fed my mains L/R through two channels, delayed, full-pass, then into my Klark Teknik DN370 EQ (Hi/Lo pass and notch filters) and then Ashly XR1001 xover. The flanking, long through mains were on same delay, xover'ed in the BSS FDS-336T, with Hi and Lo-pass settings there, too.

    We had done some planning...
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  7. #7
    Senior Member 57BELAIRE's Avatar
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    Wink



    What a day that must have been....great pics....took me right back to the late '60's and those free Sunday "love-ins".

    Nice setup.....are you using 57's on those guitar amps?....if not , what?

    What vocal effects unit did you use and were the effects pretty much set for the day?

    It's a bonus to have an engineer and pro sound on a gig.....not to mention in beautiful northern Cal.....I wish I was there.
    OPUS POCUS

  8. #8
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 57BELAIRE
    .....are you using 57's on those guitar amps?....


    Both 57 and 57ß's. But, with the GBF issues, I was hot-swapping the 57ß's into vocals forcing me to the straight 57's on the amps. If the singer has good mic etiquette (eat that thing, dammit!! ), the 57ß's provide a +2dB signal boost, and give a little more in the 3kHz range, cleaning things up, nicely. Came in pretty handy yesterday, boy-howdy...
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  9. #9
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    I was just emailed this foto across the stage. You can see stacks Stage Left there, and my fills, just this side of them. You can see why I rotated the horns (inside the cabinet) the way I did.
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    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  10. #10
    Senior Member 57BELAIRE's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by boputnam


    Both 57 and 57ß's. But, with the GBF issues, I was hot-swapping the 57ß's into vocals forcing me to the straight 57's on the amps. If the singer has good mic etiquette (eat that thing, dammit!! ), the 57ß's provide a +2dB signal boost, and give a little more in the 3kHz range, cleaning things up, nicely. Came in pretty handy yesterday, boy-howdy...
    57's have always been the standard so you can't go wrong.

    I was just fishin' to see if you might have a hidden jewel.

    You're blessed
    OPUS POCUS

  11. #11
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Couple o' more, just for fun...

    Two happy soundguys!
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    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  12. #12
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    Guess who's cool and collected...

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    bo

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  13. #13
    Senior Seņor boputnam's Avatar
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    At the height of the party...
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    bo

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  14. #14
    pelly3s
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    Bo, there is just something about the EV sound you cant get from many other boxes. I have 4 of the old 118 Delta Max boxes with 180B's in them. They sound nice under a Turbosound TSM-4

    belaire if you are looking for some interesting mics to use on guitars the EV N/D 468 and 478 are both killer, and the Sennheiser 906 is great sounds a lot more like the 409 did than the 609. Another favorite of mine is an old Shure 555 the reissue 55's dont have as big of a capsule. I have also found a new love for the Blue Ball on guitar. Microphones are my favorite thing, I might like them better than speakers.

  15. #15
    Senior Member Steve's Avatar
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    Aloha Bo....

    Don't know what is more fun to look at the picts of the groups or the big smile on your face showing the joy.

    It was mentioned in the post above....

    "I'd never seen these subs before - one cabinet per side, (about 4'x3'), that each had four 18's, but the drivers face each other in a "slot" in the front of the cabinet, "squeezing" the lows out this slot. 'Not sure about the theory behind them, but they seemed to do the job."

    What subs are they?

    Great job and fantastic post

    Thank You
    Steve

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