yet again it seems that i have managed to take my time updating my blog.... and with good reason... i am a horrible blogger. there is however quite a few things to write about.
firstly let me say that it was one hell of a long contract. first up was the allure and then i headed outt to the navigator.
the allure was awesome. mixing chicago was a great experience and i would love to see thtship again.the teamws great and full of pros. and getting to mix on of my all time favorite act, earl turner, was epic!!!!!!!!!! can you say dancing behind the console. but to get too chicago. what a beast. i thought doing SNF was going to be tough, but chicago was another beast. 11 orchestra members, no tracks and a lot of manual vca changes. n automion on here like oon snf. but thts wah made it fun.
the navigator was a totaly different experience. the last nalog console in the fleet. and getting to know the quirks was fun. during my first 3 weeks there myself and one of thee stage staff opened up the whole console and guess whatt.... we were probably the firrst people to do thatin years.. it wwas howeverr a fun day apart from myelf shoting out a connection and hving to reboot the whole system. screw driver in wires is not a great idea. but leaving that ship was a bit sad though. yes.. it true.. i managed to meet a girl again after my last cruise ship fiasco. this one howeverr turned out different.... an thats whre i will leave that.
well, this is a short one and hopefuly i will get bit more time o wwrite something more detailed about my expeerience onboard both vessels but as for now i am savoring a beer and thinking aoutlife.
pardon thee bad typing as well. im testing out my new bluetooth keybard on my new galaxynote tablet which is proving to be a bit of a pain.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Well.. I have finished my last contract with RCI on the Liberty of the Seas and let me say, what a rush... It was busy as hell and not always fun!!! damn, doing between 280 and 310 hours a month as a mainroom tech is unheard of and that exactly what I did.. But it wasn't all bad, the groups were cool.. Getting to work on the NAHA rock charter was amazing and working with Larrys Coountry Diner and Here Come The Mummies was great!!! Other than that I got to mix Saturday Night Fever... Yes, the West End Production which wa awesome!!! Just busy and complex!!! And memorizing 63 pages worth of script was a load of fun (read sarcasm) but it was great!!! That however has made RCI decide that I have to go do a main room fill on the Allure and do Chicago!!! So that makes me one of only a handfull of techs in the company to have 2 broadway shows under my belt, and maybe Hairspary will be there as well and then I'd be the only one to do the tripple threat!! Well, that is all things that are part of ideas that might happen.. And who knows what the future will hold!!!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Some things I have on my mind.
I was recently asked by a few people I know where to get the info on how to join a cruise company. Now I was lucky in that my agent had the correct info for our South African recruiters. Other than that it can be tough to find the details sometimes. So I went on a mission to find the info myself on the net. And let me be frank, it was quite a mission.
Most companies dont actually list properly that they recruit for companies or their sites are based on java scripts that doesnt always show up in Google searches. So what is a person to do...?
Well, there are a few ways to approach this, either ask a friend who was/is there how they got intouch, search for blogs by crew members or ask in the forums of your related industry. On Gearslutz for example the question was asked and a guy got his answer a few days later.
Be sure to be specific in your Google search though.
For Saffas there are a few companies that do recruitment. Carnival Cruise Lines has their main recruiter in Cape Town called Blue Ensign (well, to me they are the main company because most people I know that work for them went through Blue Ensign.)
Royal Caribbean had two calling points but as of late the fastest was to go through Hospitalio. They also have quite a bit of info on their site that you can have a look at regarding how things work and what you need to expect.
Monday, June 27, 2011
My ideas of mixing...
So… A run down of how to set up a Sound Mix for a ship…
A couple of things to remember… You have to realise that most of the people aboard would be over the age of 50... This makes for a little adjustment of how you approach the console and the show. You have to remember that most peoples hearing deteriorates over time, and even if you do feel the need to pump up the bass in a venue (as we all want to do with a rocking show) it is not such a good idea. Older people have an especially low tolerance for bass (which they perceive as loud) and Mid freqs tend to hit them even harder. So it would be a good idea to go and have a look at what the mix needs most. I have found that a solid mix driven with a kick, a little Bass and keys does the trick. Ad lets face it, on ships most guitar parts are actually not even really guitar parts, but more a derivative of what the horns play. I haven’t worked with a lot of guitar players on a ship where they actually are able to play guitar with a little bit of feel and improv.
Next up would be the microphone choice. Now I know that most people would immediately go ‘58s work’ but go and play around a bit. I once ran a show where I had 4 vocalists, and I must say that what worked best for me was actually giving one of the singers an 87. I was lucky to have quite a few of the suckers lying around, but I did listen closely to the vocalists when I did my pre show talk with them before I gave them a mic. This was probably most beneficial when I worked with a certain act who was notorious throughout the fleet about having loud levels on stage and who wanted everything as loud as possible. I figured out by the way he was turning his head towards me whilst speaking that he was deaf in one ear (well, almost) and so I took a 87 (everyone gave him 58s), and played around with the monitor EQ for him. This proved magical, and also made a fleet wide record for a sound check for him on an analogue console. The normal rehearsal would normally take 3-4 hours with him constantly adjusting things that made no sense at all, but I got it down to 45minutes, including the band playing through the music. So yes, its possible… Apparently the fleet record is 35minutes, they however cheated ;-) they had a digico D5 to their disposal.
OK.. Lets move to another act. This consisted of 4 gents singing old school rock and roll. With one of the singers doing some noodling on his Fender. Firstly I had to get them all actually hearing themselves on stage, so there were 4 wedges for them, each with their own send (yes, you sometimes do have the luxury of having a load of Aux sends), and no, there is no dedicated monitor engineer with console onboard. For our production shows we also run overhead monitors to keep sightlines clean, and so I also used those suckers. Creating a bit of warmth for them and also trying to keep stage levels lowish. This I also managed by pulling all the amps off of the stage. The Bass amp was on stage facing into the wing next to the bassist. The Orchestra guitarist’s amp was in the wing on its angle legs facing up at him, also playing across the stage. The special acts guitar was also in the wing, just behind the main curtains drop facing across stage. I just gave him a bit of guitars in his monitor.
The vocals were a combination of 58s and 87s, esp. the lead vocalist was on an 87 to bring out a bit of air in his vox, and to stop the congestion that 58s cause.
What other acts… Well, the production shows always proved to be a problem. See, there are no real floor wedges and side fills in the wings, but only the overheads. And because the orchestra is sitting in the pit right in front of them they were being blasted by that and also the need for backtracks in the monitors. So it took a lot of effort to try and get it just right. I actually despise working on those production shows, because of the inconsistency of the singers on nights. But there are ways around that. They didn’t want comps on their vocals, well, sorry to hear that. They had very little compression on their main vocals, but on my group send I had a tube comp cleaning them up and making them all more punchy combined with an EQ on that group as well for FOH purposes. FX was my main toy, and trying to keep the girls from screeching the ears off of the audience I would ride that reverb hard… It just drenched the problem. Well, you’d say that I could ride the group, and I did, actually quite a lot, but sometimes you need the punch and there you had to play around with the various tricks to your disposal.
Another thing in the house to try and make things a little better was to get the delay stacks to work just right. Now there are various ways to do it. My favourite was to play music through the mains and then walk around with a DB meter. And then try and match the DB level from the main PA all around the venue to what it is 10 rows back from the front of the stage. Other than that I would just walk around during the rehearsals and have a look at what the venue did for me for that particular act.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Just more ramblings
Things you should know when applying…
Right, here we go… You’ve decided to have a stab at becoming a Light or Sound Tech on the mysterious ships. You’ve read stories, you’ve trawled the internet for info. But what do you really need to know?!
First of all, as in all jobs you at least should know what youre talking about. If you say you know how to do the job then you sure as hell should be able to do it. Its amazing how often you see someone who come aboard and has no idea how to do anything. So here first of all you should know what gear you’ll be expected to run.
Mostly the Analog consoles are on their way out. They are being replaced with a variety of digital ones. Consoles you’ll come across would probably be:
1. Analog consoles:
Midas
Yamaha
Crest
Mackie
Allen &Heath
These would range from the tiny format 16 channel consoles to the big suckers where you have between 48 to 72 channels under your control.
2. Digital Consoles:
Yamaha (O2R, O1V, DM2000)
Digico (D5, D1, SD7, SD8)
Digidesign Venue (these are few and far between, VERY far between)
Midas PRO 6 (there are rumours)
Other than that the PA systems will vary from company to company. But youd be expected to be at home with any of these. Don’t worry, you wont have to be able to fix everything, but at least know how the suckers work… Long live the internet!!!!
Outboard gear would also vary and with the digital consoles youd not have a lot of outboard, then again, do you really need it? Microphones would also be up in the air. You can look at the few things that youd expect to see though. Shure, AKG, Senheiser and in some case I ran across a lot of Crown stuff.
The different venues also have their own challenges. The guys who become Lounge Techs need to be a lot more involved with a wide variety of the gear seeing that you might find a LS9 in one lounge and then a O1V in another venue.
But in the end its your job to run all of those.
What else. Well, be sure to you know what youre getting in to when you get onboard be sure to have your head examined. If you show mild traces of insanity then its your place to be!! You must be able to work with a wide variety of people and aim to get the best out of all your team!!
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