Snow? Snow! Yikes!

My poor, poor parents sent these pictures of their house from this past Wednesday morning.

Yeah, as in October 29th….

No, that is not nuclear fallout or volcanic ash. That, my Southern friends, is snow.

Real, bona fide, Canadian snow. Before Halloween.

(And people ask me why I live in Atlanta and suffer through the summers… Well, consider this Exhibit A…)

 

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Guitar Amplifier Isolation Cabinets, Round 3

OK kids, hopefully this will be the last word on Guitar Amplifier Isolation Cabinets…

Chris Briley (again, one of the masters of the universe) passed along the following 4 PDF documents that help explain our Iso Boxes…

Our first generation boxes were about 48″ wide and about 33″ tall, and about 48″ deep. This seemed a reasonable height at the time, considering they would need to be stacked on top of one another due to backstage space restrictions.

However, as the Browns Bridge and Buckhead church buildings were being built with a larger backstage area, it allowed an opportunity to improve, and even simplify the design. So the newest generation cabinets are 48″ x 48″ x 48″. They’re just a big cube made from 3/4″ MDF building material. They even had the sheets of MDF cut at Home Depot.

There’s no official measurement guide to the boxes, other than the fact that the top and bottom are 4′ squares – so let’s do the math on the rest together, OK?

Top – 48″ x 48″

Bottom – 48″ x 48″

Sides (x2) – 48″ x 46.5″

Back – 46.5″ x 46.5″

Doors (x2) – 46.5″ x 23.25″

I think those measurements work. I’m sure you’ll want to double check the math…

Also, the new boxes, because of their height and because they’re not stacked on top of each other, don’t require a tray that rolls out. So that helps! There’ now lots of room to stick a big Marshall cab in there…

ISO Cabinet Wiring and Parts.pdf

BB Guitar Iso 1 Panel.pdf BB Guitar Iso 2 Panel.pdf

BB Guitar Iso 2 Panel.pdf

NOTE: Iso Panels 1 and 2 are simply reflect Box #1 and Box #2 (meaning guitarist #1’s amp and guitarist #2’s amp…)

These panels were custom made by Rapco . Chris just sent them the Iso Panel PDFs and they made each one for about $150.00.

**This panel replaces our “Generation 1″ pop-up boxes that have ended up being a pain and we no longer use on newer boxes.

NOTE: Sends 1 and 2 are for mic level input (for use with Combo amps), Sends 3 & 4 are used for Speaker level inputs (when a head is used on stage and a speaker cabinet is in the iso box)

NOTE: The RJ45 (Ethernet) jack was installed and run to stage because of future uses. No one currently uses it, but theoretically it could be used with a Line 6 pedal board linked to an amp in the iso box via Ethernet cable…

NOTE: The acoustic treatment can be acoustic panelling (that you cut to measure) or acoustic treatment stuff, like this Auralex stuff.

So altogether, it looks like you can make each box for under $400…

And here are some pics of our “Generation 1″ boxes for inspiration:

Microphones and Drums F.A.Q.

OK, lots of you have asked some great questions regarding some nuts-and-bolts Music/Audio stuff, so let me take a few minutes to answer a couple of questions, including:

#1 – Drums / Drums Heads

#2 – Vocal / Drum Mics

#1 – What kind of drums / drumheads do you use?

In each auditorium we have a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute kit. The guys like them a lot, and they prove over and over to be very versatile drums, which is essential considering the different drummers we use and the wide range of music we do with worship and specials.

Check out legendary award winning drummer Peter Erskine’s analysis of these drums here.

For heads, we use:

Tom 1 – Evans Genera g2

Tom 2 – Remo Emperor

(Both have Remo Ambassadors as the bottoms)

Snare – Remo Coated Controlled Sound

Kick Inner – Aquarian Super Kick 1

Kick Outer – standard Yamaha label head, made by Remo

Here’s a pic of a snare – note the Moongel to get rid of unwanted “ring” or overtones…

By the way – all our drummers bring their own snare. Not because we make them, but because they choose to. A snare is a very personal thing, the same way a guitarist owns and uses their own guitar…

#2 – What kind of vocal / drum mics do you use?

Dave Stagl and Luke Roetman, our audio guys, have answered some FAQ regarding audio stuff, including mics, in the Audio section of the NPCC Production Web Site. Enjoy!

(But here’s a look at the mic list anyway…)

Microphones:

Shure Beta 91 (Kick)

Sennheiser e902 (Kick)

Shure SM57 (Snare, Electric Guitars)

Shure KSM 32 (Overheads)

Shure KSM 44 (Toms)

Sennheiser 609 (Electric Guitars)

AKG C414 (Piano)

Audix ADX51 (Hi Hat)

Countryman E6 (Speech)

Shure Beta 58 (Vocals)

Neumann KMS 105 (Vocals)

Shure KSM9 (Vocals)

Shure Beta 87A (Vocals)

Audix M1290 (Baptism Overhead Backup)

Shure Beta 98 (Horns)

String Vision Pickups (Strings)

Shure SM81 (Strings)

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OK, there you go! Hope that helps…

Spotted while Shopping…

OK, I know you’ll all agree with me that this is just not right to see at Home Depot before Halloween:

And I don’t think this outfit is right, no matter what time of year!

My mother always warned me about Hispanic Cowboys wearing sunglasses inside, roaming the pasta aisle…

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Dancing With The Stars!

Ooooh! They’re gettin’ all Mavericky!

Maybe Obama or Palin will offer ballroom dancing as an economic stimulus.

It’s either “Dance, Dance Obamalution” or “So You Think You Can Reform”

I can’t wait for the one of McCain and Biden doing the tango…

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