I really should try and update this more. Since around late October I’ve been working on a regular spot at a comedy club in Liverpool centre. I’ve also worked on some emergency computer solutions for a Bill Kenwright touring show, recovering PCs and providing a backup solution, and working on hand building a valve amp for a university project. (I’ll try and expand on these soon).
My laptop is literally falling apart at the seams.. The bottom left hinge has become completely detached from the base. I’m ashamed to admit it but I’m thinking of buying a MacBook as a replacement, and dual-booting it with XP to overcome a few compatibility issues.
Back at uni.. and the work is certainly building up fast. I’ve taken on building a guitar amplifier for a major project of my third year study - which is currently sitting in boxes in my living room.
At the moment I’m looking for a mid-sized installation to complete for the client-lead project of my third year of study - so if you are aware of any clubs / conference rooms / commercial / education establishments that are looking for a new installation or refurbishment of an existing system, then please do get in touch.
Just a quick note to let you know I’m still alive.. I’ve been spending a good few days over the summer working for a Civil Engineering company providing a bespoke database solution for requesting & maintaining safety and insurance certificates from over 300 subcontractors.. Based mostly in Access, with a shedload of Visual Basic extension, the system can write individual Health & Safety questionnaires for subcontractors depending on the nature of their service, maintain a database of current insurance details and request new copies of outdated certificates- in all there’s around 10 days solid programming, and about 4 days populating the database from new input and most of the existing paper-based system.
It’s a pretty stable final system, and if it continues to be used I think it could save well over 15 days of labour a year compared to the existing system. I’ve also spent time writing a pretty extensive user manual for the data handling as well.
It’s not as fun as Sound Engineering, but it’s all working on the skills you’ve got.
Other than this, I’ve been supplementing the shirt & tie with a few pub gigs, small equipment rental, and have spent some time re-arranging my living arrangements.
Most of the time it feels like Summer is the work, and Uni is the time off.
Spent a few days (Weds - Mon) down at a friend’s music festival near Winchester, rigging and preparing, and taking for the main a mostly non-technical role (for a bit of a break) of crew catering and steward co-ordinating. The festival had 3 stages - a Live Stage, DJ / Dance Stage and an Acoustic / Ambiance Stage/Tent. There were circu 15kW Opus Audio rigs on the two main stages - the Live Stage (pictured left)
sporting no less but than 4 2×18″ bass bins per side, along with two 2×10″ and horn tops. The DJ Stage (below) had the same two tops per side as the Live Stage, but instead of the dual 18″ bins had 3 2×15″ bins per side along with a single Precision Devices loaded 24″ bass bin per side, which could comfortably kick out a trouser-wafting 20Hz, much to the delight of the more electronic-favouring technical staff. The DJ Stage also featured a couple of centre fills, on top of the 24″ subs in a centre cluster arrangement - positioned to eliminate spill onto the other stage areas.
The festival was a lot of fun but a lot of long days & nights - resulting in little more than 9 hours sleep across the first 3 days, but it was an experience. I’ve now got a few more day’s work around Leeds, before I might consider moving back to Liverpool to complete some jobs & prepare for next year’s uni study.
It seems that I haven’t been able to keep to any kind of resolution of keeping my blog up to date, despite the fact that I even went to the effort of getting posting from my phone working.
Summer’s coming, for which I’ll be staying in Liverpool. I’ve been doing a few more local gigs, at venues which range from nice Crown and Adlib rigs to empty rooms and rusty desks. Still, it’s all fun in the end.
I’m currently re-building my web site, so this is just the first test post!
Having just finished a pretty hectic couple of weeks for the end of term, I’m taking a few days off whilst looking for some decent summer work.