Long Aux cable run?

[FMEng]

I just got a Mackie MDB-USB direct box. It works effortlessly with my Windows 10 machine, sounds fine, and looks well made. It's less expensive than the Radial. It is stereo or mono sum.

I also got a Switchcraft 318BT Bluetooth interface. I have no illusions about perfect sound via BT, but it paired right up with my Android and plays. Signal was solid at 30 feet, but I didn't try farther. The unit runs on phantom power, making setup quick. It should be useful for those unplanned requests to play some music for an event, because I can let them operate their own phone without a cable or having them invade my space at the mixer.

I really hate being handed an unfamiliar phone, with some music app I've never seen, to play some mission critical music. Invariably, the phone locks, starts ringing, or switches to some random playlist just when I need it for the cue. I've refused a couple of times.

Now, if I could just get the videographers to ask for an audio feed more than 3 minutes before the start...

 

[TimMc]

Last year's Thespian Conference had a "student's choice" showcase of musical numbers, comedy, and dance. EVERY ONE of the students brought me an iPhone except 2, who had Android phones (they must have been the kids from the poor schools). I told the kids "unlock it, turn off the pass code, turn off notifications, have have your playback item on top and cued. 3 of 20 did. I had to run down the theatre aisle to have a student unlock her phone as they stood there, frozen, waiting for their music. This wasn't part of regular conference performances but it was still embarrassing for both the student and me. If this had been an actual emergency... er performance, it would have been cringe-worthy.

I stopped accepting phones if I have to operate them. Give it to another student, teacher or parent and they can push 'play'. Ditto for the "dance recitals". Give me the music, in order, on a USB stick or even burn a CD.... but don't hand me a phone.

Remember when a dance teacher would hand you a cassette tape and say "you'll have to do some fast forwards and rewinds...." Uh, no I wont... and if you gave an excremental element about your dance students (and the fees their parents pay) you'd have this together.

 

[BCAP]

I just got a Mackie MDB-USB direct box. It works effortlessly with my Windows 10 machine, sounds fine, and looks well made. It's less expensive than the Radial. It is stereo or mono sum.

I also got a Switchcraft 318BT Bluetooth interface. I have no illusions about perfect sound via BT, but it paired right up with my Android and plays. Signal was solid at 30 feet, but I didn't try farther. The unit runs on phantom power, making setup quick. It should be useful for those unplanned requests to play some music for an event, because I can let them operate their own phone without a cable or having them invade my space at the mixer.

I really hate being handed an unfamiliar phone, with some music app I've never seen, to play some mission critical music. Invariably, the phone locks, starts ringing, or switches to some random playlist just when I need it for the cue. I've refused a couple of times.

Now, if I could just get the videographers to ask for an audio feed more than 3 minutes before the start...

Man, I hear you on that one.

This isn't possible in all situations, but I've started being ultra proactive with almost all of my customers. I reach out to them a week ahead of time to inquire about pre show, intermission and post show music, announcements - for all kinds of events - theater performances, dance recitals, bands, etc. Unless it's the absolute simplest of cue situations I'll almost always ask them for the files ahead of time. Most of the time people get me what I need and I can put it into my cue software and then it's going out my system and is therefore a known quantity. It feels like 50% of the time the way the files are recorded or encoded is absolute sh*t and I end up having to reacquire the material myself. As I stated in another thread I often do loudness equalization as well using different softwares (Grimm Audio's LevelOne is one app I use). Eventually I'll get these folks "trained"...

 

[FMEng]

Thanks for the mention of the Grimm software. That is one I wasn't aware of.

 

[Ben Stiegler]

sounds like having a web-form like in Google would be beneficial - all clients need to fill it out, upload any music/cue files - and you get it all in 1 place. with that in place, you set yourself apart as a person with systems ... and potentially also can charge for the extra time needed to deal with last minute changes, file cleanups or having to re-acquire segments.