Burning Man Report... interesting info

[The Chinese]

I'm posting this mostly for your horror & entertainment, but there is real world knowledge in here that maybe some of you can take....

 

The setup this year sound wise was this:

 

4- 18" Folded Horn "W" style cabs with JBL Drivers. HPF at 40Hz 24dB LR filters, with a slight boost at 60Hz. Driven by a QSC PLX3402 run in Stereo mode, 550w/Cab

 

4- EAW LA400 Subs, HPF again at 40Hz, 24dB LR, with the EAW Factory EQ's set. Driven by a QSC EX4000 in stereo, 600w/ Cab

 

2 EAW LA325's - Standard EAW EQ's set. Run by a QSC PLX 3402 on the Lows (1100w) and a QSC PL1.8 on the Highs (700w).

 

2 JBL 4699B's, HPF at 50Hz Run by a QSC RMX2450.

 

This was the front of house system. I setup the subs in Blocks of 4, each side had like subs. The LA325's were eleveated 5' with the horns at 9', and the 4699's sat on the outside, on top of the Sub stacks.

 

Overall effect was Awesome. I had to play with delay a bit on the "w" subs, but got them into reasonable phase with the LA400's. THe W horn Barked a lot harder than the LA400, but the LA400 in a quad group was stunning- Smooth, articulate, detailed. I was very impressed.

 

I also thought I would have trouble withthe tops & comb filtering, but the effect was minimal, the 4699's added a nice top end to the overall mix, and they have great midrange punch, even with no pattern control. All week we had compliments on our sound, from both performers & audience. Many people commented that their gig at our place was the best of the week.

 

I was able to put down 110-115dBC at 50', which was perfect. Bands sounded great with the added subs, Kick was punchy, Snare articulate.

 

The Board was a MixWiz 16:3... It performed superbly- the EQ is very usable, smooth. Headroom impressive. The only drawback here is that the fuse is an oddball 20mm short one 630mA. We had an incident where the breaker was not thrown when we shut down, and the Gennie was fired up, which caused the fuse to blow. After a lot of hand wringing, I decided to Jump the fuse (ordinarily i would never do such a thing, but out in the desert I had no choice, and we sepnd 2-3 hours goign to various camps searching for a fuse.) It continued to work fine. So she'll need a bit of TLC.

 

All our gensets were grounded with 8' Ground Rods, and were bonded to the Gen Frames w/ #8 wire. This may have come into play, because we blew the Bass amp on Thursday - Smoke coming out, totallly fried. Thankfully the breaker popped.

 

This year, we survived rain, 4 duststorms, and various Abuses to the gear, and we only lost the Bass amp (mesa Boogie M6 Carbine). Not too bad. The stage jumped, banged and overall sounded great. The Bands, DJ's performers all loved it, and we'll be back in 2011, so if anyone wants to come to the Burn and help run a great sound stage, hit me up!!!!

 

Hehehe...

 

Todd

[Ryan.]

Sounds like fun. Tried going to SF on the day after burning man... turned around after sitting in the miles long traffic for about 4 minutes. Dusty cars with homemade bikes in homemade bikeracks full of smelly ass hippies.

[The Chinese]

Here's a pic...

 

T

[StratGuy22]

"smelly ass" hippies.

 

 

True, in a very literal sense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like a great time!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Wow look at that dust!!!

 

 

Burning Man is on my bucket list!

 

 

Someday.

 

[The Chinese]

Sounds like fun. Tried going to SF on the day after burning man... turned around after sitting in the miles long traffic for about 4 minutes. Dusty cars with homemade bikes in homemade bikeracks full of smelly ass hippies.

 

Ya, the labor day traffic can be a mess... I stay on 395 back to SoCal.

 

Smelly ass hippies, hehehe. Come on out, and methinks you'd change that impression just a tad.

[Mutha Goose]

no offense... but couldn't you have found a nicer looking model to put in front of that set up?

[The Chinese]

no offense... but couldn't you have found a nicer looking model to put in front of that set up?

 

FYI, that's me. So go shove it.

T

[Ryan.]

FYI, that's me. So go shove it. T

 

LOL.

 

I wouldn't mind doing burning man once. I have some friends that spin poi and some DJ friends that go and freestyle.

 

These things have never really been my thing. I'd be the guy there selling water and toilet paper at outrageous prices.

 

But of course its one of those bucket list things. My smelly friends tell me I should come out so I'm sure one day I will.

[StratGuy22]

FYI, that's me. So go shove it. T

 

You are way overdressed for burning man.

 

 

[Randyman]

Yeah, fun place- but after 3 times I decided for that much effort, time and money, I'd rather go someplace with lots of green trees and water! The naked and semi-naked women running around is nice though!

 

Very curious- have always heard how damaging playa dust is for electronics, cars, people, etc. Sounds like you've been before with a big setup. Is the playa dust damaging to your speakers and electronic equipement? How about to instruments?

 

SubsShakeHouses: you probably already know this and was being funny, but the idea of BM is there's no usual commercial culture. The only thing you can buy @ BM is coffee drinks and ice from the central camp. Altogether it's set up as a barter/gifting culture, and it's amazing how generous people are, like the The Chinese, setting up entire stages/sound systems/nightclubs/art shows/you name it. Completely mind blowing (even before the psychedelics) to see how much creativity, group effort and generosity happens.

[The Chinese]

LOL. I wouldn't mind doing burning man once. I have some friends that spin poi and some DJ friends that go and freestyle. These things have never really been my thing. I'd be the guy there selling water and toilet paper at outrageous prices. But of course its one of those bucket list things. My smelly friends tell me I should come out so I'm sure one day I will.

 

Well, you wouldn't get any buyers of your Toilet paper, nor your water. Burners tend to be very self reliant peeps. So after about a day or two of trying hard, you might find yourself letting go... so I suggest you do just that.

 

and then you might meet a non-stinky hottie spinning Poi or Fire whip (yes we had 2 very attractive young ladies in camp this year doing just that, and yes they had shaved pits

 

But hey, that's a live music stage- yes we do get DJ's up there, but that's mostly b/c there's just not enough Bands otu there to book 5 nights of 'em.

 

T

[The Chinese]

You are way overdressed for burning man.

 

Naw, that's about as naked as I get. I'm a bit on the Chubby side to be walkin' round in my Bday suit. That and my wife would kick my ass.

 

T

[The Chinese]

Yeah, fun place- but after 3 times I decided for that much effort, time and money, I'd rather go someplace with lots of green trees and water! The naked and semi-naked women running around is nice though! Very curious- have always heard how damaging playa dust is for electronics, cars, people, etc. Sounds like you've been before with a big setup. Is the playa dust damaging to your speakers and electronic equipement? How about to instruments?

 

Ya, I can relate. it does cost a lot. and water sounds great... but hey, at least you went. That's more than most.

 

As for Electronics- hell yes it's damaging. I have to spend 2 weeks cleaning everything out, use a few bottles of vinegar, air compressors, etc et al. it's a {censored} ton of labor. BUt somehow I just get off on doing it. go figure.

 

T

[Ryan.]

Well, you wouldn't get any buyers of your Toilet paper, nor your water. Burners tend to be very self reliant peeps. So after about a day or two of trying hard, you might find yourself letting go... so I suggest you do just that. and then you might meet a non-stinky hottie spinning Poi or Fire whip (yes we had 2 very attractive young ladies in camp this year doing just that, and yes they had shaved pits But hey, that's a live music stage- yes we do get DJ's up there, but that's mostly b/c there's just not enough Bands otu there to book 5 nights of 'em. T

 

Yeah but all I really need is one desperate dude with the {censored}s to get $100 for a roll.

 

Were either of the girls named Hanna?

 

She is good at poi.

 

I'm sure one day I'll do it.

[lifeloverwg]

Here's a pic... T

 

No wonder I didn't find you, that's not the stage where I stopped..... Playa time came into effect as well so I only tried to find you the one time. Oh well, maybe we'll hook up next year.

 

Even with earplugs, Root Society was too loud and the {censored} ton of bass they were pumping was ooging out my wife and she's plays bass! She said it felt like her brain was being scrambled.

 

While there definitely are dirty hippies there, they certainly aren't in the majority and the best thing about BM is the overall acceptance of pretty much all types of people with the general exception of those of the mean or uptight variety.

 

While it is dusty, it's not all the time. Every afternoon my wife and I served appetizers to the neighborhood and passer byes. This day was icy cold cream puffs with a chili chocolate sauce.

 

[soul-x]

I went from '95 to '00. Ran a theme camp; the whole shebang. I might be back some day, but it's probably to big for my tastes now.

 

Selling is really looked down upon (excepting certain consumables), barter system rules the day. Nobody would buy any essentials from you, Subs; Somebody else would give them those items free of charge.

[Ryan.]

 

I went from '95 to '00. Ran a theme camp; the whole shebang. I might be back some day, but it's probably to big for my tastes now. Selling is really looked down upon (excepting certain consumables), barter system rules the day. Nobody would buy any essentials from you, Subs; Somebody else would give them those items free of charge.

 

 

Damn hippies.

[Bobby1Note]

BM sounds like a really cool gig, and place to be.