Free Event in case anyone wants to attend

[studio42]

I'm doing sound for a shop grand-(re)opening. Nothing major, but it's family stuff for me and I'm more than happy to be involved.

I consider this to be a "limited showcase" of what my system is and can offer, which is why I post this. As a small sound company, I am looking for additional work, mainly because I love doing audio. Of course, I also have my day job of data communications, which I also own, but the work comes to me there.

So, I hope to see some of you UWA fans there, and maybe even some UWA members. I do encourage UWA members to show up and see exactly what I can do and how it can help YOU!

6171 Stockton Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95824
I won't leave a suite number, just follow the sound from the speakers. Nearest cross-streets are Stockton Blvd and 47th.

For more details, please visit:
www.giangtien.com/

If anyone can attend or does attend, please post here to let me know. I'm trying out a new monitoring system as well and some of the parts haven't arrived yet but I'll still make it happen just fine.

Any occassion! I hope to see you there.

[studio42]

OK, I'm sweetening the deal: free egg rolls and shrimp rolls. My mother-in-law makes these fresh and I'll say this: DAMN they are good.

All done with the wiring. I've worked a solid 40 hours on it and tested every single connection and it works.(oh thank goodness). There were some glitches I had to deal with, so it wasn't like it was all perfect the first time.

I'm testing the monitors out. All the parts are here!!

Hey:
Also, we're auditioning bass players and drummers. There will be a simple bass rig(4-string Fender P-bass) and a full electronic drum rig at the event. Check in with me(I'll be the white dude) and see if you can sit in with the band. If you know standards, you'll do fine. See my killer keyboard rig. Drums and bass are mine too.

Also, if you're into karaoke, check out the song catalogs on my site or bring your own discs. 5 wireless microphones.

[studio42]

I guess I should have mentioned free beer too. My bad.

Well, at any rate, most of you missed it. And what a missing it was. It as a "miss-take", or "mistake".

My in-laws are converting their hair salon to a barber college, hence the "Grand Opening", or rather re-opening. I got there at 8:30, LATE, I was supposed to be there at 7AM, but I was so tired from loading 2500 pounds of gear on my own the night before into the trailer. Once I got there, load-out assistance was minimal since the in-laws were busy helping out each other. They helped when they could, and when they could, they did an excellent job, as always. I can't stress how important and vital to my operations my crew is, for without them, I could not get things done.

Set-up took near 3 hours since I was mainly working alone. I set up my electronic drum rig, I set up my keyboard rig. I found out we had a bass player for the day, so my wife said "we don't need the bass stuff", I am so glad I packed my bass and practice amp for that. Set-up also took longer than desired due to many dramatic changes in the overall scheme of things.

The first major change was a total re-working of the main FOH rig(AKA main mix position). Let me just say that I plugged in a LOT of cables and it went through 3 different arrangements before I got happy. I won't even go into the testing, which let me just say I am glad I did as I did find many mistakes which required correction.

The second major change was monitoring. Switching from using side-fills, we went all floor monitors. Keyboard and drums required some new min-mixers to aid in monitoring, which worked good AFTER I hammered out those flaws, one being a bad cable in the drum rig, the other being the power cable on the mixer in the keyboard rig popping out. All problems were resolved before showtime. 2 of my Mackie SRM450's were used as the monitors for keyboards and drums. I have 6 of these total.

On the topic of monitoring were the new monitors and amps to go with them. What I will say was that due to a misunderstanding caused by my failure to communicate effectively, a simple task took way too long, but man, my crew person stuck it out to the end, messed it up horribly and showed me the error of my ways. A lot can be learned from mistakes, and fortunately, this sort of mistake wouldn't hurt anything.

Sound check was difficult. The concept of "hey, wake up, pay attention" was an issue. The other issue of "you were supposed to have set your stuff up an hour ago" was another issue, and the last issue of "it's not your turn, please pipe down" was another biggie. Band using new monitors was unable to realize that the big speaker in front of them was what they were supposed to be listening to. Yeah, I'm sure the language barrier was part of the issue, but not the WHOLE problem, trust me.

So, with a rag-tag group of drunks taking the stage, the show began with something that can only be described as... Well, words elude me. I think I will choose "painful". I have witnesses. Part of the issue was the "standard" band member was the keyboadist, who isn't quite the vocalist, but thinks he is somewhat. The other person I recognized was the guy on bass, who I've worked with before as a guitarist and keyboardist. Drummer and guitar, never seen before in my life. To be honest, it's usually much better, but with out of practice musicians, it can be difficult to work together out of nothing.

After a few hours of band, it went to karaoke, and things improved somewhat until people wanted "live" again, and most of that had been torn down at that point. Not understanding concepts of "time", it was difficult to explain to them. I finally had to say that "we have disconnected the equipment for live and the band is done playing" to get the message across, I think. My brother-in-law and his fiance did most of the karaoke. They did a fairly decent job. We had some silly techincal issues with the set-up though, but that's nothing unusual.

Roast pig, egg rolls, shrimp rolls, some noodle dishes and beer and water were consumed by all. I have some roasted pig at least once a month, and I know where they got it from, I got a whole roasted pig for my engagement cerememony AND my wedding. NO, not as gifts!

This was not the typical quality of show product I do. However, garbage in, garbage out, I can't fix everything. I may dwell on mistakes, but this show had too many negatives. Sorry.

Tear down took 1.5 hours with a typical help crew, which I insisted upon to measure time taken. Went smoothly except for putting the lids on the BIG rack.

I'd like to give out thanks to my crew. My wife, who does the wiring-up of the front of house position, As usual, a perfect job. Hoang, who takes a lot of crap, works hard and gets the job done. Darryl, who ran the snake and long eletrical lines when he wasn't doing other things. Steve for doing all the stuff I asked him to do. My friend Will, who was a fresh set of muscles that really saved my butt at load-out and unload as well as keeping me sane. Again, to Steve and Ging, as well as Tram, Thuy Tien and Tram for doing karaoke and keeping something happening as the event wound down. Thanks to Darryl for whatever work he was able to do(he was running like mad for his parents). Thanks for my father and mother in law for the event itself. It's not like there was any competition, just I enjoy having tme with my gear to practice my craft. Last but certainly not least, the biggest man in the parking lot, the one, the only Rob Wilds. It was a much expected pleasure to have you there and thank you so much for coming. I'm glad to be a part of the UWA's production team and here's to getting events, kicking ass and taking names and getting the UWA the attention it has deserved.