From breynold@usc.edu Wed Oct 15 22:53:29 2003
Subject:Re: Nord Electro Output level

The short answer is that we often get no time for sound checking, so I literally have to leave settings on the board for the next gig. I use a variety of keyboards, and when they are roughly the same nominal output level, it is easier for me just to plug in and know I'm gonna get roughly adequate level.

It is even worse when using a club's sound guy and board; that sound person knows his mics and favorite settings. He is not going to radically alter his gain staging on the mics because I have this little red keyboard that wants to play softer than every other keyboard. He just looks at me as says--"Gee I already got you at nearly full fader and with board preamp way up. But it sounds fine now."

Of course, it sounds fine because the club is empty and we are only playing the first set. As the night wears on, volume wars between the musicians set in--the guitarist and bassists unconsciously jack up volume while denying they have done so. And, of course, 75% of the sound men are Ex-guitarists because there are 3 times as many guitarists as there are keyboard players. So he's enjoying his favorite instruments and doesn't even notice that the keyboards are burried. Keyboardists in the audience just look at me and give me a knowing sigh! See, I can rant too.

So the Electro does not provide allow enough headroom to be built into the typical mixer gain structure in the way that usual sound people set up things. No one wants to change their world to meet the Electro, which is the outlier, as we say in statistics. You ignore the odd-ball outlier.

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