Bye bye VL2, hello DL1608 and poverty

Sigh...the Voice Live 2 has a buyer for only 10 euros less than I asked for it,  Its been a good bit of kit, but its time to fund the update, no sense in hanging on to the older units so am selling pretty much all of them.

Still need to sell a lot of kit to afford the new VLX3 which looks amazing...

I get a nice tax rebate in a month or 2, so that and the proceeds of the sale will fund. the new unit

After the embarrassing gig last week, I have isolated the main issue...sadly it was me... The levels on my patches were too high and far too inconsistent...causing me to be screaming loud at the press of a button...
I have learned...every gig is a leaning process, and this was a biggie.

I am resetting all my levels to be equal and going to fit a volume pedal to the board in place of the mixer, which it turns out was a mistake, not being able to easily balance the 4 individual outputs from my GR and GTX was a mistake.. It does mean I need four inputs in the PA, but I have also thought of that, and splashed out on a DL1608 mixer.

That....is a huge expense, and it means I'm eating rice and lentils most of this month, but I won't have the same cockup happing again... The DL1608 is this...impressive looking isn't it

 

 

This beast of a machine has several benefits...16 inputs being one...so both bands will have plenty of inputs to allow me to steal 4, but most importantly we can preset and store set lists and remove the ipad from the dock unit to let a friend of the band wander around a venue and make small Front of House changes to suit.  Trying to mix a set from the side of the stage is just a total waste of time.

By mixing our live levels on this, all we need to do is plug the stereo output into any PA or in house amp and just adjust the volume...no more screaming (though damn good) solo's from me shaking the rafters......Gadget resolution found.
It has a few other benefits such as reverb/echo and compression/gate features but also it can handle 6 aux outs for personal monitoring which each band member can adust themselves on their own iphones...that is a very useful feature, assuming we can get over some peoples reluctance to use tech. Also we can record ourselves as we play.. I'm not sure my old Ipad 1 will manage that, but Asime the Gadgeteers drummer, has an Ipad 2 we can use for performances and recording.

As my Ipad1 is now pretty much useless for even internet browsing, it will find a permanent home here....it seems to run a slightly oler version of the control software ok..though I may have to try to find a cheap Ipad2/3 at some point next year.

Might even use this for Starrcase, though we tend to play gigs with a sound engineer around so its not going to be needed.

 



And finally, the diet is still going well, I touched 88.0kg on Friday, sadly a few drinks and a curry Friday night pushed it back up on Saturdays weigh-in, but a lean weekend should see it back down and hitting 87 soon.... Still quite happy with the diet, not feeling hungry too much and the pushups/situps are all improving my overall fitness..I have bumps in my arms and shoulders which I think are called muscles.....impressive.


Ahthankyew