Bill Roper's Journal

I've kicked a lot of thoughts around about the annual Pegasus Nominees Concert over the years and this current set of thoughts crystallized after this year's concert. This does not necessarily have anything to do with this year's nominees or performances.

I believe that the nominated songs are best served by not asking the sound engineers to do an impossible job. I am not *at all* trying to disrespect the work that Mark Peters and Dave Ifversen have been doing -- exactly the opposite! They are doing the best possible job under what are frequently bad circumstances.

"And what *are* those bad circumstances?", I hear you asking. Simply put, it is putting too many signals onto the stage, creating something that is very, very hard to balance on the fly. And if the song cannot be balanced on the fly, then the audience doesn't hear the best possible representation of the song under the circumstances of the concert.

Look, I've been an amateur sound engineer for a long time now. What I've learned is that the more familiar I am with the people on stage, the better the job that I can do. I will not say that I can mix Wild Mercy on the fly in my sleep, but I am familiar with what they do, what type of arrangements they have, and many of the songs that are going to be performed in any given set. My chances of getting a good mix from a standing start are really good.

If you put six people on the stage who I have *never* seen perform together before, I am now engaged in a guessing game and that guessing game is more complex depending on what the performers are planning to do. The mics and direct-ins are color-coded and I'm guessing that's reflected on Mark's board, but it requires a *lot* of attention to keep track of what's where. So our engineer is trying to listen to this and *maybe* he can figure out that someone is going to play an instrumental break and he can pick it up and boost it above the rest of the mix, because that's one of the tricks that makes the mix good.

But this is just *hard*. And I have to ask: is this what is going to present the song in its best light? Or is it better to use a less complex arrangement where the engineer can easily follow what's going on, emphasize the parts that need to be emphasized at any given moment, and everything is very, very clear?

Now there are going to be occasions when you really, really need to get a bunch of people on stage. (*cough* "Midichlorian Rhapsody" *cough*) But if you're going to do something like that and you want to be able to switch between voices, then the *minimum* that you ought to do is to provide a marked-up lyric sheet in *large* print with the names of all of the people participating and who is carrying the lead at any given moment. And this gives the engineer a fighting chance.

Or maybe the chorus that you need for this song can be picked up by a mic that's catching the vocals from the whole chorus so that they become one source and the mix becomes simpler to put together.

I'm going to take myself as an example, because I'm the example I'm most familiar with. If I'm doing a song with Amy McNally accompanying me and it's time for her to play a fiddle break, I will step away from the microphone (easier if my guitar is direct-in!) and turn in her direction, which tells the engineer that Amy is now the featured player. And when we're ready to go back to vocals, I will step back up to the microphone. An engineer as experienced as Mark will *easily* see this kind of big, broad signaling.

This requires some thought, of course. All good things do. But it's a skill that *everyone* can learn.

But if you can fit your arrangement into three people at the most, that's great, because not only do you become easier to mix, but you become easier to move on and off stage. This leaves less dead air during the concert, which means people are more attentive, which means they are paying more attention to *your* performance when you're ready to go. That's all good, right?

And if you really *do* need a lot of people, then know where you are going on stage, be prepared to go there when the previous song ends, and then get in position, help adjust mics and mic stands as required, and go.

As a rule of thumb, I suspect fewer is going to be better.

Your mileage may vary.

You would think that some time during the day, I would have managed to type out a longish report about OVFF.

You would be wrong.

But maybe tomorrow.

(The drive home was accomplished with remarkable efficiency, taking six hours and fifteen minutes roughly, with only three short stops. But it helped that we had already had an excellent dinner with Trace before leaving town. :) )

I spent most of the afternoon today trying to clean up some things in our setup at work. The fellow who made the suggestions tells me that I'm generally on the right track, so that's a good thing.

Meanwhile, back at the "Getting Ready for the Con" category, I have pulled out the electronics and am now starting to make sure that everything is charged and updated, because it is *so* much better if I don't discover that something needs to update over Wi-fi at the con.

Charge!

Well, I've made the appointment for K's required PCR test for OVFF tomorrow at Walgreens. They aren't accepting our insurance for this, so we will have to pay $99.99 and see if there is any hope of getting it reimbursed by our health insurance.

And then, she will have to take a rapid test at the convention, because paying $99.99 and testing clean on Tuesday is not enough to make some people happy.

But such is the price of not being a "good person", although there is no reason to believe that COVID vaccination is a good idea for young people. Given how long the CDC spent covering up the reports of myocarditis side effects in young people from COVID vaccination, I have no reason to trust whatever they have to say on that subject.

I think I have sent off all of the CD orders for OVFF to people who I don't expect to see there. I will catch up with everyone else shortly.

The kids are off from school tomorrow (although K has a lot of rehearsal), but I will be back at work.

Meanwhile, Ruby has figured out that if Gretchen manages to get out into the garage without taking Ruby with her *and* the back door is open, Ruby can figure out a way through the fence so that she can come join Gretchen at the van.

Ruby the Dog: Intelligence 16, Wisdom 3. (So Gretchen estimates...)

The fence will be fixed soon. Just not soon enough.

The only problem with OVFF is that I end up seeing less filking than I might hope to.

Yes, this seems odd since I am there and literally *surrounded* by filking. But I am a filthy huckster, so a lot of time ends up being spent in the Dealers' Room. I can hear *some* of the filking there, but it's a bit attenuated. :)

And the Pegasus Nominees Concert is always fun (even more so when I'm in it!), but with the album release party right after, and then having to get up to set up the dealer table in the morning, I didn't really get to see any filking (other than the concert) on Friday night.

It's fun doing the Interfilk auction too! But it means that the filking starts late. And there were really only *two* rooms for open filking at that point (at least as far as I can tell): the main room (which is too large for a lot of people) and Polaris 2 (which is too small for more than half-a-dozen folks). I am looking for the Goldilocks room, but all of the rooms of that size are filled up with theme filks. That's great if at least one of the themes suit you, but if one of those isn't your cup of porridge, you're left with the two not-quite-right-sized rooms.

I quibble.

I had a lot of fun at the convention. I had a chance to talk to a lot of folks, many of whom I only get to see once a year or so. We sold a bunch of the new CD -- and it is *fun* to have a new CD out! And our hotel room was not far from the convention space, which made Gretchen's knees *much* happier. I have to find the right person to thank for *that*.

And I got to sing "Apology" with Gretchen in the Pegasus concert, which is wonderful. (Even better when Judi Miller is there to sign it, although I don't *dare* watch her do it, or I will completely lose track of what I'm singing. But Judi wisely stayed home and we all missed her.) We didn't win and that's ok too, because it is a *joy* to be nominated. And I got to sing two more songs from the new album in the album release concert with Amy McNally accompanying me, which wouldn't have happened if Smac hadn't gotten behind the album and *pushed* to make it happen. (And I promise Smac that I will send the paperwork back tomorrow, but tonight I need to be typing all of this -- and doing some Windycon work! -- so the paperwork will wait one more day. :) )

Oh, and because Mark and Smac got behind *another* idea and pushed, I had the entire Pegasus concert on a USB stick that Gretchen and I could listen to on the way home from the con. I am impressed.

So I had a lot of fun at OVFF.

I am just greedy and want to figure out ways to have more fun.

That's a good goal, right?

I still need to shave and close up my suitcase, but I'm just about ready to go.

That doesn't mean that we're ready to leave, but it is a step in the right direction.

Ready to load up the van and get on the road.

OVFF was fun.

I have to put the last few items into the suitcase and seal it up (filk book!), and throw those things in the car and then I should be on the road to OVFF.

This is *way* too early in the morning.

One of the most important things that needed to be done before departing for OVFF was laundry. That's done now.

Packing is in order tomorrow.

Driving is in order on Friday. *Early* on Friday...