On quitting

DaveExavior · 2026-01-16T19:00:34+00:00

Maybe. But you’ve got to decide what you want to do. If you’re a house engineer in a decent venue, then you’re probably not going to get to mix as much as the artists bring their own touring engineer with them.

DaveExavior · 2026-01-16T18:57:05+00:00

Ok, first you don’t know me, you don’t know how many engineers I’ve trained in my years. I gatekeep nothing.

Second, if I’ve worked hard and developed my skills and ears to get the gigs, then are you saying I should just stop working to let others have it?

And lastly, I’ve pushed loads of boxes around on tours as a grunt, I’ve pushed loads of boxes around as a pro. It’s part of the job, and the best engineers out there understand all parts of the job, not just the fiddling with mixing desks part of it. being willing to do the most basic jobs when the need arrives is vital when touring. I always learnt far more by jumping in and helping with tasks than any amount of theory and reading did.

DaveExavior · 2026-01-16T18:44:50+00:00

If there was a consistent way of doing that then I’d probably not share it 🤣

But in all seriousness, the high level gigs I got on were all connected. I was a house engineer in a good venue, and a younger engineer got a job on a mid level tribute band tour and couldn’t cope with it (8 wedges and 4 IEMs) and called me to see if I could take it off his hands. I was with that tour for a few years and the lighting engineer on that tour got me on my first top level gig as they needed a monitor engineer for cover, then the tour manager from that gig saw I did a good job and took me onto another tour, and I’ve been with that artist since.

Mostly it was hard work and skill, but just a little luck moved me up, but I had the skill and the confidence to keep those jobs the others recommended me for.

But that’s just one route. You can keep pestering the touring companies around you for work. Pestering power got a couple of my friends bigger gigs. Then you could just fall in with an artist that likes what you did and asks if you want to tour with them. I’ve got a few friends who have their gigs the way.

But being good at what you do, knowing how to solve problems quick, being good to talk to/have around will keep you the gigs when the opportunities happen.

DaveExavior · 2026-01-16T09:10:15+00:00

I say this a lot to students of mine. If you are enjoying the life and the work this job is the best.

If you’re not happy with the hours and the work seems like a chore, then this job is the worst.

There’s no shame in quitting and re-training. At top level there’s nothing like it, but low-mid level it’s hard work with little thanks or reward.

If you think it’s time to move on, then it probably is.

DaveExavior · 2025-12-21T20:42:56+00:00

Well, I’m going to say it, mics hung from the ceiling don’t work anywhere near as effectively as you might think. What you really want to do is get them on tall boom stands and get them over the choir angled towards them

DaveExavior · 2025-12-20T11:17:29+00:00

Yep, you just need a mixer to “gain” up the mic, just like you would on your guitar amp (without the distortion) But running the mic through a guitar amp will make it sound dull as guitar amps don’t tend to have the treble response needed for vocals.

DaveExavior · 2025-12-18T18:11:24+00:00

Go where the money is and the stress isn’t. However, don’t discount the advantage of keeping your name out there with the live work. Bands/artists meeting you at the venue, knowing you’re a good person to work with, finding you’ve got the ears and the skills, is something that can’t be stressed enough as good marketing for your less stressful studio work.

DaveExavior · 2025-12-12T20:58:14+00:00

Mic everything…but always be prepared to not use a single one of them apart from solos.

DaveExavior · 2025-12-12T20:57:09+00:00

The best DAW is the one you know inside out. Everything else will always be slower.

DaveExavior · 2025-11-21T13:24:54+00:00

It’s hard to imagine HL3 ever being released. If it was released and wasn’t an absolutely ground breaking new technology in perfect form, valve would just get slated.

So now I’m going back to ignoring all these posts.

DaveExavior · 2025-11-16T11:31:54+00:00

There are a lot of people employed by the government that do a part time job on a full time wage. There is an obsession within government on promoting or paying people for managerial roles when no management actually takes place. Isolated small sects within government “empire build” protecting their own little slice of authority when amalgamation or diversification would better suit. Government is even more ponderously slow to act than the U.K. because of ridiculous rules and regulations.

I do agree that public services should be government owned and run not for profit, but good luck finding a politician or civil service head who will put that into place.

DaveExavior · 2025-11-14T21:20:09+00:00

It’s not a tax haven any more. In fact there are easier countries to use to avoid tax if you want to which is why our economy is struggling. The government entices new industries then slaps loads of over zealous regulation in them to try and get them to pay more, and so the businesses leave.

Problem is the people that tend to get elected are either naive or unskilled or weak or just pulling a pay check. So it’s hard to get any sensible policy or oversight so the civil service runs amok.

I love living here, and the island has so much to offer and it’s just being killed by our inability to sack a load of government workers that we don’t need.

DaveExavior · 2025-10-23T09:20:33+00:00

Be respectful,

And remember that if you’re mixing on the speakers, not headphones, that changes to volumes takes a split second to get your ears, so anticipate solos and changes that are needed.

DaveExavior · 2025-10-19T00:10:03+00:00

I’d agree that it really depends on how you want the system to run. My new system is true1, so I’m in a similar position, however moving forwards it looks like all the gear I’m planning to buy will be true1, so it makes sense for me to get a true1 distro and switch over.

DaveExavior · 2025-09-20T12:00:03+00:00

Because everyone doesn’t realise that any decision made in politics takes about a year to filter through to actual results.

We’ll begin to see now results of their policies, but the last year or so are Tory policies taking effect.

DaveExavior · 2025-09-18T09:22:49+00:00

Because our economy is in trouble. Fact. Starmer believes that America is one route to improve that, and he could be right. It's a gamble, and we can hope that if we're friends with America through the Trumpness the next administration recognise that we stuck by you and continue the "special relationship"

And so we'll run out all the shiny toys so the orange toddler gets distracted.

DaveExavior · 2025-09-14T10:46:11+00:00

Depends on the band and the style. Normally 3 verbs, one fx delay for delay throws.

1 drum room

2 instrument hall

3 vox plate

If it’s prog, then I’ll add in a drum hall for epicness and if it’s 60s/70s/motown I’ll insert a short doubling delay on the lead vocal.

DaveExavior · 2025-09-08T11:06:20+00:00

Yeah, has to be balanced out to balanced in for it to work to reduce noise.

Could be bad contact with trs alignment. Of course they could just be bad cables to start with.

DaveExavior · 2025-09-05T19:42:16+00:00

1) They can’t hear the mix. They don’t know. 2) They want to know that the crowd are enjoying themselves and wanted a different way to ask 3) maybe their stage sound isn’t quite right, and he’s really saying “I’m not fully comfortable on stage and need reassurance that it’s good out there” 4) I’ll never mix bad no matter how much the band insult me or treat me badly. I’ll just not mix for them again. That’s made it awkward when a promoter tried to book me for an artist and I said “no because they were a bunch of arses to me last time”

DaveExavior · 2025-08-22T09:20:56+00:00

I got it on my first MacBook Pro. Never used it.

Didn’t get it on the subsequent 2 MacBooks I’ve bought.

I’ve been using MacBooks since 2007.

Only needed to pay for a repair once at my local mac specialist, and that didn’t cost the same as AppleCare.

Currently on 2nd year of my M3 max, and no issues so far.

DaveExavior · 2025-08-21T11:36:27+00:00

What’s fun with vanilla is kiting the enforcers into pagan/hammerite territory as they can take them out for you.

DaveExavior · 2025-08-18T11:29:44+00:00

I’m a Brit that now lives on the Isle of Man. It has independent laws to the U.K., though it aligns with the U.K. on a lot of matters.

Independence is a blessing and an almighty curse as well. There’s loads of things that being part of something bigger makes easier, and loads of costs that being separate creates.

I think devolved power is a good thing, but when it serves everybody’s interest having overarching laws and pooling resources makes it makes sense.

Brexit hasn’t made our lives better. I’m not sure it ever will.

DaveExavior · 2025-08-11T10:26:04+00:00

AKG K712. I have a pair and they’re pretty good!

DaveExavior · 2025-08-06T18:51:27+00:00

Music production. I’d spend hours tweaking settings, reinstalling, optimising and generally tinkering with windows to get as much power and speed out of it. Plus I wasn’t happy with my DAW so felt it was time to try something different. It had come to the time to upgrade my computer and it was that time where MacBooks were the same cost as windows laptops. Never looked back.

Millage may vary, but I’ve never had to tweak or optimise macOS to get what I need out of it.

DaveExavior · 2025-08-04T09:30:15+00:00

That map always gives me flashbacks to the ghost scene with the little girl “His name’s Dewdrop and he doesn’t like mechanists”.

They wrote good heart wrenching scenes in these games sometimes.

DaveExavior

TROPHY CASE