During tech rehearsals I discovered the User Bank assignment feature. After a quick look at the manual I set this up easily and cannot stress enough what a life-saving feature it is, especially on a 40-input show such as this one. With a bit of logical thinking and a couple of different coloured Sharpies I found that there was room enough for all the extra labelling going on. In a flash I had my 24 most important faders lined up before me, including a master auxiliary send and effects returns as well as the radio mics, lead guitar and all the keyboards. Master levels of drums, whole band, voices, etc were all still conveniently available to me on VCA’s. Riding an instrument level (analog) whilst muting/un-muting radios (digital) and bringing up the master foldback send (aux) became a doddle instead of an impossibility.

After a couple of shows mixing on-the-fly, I decided to program a couple of scenes that were proving too much for someone with only two hands. The first one I looked at was the finale. Here I was expected to mute 8 radio channels, raise the level of the band 20db, un-mute the two handheld radios, make adjustments to the monitor mix and effects sends without spilling my coffee, all within the confines of a two second blackout. This, I thought, is a job for the TT24. If I can’t do this at the push of one button, I can’t do anything. I spent a bit of time between shows one day setting up this scene. I even remembered to make a couple of Eq adjustments that I’d found myself working on after the finale had kicked in. Pleased with myself, I saved the scene in about 8 different locations and backed-up to my laptop. (Belt and braces, and spare belt and braces, and the address of a local belt and braces shop, that’s me!) As the finale approached during the next show, my sweaty finger poised above the recall button, I knew something would go wrong. I hit it. The big guitar riff began, somewhere in the distance, it was painfully weak, quiet. I went straight to the guitar channel, seemed ok. The rest of the band joined in, sounded like they were playing next door. The VCA! I’d forgotten to program the band level! I faded them in and hoped no-one would notice.

Right after the show, and after I had made the appropriate corrections to my scene, the company stage manager approached me. “How can we make sure that doesn’t happen again?” he asked.
“Employ a robot to do my job?” I said. “Talk to Mackie. They’ll invent one for you.”

Pete Cudmore.