Hello Everyone!

[shane2943]

Hello everyone! Many thanks to Bill Fitzmaurice, the moderators, and those with experience who take the time to share that experience here on this great forum!

My name is Shane and I currently live in Houston (Katy) Texas. I'm a 26 year old up-and-coming something-or-other. What that means is, I currently work for one industry but wish to switch to another. I am an electronics technician for Walgreens. Anything that runs on electricity in a Walgreens store (minus light bulbs and the automatic front doors) I repair, install, and upgrade. I deal with many different systems from Linux servers, to alarm systems, to phone systems, to the Inkjet refill machines. I've been at this for 7 years now...and want/need a change. This is a good job, but I have always had a lingering passion since I was about 12: Audio. I love audio. I love the science, the physics, and everything about it. I would love to work in audio. I have no idea what end of the pro audio spectrum I'd do because I am not a professional by any means (I couldn't even play one on TV). I know enough to know that I don't know enough!

I am about to go back to school in the fall. Going to try my hand at the Audio Engineering courses at Houston Community College. They have a very good audio program...so I've heard. Going to take every course I can get my mits on, even the side courses that are not part of the Engineering certification. I'm not looking for a degree, since I already have one in Computer Electronics Engineering. But I am wanting to be certified (I don't even really know what that means at this point). Needless to say, all you audio pros out there: I envy you and I want to be one of you.

I have built a few speakers in my life (none of BFM's designs...yet) but I am far from a pro there as well. Most of what i have built is at the subwoofer end (read: easy). I have built some that have sounded decent, and some that were wastes of wood and time! I have a lot to learn. A whole lot. But I want to!

Most of what I do now is IT. Very little of it requires the degree I received, and since I received that degree 7 years ago, most of it has been forgotten. I like computers, I know enough about computers, but I'm not passionate about them. I day dream about speakers and sound systems, not hard drives and processors. To quench a little bit of the passion and desire for audio that I have, I volunteer at my church as a sound guy, running sound for them about twice a month. I've learned a lot on the antiquated equipment there. Every time I show up, something new doesn't work and I have to compensate. Either another channel on the board died, or another speaker blew, or that mysterious ghost in the system decided to make the center two ceiling speakers not work again, or what have you. Keep me on my toes a bit. I like it.

I've gone on long enough. If you have read this far, I am so sorry! I tend to ramble. Anyway, you sound pros: I salute you, envy you and look upon you with stars in my eyes (ok...that last one was a small stretch )! Thanks for reading and thanks for having me on this forum.

[jcmbowman]

Welcome to the forum!

Since you're so gung-ho about audio things, but unsure about your building skills, why not pick one of the easier builds--perhaps something that might be of use at the church where you volunteer--and get your feet wet? It's always been my experience that that best way to learn is by doing.

[SeisTres]

Welcome. And actually most of the forum people here are actually just like that - we have a passion for sound. Forget the money(although it comes in very handy) mostly everyone here seems to do it because we enjoy it. And it's really not hard, you just have to get some concepts and and some hands-on and you're set

[Tom Smit]

Hi Shane! And welcome to the forum! Most of the people here don't do sound/PA work as a full-time job; most are week-end warriors of one sort or another. IOW, most have a day job. But, all have a passion for better sound!
Do you play any musical instruments? If yes, then I suggest getting the CD because it appears to be that you want a variety of better sounding cabs. And kudos for finding alternatives at the sound board.

[Gregory East]

It doesn't sound like you've really thought this career move through. I admire your passion but if I were you I'd want a much better idea of where to be winding up.

Alternate plan: Stick to day job and use those IT skills to build a SAC system, teach yourself pro audio on it and power it with BFM. It seems anyone with a good DJ rig finds plenty of work for it.

[CafSentryGnome]

dude you sound just like me. i went into IT, but for some reason i just keep on buying more speakers.

[shane2943]

Hey, thanks for the welcome and replies everyone!

The church I volunteer at is actually about to revamp the audio system. They're using an outside company called American Audio and they're switching from the ceiling mounted distributed system with an Allen/Heath analog board, to a single line array based system and a digital board. The contract has already been approved, and the work is to be started sometime in July. I'm pretty excited as it'll be new equipment for me to learn more on!

Far as my wood working, I've been building things since I was old enough to even hold a circular saw. My grandfather taught me a lot and passed on his knowledge and skills to me. I'm am by no means a professional cabinet maker or fine furniture crafter, but I'm not stranger to saw dust either. That being said, there's always more to learn. I can always become better. And I want to.

I will be buying the CD right after the wife and I save up and replace the AC on our house. It's 20 years old and I worry about it a lot. Stupid priorities getting in the way of fun. I honestly can't wait to start build BFM designs! Probably gonna start with a TAT for a friend, the AT for my wife's car, and then 2 THTLP and a set of SLAs for the theater.

To Gregory: I can definitely see where you're coming from and thank you for your reply. Don't worry about me keeping my regular job. I am. It's secure (for now) and an OK source of income. School will be on the side of this job and I won't be switching from this job without another one lined up and in the bag (if that happens...hopefully it does). When I said I didn't know where to go in the audio world, I meant I didn't know whether to be a sound tech running boards, or an engineer, helping a company design audio systems to fit their individual needs (like American Audio is doing with my church), etc. I tend to want to lean towards the engineering end of the spectrum rather than the live production, but then again, because of my very limited experience, this may change as I go through school. Also, what does SAC stand for?

Thank you once again, guys for the warm welcome!

[Gregory East]

That's a relief

Also, what does SAC stand for?

blowed if I know.There's a few guys on here running it but you might have problems searching it on here as it's only three letters.

SAC is Pro Audio run digitally off a PC. It's the way of the future/now and not all that expensive to get into. I reckon the money spent on course fees would get you into the game. Tough call.

[coolhandjjl]

The last concert I was at the dude had a Software Audio Console. It was on a touch screen monitor, looked cool. Not sure what the amps and speakers were, on each side of the stage floor, there was a unit, something like a Titan laying flat, front to rear; and flying in the middle was some sort of dual MTM unit each aimed off-axis slightly. Sound was awesome. 1200 seat venue with balcony, vintage theater style.

[LelandCrooks]

[quote="shane2943" replace the AC on our house. It's 20 years old and I worry about it a lot. [/quote]

Do it, do it, do it. I bit the bullet and replaced my 30 yr old system last year. Cut heat bills in half this winter, the coldest one in a while, and so far has cut electric by over 1/3. I figured payback of 7 yrs, with the tax credit and how much better than anticipated, payback will be less than 5. And we were warmer and cooler respectively than ever.

[shane2943]

That's a relief

blowed if I know.There's a few guys on here running it but you might have problems searching it on here as it's only three letters.

SAC is Pro Audio run digitally off a PC. It's the way of the future/now and not all that expensive to get into. I reckon the money spent on course fees would get you into the game. Tough call.

Ah! I know what you're talking about now. I've seen tools like that out there. There's a couple free one's available but obviously not as good as the pro versions. I love Linux, but I have to say that the Windows sound system blows the Linux sound system out of the water. The sound system in Windows has been relatively unchanged since '97 or so and doesn't need changing. Linux on the other hand has ALSA as a base sound server, then pulse or Jack or OSS or what have you on top of that. Too complicated.

And no worries about the job thing. I'm in no rush, although I would love to start school soon. The sooner the better, ya know?

[shane2943]

The last concert I was at the dude had a Software Audio Console. It was on a touch screen monitor, looked cool. Not sure what the amps and speakers were, on each side of the stage floor, there was a unit, something like a Titan laying flat, front to rear; and flying in the middle was some sort of dual MTM unit each aimed off-axis slightly. Sound was awesome. 1200 seat venue with balcony, vintage theater style.

Sounds awesome! Hopefully school will teach me about these types of systems. I know a ProTools course is part of the overall course.

[shane2943]

Do it, do it, do it. I bit the bullet and replaced my 30 yr old system last year. Cut heat bills in half this winter, the coldest one in a while, and so far has cut electric by over 1/3. I figured payback of 7 yrs, with the tax credit and how much better than anticipated, payback will be less than 5. And we were warmer and cooler respectively than ever.

Yup yup. We're saving up now. Should have enough by August to get it replaced. The AC in the house is a 3-ton and it's simply not enough to cool the house. We're going to move up to a 3.5-ton average effiency condenser and evap and have some ductwork done. Half of the ductwork in the house is shot and ther other half was installed wrong (the vents are in bad locations). Can't wait!!! I have the thermostat set to at 80 during the day and I swear this poor system runs non-stop from about noon to about 8 O'clock at night!

[jcmbowman]

Ah! I know what you're talking about now. I've seen tools like that out there. There's a couple free one's available but obviously not as good as the pro versions. I love Linux, but I have to say that the Windows sound system blows the Linux sound system out of the water. The sound system in Windows has been relatively unchanged since '97 or so and doesn't need changing. Linux on the other hand has ALSA as a base sound server, then pulse or Jack or OSS or what have you on top of that. Too complicated.

And no worries about the job thing. I'm in no rush, although I would love to start school soon. The sooner the better, ya know?

Actually, with the way SAC is coded it sidesteps almost all of the windows audio subsystem. just an FYI.

[Chris_Allen]

Actually, with the way SAC is coded it sidesteps almost all of the windows audio subsystem. just an FYI.

Absolutely the correct design decision. When (if?) it looses windows completely, I think it will take off massively.