Behind last Thursday's scenes at the SHR Media studios

The SHR Media Network studio set up for BZ's Berserk Bobcat Saloon.

So there I was. Fed, fueled, show prep in place, laptop tabs all lined up. Last Thursday night, April 25th, I was about to produce a fabulous Bloviating Zeppelin's Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show -- live and direct from the sumptuous and palatial SHR Media Studios, a mere two miles east of the locus of evil on the entire west coast, the Bill Mill, the capitol building at 10th and L Streets in downtown Sacramento, Kalifornia where, late at night, you can hear the keening screams from the death of common sense and, upon conclusion of the show and leaving the studio, one can smell the odiferous stench of sulphur and brimstone emitted from that black-hearted edifice.

 

All was connected, the lava lamp was lighted, ON AIR sign activated, Bluetooth checked for connectivity so that I could speak to the Underground Professor, Michael Jones (my guest for the night), laptop levels checked, my Electrovoice RE20 tested for levels. All appeared nominal to that point. It was time to activate XSplit -- the program we use to handle our video output -- and to ramp up Spreaker, the program we use for audio broadcast only, specifically to the SHR Media Network web site at SHRMedia.com. A brief aside. When I arrived at SHR, the audio output from the studio ranged, let's be honest, from minimally-acceptable to absolutely execrable. Voice levels were too low or too hot, and the intros and promos were almost inaudible.

If there's nothing I learned from being in early 1970s professional terrestrial radio -- having worked at KFBK amongst many other stations -- it's that sound is everything.

Marshall McLuhan once wrote that the "medium is the message." He was right. You can have the greatest message in the world -- the greatest radio show content in the world -- but unless it's excellent sound, no one will listen. That's true no matter where you go.

How many times have you visited a show and really tried to like it -- except that the voices are muddy or unclear or breaking or low in volume? Too many times, I'd wager.

So if there's one thing of which I'm especially proud, it's the fact that I brought SHR studio sound quality up to that of many other professional studios. That's because I bought the same equipment.

Upgraded the laptops and programs. Purchased a hefty and dedicated custom desktop confuser to run all the new stuff. And we've stayed with Spreaker.

We discovered that the sound just isn't good enough on Blogtalk. Yes, you can have great call-in phone systems on Blogtalk as opposed to Spreaker. But we're slowly getting there on SHR. Sound quality first and foremost.

We're in the process of upgrading the phones, trying to avoid $5,000 phone systems.

In terms of studio sound, I first brought in my old RCA 74B from KFBK and hooked it up. Then I brought in my Shure 55SH Classic with red foam. Next, I upgraded the main mic to a Shure SM7B (which is now mic #2, used primarily by Clint), then installed an Electrovoice RE20 for the new main mic, the one I now use on the show.

Yeah. Good luck trying to figure out that board on the left.

The original SHR Media board. We used about 4 inputs out of the 87,953 available.

Along the way, I made sure we changed out our wildly-confusing Behringer Xenyx X2222 USB mixer (holy crap, take a look at that thing above) and went for something a wee bit less confusing. But a lot more expensive and proprietary. The Arrakis ARC Talk Blue board.

SHR's Arrakis board: simpler, cleaner, more useful and infinitely more expensive.

Built like a tank, the Arrakis board is simpler but heavier. I'm really hoping it's bordering on indestructible.

And now, for the "rest of the story."

Having sat down on Thursday evening, I opened Spreaker and started a feedback loop that wouldn't stop. It simply built and built. Thank God I wasn't wearing headphones at the time but it was so loud that the headphones themselves, less than two feet from me, became shockingly loud.

The mic on the desk hid the fact that I had the PC/USB slider open and up. It took me almost 45 seconds to locate the source of the loop and break the circuit. Too late.

By then I had fried two sets of headphones and, as it turned out, blew out the multi-plug headphone jack amp as well. This was only about 15 minutes before I was supposed to be live and on the air.

I tried everything I could think of but the headphones were toast. I knew I wouldn't be able to hear myself and also wouldn't be able to hear any audio cuts I played, much less my intro and outro music. I was boned.

For penance I'll have to bring in an extra set of personal headphones from home. I also ordered a set of Sony MDR-7506 Professional headphones as main desk replacements, and an ART HeadAMP4 Eight Output Stereo Headphone Amplifier to replace the one I turned to infinite feedback loop puree. 

So with no way of hearing the show, I had to cancel the entire event.

That was about a $250 mistake.

So far.

BZ