Mysterious buzz on laptop output

[Stuart91]

15 minutes ago, themadhippy said:

even thought it happened at his previous 37 gigs ,and the only mention of previous problems is at the load out .

Knowing this particular guy, it was more likely that he'd only mixed down the tracks that morning and had never used them in a proper PA before.

(He'd turned up at previous shows with instruments that he'd literally bought on his way to the gig)

[sunray]

4 minutes ago, Stuart91 said:

Knowing this particular guy, it was more likely that he'd only mixed down the tracks that morning and had never used them in a proper PA before.

(He'd turned up at previous shows with instruments that he'd literally bought on his way to the gig)

Oh yes, we know those.

I subbed a very short notice booking for just the PA and foldback as the bands was in their residency venue and they'd be using their spare mixer.

They turned up with mixer & stand, instruments, mics & stands. Other than guitar leads there was not a single connecting cable.

[dmxlights]

I have seen dance groups that say they will email their tracks on but never happens and then they land  with a new iphone or ipad that does not have headphone out any more that they just bough the that day or the day before. For some reason they think we should have the adaptor to connect it to the desk or have bluetooth connection for them.

I have also seen another case where the dance school sends a link to the tracks on spotify an hour before the land at the venue and tracks play ok for sound check but kept cutting out in the show and we get asked what where we doing. It was down to poor phone coverage and there is no wifi in the venue as its a small local hall

[Stuart91]

13 hours ago, dmxlights said:

dance school sends a link to the tracks on spotify an hour before the land at the venue 

I've had people playing tracks from WhatsApp and Facebook messages ("my pal sent me the songs")

[paulears]

I've had people provide their phone, but not their password - saying I just have to keep tapping it, and even one who could not make the tracks play. "Is it on the school server?" - yes. "er, you're not in school any more?"

[sunray]

With iPhones in particular I insist someone stays with it unless they show I can access it without finger print/eyeball/pretty pattern etc, yes they say just keep tapping it but half of my jobs I'm also doing the M/C or continuity, especially at fetes and sometimes even having to move away from the desk.

The failsafe I used to carry for connexion problems was an internally padded box into which could be placed the playing device and a microphone. That one started many many years back when majorette groups in particular started using micro cassette recordings, their players had no connectivity and the groups simply expected a microphone to be used.

I'd put it in a box to prevent the plans for the next arena event being overheard.

[sandall]

6 hours ago, sunray said:

With iPhones in particular I insist someone stays with it unless they show I can access it without finger print/eyeball/pretty pattern etc

I just refused to handle phones (& earlier, iPads), other than plugging them into the desk (every dance teacher comes with an assistant/friend who needs something to do).

[adamburgess]

Just as an addition to iPad headphone outs.

Happened to two friends of mine on solo vocal/instrumental gigs who don't want to use an interface and rely on the headphone out. (Strangely the guitarist/vocal has an X32 rack, and the sax/vocal has an XR18! Make sense of that)…

The iPad just sometimes has a total cut at anything above about 12k and needs the 1/8" cable shoved in and out a couple of times to get all the top end back. Not repeatable, and with two totally different set ups/iPads/cables etc.

Never once happened over USB to an interface!

[sunray]

58 minutes ago, adamburgess said:

Just as an addition to iPad headphone outs.

Happened to two friends of mine on solo vocal/instrumental gigs who don't want to use an interface and rely on the headphone out. (Strangely the guitarist/vocal has an X32 rack, and the sax/vocal has an XR18! Make sense of that)…

The iPad just sometimes has a total cut at anything above about 12k and needs the 1/8" cable shoved in and out a couple of times to get all the top end back. Not repeatable, and with two totally different set ups/iPads/cables etc.

Never once happened over USB to an interface!

I used to come across this ages ago. I can't remember the exact details now but it's something to do with what the iPad is doing when the jack is inserted. I haven't come across it for so long I assume it's been changed in more recent IOS.

And it was well below 12KHz

[ANDYLASER]

I insist on MP3s emailed in advance, or supplied on a USB stick prior to the show. Anything else they can FRO!

[Mickstup]

When the singer brings you an iphone and the tunes on youtube, in a marquee in the countryside. Bless them.

[richardash1981]

Assuming there is some internet connectivity:

youtube-dl -f bestaudio "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX"

to download just the audio track to local machine in non-real time.

[sunray]

15 hours ago, Mickstup said:

When the singer brings you an iphone and the tunes on youtube, in a marquee in the countryside. Bless them.

We had a girl doing Karen Carpenter act at a festival, set her bits up on stage and asked for wifi code. That basically meant the end of her act until one of our crew went to the nearby charity stall and purchased a carpenters cassette for 50p which we played in a classic car on display and a mic on 200m cable.

We wouldn't have bothered if we didn't know how good she was.

[Stuart91]

On 12/30/2022 at 10:31 PM, Mickstup said:

When the singer brings you an iphone and the tunes on youtube, in a marquee in the countryside. Bless them.

I had something like that sprung on me at a wedding. Bride told us that they wanted "Stand by Me" for their first dance. No wifi, no phone reception, and they were already running late so looking to kick off immediately. 

We did have a laptop with some tunes, so I crossed my fingers and typed "Stand" into the search box. The only two results returned were "Can't stand me now" by the Libertines, and the theme from Grandstand. We felt that either would be a worthy alternative but the bride rejected both...

[sunray]

3 hours ago, Stuart91 said:

I had something like that sprung on me at a wedding. Bride told us that they wanted "Stand by Me" for their first dance. No wifi, no phone reception, and they were already running late so looking to kick off immediately. 

We did have a laptop with some tunes, so I crossed my fingers and typed "Stand" into the search box. The only two results returned were "Can't stand me now" by the Libertines, and the theme from Grandstand. We felt that either would be a worthy alternative but the bride rejected both...

Can't think why not....🤣