269. Back To The 80s With Chris Pou

In Episode 269, it’s time to break out your best dayglo shirts and leather jackets, dig out a slap bracelet or two, and get your 80s on, as Chris Pou, FOH and production manager for 80s rock cover band Electric Avenue, joins Sean and Andy to talk about what it takes to recreate those classic 80s sounds (spoiler: allllll the reverbs). Chris also digs deep into the Waves LV1 fly rig he built to tour with, how he decided on that platform, and what it takes to build it and keep it rock-solid reliable on more than 100 shows a year. This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.

Episode Links:
Electric Avenue
Chris Pou On Facebook
Chris Pou On Instagram
Episode 269 Transcript

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Transcript

Episode 269 - Chris Pou

Note: This is an automatically generated transcript, so there might be mistakes--if you have any notes or feedback on it, please send them to us at signal2noise@prosoundweb.com so we can improve the transcripts for those who use them!

Voiceover: You’re listening to Signal to Noise, part of the ProSoundWeb podcast network, proudly brought to you this week by the following sponsors:

Allen & Heath, introducing their new CQ series, a trio of compact digital mixers for musicians, bands, audio engineers, home producers, small venues, and installers that puts ease of use and speed of setup at the heart of the user experience.

RCF, who has just unveiled their new TT+ Audio brand, including the high performance GTX series line arrays and the GTS29 subwoofer. Be sure to check it out at rcf-usa.com. That's rcf-usa.com.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green 

Andy Leviss: Hey, you're listening to Signal to Noise. I'm your host, Andy Levis, and uh, with me as always is the co host, the Rocky to my road, Mr. Sean Walker. What's up, Sean? 

Sean Walker: What's up, buddy? How y'all doing 

Andy Leviss: that one. He's like, that wasn't your best. That wasn't your 

Sean Walker: Rocky to my road, huh? Alright. My, my inner fat kid's excited, my outer fat kid's offended. I don't know what to do with myself right now, but it'll be fine. 

Andy Leviss: I mean, your inner and your outer are slowly consolidating. I don't know how to 

Sean Walker: Bro, tell me about it, this dad bod's fucked. I'm trying to be more dad and less bod, but it's, it's not working very well, dog. Like, I feel like we live in a food desert, and I don't know how we got on, oh, Rocky Road, that's right. But it's fuckin hard, dude! I'm like, okay man, I gotta get that high protein, low carbs, I gotta get all healthy, gotta do 97, 000 things I was told I was supposed to do, and then you're like, oh yeah man, cheeseburgers and fries, that's all that's available at work. 

Okay, cool, I guess we're just fuckin rollin with it, dude. 

Andy Leviss: I'm taking these all as warning shots since I'm, I'm rocketing closer and closer to baby land. That's, uh, 

Sean Walker: When you got less time to prepare food and less time to deal with your life and pack lunches and make dinner and you're just like, nope, can't. 

Andy Leviss: been, we, we literally, we bought a chest freezer, I forget whether I talked about this already, we bought a chest freezer specifically for stuff like that and there's been like, every week I've been trying to do like a couple batch cooks and stack up in label containers. 

Sean Walker: Yeah, there you go. Sweet. 

Andy Leviss: learned, I've learned apparently in the, in the, well not apparently because I have them in my house. 

It's a thing in like restaurants, they actually have like labels for food containers, they do like paper labels that dissolve in water. So I bought a pack of those from Amazon so I can label everything up and I don't have to think about it. Just throw it in the dishwasher and it's fine. So it's the little things sometimes, 

Sean Walker: That's on brand nerd shit for you, dude. I'm impressed. 

Andy Leviss: Wire, wire cutter wrecks for the win. 

Sean Walker: That's That's awesome, dude. I'm into it. 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. 

Sean Walker: I'm gonna start doing that. We got a, we got a freezer, so I should just start getting into that. 

Andy Leviss: Oh man. It's yeah. I did like like 11 containers of one thing and 12 of the other and they're just like stacked up and labeled in the freezer. The hardest part 

Sean Walker: I will say, 

Andy Leviss: eating it now. 

Sean Walker: right, I will say the one thing we did do is we, like, you know, for those of us that did eat meat still, we bought a quarter cow and a half a pig from the local farm rather than, like, going to the supermarket. Holy crap is that way better. I mean, we're using the shit out of our freezer, but, like, so much better, dude, and so much cheaper. 

Andy Leviss: All right. 

Sean Walker: much cheaper. Since you got a, since you got a fridge, dude, rock that. And you'll be like, get out of here, dog. I didn't realize how crappy my stuff was until I got the real deal Holyfield. You know what I mean? 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. Well, we'll check into that. Um, 

Sean Walker: Now that we're down the rabbit hole on food, let's go back to audio. 

Andy Leviss: yeah, let's take it back up. We'll do the cue the inception sound effect. 

Sean Walker: Audio. 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. What's the inception like going back out a layer of sound effect? 

Sean Walker: Right. 

Andy Leviss: Uh, yeah. Well, why don't we dive in? Uh, we'll just, let's just introduce our guest this week. So this is somebody who, if you're on the, he's not in the discord, but if you're on the Facebook group, uh, with both of which are in the show notes, you should join us in both places. 

Lots of fun, lots of cool things going on. But, uh, this guest is somebody who. Like, I feel like I've known forever, because he's been posting there for a long time, like, doing some cool stuff, and had been on my list of folks to reach out, and then I realized a few weeks ago, you know, I haven't actually reached out to him, and been like, yo, you want to come on the show? 

So I did, and he said absolutely. So, uh, we have, uh, Chris Pou is joining us today. What's up, Chris? 

Chris Pou: Hey, hey guys, how's it going? 

Andy Leviss: It's going, yeah, I mean, do you want to give us the quick and dirty, uh, who you are, rather than us talking about you? Because, you know, 

Sean Walker: Mr. Reverb. That's who 

Chris Pou: Alright, Mr. Reverb, yeah, it's all the reverbs and just kind of stacked together. So, yeah, I'm Chris, uh, uh, you know, right now my, my primary thing is I mix, um, front of house and do production managing duties for Atlanta based band called Electric Avenue. And so that group does lots of venues, corporate, private events, and things like that. 

And basically a bunch of folks that just do the 80s synth pop era type stuff to the, you know, and they're all like, Super, super pro players and do it, uh, at a pretty high level. So happy to be doing that kind of thing. And yeah, it's, uh, it's all the different reverbs, uh, stacked on top of each other. 

Sean Walker: Yes. Oh, that makes me so happy to my 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah, 

Sean Walker: dress the part too? Or do they rock in the eighties garb? 

Chris Pou: it's, uh, it's kind of, uh, you know, it's, it's, um, um, not on the cheesy side of anything. 

It's really, it's just kind of slick looking the whole thing. I mean, like, you know, yeah, there's, there's some, you know, um, Decade appropriate stuff happening for sure up there. Uh, but it's, uh, but it's definitely, you know, it's, uh, yeah, it's not like over the top or anything like that. It's just, it's, it's kind of like, it's pretty classy, I would 

Andy Leviss: An appropriate amount of Dayglo. 

Chris Pou: yeah, right, right, right, 

Andy Leviss: I was gonna say, that's the name of my Yan Hammer cover band. 

Chris Pou: right. 

Sean Walker: you go. 

Chris Pou: But, uh, yeah, so. That's, uh, you know, that's kind of my main thing right now. And also, uh, you know, uh, just kind of keeping with, uh, doing lots of, uh, you know, started out sort of like doing freelance stuff when I left being a full time, like, state employee staffer type thing. And, uh, you know, so I still have connections in the corporate type deal and still do, you know, hop in and out of a bunch of that. 

Um, I was actually, yeah, I was on one last couple of days just doing a little, like, And I think the thing where people were talking about like some cybersecurity company is doing this whole thing, a little virtual event with a partial in person audience, you know, that whole deal, you 

Sean Walker: Yeah. Just talking about taking over the world. No problem. 

Chris Pou: Oh yeah. 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That one is, uh, yeah, yeah. Not on any NDAs for it or anything, but it's definitely, it's like, you know, some of the stuff I'm like, yeah, I'm probably not going to repeat any of this outside of the room. So, 

Sean Walker: Dude, how many of those do you sit through, corporate events in general, where you just look, you just listen to the whole thing and you go, I owe every one of my conspiracy theorist friends a fucking apology. Like, like, like shit! Every one of those fuckers needs an apology. 

Chris Pou: Indeed. 

Sean Walker: Alright, let's get off the dark 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. 

Sean Walker: which is, you know, what we all, it's how we all make our money, so we're, I'm with you. 

Chris Pou: Yeah, 

Sean Walker: talk about the cool shit, fucking reverb, bro. I mean, 80's music. Because this decade is excess is just enough as the whole decade. Tell me about them reverbs, dog. How many you stack and where you stack and what's going on? 

Chris Pou: Got it. So, yeah, I mean, so they are, it's definitely like stacked on top of each other, you know, short ones, long ones. And obviously, um, so the non land gated reverb, that's the, that's the big one. Uh, as far as, I mean, there's just so much scattered in and like, you know, so me really kind of getting involved with this stuff, it's like, you know, I am, um, um, trying to hold it. 

I don't, uh, I guess you wouldn't call it a child of the eighties, child in the eighties. I was, I was born in 83, so like, you know, a lot of this stuff is, uh, you know, it required a little bit of, um, me being pretty astute ious on that, uh, you know, I remember some of the stuff when I was really little and it's like, but now, you know, like taking a perspective on how to listen to this stuff, pick it apart and realize like, you know, what's happening and then things that actually sound kind of bone dry and stuff, but they're actually, You know, there's a, there's so much production going on, you know, I mean, the, like the musicality and stuff is still there and stuff, but I mean, you're talking about a decade that had so much production where there's like, you know, people are just really, really experimenting with a lot of stuff. 

And then, you know, stacking short reverbs, medium, like, like long ones on top of each other, looking at, uh, decay times, like, like thinking about how the pre delays work and like how they go into each other, but like, you know, especially on, um, So one thing I can kind of speak into there, it's like, you know, I mean, we are, um, uh, you know, it's, um, um, there's a real drum kit on stage, so, and obviously with a lot of this material, it's like, you know, like you were in the realm of where, I mean, a lot of this stuff is done on Simmons, Simmons drums and things like that, that already had kind of like predetermined samples and things, so to try to sort of take that and, you know, whether it's real drums and like, you know, like, Use these like short little reverbs and stuff and then like, you know, stacking the non lin on top of that and like, you know, really pushing, pushing that to almost kind of give it this little electronic type feel sometimes. 

And then, you know, I've obviously got like, um, so, um, you guys probably saw, like I'm working with, uh, so. My main tour console that I'm using in most situations is, um, LV 1, um, you know, only really go into other things, like I've got a, I've got the DiGiCo deal where I've got some fun, uh, little hybrid setup type deal and an analog rack, including a real 500 rack version of that AMS Neve, RMX16. 

That's, oh, it's very dope. 

Sean Walker: Yes. Cause I got, we, you know, I came up as maybe the last generation people in an actual studio, on an actual desk and an actual XSL making records and trying to keep our RMX 16 running. It was like a full time fucking job. 

Chris Pou: Yeah, dude. 

Sean Walker: today it works great. Yeah, tomorrow it's noisy as fuck, you know what I mean, or it doesn't work, or left channel's out, or you're like, Oh, son of a bitch, you know what I mean. 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah, no, so that's the 500 version. It's basically, um, so it's interesting, uh, thinking about how they kind of started. Making that, um, like porting the sounds into that. And my understanding is, I think they actually took a lot of the stuff from, since Universal Audio did such a good job of doing the, uh, the model of the original RMX 16, so, um, they, um, they actually took, my understanding is they actually took a lot of that and, um, ported that into the, um, ported that into the unit and so that's, so it's, it's very much a hardware, like, you know, like I've heard, like, um, You know, what is it, like three way, three way comparison of like, like, so there's the UAD RMX16 model, an original hardware unit that's in That's I, you know, whatever its best day operational capacity was like, yeah, as good as it's going to get today. 

And then the 500 and I mean, you know, I, all three of them are, are, are different. Um, but you know, the 500, it's like, well, it's, it's still very much hardware and, um, you know, if we want to dive down a super, super deep. Hole. Like we don't have to go super far down it, but so, so here's, 

Sean Walker: the way down the rabbit 

Chris Pou: all right. So, so here's an interesting thing. 

So, uh, pivoting back and forth between like LB one and Digi and, and the digi, like LB one because every, like, pretty much everything I'm using is in the box there. Like I am going outside using the super rec performer for a couple of VSCs on some of these, which. Time based anyway, but LB1 does, you know, full impulse alignment, no matter what kind of routing you can get to. 

DiGiCo is all, um, DiGiCo is, like, it does not do any automatic, you know, like, throughput impulse alignment for anything. But, Um, so what I was finding since I'm running this hybrid thing where I've got like that RMX 16, I've got like an analog vocal path, I've got a summing mixer for like, uh, basically doing some like stem mixing, um, and a couple of things like that. 

Um, so all that is to say, uh, you know, for, for incorporating hardware and software instances, like I'm doing the manual alignment process, at least on the, on the dry sources. So when I'm doing that and basically finding my slowest. Throughput for that, organically speaking, right off the show file basis, the actual longest throughput was that AMS RMX 16 reverb return. 

So finding out, here's where it kind of comes to an interesting point. It's like, and honestly, like whether you're going to align reverbs, that's can be a little bit debatable because it's already a time based thing anyway. But I was like, if I'm going to do this, I'm just going to, you know, I have the tools to do so. 

So I'm going to go there. In finding like the slowest organic throughput. You know, time on finding out where my alignment point is, it ended up being that RMX 16's reverb return. Now, here's the interesting part about that, because obviously, it's a digital device, but it has, you know, it's analog in, analog out, so there's converter processes inside. 

One of the things about this, even though this unit is stable and consistent on a daily basis, one of the, one of the things about the whole model that's in the algorithm here is that there is actually a little bit of drift on that, you know, because it is a digital device, there's a word clock inside it, but you're, but you have to use converters to get in and out of it. 

So you're never actually like hitting that clock. Um, So, there's drift in it, so what I found out was that basically, like, I had to intentionally lengthen another path, uh, in the signal chain, because I couldn't, by aligning to that, it was never going to give me a consistent thing, so there's enough of a detailed result. 

emulated thing that's ported into this new 500 hardware so that it is not going to, um, you know, I can't, um, the alignment point is going to, going to shift by about, it's miniscule, but it's, I mean, we're talking two to four samples or something like that. But when you're talking about an entire Path of like dry sources and trying to get all that stuff impulse aligned for the sake of, you know, because I'm using some, uh, you know, a couple of the waves things and then just console processing on some other stuff, uh, that, you know, it's, um, it, it matters like, especially as far as the dry stuff is concerned, you know, that goes down. 

I can go down a deep rabbit hole with that with all, you know, thing. But, uh, I guess that also kind of speaks to the fact that like I am pretty, um, Uh, I am a, you know, kind of a, um, picky as far as at least making sure that I give myself a fair starting point on that, and not trying to, at least, doesn't make me a better mixer, just make, gives me a better fighting chance of everything showing up on the output at the same time. 

So, 

Sean Walker: is what you get paid for, right? 

Chris Pou: right, right, yeah. 

Sean Walker: sounds the best it can, or the best to your ability every time, 

Chris Pou: Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yep. And you know, and that's on the, on the, the technical side of it, that's kind of going down that, that rabbit hole a little bit, but yeah. Yeah. 

Sean Walker: Okay, so, how do you, like, what reverbs are you choosing now? Because now you're not carrying a rack of lexicons and Eventides 

Chris Pou: Right. Right. Yeah. 

Sean Walker: right? So what are you choosing in the box now to simulate those 80s reverbs other than the one RMX 16? 

Chris Pou: Okay. So as far as, uh, as far as the stuff with, with, with LB1, um, I'm using, um, I'm trying to think right now. Actually, I think most of my reverbs are ported into, um, SuperRack Performer, which have, um, so those, I'm using the UAD VST3s on those. So right now for, and I, I went through a couple of, obviously that non Lin is really, really, Crucial. 

Uh, so I went through a few different things with that, and that is actually the one thing that I, after going through a few different models, uh, so, uh, since I'm not carrying another piece of UAD hardware right now, I can only use what's available in Spark, just, just, just done off of the, uh, off of the, um, the native processing. 

So that is a, um, Um, that, that does not include the RMX 16 with UAD stuff, unfortunately, so what I'm doing on that one, the closest thing I could found, I could find is actually one of the Slate ones, uh, the little VIRB Suite Classic, um, Uh, FG RX or FGX or whatever that's called because I tried, I tried that one. 

I tried, I've tried the waves one, I've tried the, the Valhalla thing, which was really interesting and it has its own thing, but it's like, yeah, it's, it's, it's a non lamb, but it's not that thing. Um, as far as some of the, uh, some of the short things I'm leaning kind of heavy on, um, leaning kind of heavy on the, um, the. 

Capital Chambers, one, uh, that's available in Spark, that's really cool, uh, you know, it's got some nice long ones out there, but like, just like, very, very cool sounding like little rooms and stuff, and then, and then, this is very, very 80s on anything that's long, obvious, and has this like, super bright Um, texture to it. 

I mean, that's Lexicon 224 all day long. Um, so that's, and I, and I guess it's the UAD Spark version of that. So, that's what I'm doing for that. And then, um, 

Sean Walker: Are you and Ryan Kindred Spirits, dude, did you guys like coordinate your reverbs and shit? 

Chris Pou: Oh, oh, Ryan, uh, which, oh, oh, oh, uh, Ryan John. Uh, you know, we've actually only met once. We've 

Sean Walker: like a verb. Sorry. 

Chris Pou: Yeah. No, no, we've talked a good bit. Funny story with Ryan though. Um, uh, we were, uh, uh, he was, he was selling one of his old, um, UAD, um, what's it, maybe, um, X8 or X8P or something like that. And, um, um, actually, uh, some of my guys ended up picking that up from him. 

So it's like, like we've got some, you know, there's small little connections to, to, to, to Ryan jaw there, even though like, yeah, we met briefly, I think in, um, maybe in Nashville. I like the 200th or something like that way 

Sean Walker: Oh, yeah, 

Chris Pou: like a year ago or something. Yeah. 

Sean Walker: Totally. Well, I was just commenting because that's, that's a, you know, I've talked to him a bunch and that's a lot of what he's using as the capital chambers in the, in 

Chris Pou: Yeah. Yeah. Capital. I mean, yeah. So I mean, the, the stuff that you hear the most in mind is like Capital Chambers and 224 and now all that stuff's on Spark and like even using my Mac book off to the side, it's like, you know, I'm basically just kind of counting on the fact that. You know, that's one thing where, uh, on the LV1s, since I'm letting all the dry stuff, like letting the, even though I take so much care with the, with the DiGiCo to manually align it all. 

It's like, well, LV1 does it all in the box as far as the dry stuff is concerned. So on the reverbs, I'm like, well, they're time based anyway. It's adding pre delay. I kind of like some pre delay, uh, with that. So I'm just kind of letting that happen and yeah. But yeah, Capital Chambers, 224s, lots of that stuff stacked around. 

Sean Walker: And is that how you're making, is that what you're saying? How you're making the natural drum sound more like the samples that were done 

Chris Pou: Uh, yeah, well, yeah, so especially in the non land, in the short, in the super short room thing, it's like, you know, um, you know, and I'll kind of feather that in, so I've got, you know, faders on returns for that kind of stuff, and it's, uh, I'll feather it in for, um, based off of the song, song per song stuff, because, you know, some of the stuff sounds, it does sound kind of bone dry, just straight up good sounding drum kit. 

And 

Sean Walker: straight up not tell me? 

Chris Pou: Yep. Yep. Right. You're really right. Uh, I got you. I'll follow you. 

Sean Walker: yeah, yeah. That's funny. 

Andy Leviss: Usually I'm the bad joke guy. 

Sean Walker: Oh, come on, man. Bad jokes all day here, bro. LV 

Andy Leviss: Uh, so, I mean, we talked about the process side and I know I, I had connection issues, so I disappeared from the studio for a minute. Did, did we talk about the hardware side of that at all yet? Like the actual control interface you're using? 

Sean Walker: 1, mostly. 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. Well, I mean, just talking about like the logistics of how your LV 1 kit is actually like physically kitted out. Cause I know if we 

Chris Pou: Oh yeah. 

Andy Leviss: that, there's going to be folks who, who will want to know. 

Chris Pou: Yeah. Yeah. No worries. Um, so yeah, basically I have, so the interesting thing with LV1, I've kind of been around the platform for probably going on, you know, close to about the time when they announced it. And I've, um. I've been kind of playing with it for a while and gone through multiple versions of some kind of a um you know mixing surface offering. 

So now that they're uh, they've gone to the point where they've got the fit controller and you know OCD and I know Circle Three is doing uh you know case options like the whole chassis thing. It's a really really tight little setup so i'm doing like the It's mine is an old OCD ca case that's got the, the little fit controller. 

So I got the 17 faders there, single monitor up top. And then, uh, I'm running, um, in my normal LV one configuration. It's basically, it's that chassis. So it's got the, the machine that's got the host, one of the little, the little half right, um, too, too high space, um, extreme C servers. And now, uh, something that's really been. 

Nice, but it's also something to kind of keep an eye on. So they've expanded like within the past few updates, I guess it was, it came, came in with version 14 or whatever. I think, I think 15, maybe on the cusp a little bit. I am on the, the, the data side of the waves thing. So I know, uh, I don't, I don't know exactly where we are. 

I'm frankly, like, I, I like. Being able to see some of the stuff, but I just don't keep that on a lot of show machines because I'm not going to have that software out there, but, um, it's also, um, um. But they've expanded the ability, and I can use, you can use multiple servers, like intent, like, like work with one another, kind of like you can on, on, on SuperRack, SoundGrid now, uh, and that has become really handy. 

So I've got another, like, little drive rack type situation that has, uh, you know, a little bit of an I O thing that actually goes into my lake, so that's kind of my main front of house processing thing. So the DigiGrid thing, and then I've got a couple more servers in that rack. So I'm using, right now I'm using two servers as part of the thing, like one of the ones, and um, I think I'm, um, doing like one of the ones in the chassis and then another extreme that's in the rack. 

Um, so that's kind of the front of house situation. Right now, I'm still rocking the old, um, Sound Studio, like the SDG boxes. I got a 2412 and a 1608, um, Uh, looking at my, uh, I really kind of want to migrate over to the new Waves Ionic ones at some point in time. It's just a matter of like, you know, everything is so pricey right now. 

Uh, that, but, um, ultimately I kind of, I know, I do want to go in that direction for, um, for IO. But yeah, right now it's just that, so it's, you know, basically like a couple of little, couple little small racks that go on deck. Um, Um, a while back I was able to pick up this little network switch thing that was, um, it's basically the old NETGEAR GS108V3 thing that is, um, someone sort of modded out to put it into like patch cables with a, so it's a single RU, so I got like four EtherCon, uh, regular EtherCon, uh, ports on the front and four on the back. 

So like it kind of stays there and I've got like a nice little patch system and, you know, that's about it. Put the little, put the little Walmart in the deal where I can just like run a regular IEC. So that's kind of, that's kind of nice. Uh, yeah, I mean, you know, it's been rock solid and definitely a lot more, uh, economical than trying to find whatever that, that switch thing is. 

Um, the Luminex thing, which I know is great, but, um, you know. 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. The, the Luminex and the Netgears are, uh, they're great, but they are, you are paying for the privilege. 

Chris Pou: Oh, man. Yeah, yeah. I've got another, uh, I've got another, like, just standard switch thing in that little drive rack that's got a couple extra servers. And, um, you know, it's got another, like, another, uh, and I, I am using the waves of the Axis One, uh, host computer for that, that, um, you know, long as I keep it updated and, you know, not do too many updates. 

What was that? A couple of, uh, A couple of weeks ago, we're like, or a couple, like a month ago or so, we're like blue screen of death, like crippled. I know it crippled our airport here in Atlanta. That was, that was something. Yeah, like that was, that was kind of wild. Uh, and all the Starbucks locations closed too. 

Just a random note, random like notice, like, huh, well, I guess Starbucks and Windows 11 are, are now like, Uh, don't. For a second. 

Sean Walker: Dude, brutal. 

Chris Pou: Yeah. 

Sean Walker: Can, like, can you imagine how much money that is if all the Starbucks in the world closed? 

Chris Pou: Right? 

Sean Walker: How much money that is per second that they're just fricking like lighting on fire? 

Chris Pou: Right, right. 

Sean Walker: Dude, we think we got a problem when our network doesn't work for one show. We're like, aw man, this guy might be five minutes late going on stage to sing about how sad he is. 

All the Starbucks in the world closed. You're like, oh, man. There's billions of dollars a second just lighting on fire 

Chris Pou: Yeah, right, right, 

Sean Walker: like lots, I don't know if it's billions, but lots of, you know what I mean? Way different scale than what we're dealing with. Holy crap. 

Andy Leviss: So like, what, what drove that switch towards it, like, because it seems like for you particularly that it feels like the LV 1 checks a bunch of boxes between giving you that ability to like sculpt the set, the particular sounds you're needing more than other consoles might. But then there's also the portability of it. 

Like did it come from one end or the other, or, or was it like, how, how did you end up landing there? 

Chris Pou: uh, yeah, so, I mean, when I first started working with, uh, working with these guys, like, you know, it was like, uh, you know, um, fortunately, we're, we're running kind of a, a standardized setup where everyone kind of, like, takes the ownership of, like, doing their own self mixing monitors. Uh, on stage. So there, and we're, we're doing like an M32 DL32 type deal with a copper split for that. 

And then, so from my side, it was like, well, it was console to shure to begin with. And then, you know, really the whole driving point on it was like, okay, what can I find that is portable enough to where like, if I, if I have to get it down into something that's not, uh, big rolling racks or anything like that. 

Um, what, uh, what can I. What can I do that's also going to give me high, you know, high quality audio, the option for pretty much any kind of routing scheme I could think of, uh, and, you know, the ability to have a bunch of effects available on board and type things where I can do some of this layering and stuff that I wouldn't necessarily have on like, you know, a lot of like standard, like, you know, walk in, throw and go type situations. 

So that was kind of the driving point behind going with LB1 and, you know, through the early versions of it, it was like finding what are some of the things. That's a really good stable configuration and you know, I know, so getting to work with a couple of, a couple of things with venues and, um, you know, having that little experience with, uh, you know, one offs with show dates with, with people. 

Things that, uh, that involve like whether it's Waves integration or, you know, I mean, obviously, I think one of the big questions that comes with going with LV1 is that it's like, well, that's an entire Waves platform. And we're kind of in a world where there's still a little bit of, I'm not going to say hesitancy, but there are, you know, when people do have the Waves integrations, it's kind of like, it's like, okay, well, you know, is it going to work today or what's the, what's the little thing? 

So I think. My gravitating towards that, like, you know, the reasons being just finding, you know, something small, compact, high quality, and, um, that I can go with for, uh, that's also going to be able to, uh, you know, consistently, you know, give me, uh, the, the, the same result on a day to day basis. So those are the motivators. 

But also thinking about, it's like, well, this is an entire platform that's run off of the Waves ecosystems and SoundGrid. And so that, to me, was really just a matter of, it's like, okay, well, I've got to make sure if I'm going to be deploying this and kind of responsible for the integrity of it, like, what can I do to best educate myself on how can I, um, basically how can I, Make this thing happen and have reasonable confidence that it's going to have enough, you know, a similar level of reliability as to anything else you're gonna find out there. 

Um, so to me, what the, you know, I don't know if there is one given answer, but what I can say, uh, you know, as it relates to how. SoundGrid works, which is the, which is the backing. That's the protocol they use for audio transport. Uh, to me, that's just a matter of actually, it's, it's kind of like a lot of other things, devil's in the details. 

It is looking at the little things and the things that were, you know, I've heard folks say, Oh, waves crash. Like, well, why did it crash? Um, and typically that comes down to, are your cables in spec? Do your, are your switches working at the, at the. at the right level that they're supposed to. Are they the right switches? 

Um, it's always the little things. It's like, very, very seldom have I ever seen, like, a server just have a massive crash. And, and sometimes it is little stuff, like going through early versions of LV1. Like, I think I've, um, when I first started working with Waves Audio, like in their low latency sound grid type deal, like, I think they were on version 7, version 8 or so, you know, we're on 14 of hosts now, I think 15 of instances, um, and, you know, I mean, throughout that time, like, um, obviously with the interface and stuff, there were things Early on that were very, very sensitive. 

Like originally, like the whole graphics thing was something that could potentially like, you know, your server was going to, you know, hang on and keep passing audio, but sometimes the actual graphics properties on things like, you know, it's so, as far as. You know, so those are the motivators, and then the ability to sort of keep it running, uh, and that's just a matter of like, I was just educating myself on making sure that, like, I kind of keep an eye out and watch for, uh, you know, watch for some of this stuff. 

Because, you know, Full disclosure on that, like, this is not a dig on Waves at all, but it's like, but some of the things have, have been a little bit of a move in target. There were cables that were in spec for version 9 or 10 or whatever, that by version 12, those cables weren't in spec anymore because of how the, how all the data was getting crossed, uh, and stuff. 

So that was, it's, um, you know, everything is there, but it, but it's a good reminder, like, you know, keep, keep in mind. To keep yourself kind of refreshed on making sure that you're reading the right specs on, um, um, you know, what the hardware that you need is, like, using the right cables. I mean, cables and switches, that's the big thing, like, outside of that, like, you know, the hardware itself typically does pretty good. 

It's crazy expensive right now, but, but, but, but it, but it does a good job. So, 

Sean Walker: right, as somebody who is new to that ecosystem, I just got the Livebox Dante. I'm kind of stoked 

Chris Pou: yeah, 

Sean Walker: make my little corporate consoles try to rock and roll a little better. What are the cables and switches I need to be using or avoiding or what are the things, what are some of the, share with me your pitfalls and your life's problems so that I can avoid those pitfalls and problems. 

Chris Pou: Yeah. Yeah. So cool thing. Uh, well, so, uh, this is where, so, uh, you know, SoundGrid's a layer two protocol it, uh, and it's, and it's, um, there's, uh, there's upsides and downsides to it. Like, um, so with that, it's just, it's, it's, it's sensitive to what kind of cables and switches. So cabling specifically, obviously that, you know, you're going to want to shield it. 

Um, But the Cat7 and above right now, according to the spec on SoundGrid, like Cat7 or anything that says Cat8 or anything like that, like there, uh, it doesn't, it doesn't like it, it does not like Cat7 or Cat8 cables, so like 5e, 6, 6a, all that stuff is fine, you know, with, you know, if you have a twisted pair or SF or something like that, that should be good, but yeah, Cat7 is, is, is, is kind of a no no with it. 

Um, And as far as switches, basically that's just a matter of sort of keeping a, keeping track on, you know, what switches they say are qualified for it, like, you know, there's, there's a few Netgear ones that are, that are good, a couple of HP ones, uh, really there's, you know, there's a, there's a list of qualified things on their, Bye. 

On their website. Um, I would say to be, you just wanna be very, very specific and get the exact model of it. Because a lot of times, like, I remember this, like one of the first times I tried to do like waves integration on, on a digi was like, I had a switch that said it was qualified with sound grid. But then when I looked at it, like whatever version of sound grid we were on at that point in time, like it didn't like the whole digi code transport. 

So, like, you know, uh, and, and there are indicators, like, they run a little, little graph on it, but what I will say, so you said, um, you mentioned, like, the livebox with the Dante integration, so Layer 3, uh, you know, with Dante being, being a Layer 3 protocol, it's, um, Infinitely more, well, what's the best way to put this? 

Maybe, I mean, it's certainly more, more flexible as far as what you can do. Uh, your clocking has to be a lot more intentional. Just, like, that's one of the nice things about SoundGrid. It's like, it's clocking an ecosystem. It's very, very straightforward and easy to see exactly what's what and, you know, it's harder to, you know, Make mistakes on that, whereas Dante is a little bit more, you know, if it's just a single, single piece of hardware or something like that, usually it's pretty simple, like the device is gonna either be the clock or it needs to see clock from something else, um, but, um, but your hardware ecosystem as far as switching, cabling, it's a lot more early. 

Um, it's, in my experience, it's been a lot more like, like, you've got more options. Like, it's not nearly as picky as the Layer 2 protocols of SoundGrid. So Dante, it's like, you know, you can use a lot of regular standard things that, you know, if I were to say like, Oh, well, can I use this for SoundGrid? Like, nah, maybe, maybe not. 

Check the, check the graph. So, so those are some of the main things looking at that, but you know, the Livebox thing, um, I saw that and I, I guess they're shipping the MADI version of it too, which is, uh, I thought that was pretty cool, because especially considering what it's doing, like how it's getting, uh, like how it's getting channels in and out, like the MADI one to me, it's like, well, you know, MADI is straight up AES 10 point to point stuff over BNC or an optical cable. 

So, you know. Unless you're incorporating this in some big, larger type of a scheme, like having the MADI side is almost like, it's like, yeah, no, that's great. Cause like, you know, that's point to point, like not going to mess that up. So, 

Sean Walker: Totally. And it's cool that it's got the computer built into it so you don't have to have like extra stuff which is pretty 

Chris Pou: oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. And it can run, and that one runs off of, um, uh, what? Super Rec Performer, I guess that's, that's the host on it. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I love using that for like, right now I'm just using it for some kind of little, you know, Play things with the reverbs over there, but, you know, having any VST3, that's pretty, pretty slick. 

Uh, what's, yeah, um, 

Sean Walker: All right, so we've gone to reverbs. 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah, 

Sean Walker: What's up with the channel strips, bro? Are you rockin the classic 80s channel strips, or just rockin SSL, or what are you doing on your desk? 

Chris Pou: Okay, yeah, so, so, uh, core, core version of pretty much every channel strip is the, um, uh, uh, CLA mixup, so that's SSL, you know, SSL, uh, yeah, and then I like, the thing I like about that one, so on, um, on, uh, it has the same, um, insert feature functionality as, as they started out with the Shep's Enemy channel, so you could put in any other, um, Um, instance you want in that. 

So in addition to that, like it's, um, 

Sean Walker: insert your Poultek 

Chris Pou: yeah, you can insert, insert your, your, yeah, your Pultec or like I'm doing, uh, on most of the drum stuff, I'm doing, um, the shop 73, so 1073 EQ, and just using the EQ side of it just to basically, and that's the one it's like, you know, I'll use the SSL EQ for any kind of corrective type thing, which fortunately, um, I'm, um, fortunate to be able to use a lot of, like, I've got a lot of my own really good microphones. 

It's, you know, 40 55 in the kicks, you know, Loudon snare mic on the top, 2011Cs on snare bottom, HiHat, 49 9s across toms, Off Street and OC 18s over the top. So 

Sean Walker: my god, now you're flirting. Jesus. 

Chris Pou: yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a way to put, like, uh, yeah, just so many, um, There's a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, uh, investment in that stuff for sure, uh, but it's, yeah, it's, um, but so, but my corrective side, oh yeah, yeah, but the corrective side is like, you know, maybe it's a little like, you know, a little notch here or there, but, uh, but then I can take the, uh, the 1073s and take those knobs and turn them to the right and, you know, EQ and like, Pop drums, basically. 

And then, um, you know, the other thing, it's like, yeah, since I sort of keep that channel strip as a baseline deal, it's like, you know, now you've got flavor options going down the, um, going down the list. So, like, for bass and guitars and stuff, and, you know, instead of putting a 1073, it's like, I'll use one of the APIs, like API 550As and stuff, and, you know, kind of go with the same type deal. 

Um, You know, going to vocals and doing like, one of the things I really like about that mixhub one, is that you can do the switch on it, and um, it's got the switch on the compressor setting, where it's like, once the default is just like a regular SSL channel strip compressor, or you, you click something on it, and it becomes the, it takes the old um, Uh, Bluey Algorithm, and so it's now, it's now you can have a, a Blue Stripe like that's modeled after their, their whole deal with the, with the CLA 76 Blue Stripe. 

Sean Walker: Totally. Which is pretty sweet. 

Chris Pou: Yeah, yeah, 

Sean Walker: Are you using that on vocals and snares and other things, or not really? 

Chris Pou: yeah, uh, yeah, vocals, snares, uh, and kind of to taste a little bit on snare bottom, I, I do tend to like drive into reverbs harder on snare bottom for sure. And then obviously, like, if I, that's kind of a little bit of a thing where I'll kind of go back and forth. Like a lot of what I've kind of done in the past was always sort of like keep that, like, you know, like go really heavy compression on top and then the bottom, like kind of let that be. 

But since I'm driving into more reverbs, it's like, well, if I. You know, use a Bluey and kind of crush that a little bit and it, and it sort of like, you know, it does something with the, you know, there's not, I'm not looking for like super transient information off the bottom anyway, but you can like, you know, stretch that and really, really drive into that reverb nice with that and kind of, you know, it was definitely a big 90s thing for sure, but like listening on to the, on any 80s stuff, it's like, Oh yeah, no, there's, there's a, there's a lot of that going on. 

Sean Walker: No, totally, dude. That's awesome. What else is, what else is uh, in your show file that you're like, oh dude, this is dope, I'm so thankful to be on this platform because of? 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah. So, um, routing, uh, so with all that routing flexibility, so I'm taking channel strips, I'm doing kind of a standard, like, you know, group processing thing where everything's going to groups, you know, obviously, um, you know, pretty much everything has a wet dry, um, parallel option now, but I'm still kind of of the mindset, it's like, well, if it comes to a true parallel path or anything like that, like, I'm really gonna, um, you know, I like, um, Seeing, metering on two groups side by side of like a dry smash type thing, um, and, uh, you know, API stuff on all the, uh, the drum close mic stuff, uh, Fairchild on like anything over the top or anything, that's kind of nice little very new type deal there, um. 

Let's see, on some of the instrument paths, like bass guitar, guitars, keyboards, stuff like that, like, um, you know, I've kind of, that's, I experiment with that a little bit back and forth, like, I'll, um, I've been kind of liking some of the, some of the stock little, uh, CLA, uh, things, like, there's a lot going on under the hood for, like, very, very simple controls, but it's a matter of, like, I just kind of, it's like, I don't want to get Do too much with it, because like, you can do a lot with just a very, very little twist on that, but, um, those are cool, um, uh, tell you one thing on vocals that has, has been, um, kind of a crazy magic button, even more, more so than like PSE or, uh, 5045s, or in the analog rack, I actually have a 500 version of a, um, um, 5045, the little 545 thing, um, But even more so than that is really, um, uh, trying to get a really well defined instance of that silk focal thing. 

I think that was Wave's answer to, uh, the, uh, what was the other thing by Oak? To, uh, Soothe, maybe? I think they put them, uh, they put that on the annas and yeah, um, 

Sean Walker: It's like cheating, bro. 

Chris Pou: yeah, it really is. I'm just like, 

Sean Walker: And sign me up, I 

Chris Pou: Like, I, I don't have to, like, I use all this other dynamic EQ. Now you can, I mean, the experimentation with it, it's like you can go too far with it and you can start hearing all the artifacting and stuff like that. 

But if you get it like to that, that fine point where it's just, it's really just being very intentional. It's like, you know, whatever. It's, it's like the AI for dynamic cues, it's crazy, like, and if you can tolerate the latent path that it's going to instantiate, like, obviously that's one of those that has the, um, it has the regular, like, in the box, Session instance for it. 

And it's got the live version. So that's the one where it's like, yep, don't accidentally instantiate the session one, because you're going to get all the samples and, and, and, you know, talk 

Sean Walker: does it use? All the samples. Yeah, all of them. 

Chris Pou: them, all of them. Yeah. Everything from, from, from, from here to Australia. Got it. Uh, yeah. Um, but that thing is, um, 

Sean Walker: And is that, is that the finisher for your vocal chain? You're kind of 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah. 

Sean Walker: compression, 50 45, whatever else you're going to do to it, and then top it off, a little topper? 

Chris Pou: Top it off with, yeah, Silk Vocals. I put the Silk Vocal thing on the group. So basically just channel strip stuff. Uh, so usually, whatever. So the LV1, it's PSE into, uh, into like, yeah, I mean, you know, uh, Uh, mix, hub, channel, strip thing going into, and then from that, going into the groups, uh, groups have pretty much a silk vocal on it. 

And that's, that's about it. Like, you know, because that thing has, it also has like, and this is something I've found, I remember, um, pooch talking about it at one point, and it really makes sense, like listening to these things. It's like if you look at some of the, like even on these like new-ish plugins, like there's a lot of old code. 

that exist in these things. Like, um, so even that SilkVocal thing, it has, um, like it has this little, it's single threshold, like auto makeup, um, thing. I'm like, Oh, well, like if I were to take that function of that and then compare it to like whatever the old, um, Like the RBOX or something, it pretty much works the exact same way. 

Sean Walker: I mean, isn't it, isn't it the same thing? Like they 

Chris Pou: yeah. Oh, oh, and is that, it's absolutely the same thing. Yeah. 

Sean Walker: till they just, oh hey man, we got this inventory and that inventory, make a new sandwich out of this thing. 

Chris Pou: Yes, exactly. Yeah. No, it's totally, totally what's going on there. Uh, but it's like, but that stuff sounded, sounded really good. So yeah, no, it's like, it's got that and it's got the same little like expander feature if you need it. Uh, you know, fortunately using PSEs and stuff, I don't really need that very much on those, on those groups. 

So, um, but yeah. 

Sean Walker: so you've got PSEs and waves, and you also carry a 50 Talk to me about that. 

Chris Pou: Okay, so I mean, so really, so really the PSEs are on the LV one. So, so the 5 45 is something on the, um, I'm really only only gonna use on the, on the, the digi, like the, like the, the analog, the hybrid rack that I've got going on there. So the thing I like about, so there's things I like a lot about both. 

Versions of these things. So I've just got the 545. It's not the full rack space that's got all the five different time constants on the release and all that stuff, but it's got the, um, um, uh, the thing that the hardware has that the software does not. I think it's, it's that, it's that RMS versus speak. 

Switch that button on it, which, uh, in my case, like really the way I'm using the hardware is I'm actually, so I'm using that on my, um, uh, my lead vocalist, and nice to be able to have that button because in his case, it's more of the case that I don't. Fully need the, um, so much of the game reduction. 

But the fact that I can flip that button and it be, and it have that additional, that, that additional functionality over the attack time on it, it's, it's basically magic button. I say, I don't need all that game reduction because he's loud. He is. It is. It's like it doesn't matter if the stage is dead quiet. 

Which, yeah, I mean, our stage is pretty much, except for a snare drum and some cymbal trash, it's like, our stage is dead quiet. No cabs on deck. And, um, but, and with him as a loud vocalist, it's like, well that 545 is basically just a magic button at this point. And I don't have to reduce it much, it's like, it's coming down like maybe 5 6 dB or so. 

And, 

Sean Walker: So to recap, when you're on LV 1, you're not using the 545. 

Chris Pou: when I'm on LB1, it's, yeah, it's PSE. But, but, yeah, and on the LE 1, it's like, the thing that I like about that is that, you know, now you can get super granular with the, um, with the sidechain key filter stuff on it. Like, you can go in and really find, like, you know, wherever a primary resonant octave is in someone's voice or something like that, and then, you know, you do have the, uh, the three selectable, um, what is it, the release times, or so, like, fast, or, Fast, medium, slow type thing. 

I mean, they all sound pretty natural, but, um, yeah, like having that little key filter is kind of nice. And even with PSE, it's like, fortunately, since I've got a, um, very, very loud lead singer and even the, uh, guys that are doing backing vocals are getting a lot, uh, I've noticed, like, is their progression as a band is like, they've gotten a lot, like that whole situation has gotten a lot stronger over the years. 

And I've got some folks that are really, you know, putting out the power right now. 

Sean Walker: Bro. How blessed are you to have a quiet stage of talented musicians and loud ass singers? You're like, you're like a unicorn dog. Everybody else has got like quiet singers with loud stages. 

Chris Pou: so, so when it, so when it sounds like ass, like, I'm just like, what, it's, it's, 

Sean Walker: Oh, it's your fault, bro. 

Chris Pou: it's 

Sean Walker: that's all 

Chris Pou: fault. I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, what, what am I doing here? 

Sean Walker: they're hung over and not doing their job today, still your problem. Like 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah, no, 

Andy Leviss: he is the PM too, it technically is. 

Sean Walker: Yeah, right. 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't totally on me for that. Yeah. Or crazy sounding rooms. 

Cause you know, doing lots of corporate events and stuff. And you know, there's some really, the main thing that I run into, interestingly with, uh, with all the, with things where I'm just like, I just can't. Get things where I want it. It's, it's usually in environments where like, I've got to get things so low because it's, you know, it's a mixer or anything like that, but basically low enough to the point where it's like, I'm not even getting over the threshold of the, of the acoustic drums. 

And the drummer is not basher of a person. He's not a caveman back there just whacking cymbals as hard as he can or anything, it's like, he's got, he's a very demure, like very like dynamic player, play to the room type guy. And, you know, yeah, it's, if I can't get. If I can't even get the, the threshold of the PA just barely over that, it's like, it's like, well, you know, we're going to kind of be, it's like, you know, we're going to hear vocals and then there'll, there'll be some music back in there somewhere. 

But fortunately, most of the time we set ourselves up to be, uh, a really, um, positive, uh, sound reinforcement situation. So. You know, 

Sean Walker: That's awesome. And you're mostly doing corporates and privates with that? 

Chris Pou: uh, corporates, privates, uh, you know, there's some venue stuff, uh, for sure, like, um, you know, um, the nice, the nice thing is that when, when we can actually, and these have, uh, been a little bit more frequent, which I'm happy, happy for too, is that we've been able to do some of the private events and things like that in venues, so they're purpose built for this kind of thing, you know, it may be a little bit more of a Louder environment than some of the, some of your standard corporate folks that would go to a ballroom or used to, or something like that. 

But it's like, but the whole, but the place is purpose built for it. It's like, you're supposed to go there for a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a rock and show. So 

Sean Walker: Totally. Man, it's so funny that, like, the corporate thing changes so much where there's sometimes you're in a ballroom and they're like, man, this band has to be, you know, Quieter than a jukebox, and there's other times when they just want to rage, and you're like, holy moly, dude, we had one, it was like Miami Vice themed last week, and they wanted to rage, and so we did, we just stacked up a bunch of subs and, you know, made it look like an 80s nightclub and just raged, and they were stoked, and there's other ones that are like, oh man, those are so big and so, so loud, can you hide those behind the flowers? 

And you're like, son of a bitch! 

Chris Pou: Yeah. Yeah. 

Andy Leviss: It's like we can't talk over the music, it's like, guys, you hired Smash Mouth, come on! 

Sean Walker: dude, totally. 

Andy Leviss: right there in the name! 

Sean Walker: Yeah, you got an A list artist at fricking whisper level. Like, come on, dawg. 

Chris Pou: Yeah. Um, yeah. I'll tell you a, um, one of the, so when we, when we are doing a lot of corporates and privates and, you know, we're sort of doing our own thing and bringing in PA and stuff. Fortunately, we've got access to, uh, I was actually just moving some stuff around this morning because I was moving a couple of these things. 

So we've got access to, and we use a, uh, a little DNB PA. It's that, um, Uh, Y series, like the point source stuff, so it's just Y10Ps over a couple Y subs per side, all the, everything powered off of one D20. It's lovely for a power type thing, uh, and, um, I remember Uh, this whole thing still gets a lot of, um, you know, I still see it pop up every now and then. 

I think on DMV's Facebook page or something, like, we did a thing a couple years ago, and we were out on, uh, so there's the beach on Marco Island, Florida, and it's a Big Beats. It's behind, like, one of the big Marriott things there. Very, very large area, and I was like, uh, looked at the area, and I was like, okay, well, I got this little, it looks tiny, you know, stacked everything up, like, subs on deck of a Soundwing, of an SL 100, you know, just basically took the tops up as high as I could get them, and it's like, well, I could totally be doing this show with a, um, you know, eight, ten bucks a side. 

You know, uh, you know, Y's or V's or something like that, and it would be perfectly adequate, but it's like, well, this is what, this is what I got. So let's, let's see what we can do. But I mean, that's a testament to like, I went back and looked at one of those videos a couple of days ago. I'm like, my God, like that little box is. 

So impressive, like, you 

Sean Walker: Sweet, dude. 

Chris Pou: I'm glad that, I mean, like, like DMV's product is lovely, uh, you know, since, I mean, Meijer went into that whole thing with the X, what, X40 or something like, you know, those are the fact that people are really taking advantage of that little dipole point source thing. It's like, you can get a lot of, a lot of sound, a lot of power. 

Uh, in a, in a very, very good sounding stuff by just using, you know, I don't know, speaker, speaker, speaker, speaker technology is just amazing these days. 

Sean Walker: Totally. Dude, how cool. Mixing on a beach, just reaching Rage Cage and 80s music. What 

Chris Pou: Just, yeah, it's like, you know, I mean, and no one's like, you know, it's going to be like, you know, I'm not saying it's like shaking your pants legs or anything like that, but I'm walking out there, I'm like, oh shit. It's like, yeah. Um, I mean, this is, this is show level. We're good 

Sean Walker: all there, right? Like, it's all there. We're just having a good time. Nobody's, nobody's asking for a refund. 

Chris Pou: Yeah. Yeah. 

Sean Walker: Dude, that's sweet. 

Chris Pou: Cool. 

Sean Walker: what are some other memorable gigs you guys got hired for where you were like, Dude, how cool is this? 

Chris Pou: Right. Right. All right. Uh, okay. So, um, got one that's cool and also has kind of a crazy little turnaround story. Uh, so we've, uh, I think it was maybe getting on like a year and a half ago or so. So we, we were on kind of a run of shows that was ultimately going to take us to, we were doing like a little back to back thing and, um, at the four seasons and, Kona, Hawaii. 

And so we were doing a corporate for a, you know, a private event type thing where they were doing like, I think the band was doing like background singers and stuff for the award ceremony and then we had to immediately pop over and do, Uh, like the, the after party type deal. So doing multiple sets and it's like, you know, it's usually it's myself and management, it's like, we're, we're kind of handling all the events. 

Like we basically, the only thing about doing fly dates with this band is that like, you know, I mean, we're, uh, just for the sake of everything, consistency, keeping everything there, it's not complicated, it's not overly complicated gear when it comes to the production side, but like, you know, I mean, I, you know, it's, it's 80s stuff. 

So it's like the keyboards, it has to be. Right. It's got to be the right type stuff. And anyway, um, we were doing this thing. So that was, it was cool. The whole getting there thing. This was also during the time. Maybe this was like two years ago, because this was right around the time. It's like, you know, things were kind of lightening up a little bit. 

Like you could, you could actually, you know, like, yeah. Flights and like events were starting to happen again after COVID. And, um, you know, we could do these kinds of things and, but all of those little, um, all those little like hopper flights for like, you know, the non segment stuff, you know, it's like you're flying from like Atlanta to. 

Cincinnati or something like, like all that stuff is just falling off the, it's just falling off because, because they don't have crews for it. Like everybody's like, you know, like, like the airlines are just like completely over saturated with, with stuff and, and the crews are on mandated rest and all the regulations. 

So we were at, we were doing a thing at middle of nowhere, no service, Lincoln, I think Lincoln City, Indiana or something. Um, we leave that show And rental cars, getting ready to go to the airport to fly, like we were going to fly to Atlanta and then take Atlanta to Seattle, Seattle to Hawaii. That was going to be our thing. 

I was like, well, sometime during that gig, our flight to Atlanta got canceled. So we're sitting here in these two like rental cars or whatever, and I'm like, okay, this is interesting. Um, We figured that out and we're like, we can't not show up to this really, I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's a corporate client doing an event at the Four Seasons there. 

It's not like they're just, it's 

Sean Walker: You can't miss this paycheck, 

Chris Pou: yeah, no, no, no, they're there. We absolutely have to get there. So it's like, yeah, so I think we called the rental car company and it's like, you know, we're in Indiana. I think we may have been supposed to fly out of Louisville or something like that. And when we call the rental car company, they're like, Oh, uh, no, you have to bring our rental cars back. 

And it's like, uh, send us a bill. Cause we drove, we drove from wherever we were there in the great big metropolis of Lincoln City, Indiana. Sorry for anybody listening that's a huge fan. Um, and, uh, To, we, we drove to Atlanta so that way we could get our connection flight to actually make it out. Cause like, cause the segments were still fine. 

Like, you know, we can do Atlanta, Seattle or Atlanta, LA, like you do all that all day long. But yeah, all those, all those other little flights were just falling off. Um, so getting there was, you know, we, we, we just drove overnight and did that. So that was, It was something, as far as, 

Sean Walker: Dude, Kona's 

Chris Pou: any, yeah, oh 

Sean Walker: Was the gig in Kona awesome? 

Chris Pou: yeah, yeah, great, great people out there, uh, it's, I mean, it's, you know, it's just on the island, so, you know, whatever you're getting is getting, uh, it's either there or, I think they were doing another, um, the guys over, it's, uh, I think it's Rayma out there, they were, I mean, just fantastic, um, and they were doing another show, um, with, um, maybe, you know, Katy Perry or something out there at the same time, like on the other side of the island, they were like Konachella or something. 

It was, it was, it was, it had a weird name. But, uh, um, yeah, it was, um, yeah, great, um, great little, um, thing there. Just, just really cool to sort of see that. Um, And, um, you know, I've had some interesting ones. There's, um, you know, there's one that we've gotten to do for, you know, pretty consistently over the last couple of years. 

It's, it's like, um, uh, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's kind of a standard corporate type thing, but just like being involved with the whole thing is like the little burns, um, Burns Wine Fest grand tasting thing down in Tampa. Like they have crazy, really cool, like samples of stuff, uh, down there. And that's always a really nice little experience. 

Um, I'm trying to think if there's any other things, the Hawaii thing stands out mainly because of the craziness of, of getting there and then getting back. Well, it's just wild. 

Sean Walker: Yeah, well, we're pretty much not gonna list to any complaints from you ever again. Gigs in Kona and wine tasting and it's hor you know, blasting 80s music. You're you gotta you're blessed, man. You gotta 

Chris Pou: Right, right, yup, yup, yup, I have no, I have, I have no, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's nothing I can complain about at all. So, so, I try to remind myself of that. 

Sean Walker: Dude, how rad. And and they must be working enough that it's keeping I mean, that's your whole gig, right? It's just working for those guys? 

Chris Pou: Uh, pretty much, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, we're doing, uh, you know, lots of stuff, and I mean, at this point, it's like, you know, it's the travel and the travel days and stuff, like, you know, they're to the point where it's like, yeah, it's a full, it's very much full time job, for sure, um, and then also, like, you know, uh, management and, you know, I'm in on the production advances and stuff, you know, we got plenty of, we always do plenty of prep work and all, all those kind of things, so. 

Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's doing good. And, you know, I mean, yeah, I pick up a couple of little things here or there, but it's, um, you know, for the most part, um, yeah, I'm happy to be, um, happy to be doing this. It's a lot of fun. Um, you know, um, it is interesting out there. It's like, you know, um, Um, you know, still get to interact with and see some of the other, like, local crews, like, and for the most part, like, you know, we have really, really good positive experiences. 

I think, Andy, maybe, uh, when, um, you know, because I was up around the Long Island area not too terribly long ago, and, uh, yeah, it was really, really great crew out there on, um, whatever theater that was. But, you know, that's another nice thing, yeah, between those little performing arts centers here or there. 

Um. I like it. Definitely. Definitely. And I got the passion for it. So. 

Sean Walker: Dude, how rad. Well, we're, we're coming up on an hour here, and I know you got a hard, hard cut off, like, an hour ago. 

Andy Leviss: Well, we should ask, because I've gotten scolded for not asking about restaurants enough lately. So, you're based out of Atlanta, before we wrap up, Chris. We're coming to Atlanta, where are we going to eat? 

Sean Walker: some place that says peach tree in it. What do you mean, where are we going 

Chris Pou: right, right? um, nope. Uh, simple, simple answer. Atlanta restaurants, Marcel. Absolutely, uh, Ford, Ford, Ford Fry Place, that is, uh, by far, hands down, my favorite. Um, and, yeah, it's, I mean, food coma, but, uh, yeah, uh, for every now and 

Sean Walker: have a long layover, come hang out with you at Marcell. Got it. Copy that. 

Chris Pou: yes, indeed. 

Sean Walker: Alright, sweet. 

Chris Pou: Alright. 

Sean Walker: Well, thanks for hanging out and nerding about reverbs and consoles and stuff, and what a freaking cool gig you got, man. That's awesome. 

Chris Pou: No, thank you guys so much for having me. Glad we could, glad we could carve out some time here. 

Sean Walker: Yeah, dude. Thanks Andy for hanging, thanks Chris for hanging, thank you to Allen and Heath and RCF for letting us freaking yap about nerd shit. And that's the pod, y'all. 

Chris Pou: Awesome, guys.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green