I must say, it was challenging, but hey, if it was not for challenges, I would be really bored. And speaking of board, I mixed on a EAW UMX 96 digital console. As you know, I am not a digi board fan but that did not stop me from having go and it hurt my brain like driving the wrong side of the road but I made it through and there was even a few things I liked. Shhhh!

One of those things was the ultra convenient and useful .....

I can not stress enough how important it is to use this control with the utmost of care. If you want to know a bit more, take a look here:

http://mixonline.com/video/mixtv/dave-rat-eaw/

Helping me navigate the my way around the board and to whom I owe a tremendous thank you, please meet Ferrit (he also does a blog) on the left. On the right is the legendary sound engineer Robert Scovill.

Oh, and check out the new EAW MicroWedge! I got to hear the near final version with a few new updates implemented. It is almost done! I feel like a little kid all excited over speaker.

It seems the trend toward "small" is really catching on and the miniaturization trend is pushing the envelope. And though the MicroWedge's are small, they are not near small enough for some applications. And as you can see below, clearly there is a valid demand for development of the PicoWedge...

With no sign of in ear monitors, clearly these musicians are having a difficult time hearing and are in dire need of some PicoWedge's

But we can't work all the time so I went for a visit to see a Ben Harper show, another amazing artist that is not only talented but super cool and surrounds himself with more of the same.

OK, and now I must head off to my new found soul centering passion, surfing, hurray!

Oh, and if you want to join me for a surf, here is a web cam of where I go every morning from 7 to 9 am http://web.venturacountystar.com/webcam/ . I am usually just far of in front of the parking lot. Coming up next blog will be some pics of my super cool surf pals.

Dave Rat