A lovely little surprise
Last night I dropped in at a Almost-Christmas party held by a local singer-songwriter. I didn’t notice in the invitation that this was to be a house concert.
When I arrived the singer-songwriter-hostess asked if I had my guitar. I did but only because I had two other events on my agenda tonight. She asked me to open for her. I agreed and mentally went over the inventory of gear I had in the car. I had my L1® Compact and T1® and various other bits and pieces. Sure, I could make this work.
When she led me to the stage area I was delighted to find a Compact and a packed room. I plugged in my guitar and she introduced me. The rowdy room fell silent. The next 45 minutes were perfect.
L1® Model II Preventative Care
Audiopile.net cables for the L1® Family – Review
Audiopile.net is a familiar name in the L1® Community. They are noted in the Bose FAQs as the source for longer cables for the B1 Bass Modules. You can read about how Mark Hellinger there worked with Hilmar-at-Bose and Bill-at-Bose to diagnose an issue with long cable runs with the B1s. Sound Drop Outs at High Volume
In five years of linking to their website, I had never heard anything but positive comments from people who had followed the link. Recently someone mentioned that he wasn’t getting a response to emails. I was curious about this and I called Audiopile to see what was happening. They got that straightened out that same day. See: NL4 cables in Australia
Since I was talking to them anyway I got to know Mark and Liz Hellinger a little better and shortly after that they put together a page on their website specifically for Bose L1® owners. This just makes it easy to find everything that they’ve got that we might need all in one place. Here is the link: Audiopile page for L1® Owners
The Needs / Solutions
T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine – needs
Short Microphone Cables
When I got my T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine I immediately found that all my microphone cables were too long. I mount my T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine on the microphone stand using the T1 Microphone Stand Bracket so the longest microphone cable I would need in that application was two to three feet. I ended up spending hours cutting cables and soldering. No fun.
Short Instrument Cables
I also needed shorter cables to run from the T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine down to the floor to connect to various processors and a PorchBoard. Six feet seemed ideal. I cut up a couple of cables I had lying around and I was all set.
T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine – solutions
Short microphone and instrument cables are standard fare at Audiopile. So that part was easy.
Three foot microphone cable
Six foot instrument cable
L1® Compact – Needs
When I got my L1® Compact I was really torn. I liked how portable and simple it was, but I also struggled with how noisy it was to make connections to my instruments and microphones. It just seemed like a lot of running back and forth to the Compact Power Stand to turn down the volume to attach instruments, switch microphones or just move around without accidentally aiming the microphone at the Compact Speaker Array (with attendant feedback). This has not been an issue with the L1® Classic / L1® Model I because I had the R1 Remote or L1® Model II with the T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine
With the L1® Compact I decided to use my T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine most of the time if only to have the control over when the instrument and microphone would be live.
L1® Compact – Solutions
For the L1® Compact they have instrument cables with silent switches built into the connectors. There is no connection until the jack plug is fully inserted into your instrument. The silver coloured sleeve near the body of the connector is the part that activates the switch inside. It slides into the body when you insert it into your instrument.
They also have microphone cables with switches at the microphone end. You turn the red ring to control ON/OFF
Put an instrument cable and a microphone cable (both with switches at the performer’s end of things) and you can plug in to the Compact silently, turn up the volumes and still make no sound until you want to.
For connecting a T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine to a Compact, I have used unbalanced instrument cables simply because that is what I had lying around. I have wanted to get some balanced ¼ inch jack {{trs} connector cables for longer runs and for daisy-chaining Compacts.
I got a couple of thirty foot ¼ inch jack tip-ring-sleeve balanced cables. In the past I have used an old guitar wireless rig to do remote connections to the L1® Compact but that’s a lot of work if you only need to extend your reach by twenty or thirty feet.
For running stereo from a T1® I wanted at a couple 20-30 foot Tip-Ring-Sleeve cables.
Ideally, for this setup you would use balanced Tip-Ring-Sleeve cables from the T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine to the L1® Compacts (or L1® Model IIs if you were using those.
PackLite – needs
I have always wished that the cable that comes with the PackLite was five feet long so that I could put the PackLite on top of a stack of four B1s.
PackLite – Solutions
I got a five foot ¼ inch jack Tip-Ring-Sleeve balanced cable. Easy.
B1 – Needs
Occasionally I need to get creative with the placement for my B1s. This means longer cables and occasionally pushing the B1s up against a wall.
B1 – Solutions
Here are some photos of the back end of a B1 with the right angle NL4FRX connections available from Audiopile. They made a custom cable for me with two right angle connectors, seven feet long. This seemed an ideal length given the recommendation from Chris-at-Bose to put the B1 right against a wall or at least seven feet out. See B1 Bass Module Positioning
Right angle connector on top, standard B1 below shown together for comparison.
Here is the difference it makes in terms of clearance from the wall.
Stock B1 Cable
Right Angle Cable
The Review
When Audiopile put up that page for Bose L1® owners I was really pleased that they were willing to cater to our specific needs. They have included descriptions of how you would use each of the items on that page.
All the options are set with defaults that make sense for an L1® owner. For example: the default settings for the cables with switches for the Compact are fifteen feet. That seems plenty for a typical setup with a Compact.
I ordered everything on that page. I have applications for all of those cables and I wanted to see how they would work out. I got multiples of several items because I do Festival Sound and often have multiple L1®s and T1®s on stage. Unfortunately they don’t have the etherCON accessories (for extending the T1® Power Supply) but I’ll get those soon.
Everything arrived promptly and well packed. They made the process painless. If you ever need to contact them they have a note on their web page:
- To contact us about this page by email please use this link audiopile@audiopile.net and start the subject with BOSE
All the connectors on the cables with switches are Neutrik. My experience with Neutrik conectors has been good. I have used Neutrik connectors on all the cables I have made for my own use although I made these before the noiseless switched cables were available. The balanced Tip-Ring-Sleeve cables have some other connectors. You can read a description of those at: Audiopile IP-101
The physical cable for the microphones and instruments is flexible and lightweight. I have some 15 year old Monster cables that are still fine, but I never use them for live applications anymore. They are very thick and heavy. Over time I have come to prefer lighter, thinner cables that travel better. The cable that Audiopile is using is of that lighter, thinner type. Other than that, I’ll have to report on the durability issue in a few years. For now the cables from Audiopile look and sound good to me. Based on Audiopile’s reputation and history with the L1® Community I am looking forward to relying on them for years to come.
I am very pleased with the cables that have integrated switches (both ¼ inch jack cables and the microphone cables). In my initial testing, these are completely silent as they connect and disconnect. That’s exactly what I need when working at a distance from the Compact Power Stand. I have already bundled together an instrument and microphone cable. Now I have a quick and easy setup for when I don’t want to bring my T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine.
I got several of the silent connect instrument cables specifically for when I do live sound for others. This means that I won’t have to look at both ends of the cable when making connections. I’m referring to running back to the T1® to make sure that channels are muted before making connections. I also got several of the switched microphone cables for those situations where I have microphones that are at distance from the T1®. Again, this is primarily for my live sound (for others) situations.
Overall, I am excited to a single source for all of these solutions. I will be culling out my older, heavier cables and over time. I have all of the cables that I regularly strapped to my microphone stands, but some of those are too long, too old, or just plain ugly. I’ll make a project of wiring these with the new cables. When I get that done I’ll probably add some pictures. But for right now, things sound good, look good, and I’m looking forward to the next gig.
Originally published: Audiopile Cables for the L1® Family of Products Review
Comments: Cables for the L1® – Audiopile.net has a web page just for us (Bose Forum)
Happy Thanksgiving Day
Happy Thanksgiving!
Have a wonderful time with family and friends doing what is most important to you on this special weekend.
I’m thankful for a life full of live music. I still say that the worst night of music is better than the best day of work. Now I’m thankful that the worst nights of music are long behind me.
I am thankful that all of the people with whom I perform regularly have their own L1®. It is so nice to know that at least in this way I am playing with like-minded folks. 
PorchBoard SlapBass – first time out
I took the SlapBass out last night to see how others would relate to it.
First, I showed it to a friend who plays guitar and sings. I plugged it into an L1® Classic and tapped on it just to show her what it did. In that relatively empty, resonant space I wasn’t particularly taken with the sound of it.
Then I handed it to her. She handed it back after about a minute. It didn’t really engage her as a player.
I asked her to play her guitar and sing and I accompanied her with the SlapBass just adding some light rhythm. Anyone who knows my history with rhythm knows how odd that would be.
"Okay", she said, "that’s better. It’s better when there is something else going on at the same time."
A little later we were at an open microphone event. I plugged in the SlapBass and handed it to one of the regulars. She plays washboard and I thought that she might enjoy the SlapBass. It was interesting to watch as she tried the SlapBass in various ways: holding it like a guitar, then more like a Chapman Stick (vertically), and then finally, across her lap. That’s how she plays her washboard; across her lap.
Hearing the SlapBass in the context of a larger ensemble, it sounded good. On stage at that moment were a drums, two guitars, two vocalists, bass, and added to all of that, the SlapBass. It had a different voice.
It was interesting to see how quickly the person playing it found a way to make it a meaningful part of the overall sound. That is, she learned it very quickly.
Please Don’t Help – or – Please don’t change my sound while I’m playing
Tonight I was out at an open microphone event. I was there mainly because I had my new PorchBoard SlapBass and I wanted to see how people took to it. I’ll write about that in another post.
For a multitude of reasons (my car is in the shop and my Compact is in the trunk), I found myself on stage without an L1®. I hadn’t really planned on doing much if any playing tonight but I had my guitar with me and there I was.
It was your basic speakers on sticks deal and I was okay with that. One of the speakers was high and slightly behind me. I could hear myself okay. I was playing my acoustic guitar with an external Pick-Up-The-World Power Plug Preamp with volume control. This preamp just plugs directly into the end-pin. Given the circumstances I was doing okay.
Half-way through my second song my guitar starts vibrating something awful. I’ve got low-end howling and the E and A strings are vibrating all on their own.
I turned down the volume on the guitar preamp and things settled down for a few bars and then it started again. Okay, so I looked around and there is someone over at the board turning dials and moving faders. I’m in the middle of a song and the guitar is running away with low-end feedback.
Between verses I call out to the guy at the board, "What are you doing?". "Nothing. Just helping", he says.
"Please don’t help!", I say as I’m trying to keep the guitar part going while muting all the open strings as best I can. He puts his arms in the air as though I had said, "Stick ‘em up", and then he walks away.
I have a little more room left on the volume control to turn down again and things settle a bit.
The whole episode felt like something out of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, "The Windblown Hare" and specifically this passage.
quote:
Pursued down the basement steps of Grandma’s house, Bugs turns off the light switch downstairs, forcing the Wolf to go back to the upstairs switch to restore the light rather than risk Bugs’s counterattack. After this procedure is repeated, Bugs tricks the Wolf by saying “click” instead of actually turning off the light, prompting the Wolf to automatically turn the upstairs light off and continue down the stairs, allowing Bugs to knock him out with a baseball bat.
–∈∞ΘΞ Please click the picture for more details ΞΘ∞∋–
Later, I had a friendly chat with that fellow. He’s a regular at this event and I didn’t want to leave things the way we had on stage.
It turns out – he thought that I needed more guitar in the monitors. I don’t know why he would think that. He wasn’t on the stage so he couldn’t hear the monitor mix. He had a solution in search of a problem I guess.
The monitors had been moved around with people going back and forth. The one he was adjusting was behind me out of sight. It was pointed at the back of my guitar. In his well-meaning attempts to help, he was turning up the monitor and my guitar was going into low-end feedback howl, I turned down my volume, and he turned it up again to compensate. "I didn’t need any monitor", I said. He started into some explanation about how it was necessary to balance the stage volume against the house volume. I just repeated that I had been able to hear well enough to perform without the monitors.
As I was leaving he caught up to me and waived a guitar sound-hole plug at me. "This is what you need", he said.
I didn’t say it, but I was thinking, "I needed to get through a set without someone changing the settings while I was playing. Next time: Please don’t help".
Producing my own sound
I have gotten used to managing – no, let’s call it producing my own sound. I find it harder and harder to relinquish control to someone who cannot hear what I’m hearing and who cannot know what I’m trying to do.
Generally, I find that the live mix I hear with solo singer-songwriters tends to be guitar heavy. At least for me, it feels like the vocals are competing and frequently lost, buried by the guitar. When mixing my sound I’m going for something different.
When I perform I often have guitarists come up to me and ask me to turn up the guitar. I have NEVER had a non-guitarist ask me to do that. Now that I’m singing, for better or for worse, I put the vocals up front. It’s not always pretty, but that’s how I’m mixing my sound. I tend to work the dynamics of the guitar around the vocal lines letting the guitar fade way back and come up again when it feels right to me. It’s deliberate. It’s part of the arrangement of the song. It is what I’m trying to say musically. And for some reason, when someone else is at the controls, it seems to trigger a response to ride the faders to level things out.
The L1® and in particular the T1® let’s me produce my own sound. The T1® has come to feel like an extension of my voice and guitar. It is as much a part of my expression as the tone and volume controls on my guitar or anything that I do with my voice.
As long as I am in the same sound field as my audience, I don’t want someone else interpreting how I should sound, riding the faders, tweaking the EQ, and basically grinding off the edge that I’m trying to bring to the music.
PorchBoard SlapBass
My PorchBoard SlapBass arrived today and this thing is fun.
You wear it like a guitar and tap or slap it with your hands. The picture above left is the production model and above right is a pre-production model. I included that picture so you can see how you wear/play it.
In the little bit of time I’ve had with it, I am impressed at the sense that this is an instrument with a voice that someone could play in an expressive way in very little time. I like that it is light and portable, and that it feels right to play it while standing. This gives the player the liberty of movement to find his/her rhythm as a whole body experience and then bring that to his/her hands on the SlapBass.
I can’t wait to try this out at some casual musical events (open stages, musical parties, and any place where there may be random outbursts of music). I plan to just hand it to people and see what happens.
As I unpacked it, it was a nice surprise to find the strap included and attached. It was ready to just plug it in and go. It was really considerate of the PorchBoard folks to include it.
As I as playing around with it I decided to hit record in Audacity and this is how it sounds recorded direct from the Bose T1® to the computer. (no Presets or EQ or Effects)
Listen to the SlapBass – Please listen with good headphones or a full range playback system. Computer speaker or laptop speakers aren’t going to give you a good result here.
The SlapBass is on the right channel and I brought in the PorchBoard about halfway through the recording so you could hear the difference between these two instruments. This isn’t meant to be a performance though. I just wanted to let you hear the basic tones this can give you.
The SlapBass is based on the same basic technology as the PorchBoard but the PorchBoard filters out all the frequencies above 100 Hz. So it produces a deep thump. The SlapBass passes the higher frequencies as well so you get a much wider range of sounds. They don’t overlap much so you can easily have both on a stage without a lot of overlap or interference.
I still haven’t spent a lot of time with it but it sounds terrific through my L1® Model II and also through the L1® Compact.
Discuss it here: SlapBass from PorchBoard
Doing Sound – Being the Sound Guy
Doing Sound – or "Being the Sound Guy" was never on my list of things to accomplish although since I got my L1®s, my reputation for doing this well has grown.
If someone were to ask me how to use the L1®s to provide sound reinforcement for live musicians I would insist that s/he watch three video presentations before doing anything else.
- The L1® Approach and the History Of Amplification
- Clifford Henricksen Introduces the L1®
- Playing better with the L1® System – Cliff Goodwin
Then, if the person was still interesting in working with musicians to create an authentic L1 stage1 (my term), I would offer these gig reports (below) of four of the shows where I supported several acts crossing a stage using multiple L1®s at the back of the stage.
- Gig Report / 8 Live Acts 7 Hours
- Lots of acts: Lots of L1®s
- Butting Heads over the Sound – Taking One for the Team
- But I Never Wanted To Be the Sound Guy
- Introducing Performers to the Bose System (Notes about working with performers).
1Authentic L1® Stage:
This is my term for a stage layout as anticipated by the creators of the L1®. Briefly – that is
- L1®s at the back of the stage
- One L1® for each performer
- Each sound source is heard through only one L1® – typically the L1® behind him/her
- Each performer manages his/her sound using the R1 Remote Control or a T1 ToneMatch® Audio engine.
Rocking it out at a straight-ahead Blues Jam (no L1®’s)
Well – I got in about an hour ago after doing the closing set at a flat-out, no-holds-barred, volume-be-damned Blues jam about 30 miles off my regular flight path. How I got there is a long story, and so is what happened.
The short version
I walked in – guitar in hand at 11:15 pm in this straight-ahead blues bar on the beach. I hadn’t intended to go to a Blues jam so walked in with what I had, the guitar to the right. PRS Hollowbody II. Not the first thing you think of as a Blues guitar for sure. But twist its tail just right and it’s a screamer.
There are a couple of familiar faces from 15 years ago in another time. One of those familiar faces was Bob, a great crossover Blues/Jazz guitarist. The last time we played together I’m pretty sure we traded off in a bluesy version of Sleepwalk at The Yale or maybe it was The Fairview. Bob says, "Let’s go talk to Glen. I’ll introduce you and he’ll get you up". Well we hunted around, but couldn’t find Glen, and I thanked Bob, and told him not to worry about it.
By the time I found Glen, somebody had pointed me out to him and he seemed satisfied that I was okay. He asked simply, "Do you sing?" – actually it was so loud in there that he had to use bar sign-language to ask. Without thinking, I nodded yes. He yelled. You’re up in two sets. The house band is really good. They’ll back you up.
The house band is a Drummer named TreeTop, the Bassist (missed his name) is from Chilliwack, and I added a Sax player named Damien who I caught playing as I walked in, and my old buddy Bob.
There are no L1′s. It is loud. Really loud. I had to go back out to the car to get my earplugs.
The house band knows how to rock. People are dancing and otherwise having a great time. As I’m sitting there soaking it all in I realize that I don’t know any straight ahead 12 bar stuff any more so I decide to do:
- Bad Things (because it is really easy to share this with a band on the fly)
- Summertime (because everyone knows it even if it isn’t straight ahead blues)
- Damn Your Eyes (because it’s a great tune jam on, and I’ve got Bob to play lead guitar and Damien to play Sax solos).
It was tough not being able to hear myself or to know how loud I was in the mix. It was a throw back to the days of singing to a monitor and hearing my guitar through a 4 x 10 cabinet on the floor behind me. But despite all that, I had fun.
Hoots and howls after every song. TreeTop says he had a ball because he loved the grooves we got going: Three distinctly different grooves. From what I can tell the other guys had fun too.
I talked briefly to Glen on my way out. I’m welcome back there any time.
So where’s the L1® connection?
Well back in the 90′s I wasn’t singing. I was the lead guitar player standing in the shadow (typically stage right) who stepped into the limelight once in a while but who otherwise laid back or did the occasional tasty fill. The singer always chose the songs and I was there to support the music.
I didn’t start really singing until I got my L1® back in 2004. I probably didn’t even begin to find my voice until a couple of years ago. But the message here is that I found it because I heard it through my L1®.
It wasn’t until I was in the car on my way home that I realized that I had stepped into an old situation in a completely different role. Last night I fronted the house band. I chose the songs and did the lead vocals. This is probably nothing special to most of you reading this. But it was startling to notice how much my role in the music has changed since getting my L1®.
L1® Compact Shines at a Musicians’ Party
Went to a great house party over the weekend. There must have been 60 people there and at least half of them were musicians. There was non-stop live music from 8:00 and it was still going strong when I left 6 hours later.
I played two sets (early and then very late). Both times I did original material and I was fortunate to have some really great players join me.
Piano, Bass, Electric Violin, Guitar, Drums
This was a thrilling, killer experience. If I ever wanted to put together a show where I was fronting a band doing originals, I would be lucky to work with these people.
The house system was a couple of big speakers on sticks and a mixer. There were a couple of fellows doing a great job of keeping the music going and sounding good.
I brought a T1® and the L1® Compact. The guys who were managing the sound were floored at how much better the Compact sounded. There was a guy trying to EQ the board with an iPhone app. He seemed to be working very hard. One thing he knew for sure (and as he told me a couple of times) was that my sound didn’t need any help.
I lost track of how many times I answered the question – "Was all of your sound coming from that?"
Back to the originals – I have been performing my originals solo and in small ensembles with people who were familiar with my material. On this occasion, the people joining me were playing by ear. I think that it is a great testament to those musicians that they could play along with me. And it is a great example of what people can do when they CAN hear. I know that the clarity of the Compact was a significant factor in the success of the music.
I had a ball.
Discuss this on the Bose Forum
Notes: My Gear that night
- Gibson ES Artist equipped with Roland GK-2A running through a Roland VG-88
- Neumann KMS 105 vocal microphone
- PorchBoard Bass
