Where in the world am I today?: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
It might be as a result of the training I received as a Street Performer dealing with my own sound, it might be because I’m generally a bit anal about trying to make everything look and sound it’s best, not exactly sure, but I was reminded again of the importance of traveling with the correct cables the other day… I showed up to perform at Portage Place Mall on Friday and I was splitting the bill with a local magician. He came all prepared to plug in his MP3 Tech into the sound board that the client had provided, but the cable he brought wasn’t quite the right one for the job.
Thankfully I had the cable he needed or at least one that got things working and we were able to get his music plugged into the board and working fairly painlessly. It was one of those scenarios where a fairly small part of the equation was missing and could have created a significantly larger hiccup had I not been able to have a quick fix on hand.
I’ve encountered a number of instances when a client said that a sound system would be provided and I didn’t need to worry about a thing, yet when I showed up I was very happy that I had brought my regular gear on the off chance that something wasn’t as is should be. Especially when working with a new client or when you haven’t had a chance to check things out in person it’s always a good idea to show up with a few extra bits that might be needed. It’s always better to have something and not need it as opposed to not having something and needing it.
The one cable I never leave home with out is the mini plug stereo to quarter inch mono plug that I use to plug in an iPod to a soundboard. You can also have stereo mini jack to stereo RCA plugs or perhaps stereo mini jack to dual mono quarter inch to achieve the ‘stereo’ effect, but rarely am I in a situation where stereo sound is key to the equation. I find almost always that the stereo mini to mono quarter inch gets the job done. Now, I should mention that the cable I use is really a male stereo mini jack to mail stereo mini jack to which I attach a stereo mini to mono quarter inch adaptor. this simple solution has worked well for me for years and is something that any performer who uses an iPod should just have.
Actually if you visit the site (www.audiogear.com) that I used to demonstrate most of the above mentioned cables I was talking about you may even come up with some more solutions…
Don’t have one? Get one. Even if you have a fancier set up than an iPod running your music, having your tunes on your iPod and having one of these cables as a back up alternative could save your bacon one day.
