Posted by scott kane - ceo at 4:01 pm
We’ve all heard it. Bad, terrifyingly horrible live sound. It’s not always because the engineer is naturally tone deaf or a lead foot with the bass boost either. There are a lot of factors we have to contend with including shocking acoustics, El-Cheapo equipment or even gear Noah used to entertain the critters on the Ark.
Posted by scott kane - ceo at 2:41 pm
Programmers are weird animals. Manipulating three (and more) dimensional objects, composed of cryptic software code, in one’s head requires a certain amount of weirdness. 
So it follows that the design of software, even software for theater audio will often be a little weird too. But it shouldn’t be. Not if the software developer knows the subject of theater and live audio and appreciates the rules required for creating usable software.
Posted by scott kane - ceo at 4:33 pm
Theater has come along way since the days of sound effects produced from the orchestra pit, off stage clicks and bangs, tape recorders and now even CD players just don’t cut the mustard.
In between articles of general interest to theater sound we’ll be discussing some of the aspects of our MixAction Theater Software Package in respect of how we’ve designed it to make what’s otherwise a pain your gain.
Posted by scott kane - ceo at 1:41 pm
For something so universal it’s certainly can be very confusing for people when it comes to spelling “theater” and “theatre”. Which is correct?
Like many words from the English language there are variations on the spelling, regional variations, particularly between the way it is spelled in the United Kingdom and the United States. The original English spelling, as used in the United Kingdom (England,Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) Is actually theatre. However in the United States it is more commonly spelled theater.
Which is right?
I think it’s a moot point in 2009. The difficulty comes with the Internet’s global nature however. Some people prefer theatre and some prefer theater. For webmasters who sell products, such as MixAction Theater Sound Software it does pose a dilemma.
You are forced to choose one consistent spelling over the other for use on the site. Spelling it both ways is just confusing for readers and confusing for the person writing information. In Australia and New Zealand (and other countries) it’s actually spelled both ways officially. “Theater” and “Theatre”. In those countries you can pick and choose the one that suits you.
I grew up being taught to spell it “theatre” here in Australia.
As most of the worlds Internet users are based in the United States we have adopted the spelling most often used in the United States for MixAction. That is to say “theater”. We occasionally get email telling us we’re wrong for spelling it this way from some people in the United Kingdom and to date one Australian. In the past experience has shown that the same thing occurs when one uses spelling that is different to that used in the United States too. So in the end you have to make a decision and stick to it. Which is what we’ve done in this instance.
The official website name reflects this, as does the product name. It’s “MixAction Theater Sound Software”. However if this bothers you when writing to us feel free to substitute “theatre” if you wish, we’ll know what you’re talking about and won’t mind a bit!
Perhaps the time will come when we all speak a version of English optimized for the International nature of the Internet. “Netglish” or something equally absurd and spell theater or theatre as “theeter”. 
Scott Kane
CEO and Primary Developer MixAction Theater Sound Software
Posted by scott kane - ceo at 5:42 pm
Well, why not? You deserve it as the production audio engineer. Like the actors, stage hands, make-up artists and the rest of the crew you’ve sweated over rehearsals, spent years possibly, perfecting your craft. You deserve some of that applause.
Sadly though when the red curtain does come down the theater sound people, the live sound technicians are rarely noticed, rarely thanked and rarely credited and it’s a darn shame!
Turn the volume too loud and you can bet they’ll notice you – you’ll know this from the number of complaints you will get.
Turn the volume too low and while the audience may not realize - sometimes – you can bet the director will and so will the actors or lighting crew if they are relying on your sounds for their cues.
But there’s nothing we can do about this, right?
Actually, there is indeed something we can do. To get people to notice you have to raise awareness – rather than raise the volume. Right now awareness is turned way down, all the way down on the master fader. To bring that fader up to where it should be – say a little under 0 db to avoid distortion – we, as theater audio sound engineers need to get the message out. Let people know we exist, and in 2009, the date of writing this article, it’s never been easier. Get a Twitter account, I’ve got one, you can Follow me using @davidscottkane, get a Facebook account, create a blog and to raise it’s awareness link to other theater sound people and their blogs, link to this one. Let us at MixAction know so we can link to you here in our blog roll.
There’s a lot of stuff theater sound technicians do that most people don’t know about – but which is actually very interesting, even for non geeks. Like acting, make-up and lighting, in 2009 and beyond theater sound is an active demanding process full of interpretation, realization and raw creativity. It’s a rich smorgasbord of audio support adding excitement, variation and interest to what would otherwise be “average” stage performances.
You know this, I know this, the director possibly forgot this and the audience will be pleasantly surprised to know more. Not all audio fans are actively technical, some just love to hear about it, particularly on the Internet where they perceive less pressure. Much the same way as folks who love reading about V8’s don’t necessarily race them.
Get it together, get a piece of the action, help yourself turn up the applause for your performance at your next theater gig.
Oh – and don’t forget to Contact Us, to be notified or participate in the MixAction theater audio software beta test – coming soon - if you’re one of those who hasn’t done so already!
Scott Kane
CEO – Primary Developer – MixAction Theater Sound Software
