Intro
Okay, so this is probably going to seem pretty silly, if not downright trivial. It is sort of along the lines of Tony's really nice shoes. ← This comes up 3/4 through this wonderful interview with Ken Bausano.

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What do you see when you look on the stage
An L1™ stage looks positively minimalist when compared to almost any other kind of amplified stage.

When I look at most of the pictures and videos of people using the T1™ the T1™ obscures my view of the performer - and the instrument.


Sort of like this:
T1™ on the right side of the microphone stand, at or slightly below elbow height. The microphone is on a boom stand above the height of the Guitar. This is not remotely close to scale. The T1™ is blue.

I like to look at Guitars as they are played, you know, trying to recognize them by headstock or the shape of the bridge, or just admire the rosette, inlay, markers.

So to give the audience a better view of the Guitar I tried moving the T1™ to the other side of the microphone stand.
T1™ on the left side of the microphone stand, at or slightly below elbow height.


I thought that there was less to see on the left side (just the neck) so having the T1™ on that side would be less of an issue. After a couple of minutes, it was just as easy to work the T1™ with my left hand as my right. My guess is, most Guitarists would have no trouble with this. Sadly, it didn't solve the problem. It just shifted it.

Bobbing and Weaving

You can usually spot the Guitarists in the audience because at some point or another, they will pay a lot of attention to your hands and the neck of the Guitar. It didn't take long to figure out that the T1™ was frustrating the Guitarists in the audience.

I know, I know - we hear with our ears, and I should be giving folks something worth hearing. But I couldn't help noticing bobbing and weaving heads as at least some of the players were trying to see around the T1™.

Here is something I did tonight at the gig.
Microphone stand over to the right, T1™ easily accessible.



It only took a couple of minutes to get recalibrated to the new position for the T1™. The heads went back to moving in time to the music.

Anybody else out there notice this? Have any other ideas?

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If you liked Ken's video clip you can see the whole set. Ken Bausano Interview.

The one you have already viewed is the first one, "Hearing Voices"

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Edits:
Fixed link for Tony's really nice shoes
Added link to Ken Bausano Interview.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ST,

Good discussion ST. I keep my T1 on a seperate and dedicated mic stand 1/4 turn to my right. I don't do this to keep a good view to my guitar, it's not that special.
I sit on a stool, and it is just too crowded (or I'm too clumsy) to have the T1 on the mic stand with the mic and boom.
The extra folding stand doesn't add much to carry in/set up.

Respect

Hi:

When I used a normal-sized microphone stand to hold my T1 (and my music stand) most people in the audience wouldn't be able to see what I was doing, etc. It didn't bother me too much but Mike was convinced (since I play fingerstyle guitar) that some folks in the audience like to see what my fingers are doing, etc.

Most of the places we play don't afford us the space to place the microphone stand off to one side as you show in your sketch. So I now use a short microphone stand which sits slightly to my left and holds my music stand at knee level, right in front of my legs (with an accessory music stand attachment) since I sit most of the time, and I'm sure no one wants to stare at my legs!

The T1 is off to my left, and lower now than it used to be, so it no longer is blocking any view that an audience member might want to see re: what kind of guitar I play; what are my fingers doing, what cords am I playing, etc. I can see the audience and the audience can see me. I can still reach the T1, and my music book is easy to see without it taking the audience's attention, etc. The music book used to be off to one side and I was always looking away from the audience. Now I can at least appear to keep eye contact with the audience, looking down occasionally in case I forget some of the words, etc.

Here's the microphone stand I bought. It's working great!
Low Profile Mic Stand
I'm not using the boom in its normal way because I use a headset microphone. Instead the boom stays vertical and I mount the T1 off the boom. Doing this also solves another problem that some people have noticed: that of the T1 sitting crooked on the mic stand. If I orient the boom just so, I can adjust it to make the T1 sit level if I want to. I generally don't bother to do that but I could if I wanted to.

I've used this set up three or four times now and, believing as I do that there is no such thing as a perfect situation, this comes close. Now if I can just get rid of the wires to my guitar and microphone (wireless), then it will be as near perfect of a situation as I could wish for.

Stu

Hi ST,
I tried following the link for "Tony's big shoes", but I get an error:

Error You have not been given the permission(s) to access this page. You require the following rights to view this page: 'View Content (This Forum)'. For a full list of permissions you have on this community, please visit your Personal Zone Permissions page.

quote:

Originally posted by ST:
Okay, so this is probably going to seem pretty silly, if not downright trivial. It is sort of along the lines of Tony's big shoes.

Hey ST,

I like your "bird's eye" sketches.

Hi Jim,

I am sorry about the bad link.

Here it is.

Tony's really nice shoes. ← This comes up 3/4 through this wonderful interview with Ken Bausano.

I fixed this in the original post too.
Thanks for letting me know.

ST, I consider this a very significant post and issue - the visual part of experiencing someone play and sing is... well, significant!

From the initial announcement, I never expected to leave the T1 at the back. While the T1 mounting bracket is worthless to me, the several tray alternatives are fine, but all result in the line-of-sight issue that you bring up.

Contributing to the problem is all the wires necessary to do the job - at least 3 and more typically 6, terminating at the mic stand toward the top - this is a pretty bad thing. (Mic, Guitar-1, Guitar-2, Synth, Master Out, T1 Power for example)

As much as one tries to be neat and tidy, with wraps, snakes, conduit, whatever, it's still a maze with a visual penalty. I wonder if someone should invent a mic stand, actually a "T1 Stand" with a larger-diameter shaft that you could run cables THROUGH? Problem is, most of us play in different and multiple situations, each with different cable requirements.

Also, with the wonderful flexibility of the T1 comes the need for making real-time adjustments. and thus the need to have the unit at your fingertips. Another factor is that many of us often have to play on the edge of the volume peak, and you have to have the controls where you can dial back to avoid feedback.

The tray I found I like best (one of Munch's many examples) is an angled thing intended for small notes - about 6 inches square, I attach T1 with velcro. Having the T1 screen and controls at an angle is best for me. Bad news is this attachment must be right, or maybe left, will not work centered. This is the most negative from the sight perspective.

I WISH I had a nifty solution instead of just piling on the statement of the problem. Hopefully we will get there!

Thanks, Mike

*** PS ***
The artist/peer interviews are ALL wonderful, helpful, and inspiring - time WELL spent! Very highest recommendation.

Thanks Strat man Mike,

quote:

Originally posted by Strat man:
Hey ST,

I like your "bird's eye" sketches.

I was playing in an art gallery last night. None of that rubbed off, but I felt inspired all the same.

Hi Mike,

quote:

Originally posted by Mike in Texas:
...

As much as one tries to be neat and tidy, with wraps, snakes, conduit, whatever, it's still a maze with a visual penalty. I wonder if someone should invent a mic stand, actually a "T1 Stand" with a larger-diameter shaft that you could run cables THROUGH? Problem is, most of us play in different and multiple situations, each with different cable requirements.

...Thanks, Mike

I've been staring at the bottom of the T1™ trying to figure out how to make an adapter so that the T1™ will sit well or screw on top of short microphone stand. I'm not adept at those mechanical kinds of things. Hence the staring, but no action...


I have a Low Profile Mic Stand similar to the one StuartD mentioned above.

With that, I can get the T1™ at about waist height, I can still reach it, and Thank you Bose I can still read it too!

I have all the cables I use with the T1™ strapped to the stand, so it's pretty tidy. The stand, cables & all go into a standard Cylindrical Radiator® bag so I don't have to fiddle with it for set up or tear down.

When I'm committed to the cabling, I might wrap it in a Split Wire Loom or even foam pipe insulation.

If I could get the T1™ to sit securely, directly on top of the stand, I might dedicate that stand to the T1™ as I continue my recent explorations with a headset microphone.

At least part of the revelation of the L1™ comes from stepping out from behind a wall of technology.

Here's an example of how many things you can get & how badly it distracts. In the picture below I have

Laptop
T1
mp3 player
Mama Bear
Fishman Pocket Blender
all the connecting cords

Tom

And a better shot of how it blocks the guitar.

quote:

And a better shot of how it blocks the guitar.

But it looks so cool!

Interesting thread ST. It's funny that since the L1 system's arrival, these little things are all we have to think about and spend money on.

Caption for Tom's picture.

"What was that guy's name?"


Second picture

"Oh. Hi David"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ST,

Hey Pete,

quote:

Originally posted by Drumr:

Interesting thread ST. It's funny that since the L1 system's arrival, these little things are all we have to think about and spend money on.

From some other discussion that was way off topic

quote:

"Solve problem number one, and number two steps up to take its place."

When I think about all the problems the L1™ has solved, it is really interesting to see where we direct our attention.

When it's all you can do to get everything to the point that there are no complaints[1], who has time to worry about what the audience sees.

Even these little things matter, to someone.

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[1] Ken Bausano talks about this
"The best we ever got was when no one complained." - Ken Bausano Interview. I think it was in #2 "You could never hear everything".

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ST,

quote:

Originally posted by ST:
Caption for Tom's picture.

"What was that guy's name?"


Second picture

"Oh hi David"

I thought I looked like Clint Eastwood in the first shot from a Spaghetti Western.

So we don't lose our way here, let's see what we have so far.

• The visuals *are* important, or at least some of us are thinking about this. Thanks all for responses so far.
  
  
• Having the T1™ near the performer is, for some, an absolute necessity. (Mike in Texas). Me too.
  
  
• The T1™ on the microphone stand in front of you has some significant visual impact (penalty). The cables sticking out the back contribute to this. (Mike in Texas). Thanks for the photos Tom.
  
  
• Some of us are already adapting to get the T1™ out of the line of sight.
  
  
• Maybe, having solved all the big problems, we are turning our attention to the little ones. (Drumr - just acknowledging this thought).
  

Some suggestions / solutions so far

• Leave the T1™ on the main microphone stand. Move the microphone stand to one side and extend the boom back for the vocals. (ST Sketches)
  
  
• Separate, dedicated microphone stand for the T1™. This is positioned lower and off to one side. (Col. Andy, StuartD)
  
  
• Some kind of special stand with integrated cable management. (Mike in Texas)
  
  

I think this is worth pursuing.

We have come a long way in terms of being accessible to our audiences. We can all set up in less time than before, and some of us use that time to hang out with the audience. (for example, Strat man Mike has 30 minutes to shmooze)

We no longer push the people back with a barrage of sound. We no longer isolate ourselves with a moat of monitors. Without those monitors blaring in our faces, we can hear the room. We can hear the audience.

As we are seeing now with the T1™, the more we remove from the stage (backline amps, speakers on sticks, gigantic subs), the more we notice what remains.

In many ways, what we do is akin to theatre. We are there to be seen as well as heard. We put on a show, and people come out to see us.

This T1™ blocking the view thing is perhaps more than just a visual distraction. It might be represent a level of concern that elevates the view from "homeless with instruments" to "something worth getting out of the house to see".

The cables aren't a problem for me anymore. I run all the cables across the back of the T1 & the plug in the first jack & then velcroed down the back of the mic stand. The velcro on the T1 cable starts this & then I have velcro on my other cables that I slide down to use a couple more times down the stand. I can run as many as 8 cables this way with very little visual distraction.

I'll try to take a pic sometime from the audience perspective.

Tom

Thanks Tom,

Good thought, the cables can all but disappear if you strap them up well. I use the ToneMatch™ cable with the velcro like a safety harness for the T1™. In the worst case, if I managed to dislodge the T1™ from it's perch, it would be 'saved' from the fall by the ToneMatch™ cable.

It looks like all your cables are black at the T1™ end. In some photos and videos I've seen (not yours) the cables are a lot more visible because they are bright colours or have white heat-shrink for 4-6 inches at the connector end.

Having the cables colour coded is nice, I only need that for a few moments while setting up. I'm back to basic black again.

I found some black nylon shower curtain "rings" years ago at a garage sale. They are about 2 inches in diameter and they snap shut. This is just perfect for holding cables on a microphone stand. They work almost as well as velcro, are much faster to apply and remove, and the cables can slide inside them if I want to adjust the height of the stand. So I use velcro where the cables first meet the microphone stand at the top, then the rings keep the cables from flopping around.

I've tried to take pictures but since the rings, microphone stand, and cables, are black, you basically can't see them in the picture. I have never found these things again - and if I ever find them on the web, I'll post a link.

I've seen rings like that, & I even have some in white & tan. There are lots of other things that can work as ties.

Tom

Here is a related, different line of thought.

Stepping out from behind the microphone (stand).