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| photo cred: Kip Conner |
My big excitement of the evening was some sort of EWI problem, basically with the laptop not receiving MIDI information from the EWI. This is a major drag because there are several things that could go wrong:
1. EWI problem
2. bad MIDI cable between the EWI and the wireless MIDI transmitter
3. problem with the wireless MIDI system
4. bad MIDI cable between the wireless MIDI receiver and the MIDI to USB box
5. bad MIDI to USB box
6. bad USB cable between the USB box and the laptop
7. laptop problem
The issue is intermittent, meaning I kind of have to wait for it to happen and then see if I can figure it out. This happened years ago when the band was just starting to play bigger shows, and it took at least a month for me to solve it. Fun. I am now terrified of using my gear.
My initial hope/diagnosis:
1. The EWI seems fine
2. The wireless MIDI transmitter and receiver have a flashing light that says they are synced up, and that was flashing (meaning they are talking to each other), so I think they're working correctly
3. The USB box also gets MIDI information from a foot switch (used for switching sounds), so I think that part is probably ok, which also means that the USB cable is fine, and the laptop is probably fine
Therefore, I am going to swap out the little MIDI cable between the EWI and transmitter tomorrow and hope that everything goes back to normal. Pleeeeaaaaaaassssseeeee!
What else...the stage was about five feet above the crowd, which was kind of weird. I wonder why it was like this. No one had a good answer.
We brought back Break My Stride and Hip to Be Square. Both were pretty good.
Post gig, the handle on my rack that houses my electronics broke off. Now there's no way to pull it around like a suitcase, meaning I'll have to carry it like the big forty pound plastic box that it is until SKB sends me a new one. Great. Just in time for us to head out for some gigs in the northeast.
