# Sound board clean



## TechnicalDirector3-W (Jan 20, 2004)

does anyone know of a way to keep a sound board and its surroundings nice and oraganized


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## wemeck (Jan 20, 2004)

Standard Food Rules.

No Food.
No Drink.
No Candy.

Keep those computer Alchol Wipes in the ready.
Also keep the board covered when not in use.

We have a Sound Craft K3, which is a modular board. So we could if we wanted to, but choose to escalate internal cleaning of the Board to our Vendor and Designer of the system Accutrack Recording.

If you have to do it your self, then there is a circuit board cleaning solution I use for mother boards and other IC's that get really gunkey over time. You can get the cleaner from a electronics store, maybe not a Radio-Shack. That is what I would do.


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## The_Terg (Jan 20, 2004)

wemeck said:


> Standard Food Rules.
> 
> No Food.
> No Drink.
> No Candy.



Sooo true.

The only thing I could suggest is to enforce good cleanup during the strike of a show. I know (and accept) that our board is gonna get messy with scripts, CD's, tools, cables, ETC. But I insist that the board is cleaned every strike afterwards, everything patched 1-1, all papers clean, etc.

Another good habit is to try and reset the labeling on the board at each strike. If this means removing the tape - or adding a fresh piece, I always find it helpful to have a clean place to label before a show.


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## wolf825 (Jan 20, 2004)

TechnicalDirector3-W said:


> does anyone know of a way to keep a sound board and its surroundings nice and oraganized




Get a "script caddy" that can hold a script or papers for a show--this way folks do not set heavy binders down on your board knocking stuff out of settings. Basically--it is a flat book holder on a swing arm. Works great. Set rules for your sound console--like Zero out the console when done. Set up marking tape so folks can use that. Make sure the tape is WIDE tape as folks cannot seem to every write between the lines and always slip. Have a drawer for remotes, CD's, tapes etc...a few pads of paper, stickers and post-its for labeling playback & playback cases, and highlighters and sharpies also in this drawer. I use locking rack-drawers and love them..very convenient and if you don't like someone--you lock them out of your drawer. I highly suggest you have a drawer or space for all manuals for all gear as well, and it should be bound in a binder that never leaves the booth--chain it to the wall if you have to. 

Have a closet where you can keep cleaning supplies and extra sound toys--like turn arounds and cables etc, and spare recording media you can then sell to the person at 3 times the retail value, cause they wanted to tape the event but forgot to go to the store to buy a blank tape. also keep Canned air, De-Oxit and other cleaning agents should be here as well. Spare mic elements, windscreens, mic clips, wireless stuff, all the things you don't want walking--lock it away in this closet. Lock this stuff away or the mindless fools who think they know what they are doing will use it everywhere you shouldn't. Especially canned air--which is just too fun to play with and freeze bugs with. 

-wolf


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## TechnicalDirector3-W (Jan 21, 2004)

Thanks for all the suggestions


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## Nephilim (Jan 22, 2004)

Two words: Dust Cover. You'd be amazed at the sheer amount of crap floating around.


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## cruiser (Jan 22, 2004)

what fun would it be if you couldnt eat and drink at the desk???


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## wemeck (Jan 22, 2004)

cruiser said:


> what fun would it be if you couldnt eat and drink at the desk???



Certain people are always allowed to eat and drink around the board, but it is discrete and never on the board. Out of site out of mind. I like the K3 board to much to have it tainted by stupid accidents.


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## Nephilim (Jan 22, 2004)

cruiser said:


> what fun would it be if you couldnt eat and drink at the desk???



You need to add "...and tell others that they can't."


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## The_Terg (Jan 22, 2004)

Its definatly not fun to find a nice blob of dried pizza sauce on a fader....

:x :x :x


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## avkid (Mar 11, 2004)

you must keep it clean i just found a tuna salad sandwich from a concert in my booth trash this afternoon, it was all green and nasty


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## soundman (Mar 11, 2004)

I eat and drink near the board all the time, but I know if I spill something if 2 years of slave labor for me. ALso some times that is the only time I have to eat or drink. After every show I throw away all my warpers and bottels.


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## wemeck (Mar 12, 2004)

soundman said:


> I eat and drink near the board all the time, but I know if I spill something if 2 years of slave labor for me. ALso some times that is the only time I have to eat or drink. After every show I throw away all my warpers and bottels.



The problem is not what you do when you are alone at the board. The problem is what other people do because they see you at the board eating and drinking. We allow the crew kids to eat sometimes around the equipment too, but we do it discretely, and we never eat or drink directly over any of the boards. We do not want to ruin or Soundcraft K3, Insight 2x, or the Compulite Saber. That would be very bad for business.


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## MikeJM (Jul 12, 2004)

*Keeping the Sound board area clean*

I recently purchased a dust cover for our Mackie S424x4 console in our auditorium. That was a great purchase, it keeps dust out and makes things look so much more professional when you walk into the booth. Another great use is that is keeps people from touching. There are a lot of theatre students walking around, or just random students walking around...since it is a high school, and some of them are not always so bright and they like to touch. It is always nice to keep things covered so nothing is bothered if your in a production week for a show and things are set to a sound engineer's liking.

Cheers,
Mike M


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## halojen (Jul 15, 2004)

yeah.
teh no food or drink rule applies to every one but me.
and when i do i lean back or turn away so im not eating over it. and no cans or drink are put at the same level or above the board.
i have a similar theory for my computer keyboard.


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## MikeJM (Jul 15, 2004)

In regards to the food and drink rules, I personally find them more effective if you follow your own rules that you set. People won't respect them if you dont. But you gotta wonder sometimes, what the heck people are thinking sometimes. I am currently doing Fiddler on the Roof for a summer music theatre and I watched as one of the crew members set a loosley closed bottle of water on top of a monitor speaker backstage that I had, had one of my sound crew members set up earlier in the week.


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## ccfan213 (Jul 15, 2004)

the easiest way to keep stuff protected is to put a lock on the booth door and carry a key. lock it when ur not there and only other techs or staff who have a key will be able to get in. hopefully staff wont be stupid enough to screw with things they dont know about, but this isnt usually the case. if u leave little notes around that say do not touch and make urself avalable to anyone who uses the auditorium you can usually protect your stuff from others. a bigger problem is often keeping it clean. the best way to do this is to not be a total slob, only a partial slob. then come in during lunch or when ur extremely bored and clean up. if u clean up after every show you can keep it relatively clean.


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## blackties_04 (Jul 15, 2004)

:wink: I also found that cigarette ash can be a pain to clean off the board to. We still smoke in the studio anyway.


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## soundman (Jul 16, 2004)

Last summer when I wsa working for an audio shop one of the boards came back we opened up the case and there wsa sand everywhere the boss was on the wrong side and asked what was up, a co worker replied "it's been f***ing starlighted" I also found out that the 2 400 foot xlr cables had been starlighted so I ot to recoil them which took a good chunk of time. (starlight beening the production company that later bought out the one I worked at)


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## dj_illusions (Jul 16, 2004)

i have a jands event that reguarly gets hired out to the local pubs. after each show i will generally rip the back off the desk and try to remove the half bottles of bourben and whiskey and whatever else seems to end up under neath there. i could almost go into business, drain it out of the desk and rebottle it...

if you smoke in the booth, why not just smoke to the side of hte desk, to prevent ash from falling in?


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## Inaki2 (Jul 18, 2004)

keep the actors away from it!!!!!


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## PATech (Jul 18, 2004)

In our sound booth at school there is a paper rack on the back wall. It's made out of plastic and has three tiered pockets that angle out from the wall. All of the sound gear manuals live there inside file folders. That way when I (or another tech) needs to find out about an obscure feature of the Mini-disc unit or CD burner or whether the direct outs on the board are pre or post fader the info is right there. It's great. Also we have a strict no food or drink in the booth rule that's enforced by my high school's TD.


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## avkid (Jul 18, 2004)

don't let anyone near it


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## sparky_vision (Aug 13, 2004)

Just for the heck of sharing an adorable horror story, I was recently the tech for a wedding held at my church. Being the only one there, I had to leave my beloved Soundcraft, and make a quick jog up to the video booth to start a video. By the time I returned, one of the guests, bless their hearts, had spilled almost an entire cup of punch across the last eight channels. The straberry-flavored liquid goodness was now running into the slider slots, dripping down the front of the power supplies, and soaking into my beautiful gaffe tape channel labels.

Food or drink in the sound area is most definitely a bad idea for anyone, the techs included. And if your board is out in the open where the Common People (tm) can get to it, large signs bearing warnings of dire consequenses for even _thinking_ about bringing food near it are a good idea.


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## Inaki2 (Aug 13, 2004)

Yikes......that hurt


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## halojen (Aug 13, 2004)

were you able to do the wedding with the channels that were still good or was it a right-off


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## sparky_vision (Aug 16, 2004)

The rest of the wedding went fine...just needed one mic and the video feeds. But I stood vigilantly by the board while the guests were filing by it to get to the food...no sense taking more chances.


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## mr_sound (Aug 16, 2004)

i keep people away from the board by using that yellow caution tape, only it says "reserved for audio crew". it also helps keep away those idiots who think they can mix better than you simply because they own a stereo or they're with the band. don't ya just love when someone complains about your mix, without even knowing the whole story? maybe there's a reason that singer's mic keeps feeding back...maybe it's because he keeps standing 2 inches from the monitor and complaining that he can't hear himself.

of course, i have had people leave bottles of water sitting right next to the monitor board....and right at spill height too. i had a band leave their opened bottle of water sitting on my amp rack. that didn't stay there long. they wouldn't want me to put a bottle of water on their amp would they? once at a private party i put signs on my speakers that said "this is not a table".......seemed to work really well actually. but the best thing you can do is get a nice plastic dust cover....keeps everything out. if the board is small enough you can use the lid from a rack to cover it up too...which gives you a nice hard surface should anything big fall on it. but i keep that cover on it, even when the board is on, all the way up until soundcheck usually. you never know when some musician might wander over there while you're in the bathroom, to check out your rig and accidentally spill their water all over the place. 

is it just me, or do musicians (and actors) seem to cause most of our problems? hehe.


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## Inaki2 (Aug 16, 2004)

Oh yeah I remember putting the "This is not a table" sign on Cyberlights once, I had people putting coke cans and stuff on them!


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## Radman (Aug 16, 2004)

My uncle played trumpet in the recent Bette Midler tours and shared a couple stories with me, one of which had to do with a sound board:

On opening night of the tour when they were setting up, a truss or light or something fell on the main console and smashed a few channels to Behringer! Luckily it was one of the high end modular boards and they were able to steal extrra channels from the monitor board and just get by. Phew! Talk about a nightmare! Barely missed a crew member when it fell, too!


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