Patch blues -- Getting some traction out of your loops

Anyone who's ever used patches knows that they come in a range of types, from truly uninspiring to highly adventurous, interesting ideas. Getting them to work, however, can be a labor of love. Whether you're working in a nightclub gig or trying to get some sense out of your equipment at a club, some patches don't cut it and some do. Depending on your style, some are suitable and some aren't, and the people who put these patches together sell them like garage sales. You can get whole batches of patches, useful or otherwise, even from some major distributors.


Photo: Ianz

The issues
The problems tend to be:
Tinny, useless, things that really don't work or mysterious things that sound "wrong" when they're in your sound system

This is a result of not matching patches to signals. Sounds send power signals through amps at different levels, and that can create loop issues in a mix. The things that don't work don't send the right signals for your system. They lose power, and if they sound great on the systems of the people who made them, your sound system isn't picking them up.

For loops, that's potential murder. It can be more trouble than it's worth to create a good loop and then have it buried. The loop track has to struggle through the signals. If you've heard mixes where things seem to have been shoved into the background, and those are loops you're listening to, that's how that happens, particularly in woofer-heavy mixes.

The solutions
Top and bottom are naturally separated in good mixes, and you'll hear a lot of stuff online and elsewhere where they've obviously been recorded and mixed separately to avoid this result. That's basically what you need to do. There are several options:

1. Focus on creating strong loops from scratch: Use your own sound mixing software on your own sound system. (Note: Musical key detection using the mixer isn't a gimmick. It drastically improves sound quality and signal quality and really will solve problems.) These things are bulletproof, and they can stand on their own two feet. They only use one or two tracks, so you can run them through your sound systems easily.

2. Dedicated mixing routines- This is fussy work, but if you're prepared to do it, it'll work well. Separate the outputs from your treble mix materials and your woofers. Synchronize your outputs through the mixer, and the loops will be fine.

3. Check your inputs systematically: If you've got sound bugs, one or more of the inputs is the problem. Go through each one, starting with the woofers, and adjust. Use your controls to get the signals properly mixed, setting up a trustworthy balance.

4. Rehearse your mixes: Never mind "All right on the night", you need to sizzle, sparkle and shine, and dud loops caused by mixing won't do that. Find the patches that are causing the problems before they find you explaining things to pubs or other gigs.

3 Reasons You Should Invest in Help Desk Training For Your Staff

The Help Desk is the default first option call for internal and sometimes external clients. The Help Desk is the most visible, and often the busiest, area of IT frontline support. It performs a critical ongoing service across any organization. Help Desk functions are so important operationally that they're built into major ITSM (IT Service Management) methodologies like ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) as structures for IT management.


Photo: Walker Library @ MTSU

IT Help Desk fundamentals
It's rarely appreciated by people outside IT exactly how much balancing of priorities and resources is involved in Help Desk functions. The IT Help Desk is usually viewed as a one stop shop for all problems. Issues can range from "My computer isn't working" to "We've lost all our accounts data!" in a few minutes or seconds.

This menagerie of situations, which is usually continuous, requires very efficient management. It also requires high quality training to instill the necessary knowledge and understanding of issues involved in Help Desk work.

Time and space are big issues for Help Desks, requiring real time solutions and good organization of functions.

Priorities can change rapidly, for example:

• "My computer isn't working" is a local issue, easy to fix even in a worst case scenario.

• "We've lost all our accounts data!" is a high priority, critical organizational issue requiring an immediate response and quite possibly extensive, time consuming IT support work at the expense of lower priority jobs.

The ability to understand and manage IT support issues effectively has to be learned. Help Desk staff must be trained to a very high standard to deal with this shifting set of issues and manage their time and work productively and efficiently.

Return on Investment in Help Desk training
Training defines the core capabilities of any organization in any role. IT training, particularly for Help Desk roles, is absolutely vital to ensure organizational efficiency. The better trained the Help Desk staff, the better and more efficiently IT services will operate.


Photo: jisc_infonet

For organizations, the returns on investment for Help Desk training can be truly excellent. An efficient Help Desk doesn't just respond well to issues. It can also anticipate them, and cover multiple areas of IT support including upgrades and similar functions which prevent problems. A well-trained Help Desk can also manage hardware issues, change and growth seamlessly.

Levels of training required to achieve this level of efficiency requires formal industry training and high quality benchmark qualifications like ITIL Certification. International standard ITSM certifications are rapidly becoming extremely important as the global economy and New Economy business modes impose increasing diversity and demands across the spectrum of IT functions.

Training for the future
Help Desk training is very much an investment in the future. Help Desks need to be able to deal with regular change and manage new systems and their business applications efficiently. The ITIL training, for example, provides a full suite of skills covering the entire gamut of IT operations, with an integrated approach which enhances overall IT management. This training is a long-term benefit, designed to provide much higher value operational capacity for any organization.

Education Needs Learning Outside The Classroom

The learning time in a classroom is limited. Operational constraints can reduce the core teaching time to around 30 per cent of the lesson length, but outside the class children see the practical reference point to their learning that increases the absorption rate. A biology game played in the open can reveal the difference in the size, shape and seed dispersal techniques of trees.


Photo: One Laptop per Child

Arguably so can a text book, the difference is the tactile nature of outdoors learning combing the feel, touch, smell and relative size of the subject and its association with its surroundings. Peter Carne, a former geography teacher with a passion for hands-on practical experience and a champion of “learning outside the classroom” says “Education in more than the acquisition of knowledge. Learning outside is a vehicle to develop the capacity to learn”.

There are some limitations. Planning a trip for 30 excitable children takes some organization which can sometimes limit the effectiveness. This is where parents can give great support or even take the lead role. Letting 30 children en masse see the inside of a synagogue, mosque or chapel needs tenacity and diplomacy. A parent and child combination introduces greater flexibility. The educational bond developed can turn the process of exploration into an educational game that supports progress back in class.

History, science, biology and geography are obvious choices for practical learning through parks, museums and theme parks. But maths? I recall a class trip to Wandsworth library in London when I was 9. Learning about the reference system and book indexing before ISBN coding still holds memories. But the highlight of the trip was on the way back. A quick detour to the engineering company next to the school had us enthralled. Our teacher commenced to yank out strands of our hair to play a maths game. The slight tear reaction – a little biology, psychology and more than likely now socially illegal the process produced the samples he was after. Using a micrometer the engineering manager measured the thickness of each strand in thousands of an inch – pre metric days. We queued delightedly to suffer the anguish of the hair tug and record the result. Back in class, the realisation that black hair was on average thicker than blonde. An educational game with a lasting memory, it happened 50 years ago.

Turning a trip out with mum and dad into an educational game is both great fun and mutually rewarding. The practical investigation and the relative knowledge gained help significantly back in class. The fact that the experience was gained outside the classroom provides a strong memory tag association when it comes to exams. What better way to appreciate the scope to the planetary system than look at the physical size of the Jodrell Bank telescope needed to study its detail? Marvel at engineering feats such the Thames barrier and question what could happen if it wasn't there, or see history in operation at the Beamish working museum. Whilst teachers need further encouragement, and time, to take the lead role wherever they can, the time spent in school only amounts to 195 days per year. The remaining 170 days, or using a little maths game; 47 percent of the total year are weekends and school holidays. Parents take note.

About the Author
The learning time in a classroom is limited. Operational constraints can reduce the core teaching time to around 30 per cent of the lesson length, but outside the class children see the practical reference point to their learning