Children are a blessing, and I wish that one day each and every one of you is able to experience the joy of parenthood. Unfortunately, good thing that it is, there is never a right time to have children. Though there are a million and one good reasons not to have kids, at some point each of the fine excuses one has created just fade away like old technology on a band rider, and you find yourself shipping out on a bus heading off to tour the brave new world of parenthood.
The irony of becoming a parent is that the desire is to work less and stay at home to raise your beautiful child, but the reality of the situation demands that you spend more time at work just to keep up with the financial needs of your new little blessing.
Each day we all walk a thin, taut line across great distances, at dizzying heights and with no safety net. We are not unique in this task, and most everybody shares our plight, although one would think that we might be a little more adept at navigating this balancing act since our job is devoted to a balance of sorts. In the end, our job as engineers is to ensure that there is a balanced audio mix for each particular show, regardless of style or content. We adjust gain, thresholds and frequencies thus giving equilibrium to multiple audio signals. We give poise and grace to highs and lows as we pan signal left and right in our quest to create an aural symmetry.
As we are all aware, maintaining a good audio balance is different for a rap concert than it is for jazz show or a rock concert for that matter, but as professionals, we enter the different situations armed with our knowledge of how to balance not only the audio systems, but the various styles of music as well.
Achieving this balance manifests a small amount of joy and harmony for a short period of time as the heavens open up and a choir of angels sing songs heralding in a new age of peace and prosperity for all. Unfortunately, like so many good things, the time spent in Nirvana is too short, and before we know it we are back on the road, headed for the next gig where we hope to achieve perfect balance once again.
If only we could control our lives the same way in which we balance an audio mix. After all, some of our professional skills must carry over into our daily lives… or maybe not. Very possibly we can only control the chaos and achieve a balance when we are behind a mixing console. Once we step away from our professional duties, all hell breaks loose, pandemonium reigns and we lose our control over the chaos that surrounds us. Admittedly, it is much easier controlling and balancing our cable runs, speaker arrays and audio signal than it is managing our desires, wants and needs, but surely we can translate some of our professional skills into our personal lives to achieve a balance.
It may sound odd to write of these things in a technical magazine devoted to the latest audio tools but, as they say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” We are, ultimately, multi-faceted creatures and even the most techno-minded engineer has to make room in their lives for more than the latest piece of gear or the next mix.
It’s vitally important to find a counterweight to the work we do. Hey, go play golf, play guitar, read a good novel, do some gardening, play with your kids, have some kids, go on a date, collect pornography or go fishing. Whatever it is you do, it’s important to maintain equilibrium in your life.
Balance is everything. If your diet is out of balance you may get fat, or too thin. If your tires aren’t balanced your car won’t ride properly, and if your health is out of balance you might get sick.
The question remains, “How do we go about doing what we do and stay balanced in a world that is seemingly askew with the scales unevenly weighted in the wrong direction?”
Interestingly, according to the recently compiled FOH survey, the majority of readers are in their 30s and above, with a little more than one third of the readers being 51 years of age and older.
I’m shocked! I never realized that that most of you guys could be card-carrying AARP members, and what this means is that you’re all old enough to know better. At the least one would hope that after a lifetime of being a road dog, a certain clarity of vision would reveal itself and a balanced life would ensue, but, of course, that would be in a perfect world.
Our world — as we are all aware — is only two years away from 2012, and unless you haven’t been watching the History channel you know what that means. Yup, certain doom, gloom and destruction…see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya. Yet, we all carry on, despite the odds stacked against us.
In my humble opinion we have all spent the beginning of this century so off-balance that we have yet to recover our stability. The financial world is in turmoil and the irony is that while one third of you guys are at the age where you might want to slow it down a bit, you are instead finding yourself in the position of having to work more only to make less.
Well, I wish I could offer some answers, but I’m in the same off-balance boat, which is definitely not tipping in my direction. It’s the barons vs. the serfs, and once again the barons are winning, but that seems to be the norm. I guess the best we can do is strive for a renewed balance in the great scheme of things while maintaining our own equilibrium.
We should, very possibly, try to not spend time worrying about the other side, because regardless of which way the scales may tip, we have listened to and mixed enough shows to know that out of balance is out of balance regardless of the side one might be on.
