High Praise
One of the unexpected
benefits of running a web based business is
the ability to find out a lot about your
customers in a hurry. Most of our customers
have web sites and we always take a look at
how they present their businesses on the web
as part of processing their orders.
A large number of our customers are entertainment
production and audiovisual presentation companies.
I rarely see anything of real interest at these
sites and I remain surprised that industries with
such a high level of technical knowledge miss the
opportunity to put their best foot forward. These
sites are usually “black box” pictures-pictures of
the equipment the company owns- and lists of
technical specifications that may impress their
competition but rarely mean anything to a potential
customer.
That brings me to the point of this posting. When
we were in the “hands on” sound and lighting
business one of our good friends and competitors
was Carey Sound in Greensboro, NC. I have been
friends with the company owner, Ken Carey, for over
25 years and he generously sub-contracted shows to
us more than once. I guess the term “competitor”
doesn’t really fit here.
The web site he has put together for his company is
breathtaking in its depth and quality. Any
production company seeking to create a real
presence on the web would be hard pressed to put
together anything better than what Ken has created.
The type of information he so carefully presents is
a lesson in how to use the web to gain new
customers and hang onto the ones you already have.
His “how to” videos are great information and a
powerful sales tool. No doubt, they have deflected
lots of last minute panic calls from his rental
customers.
Ken’s extensive News section is well laid out and
makes for lots of good reading if you are in the
sound business.
Carey’s Rental section answers lots of the
questions that a potential rental customer might
have in a good humored and honest manner that lets
the renter know exactly what to expect.
The photography is beautiful (lots of smiling
faces), the layout is logical and easy to navigate,
and details regarding the services and equipment
Carey offers are presented with the clients point
of view considered on every page.
I’ve spent a well over an hour browsing this site
in the last week, and still have not seen it all.
If you are ready to move your company’s web
presence into the big leagues, don’t miss this
site.
p.s. Congrats to Carey Sound on their new building
and their 30 year anniversary.
I'll let you all in on a not so secret, secret.
If you have bought tape or batteries from use in the last twenty years it's come form Jeff at Harrison Brothers. His web site GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service. Sure, we will still will have it on hand for you if you get in a pinch but don't hesitate to buy from them directly.
Seriously Now...
Our construction crew is hard at work
getting the new building ready for us.
There are only 22 days left...
until the move to our
new location on Pomona Drive and although all of
our old gear has been moving quickly we still have
stuff to sell and I'm not moving it to the new
building. To show how serious we are, I am going to
lower our listed prices by 20% and unlike before
you don't have to buy more than one thing at a
time.
You wouldn't believe what we have already
thrown away.
If I plug it in and it
doesn't work it gets tossed into that huge dumpster
in front of the store. It's disappearing out of the
dumpster as fast as we throw it away.
I have updated the list on the Sale Page that you
will find by clicking here and have
added some new items. You really owe it to
yourself to check it out. We are accepting all
reasonable offers.
Also we are acting as the official broker for the disposal of the recently replaced gear from Mt. Zion Baptist Church. This gear is in incredibly good condition and you can find a complete list and pictures on the Sale Page as well. Please help us spread the word.
Moving Contest
We would like you to
share our excitement of moving to our new location
at 301-E Pomona Drive so we have devised this
simple contest. The first two people to correctly
identify the most of the 10 previous locations will
win a free Electro-Voice Raven. This microphone was
originally designed by Blue Microphones for Fender
as the perfect electric guitar mic and so guess
what it excels at. It was never released by Fender
but was picked up by EV as part of their EVBlue
series. This is a great electric guitar mic, an
interesting vocal mic, a good horn mic and not a
bad kick drum mic. SoundMan has these in his
personal mic drawer.
Name all ten locations and Ill throw in a $50 gift
certificate for dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House.
Contest ends when we move in 28 days.
You can click on one of the photo's on the
home page to see a larger image.
Employment Opportunities
CareySound is 30 year old company known for its expertise and is dedicated to customer education and after sales support. Serious applicants should email their resumes to jobs at careysound.com.
And The Award Goes To...
The
SoundMan Award for
CareySound.com Evangelist of the Year 2008
Mike
Sveda
We would like to recognize Mike for his tireless
efforts in spreading the CareySound.com gospel by
his countless hours spent on every sound web
discussion board, both pro and enthusiast alike, on
the internet with the first ever official SoundMan
Award. He has racked up more outstanding referrer
links in his postings than just about every other
site visiter combined. Thanks Mike.
-SoundMan-
Time Pases Quickly
Mike "Stageman" Birney will be taking over for Dale in the afternoons and Lynn "Wife-of-SoundMan" will be there in the mornings while we make some personnel changes.
Electro-Voice Celebrates Eight Decades Of Excellence
Electro-Voice is celebrating their 80th anniversary
in September of 2007. To commemorate the occasion,
Electro-Voice unveiled its EV80.com campaign at
PLASA 2007.
From 1927, when company founders Al Kahn and Lou
Burroughs began servicing radio receivers in the
basement of Century Tire and Rubber in South Bend,
Indiana, EV has held its own as an audio innovator.
EV raised the bar with technologies, designs and
products like Variable-D microphones, the
hum-bucking coil, home high-fidelity loudspeaker
components, constant-directivity horns,
noise-canceling microphones, pro-sound loudspeakers
with Ring-Mode Decoupling (RMD) and Manifold
Technology for concert-sound loudspeaker systems
with very high output ability yet relatively
compact size. In 1963, the company even received an
Academy Award for the development of the 642
ultra-directional shotgun microphone that permitted
clear dialogue pickup at a distance, out of camera
range.
Telex Communications (Electro-Voice, Dynacord,
Midas, Klark Teknik, RTS, Telex) was acquired by
Bosch in September 2006 and Bosch Communications
Systems—a business unit of Bosch Security
Systems—was born at the beginning of 2007. As a
brand of Bosch Communications Systems, EV has
access to boundless resources. Bosch’s wealth of
resources and expertise brings almost limitless
potential to the world of EV R&D.
Multi-million dollar investments at EV factories in
the U.S. and Germany have set new industry
standards for pro audio manufacturing. All the
Bosch Communications Systems brands will remain
secure in name, location and quality; Electro-Voice
is—and will always be—Electro-Voice, an American
brand.
A Transformation & An Exit
Vision 2 Marketing has dropped the Bosch community of products in-favor of a deal with Harmon Industries. Apparently "the grass is always greener" expression is in play with this decision to jump ship. They sold the best and are now going to try selling the rest. Good luck with that one guy's. For those of you that follow this website, don't despair, the adventures of SoundMan and V2 Man will continue. Stay tuned...
The other bit of news comes from our friend Bob Edsall of Applied Technologies Group (formally Applied Audio Marketing). After millions of travel miles Bob has decided to retire and close down the business he founded 30 years ago. No longer having Bob as the QSC rep is going to be strange. Happy retirement Bob.
And what does this news mean to you? In a word - nothing. CareySound is still continuing to represent the finest equipment from the best manufactures in the industry. Although a few of the players have changed SoundMan and the crew at CareySound are hard at work making sure that all of the behind the scenes politics do not affect you.
A special message to the victims of this shake-up - Every change brings with it a new opportunity. The SoundMan extends you an invitation to join Team CareySound. You know my number.
News From The Mothership
Klark Teknik has just issued a press release announcing their purchase of the SuperMAC and HyperMAC audio networking business assets from Sony Oxford. SuperMAC technology is the basis of Audio Engineering Society standard "AES50-2005: AES standard for digital audio engineering - High-resolution multi-channel audio interconnection. Klark Teknik will promote the use of AES50, SuperMAC and HyperMAC and license the use of the technology. Support for existing licensees will transfer from Sony Oxford to Klark Teknik. Compliance with the Audio Engineering Society patent policy will be unaffected. Klark Teknik will additionally seek standardisation for the HyperMAC technology.
SuperMAC and HyperMAC together create a high-performance audio interconnection and routing system, designed for a wide range of professional audio applications.
• Single cable duplex interconnection for audio and sample clocks
• SuperMAC offers up to 48 audio channels bi-directionally over CAT5 cable
• HyperMAC offers up to 384 channels bi-directionally over CAT5/6 or fibre
• Ultra-low fully deterministic latency
• Comprehensive error detection and management
• Ethernet physical layer audio data transmission
• Ethernet TCP/IP protocol compatible auxiliary data channel
As well as licensing the technology, Klark Teknik will be launching a range of products using this networking technology, beginning with the DN9696 High Resolution 96 track/96 kHz live performance audio recorder to be previewed at PLASA 07. Further product announcements from 3rd parties are expected shortly.
Ok - so why is this such big news and why should you care?
SuperMAC and HyperMAC are used extensively in the revolutionary Midas XL8 digital mixing console, that we have been reporting on regularly, to provide a highly flexible audio routing and distribution network. It's the communication backbone responsible for he superior performence of the Midas XL8. Now that they no longer have to license the technology from Sony (read - pay a license fee) we can expect to see a host of new affordable digital mixers and other products from Midas. Now thats great news.Let's Play Checkers
The year 1990. The eventThe Fun Fourth Festival in 'Old Greensbrough'. The headlining act Chubby Checker. Sound, Lights and Stage, you guessed it, CareySound. If you look closely you can see a few of our team members and friends. Click here for a bigger picture. I believe Rick Earl is at FOH. Where you there too? Can you spot yourself?
Now Famous in Russia
I was browsing around the web looking for nothing in particular - just to pass the time and found this Russian ProSound site featuring two of my favorite things - Electro-Voice and CareySound. Apparently they picked up on a news release from the EV website on our Phoenix rig. Now if they would just invite SoundMan for a visit. My passport is current and I'm ready to go. Click here for a link to the Russian site and click here for the original press release on the EV site.
This Could Be Yours Too
This Robe moving light has never been used in a production. It was used at three trade shows and one demo. There is only one and it can be yours for ONLY $5,000 which is substantially less than dealer cost. If we don't sell it here it will be put up for auction on Ebay with a reserve of $6,000. This is you chance. Details below:
Robe ColorSpot 1200 AT
The ColorSpot 1200 AT is designed as the ultimate creative tool for large theatre, TV and live shows and for installations in multi-purpose venues and large clubs.The fixture uses a powerful Philips 1200 SA discharge lamp lightsource. This is further boosted by a high quality super-efficient optical system, making the ColorSpot 1200 AT one of the brightest moving fixtures currently on the market. Major features include a versatile CMY colour mixing system, variable CTO plus an additional colour wheel, 12 rotating indexable, replaceable dichroic glass gobos on two wheels offering 48 gobo combinations, iris, 4 rotating prisms and effects, variable frost, an incredibly flexible 13 – 42 degree linear zoom, remote focus, dimmer and shutter. Its progressive colour temperature correction system – from 5600K to 3200K is designed for use in television and film applications.
Call us now at (336) 379-1943.
Distraction Or Necessity?
If you didn't already know this, we are just a little Apple obsessed here at CareySound. All things Apple and Steve's newest toy defiantly ranks high as a necessity, and yes, John and I stood in line on the first day with the rest of the Mac faithful. Even Tommy shared in the excitement and ran out to get his very own new iPhone too.
And speaking of Apple, I have had a few people ask how careysound.com is produced. On a Mac PowerBook of course. The web software is RapidWeaver with numerous plugins and hand coding by John. The photo's are taken with various Cannon EOS digital camera's with an occasional iPhone shot and are edited with IPhoto and ImageWell.
SoundMan Musings
It's been a hard year and I really needed recharging. Being an audio entrepreneur has it up and downs and I have just survived a trusted partner running off with a 30 year accumulation of gear (and my dreams of retirement). A little bit of advice to the next generation of SoundMen. If what drives you is pushing buttons and making noise, then keep it simple. Buy only what you can afford and can handle by yourself. The bigger your company gets the less likely it will be that you get to use anything you worked so hard buy. I have owned $100,000 dollar consoles that I never got to actually use. Believe it or not SoundMan does have other interests and from time to time he does allow himself time off.
One the hardest things in taking time away from my obsessive techie compulsion to turing knobs, push buttons and amplifying sound and a busy schedule of commitments is to find either a block of time long enough to eventually forget about his hectic daily existence or find a place that so completely overwhelms my mind that I can truly decompress and relax. So short of a paid sabbatical or extended leave of absence I tend to look for a destination that can distract me for long enough to relax a little. My first choice is always the desert southwest in general and the wonders of southern Utah in particular. I crave the power of the scorching dry heat of the red rock. Put me in the middle of the majesty of the hoodoo's, needles and arches that make up this region and instantly all visions of flashing lights and moving faders disappear, But unfortunately Utah is not exactly next door and this SoundMans pay grade makes jet-setting a rare indulgence so I have to be content with less ambitious get-a-way destinations. My local hideaway is the NC mountains and thats where I found myself this last weekend looking for a little solitude.
I started off my
weekend with a little work, after all I am a
SoundMan first and foremost and I had to pay for
the gas somehow. My show was in Asheville and at
least it was in the right direction. My thinking
was sound. Drive separately and hitch up the
LittleGuy (my portable home away from home) so I
can slip away to the hills when my duties were
complete, so off I went.
We had agreed to help the band load-in, sure, why
not. What's a few extra pieces of band gear going
to hurt, besides we were getting a few extra buck
for the trouble. Oops! God I hate surprises on show
day.
I'm a proud, Boy Scout trained SoundMan and I take
very seriously that sacred Boy Scout creed - Be
Prepaired. I've honed my facility scouting reports
with years of experience with all manner of
difficult and dangerous load-in's and I asked all
of the right, well rehearsed, litany of questions.
Does the load-in involve any of the following:
small doors, carpet, inclines, more than 50' to the
stage, unlevel truck, freight or personnel
elevators, no ramps or dock plates. You would think
that with a barrage of questions of that nature
that they would get the idea you took this whole
safe load-in thing seriously and would then inform
you of any additional issues specific to their
venue. Darn - stupid me - I forgot all about this
being a don't ask don't tell kind of society now,
so I see I'm going to have to add the following to
my list: frightened grounds keepers, marble statues
and precious limestone stairs & terraces,
bathrooms a half mile away, fighting for the
loading steps with other vendors, and the real deal
breaker - over 200' of deep pea gravel. And would
it seem like I'm just bitching now if I mention the
fact that we arrived on time only to find that the
south-of -the-border crew putting up the stage were
just getting around to starting when we arrived.
That was when I got my first pleasant surprise.
Everybody that got off of the bus was as old as I
was. These guys knew what it is like to work for a
living and there wasn't a sour whinny face on the
buss - they came to perform and it was a pleasure
to work with them. I'm not exactly known for my
fondness of country music so my next pleasant
surprise was wonderful. This band was great. There
is something to be said for, shall we say, such a
mature group (this was no geezer tour, i.e. a bunch
of old guys that have lost their chops still
pretending that they are fifty)- years of practice
perfecting your art. And I got to mix to boot. All
in all another successful day.
When I finally emerged from my peaceful slumber I headed over to the Cellar on Cherry Street for some shrimp and grits. It was Sunday brunch time and they had a guy playing solo acoustic guitar for tips. Nice touch. Good food, pleasant surroundings, a little light music. It's the kind a place that fills it's walls with paintings for sale by local artists. They had a $450 painting in the mens bathroom. Does anybody actually buy the art displayed in the bathroom? I always try to buy the musicians CD. It helps them out with expenses and I think it says I appreciate the talent better just a tip and besides, sometimes the CD is actually as good as they are live and not butchered by overproduction. But this time I saw only a tip jar so I gave him the same respect I get when I perform well - I like to call it the SoundMan tip - I left without complaining to him that it was too loud.
O.K. - back to work - I've got knobs to turn.
Thanks for indulging me - SoundMan
Lurking In The Depths
With all of the excitement of an archeological dig, we descend into the depths of the CareySound catacombs. A real Indiana Jones kind of experience. Epic adventure and all that. Never knowing what technological oddity lays around the next dark corner we continue deeper. What did I just run into. It's too dark down here. We need to bring it to the surface.
This is an interesting find. One wouldn't normally expect to find a lighting artifact in a soundman excavation. I guess we will have to speculate that this first generation Moto-Light moving light fixture had just too much robotic geek creed going for it to resist. Either that or SoundMan is really a closet lighting puke. Say it isn't so SoundMan. Please, say it isn't so.
What Until You Experience Act Three
Act Three The official debut of the new Electro-Voice Phoenix Loudspeaker System will be at the opening event of Signal Festival in Chapel Hill on UNC's campus in the Great Hall Student Union, on Thursday April 26th. CareySound is the official audio sponsor of the three day festival. Click here to go to the SignalFest website for more information.
CareySound is proud to be the ONLY dealer for the Phoenix on the SouthEast Coast.
A Few Great Setup Photo's
Everybody Needs A Pair
Update: The Spotlights have been
SOLD. Watch for more
upcoming items.
This Could Be Yours
All of this Hammond
goodness can be yours for $6,000.00 cash firm.
First with cash takes it. (I'll let you play it for
free if you come by the studio.)
Update: I've had several people ask how old the
organ is. The truth is that pinning a date of
manufacture on a Hammond organ is more of an
something best left to a physic. All I can reliably
tell you that the serial number is
B60701 and that it was purchased
used from Doug Bates at Campbell Music in when they
were in Archdale in about 1980. Since Doug is lo
longer with us I can't tell you it's history before
that. We purchased it for a Delbert McClinton tour
after his hit Giving Up For Your
Love.
Update: The organ was sold today. Thanks for
spreading the news.
The CareySound Difference
Sometimes the most important choice to make is not what to buy but who to buy it from. CareySound installed a system upgrade back in December of last year at Fayetteville St. Baptist Church in Asheboro that included a new MIDAS Venice mixing console and Aaron Cranford, who is regional manager for Peak Tech-nologies and in charge of audio at the church, puts it this way…
"It was a pleasure working with you guys upgrading our system, and we really love our Midas. Over the past few years we had experienced much lesser quality consoles which contributed to many sound deficiencies throughout our auditorium. Some of the church's past music directors had received information and suggestions from other "so-called" sound engineering companies, who obviously didn't really know much about sound equipment, or was just out to make a dollar, and made decisions without checking the quality of the company, much less the quality of the equipment. I am not a music director but I have been around sound reinforcement equipment for many years, it's a hobby and something I enjoy doing. Therefore, I will go around to companies and check out the equipment they sell and how technical their people are. Carey Sound has been at the top of my list since I first came into your store some 4 or 5 years ago.When I saw that you represented the Midas Consoles and EV equipment, I knew that at least you carried some of the finest equipment on the market. But then after talking with some of your folks who work for you, I knew then that Carey Sound had the best quality in equipment and personnel."
"Back in September the Deacons of the Church came to me and asked if I would take over the sound and try to correct it. I pretty much knew what it needed but I came to your shop and talked with Tommy. Tommy came to our Church and we went from one end to the other. Tommy agreed with me but he also pointed out some things that I wasn't aware of that worked out much better, which is why it's nice to work with folks who know what they're doing. Tommy put a quote together, I presented it to the Deacons, who brought it before the Church and a unanimous decision was made to go ahead with the project. I have received many compliments now of how much better it sounds within our auditorium. Everything is working and sounding great. The Midas Console is just outstanding. The sound from it alone is enough to justify it, but the ease of operation is an added luxury that speaks volumes for this piece of equipment. The Sennheiser wireless and EV podium mics sound very clean and professional and the EV floor monitors produce really great quality sound as well. And knowing that we now have a Whirlwind Medusa Snake Cable for all the signals to flow throw removes the fear of RF interference."
When you are looking for answers and solutions, we don't think you should have to try it three or four times to get it right. CareySound supplies you the right solution the first time providing you the best long term value. We consider our Customers lifetime members of our extended family and never just a quick sale."So thanks, Ken, for having the professional people and equipment that takes the worry out of sound engineering."
Perfect Set of Tools
Dynacord Cobra 2 System- EV QRx 115/75 - MIDAS Verona - EV P1200RL monitor amps - KT 9340 Helix EQ - KT RTA - KT SquareOne Dynamics - Dynacord DRP15 - Dynacord DRP10 - DeltaLab 1024DDL - Dynacord DSP244 - Dynacord Crossmax - EV Cardinal, Raven, PL10, RE27, ND957, ND 157, ND308, EV RE510 & EarthWorks Drum microphones - KT DN100 - Ashley Proteà w/remote
Shout Out
My regular readers may remember V2 Man from past exploits here at CareySound.com. What you may not know is that when he isn't out saving the audio universe with his extraordinary strength he is Super Rep Craig Bess of Vision 2 Marketing our Bosh/Telex/EV/KT/Dynacord/MIDAS manufactures representative. I just wanted to say hi to Craig while he is doing NSCA Trade Show duty this week in Orlando and remind him to bring us back some of the GOOD swag. (some cool new toys would be great too)
Web Site Changes
Love That New Smell
There is nothing like the smell of a new equipment. Lonnie Gough of Winston-Salem has completed building his PA system with this brand new EV/KT monitor system form CareySound. It features six EV Zx 5 loudspeakers, three Klark-Teknik SquareOne Grahpic dual 1/3 octave eq's and three EV CP 2200 power amplifiers in a custom shock rack case by Odyssey.
What Happened To The Last MUSEP?
It seems that Greensboro's new privately owned (publicly maintained - read our tax dollars) center city park needs a little more work. Let's see now - compare the first photo taken on Sunday with the MUSEP held there in June of 2004...
and...
it's the incredible shrinking park. Somehow I don't think all of those "improvements" will allow for a MUSEP sized audience. It's amazing how they have turned a wonderful, wildly successful, and not to mention low maintenance community gathering spot on the grass in the middle of the city and turned it into a concrete, stone, shrubs, oh yes, let's not forget the major
Future Techies Of America
I'd put Ms. Veronica Peagler's Technical Theater Students from Ligon Middle School in Raleigh up against any tech crew in the state. Yep - All middle school students. It was truly exciting working with this crew. When asked where they got their tech chops from they all answered in unison Ms. V. I hope they invite us back for some more tech talk.
A Whirlwind Week Of Jazz
The mission of the
Thelonious Monk Institute of
Jazz is to offer public school-based jazz
education programs for young people around the
world, helping students develop imaginative
thinking, creativity, curiosity, a positive self
image, and a respect for their own and others'
cultural heritage.
The Institute's, highly regarded Jazz in America
programs are tailored for middle schooland high
school students to help develop an understanding
and appreciation of jazz music. The series has
traveled to over 20 states over the last two years
and strives to share the positive aspects of jazz
with young people who would otherwise not have the
opportunity to learn about this great national
treasure.
CareySound was honored to be asked to provide
production for the series as it traveled through
North Carolina this last week. It was six stops in
five days. A scaled down Cobra system with a
Dynacord CMS mixer, EV Sx300 monitors and KT
equalization provided quick setup and flawless
performance in a variety of venues.

First Dibs
One click on this new image in the sidebar to the right takes you to our newest site feature. This is the place to look for deals on
CareySound is a full service system based sales company and we offer complete turnkey solutions -think expert personal shopper (see our • Sales Section in the sidebar to the right for more details). This new sale page gives us an avenue to introduce individual items for sale.
(MIDAS XL8) Pictures At An Exhibition
Brandon Potter, head audio production guru of First
Assembly in Winston, smiles when he discovers how
versital, sonically superior and
affordable the XL8 system is.
Call us NOW to find out if you are MIDAS
material.
Unknown Tongues
Click for a sample off of their first albumTongueAndGrooveSample.
Unknown Tongues Live at the Seafood Festival release date October 5th.





























