The Black Pad

Phan226 · Unread post by **Phan226** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:24 am

Anyone know what the black pad dave stands on behind the mike is for? i have seen it in all the pics/dvds. does it act as a switch for his mike? or is it just there?

davehead#34 · Unread post by **davehead#34** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:32 am

wow, good question. I've seen that many times, anyone know???

i-am-me · Unread post by **i-am-me** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:37 am

maybe its just a place for him to stand...... :roll:

i dunno. lol

Phan226 · Unread post by **Phan226** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:06 am

....yah but its there EVERY show! it must serve some other purpose

Thomas · Unread post by **Thomas** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:20 am

most bands while playing live have something like that to stand on, sometimes they use mats or little rugs but they are there just to make them more comfortable.

it may seem dumb but if you stand in one place for 2-3 hours every night the difference between the hard floor and a padded mat is VERY noticable.

i-am-me · Unread post by **i-am-me** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:22 am

or....its just a mat so he knows where to stand and be the perfect distance from the mic. or maybe its comfy!

EDIT: this should have come up before the previous post....now it looks retarded!

dmb_tatertot · Unread post by **dmb_tatertot** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:33 am

I think its prob just a comfort thing. I know i get tired of playing standing up after 2 hours, i cant imagine how he must feel.

Snyder · Unread post by **Snyder** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:37 am

I can answer this one. After spending 4 years standing guard duty in the military, one of those little black mats saved my feet from getting extremely sore. You wouldn't believe the difference. When I was in China during the winter, I found a little plank of wood to stand on. It actually made it feel like I was standing on a soft heated cushion compared to the cold 02 below cement. I am placing a good bet it's for comfort while he's up there rocking the house.

KevinGTArch · Unread post by **KevinGTArch** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:00 pm

Actually...

It's a switch to turn his microphone on. I'll try to remember and post later the whole explanation of how it worked so I can back myself up on this but I'll try to summarize from memory for now.

The sound techs ran into problems with leaving the microphone on during the entire show - mainly feedback from the drums during non-vocal parts of songs. Given that Carter's drum cage is so extensive and so dominant this could be a real problem. The solution was a system of two switches (I'm bad on the tech details, probably two for redundancy) covered by a black mat which turns on the microphone when Dave stands on it. If you watch the videos of performances you can notice that usually his feet stay planted (aside from a dance step here and there) over the black mat WHILE singing. We get the crazy Dave dance when he steps off the mic pad to play out.

I also remember that the techs gave each of the switches names - one is named "Jerry" after Jerry Garcia but the other name escapes me right now. I'll try and do some digging to find the original information later. I may have read it over at nancies.org - DMB's stage crew is always posting over there.

Hope this helps!

KB

dmbRJR · Unread post by **dmbRJR** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:23 pm

It is a pad that turns his mike on and off. Kevin is accurate with what he said, I read it somewhere too and I know Garcia is one of the names on the pad, but I forget the other one. It is posted on Nancies somewhere.

Speenis · Unread post by **Speenis** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:24 pm

KevinGTArch wrote:Actually...

It's a switch to turn his microphone on. I'll try to remember and post later the whole explanation of how it worked so I can back myself up on this but I'll try to summarize from memory for now.

The sound techs ran into problems with leaving the microphone on during the entire show - mainly feedback from the drums during non-vocal parts of songs. Given that Carter's drum cage is so extensive and so dominant this could be a real problem. The solution was a system of two switches (I'm bad on the tech details, probably two for redundancy) covered by a black mat which turns on the microphone when Dave stands on it. If you watch the videos of performances you can notice that usually his feet stay planted (aside from a dance step here and there) over the black mat WHILE singing. We get the crazy Dave dance when he steps off the mic pad to play out.

I also remember that the techs gave each of the switches names - one is named "Jerry" after Jerry Garcia but the other name escapes me right now. I'll try and do some digging to find the original information later. I may have read it over at nancies.org - DMB's stage crew is always posting over there.

Hope this helps!

KB

thats very interesting

dmbRJR · Unread post by **dmbRJR** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:25 pm

Need to clarify. It turns Dave's mic on. It doesn't turn Mike on (maybe it does)

adamondo · Unread post by **adamondo** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:40 pm

dmbRJR wrote:Need to clarify. It turns Dave's mic on. It doesn't turn Mike on (maybe it does)

teehehehe.

budlitebrad · Unread post by **budlitebrad** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:43 pm

"The pad is a hard wired switch that unmutes Dave's vocal mic in the FOH mixing board so that when Dave steps away from the mic the drums don't bleed into the mix. It is actually two pads next to one another. They were originally made for the Grateful Dead to do the same thing, and if you see the bottoms of them one says 'Phil' and the other says 'Jerry'."

Phan226 · Unread post by **Phan226** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:24 pm

im impressed....nice guys....dont you think that should go in the gear section?

DMBTabs.com

The Black Pad

The Black Pad

Correct...

Correction...

Re: Correction...

Who is online