Re: Portable Power/PA

[Alex Stahl <alex@pixar.com>]

The Galaxy gel-cell-plus-inverter box is nice but Far Outlet is just too
cuuute of a name.

You can make your own for a lot less. I used one of those sealed battery
packs sold for emergency car-starting, a small 12V-120V inverter, and a
plastic box.  It works well, and I have the ticket to prove it! The first
time I used my remote setup, we were cited for "recording music without a
permit in a national park" in the Golden Gate Headlands. I had a Neumann
mic in one of the concrete bunker/echo chambers there, looped through an
Eventide H3000 playing back into Cambridge Model 11 suitcase speakers in
other parts of the bunker, and a stereo mic to record the whole mess on
DAT. The more expensive inverters provide cleaner power, but I didn't have
any hum or buzz problems with the $50 "modified sine-wave" unit I used.

The Cambridge Model 11 has more in common with home stereo than PA, but it
is a convenient package that runs on 12V and sounds pretty good at
"acoustic" levels. Basically it's a pair of little speakers and a little
amp that come in a suitcase, and the suitcase doubles as a woofer once you
unpack it.

I had no idea there were laws about recording outdoors (especially the
ridiculously quiet ambient stuff we were doing), and fortunately neither
did the judge, who dismissed it and sent me home with a frameworthy memento
and a good anecdote.

-Alex S.


>Anyone looking for a portable supply of AC power and a portable PA system
>might want to check out Galaxy Audio:
>
>http://www.galaxyaudio.com/GalaxyP.html
>
>They make a portable AC box and portable PA systems.  Not exactly cheap,
>but probably easier to deal with than generators, and a lot less noisy!
>
>I haven't used these products myself, but Location Sound Corp.
>(locationsound.com) carries them and they are very reputable company.
>
>Matt