[LAD] OT: Mixing audio: Implementing pan and balance

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2013-03-16 at 13:25 +0000, John Rigg wrote:
> Anyone who mixes sound as a job (and wants to keep it)

Keeping a job depends to several things. I once had a boss who ask me to
repair a "stereo microphone".

This "stereo microphone" was a Sennheiser MD421. He already had
"soldered" the cable, I won't call the soldering joints he made,
soldering joints. XLR to 6.3mm, aka ¼" stereo jack and connected it to
the stereo connector of a cassette recorder. It didn't work.

So the "Tonmeister" (master of audio and video engineering) never heard
about a balanced connection, he was convinced that it must be a stereo
connection. I only was "technischer Angestellter" (an ordinary engineer
without papers).

Everybody was laughing about this idiot, today a lot of people aren't
laughing anymore, but they hate him, they had to sue him, he is still
well known in my hometown, he has got the talent to get money from
communal art funding etc..

The funny thing is, that the studio had phasing issues, before I started
working there and a radio station rejected to play productions made by
this studio. This didn't matter, because the money came from communal
art funding, youth project founding etc.. When they sue him, it wasn't
easy, since he had enough "friends" in important communal positions.