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[Dave Garoutte]

I'm just north of San Francisco.

I own and operate a small CNC machine shop.
I do production machining, product development and invent stuff.
I'm in the process of going legit (but small) with my sound business.

I love long walks on the beach.. Oops! wrong forum.

I have always loved music, but didn't get into this until my 40s.
I pretend to play bass for fun.

One day, I asked a friend of mine who was putting on a monthly band open mic (open stage?) if I could help.  He said come by for the next one.  When I showed up, he made me the sound guy on the spot.  I'd barely even looked at a console before, let alone run one.  We did 12 bands that night!  No one complained, so I kept doing it.

I love the immediacy of it.  I love the mix of science and art.  I love giving better service and higher quality than is expected.

I've been collecting nice gear, helping out at a local sound company, and doing occasional sound, lighting and stage rental gigs for a while.  I'm starting to build a back-line rental inventory to support the local events.

[Kevin Conlon]

I'm still pretty new here on the forum and as I peruse through the posts I find myself wondering where this person is from or what do they do besides post on the forum . Meaning are you full time employed in the audio/entertainment field or is there another "day" job rounding out your dance card...

If you are full time in this field, what are your specialties? Are you a mixer, system designer, speaker designer, stage tech, product rep, etc...

1. Where are you located
2. Is this all you do or do you have other business
3. How'd you get into it

I'll start with less than mindblowing info:

I'm originally from near Chicago but since January 2011, I've been a Tennessean. I live in Cookeville, well Livingston actually but Cookeville line is literally right across the road.

I am/was employed full time within my own company that specialized in corporate events needing sound and lighting but we also have a DJ side of the biz too, although that's pretty much in Chicago as my DJ still lives there. I've been involved in the industry for most of my life, in one way or another... Growing up my Dad was in bands and also had the business I now own. He was also a partner in one of the very first karaoke clubs in Illinois...

I tried my best to avoid this line of work I went to school for business and graduated with a BA in Marketing. I was drawn back in when I had to cover an event for my Dad as he was recovering from his quadruple bypass. He was scheduled to sing and provide the entertainment for a wedding and told me I had to do it. Unfortunately I CANNOT sing, at all, and I agreed if I could just play music (DJ) the event. The clients were ok with this and off I went. I gathered my CD collection and a pair of CD players and talked a family friend into going to the event to MC the event, I was scared to death to talk on the mic.

The night went great and I actually revived my love for the entertainment industry. I started taking over my Dad's biz and grew a pretty profitable DJ business right off the bat. Sadly, even with my marketing degree, I never really promoted the sound side of biz and subsequently, we kept getting more and more DJ events and less and less sound jobs.. That, along with the fact that my DJ doesn't like the live sound side at all, so I went with the flow and focused on the DJ biz. Only after years of a small sound show here and there did I start to turn things back around to sound and lighting. Former and current clients would call to inquire about names to call for their other events and it hit me like a ton of bricks, I had NEVER even discussed my ability to do it with them.... I took advantage of those opportunities as best I could from then on out.

Opportunities that I never noticed, or weren't there, began to arise for me to return back to my true love, live sound. I was just getting traction back home when the opportunity for us to move to Tennessee came about. After a lot of thought and prayer, here we are.

The first year I sat back and surveyed the area as to what opportunities there were and what needs there were and who could fill them here an hour East of Nashville. The second year I started engaging a bit but, I still kept busy with business in Chicago so not a lot materialized here in Tennessee. Now we are starting year 3, literally our anniversary of moving was just 5 days ago, and it's time to kick it into high gear. I'm fighting a small town area in which I'm clearly an outsider or newcomer so it's been a bit challenging but I like a good challenge.

So there it is, I'm from Cookeville, TN and I own a small event production company and I tried to escape this line of work only to realize, it's what I love and always have.. So I'm back and trying to make up for lost time.

Just thought it'd be cool to learn who some of you are, what part of the world you live in and what it is that you do.

Next.....

no one has posted for a while so i am. I am 80 miles south of Nashville. Moved here from Jersey in 86. Always loved the mixing thing, learned from hanging around a local ( Jersey )
 provider. I have been and still am a motorcycle mechanic, since 1981. Just about hate it anymore, but it pays the bills. Have done some gigs around Cookeville, and buy inventory for another venture there from time to time. Would like to be full time audio, but ain't going to happen in this small town. I do go back to Jersey/NY for some good events a time or two a year, great fun and get to see old friends and family. PM me if you need a good hand for a gig.   Kevin.

[Michael Thompson]

1. Where are you located
2. Is this all you do or do you have other business
3. How'd you get into it

I'll start with less than mindblowing info:

I'm originally from near Chicago but since January 2011, I've been a Tennessean. I live in Cookeville, well Livingston actually but Cookeville line is literally right across the road.

I am/was employed full time within my own company that specialized in corporate events needing sound and lighting but we also have a DJ side of the biz too, although that's pretty much in Chicago as my DJ still lives there. I've been involved in the industry for most of my life, in one way or another... Growing up my Dad was in bands and also had the business I now own. He was also a partner in one of the very first karaoke clubs in Illinois...

I tried my best to avoid this line of work I went to school for business and graduated with a BA in Marketing. I was drawn back in when I had to cover an event for my Dad as he was recovering from his quadruple bypass. He was scheduled to sing and provide the entertainment for a wedding and told me I had to do it. Unfortunately I CANNOT sing, at all, and I agreed if I could just play music (DJ) the event. The clients were ok with this and off I went. I gathered my CD collection and a pair of CD players and talked a family friend into going to the event to MC the event, I was scared to death to talk on the mic.

The night went great and I actually revived my love for the entertainment industry. I started taking over my Dad's biz and grew a pretty profitable DJ business right off the bat. Sadly, even with my marketing degree, I never really promoted the sound side of biz and subsequently, we kept getting more and more DJ events and less and less sound jobs.. That, along with the fact that my DJ doesn't like the live sound side at all, so I went with the flow and focused on the DJ biz. Only after years of a small sound show here and there did I start to turn things back around to sound and lighting. Former and current clients would call to inquire about names to call for their other events and it hit me like a ton of bricks, I had NEVER even discussed my ability to do it with them.... I took advantage of those opportunities as best I could from then on out.

Opportunities that I never noticed, or weren't there, began to arise for me to return back to my true love, live sound. I was just getting traction back home when the opportunity for us to move to Tennessee came about. After a lot of thought and prayer, here we are.

The first year I sat back and surveyed the area as to what opportunities there were and what needs there were and who could fill them here an hour East of Nashville. The second year I started engaging a bit but, I still kept busy with business in Chicago so not a lot materialized here in Tennessee. Now we are starting year 3, literally our anniversary of moving was just 5 days ago, and it's time to kick it into high gear. I'm fighting a small town area in which I'm clearly an outsider or newcomer so it's been a bit challenging but I like a good challenge.

So there it is, I'm from Cookeville, TN and I own a small event production company and I tried to escape this line of work only to realize, it's what I love and always have.. So I'm back and trying to make up for lost time.

Just thought it'd be cool to learn who some of you are, what part of the world you live in and what it is that you do.

Next.....
[/quote]

1. Redwood City (30 minutes south of San Francisco)
2. Sound is my primary business, but I also manage a 600 seat performing arts center
3. I was always around music and electronics growing up.  My father played drums and worked in TV transmitter maintenance.  I had learned drums pretty well very early, but then in my early teens I picked up a guitar and it was all over.  Not only did I start learning guitar, but I got into amplifiers, first just out of necessity, making repairs and recapping old cheap amps that I would blow up, but it never stopped evolving.  By 16 I was working in a music shop, doing odd repairs, changing guitar pickups etc...Then the opportunity came knocking to travel doing corporate AV installs.  I did that for about 8 years and worked my way up, all the while doing freelance FOH and building PA systems for fun.  When the install gig ended, I decided to do what had grown from a pass time into an addiction, sound and all things related to it.  These days, I spend as much time designing loudspeakers and other audio gear as I do anything else.

[Bill Koonce]

1. I just moved to Albuquerque NM after living in or near Chicago mostly.

2. I'm semi-retired, which means I'm too young to stop working, but am not going back to the corporate grind if I can help it. I'm doing some per diem work in TV to keep busy, and keeping my eye open for an established small business to buy.

3. I learned to build, maintain and operate sound reinforcement systems in a church youth program. I taught myself theatrical lighting when I found myself in a drama class my senior year. After graduation I took every opportunity I could find to practice the craft, designing PA systems, doing FOH mixing and sometimes lighting, and making power distribution systems to keep the lighting noise out of the sound systems. I never made much of a living at it, so I eventually went to college and got a "real" job, but remained an audiophile. I often used parts of my home stereo system as a makeshift PA for parties.

After I buried my mother and headed south I got asked to do some FOH mixing, and the bug bit me again. Now that I have money in the bank and lots of business experience under my belt, I'm currently replacing my collection of odds and ends collected over the years with all new gear, talking with bands and even signing up to volunteer at the local megachurch, which has more DiGiCo consoles than David Gilmour had when I saw him this spring. Hey, church work worked pretty well before!

[David Smeaton]

1. Where are you located - I am located in Gloucester, UK

2. Is this all you do or do you have other business - I work in IT in an application support type role.  Music is a hobby

3. How'd you get into it - I kind of fell into it. 

I joined a band who had just lost their singer, who owned the PA.  We auditioned and took on a female singer who happened to have her own PA (powered mixer and Martin Audio speakers).  It was all too heavy for her to move around (her ex-husband had always done that for her) so someone had to volunteer to help her with the gear.  Anyway, the first time we came to use the stuff she admitted that she had no idea what any of it really did, so one of us had to learn pretty quickly.  No one else was interested so it fell to me.  Anyway she left and we got a new singer and bought a PA (Mackie SRM450s and CFX12 mkII) and I was left to learn how to use it, playing guitar, singing and mixing from stage as required. 

I bumbled along like this for many years until last year I decided to learn properly and invested in a hands on course and then a QU-16 and now I am looking at subs and so on.  I still see myself as a guitar player who sings and also does the sound.  The band seem happy with what I am doing so I must be doing something right. 

[ross mitchell]

Sounds like a few of us North Coast ( Cleveland, Ohio area) guys here

In in that area too...actually in Eaton Twnsp., Lorain County which is a bit West of Cleveland. Kind of out in the country which is how I like it.

Aside from playing drums in a small Country Band I also run sound for a southern rock band and for a local rock band. Between the 3 I'm usually busy 6 times or so per month.

During the day I am a sales engineer for a mechanical contracting company specializing in  AC/Heating, piping and duct for institutional and industrial applications.
Sounds super boring, but it's actually super fun.

Got into the sound aspect in my teens working for a sound company as a helper and then monitor engineer and eventually FOH.  Working in bands as a drummer all my life I amassed most the band gear and as I tapered off the playing I found I could make more money and carry less by just doing sound. As I got older I paired down to small gear and digital mixers.  These days I can do an entire show with just my van to transport.  The 2 bands I run mix for only require me to print my iPad, so I haul no gear !

Lots of fun and keeps me in the social network scene   

And I'm not a newbie...had to change my username

[John Rutirasiri]

Folks, not trying to be a prick here but some employment agreements/contracts strictly forbid moonlighting. 

I would be a little discrete if you have a day job --  no need to spell out what company you work for.

John R.

[Ianevans]

Hei man, I am from Georgia and there are not too many great things happening lately.

I started to work as mechanical engineering two years ago, but got fired two weeks ago without any further detail from my boss. Don't really know what is happening and he did not want to tell about it, but i guess the reason why i got fired because there is new guy coming in.

Now, i am working as a technician on small shop near my house. Not too great, but lucky enough because the owner is so good to me.

[Tim McCulloch]

Folks, not trying to be a prick here but some employment agreements/contracts strictly forbid moonlighting. 

I would be a little discrete if you have a day job --  no need to spell out what company you work for.

John R.

It turns out that many of those agreement terms are unenforceable, like most of the non-compete clauses that are so vague that you could be prevented for doing almost any job distantly related to ones current employment.  Courts have held that such agreements cannot be unreasonable (like preventing you from working in your field, with excessive geographic restraint or whose duration is too long).

Still could be an ugly, expensive fight with an employer but as a general rule your employer cannot prevent you from enjoying your hobby (if you're not making a profit from running audio or playing in a band, it's a hobby).

[Jonathan Johnson]

Folks, not trying to be a prick here but some employment agreements/contracts strictly forbid moonlighting. 

I work for an IT consulting firm that supports small businesses. We don't have any kind of contract or non-compete that forbids moonlighting. Some of my coworkers moonlight, and the company is fine with that.

Here are the reasons I don't moonlight in IT:

• It potentially takes business away from my employer.
• It changes friendships into business relationships. If I'm going to a friend's/relative's house, I want to visit, not work on their computers. When your friends owe you something, it spoils the friendship. Besides, with computers, it can be tough to predict how long it will take to fix something. Could be minutes, could be hours.
• I don't want to. I want a life outside of work.

That said, I do "moonlight" some audio work. It's not competing with my employer's business, and it's something I enjoy doing. I can limit how much of it I do; I can say "no" without feeling an economic consequence. And, yes, I do audio work for friends and relatives, and it does feel like the relationship changes a bit when I charge them for my services, but they understand that the equipment costs something to maintain. Besides, my circle of friends is populated with a TON of self-employed people, so they understand the cost of running a business or a hobby-as-a-service and don't try to score a deal just because they are friends.

[ProSoundWeb Community]