Preface: I know very little about live sound. I know even less about mixing equipment. While I’m audio enthusiast, my most recent significant audio purchase was a set of Klipsch speakers for a home theater… in 1999 😲

So when it came time to cobble together some equipment MBI Winds, I did a lot of asking around. There were plenty of people in the area with experience using the Behringer X32. So we got an X32 Rack which would fit in our small audio cart nicely.

When I try to figure out how to do something on the X32, my first stop is YouTube. It’s probably by someone who does sound for their church, so their application might not be the same as yours. They’re also likely using the full X32 console mixer – the OG big boy.

I don’t have the luxury or ease-of-use that comes with the full console that has all the buttons. Instead, it can be even more confusing because I have three options to configure the mixer:

  1. The screen on the front of the X32 Rack (same as the big console, which makes YouTube Videos still helpful)
  2. The X32-Edit cross-platform application (Windows, Mac, Linux)
  3. The X32 Mix iOS App on iPad
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When we were putting together MBI Winds last year, I started asking around about equipment early in the summer. A nearby high school had a plastic sound cart that they hated. They said they were going to throw it away, so it was free for the taking 😲

I picked up the roto-molded SKB Gig Rig and we quickly put it into service. It was worse for wear. Missing the end cover doors, wheels that needed TLC, many latches broken. For the first season we used it as-is and just put a ratchet strap around the whole thing to hold it together since the latches were broken 😂

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Hey y’all, it’s been a while. I straight up neglected my 10+ year run of fortnightly posts in November & December 2023. But with a new year comes a renewed commitment to all-the-things, and I am going to make this site one of them.

Besides me, I hope that others can rekindle their love of longer form content. Not everything fits in 280 characters or a single photo. Your stories shouldn’t be held captive in the golden cage of meta.

Maybe you could start or renew your commitment to writing on a schedule as well. It’s cathartic, I promise 😎

I got to ride bikes twice in Italy. The first time I almost died. But I chose to ride again because it was still wonderful in a chaotic way.

E-Bikes – a game changer

I rented a bike in Rome and also in Florence. Both were electric pedal assist. Riding them is so incredibly easy – you could blast around without ever breaking a sweat. E-bikes are a “no excuses” type of transportation.

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As someone with celiac, I had a lot of reservations about traveling to Italy. But then I read an article that explained how good (actually great) it is. I won’t re-hash everything they said, but I will reinforce much of it. Plus I’ll share some times when the experience went from good to simply fair. Above all I want to stress that dining out in Italy is much better regarding food allergies (and similar conditions like celiac) than in the US. When it’s fair instead of good, that’s when it’s on par with the United States.

Consider Prosciutto – Italy’s favorite dry-cured ham. When they dry the hog’s hind leg, the open end is stuccoed – covered with a lard and flour mix to seal it from the outside. Italy (yes the whole country) changed from wheat flour to rice flour for celiacs. Same great taste, now gluten free for everyone!

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