IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS!

One of my techs used to work in the Army. He told me a story about how he got a radio to repair one day and the tag read "Does not work in OFF mode".
I’ve seen that statement on signs posted at military locations. Usually starts with “WARNING!” Really? You have to be told that?
 
Great advice. For me, I think way too many folks use rigs that are way too complicated. We constantly hear about these issues and then see a description of the rig and it’s mind numbing. An example are wireless units. I can’t tell you how many guys I see buy these expensive wireless rigs to play gigs where there never get more than 5 feet from their amp the whole night. I guess I’m old school but my guitar goes in the front of the Ax, the Ax goes straight to my cabinet and/or FOH and I have 2 pedals that plug straight in to the FC12. So, my humble amendment to the rule would be: if you don’t need it, take it out!
 
I'm a professional sound designer currently working at a big 5 tech company on cutting edge audio technology. As an expert, I can say that things sound best when the speakers are turned on.

Thanks Cliff! Golden rule for sure.

Oh man. I got new QSC K12s and was all excited for my first gig with them. So we start playing and like 3 songs in someone is like dude there's no sound from the left side. I panicked for a minute until I realized the thing was just off. I don't even know I didn't notice during sound check.
 
Yeah I used to work in phone support for a TV cable company here in Portugal when I was young. People would be offended all the time when I asked them to check the remote batteries and it the plug was in or if the tv was on. I usually had to insist for them to check again because I "made something to fix it" (I didn't) and a large percentage of the time yeah it was something obvious like that happening.

So I understand your pain.
 
It might be worth a little III FAQ sticky with the lead (common sense) advice and the usual questions re new firmware updates that get asked
 
Not long after I got my first Axe-Fx II and MFC-101, I set up for a local gig and could not get signal through my guitar rig. The meters on the Axe-Fx were showing signal going in, but nothing was making it out. I tried different cables to no avail. Panic mode hit. I rushed home and grabbed my POD XT Live and did the gig with it, bummed that my new Axe-Fx wasn't working. When I got home, I plugged in the Fractal rig and it worked perfectly. A few gigs later I had the same "no signal out" problem right before we were supposed to start playing. It was then I realized the expression pedal that controls the Volume block in every one of my presets was heel down. Doh! Now, any time I'm trying to figure out a "no signal" issue with my rig, my bandmates ask me if I've tried the volume pedal.
 
Not long after I got my first Axe-Fx II and MFC-101, I set up for a local gig and could not get signal through my guitar rig. The meters on the Axe-Fx were showing signal going in, but nothing was making it out. I tried different cables to no avail. Panic mode hit. I rushed home and grabbed my POD XT Live and did the gig with it, bummed that my new Axe-Fx wasn't working. When I got home, I plugged in the Fractal rig and it worked perfectly. A few gigs later I had the same "no signal out" problem right before we were supposed to start playing. It was then I realized the expression pedal that controls the Volume block in every one of my presets was heel down. Doh! Now, any time I'm trying to figure out a "no signal" issue with my rig, my bandmates ask me if I've tried the volume pedal.
Doh!!! I have done silly stuff like that as well. I had my volume pedal close to one of my external switches and I kept accidentally turning my volume down every time I went to hit the switch.
 
On a similar note, I recently spent 5 minutes trying to work out why my webcam wasn't working.

Of course, I felt pretty stupid when I realised I'd left the plastic privacy cap on.

When the inevitable AI armageddon finally happens our downfall will be a loose network cable somewhere 👌
 
Many many years ago, I was in charge of PA for a band I was playing in. We had a gig in Presque Isle Maine, fairly North, dead of winter. Big blizzard when we arrived, day before the first night of the run, so we parked the truck and went to bed. Got up next day, set up, and the JBL horns on both PA stacks were dead. Of course logic says, well, what's common to the horns on both sides, and I went digging, didn't find anything.

Eventually I proved that both horns actually were dead. They got cold enough overnight that when we brought them in, moisture condensed inside, dissolving the glue that holds the voice coils to the diaphragms. First signal hits, voice coil moves, diaphragm doesn't, they separate, all done. We played with no horns that night, no choice.

Sound company overnighted us new diaphragms. They also complained to JBL, and the glue got changed to something more waterproof.

So, it's not ALWAYS pilot error PEBCAK.
 
A few years ago I was working on a game for the Nintendo GameCube. I'd spent a very painful few days tracking down and fixing a bug that caused the display to go black. A couple of days later I came in to work and - oh no! - the dreaded GPU bug was back. I must have spent half an hour hacking around before I realised I hadn't turned on the TV.
 
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