* Microphone Placement Techniques for Theatre
* Las Vegas Job Hunting Resources
* Stuff to Do in Las Vegas - Besides Gamble

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I have a lot of text books and reference materials, here are some of the references I can recommend:

* Handbook for Sound Engineers, Third Edition Edited by Glen Ballou - What a great reference. Chapters written by Dr. Ahnert, Pat Brown, Ralph Heinz, F. Alton Everest, Ken Pohlmann, Ray Rayburn, Bill Whitlock and a host of others. Really a great reference by the best of the best.

* Sound System Engineering by Don and Carolyn Davis - All audio engineers ought to have a copy of this book. Physics and electronics haven’t changed, and this book is just a valid now, as was the first edition in 1975.

* The Audio Dictionary by Glenn D. White - Very well written and entertaining, especially for a “Dictionary”. Covers audio, electronics, radio, recording, dsp, and music. There is also a great appendix on “How to Subdue a Hi-Fi Salesman”.

* The Sound Reinforcement Handbook - Ubiquitous. The others are better, but this one is a little more “plain english”.

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If your serious about Audio Engineering, you need to be a member of the professional organizations. It’s not that expensive, and having access to the current and past Journal submissions is a very valuable resource.

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A very valuable resource maintained by Jim Bay.
From the Theatre-Sound web Site:
> The Theatre Sound Mailing List is a forum for people who do sound for musical theatre or plays, concerts, worship services, etc.
We have over 600 participants in at least 17 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and of course the USA. The list has been running steadily since 1996, first courtesy of io.com in Texas, and then later courtesy of America Online’s “Give Back to the Net” program.

> Members range from Broadway Pro’s to High School Kids; this is a non-elitist forum. It’s also a very high signal-to-noise forum; off-topic discussions usually get quashed by the other list participants.
The list’s archives are a tremendous resource, created by the list members. Posts may be browsed by month, subject, or author, or may be searched.

> What’s a Mailing List? — in this case it’s an automated responder that takes mail you send to it and forwards it to all of the other subscribers. When someone replys to a message on the list, it also goes to the entire list of people…thus facilitating discussions. The mailing list format is generally fairly high-speed (unlike usenet newsgroups) and is available to users of any size system or computer platform.

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A web site maintained by mastering engineer Bob Katz. I find the articles section of particular interest. He has some great things to say about dynamic range management, the volume war syndrome that record companies have fallen into, as well as the real truth about what digital processing does to the audio signal. Mr. Katz also has a list the best Mastered CD’s. This entire site is a real gem.

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I know, I know, but RaneNotes is a really fanatastic wealth of literature. Some of my favorites are the Bandwidth Calculator, and a well written document on the often misinformed topic of Constant Voltage Audio Distribution (70v systems). There are also papers on topics ranging from Sound System Gain Staging to shielding and grounding.

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There are a lot of things the movies do right, and I think the standards and handling of dialogue are among them. There is a method to the madness (sometime not always followed) but at least they are trying. Take a look at : Are Movies too Loud? from the Dolby site.

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Here we go. This tends to be a large topic, and widely misunderstood. I see lots of questions about how Clear-com works (or doesn’t as the case may be). Follow this link to Clear-Com’s manuals. Among other things there is a Party Line installation manual. -Be sure to check out the section on System Checkout which describes a useful method for determining proper terminiation. If you are having problems interfacing wireless base stations into your system without inducing a hum, be sure to look at the MT-1. If you use an MT-1, read the section on terminiation again.

Another resource for good Icom info is located http://www.epanorama.net/links/intercom.html. This is kind of a hodge-podge of info for several different types of com, but there is good info on interfacing, and the methods that various manufacturers use.

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* ArsTechnica —-A fantastic resource for computer and technology related information. They have really good coverage for both Mac and PC related issues and news, reviews, and a shopping engine. As well as excellent papers on CPU theory and Praxis. They also maintain one of the largest forums on the internet. If you want opinions, general discussion or a good laugh, take a look there. The site is maintained by a group of guys from Boston. They routinely have impromptu get-togethers in the Boston area, open to all. Check it out.

* GotApex —- Self described as “Redline your PC and Get Mileage from your Wallet.” Definitely the very best deals on the net. They get the inside track to deals and coupon codes that no one else has. Apex also happens to be a regular on the ArsTechnica forums.