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   Herein is a recollection of a project that combined my enthusiam     
   of all things music, recording, mixing, production and public     
   presentation.   
      
   (Today, I would be perfectly fine living as a hermit - but that     
   is another story for another day.)   
      
   My highschool gym was equipped with 4 tower PA speakers in the   
   corners.  There was nothing but distortion and echos everytime   
   it was used.  But using just two at the front (on each side of   
   the stage) didn't seem to be any imporovement or powerful enough   
   when the place was packed with 1100 students.   
      
   I had a little musical project at that time. I would create   
   musical parodies in the style of "Mr.Jaws":   
      
     https://youtu.be/kDNlSpKLEEo   
      
   A 2009 remake of that is pretty good too:   
      
     https://youtu.be/lfwOqGSNWM8   
      
   My versions were based on interviews with the adults, staff, and   
   teachers. My character would roam the halls of the school and   
   ask questions as I encountered the teachers, principal and   
   v.principal. It was fun to get away with poking fun at them. I   
   made sure that my oversexed mind had an opportunity to make   
   jokes about their inter-relations and any other rumours that   
   might have been known at that time.   
      
   Anyway.. the existing 4-speaker setup sounded terrible. There   
   was no "low end", no bass.  The echoing destroyed the tight   
   timing the recordings needed between the spoken word and the   
   music clip.   
      
   One day, I happend to "notice" a pair of giant round (they were   
   4 feet in diameter) horn speakers in one electrical class. They   
   were originally used for outdoor events and nothing else. I   
   asked about those for the gym. The teacher suggested the perfect   
   amp for them. He made the installation a class project.   
      
   The parody sounded GREAT. No echoing. Great dynamics. Lots of   
   punch.   
      
   To entertain students at the end of the day, I'd have a reel-to-   
   reel tape playing rock hits.   
      
   When it came time to play the parody during the official event,   
   I had to stop the tape during each segment while everyone was   
   laughing so hard. I couldn't play it through in real-time like   
   the Mr. Jaws recording because of the laughing going on - they'd   
   miss the next joke if I let it run.   
      
   I was a huge hit.  I made a total of three parodies during my   
   last two years in highschool.   
      
   They were aired on the local radio station in town later on.   
      
   The originals were copied from the reel-to-reel to cassette. The   
   cassette was converted to MP3. The MP3 copies reside on either   
   an old hdd that I used with WinME or Ubuntu - but I can't   
   remember.   
      
   Everyone (ie students) thought it was a bad idea to remove the   
   horns from the gym. Going back to the original 4-corner 4-   
   speakers sounded pathetic and simply encouraged people not to   
   attend. They continued to use the 4-corner system for other   
   music events - they all sounded terrible.   
      
   The experience with the horn speakers had me hooked from then   
   on. I wouldn't mind owning any of the Klipsch models.   
      
   I missed my true calling. I'd be very confortable in a recording     
   studio.   
      
   --   
     ../|ug   
      
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