By George Petersen

Here we are, welcoming in a new year. At least today, we’re all moving slightly faster than yesterday, when we were all feeling the pain and paying the price for the all excesses of the night before. Mine weren’t too bad, I guess, but after hosting a party at my house with a huge music jam that finally broke up around 5:30am on the morning of the first, anyone can feel pretty burned out the next day or so…

But if anything, a new year marks a new beginning—a fresh start so to say. And rather than call them “resolutions,” this is good time to plan out the coming year. Live sound companies know this period pretty well and (after winding all the cables from the New Year’s shows) find the January lull provides a chance to check their inventory and examine new purchases with the traditional moving of components from their “A” systems down into their “B” systems, “C” systems and so on. The hand-me-downs from the “C” and “D” systems can be sold/cast off to someone else, providing a constant cycling (or recycling) of new items into the chain.

This is also a good time to inject a little maintenance into your lives. No, it’s not as exciting as buying new toys, but even something as simple as sitting down and checking all your cables for shorts, opens, missing grounds or reversed polarity can–and will–pay off in terms of avoiding hassles down the road.

Especially in a virtual studio world, maintenance is essential, even if it’s no more than coming up with a regular schedule of backups for that day when (NOT if) your system goes south. This might also be that special moment when you should think about adding more RAM or looking into a new CPU, especially with the eventual arrival of Windows Vista or Mac Leopard.

Even the little things count. Whether you’re working live or in the studio, those small touches like cleaning the mic windscreens every once in a while is a great idea. On the gross scale, few things pin the needle faster than a stinky pop screen, so every once in a while, give them a quick cleaning dip (do make sure you remove the mic BEFORE doing this) or a least scrape the little bits of brie off them now and then. Your clients will thank you for this….

Anyway, welcome to 2007. But while we’re at it, let’s make this world a better place. Don’t forget those occasional unprovoked acts of kindness. If everybody gave some random motorist a break on the road just once a day, that would equate to a billion good deeds a day…. a pretty good start.

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.

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