Yesterday was interesting to say the least. It as just another normal day, two 1-hour jobs, one of which was about 65 miles from home. About 20 minutes into the job the laptop's screen turned white and nothing was visible. No problem. Finished the job using just the keyboard and amp, didn't worry about the lyrics cause most are imbedded in the cobwebs of my mind, and the few midi files that were used were also stored on the keyboard's USB Thumb Drive as backup files.

The next job, which was 25 miles closer to home was only 90 minutes after the first job, therefore, the entire job was done without the aid of the laptop. Again, it was a 1-hour job, which most of us can do standing on our left ear and doesn't require a laptop unless you cannot remember lyrics at all.

Today, it was a 3-hour job, followed by a 1-hour job. For this I fired up the backup laptop, a Dell that I purchased about a year ago just in case the primary laptop failed. All the files were identical, and everything went very smoothly.

The bottom line is if you are doing this stuff for a living, you need backups. Tomorrow morning the primary laptop will go to the repair shop. If the repairs will be $100 or less, I'll tell them to fix the old one. If not, Dell is selling laptops for $499 and I will order one if the old computer fix is too expensive.

I'm a stickler for backups. I have a backup everything, and while I do not have a pair or Bose PAS systems, I do have the Z-5500 and a Motion Sound to fall back on if the Bose fails. Also have a spare PSR-3000, spare mics, cables, power packs, Digitech VR, and even a spare van. The only thing I do not have a spare for is my wife, (though it has been considered at times! ).

IMO, you just can't have enough spares!

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

You're 100% right. I back up, but not nearly as often as I should. And what's really dumb is I keep the originals and backups in the same room...

I have back up keyboards to go to...if my main keyboard goes down,,,but since I never had a keyboard go down where I could not fire it up again, I decided not to haul a back up board anymore...It must be at least 18 years since I carried a back up keyboard..
My mentality has been...if it breaks, I go home early..


Now with the trio work[230 mile round trip], I carry a back up....laptop...

I use my main Compaq LT for sequences and MP3's...and My 98 CTX LT, is my back up..I needed the CTX once in the last 2 years....I was glad I had it with me..


Pretty much, like Gary, I can finish the night with just my G1000,,,or now my MZ2000 and even the DisCover5 is now primed and ready to be my go to board..

I always carry a iRiver H10 20GB Mp3 player & its loaded with 2000 Mp3's & Custom backing tracks....If needed, I can do a nights work using it no problem it weighs less then a pound & sounds super!


http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/hd/h10_20gb_gray.aspx

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-24-2006).]

I take my 60GB 5g video iPod along w/ me to ALL my gigs. Not only does it include thousand's of MP3's, but because it also functions as an external HD, I've got all my Tyros registrations, styles, and midi files backed up there as well. In fact, I take my iPod everywhere. With the new video feature, I'm able to enjoy watching movies, TV shows, vid Podcasts, and music videos on the plane, at the beach, in the car, just about wherever. I never realized how useful video would be until someone at NAMM asked to hear a sample of my music, and was able not only to have him listen, but watch a video clip of me performing it (on the Tyros) as well. Though the screen is small, it's very sharp and clear. This feature alone could make the difference in landing a gig as your potential client can immediately not only hear, but see how you perform as well. I'll keep you posted on the success of this gig promo technique.



I NEVER leave home without the iPod now. - Scott



[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 01-23-2006).]

Scott,

Although I don't have an iPod Video as yet, I just purchased 3 of those suckers for my teenagers as Christmas gifts. You are right, they are wonderful devices. They can't live without them and I'm getting very envious of them. I use an older Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 which has 5200 songs on it. It is the size of a regular CD player and doesn't do video. I can see where the video would come in handy.!!!!

Gary: You must be an old boy scout - BE PREPARED! That's the great thing about getting old, you get so much the more wiser. I too have backups out the wazoo. Although I don't have a backup Tyros2, I do have the Korg Triton and a Yamaha P250 just in case.

I use a music book when I perform which has some charts, lyrics, etc. My backup for this now is loaded on the Tyros2. If it's a dark room that I am playing in, I will use the Tyros2 LCD screen to view my charts, if it's a very sunny day and I can't see the Tyros2 screen, I'll use my music book.

Also, one of the reasons I use a powered mixer with two speaker units is that it is also a backup PA system for the band in case the main system decides to fail. It's a 10 channel board, so it will and has done the job quite well. As a matter of fact, we played an outdoor wedding this past summer and it started to rain. Water started to drip and get inside our PA system and burned out the Mixer. We were able to replace it with my Powered mixer in less than 5 minutes salvaging the gig and preventing serious legal consequences.

I'm a big fan of backups!!!!

Great point Gar...