John McElhattan – Sound Engineer
John is arguably the hardest working band member in Circuit-33! He is the wizard behind the scenes, always coming up with better ways of bringing out the best sound in everything we do.
For our practices he will arrive early in order to run an extra cable, patch-in a new effects processor, or layout a new amplifier/speaker scheme.
He reads electronic sound equipment block diagrams and schematics as if to say – “What? Isn’t it obvious what we need to do here?” We just pretend to understand and let him work his magic. He never lets us down! How could He? He’s Dr. John!
It is amazing just how much electronic sound equipment is required to be put together for one of our shows. And yet, John is always up to the task of overseeing all of this circuitry! (I wish I could think of a better title for him, but nothing comes to mind. I guess we’ll just stick with Sound Engineer for now.)
John’s rare but constructive criticism is usually spot-on, and always welcomed by fellow band members.
John hails from Pennsylvania where he played drums in various groups, including the band “Bitter Creek”. That’s why I have to be very careful to keep him on my good side: Not only does he control how I sound, he just might replace me as the drummer!
I try to keep him as busy with the sound system as I can . . . “Hey John! I can’t hear Dave’s vocals through my monitor very well. I think they’re cutting out . . . Now Billy’s is too loud . . . Is there anything you can do to stop that hum?”