In a perfect world, when we hook something up on the stage and route it into the soundboard, it would always be the same. In the real world though this rarely happens. All-to-often, the acoustic guitar player shows up for rehearsal with an extra guitar, or the pastor decides to do a live interview on stage. If you're on an analog console, it can be a real hassle to move things around and re-label your board.
This is the problem that Ryan Young, owner of NoMixUps, tries to solve with his modular tech labels. Made from military-grade Velcro, NoMixUps allow the sound engineer to quickly and easily move channel labels around on the board. These are surprisingly more helpful than you'd think. NoMixUps come in a variety of sizes, colors, and shapes to sit nicely on any console. Via the company's website, users can purchase already-made standard packages for different applications, or customize their own set.
These are surprisingly more helpful than you’d think.
Now that digital products reign, I wasn't sure where I'd find use for this type of product...until I began looking at all the things I have labeled with gaff or board tape and sloppy handwriting. NoMixUps can easily be used on personal monitors - like Aviom - to identify each channel; stage pocket labels; input snakes; and patch bays can all make use of this product.
I went ahead and applied NoMixUps to one of our Aviom units. Initially, I was a little nervous about it not coming off or leaving a residue. To my surprise, when I removed the label, it didn't even pull up the existing tape that was on the unit. I have been skeptical of Velcro in the past: it always seems to become less effective the more you use it. To test this theory, I literally sat at my desk and took one of the labels on and off the Velcro over 100 times. I was thoroughly impressed with how well NoMixUps stood up to my test - there was minimal fraying, and I didn't notice a difference in the adhesion strength of the Velcro.
In conclusion...if you have digital boards you might not need NoMixUps for that application, but they could be used for various other things around the church.
