Dave Rat

David Levine was born on June 11, 1962, in Alabama.{{cite web |url=https://ratsound.com/cblog/archives/272-Day-380-June-11th-My-Birthday..html |title=Day 380 – June 11th – My Birthday |last=Rat |first=Dave |date=June 12, 2007 |website=Rat Sound |access-date=April 24, 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://ratsound.com/cblog/archives/349-Lost-and-Broken.html |title=Lost and Broken |last=Rat |first=Dave |date=September 29, 2009 |website=Rat Sound |access-date=April 24, 2024 |quote=Off to enjoy beautiful Birmingham Alabama. Hey, I was born in this state, my people!}} He was raised in Hermosa Beach, California, and attended Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. Introduced to The Church by his friend Michele Fiat in 1978, Rat started volunteering at the Hermosa Beach crash pad; this was a former Baptist church turned into a punk rock rehearsal space for the Descendents, Redd Kross, Black Flag and the Last.{{cite web |url=https://ratsound.com/cblog/archives/295-Day-453-Aug-20th-Surviving-Sinking-Ships.html |title=Day 453 – Aug 20th – Surviving Sinking Ships |last=Rat |first=Dave |date=August 20, 2007 |website=Rat Sound |access-date=April 24, 2024}} Rat helped with band equipment and sound gear, and picked up the nickname Rat Boy. Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins called him Rat Man. Rat founded the sound company Recording Art Technical Sound (R.A.T. Sound, also known as Rat Sound), but soon found that recording sessions were boring and repetitive. He focused on live sound mixing, and rebranded as Reliable Audio Technology.{{cite web |url=https://aes2.org/publications/par/pronames/ |title=Pro Audio Reference: Pro Audio Names |website=Audio Engineering Society |access-date=April 24, 2024}} For a brief period he was employed as an environmental test technician at Hughes Aircraft.

Rat became known in the Greater Los Angeles punk scene as a sound engineer specializing in punk shows. He designed robust solutions for the chaotic stage behavior of punk musicians, with Rat bolting microphones to the stands, and mounting heavy duty steel mesh on the monitor wedge loudspeakers. Black Flag hired Rat in 1985 to provide sound for the band's US tour, which extended into three tours. In 1986, Rat designed proprietary subwoofers for the tour; later models based on this design continue as active inventory four decades later. Rat first met Karrie Keyes on a Black Flag tour date; Rat hired and trained Keyes to be a sound engineer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-voice-that-keeps-pearl-jam-fans-connected_b_5a309e31e4b06a512dd69bc1 |title=The Voice That Keeps Pearl Jam Fans Connected |last=Ferguson |first=Chrissie |date=February 27, 2017 |website=Huffington Post |access-date=April 24, 2024}}

In 1991, Rat began a 27-year stretch as the concert sound engineer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His first tour for the band was in support of the Blood Sugar Sex Magik album. Between Pepper's dates, Rat provided sound for Pearl Jam, starting in the early 1990s. He designed a concert loudspeaker called the Rat Trap 5, a compact 4-way trapezoidal enclosure{{cite web |url=https://ratsound.com/highlite.htm |title=Rat Trap 5 Highlights |website=Rat Sound |access-date=April 24, 2024}} the sturdiness of which impressed punk rock promoter Gary Tovar of Goldenvoice Productions. Eventually, this connection led to Rat doing sound for Goldenvoice at Coachella.

From 2006 to 2010, Rat published a blog titled "Roadies in the Midst", chronicling his experiences as front of house sound engineer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their Stadium Arcadium tour. He continued the blog for the Blink-182 Reunion Tour in 2009.{{cite web |url=https://www.ratsound.com/blognav.htm |title=Roadies in the Midst – Dave Rat tour blog |website=Rat Sound |access-date=April 24, 2024}}

In December 2005 Rat innovated a unique sound system design based on a dual side-by-side speaker system that he called the Double Hung PA. The outer speaker array reproduces guitar, bass, toms and cymbals and the inner speaker array reproduces vocals, kick and snare. Since no single instrument or vocal was sent to both systems, comb filtering issues were avoided while system clarity was increased because each loudspeaker array was reproducing a less complex signal, reducing intermodulation distortion. The Red Hot Chili Peppers toured with the Double Hung System for the duration of their Stadium Arcadium tour. At the band's request, Rat rigged the double-hung system at Coachella in 2007.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.mixonline.com/news/rat-continues-coachella-support-422338 |magazine=Mix |title=Rat Continues Coachella Support |author=Staff |date=June 6, 2007 |access-date=April 24, 2024}} In July 2008, the Brazil-based sound company Gabisom implemented the side-by-side PA concept for the Rock in Rio festival in Portugal and in 2009 Pennsylvania based sound company, Clair Brothers, provided touring artists U2 with an in-the-round stadium-sized sound system, based on the same double-hung PA concept.

In 2009 Rat began working on several steerable sub woofer array concepts which he implemented on the Blink-182 reunion tour. The Vortex, Slotfire and V-Fire configurations describe methods of arranging and delaying conventional sub woofers such that low frequency sound bleed onto stage is reduced and horizontal subwoofer coverage to the audience is steerable. For this tour, Rat used the French L-Acoustics K1 series line array speakers rather than the original V-DOSC system.{{cite magazine |url=https://fohonline.com/newsroom/news/rat-sound-systems-l-acoustics-k1-support-blink-182-tour/ |magazine=Front of House |author=Staff |date=August 17, 2009 |title=Rat Sound Systems, L-Acoustics K1 Support Blink-182 Tour |access-date=April 24, 2024}}

Rat worked with Soundgarden in mid-2011 on the band's North American tour. Subsequently, Rat again worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their 2011–2013 I'm with You World Tour, followed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers 2013–2014 Tour.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ratsound.com/cblog/|title=Here We Go|work=ratsound.com/cblog/}} He again worked with them on their 2016–17 The Getaway World Tour. On January 12, 2017, Rat announced his final RHCP tour date would be January 21, 2017, in Minnesota. Rat said "I truly love Flea, Anthony, Chad, Josh and all my dear and close friends I consider family both on the road now and those that have moved on to other adventures over the years. I am pretty happy to say that I have dedicated significant time documenting touring with the Peppers in journals but also have thousands of amazing photos spanning decades of smiles and challenges."{{Cite web|url=http://ratsound.com/daveswordpress/2017/01/11/new-orleans-and-6/|title = New Orleans and 6|date = 12 January 2017}}

In 1995, Rat supplied sound equipment and engineers for the first Warped Tour, and has repeated this work in various other years including 2005{{cite magazine |url=https://www.mixonline.com/news/rat-sound-systems-supplies-warped-tour-v-dosc-and-rat-trap-5s-421650 |magazine=Mix |author=Staff |date=July 15, 2005 |title=Rat Sound Systems Supplies Warped Tour With V-DOSC and Rat Trap 5s |access-date=April 24, 2024}} and 2018. Rat was given this assignment after doing smaller gigs for producer Kevin Lyman.{{cite magazine |url=https://plsn.com/articles/festival-spotlight/victory-lap-the-last-vans-warped-tour/ |magazine=Projection Lights and Staging News |last=Mitchell |first=Kevin M. |date=September 14, 2018 |title=Victory Lap: The Last Vans Warped Tour |access-date=April 24, 2024}} In 2008, Rat consulted on a solar powered sound system for one of the Warped stages.{{cite web |url=https://www.prosoundweb.com/solar-powered-sound-clean-green-loud-on-the-vans-warped-tour/ |website=ProSoundWeb |title=Solar Powered Sound: Clean, Green & Loud On The Vans Warped Tour |author=Staff |date=December 29, 2008 |access-date=April 24, 2024}}

Rat met producers Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1993, and they said they were planning to start a California desert festival called Coachella. Through Tovar and Goldenvoice, Rat was hired to provide sound for three of the five stages at the first Coachella gathering in 1999. In 2007, Rat expanded to supply all five stages.

Rat supported the benefit concert called Rock for Choice in 2004,{{cite web |url=https://ratsound.com/current_tours/rock4choice.htm |title=Rock 4 Choice at The Hollywood Palladium – Friday January 23rd 2004 |last=Shepherd |first=Daniella |date=June 12, 2007 |website=Rat Sound |access-date=April 24, 2024}} and provided sound for the LA Weekly Detour Music Festival in 2008.{{cite magazine |url=https://fohonline.com/articles/production-profile/the-road-less-taken/ |title=The Road Less Taken |date=December 2008 |pages=1, 14, 16 |last=Peters |first=Daniella |magazine=Front of House |volume=7 |number=3 }}

Rat writes articles for various professional sound magazines and has been asked to speak at sound conventions and events such as those held by the Audio Engineering Society{{cite web |url=https://www.aes.org/events/129/specialevents/?ID=2535 |title=AES San Francisco 2010 – Lunchtime Keynote: Dave Rat |date=November 2010 |website=Audio Engineering Society |access-date=April 24, 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://www.aes.org/events/145/presenters/?ID=7460 |title=AES New York 2018 Presenter: Dave 'Rat' Levine |website=Audio Engineering Society |access-date=April 24, 2024}} and Full Sail University.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.mixonline.com/technology/dave-rat-delivers-live-production-seminar-full-sail-university-378091 |title=Dave Rat Delivers Live Production Seminar at Full Sail University |magazine=Mix |author=Staff |date=June 11, 2008 |access-date=April 24, 2024}} He has designed speakers and sound equipment such as the MicroWedge, which is manufactured by Eastern Acoustic Works and is now a familiar monitor wedge on many worldwide tours. Rat wrote a column for Live Sound International magazine entitled, "Rat Tales" in the November 2006 issue and another in the May 2007 issue.{{cite web |url=http://www.livesoundint.com/ |title=Home |website=livesoundint.com}}

Rat is the holder of two patents, the MicroWedge stage monitor design and the Sound Tools Sniffer/Sender Unit.{{cite web|last=Rat|first=Dave|title=Sound Tools|url=http://soundtools.com/xlrsnifsend.html|access-date=2014-03-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101155733/http://soundtools.com/xlrsnifsend.html|archive-date=2013-11-01|url-status=dead}}

With sound engineer Karrie Keyes, Rat is the co-parent of twin daughters born in 1996. Maddie Keyes-Levine is a freelance photographer{{cite magazine |url=https://fohonline.com/articles/features/parnelli-audio-innovator-karrie-keyes/ |magazine=Front of House |last=Mitchell |first=Kevin M. |date=December 14, 2019 |title=Parnelli Audio Innovator Karrie Keyes |access-date=April 24, 2024}} who graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 2023,{{cite web |url=https://projectarchive.art.calarts.edu/artist/maddie-keyes-levine/ |title=Maddie Keyes-Levine |department=Calarts Art School Project Archive |website=California Institute of the Arts |access-date=April 24, 2024}} and Sammy Keyes-Levine is an audio engineer and speech therapist.{{cite web |url=http://soundtools.com/news-detail-SoundHumanFeaturingSammy.html |title=Interview with Sammy Keyes-Levine |date=2020 |website=Sound Tools |access-date=April 24, 2024}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.ratsound.com/ Dave Rat's Rat Sound website]
• [https://twitter.com/dave_rat/ Dave Rat's Twitter page]
• [http://ratsound.com/cblog/ Dave Rat's RHCP/Blink-182 Tour Blog]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100124193337/http://www.ratsound.com/cblog/categories/20-Double-Hung-PA The Double Hung PA]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100124135901/http://www.ratsound.com/cblog/categories/21-VortexOrgasmatron-and-Slotfire-Sub-Setups Vortex, Slotfire and V-Fire]
• [http://daverat.com/ Dave Rat site]
• [http://www.guitarcenter.com/interview/daverat/ Guitar Center Interview 2007]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023924/http://mixonline.com/livesound/applications/audio_fixit_30/ Mix website interview with Dave Rat]
• [http://www.sootoday.com/content/arts/details.asp?c=16539 SooToday.com Article on Dave Rat's unusual Ebay auction]
• [http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/12346 Meet Dave Rat commentary on Monkeyfilter.com]
• [https://mixingaband.com/red-hot-chili-peppers-dave-rat-foh-engineer/ Interview Regarding RHCP Mixing]

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Category:1962 births

Category:American audio engineers

Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:People from Huntsville, Alabama