Yamaha Forms Strategic Alliance With Rupert Neve

Yamaha Forms Strategic Alliance
With Rupert Neve Designs
JANUARY 2011 Vol. 9 No.4
New Yorkers Light the Tree with an Audio Assist
From PRG, L-Acoustics, JBL and Sennheiser
Portico modules,” said Rupert Neve.
“Yamaha engineers are to be congratulated on having been able to successfully emulate that musical sound from my
designs,” Neve added. “It’s a real pleasure
to work with people who are dedicated
and knowledgeable and able to perceive
the sort of things that I’m trying to convey in my designs.”
Larry Italia, vice president/general
manager of Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, said the company was
“extremely fortunate” to have Neve “acknowledge that our VCM Technology
well represents this classic sound. We
know this will be the first of many joint
efforts between our two companies.”
photo courtesy of JBL
Unfettering Alice
in Chains
LINDA EVANS
PEOPLE. PRODUCTION. GEAR. GIGS.
BUENA PARK, CA — Yamaha Corporation Japan and Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. announced a strategic
partnership with Rupert Neve Designs,
based on both parties involvement with
VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) Technology.
Yamaha’s digital VCM technology
promises to give engineers access to the
warmth and richness of analog circuitry,
including classic compression and EQ
units and tape machines from the 1970s,
in a stable, easy-to-operate digital format.
Rupert Neve Designs said Yamaha
VCM technology is the first digital technology that can accurately reproduce
Rupert Neve’s analog sound, reaffirming
Yamaha’s efforts to make digital sound
as pleasing as analog.
“With Yamaha VCM technology, we’re
able to pick up the amazing quality of
musicality and accuracy that was inherent in the original Rupert Neve Designs
Proel America
Names Ed Simeone
VP of Sales, North
America
L-Acoustics’ KARA arrays flanked the 74-foot-high Norway spruce.
NEW YORK — The crowds at Rockefeller Plaza Nov. 30 were dazzled by the sight of some
30,000 LED lights on the 74-foot-high holiday tree, but the annual 2010 lighting ceremony
didn’t belong to lampies alone.
A big part of the two-hour event, broadcast on prime-time TV, were the musical performances by Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban, Jessica Simpson, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, Susan
Boyle, Charice, Kylie Minogue and Katherine Jenkins, among others.
continued on page 8
Proel America
named industry veteran Ed Simeone V.P
of Sales for North
America. He will be
responsible for all
sales and marketing efforts in the
Ed Simeone
U.S. and Canada for
Proel, and will manage their independent
sales rep force. Simeone has a long history
in pro audio, including his role as founder,
CEO and later chairman of TC Electronic
US. The company also promoted Melissa
Zagonel to general manager. Zagonel has
been with Proel America since its inception in 2008.
Tom Abraham
Tom Abraham spent his summer doing Euro festivals with
Alice In Chains and ended the
tour in Vegas. Which was crazier?
Turn to FOH Interview, page 25.
Top 10 Tours of
2010
16
Audinate and StageTec Announce Partnership
PORTLAND, OR — Audinate and Stage Tec Entwicklungsgesellschaft für professionelle Audiotechnik mbH, a supplier of digital mixing consoles and audio routing systems, announced a collaboration
where Audinate’s Dante digital media networking technology will be
incorporated into a range of StageTec products.
“Audio over IP is the future,” said StageTec managing director Dr.
Klaus-Peter Scholz. “We have been looking for an integrated solution,
and Audinate’s Dante is the answer. It’s important to us,” Scholz added, “that we partner with a company that understands not just audio,
but have an expert understanding of IP networking as we develop
new products.”
“We are honored to be selected by StageTec as their networking
standard,” said John McMahon, Audinate’s vice president of worldwide sales and support. “Dante offers the opportunity, to connect
the IP-world to the synchronous world of the classic routing systems,
while de-risking the future by providing a migration path to upgrade
to new standards under development such as Audio Video Bridging
(AVB).”
Among soundcos supporting the
top 10 ticket-selling tours in 2010,
as ranked by Billboard’s annual tally,
Clair dominated with seven tours.
Road Tests
26
The Audix Fusion FP7 drum package,
reviewed by someone who hates gear
packages, and a thorough review of
Rational Acoustics’ Smaart v7.1.
www.ProAudioSpace.com/join
6-14+CVR.200.1101.indd 1
1/4/11 9:46 PM
www.fohonline.com
What’s Hot
JANUARY
2011
Vol. 9.4
Top 10 Tours of 2010
Feature
Features
Columns
24 Installations
30 The Biz
At the new White Oak Worship Center, the audio
Live sound gear might be acquiring value as
system was more than an afterthought.
memorabilia.
25 FOH Interview: Tom Abraham
32 Theory and Practice
We take a short stogie break with the FOH/PM for
Why speakers blow up.
Alice In Chains.
Metallica came in at #8.
16
A gear and crew roundup of the biggest shows of last year.
26 Road Tests
percent of the performance of their top-of-the-line
36 FOH At Large
models at half the price. We check that ratio... And a
Baker documents the trials of We Who Take Audio
look at SMAART v7.1.
Where It Does Not Belong.
First time we ran into the Atlanta Sound & Lighting
crew was on a ship sailing out of Miami. A dry-dock
look at a hot company out of Hotlanta.
What’s Hot
Vowing to do it better in 2011.
Audix told us this budget set of drum mics gave 90
29 Regional Slants
Production Profile
33 Sound Sanctuary
Letters
Departments
4 Editor’s Note
6 News
12 International News
14 On the Move
14 New Gear
28 Welcome to My Nightmare
No Accounting For
Bad Taste
20
Vince Gill and Amy Grant decked the halls at their annual
Christmas run at the Ryman. And Hugh Johnson was still
behind the console and under the mistletoe.
02.200.1101.indd 2
Being that it is the season to be jolly, I am a
little behind in my reading. In other words, I just
read “No Accounting For Bad Taste” (FOH-at-Large,
Nov. 2010). After damn near soiling myself a second
time and nearly passing out from a lack of oxygen
from laughing so hard, I had to smile. I too see the
absurdity of the world. I truly believe that in our haste
to over-correct for problems, we failed to recognize
we have almost “politically corrected” ourselves into
oblivion. I like your idea of “Equal Rights.” It’s a shame
though, even this may not be enough to save us from
ourselves. In the end, we will reach some type of
compromise that will neither solve or make worse the
problem, the American way.
—Tom Stark
1/5/11 12:35 PM
Publisher
Terry Lowe
Editor’s Note
By BillEvans
It’s Always Been A
Matter Of Trust
tlowe@fohonline.com
Editor
Bill Evans
bevans@ fohonline.com
Managing Editor
Frank Hammel
fh@fohonline.com
Tech Editor
Brian Klijanowicz
I
got an interesting e-mail last month.
Took me a while to answer. Came
from a kid in a to-remain-unnamed
European country working to make a rep
for himself as a live audio engineer and
service provider. Nice kid. We have corresponded a few times over several years.
(All via ProAudioSpace, BTW. If you are
still not on it, you are very much missing
out on some good stuff.)
Anyway, he came to me with a conundrum and for some reason thought
my advice would be worth listening to
(his first mistake...). He had been working
discard the long-term parts. The resulting changes actually weakened the company. They made a bunch more money
for a little while, but are now losing gigs
to other providers. The owner is not concerned, because all he is looking for is an
exit strategy, anyway.
So the kid now worries that his rep
is being negatively impacted by his association with this specific company and
their biz decisions based on short-term
bucks over long-term client retention.
Further, he has clients asking for things
and has ideas on how to provide them,
Trust. It is huge and hard to really define,
harder to earn and very easy to lose.
for an established mid-sized company
for a couple of years and had worked up
from the new-kid to the go-to-guy. Important to note here that he is a freelancer — does almost all of his work for one
company but is not an actual employee.
Which, I’m sure, sounds familiar to many
reading this. As he got closer to the owner, he started to relay ideas for ways to
increase business over the long haul and
make the company stronger. And he was
listened to. Sort of.
The problem he was relaying to me
was that the owner — who has been
in the biz for a very long time — would
take the ideas but strip them down to
the ways in which he thought he could
make the greatest short-term return and
but is at a point where he does not trust
the provider he is working with to implement the ideas.
And there we get to the nut of it.
Trust.
In the past month I have seen a bunch
of instances where it all boils down to
that all-too-rare quality. In the FOH Interview in this issue with Tom Abraham, I
asked him about changing out vocal mics
with Alice In Chains and how he walked
that particular tightrope. Answer: They
trust him.
Got to see one of the last truly great
rock bands on the road when the Black
Crowes came through town and, talking
with Drew and Scoobie, that word came
up over and over.
About a week after that, went and saw
a big new Vegas show at the Wynn. Big
dance show with a live big band and original recorded tracks of Sinatra. Very cool
stuff. Even though they had world-class
sound designers and a great system and
the show had already played Broadway,
Steve Wynn and Nancy Sinatra insisted
on bringing Tom Young in for the final rehearsal and first week of shows. Why? Tom
had mixed Frank for the last decade of his
career, and Steve knew his work going
back to when he owned the Golden Nugget. And they both trusted him to make
sure it was right. And it sounded great.
Oh, the kid? I told him to remember he
was a freelancer and to work to earn the
trust of the client. That if the client trusted
him, it would not matter a lot what provider he was working for, and that if he ever
made the jump to starting his own deal,
that trust would be a big factor in his success. Hopefully it was decent advice.
Trust. It is huge and hard to really define, harder to earn and very easy to lose. I
have people I know and have worked with
who I don’t really like much, but who I trust.
And on the other side of the coin, some
folks I like a lot and trust not at all. It is probably the quality I put the most work into
earning every day. I would rather hear “I
trust him” than “he is really good at what he
does” any day of the week. Of course, hearing both is nice, but if I had to choose...
Entrust your e-mail to bevans@fohonline.
com. It’s sure to reach Bill — most of the
time.
bk@fohonline.com
Senior Staff Writer
Kevin M. Mitchell
kmitchell@fohonline.com
European Editor
Paul Watson
pw@fohonline.com
Contributing Writers
Mical Caterina, Jerry Cobb,
Dan Daley, James Elizondo,
Daniel M. East, David John Farinella,
Steve LaCerra, Baker Lee,
Jamie Rio, Dave Stevens
Editorial Assistant
Victoria Laabs
vl@fohonline.com
Art Director
Garret Petrov
gpetrov@fohonline.com
Production Manager/
Photographer
Linda Evans
levans@ fohonline.com
Web Master
Josh Harris
jharris@ fohonline.com
National Sales Manager
Dan Hernandez
dh@fohonline.com
National Advertising Director
Gregory Gallardo
gregg@fohonline.com
Sales Managers
Matt Huber
mh@fohonline.com
Mike Devine
md@fohonline.com
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
wvanyo@fohonline.com
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Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 9 Number
4 is published monthly by Timeless Communications
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4
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JANUARY 2011
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 9:52 PM
News
Earthworks Mics
Sennheiser Announces New Organizational Structure
WEDEMARK, Germany
— The Supervisory Board for
Sennheiser electronic GmbH
& Co. KG recently approved
a new global organizational
structure separately targeting consumer electronics,
professional systems and
installed sound.
In all, starting Jan. 1,
2011, there will be seven
divisions: Business DiviSennheiser EMB members, from left: Dr. Heinrich Esser, Paul Whiting, Dr. Andreas sion Consumer Electronics,
Sennheiser, Volker Bartels, Daniel Sennheiser, Peter Callan
managed by Peter Callan;
Business Division Professional Systems, managed by Dr. Heinrich Esser; Business Division
Installed Sound, ad interim managed by Dr.
Heinrich Esser; Sales Division, managed by
Paul Whiting; Supply Chain Division, managed by Dr. Andreas Sennheiser; Corporate
Services, managed by Volker Bartels; and
Strategy and Finance, managed by Daniel
Sennheiser.
The managers of these units will form the
new Executive Management Board (EMB) of
the Sennheiser Group, with Volker Bartels as
its spokesperson.
Gain Admission
to The Juilliard
School
NEW YORK — The Juilliard School is picky
about the students they accept — there are
only about 800 undergraduate and graduate
students in the renowned center for dance, drama, and music studies. Noted alumni include
Patti LuPone, Van Cliburn, Wynton Marsalis
and Henry Mancini. The Julliard School is also
choosy about their gear, and Marc L. Waithe,
chief audio engineer, has opted to use Earthworks microphones for close to a decade.
Earthworks microphones are a staple for
school performances that require a live sound
setup, such as the resident Juilliard String Quartet. “The Earthworks microphones not only help
me translate their musical visions transparently
to the audience, they also enable me to expand
the perception of just how good their instruments can sound in a live, amplified environment,” Waithe said.
In addition to being responsible for live
sound reinforcement throughout Juilliard’s
main performance spaces, Waithe also oversees
system design, maintenance, mixing, and the
training of staff, interns, and students for all aspects of the school’s SR (sound reinforcement)
requirements. His inventory of Earthworks microphones has accumulated over the years.
“At this point in time,” Waithe said, “we have
over 30 Earthworks microphones. Our mic
locker inventory includes the SR69, SR71, two
SR77s, six SR20s and seven SR30/HCs from the
company’s Sound Reinforcement series. For use
with drums and percussion, we also have Earthworks’ CMK4 close mic drum system kit; along
with four DK25L live drum mic systems. Our
podium microphone is an Earthworks FM500,
which the company is retrofitting for me with
a wire-mesh pop screen,” he noted. Waithe also
said that “we use the Earthworks PM40 PianoMic when piano amplification is required.
“We handle a lot of instrumental miking
when called for in the score,” Waithe added.
“Similarly, we use the microphones for Juilliard
Jazz, foldback applications such as operas, and
a variety of special events. Earthworks’ SR Series microphones provide incredible off-axis
response, which enables me to mic the various
performers without having to worry about their
movement. This way, the performers aren’t restricted by the microphone as they play or sing.
The microphones’ extended frequency range
captures every nuance-without compromising
their artistry.” Waithe also credited Earthworks’
PM40 PianoMic system for helping to “bring out
the clarity and beauty” of the school’s Steinway
pianos, miking them with the lids up or down
and eliminating the need for boom stands.
Marc L. Waithe, chief audio engineer at The Juilliard School
6
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JANUARY 2011
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 7:56 PM
Advertisement
News
New Yorkers Light the Tree with and Audio Assist from PRG, L-Acoustics, JBL and Sennheiser
continued from cover
PRG turned the ice rink into a stage, with audio support from ground-stacked JBL
VerTec line arrays.
For more than 10
years, Production Resource Group (PRG) has
handled audio production duties for the event,
which featured gear from
JBL, Sennheiser and the
debut of L-Acoustics’ new
KARA line source array
system.
This time, the Norway
spruce was flanked on
both sides by six-element
KARA arrays, each flown
over three SB18 subs,
stacked in a cardioid configuration and
powered by three LA8 amplified controllers.
PRG also provided two tiny two-element KIVA clusters pole-mounted below
the tree for fill, while much larger hangs of
12 KIVA plus two KILO powered by two LA4
served as the north and south arrays for
the block. Eight-element dV-DOSC arrays,
also driven by four LA4, provided additional coverage for the thousands of visitors
spilling out across 49th and 50th Streets.
PRG, which had turned the Rockefeller
Center ice rink into a stage for the national
telecast on NBC, also flanked the stage
with ground-stacked subcompact JBL
VerTec line arrays — four JBL VT4886s atop
two VT4883 subwoofers.
The RF environment for the ceremony
has changed quite a bit since its origins
in 1933, of course. Wireless First has been
providing support with Sennheiser gear
for nine consecutive years. This year’s setup included 18 channels of Sennheiser’s
EM 3732 wireless receivers, MKE 2 lavalier
mics and SKM 5200 handheld mics, each
with Neumann KK 105 S capsules. Wireless
First also provided 12 G3 wireless personal
monitors and another dozen channels of
receivers.
US Audio and Lighting Expands with L-Acoustics LA-RAK
US Audio and Lighting North Hollywood crew with the new L-Acoustics LA-RAKs. From left:
Brian Murray, John Fogarty, Pete Docter, Dave Reyna and Taylor Meyer
8
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JANUARY 2011
NORTH
HOLLYWOOD and LATHROP,
CA — After operating
in southern California
for more than 20 years,
US Audio and Lighting added an office
in Lathrop , CA earlier
this year, and, along
with that expansion,
added four L-Acoustics
LA-RAK touring racks,
each with three LA8
amplified controllers,
to its inventory of gear.
US Audio’s president, Pete Docter, noted that the soundco had been one of the
first companies to adopt L-Acoustics’ LA8
four years ago, and said the investment in
LA-RAK was part of “a natural progression”
to “transition our entire inventory over to
LA-RAK, which we plan to do over the next
year. It’s a very slick, convenient and wellthought-out system and we’re very pleased
to have now taken delivery of our initial order.”
US Audio also purchased a dozen LAcoustics 112P self-powered coaxial loudspeakers for front-fill use and other various
applications.
The company keeps its LA8 fleet busy
at the performing arts theaters of several
large Indian casinos in Northern California, on local festivals like Rock the Bells
and Smokeout and, most recently, with VDOSC and KUDO stages at Hornet Stadium
for national acts performing during the
Sacramento Mountain Lions’ home games.
Docter’s company also handles systems integration work for clients like the
Hollywood Bowl, which enhanced its audio system this past season with the addition of a dozen L-Acoustics SB28 subs, 10
ARCS enclosures for front-fill and side-fill
and half a dozen LA8 amplified controllers.
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 9:36 PM
Advertisement
News
Shure Supports Nonprofit Group’s Efforts to Bring Music to City Kids
LOS ANGELES — Not every public school
student has the opportunity to experience
music classes or participate in a band, orchestra, or chorus. But nonprofit programs such as
The School Tour are trying to help, and Shure
Inc. is lending a helping hand as well.
Since 2004, The School Tour, founded
by Randy Hankins, has provided interactive
shows that promote music, arts, and unity
with the hopes of promoting positive messages and confront social issues. The nonprofit group invites pop, rock, R&B, rap artists
and others to perform in front of more than
200,000 students and supporting audiences.
“Seeing these kids react to the shows
is truly amazing,” said The School Tour’s Jud
Nestor. “You just see them light up — seeing a
live performance for the first time is a powerful experience and we’re hearing from these
kids that they’re being inspired to pursue
their own dreams in the music world. These
shows let them know that no matter how
rough their neighborhoods are, if they have
the talent and the work ethic, they have the
potential to really go places.”
With performances not only at schools
but also at county fairs, parades, convention
centers, nightclubs, and other special events,
the Tour’s audio gear takes a beating, and
after dozens of performances, its organizers
realized they were in need of high-quality microphones that would stand the test of time.
The School Tour also enables new artists
to begin building their fan base while devel-
oping their craft. The performances enable
up-and-coming artists to connect with other
young people and show them that with hard
work and dedication, anything is possible.
Many of The School Tour’s young artists
have gone on to find professional success in
the music world, signing with major record
labels, touring with top artists, and even placing on the Billboard R&B sales charts.
Shure was one of a handful of manufacturers that stepped up and provided gear
to help The Tour continue its mission. Shure
handheld wireless systems and SM58 microphones are now helping bring The School
Tour’s performances to life.
“Our Company is dedicated to partnering
with worthwhile initiatives like The School
Tour,” said Sandy LaMantia, Shure president
and CEO. “We believe in the power of music
and we’re honored to be playing even a small
part in this program, which is changing lives
and making a positive impact on inner-city
kids.”
“I can’t say enough about Shure and their
commitment to giving back to programs
like ours,” said Nestor. “We went from tapedtogether scraps of mics to the best of the
best, and you can hear the difference. These
young artists are now performing with topof-the-line, professional gear — it’s durable,
it’s reliable, and it just sounds great. We’re so
grateful to Shure for making it happen.”
Gand Concert Sound Supplies GEO T, PM5Ds for Snoop Dog Concert
EVANSTON, IL — Gand Concert Sound
recently provided a 42-box flown NEXO
GEO T line array for a concert with Snoop
Dog and opening act Kid Cudi held at
the Welsh-Ryan Arena on the campus of
Northwestern University. The sound system included 20 NEXO CD18 subwoofers
with PS15 monitors used on stage by the
artists. NEXO Alpha ALEF 3-way side fills
with S2 subs and PS10s were implemented for front fill on the wide stage for the
dance floor.
“The unusual layout of the venue
was tackled by hanging four columns of
NEXO GEO T boxes with the two offstage
columns being larger to cover additional
side balcony seating,” said Gand’s president, Gary Gand. Power for the show consisted of a mix of 36 Camco V6 and V200
on mains, five Yamaha PC9501N amps on
front fills and monitors, all with control
from 12 NEXO NX242ES processors.
Yamaha PM5D digital mixing consoles
were supplied for both front of house and
monitors and mixed by Snoop Dog’s crew,
including Dave “Dizzel” at front of house
and “Kez” on monitors. The mics were all
Shure except for Snoop’s RF, which was a
custom Sennheiser.
Along with the PA, Gand
also provided back line with assistance from Andy’s Pro Hire.
“We supplied a DJ rig with 2
CDJ 1000 MKIII, two DJM800
mixers, a five-piece DW Collector Series Drum Kit with Paiste
cymbals, Roland SPDS sampler,
Yamaha Motif ES7, Roland Fantom X6, and bass rig with GK
2001 RBH and 2 RBH410 cabs,”
noted backline tech Taylor Kat.
www.fohonline.com
6-14+CVR.200.1101.indd 9
The setup at Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena
2011 JANUARY
9
1/4/11 9:36 PM
News
Church “Gymnatorium” Equipped with Danley Loudspeakers, Ashly DSP
The Hollowel Brethren in Christ Church “Gymnatorium”
10
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JANUARY 2011
WAY N E S B O R O,
PA — Steve Christiano of G.A.D.G.e.T.
Media saw some red
flags when Hollowell Brethren in Christ
Church opted to
scrap plans for a new
facility in favor of
converting the gymnasium into a multipurpose facility.
“To
me,
the
word ‘gymnatorium’
screams
compromise, as in, ‘does nei-
ther one well,’” said Christiano, who ended up
designing and installing all of the project’s
sound, lighting, and projection, as well as
much of the acoustics. “It makes me nervous.”
Adding to Christiano’s anxiety was the
“absolutely amazing ear” of the person who
would judge the project a success or failure:
Paul Beard, maker of top-quality resonator
guitars, who is the senior sound reinforcement tech at Hollowell.
“People like Jerry Douglas use Paul’s
guitars,” said Christiano. “The system had to
deliver superlative midrange clarity and a
transparent, balanced response from top to
bottom. Paul would be sure to hear any shortcomings, however minor.”
But careful planning, abundant acoustical treatment, and top-rate gear, including
Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and Ashly
DSP, helped the project win Beard’s approval,
and also an award recognizing successful
renovations among churches with 800 seats
or fewer.
Christiano and acoustician Neil Thompson Shade of akustx developed a plan to
knock the gym’s five-second, 500Hz-centered
reverb down to an even one second. They
built “clouds” of perforated aluminum filled
with twelve-inches of unfaced fiberglass,
which, in addition to damping reflections,
served to protect the lighting and projection equipment from errant basketballs. In
addition, Shade had the idea of repurposing
an overhang that ran all the way around the
room. The team filled it with four feet of fiberglass and replaced the sheetrock of the soffit
with perforated aluminum, effectively building a huge bass trap.
The choice of loudspeakers for Christiano
was an easy one. “I’ve been doing live sound
now for 26 years,” he said. “Danley Sound Labs
builds the very finest sound reinforcement
loudspeakers that I have ever heard. The midrange clarity, three-dimensional depth, and
separation are fantastic.”
Because of their efficiency, Christiano
only needed two full-range cabinets with fill
from a center cluster of three Fulcrum eightinch loudspeakers. On either end of the stage,
a flown Danley SH-96 delivers full program
content with stereo imaging. Powersoft K3
and K10 amplifiers provide power.
To provide the system with the modest
conditioning required of the Danley speakers and, perhaps more importantly, flexibility, Christiano installed a modular Ashly
ne24.24M DSP with four inputs and eight
outputs. Together with a Crestron touch-panel interface, the Ashly ne24.24M affords Hollowell tremendous flexibility to deploy the
technology to match the scale of a particular
event.
“The Ashly programming interface is
remarkably easy,” Christiano said, also crediting the ne24.24M’s reliability and audio
quality. Because the Ashly ne24.24M is network ready, Christiano was able to attach the
sound system to the church’s local wireless
network and adjust settings from a netbook.
Consistent with its “gymnatorium” functionality, Christiano installed a Roland M
400 digital mixer, which is capable of being
disconnected and rolled away in a matter of
moments. The church also opted for Roland’s
on-stage monitoring system, affording each
band member his or her own mix with integrated ambient mics to facilitate band banter.
“The whole point of doing this was certainly not to have the technology be an
end unto itself,” said Christiano. “Rather, the
church wanted to be able to communicate in
the most effective way, and they wanted to
be a resource for the community. Perhaps the
coolest testament to their content-centered
vision is the fact that by going with a ‘gymnatorium,’ they ensured that money would
be left over to fund the programming in that
space.
“I think that other churches can learn
from Hollowell’s example,” Christiano continued. “Often, church leaders are afraid that the
older members will be turned off by technology. At Hollowell, the exact opposite is true.
The older members enjoy seeing and hearing
clearly, and, perhaps more importantly, they
enjoy seeing the younger members of the
church fully engaged.”
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 7:57 PM
News
SDI Controls Rooftop Noise Levels Using SymNet at Gansevoort Beach Hotel
MIAMI BEACH, FL — Amenities at the
Gansevoort Miami Beach hotel, spa and
resort included a 55,000 square-foot beach
club, an infinity pool, and an 18th-floor
rooftop oasis and lounge. But it’s not an island unto itself, and some rooftop parties
have resulted in noise ordinance violations.
“There were two overarching goals
in the original installation at Gansevoort
Miami Beach,” said David Lynn, principal
at Systems Design & Integration, which
had built a sound system based on Symetrix’s SymNet DSP three years ago and was
called back to deal with the rooftop noise
issues after the system they had originally
installed had gotten surreptitiously circumvented.
“First,” Lynn noted, “the management
wanted a way to seamlessly deliver multiple customized music playlists to different zones in the hotel in full fidelity, with
control over content and volume available
from their business PCs at a host of locations throughout the hotel. Second, the
system had to be fully code-compliant,
meaning both that it coordinated appropriately with the emergency management
systems and that it regulated output so as
not to violate local noise laws.”
The initial integration three years ago
proved especially challenging, as the building provided very little in the way of infrastructure. Lynn, working together with Michael Chafee of Michael Chafee Enterprises,
selected SymNet Express Cobra DSP hardware to facilitate audio distribution using
only CAT-5 cable.
“Symetrix and the SymNet brand build
seamless products that are straightforward
to program and backed by reliable manufacturing practices and faultless technical
support,” said Lynn. “The technology is easy
and fast for me, and building customized
wall panels for the end users is simple. At
Gansevoort Miami Beach, we use a combination of SymNet ARC push-button wall
panels and Crestron touch-screen displays.”
Four equipment racks, with five SymNet
Express 8x8 Cobra DSPs and one Express
12x4 Cobra DSP between them, form the
sonic heart of Gansevoort Miami Beach.
One rack covers the ballrooms and the mezzanine. A second rack located in the security area delivers music to the main lobby,
the common areas, and the entrance. The
third rack feeds the pool deck and mezzanine-level deck. Finally, a fourth rack covers the roof deck, the roof lobby, and the
elevators.
EV, ADA, and Bi-Amp amplifiers provide power to JBL, Bogen-Near and EV
loudspeakers. Crestron touch-panels at the
main lobby desk, elevator control room,
outdoor pool deck, and general managers’
area provide redundant control over every
aspect of the entire system. Strategically located SymNet ARC push-button wall panels
allow users to select program material and
adjust volume within specific zones.
Lynn had integrated the monitor for the
rooftop portable DJ booth so as to remain
on the right side of the law. The SymNet
hardware put a reliable ceiling on how loud
the DJ could push the monitor. All was well
until someone (who was more concerned
with the vibe of the rooftop parties than
with the ordinances the hotel must abide by)
replaced the rooftop system to circumvent
the controls that Lynn and Chafee had so
carefully engineered. Not surprisingly, Gansevoort Miami Beach received complaints
6-14+CVR.200.1101.indd 11
and citations. Credit Suisse, the hotel’s current owner, brought in new management
and called Lynn back to undo the damage.
Lynn, in turn, called back Chafee along
with Don Washburn of The Audio Bug (Hollywood, Florida). He reinstalled SymNet
components so that the entire hotel would
come back under unified control — again
from any of the hotel’s business PCs. The
team then undertook measurements, limiting and conditioning the outdoor output
so as to minimize the impact on neighbors
while still delivering as much perceived volume as possible to the hotel’s hard-partying guests.
Gansevoort Miami Beach’s rooftop lounge.
1/4/11 7:57 PM
International News
ABBA-Based Show Live On Stage with Riedel RockNet
HAMBURG, Germany — PRG Germany is
supporting a touring replica of ABBA’s 1979
performance at London’s Wembley Arena
called ABBA — The Concert, by AbbAgain.
The tour features more than a dozen musicians and 150 minutes of ABBA songs, and to
distribute audio at the various tour locations,
the show is using a RockNet digital audio network from Riedel Communications.
To connect the stage and FOH into a
single audio network, PRG Germany is using
a set of three RockNet 100 interfaces, a costefficient alternative based on RockNet 300
technology. RockNet 100 provides 80 audio
channels with 48 kHz/24 bit digital audio
quality.
The RockNet 100 interfaces are combined with six RockNet RN.141.MY interface cards for digital Yamaha consoles.
RockNet‘s Independent Gain feature lets
users control each input independently
from various points of the network. This
means different consoles can use the same
input with different gain settings without a
need for an additional passive splitter, simplifying installations.
“Using RockNet makes the installation
and configuration of the audio network
for shows a breeze,”
said Marco Mahl, account manager at PRG
Germany. “The intuitive
user interface of the
devices allows for easy
configuration even without a PC. Thanks to the
modular approach we
can easily add RockNet
300 modules such as a
digital in/out interface
to handle all our digital
AES signals.”
ABBA — The Concert performed by AbbAgain
Rubicon AS Purchases
36-Box Martin Audio
MLA System
OSLO, Norway — Rubicon AS purchased an
MLA rig consisting of 20 MLA top boxes, 12 MLX
subs, and four MLD Downfill enclosures from
their local distributor, em nordic AS. The order
follows major system purchases by launch customers Complete Audio of Germany and North
Carolina-based Special Event Services (SES).
By purchasing 36 enclosures, Rubicon, which
handles a wide range of assignments from festivals to corporate events and one-off club gigs,
will be able to divide the rig into two separate
systems where necessary, having doubled up on
the power distribution and control.
Based in Oslo, Rubicon has been a regular
customer of em nordic since the early 1990s.
They were the first rental company in Norway to
purchase a Martin Audio W8LC system, and they
also have a large quantity of LE Series monitors
as well as a W8LM rig.
While they had been considering a larger
main system, they had no immediate plans to
supersede the W8LC — until MLA came along.
As em nordic’s Øystein Wierli noted, he had
the opportunity to hear the MLA at its first demo
at London’s Earls Court a year ago.
“I immediately informed Rubicon head of
sound, Roar Ånestad, that the MLA system broke
new ground and then had many long discussions with him about upgrading their main PA
system,” said Wierli.
Ånestad himself later attended an MLA
demo and presentation in Antwerp, Belgium,
and by September, the remainder of Rubicon’s
sound department was sold on the system after
attending R&D director Jason Baird’s seminar at
September’s PLASA Show.
By early November, Wierli and Ånestad were
at the Martin Audio factory working out the final
technical details, which would enable them to
cater for smaller venues with the scaled down
rig, while maintaining the capability of handling
large venues like the 9,000-seat Oslo Spektrum
with a single system.
Martin Audio will support Rubicon with
hands-on system training and tour support during the initial period, after which Øystein Wierli
and his team at em nordic will take over.
From left, Roar Ånestad, Rubicon; Øystein Wierli, em Nordic.
12
6-14+CVR.200.1101.indd 12
JANUARY 2011
www.fohonline.com
1/5/11 3:02 PM
International News
Barcelona’s BAM Festival Stages Use EAW and Lab.gruppen Sound Systems
BARCELONA, Spain — The BAM (Barcelona Acciò Musical) Festival, which runs concurrently with the Spanish city’s traditional
La Mercè celebrations, has attracted 120,000
music fans with mostly free, mostly open-air
concerts throughout the downtown area.
This year’s 18th annual BAM Festival included a host of European and American rock,
hip-hop and dance artists, such as Goldfrapp,
OK Go, Anti-Pop Consortium, Belle & Sebastian and El Guincho, and featured substantial
Lab.gruppen-powered EAW P.A. systems on
the MTV-BAM and Electro-BAM stages at the
Parc del Fòrum.
For the MTV-BAM stage (larger of the
two), production sound company Focus, S.A.
supplied an EAW speaker system including
12 KF760 long-throw line array modules, four
KF730 compact line array modules and eight
SB730 compact line array subwoofers per
side, all under the control of UX8800 digital
signal processors.
Because of the size of the listening area
that had to be covered, Focus designed the
system to project the low frequencies, taking
advantage of the omni-directional pattern
of the KF760 below 150 Hz to provide additional coverage control. Alignment of the system was simplified by keeping the distance
between the KF760/KF730 modules and the
subs to just six feet.
Additional ground-stacked EAW subs
boosted the low end. “It was a pop rock festival, so we designed a cardioid configuration with a ‘double line arc’ with 16 SB1000z
[large format subwoofers], which delivered
an incredible punch in the central area, where
most of the audience was located,” said Pepe
Ferrer of Focus S.A. The system also included
an infill of KF750 High Output Array Loudspeakers in a left-right configuration with
four KF730 modules for mono voice front fill.
The entire EAW system was powered by
Lab.gruppen’s FP+ Series and fP Series amplifiers. Twelve FP 10000Q and pair of FP 13000,
along with several racks each of FP 4000 and
fP 3400, provided over 80
reliable channels of sound
for the main FOH system,
including the additional
ground stacked subs. Additional racks containing a
mix of FP+ and smaller fP
Series models handled the
infill and sidefill arrays and
mono voice front fill.
Both the EAW and Lab.
gruppen products were
supplied to Focus, S.A. by
Spain-based Pro3 & Co.
The MTV-BAM stage at the Barcelona Acciò Musical Festival
Nobel Peace Prize
Concert Relies on
Midas Consoles
OSLO, Norway — The 2010 Nobel Peace
Prize Concert took place at the Oslo Spektrum in December, with the live show and
broadcast once again handled by a network
of Midas digital consoles.
Norwegian audio company AVAB-CAC
deployed two Midas XL8 live performance
systems together with two PRO6s and one
PRO9 live audio systems, making use of the
AES50 networking capabilities. The setup was
similar to the 2009 event, with three stages
facilitating the rapid changeovers.
FOH duties were handled by two XL8s,
one taking care of the 72-piece Norwegian
Radio Orchestra, leaving the second console
free for visiting engineers and emcees.
AVAB-CAC used 192 channels of Midas
DL431 active mic splitter, plus a number of
Midas DL451 and DL351 modular I/O devices, totalling nearly 400 inputs, all accessible
to all five consoles via the AES50 network.
Stage sound was provided by two PRO6s
and a PRO9, one for each of the three stages,
supplying numerous in-ear mixes for bands
and orchestra, as well as to the multiple floor
monitors across all three stages.
Midas XL8s at FOH for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize concert
www.fohonline.com
6-14+CVR.200.1101.indd 13
2011 JANUARY
13
1/4/11 7:57 PM
On the Move
AudioTe c h n i c a
recently
opened
a
new
facility, Technica
Fukui, which
c o m b i n e s Audio-Technica’s new facility in Echizen
City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.
three pre-existing A-T Fukuoka branches into one location. The new facility has
a dedicated acoustic lab and an anechoic
chamber designed for audio testing for
spectrum-efficient wireless technologies.
Hosa Technology named Mayumi
Martinez to the newly created position
of executive vice president. Martinez’ appointment is intended to prepare the company for the next generation of leadership
as founding
president Sho
Sato
transitions to retirement.
Martinez,
a
financial specialist with a
Mayumi Martinez
background
in mortgage products, will eventually be
responsible for all aspects of the company’s operations.
Sirius Showequipment AG in Frankfurt and Amptown-Verleih GmbH & Co.
KG in Hamburg recently announced that
they had joined forces in Sept. 2010. The
two companies also announced plans to
open an office and warehouse location in
Munich in early 2011.
Soundcraft Studer
has
hired
Garry Blackmore to lead
the
company’s new
product deGarry Blackmore
velopment
push. Blackmore, who has a BSC in computer science,
had worked on developing Xerox’s multifunction systems and is qualified as a Prince2
practitioner with experience in electronics
design, software development, systems engineering and project management across the
U.K., U.S. and Asia.
Symetrix announced the promotions of
Paul Roberts and Brooke Macomber. Roberts,
previously director of sales and marketing,
is now vice
president of
sales and marketing. Now
in charge of
worldwide
sales, he will
lead all interPaul Roberts
national sales,
manage U.S.
regional and international sales representatives,
develop corporate marketing and promotion
strategies and oversee the shipping and technical support departments. Macomber, previously inside sales and marketing manager, is now
director of business development. Macomber,
who has been with Symetrix for five years, will
continue to support the company’s inside sales
and marketing efforts, taking on new responsibilities in the areas of operations and strategic
planning.
New Gear
APB ProSpec Rackmount Mixers
QSC GX7 Amplifier
APB’s ProSpec mixers are for Mono, Stereo, or LCR mixing in installations and portable applications. Each of the
ProSpec-1U8M’s 8 mic/line input channels features a BurrBrown microphone pre-amplifier with APB-engineered
support electronics, and every input channel has internally-lit switches for Solo, 48 Volt, Polarity Reverse, and
High-Pass filter functions. A dynamic dual-colored LED is
ProSpec-1U8M Mixer
on each input channel for signal monitoring. Channel
assignment can be selected by an additional per channel-illuminated switch to Left Right (with
pan control) or Center mix buses. Master output level functions are controlled by a single L-C-R
master level control. THAT Corporation OutSmarts line drivers feed individual Left, Right, and
Center output XLR connectors. Output meters are provided to monitor signal levels of Left,
Right and Center, and a switch is provided to sum Left-Right mix buses into a mono signal. An
option linking system is also available. MSRP for ProSpec-1U8M: $990.
apb-dynasonics.com
Bag End Powered Double 10 Bass Systems
Bag End is offering its Infra processor as a built-in option
in its self-powered double 10 subwoofer systems. With Infra inside, both the IPD10E-I (installation enclosure) and the
IPD10E-R (portable enclosure) can be implemented into a
variety of sound systems. Within the IPD10E-I and IPD10E-R
models, a full range line level signal is sent to the systems input. The internal Infra integrator, Minima One amplifier and
loudspeaker are designed to process the signal into a flat
response low frequency acoustic output. The dynamic filter
protection threshold is internally preset to eliminate distortion and accidental overload. The 1,000-watt Minima One
Bag End IPD10E-R
amplifier weighs 5 pounds. Its auto sensing AC line automatically accepts any line voltage from 88 to 270 volts. Analog InGenius balanced line receiver inputs
provide high common mode rejection and remove unwanted noise, and the high efficiency, lowheat amplifier design includes remote turn on/off control.
bagend.com
König & Meyer iPad Holder with Prismatic Clamp
Responding to an oft-heard request at InfoComm — an
iPad holder that could be attached to all things musical —
König & Meyer have developed for NAMM an iPad clip fixture
that can secure an iPad to any diameter object, from 7 to 30
mm / .27 to 1.18 inches. The iPad can be clipped into and out
of the frame, which is designed with a wide swing range of
the clamp to enable each user to get their individual position needed, and the swing movement can be adjusted to
swing easily, or to be held firmly in place (or somewhere in
between). The iPad, of course, can also be turned between portrait and landscape format.
connollymusic.com
Guard Dog Low Profile Cable Protectors with Added Traction
Guard Dog Low Profile Cable Protectors are now available with optional Velcro strips for use on carpet and/or
anti-slip rubber pads for use on smooth surfaces. With 1,
2, 3, or 5 channels, these interlocking protectors are 1.25”
high with a .75” channel height. They feature either standard ramps or low-angle ADA Compliant ramps.
cableprotector.com
14
6-14+CVR.200.1101.indd 14
JANUARY 2011
QSC Audio Products’ GX7 features 725W
per channel at 8-ohms and 1000W per
channel at 4-ohms. The unit features a QSC
PowerLight power supply, and the 120V
version weighs just 15.5 lbs. GX7 is cooled
with a low-noise, variable speed fan with
rear-to-front airflow, and like the GX3 and
GX5, it features XLR, 1/4” TRS and phono input connectors, Speakon and binding post
outputs, built-in subwoofer/satellite crossover control, detented gain knobs, front-panel
LED indicators and GuardRail amplifier and speaker protection. MSRP: $699.
qscaudio.com
Roland VR-5 PDF
Roland Systems Group’s VR-5 combines
the functionality of a video switcher, audio
mixer, video playback, recorder, preview monitors and output for web streaming. Features
include 4-channel video switcher; two mono
and five stereo mixable audio channels; builtin scan converter for PC input; built-in dual
LCD monitors with touch control for easier video source selection; three video layers which
include two video sources plus DSK (downstream keyer); MPEG-4 player/recorder; and
USB video/audio class device for web streaming via USTREAM, Stickam, Skype or iChat.
rolandsystemsgroup.com
WorxAudio TrueLine V5
WorxAudio Technologies’ TrueLine V5 UltraCompact Line Array features a medium format
1-inch exit compression driver, a stabilized FlatWave Former wave shaping device, dual 5-inch
cone transducers and an Acoustic Intergrading Module (A.I.M.). The V5 has a 120-degree
symmetrical horizontal coverage pattern and a
10-degree vertical dispersion pattern arrayable
in 1-degree increments, and serves as a 16-ohm
passive loudspeaker system with the flexibility
of having multiple box setups all driven by a
common amplifier.
worxaudio.com
XTA iCore2
XTA’s iCore2 extends the iCore software package developed for MC² Audio’s
Ti Series and XTA’s DC1048 integrated audio management system, supporting all
4Series products. The company has also
added new features to simplify live sound
and installed operating systems, with enhancements to parameter linking, custom
control panels, application auto-update
and wireless kit compatibility. iCore2 works
with Windows XP, Vista and Win7.
xta.co.uk
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 7:58 PM
TOP 10 TOURS O
Showtime
Bon Jovi
1
Shure SM 91, Beta 52, Beta 58A, SM 98, SM 57, SM 58,
Sennheiser MKH-416, AKG 460 (hard-wired); Shure UR
(wireless)
Processing: Aphex 622, TC M5000, TC M2000, Summit
TLA 100, Summit DCL-200, Smart Research C2, Empirical
Labs EL-8, Amek 9098, TC 2290
crew
FOH Engineer: Dave Eisenhauer
Monitor Engineers: Glenn Collett, Andy Hill
Crew Chief/System Engineer: Mike Allison
Monitor System Engineer: Dustin Ponscheck
Technician: Chris King
MON
Console: 2 x Midas Heritage 3000
Speakers: Clair 12am, 212AM, SRM, L3 NT/LF, ML-18
PMs: Shure PSM 600/PSM 700, Sennheiser G2
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Processing: Aphex gates 622, TC Electronics M5000,
Summit DCL 200, Yamaha SPX 990, TC D2, DBX 160A
Gear
FOH
Console: Midas XL4
Speakers: Clair i-5/i-5B, i-3, BT-218, FF-II
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Mics: Sennheiser MD 421, Countryman DI, AKG 414,
Soundco
Clair
U2
2
FOH Engineer: Joe O’Herlihy
Monitor Mixers: Dave Skaff, Niall Slevin, Alistair McMillan
Consultant: Robbie Adams
System Engineers: Jo Ravitch (crew chief ), David Coyle
Monitor System Engineers: Chris Fulton, Jason O’Dell
Techs: Blocker, Dave Coyle , Hannes Dander, Thomas “Duds”
Ford, Chris Fulton, Kelsey Gingrich, Pascal Harlaut, Joel Merrill, Jason O’Dell, Vincent Perreux, Jennifer Smola
Gear
FOH
Console: DiGiCo SD7
Speakers: Clair i-5, i-5b, S-4, FF-2H, BT-218, i-DL
Amps: Lab.gruppen PLM1000, PLM14000, Powersoft K10
AC/DC
3
MON
Consoles: 2 DiGiCo SD7s, Digidesign D-Show Profile
Speakers: Clair 12AMII, Sennheiser G2 PMs, Future Sonics
PMs
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Soundco
Clair
Crew
Steve Jennings
FOH Mixer: Paul “Pab” Boothroyd
Systems Engineers: Christopher Nichols, Richard
Thompson
Monitor Mixer: Jon Lewis
Monitor Systems Engineers: Kenneth Check, Paul Swan
Techs: Tino Kreischatus, Adam Rebacz, Ricardo Roman,
Andrew Walker
Gear
FOH
Consoles: Midas Pro 40, Midas Pro6
Speakers: Electro-Voice X-Array, Clair I-5
Amps: Electro-Voice P3000, Crown 3600 Macro-Tech
Mics: Audix, AKG, Shure
Processing: Summit Audio TLA-100, GML 8200, dbx
160SL, Drawmer DS201, TC Electronic M6000
MON
Consoles: Midas Heritage 4000, Midas Pro6
Speakers: Firehouse wedges, X-Array sidefills, Sennheiser
G2, G3 PMs
Amps: Crown 36x12 Macro-Tech, Electro-Voice P3000
Soundco
Clair
4
Gear
Crew
FOH
Console: Avid VENUE Profile
Speakers: d&b audiotechnik J8 (48), J12 (8), J-SUB (12), B2SUB (12), Q10 (8)
Amps: d&b audiotechnik D12
Mics: Sennheiser RF & PMs
Processing: Waves
FOH Engineer: Horace Ward
Monitor Engineer: Ramon Morales
Systems Engineer: Tony Smith
Crew Chief: Dan Klocker
RF Tech: Bill Flugan
Techs: Jim Allen, Wayne Bacon, James LaMarca, Kevin
Szafraniec
MON
Console: DiGiCo SD7
Black Eyed Peas
Lady
LadyGaga
Gaga
Photo courtesy of XL Video
Crew
Mics: Mics – Shure SM57, SM58, PG58, SM81, Beta 52, Beta
58a, Beta 98, Beta 91, WL184, AKG 414, 451EB, Sennheiser
MKH-416, MD-421, Beyer M88, Audio Technica AT4050, DPA
4088, 4065, Countryman Type 85 DI
Processing: TC Electronic TC 2290, Eventide 3500, Yamaha
SPX1000, Lexicon PCM-70, Summit Audio DCL-200, Avalon
VT-737, Manley Voxbox
Soundco
Eighth Day Sound
5
Crew
FOH Engineer: David Haines
Monitor Engineers: Kevin Glendinning, Ryan Cecil, Thomas
Huntington
System Engineer/Crew Chief: Dave Moncrieffe
Techs: Sean Baca, Donovan Friedman, Simon Mathews, Jeff
Lutgen, Tzuriel Fenigstein
Gear
FOH
Console: Avid VENUE D-Show
Speakers: Clair i-5 and i-5B main PA
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Mics: Shure, Audio-Technica, AKG, Countryman DI (hardwired); Shure UR4D (wireless)
Processing: Crane Song Phoenix, TC Electronic TC 2290, TC
Finalizer 96K, Tascam CD-01 and CD/R- RW901
MON
Console: Avid VENUE Profile
Speakers: Prism Blue and Prism Sub sidefills, Prism SRM
floor monitors
PMs: Sennheiser 2000 series, Shure PSM 600 (hard-wired)
Amps: Crown
Soundco
Clair
16
16-17.200.1101.indd 16
JANUARY 2011
www.fohonline.com
1/5/11 1:22 PM
S OF 2010
James Taylor
& Carole King
Ranked by total gross earnings, according to Billboard Boxscore,
from Nov. 22, 2009 through Nov. 20, 2010.
6
Crew
FOH Engineer: David Morgan
Monitor Engineers: Kevin Kapler, Rolland Ryan
Systems Engineer: Tim Holder
Audio Techs: Austin Dudley, Corey Harris
Linda Evans
Gear*
FOH
Console: Avid VENUE D-Show
Speakers: Clair i3
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Mics: Earthworks, Shure, Telefunken
Soundco
Clair
Crew
FOH Engineer: JD Brill
Systems Engineers: Andrew Baldwin, Michael Conner,
Wade Crawford, Jason Vrobel
Monitor Systems Engineers: Daniel Badorine, David Ferretti, Christopher Fulton, Spencer Thomason
Techs: Brandon Allison, Ben Blocker, Jeremy Bolton, Kyle
Gish, Carey Hargrove, Corey Harris, Joel Merrill, Matt Patterson, Erik Swanson, Timothy Winters
Gear
FOH
Console: Yamaha PM1D
Speakers: Clair i-4, Clair S4 Sub, Clair R4, Clair P4, Clair P2
Metallica
Amps: Crest, Crown, Powersoft
Processing: BSS DPR-404; Lexicon 960L, PCM 91; Eventide
H3500; TC Electronic TC 2290, TC EQ Station
Processing: Lake, Pro Tools, TC Electronic, Trillium
Labs, Waves
MON
Console: Avid VENUE Profile
Speakers: Sennheiser G3 IEM, wedges
*Partial List
Eagles
7
MON
Consoles: 2 Midas Heritage 3000, Avid VENUE
Speakers: Clair 12AM, Clair ML-18
Amps: Crown
Processing: TC Electronic TC 1128, Lexicon PCM 91
Mics: Shure, Audio Technica, AKG
PMs: Sennheiser G2
RF: Shure
Soundco
Clair
8
Crew
FOH Engineer: Big Mick Hughes
Monitor Engineer: Bob Cowan
Systems Engineer: Joe Caruso
Production Manager: Arthur Kemish
Tour Manager: Dick Adams
System Techs: Jonathan Day, Jason Mc, Jason McCarrick,
Josh Schitz, Toshi Sugitani, Paul White
Gear
Speakers: Meyer Sound Milo 120 plus 40 HP700 subs
Processing: Galileo
Mics: Audio-Technica, Shure
Rigging: Chain Master
Snake Assemblies: Apogee, LightViper
MON
Console: Midas XL4
Speakers: 24 Meyer Sound MJF-212
PMs: Sennheiser 2000 Series IEMs
FOH
Console: Midas XL8
Soundco
Thunder Audio Inc.
Gear
FOH Engineer: Jeff Thomas
Monitor Engineer: Ian Kuhn, Lonnie Quinn
Systems Engineer: Tom Lyon
Production Manager: Steven “Hank” McHugh
Tour Manager: Bill Greer
System Techs: Greg Botimer, Jeff Child, Tony Norris, Joe
Lawlor
FOH
Console: Avid VENUE
Speakers: Meyer Sound MILO, MICA, 700-HP subs, MSL-4,
CQ-2, UPJ-1P
Processing: Meyer Sound Galileo, SIM 3, Rational Acoustics
Smaart 7.0, Sennheiser EM 2003, Avid HD3 Pro Tools
Dave Matthews Band
Dominic Fanelli
9
Crew
MON
Consoles: Avid VENUE Profile, SC-48
Speakers: Meyer Sound MJF-212A, USM-1, UM-1 monitor wedges; Sensaphonics 2X PMs, Clark Synthesis Tactile
Sound transducer
Amps: Crest 7001, Lab.gruppen fP 2400
Paul McCartney
Soundco
Pro Media/Ultrasound
10
Brantley Gutierrez
Crew
Gear
FOH Engineers: Paul “Pab” Boothroyd, Joe Dougherty
Systems Engineers: Wade Crawford, Kevin Gilpatric,
Markus Meyer, Rich Schoenadel, Daniel Taake, Jason Vrobel
Monitor Engineer: John “Grubby” Callis
Monitor Systems Engineers: Donald Baker, James Bump,
Carey Hargrove, Martin Santos, Paul Swan
Techs: Sean Baca, Ben Blocker, Kevin Dennis, Donovan
Friedman, Mike Gamble, Roland Heuberger, Antonius
Joosten, Brian Maher, Joel Merrill, Matt Patterson, Joseph
Pearce, David Quigley, Carlos Sallaberry, Vaitl Hermann,
James Ward II, Randy Weinholtz, Jeff Wuerth
FOH
Console: Avid VENUE Profile
Speakers: Clair i-Series (44 i-5, 36 i-5B subs), iDLs, P2s
(infills)
Amps: Crown, QSC
Mics: Audix, AKG, DPA 4061, Shure Beta58, Beta57, SM57
MON
Consoles: Midas Heritage 3000s (2)
Speakers: Clair SRM wedges (15), R4 Series IIIs (4)
Soundco
Clair
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16-17.200.1101.indd 17
2011 JANUARY
17
1/5/11 1:23 PM
Production Profile
Vince Gill
&
Amy Grant
Twelve Days of Christmas Tour
Story & Photos by GregKopchinski
T
he holiday season has enough stresses
on its own without adding a two-week,
12-show tour with longtime music superstars Vince Gill and Amy Grant. But Hugh
Johnson, 21-year FOH engineer and production manager for Gill, takes it in stride, delivering excellence through consistency with a
dedicated production team giving their best
each day.
Catching up with Johnson at Nashville’s
Ryman Auditorium, I got a glimpse into the
Twelve Days of Christmas production and
some of the gear and techniques the crew
uses to ensure that the theater-sized shows
gave audiences the powerful sound yet intimate feel that Gill and Grant wanted to share
during the holidays. Ranging in size from the
2,300 seat Ryman up to the 4,600 seat Fox
Theater in Atlanta, the tour showcased the
talent of not only the headliners but also
ing was originally designed as a church and
the audience sits in wood pews throughout
the venue) creates a stark contrast between
sound check and performance due to the
change in high/mid frequency response
when the room fills with people.
Tuning each room for Vince Gill’s shows
is of paramount importance to Johnson,
who depends on his ears and his trustworthy Klark Teknik DN6000 RTA (paired with
its original room mic) to adjust the system.
Starting with Banks’ house preset, Johnson
walks the upper and lower zones of the
room with the Lake Contour to fine-tune
during sound check, knowing that some adjustments will need to be made in real-time
during the opening songs to compensate
for the audience. Andrew Dowling and Todd
Wines, assisting in tech duties from Sound
Image, also use a SMAART analyzer to dou-
From left, crew members Danny Poland, Todd Wines, Hugh Johnson, Sam Parker and Andrew Dowling
Besides the atypical acoustics, touring
groups at the Ryman also mix from a unique
position: at the top of the balcony against
the back wall aisle, which remains open for
audience access throughout the show.
Gill’s top-notch band, including a four-piece
horn section added for the holiday shows.
Sound Image provided all FOH and monitor audio support for the tour, although at
five venues including the Ryman the installed house PA was used. The Ryman system is comprised of JBL VerTec line arrays at
left and right with subs in a center cluster
that provide coverage in the balcony and
deck-stacked VerTec speakers and subs for
the floor seating. Front fills include JBL and
Sound Image speakers and a delay ring of
JBL 4212 speakers provide under-balcony
coverage. Crown amps drive all speakers,
and Ryman house audio engineer Les Banks
manages the system through a Lake Contour wireless speaker controller, which is a
key tool for visiting audio engineers to tune
the room.
Acoustic Challenges
FOH
Johnson has mixed well over a hundred
shows at the Ryman, and is well-accustomed
to the acoustic challenges that the room
presents. The all-wood design (the build20
20-21.200.1101.indd 20
JANUARY 2011
ble check the room response throughout
the show.
Besides the atypical acoustics, touring
groups at the Ryman also mix from a unique
position: at the top of the balcony against
the back wall aisle, which remains open for
audience access throughout the show. The
house console sits at center, but many tours
including Gill’s bring in their own FOH gear
which is set up in an area to the left of center, somewhat midway between the left side
array and center subs. The tight fit is a cinch
for Johnson, who pilots an Avid Venue Profile console and single outboard rack at FOH.
Although the mix position is off-axis from
any sweet spot, Johnson knows the sound
differences between his position and the
balcony seats below, and assembles a full
mix through some magical reference offset
in his mind.
The Processing Chain
FOH
To get the consistent, smooth vocal that
Gill’s fans expect, Johnson utilizes his outboard processing rack, routing the analog
The tucked-away FOH position at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville
signal direct from the Shure KSM 9 mic into
a vintage Summit MPC-100A compressor for
warmth, followed by a BSS 901 multi-band
compressor. Back at the console, the vocals
get final processing with a Waves C4 plugin at the console. Vince’s vocal turns out to
be the only analog signal (for the band) that
gets snaked to FOH; all other vocals and instruments use the Avid stage rack and digital snake (the show takes about 60 inputs
from stage to console, about a dozen more
than the usual Gill tour).
This routing may seem counterintuitive at first, since the Profile is capable of
duplicating the front-end compression using plug-ins, but Johnson explains that it
is far more convenient to reach over and
adjust a BSS setting on Gill’s vocal during
song changes rather than juggling control
screens to access a virtual knob and potentially missing a cue for another event on the
control surface. The proof was obvious during the show, when Gill would sing with different vocal stylizations or talk to the audi-
www.fohonline.com
1/5/11 5:03 PM
Production Profile
Headline
Deck
ence, and Johnson was easily able to make
fine adjustments while advancing his show
snapshot or adjusting another element of
the mix.
The same logic holds for effects, specifically reverbs on vocals and drums. Since
each song requires some manipulation of
certain parameters, Johnson prefers using a
TC Electronics M5000 inserted in the Profile
channel signal path via AES. This gives him
instant access to the knobs without changing his main screen view.
For this show, Johnson uses a similar
processing chain using onboard plug-ins for
Amy Grant and all other vocalists. (A wide
variety of plug-ins is used on this tour across
vocals and instruments, including the Waves
Platinum bundle, Crane Song Phoenix and
Trillium Lane Labs Space impulse response
reverb.)
Johnson also started using a new mic
combination on Vince Gill’s guitar amps for
this tour. He found that blending the new
Shure KSM313 ribbon microphone with a
standard SM57 captured the full tone from
Gill’s amps with just enough edge to drive
the mix. Besides keeping consistent mic
placement on the amps, Johnson also rides
It is far more convenient to reach over and adjust a BSS setting on Gill’s
vocal during song changes rather than juggling control screens.
Vince Gill and Amy Grant
Twelve Days of Christmas
Crew
Gear
FOH Engineer/Production Manager:
Hugh Johnson
Monitor Engineer: Sam Parker
Audio Vendor: Sound Image
Sound Image Crew: Andrew Dowling,
Danny Poland, Todd Wines
FOH/Monitor consoles: Avid Venue Profile
Tour PA: 24 JBL VerTec 4889, 12 JBL VerTec
4880, 2 Sound Image G5, 2 Sound Image
Theater Sub, 8 Sound Image 1160
FOH/Monitor Amps: Crown I-Tech HD
12000 w/System Architect
Vince’s Wedges: L-Acoustics 115XT
Band Wedges: Sound Image PD15, Sound
Image PD12
Vocal Mics: Shure KSM 9
Vince’s Guitar Amp Mics: Shure KSM313,
Shure SM57
Hugh at the desk
The Ryman Auditorium is a converted church, complete with pews.
the faders to get the right balance for each
song, especially given the varied program
on this tour.
Compressed Punch
FOH
Another mix technique used by Johnson
for the drum kit proved very effective. Since
the song styles ranged from driving rock
to smooth jazz and contemplative ballads,
Billy Thomas (Gill’s drummer and occasional
22
20-21.200.1101.indd 22
JANUARY 2011
background vocalist) uses sticks and brushes throughout the program. Johnson fits the
drums in the mix by blending the kit with a
dual-mono compressed drum group, allowing him to easily add a more compressed
punch to the kit without losing the full
range on more dynamic ballads. In addition,
Johnson dual-mics the kick drum with the
Shure Beta 52 and KSM32 to capture both
the punch and softer low end that keeps the
kick in place in the mix.
Gill’s monitor engineer, Sam Parker, also
uses an Avid Profile console to drive 16 monitor mixes for the band. For this tour, Parker
chose an L-Acoustics 115XT dual wedge
configuration for Gill, and mixed Sound Image PD15 and PD12 wedges for the band
and background vocalists. Parker also set up
an IEM mix for Amy Grant, which she used
along with the downstage wedge. Even in
the relatively small theater setting, Parker’s
stage volume did not bleed into Johnson’s
FOH mix on the floor, a testament to his ability to give the band clean and precise mixes
throughout the show.
Johnson and his team return to the road
with Vince Gill at the end of January, and
are sure to continue delivering a consistent,
powerful sound that keeps Gill’s fans on
their feet.
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 6:54 PM
Installations
At White Oak Worship Center, the System was
Anything But An Afterthought
By R.Maxwell
Boone Audio Inc. provided the new WorxAudio sound reinforcement system for White Oak Worship Center
W
hen the time came to design its new
worship facility, church management
for White Oak Worship Center (formerly known as Full Gospel Fellowship Church
of Danville, VA) knew that a well-implemented
audio-visual system could do wonders toward
making services more relevant.
By closely coordinating the architectural
process with a seasoned AV integrator, their
new sanctuary is home to a new $300,000
audio-visual system that incorporates multiple
large screen displays, a sophisticated camera
implementation and post production suite to
edit services for broadcast and online streaming.
The new sound reinforcement system
from Greensboro, NC-based WorxAudio Technologies also plays a key role.
Not an Afterthought
FOH
Burlington NC-based Boone Audio Inc., a
design/build firm specializing in AV integration for the house of worship, education, and
corporate markets, was contracted to design
and implement White Oak Worship Center’s
new system. Paul Boone, president/CEO, dis-
Music is Key
FOH
“White Oak Worship Center’s services are
very contemporary in nature,” Boone adds.
“Music plays a prominent role, and church
management made it very clear that, in addition to displays for visually reinforcing the
message and aiding the congregation with
lyrics, they wanted a top-notch sound system that delivered first-rate speech intelligibility while also being capable of handling
high SPL music reproduction. Their worship
services are very upbeat. The church uses
a good-sized praise band to augment the
worship leader and eight backing vocalists,
and they also have a full choir of roughly 40
voices.”
To meet these requirements, Hugh Sarvis, WorxAudio’s CEO and director of engineering, penned a sound reinforcement
system that provides for a center cluster
consisting of six WorxAudio TrueLine
V8i-P two-way powered, high efficiency,
compact line array loudspeakers flown at
a height of 24 feet over the front of the
pulpit/stage area. Suspended by WorxAu-
“The fact that we planned the sanctuary’s
AV facilities at an early stage paid huge dividends on this project.” —Mike Klauss
cussed the nature of the installation and the
challenges it presented.
“White Oak Worship Center’s sanctuary
is 105 feet wide by 96 feet long in a quarterround configuration with a seating capacity
for approximately 850 people” Boone explains.
“The stage/pulpit area features a uniquely designed area for the choir that is located over
the orchestra pit. In addition to the main floor
that slopes up toward the back of the room,
there is a balcony at the rear of the sanctuary
that houses the FOH (front of house) mix position, which is equipped with a 64-In / 32-Out
Allen & Heath iLive-T112 digital live audio mixing console.
24
24.200.1101.indd 24
JANUARY 2011
dio’s TrueAim Grid, which utilizes a single,
industry-standard schedule 40 pipe, the
cluster blends in with its surroundings.
Two WorxAudio V5M-P powered enclosures are used for congregational
frontfill along the left and right edges
of the stage. A seventh TrueLine V8i-P is
mounted to the rear of the TrueAim Grid.
Unlike the six enclosures facing into the
sanctuary, this loudspeaker serves as a
monitor for the choir and is visually hidden from the congregation.
Submerged Subs
FOH
two WorxAudio TrueLine TL218SS-P subwoofers plus a single TL118SS-PMD2 subwoofer. All three enclosures are housed in
specially designed, recessed cubicles under the front edge of the stage. With the
two TL218SS-P subwoofers positioned at
the left and right edges of the stage and
the TL118SS-PMD2 enclosure in the center, these subwoofers provide plenty of
low end punch and smooth bass response
Post-Production Remixes
FOH
To support its TV broadcast and Internet
streaming endeavors, White Oak Worship Center
has a dedicated post production suite where all
audio and video is processed. To ensure the best
possible sound quality, the church records to a
Tascam X-48 48-track hard disk workstation. This
workstation takes a combination of analog and
optical digital feeds as direct outputs from the
“They wanted a top-notch sound system
that delivered first-rate speech intelligibility while also being capable of handling high
SPL music reproduction.” —Paul Boone
throughout the room while effectively remaining out of sight. All PA enclosures
are managed by an Ashly Protea 4.8SP 4
Input / 8 Output Digital system controller,
which handles room EQ and time alignments.
Monitor provisions include a combination of WorxAudio 8M two-way, high
efficiency, passive loudspeakers and Aviom A-16II in-ear personal mixing systems,
which are used by the front line vocalists and all musicians. Mike Klauss, lead
sound engineer for White Oak Worship
Center, notes that these personal monitor
systems have been a boon for everyone
involved. “We’re running about 14 Aviom
units,” Klauss reports. “These systems do a
tremendous job of minimizing stage volume, which helps clean up the sound at
FOH.”
All handheld microphones—both
wired and wireless—use Audix OM6 elements. “We wanted to ensure the best
possible consistency of sound regardless of which microphone is being used,”
Klauss notes. “Other microphones include
a Countryman E6 earset mic for Pastor
Roger Ewing while the choir is picked up
by Audix MicroBoom microphones.”
Low frequency support is provided by
Allen & Heath MixRack—the mix engine for the
FOH console. “The Tascam X-48 enables us to remix the audio separately,” says Klauss, “before it is
sync’d with video during post production.”
“The fact that we planned the sanctuary’s AV
facilities at an early stage paid huge dividends
on this project,” Klauss adds. “We began planning for all this as far back as January of 2009
when the building’s architectural blueprints and
CAD drawings were being finalized. By being involved early on, we were able to arrange for the
subwoofer cubicles and numerous other aspects
of this project that, ultimately, made it a worldclass installation. Hugh Sarvis was a tremendous
help—not only in the design of the sound system, but in its final tuning as well.”
With the new AV system in place and
operational, Klauss reports a positive reaction from that everyone — from Pastor
Roger Ewing and the praise team to the
congregation. “The church wanted the
sound to be clear, comfortable, and distinct
and that’s exactly what we achieved,” he
says. “We continue to receive compliments
for every aspect of the entire audio-visual
system. Several pastors from various area
churches have visited White Oak Worship
Center to experience the system and have
been very impressed. In my mind, that’s the
best compliment of all.”
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 6:58 PM
Tom
Abraham
A
n admission. When I put the wheels
in motion to cover Alice in Chains on
their stop in Vegas, my motives were
less-than-transparent. Truth is, FOH photographer and production manager Linda Evans
(who also happens to be my wife) had some
really great shots of the band that she took
at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, and I really wanted to be able to use them. So I got
with Greg McVeigh of Guesthouse Projects
who had sent me a note about AIC using
some Heil mics and asked for a hookup with
their sound guy.
So when I found out it was Tom Abraham, I had to do some research. I thought
I did not know Tom but found very quickly
that I had at least 20 e-mails in the past year
that had come from sound guys I respect
a lot and who had sent to a group that included both Tom and I. So we had numerous
mutual friends.
Then I got his résumé and felt kind of
silly that I did not know him already. It’s a
long and impressive list that includes everything from symphonies in upstate New York
to stints with Garbage, Shakira and ZZ Top.
He was handed the keys to Alice in Chains by
FOH Interview
F O H E n g i n e e r, U n c h a i n e d
puter science, got a job with General Electric
because my Dad worked there, and became
a civilian defense contractor for the Air Force
working on graphics software for radars. This
was old-skool graphics — Fortran code in the
mid-late 1980s.
I was a guitar player in a band in high
school — I quit to go to college and they replaced me, but I still did sound for them and
other local bands — sorta built a client-base
of upstate New York bar bands. Remember,
that was a time when there was really a good
rock club scene in the late 1980s. I became
the house guy at a craphole called The Lost
Horizon in Syracuse — that was at the time
when it was really happening — we did like
20 bands a week — both national acts and locals. I did everything — FOH, monitors, patch,
maintenance, load-in and out...you name
it. Busted ass there for three years. It was
sorta the place to play in upstate New York. I
worked my 9-to-5 gig at General Electric, then
my 5pm-to-3am gig at the club almost every
day — I was young and had energy then!
One day, a solo shredder guitar player
named Vinnie Moore played and I mixed and
his manager was there. The manager offered
“Those festivals are quantity over quality. No
time at all to put on a quality show — just bang
it out and find a way to leave ASAP. May I quote
fellow engineer Brad Madix? ‘Its like camping,
only camping doesn’t suck.’”
Showco’s M.L. Procise in 2007 and has been
the band’s FOH engineer and production
manager ever since.
A big tip of the hat here. The Vegas date
was the last stop on an 18-month tour. So
in addition to the complications that Sin
City can present, the crew was looking at a
load-out that included a full inventory and
arranging for rented gear to be sent back
to various vendors. Not a night anyone is
enthused about having some dork from
the trade press hanging out. But Tom was
incredibly accommodating and took significant time — on a day when he really had
none to spare — to talk mics, touring in general and his hatred of large festivals. Take it
away Tom...
me a two-week run with Vinnie around the
Northeast and Middle Atlantic region. Me
and one other guy doing everything. Anyway, we did it, and the manager, Pete Morticelli, said he knew a guy in New York who
dealt with “big bands,” and he was going to
tell him I did a good job. Well, two days later,
phone rings and its Tony D from Q-Prime
Management in New York. Two days later,
I was doing monitors for Dokken. That was
1989 I think...and I was off and running. Quit
the “real job,” and have been engineering
ever since.
FOH: How did you get into the biz? I was
the guy in the band who owned the PA.
Was that your path?
Tom Abraham: Well, I did the “normal”
thing out of high school, went to a state college in New York and got a degree in com-
I don’t hear a southern accent, so why
Nashville?
From upstate New York. Lived in Madison
WI for a while due to working with Garbage
for a long time and they were based out of
there. Nashville…Hated winter, girlfriend
bailed, had to get away. Nashville seemed
as good as anywhere, and certainly warmer
than what I have become used to.
Give me the lowdown on the gear you
were carrying. Everything but stacks and
racks, or full production?
Well, you saw the Vegas Joint show
which was not normal. We used the house
PA there just to make the day easy, and it’s
a good rig. We were carrying 28 Clair I5s, 24
Clair I3s, 20 Clair B2 subs and 12 Clair FF2
Front Fills. Great sounding rig, every damn
day. All control was two Digidesign Profiles
(FOH and Monitors). Besides the Clair controller for the PA, there really wasn’t anything else. We used the Clair Lab.gruppen
amps with the Dolby Lake Controllers built
into the amps. Really works great.
How did you make the switch to Heil
mics? And how did the band respond? In
my experience, I can get away with changing pretty much any mic onstage until it
gets to vocal mics, and then I better have
a good reason and be able to convincingly make the case. That your experience?
Toby Francis turned me onto Heil in
2007. He introduced me to Bob Heil, and Bob
is so nice and so accommodating. And Bob
actually understands the shit we go through
with certain artists. In the end, Heils sound
better than “the industry standard.” Just listen...let the band listen. They prove themselves by using your ears. With AIC — they
trust me to pick what’s going to work best,
so with AIC, it’s no issue making changes.
Why the Venue?
Well, it does everything I need it to...it allows me to implement my wacky ideas more
than any other desk. That’s the number one
reason I use it. I don’t like the big Venue surface
at all, I use the Profile surface — I feel it’s much
better laid out. The big Venue surface is just
WAY too big for what it does. Just wish Digidesign…Avid...would put some better faders
in the Profile surface. I have literally replaced
20 faders on Profiles just on this last AIC tour
alone. That’s on probably 10 different Profile
surfaces as well. They don’t hold up in the real
world touring beat-down. I have complained a
hundred times...nobody listens. Which I could
switch, but the Venue system allows me to
implement my concepts, and they are easy
to rent in any territory, and that’s important
nowadays, ‘cause nobody flies desks around
anymore — you pick them up territoriality.
What about the festival thing? I know you
guys did Roskilde, and I am under the impression that you spent much of the summer on the Euro festival circuit. How big an
adjustment is it to go from the only headliner to a top band but still one of a dozen on
any given day? What kind of adjustments
and compromises do you find you have to
make?
Don’t get me started. I hate Euro festivals.
And it’s all I seem to do. Those festivals are
quantity over quality. No time at all to put on a
quality show — just bang it out and find a way
to leave ASAP. It’s miserable. And ramming
your control gear in after doors are open and
getting it out before the show is over is pure
joy. May I quote fellow engineer Brad Madix?
“Its like camping, only camping doesn’t suck.”
Festivals are an evil we just have to deal with
nowadays. Its trench warfare mixing. Damage
control mixing. You are just trying to make it
“not suck.” Half of mixing is tweaking/working
with the PA to make it do what you want —
and that is taken away from you at a festival.
The whole deal is crap. Don’t get me started
more than I already have. Headline shows are
PURE JOY, comparatively.
How long have you been with AIC?
Got the gig from M.L. at Clair/Showco in
July 2007. Been doing it ever since.
www.fohonline.com
25-27.200.1101.indd 25
By BillEvans
2011 JANUARY
25
1/5/11 6:09 PM
Road Test
Audix FP7 Drum Mics
T
he Audix FP7 Fusion Series drum mic
package is a complete mid-level package designed for both studio and stage
use that offers working drummers and small
soundcos a worthy solution to all their drum
and percussion miking needs.
I’ll be honest — I’m not a drummer, and
as an engineer, I’m pretty much loathe to purchase “package” anything, more often choosing to buy mixed and matched in order to get
the best value for my particular needs. So I
turned to gigging drummer Luke Thatcher, a
doctoral candidate in drumming at UNLV and
all around badass dude with sticks to help me
assess the Fusion series package.
What You Get:
RT
• Three Fusion f2s — a dynamic, hypercardioid,
frequency response 52 Hz to 15 kHz, max SPL
139, that is voiced for rack and floor toms, congas, djembe, timbales, bass cabs and brass.
• One Fusion f5 — an all-purpose dynamic mic,
hypercardioid, frequency response 55 Hz to 15
kHz, max SPL 137, voiced for snare, bongos,
timbales, guitar cabs and acoustic instruments.
• One Fusion f6 — a dynamic hypercardioid,
frequency response 40 Hz to 16 kHz, max SPL
140, voiced for kick drum, cajon, and low-end
instruments.
• Two Fusion f9s — a condenser, cardioid, frequency response 50 Hz to 16 kHz, max SPL
138, for use on cymbals, high hat, overheads
or a room/audience mic.
• Aluminum, custom, foam-equipped carrying
case
• 6 high-impact plastic Dclips
• 1 high-impact plastic MC-1 clip
How It Measures Up
RT
All the mics feature sturdy zinc bodies.
The dynamics all include roadworthy steel
grilles that stood up to basic rough stage handling and stick hits. The aluminum case is your
typical included case lately — not flimsy, but
nowhere close to being indestructible. Hardcore road warriors would definitely want to
resettle the package into something a little
more rough and tumble, as the case is really
designed for basic studio/weekend warrior
movement.
Maybe it’s the vocalist in me, and the fact
that I’ve never seen a single one last for long
unless they are handled with kid gloves, but
I personally detest high-impact mic clips, and
the FP7’s set of them are no exception. They
lock in nicely on the mics and come with good
quality threaded adaptors on the base, but are
obviously not going to last for the life of the
mics, and since they aren’t easily replaceable
by walking into your nearest corner music
store, they seem a bit stingy. Something in
rubber would have been more appreciated,
particularly since the set is touted primarily as
a tool for live use. But it’s likely that Audix expects its users to want to invest in the D-vice
gooseneck clips anyway at some point. But if
I was gigging with the set, they would be the
26
26-27.200.1101.indd 26
JANUARY 2011
By AndreaBensmiller
first thing I either get extras of, or replace altogether.
Soundwise, Luke and I decided to start
with the f6 on his DW kit. It was clear looking at
the frequency response specs that the low end
drop off was a little higher on the spectrum
than we expected, so we started in with some
thumping, but weren’t particularly enamored
of the sound coming off of it at plug and play.
Designed with a huge mid-range scoop and
upper end boost, there was plenty of 2-5 K attack clarity with a noticeable absence of any
mid-range mud. But the f6 was thin on the low
end (at least to our young hip hop/rap/hard
rock-influenced ears), and delivered nowhere
close to the kind of full, round bottom that
some might be expecting based on the buzz
of the D6. We weren’t sure if the f6 was just the
weak horse in the stable or whether this was
an indication of the overall package, so we
plugged on.
Things started looking up a lot when we
shifted to the f5 on snare, which weighed in
with a clear, present, quiet gain with low feedback drama and really nice response on both
dynamic and outright loud playing. Clean and
tight, the f5 delivered excellent mid-range pop
and solid ring in the upper ranges. No complaints from the listening point of view. As a
multi-purpose mic, the f5 has been designed
Audix Fusion FP7
Drum Package
Pros: Great value, good bread and
butter tom sound, durable
Cons: Weak bass mic, flimsy clip
How Much: $550 (MSRP)
with a longer body than expected, which we
found stuck out a lot further than we would
have liked. There’s no doubt you’ll want to upgrade to a rim clip, because the size of the f5
body once it’s connected doesn’t leave much
space to work with between toms or hat.
We were also very pleased with the f2. On
floor and rack toms, it delivered round upper
range with clean resonance on midtones in
the 3 kHz range. Good bread and butter tom
sound with a nice tight fit for getting them out
of your way.
The two f9s presented us with another
dilemma. Condensor mics typically fall into
one of two categories: really great all purpose
overheads/acoustic mics, or voiced primarily for cymbals, and the f9s definitely fall into
the latter category. They were clear and present on crash and ride, hats and tambo, but it’s
hard to imagine using them for anything outside of that spectrum since they do lack a bit
of warmth.
Luke and I agreed that the overall sound of
the FP7 package is best voiced for drumming
in acoustic, jazz, fusion and small kit situations,
and is perfect for the working percussionist.
Based on the overall lack of round low-end
though, drummers in heavier styles like rock,
metal, hardcore, or even R&B and rappers,
aren’t going to find much use for the f6. They
could, of course, buy a separate D6, and save
the f6 for use on cajon or floor tom, where it
might better find its true calling.
Given the Fusion FP7’s cost, it’s a great value and worthy tool for those looking for a midrange set of drum mics that won’t destroy their
bank account. It delivers solid clean signal and
ease of use right out of the box.
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 7:00 PM
Road Test
Rational Acoustics Smaart v7.1
Editor’s Note: Steve submitted this as his
regular “On the Digital Edge” column for the
January issue of FOH but, as it is a pretty extensive look at the nuts and bolts of a much-used
software program, we are running it as a Road
Test instead. Same stuff, different header.
Getting Smaart
RT
The latest revision of Rational Acoustics’
Smaart is v7.1 which runs under Mac OSX (10.5
or 10.6) as well as Windows 7, XP, or Vista. Rational Acoustics recommends at least a 2 GHz
dual-core processor and Smaart is compatible
with CoreAudio, WAV or ASIO audio drivers. I
ran Smaart on a MacBook 2 GHz Core 2 Duo/4
GB RAM with Digi 002R and MOTU Traveler
interfaces. If you’ve never used Smaart, it’s
worthwhile reviewing the resources available
from the Rational Acoustics web site, particularly the PowerPoint presentation and basic
setup guide. Reading these documents while
following along with your system can cut
down the learning curve, and since there’s a
lot to learn about Smaart, this idea is… well…
smart.
The Interface
RT
Rational Acoustics incorporated many
improvements to the interface of Smaart v7.1,
including a “Capture All” command that stores
all active measurement traces and an improved trace filing system. A major change is
that this version supports simultaneous measurement of multiple channels. Other changes
will be discussed below.
Smaart’s primary modes (Real Time and
Impulse Response) include time and frequency domain measurements, but first you need
to set up your hardware in the audio dialogue.
When Smaart recognizes your interface, it appears on a menu of available I/Os. You can then
set sample rate, bit-depth (16 or 24) and apply
your own names to the inputs and outputs
(nice for managing multi-channel systems).
Smaart played very well with my Digi 002R at
sample rates of 44.1-, 48- and 96 kHz, though
it does not support 88.2 kHz (which I don’t see
as a problem). I cannot say the same for my
MOTU Traveler, which Smaart did not like very
much. Sometimes Smaart would recognize
the Traveler, and other times — typically after
changing the sample rate — it would not.
Averaging and Weighting
RT
Inputs are organized and added into
Groups under the Group Manager, where
you’ll find parameters including averaging
and weighting. Version 7.1 is the first to support multiple channels, enabling simultaneous measurement of, for example, console
output, a mic at FOH, another mic in the balcony, etc. Active channels are viewed “overlay”
style; clicking on an input in the Control Strip
brings its trace to the front of a window. It’d be
nice if you could tile the screen into separate
windows for each trace (e.g. four windows of
RTA, each displaying a channel).
One of the few gripes I have with Smaart
is that weighting is neither displayed nor accessible from the Control Strip, though it is
indicated in the trace area. Figure 1 shows the
Smaart Spectrum (RTA) function. Note that the
Control Strip on the right (detailed in figure 2)
displays the averaging but not the weighting, which I consider essential [Editor’s note:
the numeric readout at the top of the Control Strip shows weighting for the dB meter,
not the analysis tool]. The Spectrum display
can show RTA, Spectrograph or both via split
screen (figure 3). All of the screens look great
and are easy to read, but one thing I did not
like is that when you zoom in or out, the scale
of the screen changes, but the resolution of
the grid does not (i.e., you can zoom in as far as
you want, but the grid is still divided into 6 dB
steps). To select an area of a window for zoom,
right-click and drag on it or, on a one-button
mouse, hold <Control> + <Option> and click
and drag.
Other Functions
Fig. 1
RT
At the top of the Control Strip is a numeric
indicator that shows dBFS, dB SPL (Smaart
provides calibration for SPL) or dBLEQ. dBLEQ
is capable of long-term SPL monitoring over
a user-defined period (we went as far as six
hours), with user-defined increments. A “logging” feature creates a text file of these measurements showing minimum and maximum
SPL as well as the actual SPL at a given date
and time. It’s a very useful tool, especially in
venues where the neighbors make noise complaints.
Smaart’s Transfer Function allows comparison between a reference signal and the
post-process version of that signal in an audio
system, measurements which reveal interesting traits. An example is shown in figure 4,
the Transfer Function of a monitor system in
a small control room. This was measured by
generating pink noise (from Smaart’s signal
generator), splitting it and sending it directly
into Smaart on the Reference channel and
also to the monitors. A measurement mic
picked was connected to the Measurement
channel. This comparison involves a delay between the two signals (the Reference signal
does not travel through the air, and therefore
reaches Smaart faster). To maintain accuracy,
there must be compensation for the delay.
Smaart has an automatic delay finder that calculates delay, even while you are moving the
mic around the room. It worked perfectly. In
Fig. 4, the lower two windows show Transfer
Function. The middle trace (green) shows frequency versus phase difference while the bottom window shows magnitude (green) versus
frequency difference between reference and
measurement mic. The bottom also shows
“Coherence” in red (a discussion of coherence
is beyond the scope of this article, but it points
toward reliability of accumulated data). In this
particular instance we are in Live IR Mode, so
Smaart added a third window at the top of the
screen with amplitude versus time difference
between the two channels. The green spike at
approximately 5.6 mS and the smaller bump
roughly one mS later provide insight as to why
the green trace in the Phase window looks so
erratic (phase problems and comb filtering),
and also why the red trace is not as coherent
as we might like.
Impulse Response
RT
Impulse Response measurement is always tricky, because if measurement parameters are not set carefully, data acquisition
is inaccurate. The setting for Time Constant
(TC) must be long enough to include the
entire decay time of the system under test.
When capturing the impulse response of a
room with a decay time of 1.5 seconds, a TC
of 682 mS yields inaccurate data, because
Smaart is not given enough time to “hear”
the entire decay. The solution is increased
TC, which also increases the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). Processing time increases
with increased TC, so one benefit of using
Fig. 2
A closer look at the
Control Strip in Fig. 1.
The Smaart Spectrum (RTA) function
Fig. 3
Split screen view of the Spectrum display.
Fig. 4
The Transfer function of a monitor system in a small control room.
shorter TC is that you see the results faster.
Smaart provides TC settings ranging from 2
and 10922 mS, with corresponding FFT sizes
and averaging to improve reliability.
There are a couple of minor things that
I’d like to see tightened up in Smaart. In addition to the aforementioned difficulty with
the Traveler interface, there is an issue with
using the MacBook’s built-in I/O. Smaart recognizes the I/O, but at times, attempting to
use it prompts a message stating “Failed to
Start Device.” The folks at Rational Acoustics
are working on solutions to those issues.
Nit-picks aside, there’s no doubt that
Smaart is an extremely powerful software
www.fohonline.com
26-27.200.1101.indd 27
By SteveLaCerra
tool, in particular for touring sound companies and installers. It takes a bit of time to become familiar with all of the capabilities but
should be considered essential for anyone
requiring critical evaluation of audio system
performance. It’s also an excellent teaching
tool, providing a means of illustrating a variety of acoustic phenomena. A new license
for Smaart runs $895; upgrades from earlier
versions range from $450 to $650.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour manager
and FOH engineer for Blue Öyster Cult. E-mail
him at woody@fohonline.com.
2011 JANUARY
27
1/4/11 7:00 PM
Welcome To My Nightmare
Flying Blind
28
28.200.1101.indd 28
JANUARY 2011
TONYGLEESON.COM
I
was working in the Midwest as a sound
guy for a local bar band. We were playing at a bar that had a switch installed
onstage so the band could turn the jukebox
off and on before and after each set. The
band was just about ready to kick into the
first song of the night when I realized that
although the room was quiet, it was because
the jukebox was between songs and that
nobody on stage had hit the switch.
I didn’t want the next song on the jukebox to start just as the band began, so I
jumped up from behind the board to sprint
across the dance floor and hit the switch. I
ran across the bar and jumped into the air to
leap up onto the stage, but the lighting guy
didn’t see me and blacked out the room just
as my feet left the floor.
So now I’m flying through the air, but
I’m also temporarily blinded by the sudden
darkness. I gave it my best guess, but I misjudged where the front of the stage was, and
instead of landing with my feet onstage, I fell
about a foot short and crashed down with
both shins on the front edge of the stage
and then landed in a heap on the dance
floor.
The lighting guy (and everyone else in
the bar) heard the crash and immediately
turned the lights back on, to reveal me lying
on the floor, holding my shins and cringing
in pain.
The lead singer is leaning over the down-
stage monitors, whispering, “Dude — are
you okay?” And I’m in too much pain to talk
yet, but gesturing wildly to the band so the
crowd will have something ELSE to watch as
I try to crawl back to the board.
Later that night, during the second set,
the lead singer decided to leave the stage
through a door he discovered on the back
wall and stepped into the darkness to discover the room was sunken but had no stairs
down, and fell onto an upside-down pedestal table, but that’s another story...
— Submitted by Dirk Belling
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 7:01 PM
Hot‘lanta:
Regional Slants
ASL Thrives in Active Market
bill abner
By BlairJackson
From left, Zach Bitterman, Roby Dail, Steve Land (EDA ProGroup), Brian Hatten, Jon Waterbury, Mike Ertle, Scott
Waterbury, Steve May, Jay Easley (Midas USA), Mark Adamson (EDA ProGroup), Tom Smith, Dale Wasson.
A
tlanta has been one of the Southeast’s
major entertainment hubs since the late
1960s. It was home to some of the first
large-scale rock festivals, and it has always been
an important stop for any significant touring act.
Along the way, Georgia has spawned its own regional scenes as well, from early 1970s Southern
rock gods like the Allman Brothers to the New
Wave boom in Athens in the early 1980s (REM,
B-52s, etc.) to today’s explosion in hip-hop and
R&B, Atlanta is home to some of the hottest
producers in the business, and that in turn has
spurred many bands to call the area home, and
clubs and recording studios have sprung up to
accommodate the influx of creative types.
Not surprisingly, there are numerous sound
reinforcement companies in the area competing
for work in what has become one of the most active entertainment centers in the country. One
mid-size operation that has been around for
more than 30 years, weathered many changes in
the market and always managed to keep moving forward is Atlanta Sound & Lighting. ASL general manager Scott Waterbury notes, “One of my
partners had visited SIR [Studio Instrument Rentals] in L.A. back in the mid-1970s and thought,
‘You know, it would be cool to have something
like that in Atlanta,’ so that was the original focus
of the company — doing rentals and backline.
[That company was known as Soundz Music
Atlanta.] I moved down here from Chicago in
‘78, which was about a year later, and then in ‘79
we incorporated,” then increasingly moved into
event production and sound reinforcement.
Organic Growth
FOH
“We were never really overly funded,” Waterbury continues with a chuckle, “so the way we
grew our inventory was, we’d have to buy two
of something and later sell them to get three of
something else, and then three would turn into
five, and five would turn into 10, and then we’d
sell 10 and buy something different; it grew naturally like that. Before long, too, we started building our own cabinets, but it seemed like we were
better at using stuff than designing and building
it, so we let designers and builders do that and
we just started choosing whose equipment we
wanted to use, and life got a lot easier.”
Through the years, ASL branched off into
many different areas, including large and small
productions in every sized venue imaginable,
from clubs to concert halls to legitimate theaters;
complete SR and lighting for corporate events;
custom installs in restaurants, clubs, houses of
worship and other facilities; political events;
multi-stage fairs; private parties and weddings;
you name it. “I guess our mainstay is musical acts
coming through town,” Waterbury comments,
“but we have guys that are interested and excited about all those other areas, so when they call
up and need a problem solved — like if a restaurateur calls up, they get a guy who really understands restaurant problems and knows what we
have that fixes that problem.
“One of the nice things about my company
is that because we do so many things, and we’re
not 90 percent one thing and 10 percent something else, we’re not completely dependent on
one market. Like right now, when corporate is
down, there are other markets that have been
up for us. And it also helps that there is that
‘& Lighting’ in our name. There are some tours
where lighting is extremely important and ‘Oh,
by the way, they need a sound system,’ and others where the sound has be impeccable and
‘Yeah, if the lights would move that would be
cool,’” he laughs. “Clients have all these different
objectives, and what we’ve gotten good at is understanding what their vision really is and then
helping them forge a path that cost-effectively
takes care of that.”
Not Just About the Gear
FOH
been really good for us. We actually feel like E-V
helped us grow, and in a small part we probably
helped them grow, too.
“I’ve got an X-Array system, and I’ve also
got 30 or 40 ZXA1s — this teeny, eight-pound
speaker, which people really seem to love. I’ve
got Tour X, I’ve got Sx250 systems, I’ve got XLD,
XLE, XLC. When EV was doing Dynacord, I got
Dynacord Cobra and XA systems. It’s worked out
really well for us to stick with one high quality
company instead of bouncing around and trying
mix and match. Their gear is engineered to work
together; it’s fantastic.”
Going Digital
ASL is the rare SR and lighting company that
doesn’t trumpet their massive gear collection on
the their website (atlantasoundandlight.com)
because, Waterbury says, “We’re not about the
equipment any more. About four years ago we
threw away the price book and it’s nothing to do
with gear. It’s all about the end result and the service people want to get. So we just buy stuff we
believe in and then people hire us because they
believe in us. Yes, it makes a difference what gear
you have, but that’s not what makes the difference. The difference is the attitude and the effort
that the techs bring with them to the table.”
That said, the folks at ASL are happy to talk
gear and pride themselves in keeping a broad
range of well-maintained equipment for any
application. They also have some favorites, as
Waterbury explains: “A number for years ago,
my rep at Electro-Voice looked at me and said,
‘You’ve got something like 160 lines you’re handling — five different power amps and 70 different speaker manufacturers; all these others. You
divide your sales by 160 and to each guy you’re
1/160th of a good customer. But if you spend a lot
of your money with E-V, we’ll think you’re a pretty
big deal.’ It sounded like salesman stuff to me, but
honestly, it changed my life. It turned out that E-V
had something as good or better than anything
I was buying from all these different companies.
So instead of having a low-line contact from one
company and talking to that rep, and a mid-line
contact at another, and so on, E-V had everything
from a mom and pop PA-on-a-stick to full-blown
stadium stuff, and everything in between. So it’s
www.fohonline.com
29.200.1101.indd 29
FOH
When it comes to consoles, ASL’s higher end
inventory is still based largely around beloved
analog Midas XL200 and Heritage desks, but recently they took the plunge into the digital realm
when they purchased the highly-touted Midas
PRO3, which was just announced at InfoComm
this past year. Waterbury says that ASL had
bought digital boards from “the usual suspects”
in the past, but didn’t feel that they were the
sonic or ergonomic match of their popular analog boards. The PRO3 changes that, he believes.
ASL currently has 12 full-time and 44 parttime employees, with most of the latter group
encompassing “specialty guys,” Waterbury says.
“We have someone who makes custom enclosures or adapts enclosures to environments for
us; somebody else does rigging; somebody else
knows about motors. We try to let people who
really excel at something excel at that area, rather
than forcing them to be good at something they
don’t enjoy. We have a ‘Don’t take the fun out of
it’ attitude. We’ve got great jobs; we get paid to
have a lot of fun.”
And they’ve developed a solid foothold in a
still-growing metropolitan market. “We’re fortunate in that this little cubby hole of the United
States has been very good to us,” Waterbury offers. “Most of our guys are married and/or have
children and while we will tour and do tour, it’s
really not our mainstay. There’s enough work
right here in our backyard that we don’t have to
be going more than 200 to 300 miles for work.
This level is working out really well for us.”
2011 JANUARY
29
1/4/11 7:07 PM
The Biz
By DanDaley
On The Block
A
turning point in rock ‘n’ roll was surely
the first time some odd piece of it was
transformed from a practical item to a
priceless artifact that was priced, finally, on
the auctioneer’s block. A plain vanilla guitar
pick used by Eric Clapton went from someone’s personal treasure to becoming part of
someone else’s memorabilia collection. This
has extended to the technology of record
making as well. For instance, Lenny Kravitz
is the proud owner of the 4-track deck used
at Abbey Road Studios to make the Beatles’
Sgt. Pepper.
Quadra-mobilia
Floyd, had owned the consoles for the past
26 years.
It seems almost quaint now, but quadraphonic sound was considered a viable
format in the late 1960s and 1970s. The success of The Who’s Quadrophenia and Pink
Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon LPs seemed to
indicate that the public was ready to move
The Power of Four
biz
All of Pink Floyd’s tours in the late 1960s
and into the early 1970s featured quadraphonic sound systems, starting with the May
12, 1967 concert that kicked off the Games
For May tour in London’s Queen Elizabeth
Hall. It used the Azimuth Coordinator sound
What is interesting here is the notion that
live sound gear might actually be acquiring
value as memorabilia.
biz
Plenty of artifacts from the live side of
music have been regulars on the block, from
old Fillmore posters to Eric Clapton’s Stratocaster, “Blackie.” But rarely would you see
a piece of live sound technology up there.
Well, that changed in December, when the
Bonham’s auction house in London put up
for bids the hand-built quadraphonic mixing desks used on Pink Floyd’s Momentary
Lapse of Reason and Division Bell world tours.
Britannia Row Productions, the sound company originally formed and owned by Pink
on from stereo to one of several competing technical systems for presenting four
channel sound from a single stereo record
groove, including CD4 and SQ (which had
the advantage that no special needle or
turntable was required to play SQ-encoded
recordings). That surfeit of formats would
ultimately prove to be quadraphonic recording’s undoing, but while the iron was hot a
number of artists decided to apply the concept to their live shows as well.
system, devised by an Abbey Road engineer
and utilizing a unique joystick panning system that used four large rheostats housed in
a large box, converted from 270 degrees rotation to 90 degrees, to cover all four quadrants. (Of the two of those Azimuth systems
built, one survives and is on display at the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London as
part of the theater exhibit.) Sound effects
like helicopters and the famous chiming
clocks and gongs of Dark Side of the Moon
were whirled around huge venues using
stacks of loudspeakers positioned in an approximate diamond layout, with one stack at
the rear facing the stage, the two side stacks
to either side on a line slightly behind the
mixing desk position, and the main left-andright PA stacks handling the front point of
the diamond. The effects were routed to the
speakers using one of the special hand-built
quadraphonic mixing desks.
Where Pink Floyd’s consoles used joystick panners, American PA pioneer Bob
Heil’s designs for Pete Townshend’s plan to
take Quadrophenia on the road instead used
four faders to four discrete output busses
that went to four stacks around the venue,
which Heil says provided an excellent panning effect between the stacks. “Pete said
he wanted to move Roger’s [Daltrey’s] voice
around the room, and that’s just what we
did,” Heil says in a conversation from his office and workshop in Aurora, IL.
A total of 28 15-channel M.A.V.I.S. (Musical Augmentation Voicing Instrumentation
System) consoles were ultimately built, according to a web posting by a member of
The Who’s tour sound crew, who owns one
of the two used on The Who’s Quadrophenia
tour. The other now resides in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. Heil’s is
the only manufacturer brand specifically
represented there as such. Both were used as
the FOH consoles for hundreds of concerts
before being retired, says Heil, but most of
those were for stereo or monaural PA systems. It became evident fairly quickly that
quadraphonic live concert applications
were a tenuous business proposition at
best. “The format was difficult to handle,
and it wasn’t very rewarding for the concertgoers,” says Heil. “If you were sitting next to
the rear stack on the left side you wouldn’t
hear what was coming out of the others.
It was a little crazy to make a four-channel
sound system for 20,000-seat arenas.”
Traces of Analog
biz
Pink Floyd’s Azimuth Coordinator approach to four-channel live sound went
through six iterations between 1969 and 1994,
each one a bit more sophisticated than the
previous one. Brit Row actually kept them on
active inventory, though they were not actually let out. As the few remaining traces of
analog technology left in live sound disappear,
the PA supplier decided to put them up for
auction as collectors’ items, with a percentage
of the sale price going to Stage Hand, a U.K.registered charity supported by the Production Services Association (PSA).
Quadraphonic live sound was, in the
end, one of the more gloriously egregious
of the spectacular excesses of the golden
age of rock ‘n’ roll. But it was also a totem of
an era when anti-war activists thought they
could levitate the Pentagon with a combination of love and blotter acid, when an industry fueled by sudden, massive wealth, which
thought nothing of private jets and sevenfigure recording budgets simply figured,
“Quadraphonic? Yeah, sure, why not?”
What is interesting here, though, is the
notion that live sound gear might be acquiring value as memorabilia. It’s great that the
M.A.V.I.S. is in the Hall of Fame, but it would
be just as fitting to see one in a Hard Rock
Café. Having the guitar, the reel of tape and
the live sound board all in one place would
certainly complete the cycle.
Dan Daley’s e-mail collection is at ddaley@
fohon line.com.
Powered vs. Unpowered Loudspeakers
It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of
different technologies and make the best choice. Damping factor — which
can be affected by the length of the cable used — is a big selling point for
self-powered loudspeakers. Because the amplifier is right inside the box, a
self-powered loudspeaker has a cable length of no more than a couple of feet.
Self-powered loudspeakers also take up less space in the truck because there is no amp to lug around. But
repair techs will tell you that if a self-powered box amp module fails, and the system is flown, you have to get
a lift and replace the module. If a conventional amp fails, you just move the speaker cable over to another
amp rack. Another advantage of conventionally powered loudspeakers is weight. And the initial cost of a
conventional system may be less than a self-powered system, which has the cost of an amplifier in every box,
instead of using one amplifier to power multiple enclosures.
N
—Brian Klijanowicz, from “Theory and Practice,” FOH Dec. 2010
30
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JANUARY 2011
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 9:56 PM
Theory and Practice
Why Speakers
Blow Up
I
t’s interesting how, just when you think
you have it all figured out, something
breaks and it winds up being something
that you’ve never seen before. Just like the
saying goes, “you learn something new every
day.” I remember when I started in this business, when something like a speaker would
blow up, the reasoning would be “because it
was driven too hard.” Luckily, my first paying
gig was at a production company that was
also the main re-cone shop in town. Learning about the fundamentals of loudspeakers
while learning how to make them work on
show site was probably the best combination one could hope for, especially for being
the young “green” kid. What was once explained as “because it was driven too hard”
has evolved over time into much more indepth reasoning. This knowledge can significantly help when setting system protection,
from the smallest PA-on-a-stick-system to an
arena-sized array.
There are a couple different ways a speaker can fail. Typically, a driver will thermal-out
or have a mechanical failure that ultimately
destructs the inner parts of the speaker.
Thermal Failure
tp
Speaker drivers actually include different
ways to dissipate heat for both low and high
frequency components. Heat sinks, gap ventilation and ferrofluid are the three main ways
that this is achieved.
Heat sinks are usually built into the magnet structure on a low-frequency type of component. High-frequency components will
typically have them built into the back plate
of the driver. These help transfer the heat to
the back of the driver, away from the voice
coil. Gap ventilation is the most common design to keep the voice coil of a woofer cool
by the means of air movement. The way this
works is that the speaker frame has a series
of holes incorporated in a way that creates air
movement across the voice coil as the cone
moves. So the more the cone moves, more
air moves across the voice coil. The other way
is ferrofluid. This method is not seen as much
in low frequency components these days, but
more so in high frequency components. Ferrofluid is a black fluid that has iron-oxide particles in it, making it attracted to the magnetic
field of a speaker’s air gap. Once inserted, this
fluid stays in the gap and helps get heat away
from the voice coil, creating a higher power
handling capability for the coil. Even with all
of these techniques, it is still very possible to
destroy a speaker with too much heat.
Too much heat comes from one main
cause, too much voltage. What this does
to a driver physically is illustrated in Fig. 2.
This speaker had substantially more power
than it was rated for pushed through it. The
voice coil wire is wrapped around the former
(which keeps the voice coil form) and has a
coating on it. When the voice coil got hot
enough, it started to form bubbles in that
coating and the former, which can deform
the coil as well. When a speaker starts to have
that “rubbing” sound, this is usually what has
happened. Some speakers can even get burn
marks on the coil, or the voice coil leads can
burn up all together. Voice coils can get very
hot (upwards of a couple hundred degrees
32
30-32.200.1101.indd 32
JANUARY 2011
By BrianKlijanowicz
Fahrenheit), especially with the high-powered amplifiers that are now on the market.
Mechanical Failure
tp
A mechanical failure occurs when one or
more of the moving parts in a speaker (cone,
spider, coil, etc.) come apart or deform, resulting in the failure of the driver. The cause
of this can be from a couple different things
including improper crossover setup, an improperly matched speaker to box design/port
tuning, and the infamous “operator error.”
Different types of speakers are designed
for different applications (subwoofer, midrange, etc.) as well as a certain range of box
volume and porting frequency. There is extensive research and testing done in these
areas by manufacturers to get the best performance out of their products. Replacing
the specified driver for any given box can
change the excursion response to a point
at which the driver will not necessarily overheat from too much voltage, but instead will
bottom out the voice coil. Fig. 3 is an example of what can happen in this instance.
This type of mechanical failure can also be
caused by crossover points that are too low.
This is not just limited to subwoofers — midrange and high frequency drivers have this
kind of failure as well. A high-frequency
compression driver is a little different —
the diaphragm will either have a shattered
dome, or the voice coil can become separated from the dome.
In a previous article, I wrote about generic parts versus factory parts and the
importance of a good re-coner. The same
principle applies in this situation. The inner
moving parts of a speaker (cone, surround,
spider, voice coil) are all picked specifically
for that driver. The first and most obvious reason is that the combination of parts
makes the speaker achieve the sonic characteristics that the designer intended. The
other reason is that the surround, spider
and voice coil are specifically selected and
assembled in a way to work properly with
the air gap depth. For example, take a driver
that has a maximum mechanical excursion
limit (Xlim) of 10mm (sometimes listed as
5+/-mm). When a speaker has no voltage
going through it, it is sitting at a point where
it can push 5mm out or pull 5mm in. It is
very important that all the parts (cone, surround, spider, voice coil) are all the correct
sizes, properly measured and assembled. If
not, the voice coil has a good chance of either jumping the air gap or bottoming out
into the back of the magnet structure before
it reaches its full potential. This will wind up
once again looking like Fig. 3.
There are many different ways a component can blow up; this column just focuses
on two of the more common cases. The trick
is to know what causes speakers to blow up
and to use preventative measures to keep
that from happening. This will lead us to
next month’s topic: different methods of system limiting.
DUST CAP
GASKET
FRAME
OR BASKET
CONE
SPIDER
MAGNET
Rest assured that nothing will explode if you
correspond with Brian Klijanowicz at bk@
fohonline.com.
VOICE COIL
SURROUND
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
www.fohonline.com
1/4/11 7:07 PM
Sound Sanctuary
By JamieRio
I
love the New Year. It’s a chance for us
all to do better than we did during the
last year. This is true for all aspects of
life. However, I am discussing live worship
sound and how you can improve yourself in
that arena this New Year. As for everything
else, there are plenty of TV and radio shrinks
to help you there. So, where do we begin?
200,000 Opportunities
FOH
There is no doubt that worship sound
has continued to be a growing and very
lucrative market. There is more room for
growth in this niche of live sound than any
other that I am aware of. Let me give you a
few statistics; right now there are approximately 38,000 Baptist churches, 37,500
Methodist churches and 23,000 Catholic
churches in America. If you add up all the
religious groups that have gathering places
Diving Into the Big Niche in 2011
The AKGs were simply better than the mics I
had been using for the last few years in that
particular church. There will always be new
gear to check out (or at least read about),
and staying up on the latest and greatest
should be part of your job description.
Actually, the fact that you are reading
this magazine is a good sign that you already instinctively know this. I realize that
you may not be able to purchase every
new sound toy that you want in your worship house. But when the time comes, it
will be easy to choose a new piece of gear
if you have kept up with what is available
out there in the audio world.
Besides keeping up on what is new,
having a good reference book (or two) is
always helpful in your quest to do your job
better. My book, House of Worship Sound
Reinforcement, is one example, and it’s
Visit the church next door (or down the
street) and exercise your God-given
ears. There is no doubt that you will learn
something.
you will find that there are close to 200,000
houses of worship in the U.S. Compare that
to about 15,500 high school auditoriums
and 7,000 Catholic schools. As you can see,
this is not only a big niche, it is the biggest.
There really is no limit to how much sound
can be poured into these houses of worship.
That said, I have been in this biz for a
decade, and I have seen not only a lot of
growth but also a lot of changes in what a
congregation wants from their sound system and engineers. I know many of you are
volunteering your time as a worship sound
mixer rather than installing sound systems
and working at a variety of worship houses,
so these statistics may not be of that much
interest to you, but you still need to keep up
with what is new and exciting (and many
times better) in the live sound world.
Ahead of the Curve
FOH
Let me give you a quick example. Just a
few days ago, I used a matched pair of AKG
C214 microphones on a choir and was really pleased with the overall improvement
in sound quality that the mics delivered.
doubt that you will learn something. You
may find out that you rock as a worship
house sound mixer. Or you may hear tones
and frequencies that you never knew existed. Whatever the outcome, you should find
it enlightening. The more worship systems
you can listen to, the more objective you
can become about your own house system.
Besides, all the listening you do will just improve your ear training and frequency discernment.
I realize that this exercise will take extra
time and effort on your part, but we already
decided we want to do a better job this
year. Right?
H.O.W. Improvement
FOH
Back to your own worship house. One
of the most common areas of improvement in any church is the acoustic environment of the building itself. This will
involve discovering what materials were
used in the construction of your space
and how those materials react to live
sound and all the frequencies that are
produced. Whatever condition your space
is in, I am sure the acoustics can be im-
proved. And just like new and innovative
audio gear is always being produced, new
sound treatment materials are regularly
introduced into the sound market. The
understanding and treatment of sound
wave frequencies in any space can be a
very deep study. So, you have your work
cut out for you in investigating your own
house of worship.
I think that in the next few months I
will write something on the latest ideas
on acoustically treating your worship
space. For those of you who work with a
variety of worship houses, you need to
read up on what materials and items are
currently available for sound treatment.
As a matter of fact, the more you know
about sound and controlling it, the better
you will be able to do your job and serve
your clients.
If you make a plan to increase your
personal knowledge this year, you will become a greater asset to you yourself and
to your house of worship. Good luck!
It’s 2011. Resolve to e-mail Jamie Rio at
jrio@fohonline.com.
worth checking out, (even if the author is
not above using his column in FOH for a
shameless plug!).
Get Out Much?
FOH
Now that you have decided to sharpen your overall knowledge of sound and
equipment, you may want to dial in on the
needs of your own worship house. How
many of you visit other worship houses to
listen to their sound systems? If you are an
installer, you listen to various systems out
of the necessity of your job. However, you
may simply volunteer and mix at the worship house of which you are a member and
nowhere else. This is great if you want to
become proficient in the operation of your
house system, but at the same time you
may have separated yourself from the rest
of the sound world. It becomes the goldfish
in a bowl syndrome. You are only aware of
the environment immediately around you.
I suggest you get out and listen to some
other worship sound systems as well as
check other house environments. Visit the
church next door (or down the street) and
exercise your God-given ears. There is no
Online Education and Live Sound
Bill Gibson, an educator, music pastor and technical director for
a large contemporary music-oriented church in the Seattle area, also
has taught a 12-week-long Live Sound: Mixing and Recording online
course to 20 students or less at Berklee College of Music. He notes advantages with online education that include the ability for teachers
to give each student more personalized attention and deal with students progressing at different
rates. But an issue that remains is situational consistency — each of 20 students could potentially
be listening to disparate systems in disparate environments, even though the program material
may be the same. Gibson notes that the online courses still meet a key goal: “to learn the importance of listening.” …Dana Roun, director of audio programs at Full Sail University, observes that
“actually having the gear and venue is important. Do you say, ‘Imagine you are in a concert hall and
imagine the band is a five-piece metal band and you have a giant FOH rig. Okay, push your laptop
key and pretend you hear the crowd roar?’ I don’t think so.”
N
—Dan Daley, from “The Biz,” FOH, Dec. 2010
www.fohonline.com
33.200.1101.indd 33
2011 JANUARY
33
1/4/11 7:10 PM
To Advertise in Marketplace, Contact: Jeff • 818.435.2285 • jd@fohonline.com
Jobs for the
Entertainment Production
Technologists,
Practitioners & Educators
To Advertise in Marketplace, Contact: Dan • 415.218.3835 • dh@fohonline.com
Company
Page
Phone
Web
Company
Page
Phone
Web
A-Line Acoustics
26
814.663.0600
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-100
Rational Acoustics
28
860.928.7828
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-285
Allen & Heath
18, 19
818.597.7711
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-176
Riedel Communications
2
49 (0) 202.292.90
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-275
APB DynaSonics
11
973.785.1101
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-208
Shure Incorporated
5
800.257.4873
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-312
Ashly Audio
12
585.872.0010
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-222
SLS Audio
21
417.883.4549
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-328
Atlanta Sound & Lighting
25
770.455.7695
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-330
Soundcraft
23
888.251.1852
Checkers Industrial Products
26
800.438.9336
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-215
Sweetwater Sound
31
260.432.8176
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-247
Crown International
15
574.294.8000
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-102
Westone Music Products
4
719.540.9333
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-104
EAW
3
800.992.5013
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-173
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems
1
714.522.9011
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-159
Event Solutions
6
877.932.3055
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-327
ISP Technologies
29
248.673.7790
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-178
MARKET PLACE
JBL Professional
7
818.894.8850
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-110
Beachsound Inc.
34
305.623.3339
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-291
JH Audio
C1
866.485.9111
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-264
Blackbox Electrical Products
34
562.602.1799
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-322
Konig & Meyer / Connolly Music
33
631.925.5520
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-256
Carvin/TCS
34
800.854.2235
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-198
L-Acoustics
10
805.278.5887
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-264
Jan-Al Cases
35
800.735.2625
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-323
Lab.gruppen
30
519.745.1158
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-133
Georgia Case
34
888.422.2737
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-325
Lectrosonics
13
800.821.1121
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-284
Hi-Tech Audio Systems
34
650.742.9166
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-127
Martin Audio
8, 9
519.747.5853
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-111
New York Case/ Hybrid Cases
34
800.645.1707
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-168
Peavey
C2
877.732.8391
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-174
Sound Image
34
800.962.9422
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-166
QSC Audio Products
C4
800.854.4079
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-115
Sound Productions
34
800.203.5611
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-129
Radial Engineering
C3
604.942.1001
http://foh.hotims.com/35881-179
Check out what’s on our shelves!
STAGING • LIGHTING • SOUND
www.plsnbookshelf.com
Order online TODAY at www.plsnbookshelf.com
2011 january
35
FOH-at-Large
By BakerLee
WWBAWIDNB
T
Where It Does Belong
FOH
I mean, seriously, how hard is it to go
into a room that already has grid or designated hang points? It’s routine — lights and
video in first, after which comes the audio,
and then backline or sets. Run your snake
through the trough; tie into the house delay
system, and, bada bing bada boom, you’re
done. The band gets to do a three-hour
sound check, and then they retire to the
dressing room to relax and enjoy the fruits
of their rider before coming back on stage
to play for an adoring crowd that hangs on
every gorgeous visual and amplified note
emanating from the stage.
At the end of the concert, the crew returns (the size of crew varies depending
upon the venue), the backline is struck,
the speakers are brought in, the snake and
consoles are packed, the lighting truss is
brought in and struck, the trucks that have
been patiently waiting in the loading dock
are loaded and dispatched, and before the
four hour call is over, the crew is back in the
hotel bar having cocktails and cruising for
everlasting love.
No-Win Spaces
FOH
We Who Bring Audio Where It Does Not
Belong do not have the comfort of loading
into spaces that are actually set up to accommodate our essence. Hey, it’s not our
fault that some client decides to book a
major recording act into a small, beautiful
restaurant, hotel ballroom or event space in
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
Special H.O.W. Issue
Reviews, features and
tips all about church
sound
NAMM 2011
Scoping out audio
amongst ten thousand
guitars
Buyers Guide
Remember the
“Recording the Gig”
stuff we promised?
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDY AU
hose of us in the smaller audio companies do not usually have the luxury of
loading into a shed or theater that is
set up specifically for musical and theatrical
performance. A good portion of the venues
we end up working are spaces where audio
and lighting are less than a primary consideration. They are a mere afterthought — if
any thought was put in that direction at all.
A good motto for all of us who are caught in
this predicament might be, “Bringing audio
where it doesn’t belong.” It’s not pretty, but
someone has to do it.
We Who Bring Audio Where It Doesn’t
Belong do not have the comfort of loading
into spaces that are actually set up to
accommodate our essence.
order to celebrate some fabulous milestone
in their stupendously wonderful life. That’s
right, it’s not our blunder, but by default, it
certainly becomes our responsibility.
The amazing thing is that some of these
clients are even record companies who, one
would think, would know better, but alas,
they too succumb to the lure of the newest,
nicest and sexiest place to hold their event
without giving any thought as to what
might entail when they book a large nationally known act as the night’s entertainment. Not once have these clients or venues
called before booking the bands to inquire
as to any unforeseen problems. They get so
caught up in the fact that they can get “So
and so muckety muck” to play at their event
that they forget to even ask if it is feasible to
do so. The artist, having been made an offer
that they can’t refuse, takes his/her deposit
and passes on the necessary information to
their tour manager, who then becomes accountable should anything go wrong with
the event.
Specific, Varying Requests
FOH
We — The Company Who Brings Audio Where It Doesn’t Belong — are then
contacted by the client, the agent, the
venue or all the latter and given very specific, though varying, requests for what
is needed to make for a successful event.
The artist, of course, is asking for as much
of their concert rider as possible, the
venue is asking for the least amount of
hassle and the agent doesn’t give a crap
as long as he gets paid. The production
company or, We Who Bring Audio Where It
Does Not Belong, having accepted the gig
because work is work, then becomes the
heart of the problem. “Why is the stage so
big?” asks the venue, “Do we need all this
equipment?” they whine. “There’s no room
to store cases so they need to go back on
your truck,” they insist. “Our event starts at
7 p.m., but you can’t load in until after our
luncheon, which ends at 4 p.m.,” they dictate. “We only have two 20-amp circuits,
and you can’t tie in,” they declare. All this,
and I’m still just working the phone.
I call the band and tell them to work
it out with the client and the venue and
then get back to me. They finally get back
to me. and it seems as though all is well
and good. They have compromised their
stage size, we will be allowed to tie in to a
panel, albeit one that’s 400 feet away from
the stage, and in a great act of generosity,
the venue has agreed to give us another
half-hour for setup and check.
No Easy Answers
FOH
Upon arriving at the venue, we, of
course, find that the loading dock we were
shown during the walk-through is not
available to us, and that the street in front
of the building is a “no parking” or unloading zone which, due to the Twilight Zonetype of laws in modern day Manhattan,
carries a $150 fine for all offenders. With
no other choice but to turn around and go
back to the warehouse, we incur the fine
and unload the truck.
The large freight elevator we scoped
out and were promised is closed for the
day, and the elevator we are allowed to
use is not quite as large as the dysfunctional one, therefore the load in goes a
bit slower than expected, but we stoically
bully the gear through the basement filled
with garbage and emerge through the
busy kitchen just in time to find out that
the caterer is fully set up, thereby leaving us no other option but to destroy the
beauty that he has created.
Despite the odds, We Who Bring Audio Where It Does Not Belong prevail, and
get set up/cases back on truck and sound
checked by the opening of the doors, and
yet “WWBAWIDNB” is still the villain for
taking up too much space and making too
much noise. “Check one two, aw aw.” “Baker,” one woman says, “No more check one
two’s, okay?” “Hey lady,” I respond, as courteously as I am able, “I am just a vendor
trying to do my best to satisfy the needs
of our mutual client, who felt the need
to book a big name touring act into your
tiny designer restaurant. I am also trying
to please the big name act that is being
forced to play on an 8-by-12-foot stage.
So, please excuse me while I am in the
middle of being aggravated and go tell it
to the client.”
“Turn It Down!”
FOH
Of course, this is all a precursor to when
the band actually starts to play, and both
the client and venue person come running
up to tell me that the band is too loud. “Turn
it down,” they yell. I show them that there is
nothing in the system and all they are hearing is the band and the onstage monitors,
but they still insist that I tell the band to turn
down. For the sake of keeping the peace, I
tell the band what the client and venue have
requested, and for about eight bars, the
band’s volume drops, but by the ninth bar,
the band has roared back to their original
sound level.
The venue person returns and this time
she is armed and dangerous. Holding it up
to my ear she points the Radio Shack dB meter at the band and then shrieks at me “See,
it says 100dB!” Yup, there it was, detailed in
black and white, irrefutable, scientific proof
that the band was too loud and whose fault
is that? Obviously it’s WWBAWIDNB. After
all, the well-known restaurant did its job, the
wealthy client merely booked the band and
was just having a good time, and the band
that is rich and famous is, well, rich and famous. Fortunately for all parties involved,
the band stopped playing after a half hour.
Unfortunately for us, as soon as the party
ended, the venue opened their doors to the
general dancing public, forcing us to pack
up and load out through a raucous crowd
of party people while the DJ blared through
the house system. Hoo Ha, just another brilliant day of Bringing Audio Where It Doesn’t
Belong.
If you’re trying to reach Baker Lee, your
e-mail belongs at blee@fohonline.com.
www.fohonline.com
36.200.1101.indd 36
1/4/11 7:11 PM