Coachella Heats Up California Desert

Transcription

Alice Cooper to Host
Parnelli Awards
ThE NEws MagazinE For LivE Sound
JUNE 2008 Vol. 6 No. 9
RAT SOUND
Coachella Heats Up California Desert
LAS VEGAS — The “Oscars” of the live
event industry, The Parnelli Awards, will
grow in scope and star power this year. Alice Cooper will be part of the proceedings,
which will include emceeing the Awards
Show, among other things. “Alice Cooper
is not only a respected rock legend, but
he’s also a genuinely hilarious guy,” says
PLSN and FOH Publisher Terry Lowe. “He
will be the foundation to which we build
our best, most entertaining Parnelli celebration yet.”
The Parnelli Board of Advisors also
unanimously decided to add an award to
the show this year to honor all who make
our industry possible. In addition to a
Lifetime Achievement Award, the Parnelli
Board will now present two Innovator
awards the traditional Audio Innovator
Award, and now a second Innovator award
designed to honor those in our industry
who have pushed the boundaries of spectacle in performance in the lighting, staging, scenic or video fields.
“As someone who has always valued
spectacle in a show,” deadpans Cooper,
“I am glad the Parnelli Board has chosen
to honor those designers, technicians
and engineers who make the shows look
amazing.”
The Parnelli Awards banquet and
award show will be held on Oct. 24. Cooper was attracted to participating because
of the emphasis the Parnellis place on education through its Parnelli Scholarship for
the Entertainment Engineering and Design
department at UNLV.
continued on page 11
We Got
Your Installs
Right Here…
Battle of the Amps: Sound
Image vs. Clair Bros.
By Breanne George
COACHELLA, Calif. — The king of the alternative rock music festival, otherwise known as the
Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, is a rocker’s paradise in the middle of the California desert.
The three-day mega concert is nonstop with all-star performances on five stages from Prince,
Roger Waters, Jack Johnson, Portishead, Kraftwerk, the Verve, the Raconteurs, Death Cab for
Cutie, Love and Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Aphex Twin, the Breeders and many, many others.
Despite its off-the-beaten-path locale, crowds of upwards of 60,000 people packed the festival for
a weekend of rock ‘n’ roll. Rat Sound Systems Inc. provided sound reinforcement for the Coachella
Festival this year with the company’s Head of Touring Jon Monson in charge of all aspects of
audio production. A record 19 PM5Ds were used due to the multiple acts performing over five
venues, the small footprint of the console and its onboard effects. To rock on, turn to page 20.
ESCONDIDO, Calif. and LITITZ, Pa.
— Call it the battle of the amps or dueling soundcos, but two of the biggest
sound companies in the world — Sound
Image and Clair Brothers — have both
purchased an arsenal of amps for their
ever-expanding inventory and the dueling press releases came out maybe a
day apart from each other... Just a coincidence? Maybe...
Sound Image of Escondido, Calif.,
recently passed the 5,000,000-watt mark
in Crown I-Tech inventory. Sound Image
has deployed Crown I-Tech amplifiers on
some of the highest profile and most
successful tours in the United States
over the past few years. Gwen Stefani,
Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Eric Clapton,
Carlos Santana and Jimmy Buffett have
all traveled with an arsenal of I-Tech
8000 amplifiers in tow.
“Crown has done a great job in evolving the I-Tech 8000 into one of the best
sounding, most reliable amplifiers in the
market
continued on page 8
With InfoComm coming right
up, it is time to look at some of
those big installs again. And we
have three performing arts centers
for your perusal. One in Boston
and two in less likely locations—
Modesto, Calif., and Tulsa Okla.
24
Modesto, Calif., has a symphony?
Who knew they also had the shiny
gem known as the Gallo Center for
the Arts.
28
It’s hard to imagine a room that
sees (and hears) as much musical
variety as Berklee College of Music’s Performance Center.
30
Oklahoma’s new performing arts
center gives NYC and LA a run for
their money.
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www.fohonline.com
CoNtENts
Buyers Guide
2008, Vol. 6.9
Features
Feature
What’s hot
JUNE
16 Production Profile
When your client is the Pope, the pressure is
on. The crew at Yankee Stadium, St. Joseph’s
Seminary and Nationals Stadium had the gig
of their lives during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit
to the U.S.
20 Coachella Valley Music & Arts
Festival
34
For the budget-conscious among us, this month’s
Buyers Guide features digital consoles under
$50K.
What’s hot
FOH Interview
With three days jam-packed with concerts
on five stages entertaining a crowd of
60,000 people, welcome to the king of the
alternative rock festival — Coachella.
42 Regional Slants
Columns
44 Bleeding Edge
24 Installations
The Gallo Center for the Arts needed a
versatile sound system that could serve an
array of music, from touring Broadway shows
to symphonic performances.
The skinny on ribbon mics.
28 Installations
48 The Biz
46 Theory & Practice
Some thoughts on rider-friendly gear.
The sound system for the prestigious Berklee
College of Music’s Performance Center had
to be "beyond reliable."
Who’s going to keep the engine of live
performances running?
30 Installations
We explore perhaps the most valuable item
for your church service: the microphone.
50 Sound Sanctuary
52 FOH-at-Large
We take a trip to the “library.”
Departments
36 Road Tests
FOH Mixer Cubby Colby (center) has graced
the pages of FOH more times than we can
count. We catch up with him during Latin
sensation Juanes’ Las Vegas show.
This Harvard University sound guy dreams of
mixing for a rock band. Find out what happens when he ditches academia for a chance
at the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.
AVI of Johnson City, Tenn., may be a small
town AV company, but it just had the gig of
a lifetime.
Bartlesville, Okla., might not be synonymous
with New York or LA, but its cutting-edge
cultural center gives either coast a run for its
money.
22
40 Welcome To My Nightmare
We review the Aphex 230 Master Voice
Channel and Klark Teknik Square One
Splitter.
4 Editor’s Note
5 News
9 International News
11 On the Move
12 New Gear
14 Showtime
41 In the Trenches
38 Product Spotlight
A plate amp is a plate amp, but great DSP is
something else entirely.
FEEDBACK
Unity Through Diversity
As I read your Editor's Note for May, I was dismayed at the struggle my fellow Christians have cast
upon you. You and I have discussed the worship market at trade shows, and your knowledge of, and commitment to, covering the genre are solid. For those
with a bent toward dedicated worship technology
coverage, there are many magazine options such as
Church Production, Technologies for Worship and Worship Leader.
As a writer for these publications, I understand the
scope of their focus while appreciating the broadened
perspective of FOH. Worship techs can glean information from FOH unavailable elsewhere and I am writing
to let you know we appreciate what you and the FOH
staff are doing. Do not allow a few well-intentioned,
yet misguided souls to draw you away from covering
audio the way you see fit.
For all those who seek to follow Christ, we should learn
from Gandhi's wry statement, "I was almost persuaded
to become a Christian until I met one." BTW, my church
is theologically mainstream, yet we use "Jesus Christ Superstar" and have been known to include Bad Company's
"Feel Like Making Love" on a Sunday morning. If you're
around Atlanta, drop in — you'll feel welcome.
Kent Morris,
Cornerstone Media
I read with great interest your Editor's Note “Unity
Through Diversity" from the latest edition of FOH. Being involved as an online editor for one of the largest
Christian music publications, and dealing with people who are quick to judge and not very forgiving,
this piece really hit home. I would like your permission to pass along the text of your article to some key
people in our industry.
I love reading FOH, as I used to travel, and still
do some, doing contract work for groups and sound
companies. Whether on a Mackie 1604 or a Yamaha
PM1D, I still love the work. Don't get to do it as much
as I used to, but I have a lot more time at home with
my family now. Keep up the great work.
Blessings,
B.T. Franklin
Just goes to show you never can tell...
I was a bit leery of last month’s column, as I fully
expected to get roundly slammed over it. Instead, I got
letters like these and a slew of similar phone calls and
IMs. Guess I am going to have to work harder if I am
going to piss people off.
-b
Editor’s Note
By BillEvans
It’s A Family Affair…
Publisher
Terry Lowe
tlowe@fohonline.com
Editor
Bill Evans
bevans@fohonline.com
W
hen the first draft of the
piece in this issue of FOH on
the events surrounding the
recent visit by the Pope came across
my desk, I freaked out just a little.
Not because the writer had
included frickin’ lighting info, but
more because there was a crew list
attached that was about three-pages
long and included everyone who
had even thought about working the
gigs.
tival Saturday a.m., and then load
the ACMs out on Saturday night and
the other festival Sunday night, they
now needed two full crews. Can you
say, “labor shor tage?”
It was bad enough that I went
down to help out and saw at least
one local manufacturers rep doing
the same thing.
About a week prior to that, I sat
down with Cubby Colby to talk about
his latest endeavor, and he made ab-
I know that if I am in a jam, the first
folks I call for help will be my production
brethren. They are the family I have
chosen.
Move for ward a week. It is a re ally busy weekend in Vegas. The
Academy of Countr y Music Awards is
in town, which means a plethora of
public and private events surrounding the awards show. My friends at
H.A.S. Productions had the Fremont
Street gig (with multiple stages)
for the four th or fifth year in a row,
which meant two stages running
both Friday and Saturday. To fur ther
complicate things, another festival
that has been a long-term client was
scheduled for the same weekend.
But they switched things up, and instead of running Saturday and Sunday, they moved to a Friday/Saturday schedule. Bottom line was that
instead of using one crew to load
the ACMs in on Friday, the other fes-
solutely sure that I talked not just to
him, but also to his system engineer
and monitor guy. “I couldn’t do it
without these guys,” he said.
On the other side of the coin, a
soundco owner I know was subcontracting at a big festival and was pretty pissed when the owner of the main
soundco invited him to dinner, but
did not include his two crew guys.
There were a couple of other random events in the past month where
I saw people pulling together to get
the gig done under less-than-ideal
circumstances. (OK, when are they
ever ideal…) and I have written before about how it is the people in
this business that make up the most
important component. Gear is cool,
but people make it run.
But what struck me this time was
the ver y literal sense of family. I
had people question why I was out
humping gear at 1 a.m. in downtown Vegas on the loadout. Did I
really need the money that bad?
The money is nice, and we are getting ready to move into a new house
with all of the unexpected expenses
that comes along with that, but the
questioners were right — it wasn’t
about the money. It was about my
production family being in a jam
and needing some help.
Even that super long list of people
that I referred to at the top of this piece
represents that family attitude. People
came together on those gigs on short
notice and under very difficult circumstances and pulled off something close
to a miracle. And we are running the
list (except the squints — they have
their own damn magazine).
There is a book I read a long time
ago that had a definition of family in
it that had nothing to do with blood
relationships, but with shared experience. In other words, there is a difference between the family we are born
into and the family we choose. There
is a T-shirt cliché about a friend bailing you out of jail after a bar fight,
but a brother being in the cell with
you because he had your back when
the chairs were flying.
Corny stuff, but there is a grain
of truth to it. I know that if I am in a
jam, the first folks I call for help will
be my production brethren. They are
the family I have chosen.
Managing Editor
Breanne George
bg@fohonline.com
Technical Editor
Mark Amundson
mamundson@fohonline.com
Contributing Writers
Jerry Cobb, Brian Cassell,
Dan Daley, Jamie Rio,
Steve LaCerra,
David John Farinella, Ted Leamy,
Baker Lee, Bryan Reesman,
Tony Mah, Kevin M. Mitchell,
Ken Rengering
Photographer
Steve Jennings
Art Director
Garret Petrov
gpetrov@fohonline.com
Production Manager
Linda Evans
levans@fohonline.com
Graphic Designers
Crystal Franklin
cfranklin@fohonline.com
David Alan
dalan@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
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
wvanyo@fohonline.com
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Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 6 Number
9 is published monthly by Timeless Communications
Corp., 6000 South Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV,
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additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address
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JUNE 2008
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News
Movement 08 Energizes Crowds with Electronic Music
DETROIT — Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival has become one of the most
anticipated annual events for electronic
music fans across the globe. Movement 08
at Detroit’s Hart Plaza is no exception. Between the excitement of the festival and
the number of artists who want to participate, Paxahau, producers of Movement 08
– Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, added
a fifth stage and approached ISP Technologies regarding outfitting the stage with
pro audio gear.
“ISP Technologies is excited to help
make the fifth stage a possibility by providing our new High Definition Line Array
System HDL4210 for the Detroit Electronic
Music Festival. We are glad to help make
this local Detroit event even more successful by providing the fifth stage with a
made-in-Michigan line array system,” said
Buck Waller, ISP Technologies CEO. “Being involved in the DEMF music scene is
a great opportunity to showcase our gear
not only on a local level, but internationally as well.”
ISP Technologies is supplying 20 High
Definition Line Array boxes, 18 XMAX 212
subwoofers, and for the DJ on the stage,
a “Texas Headset” consisting of two High
Definition 212 Monitors and two XMAX
118 subwoofers. The line arrays and subwoofers were positioned at the edges of
the tent, pointing inwards to give the
audience a heart-pounding experience.
Another ground-stackable line array system
by ISP Technologies,
the Mongoose, was positioned on the edges
of the tent pointing
out at the overflow.
When
Grammy-winning headliner Bennie
Benassi took the stage,
the ISP Technologies
stage was packed. Security had to be called
in to keep the people
from climbing on the
stacks of subwoofers.
The ISP Technologies stage at Movement 08 – Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival
Upcoming R.E.M.
Tour Accelerates
Across the Globe
OXNARD, Calif. — The upcoming world concert tour by R.E.M. will feature EAW MicroWedge
MW12 stage monitors deployed by Monitor
Engineer George Squiers to provide monitor
sound on stage for all band members. Oxnard,
Calif.-based Rat Sound Systems Inc. is serving as
the sound reinforcement company for the tour,
and is supplying 22 EAW MicroWedge MW12
wedges .
R.E.M. continues to be led by iconic lead
singer Michael Stipe, with Peter Buck on guitar
and Mike Mills on bass. They are supported by
Scott McCaughey as a second guitarist, keyboardist and utility man, as well as Bill Rieflin on
drums.
“The new EAW MicroWedge is a very loud
and great-sounding design,” states Squiers. “I
love the smooth natural high-end and the amazing low-end it reproduces. The low-end leaps
and bounds over any single 12-inch design I’ve
run across, competing with and exceeding most
single 15-inch designs. Single source point philosophy also goes very far in my book.”
Four MW12s will be used for Michael Stipe
at his central stage position, arrayed in an arc
with two for vocals and two for instruments.
Dual MW12s are to be dedicated to Buck, Mills
and McCaughey on the frontline, while Mills also
gets another pair of MW12s at the midstage position where he plays piano and synth, and yet
another pair at downstage right, a location he
frequents during shows. McCaughey will also
be supplied with another pair of MW12s at his
keyboard position.
Another pair of MW12 is dedicated to Rieflin’s drum position. (“He loves the push we get
out of his kick drum and floor toms in these
wedges,” Squiers notes.) More wedges are in
consideration to be flown at points around the
stage to supply additional fill, with the rated
flytrack incorporated in each MW12 enclosure,
making this much easier as well as far more
stable than other approaches.
R.E.M. Monitor Engineer George Squiers
www.fohonline.com
2008 JUNE
5
News
Stevie Wonder Returns to New Orleans Jazz Fest
NEW ORLEANS — More than
three decades have passed since
Stevie Wonder made a spontaneous appearance at the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival. This year,
he returned as a headliner at the
rejuvenated post-Katrina fest. Dual
DiGiCo D5 monitor consoles, under
the direction of veteran engineers
William Barnett and Dwayne Jones,
managed Wonder’s extra-long input
list — comprised of personal monitor mixes for three musicians, background vocalists, Stevie and floor
monitor mixes.
Stevie Wonder
“I have been using DiGiCo consoles
for five years on and off, but specifically
for handling the Stevie Wonder tour inear mixes this past year,” says Barnett. “I
find it to be far superior to some of the
other digital consoles I’ve used in the
past. We have a large input list and no
other console gives me the ability to
house upwards of 80 inputs in such a
small frame and good sonic quality with
ease of use as well.”
Having the ability to customize his
layout as needed without having to
delve too deep into digital menu layers is
among Jones’ favorite features of the D5.
“I like the touch screens very much and
the fact that I can get to any of the band
mixes quickly to make adjustments during the show,” he explains. “It has solved
the challenge of being able to customize
and change the layout of the desk on the
fly so that with the touch of one button,
I can get to any bank of inputs and outputs without searching through menus
and layers like some other desks. Also,
the standalone software allows me to
make adjustments to my mix file without
having the console in front of me, which
is invaluable when you’re on the road.
Boston Symphony
Upgrades Historic
Concert Hall
BOSTON — Named after the
founder of one of the country’s greatest symphony orchestras, Higginson Hall is for more modestly scaled
events, shows, a cappella singers, soloists, ensembles and meetings with
seating for up to 600. The goal for
Boston-based integrator Matrix 1 was
to convert and upgrade the PA from
an Announcement system tied to the
rest of the building to a multifaceted
audio system with multiple zones and
rooms.
As Project Manager Chaz Loews
points out, “Higginson can be split
into North and South zones, so we
built a system for the hall in general
and for separate rooms at the same
time.
“We needed clear spoken word
and high-quality musical reproduction,” Loews continues. “So we used
l6 Martin Audio AQ5s in a distributed
system with three delay zones so they
could use a podium or microphone
anywhere in the room without feedback issues. One room gets six speakers and the other room gets 10. They
can play the room any way they want
to.”
“Higginson is a rectangular room
with columns every 15 feet in either direction, and we basically put a speaker
on every column facing to the back of
the room. All of the AQs are all on arm
pivots so they can be directed freely.”
Depending on the event, a stage
is brought in for the show. The system
employs a Crestron switching system
with a touch-screen and presets that
make it easier to operate with a control
for volume and selector for Room A or
Room B, or both rooms combined.
There are multiple wall inputs for
mic or line, and a BSS Soundweb is
used to control and mix the PA with
a Crestron controller interface. “If
they need more inputs for a band or
ensemble group, we bring in a small
console and just plug into the line
inputs when we do the sound,” adds
Loews. “The system sounds great for
what we put into it. We used very little
processing; the AQs really don’t need
much. It’s a 100-degree box that covers evenly, and the transitions are really nice.”
6
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
News
Avril Lavigne’s Best Damn Tour Far From Complicated
Yakabuski has his hands full with mixing and needs a system that he doesn’t
have to worry about. “The music and musicianship are very different on this tour. We
have a lot more inputs coming down the
snake than on previous tours, especially
in the drum department. The amount of
sound that comes from this band is unbelievable. We only use a couple of electronic loops in the whole show to fill things
in a bit. We also have a keyboard player
for the first time and, again, we now have
live keys and effects coming from his very
high tech rig instead of coming from a
sequencer as in past tours.”
Avril Lavigne in concert on her current Best Damn Tour
ORLANDO, Fla. — Avril Lavigne has
morphed, over the course of a career that
is less than a decade young, from a selfprofessed skater punk to a newly married
pop princess with her own fashion line.
But one thing that has remained constant
is FOH Engineer Jim Yakabuski who has
been running Lavigne’s sound since midway through her first tour in 2003.
For Lavigne’s latest North American
trek, Yakabuski and Orlando-based sound
reinforcement provider LMG Inc. have
chosen to return to an L-ACOUSTICS VDOSC and dV-DOSC loudspeaker system
— this time supplementing the rig with
the manufacturer’s KUDO enclosures and
new LA8 amplified controllers.
“We have 15 V-DOSC with three dVDOSC down speakers per side as mains,
and then 10 KUDO a side as side arrays,”
Yakabuski explains. “We’ve also gone
back to using a center sub cluster, which
has proved very successful for me in the
past. There are 12 subs in a single long
array in the center, with nothing at all left
and right, and only one sub a side about
16 feet off-center to hold up two dVDOSC that take care of front-fill requirements. My system engineer, Evan Hall,
and I are also driving the whole system
with L-ACOUSTICS’ new LA8 amps, which
are controlled by LA Network Manager.”
While the V-DOSC arrays handle
most of the venue, this side coverage
played a big role in adding the KUDO
arrays. “You have to cover a ver y wide
amount of seats along the side, but you
also have to cover a ver y tall swath as
well. The bottom seats near the stage
can sometimes be only 15 or 20 feet
from the downstage edge while the
top bowl of an arena may be 150 feet
away, so having the flexibility to put
a huge J-cur ve in the array and to be
able to adjust the horizontal coverage
from 55 to 80 to 110 degrees was a
big deciding factor in going with the
KUDO boxes.”
www.fohonline.com
2008 JUNE
7
News
Beverly Hilton Rejuvenates Glamour of Tinsel Town
Beverly Hilton
BEVERLY
HILLS,
Calif. — Since opening
in 1955, the Beverly
Hilton has been a classic Southern California
landmark,
combining the glamour and
excitement of Hollywood’s entertainment
industry with the opulence of Beverly Hills.
As part of a spectacular
three-year, $80-million
renovation, the Inter-
national Ballroom received an audio makeover complete with a compact yet powerful
Meyer Sound system designed and installed
by db Integrated Systems (dbIS) of Chicago.
The Meyer Sound system at the Beverly
Hilton is in a left-center-right configuration with five Meyer Sound MICA line array
loudspeakers flown left and right, and four
M’elodie line array loudspeakers in the center. Two MSL-4 loudspeakers cover sidefill
duties, and a pair of UPA-1P loudspeakers
fills outer areas. Three UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers supply delay reinforcement, while
four 700-HP subwoofers are built into the
stage wall, two at each end of the stage, to
supply sub-bass.
The impetus for installing a high-end
sound system from Meyer Sound came from
AVT Event Technology, the highly creative onsite AV production company, which services
all of the hotel’s in-house production needs.
“For a long time, any performer who played
here brought in their own system, because
the house PA was pretty inadequate,” says
Billy Thornton, AVT’s event production manager. “So, we’ve had the opportunity to hear
a lot of different systems in this room, and
nothing has sounded as good as the MICA.”
Ultra Music Festival Drives the Beat
MIAMI — The 10th Ultra Music Festival in Miami was a Who’s Who of world
renowned DJs and electronic music artists with an expanded schedule of two
days to accommodate all of the artists.
Covenant Music and Managing Director
Alex Vincero employed Powersoft’s 18 K
Series K10, K8 and K6 digital amps at the
festival. According
to the event’s organizers, the sound
quality provided by
Powersoft amplifiers in tandem with
DAS speakers was
exceptional. “Powersoft K amplifiers
did a great job during the Ultra Music
Show,” said Ramon
Franco, Tech Support for DAS Audio
in all Latin America.
10th Ultra Music Festival
“ These are really excellent amplifiers,
performing consistently especially at 2
ohms in an environment of more than
100.000 people. We got lots of absolutely positive feedback from our customers
about the system.”
Battle of the Amps: Sound Image vs. Clair Bros.
continued from cover
today, “ noted Dave Shadoan, president of
Sound Image. “We have spoken with our
wallet and with our reputation, and we do
neither lightly.”
Available in I-T4000, I-T6000 and I-T8000
iterations, the Harman HiQnet-compatible
I-Tech family has become the tour sound
professional’s de-facto standard amplifier
by matching Class-I power, light weight
and ease of use. Onboard DSP provides a
wide array of signal processing functionality, significantly reducing the need for rack
components and rack wiring. Onboard DSP
features 24- bit, 96 kHz A/D and D/A converters that reduce DSP noise for quieter
overall performance. I-Tech features peak
voltage and RMS power limiting for speaker protection and global power supply to
deliver maximum power worldwide. The
model boasts a front panel LCD for diagnostics and preset selection.
In similar fashion, Clair Brothers Audio
Enterprises will meet their growing power
amplification and loudspeaker management needs for the touring division with
Lab.gruppen’s PLM Series Powered Loudspeaker Management systems. Clair has
already ordered 300 PLM 10000Qs to put
into service worldwide this touring season
and plans to increase this significantly over
the coming years.
The first deployment of PLMs are being
used on both the main full-range system
and subwoofers, along with monitors and
side fills, for the upcoming Alicia Keys and
8
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
Dream Theater tours.
“The PLM Series makes both business
and technological sense for us. Lab.gruppen
has a long-standing reputation as a manufacturer of reliable high-sonic-quality amplifiers,” stated Troy Clair. “Using their recent
high-power/high-density FP+ Series amplifiers as a springboard and combining it with
Dolby’s industry standard Lake processing
to create the PLM Series, takes the touring
sound market to the next level. We’ve reduced our standard rack size by half, which
reduces the floor space used near the stage
and the truck space used during transport,
both of which are at a premium. We’ve also
significantly reduced the weight. And with
the PLM’s integration of Dolby Lake processing, we’ve eliminated the need for a traditional FOH drive rack as well. All this means
it’s an excellent value move for us.”
Sound Image President Dave Shadoan beside Crown I-Tech amps.
News
The Black Crowes Put On Warpaint
NILES, I LL . — Currently touring in
support of Warpaint, The Black Crowes
have shown that they are still, as the
UK’s Melody Maker once called them,
“the most rock ‘n’ roll rock ‘n’ roll band
in the world.”
Bringing the sound of Warpaint to
the stage, along with the rest of the incendiary tunes currently making up the
band’s live set list, is a task managed
nightly by FOH Mixer Scott “Scoobie”
Scherban and Monitor Mixer Drew Consalvo. Working in tandem to craft a stage
plot relying entirely on Shure input, the
pair draws upon an eclectic mix of traditional rock ‘n’ roll microphone elements,
along with newer catalog offerings to
brew up an infusion of sound rich in
guitars, vocals and
drums.
“Given a choice,
personally, I would
put SM57s on everything,” Scherban
jokes, adding, “I mean,
ask me how to mic an
elephant, and I’d just
put a 57 on him. First
and foremost, this is a
rock ‘n’ roll band. That
means they were born
and bred with SM57s
and SM58s. We don’t
ever want to lose
sight of that fact, but at the same time,
we want to augment those sounds. Giv-
en the volume we’re
producing, we need
something that steps
out and allows us to
change for solos and
such.”
Scherban
and
Consalvo’s approach
can be heard on guitar cabinets where
their audio alchemy
combines legendary
SM57s with Shure’s
KSM27s. “We get
a nice, pointy bite
The Black Crowes
out of the SM57s,”
Consalvo explains, “and now, with the
KSM27s, we’ve added this nice warm
factor as well. Both onstage and in the
audience, the pairing is working well —
it’s providing everything you’d expect in
terms of rock ‘n’ roll, along with a little
something extra when we need it.”
Shure Beta 58As got the nod for
all downstage vocals, which Consalvo
notes were a good choice in terms of
the control they offer him in front of the
floor wedges found in his monitor rig.
“We have a special black Beta 58 we use
for Chris Robinson’s vocals, and starting this year, Scoobie and I went with
the KSM9 for backing vocals. We like the
way it reacts with proximity effect, and
given its overall clarity, too, we’re going
to stick with it in this application.”
International News
Mayday Extravaganza On
the Cutting-Edge
Mayday Extravaganza
DORTMUND, Germany — Promoter
i-motion’s annual Mayday extravaganza draws
clubbers from all over Germany to an allnight feast of cutting-edge music. This year’s
event saw a new arena added to the event in
Dortmund’s Westfalenhallen housed with a
Turbosound audio rig.
Effectively divided into four separate areas
for the event — Arena, Casino, Empire and Factory — it was the latter in which regular Turbosound users BLL and CE-Veranstaltungstechnik
combined to provide a huge Aspect rig to
ensure the pounding beats of 12 Techno and
Hardcore acts, including Vince, Korsakoff, Sven
Wittekind and Angerfist, were experienced to
the maximum by several thousand clubbers.
Carsten Eichstädt and Sascha Schmitz, owners of BLL, supplied a four-point sound system
featuring six TA-880H mid-highs flown above
six ground stacked TSW-718 subs each side of
the stage. A center bass cluster comprising 12
TSW-718 subs, stacked six high by two deep,
was also arrayed in front of the stage.
At the rear of the venue, two further PA towers featured six TA-890H mid-highs flown above
five ground-stacked TA-880L lows per side. Two
further TA-880Hs were used for infill, while four
stacks comprising two TA-880L and one TA880H each were provided for artist monitors.
Turbosound LMS-D26 controllers took overall
care of the system, with amplification for the
system via several racks of MC² amps.
Martin Audio Names Co-Director
Martin Audio’s long-serving Finance
Director, Anthony Taylor, has been appointed to the role of joint managing
director, effective immediately.
The move, welcomed by Martin
Audio’s
parent
company
LOUD
Technologies, is seen as strategic
succession planning, although current
CEO and Managing Director David
Bissett-Powell, who recommended the
appointment, says he has no thoughts
of standing down at present.
“Anthony has worked with me for
many years and although he is a well
qualified chartered accountant, he has
also become very commercial in his operation within the company. These balanced
business skills mean that he can handle a
great deal of the day-to-day responsibility and future direction of Martin Audio
and, hopefully, allow me sufficient
time to assist with
other LOUD functions as well as
continuing my focus on our distribution in China.”
Taylor joined
Martin Audio in
February
1994 Anthony Taylor
having spent his early years in accountancy at Deloitte & Touche. At Martin Audio,
he was quick to put his training in corporate finance to good use, helping to steer
the company through the most prosperous period in its history, before becoming
one of the successful managing team who
led the MBO from parent company TC
Electronic, in 2003.
Azteca Stadium
Scores a Goal
Estadio Azteca Stadium
MEXICO CITY — With a capacity of over
114,000, Mexico City’s legendary Estadio Azteca
is the fourth largest stadium in the world; its
40-plus year history storied with some of soccer’s most memorable events. Rental company
Producciones Reforma (El Rayo) deployed a
powerhouse Electro-Voice sound reinforcement
system for the shows based around X-Line and
XLC line array systems. Mauricio Alva Hernandez
(of Electro-Voice distributors Gonher, Audyson)
handled the EASE and LAPS 2 system design
and IRIS-Net programming.
www.fohonline.com
2008 JUNE
9
International News
Iron Maiden Soars to New Heights of “Rock Star Cool”
CHESSINGTON, England — Although it is
not unknown for major bands to have their
own aircraft in which to tour the globe, it is
highly unusual for the band’s lead singer to
be the pilot. Yet this is the case with hard
rockers Iron Maiden. As they begin another
major tour, the ultra-compact size of Monitor Engineer Steve “Gonzo” Smith’s DiGiCo
D5 console means that there is plenty of
room onboard for it to travel with him.
Touring in a Boeing 757 might seem like
the height of rock star cool, but as the band’s
Somewhere Back In Time tour rolls through
India, the Americas and Europe, there are
certain drawbacks. A major one is that when
you are carrying not only the band and
50-strong crew, but also an entire produc-
mix changes instantly.
With the exception of one outboard graphic EQ for drummer Nicko
McBrain’s drum fills, Gonzo is using
just the D5’s internal effects, which
he’s very happy with. “The effects are
very user-friendly and sound great,
especially the EQ,” he says. “The builtin comps and gates also help to save
a lot of space, which is crucial on this
tour. I have just one small rack with a
couple of effects for the guitarists, the
receiver for Adrian’s in-ears and the
Iron Maiden’s Monitor Engineer Steve “Gonzo” Smith behind the DiGiCo D5
EQ for Nicko.”
console
With thousands of fans on the tour,
me,’ the DiGiCo D5 has become an essential
both old and new, taking up Dickinson’s infamous exhortations to ‘Scream for part of the Iron Maiden touring rig.
tion suitable for venues holding up to 50,000
people, space is at an absolute premium.
With his D5 recently updated with the
latest V4 software, making it even more
“monitors-friendly,” Gonzo is running 18
monitor mixes for the six-piece band.
“Maiden are very old-school,” he says.
“The only band member on in-ears is guitarist Adrian Smith. The rest are all on wedges,
with sidefills and a number of full mono mixes through speakers placed by the onstage
ramps, which the band runs around on.”
With the band’s material being considerably more complex than most non-metal
fans give them credit for, Gonzo is taking advantage of the D5’s snapshots facility for certain songs, which means he can make major
Sydney Opera House Names Sennheiser
and Neumann Official Sound Partners
SYDNEY, Australia — Sydney
Opera House is one of the most
famous opera houses worldwide.
The opera house has now welcomed Sennheiser and Neumann
as sound partners.
“Sydney Opera House has
used Sennheiser and Neumann
microphones since opening its
doors and is thrilled that both
companies are now official corporate partners. Using their microphones is a unique opportunity for us to be aligned with
Sydney Opera House
the best in the industry,” said Sydney
Opera House Technical Director David
Claringbold.
For the next two years, Sydney
Opera House will be equipped with
various products from the Sennheiser
and Neumann product range, starting
with microphones belonging to the
professional MKH RF condenser series,
including the new MKH 8000 models,
and wired microphones of the successful evolution line. The company’s
3000 and 5000 Series systems are also
part of the equipment.
Rod Stewart Performs “Great
Rock Classics of Our Time”
part of Rod Stewart’s current world tour
supporting his latest release Still The
Same…Great Rock Classics of Our Time.
The concert at Velez Sarsfield
Stadium drew a sell-out crowd of 40,000
people. To meet Stewart’s concert-rider
specifications, B.A.L.S. used a total of 52
VerTec line array enclosures. The main
left/right arrays featured 14 VT4889-1
full-size line array elements per side, with
12 VT4889-1 elements per side for outfill
arrays. For additional low-frequency out-
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Buenos
Aires Live Show (B.A.L.S.) deployed a
large JBL VerTec system for Rod Stewart’s
recent concert at Velez Sarsfield Stadium
in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The show was
10
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
put, B.A.L.S. used both stacked and flown
subwoofers — a total of 32 enclosures
— to complement the full-range VerTec
system. JBL’s new VerTec V4 DSP presets
were used.
“The system provided very clear
sound with a good, punchy presence,”
noted Federico Sainz, chief engineer for
B.A.L.S. “Both of Rod Stewart’s engineers,
the FOH mixer and the system engineer,
were very satisfied.
Rod Stewart’s Buenos Aires show.
On the Move
Aviom has announced the promotion of Jeff Lange
from consultant liaison to consultant
liaison & training
manager. In his prior
position, Lange used
his technical expertise and background Jeff Lange
as a systems contractor to provide applications support
to contractors and
systems designers
around the world. In
his new role, Lange
will make use of
his broad range of
knowledge to pro- Shawn Stahmer
vide expert training as part of Aviom’s newly
expanded partner support program.
Aviom also welcomes Shawn Stahmer as
national sales director for the U.S. and Canada. An industry veteran, Stahmer has 17 years
of experience as a product manager, regional
sales manager, national sales manager and
managing director at Shure. Stahmer brings
to Aviom his pro audio industry experience
in strategic planning, business development,
sales management and product development. In addition to overseeing sales in the
U.S. and Canada, Stahmer will have direct responsibility for Aviom’s rep firms in the northern central US and Canada.
Bosch Communication Systems has
announced the appointment of Daniel Nix
as vice president of Sales — Americas for the
Pro Audio Group.
Nix previously served as principal of
The Nix Agency, a southwest rep firm, and
has been part of the Bosch family for the
Alice Cooper
to Host
Parnelli Awards
continued from cover
With
Cooper’s
involvement, the Parnellis are giving
more
money
to
education
this year thanks
to the Parnelli
Celebrity Classic charity golf
tournament.
Alice Cooper
Proceeds from
the tournament will benefit Cooper’s
Solid Rock Foundation, a non-profit
organization dedicating to reaching
at-risk teens.
“The Parnellis are about honoring
the legends of the live event industry,
and helping educate the next generation of leaders in the field,” adds Lowe.
“We couldn’t be more pleased having
Alice Cooper on board for such an important mission.”
The PLSN/FOH Parnelli Celebrity
Classic will take place on Thursday,
Oct. 23, at the Siena Golf Club in Las
Vegas, with the Parnelli Awards Banquet taking place the next evening
Friday, Oct. 24, in Las Vegas.
past five years. Prior
to the Nix Agency,
he served as VP of
Sales for a national
contracting
firm,
sales manager for a
national retail music
chain, and has extensive experience
Daniel Nix
in film and theatre
technical production and digital music
production. This diverse background, combined with 20+ years of industry relationships, provides Nix broad insight into the
A/V marketplace.
Community Professional Loudspeakers has appointed Chr is Foreman
to the position of vice president, COO. Fore-
man, who rejoined
Community last
year, is an industry
veteran with more
than 40 years of experience in professional audio.
A writer and
journalist, Foreman Chris Foreman
was editor of Sound
& Communications magazine in the 1980s,
and co-author of Audio Engineering for
Sound Reinforcement, written with the
late John Eargle, and widely regarded as
an educational standard. He has also held
prominent positions with audio industry
manufacturers, including management
positions at JBL, Panasonic and Altec Lansing, and with major low-voltage contrac-
tors including Stanal Sound, Pierce-Phelps
and, most recently, as VP of Marketing for
Lincoln, Nebraska-based Electronic Contracting.
Sennheiser
Electronic Corporation announces
the addition of
Aaron Berg to its
professional products sales team.
Berg now serves as
the sales representative for the Rocky Aaron Berg
Mountain territory
and reports directly to Western Regional
Sales Manager Thom Salisbury.
New Gear
Allen & Heath ZED 4-Bus Series
Crest Audio X Series Rackmount Mixers
Allen & Heath has announced
the ZED-420 (16 mono + 2 dual
stereo channels), ZED-428 (24
mono + 2 stereo) and ZED-436
(32 channel + 2 stereo) mixers.
Similar to the smaller ZED-14,
the 4-bus series features the
same performance DuoPre TM
padless preamp, which is a microphone circuit and an optimized line input circuit, rather
than one pre-amp handling both mic and line signals. It uses a two-stage design with
carefully controlled amounts of gain in each stage, offering high headroom and a lownoise, clean signal path. The ZED 4-bus series has a responsive 4-band, 2-swept mids EQ
with in/out switch, 6 aux sends (2 pre, 2 post, 2 pre/post), 4 sub groups, direct outputs on
each mono channel, separate L, R & M main buses, 100 mm long-throw faders, 2 matrix
outputs and a talkback facility to auxes or LRM. The connectors are placed on the top surface for easy plug-in and patching, and the construction, with individual circuit boards
nutted to the top panel, is identical to Allen & Heath professional touring mixers.
www.allen-heath.com
Radian Audio Apex Series Monitors
Crest Audio introduces the
X Series rackmount mixers, the
successor to the X-Rack Series.
X Series mixers feature the same
lauded sonic accuracy, quiet operation and core features as their
predecessors plus an updated
circuit design and four new models: the X18R and X20R for mains
and the X18RM and X20RM configured for monitors. With highend per formance and rock-solid
construction, Crest Audio X Series
mixers feature a modular package
coupled with an extensive feature set suitable for vir tually any application. X
Series models are available with up to 14 mono and up to four stereo inputs,
long-throw faders, versatile four-band semi-parametric EQ, channel inser ts and
high-quality, low-noise microphone preamplifiers. The X18R and X20R consoles
have six configurable aux buses and three main buses that provide many FOH
mixing configurations, while the X18RM and X20RM have up to 12 mono or six
stereo mix buses for floor or in-ear monitoring. Integral monitor and tape -level
outputs provide additional flexibility. The X Series will be available in Q4 2008
from authorized Crest Audio dealers.
www.crestaudio.com
Radian Audio Engineering has
introduced the new Apex Series
of compact stage monitors. The
Apex 1200 and the Apex 1500
are ultra-compact, low-profile,
two-way floor monitors for
live performance and installed
sound applications. The Apex
1200 features Radian’s 12-inch
coaxial speaker with a 2-inch
compression driver, offering a
90-degree conical dispersion. Power handling is 500 Watts RMS with a frequency response
of 55 Hz–17 kHz and a sensitivity of 99 dB. The enclosure is 12.5“ x 14.5” x 21.5” and weighs
56 lbs. The Apex 1500 houses a 15-inch coaxial speaker in an enclosure engineered to be
almost half the size of conventional stage monitors without sacrificing performance. Also
incorporating a 2-inch compression driver and generating a 90-degree conical dispersion,
the Apex 1500 offers a power handling of 500 Watts RMS, a frequency response of 45 Hz
–18 kHz and a sensitivity of 102 dB. By using coaxial drivers, Radian Audio has been able
to engineer the two new Apex wedges with front baffles that are 40 percent smaller than
most conventional floor monitors. The low-profile cabinets minimize audience sightline
interference while the compact form factor reduces the onstage footprint. Constructed
from 13-ply 3/4-inch Baltic birch with a sturdy steel front grille, both enclosures incorporates
a built-in carrying handle plus a hidden cable management system that prevents accidental
damage to the twin NL-4 connectors.
Gear Box Pro’s Cable Cube
is a multi-conductor speaker
cable accessor y that breaksout, combines and functions
as a hi-tech adaptor for Neutrik Speakon style speaker
cables. The Cable Cube is
equipped with fly clip track
that allows you to fasten them
to trusses and other types
of rigging. It functions bidirectionally for use as splitters and combiners. Cable
Cube products provide the
user with a multi-conductor
output connection for small temporar y amp racks. Cable Cube Combo/Matrix
Cable Cube products are designed to increase efficiency of mid-show changes,
as well as improved public safety by minimizing potential trip hazards. Cable
Cube products can be put in a rack mount adaptor to increase the versatility of
the product, allowing the same product to be used in a rack, on stage, etc.
www.radianaudio.com
www.gearboxpro.com
Carvin LSx Series Loudspeakers
Gear Box Pro Cable Cube
Martin Audio W8VDQ
Designed to address a wide range of SR applications, from portable PA systems for mobile
DJs and performing musicians through large
venue sound systems, Carvin introduces the LSx
Series loudspeakers. Consisting of 17 models,
10 non-powered and seven powered, the LSx
Series includes 18-gauge steel grills, recessed
steel handles, high order, low-loss crossovers
plus Neutrik Speakon and quarter-inch connectors. The LSx Series enclosures are built with
18-mm multiply hardwood and finished with a
multilayered, catalyzed polyurethane Duratex
finish designed to withstand the rigors of the
road. Each enclosure is designed, tuned and
ported using LEAP software and measured with
LMS software for system performance. Carvin’s
LSx1002 is a 2-way Main/Monitor loudspeaker
featuring a 10-inch woofer and a Mylar 1-inch
HF driver. The LSx1202 (passive) and LSx1202A
(powered) loudspeaker systems are both 2-way
designs that employ a 12-inch woofer paired with a Titanium 1-inch exit (1.5" VC) HF driver.
They can function as stand-alone systems or be coupled with the LSx1801 subwoofer. The
LSx1202A incorporates two internal active bi-amped amplifiers plus a 3-band EQ section.
Martin Audio’s W8VDQ
compact, three-way system
combines line array and differential dispersion technologies provide an advanced
solution for even coverage
over wide angles and throw
distances. The system has
been designed to provide a
short-throw horizontal dispersion of 120°, narrowing to
100° as the throw increases.
The vertical differential directivity ( VDQ) creates progressively more HF output as
throw distance increases. The
resulting dispersion pattern
is designed for covering audiences located on flat or gradually sloping surfaces.
Designed for passive or bi-amp operation, and combining a Hybrid quad 8 in LF
and MF configuration with quad 1 in HF — all horn-loaded — the system achieves
a maximum SPL of 131 dB (continuous), 137 dB (peak). Aimed at a wide range of
applications, from live and theatre sound to fixed installations, the W8VDQ is compatible with WMX, WS18X and WS218X subwoofers.
www.carvin.com
www.mar tin-audio.com
12
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
Showtime
California State FFA Leadership Conference
Venue
GEAR
Selland Arena
Fresno, CA
FOH
Console: Digico D5
Speakers: Meyer 22-Milo, 2-Milo 120,
4-MSL 4, 2-DF 4, 8-700HP, 6-UPM 1P
Processing: 1-Meyer Galileo, 2-Yamaha
SPX 990
Mics: 8-Shure Beta 58,1-Beta 87, 4-Beta
56, 2-SM 57, 4-SM 81 / 8-AKG C480, 2-C
460, 3-C418, 1-D112 / Countryman E6
Rigging: CM Loadstar
Snake Assemblies: Whirlwind
CREW
FOH Engineer: Ryan Wissink
Monitor Engineer: Josh Powell
Systems Engineer: Ryan Wissink
Production Manager: Reggie Rush
FOH Systems Techs: Miles Berry &
Jonathan Bingman
Soundco
Live Light
ST
MON
Consoles: Crest X Monitor
Speakers: Meyer 10-PSM 2, 2-UPM 1P
Processing: 2- Yamaha SPX 990
Mics: 10-Shure UHF-R
Soundco
S.A.R.A./TEC.DE MTY.
CCM.
Semana de la Cultura/Representativo Musical
ST
Venue
GEAR
ITESM
Campus Ciudad de México
CREW
FOH Engineer: Rafael “Rafa” Juarez
Monitor Engineer: Rafael “Rafa” Juarez
Systems Engineer: Raymundo “Angus” Rodriquez
Production Manager: Eliseo Santillan, Ivan
Herroz
Tour Manager: Adrina Hernandez
FOH Systems Techs: Juan “Pozole” Cruz,
Jose “Pepe” Backle, Roger Tec, Berna Tec
FOH
Console: 1 Allen and Heath ML5000
Speakers: 4 Electro-Voice Plasma P-1,4
Electro-Voice Plasma P-2 Self-powered
Mics: 14 Shure UHF Beta 87
Power Distro: S.A.R.A. Distro
Breakout Assemblies: S.A.R.A.
Snake Assemblies: Rapco 40 x 8
MON
Speakers: 4 Electro-Voice PEX
1122, 4 EAW SM12,02 MSL4,02
650P( sidefill)
Amps: 4 Crown IT4000
Mics: 1 Sennheiser E602, 6
Shure SM57, 4 Sennheiser E604,
4 AKG C451, 4 Shure SM58,8 BSS
AR133 D.I.
Power Distro: S.A.R.A.
Tempe Music Festival Featuring
My Chemical Romance and Fergie
Venue
GEAR
Tempe Beach Park
Tempe, AZ
CREW
Soundco
Clearwing
Productions
Phoenix LLC
FOH Engineer: Jim Jorgenson
Monitor Engineer: Stew Wilson
Systems Engineer: Andre St Pierre. Clayton Melocik
Production Manager: Gary Brunclik
FOH Systems Techs: Andre St Pierre,
Clayton Melocik
FOH
Console: Yamaha PM-5000, PM5D
Speakers: V-DOSC, SB-218, ARCS, JBL VRX
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Processing: XTA
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, Beyer
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM Lodestar
Breakout Assemblies: Clearwing VEAM
Snake Assemblies: Radial
14
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
ST
MON
Consoles: Yamaha PM-5DRH
Speakers: Martin LE-700, L’Acoustics
ARCS, dv-SUB
Amps: Crown 24x6
Processing: PIP2
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, various others
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM Lodestar
Soundco
ST
REACH
Communications
MercyMe w/Tenth Avenue North
Venue
GEAR
Fox Cities Performing Arts Center
Appleton, WI
CREW
FOH Engineers: Headliner Dustin Reynolds, Support Timothy Combs
Monitor Engineer: Headliner Bobby
George, Support Todd Behrens
Systems Engineer: Dan Brown
Production Manager: Wes Amick
Tour Manager: Joel Bench
FOH Systems Techs: Todd Behrens
FOH
Console: Yamaha M7CL-48
Speakers: 14 Nexo GeoS1210, 2 Nexo
GeoS1230, 8 Nexo Alpha S2, 4 Nexo PS8,
2 Nexo PS10
Amps: 6 Camco Vortex6, 2 Camco Vortex4, 3 Camco Tecton 28.2
Processing: 4 NX242-ES4, 2 PS10TD-V2,
1 PS8TD-V2
Mics: Shure Beta52, Beta91, Beta98d/s,
SM57, SM58, SM81, SM86, UHFR-KSM9,
Beyer M88, Sennheiser MD421, e609,
me64/k6, mke44p, Audix D6, Audio
Technica 4041, Countryman type85 DI
Power Distro: Motion Labs Custom
200amp 3 phase, RacPacs and Stringer
Boxes
Rigging: 2 CM 1 Ton
Snake Assemblies: Ramtech
MON
Console: Yamaha M7CL-48
Speakers: 2 Nexo Alpha S2, 2 Nexo
LS1200, 10 Sennheiser EW300IEM-G2
Amps: 4 Camco Vortex6
Processing: 2 NX241, 2 PS15TD-V2
Passion Conference Atlanta
Featuring Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio
Venue
GEAR
Gwinnett Arena
Duluth, GA
FOH
Console: Digidesign Profile
Speakers: d&b J12 Line Array - 14 per
side B2 Subs -12
Amps: d&b D12 amplifiers
Processing: Dolby Lake Processing
Mics: Shure, Audix, Sennheiser
Snake Assemblies: Whirlwind
CREW
FOH Engineer: Jeff Sandstrom
Monitor Engineer: Kyle McMahon
Systems Engineer: Dave Hagar
Production Manager: Scott Carter
FOH Systems Techs: Pete Parenteau
Soundco
Spectrum
Sound Inc.
Soundco
Venue
Largo Cultural Center
Largo, FL
CREW
COLT Sound and
Lighting
The Shanghai Circus
FOH Engineer: Gary Sastamoinen
Systems Engineer: Rob Mondora
Production Manager: Rob Mondora
FOH Systems Techs: Don Short, Scott
Dempster
GEAR
FOH
Console: Midas Verona 400
Speakers: Renkus-Heinz Trap40/7CL,
CELF 15-2 Subs
Amps: Renkus-Heinz p3500, Crest CA9
Processing: Yamaha, Lexicon, Rane, DBX
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, Audio Technica
Power Distro: Propriotary
Snake Assemblies: RSC, Whirlwind
MON
Speakers: EAW JFX560
Amps: Crown Macro-Tech 24x6
Processing: Yamaha
MON
Speakers: Sennheiser G2 IEMs
Mics: Shure/ Audix/ Sennheiser
We
Want You!
FOH wants your gig
shots, horror stories and
resume highlights! Go to www.
fohonline.com/submissions
to send us your Showtime pics,
Nightmare stories and In The
Trenches stats. Or e-mail
bg@fohonline.com
for more info. We cover
the industry
— and that means
you!
ST
ST
www.fohonline.com
2008 JUNE
15
Pope Benedict XVI’s
Production Profile
Massive Mass at Yankee Stadium
By KevinM.Mitchell
Doug PoPe
Doug PoPe
A sacred ceremony in a sacred place pulled off flawlessly.
View of the Pope’s stage at Yankee Stadium
P
ope Benedict XVI came to America in
April, and was astutely handled by the
best, most experienced hands in the
live event industry, from stadium rock to
Broadway shows.
The Pope’s visit was a six-day series of
events highlighted by a mass held at Yankee
Stadium in New York City. It was the fourth in
New York City’s history, but none of the previous events had as many limitations as this
one. All the talent assembled and tools available had to make up for a considerable builtin scarcity: the lack of time.
“The most astonishing thing about the
keynote project was that Yankee Stadium
didn’t open the doors for us until 12:01 a.m.
Friday morning, and by 1 a.m. Sunday, Secret Service locked it all down for a security
sweep,” says Co-Producer Patrick Stansfield.
“We’re talking about a total of 49-1/2 hours to
pull this off.”
“If we had plenty of time to do it, we
would have done it all a different way,” adds
Scenic Designer Edward Pierce. They didn’t.
But they did have Stig Edgren.
First Call
Executive Producer Stig Edgren, of SEG
Events, is a steady, experienced hand at this.
He handled Pope John Paul II’s visit not only
in 1995, but also handled papal duties going back to 1987 when the Pope celebrated
Mass in Los Angeles. So with the trust built up
and a proven record of delivery, it’s not surprising that he was turned to once again for
this Mass. It’s also not surprising that so many
of the principal players he assembled had
worked on previous Papal events as well.
For this April 16 event, Edgren got the
call from the Archdiocese of New York in
September. “The beginning conversations
16
JUNE 2008
Co-Producer Patrick Stansfield, Designer Rene Lagler, Production Supervisor Doug Pope
are about the Pope’s movement, when he’s
planning on celebrating mass and security,”
Edgren explains. “The Archdiocese is hosting the event, so it mostly involves them,
although, obviously, the Vatican is very concerned about the Mass itself.” Edgren quickly
got on the phone with offices of NYC Mayor
Michael Bloomberg’s Police, Fire & Special
Events departments to coordinate these important issues. The logistics are daunting —
for example, consider that almost a thousand
buses from all over the country were bringing
people to the stadium for the Papal Mass &
Concert of Hope, in addition to a huge youth
rally at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers.
“We had the right team to do this from
the very beginning, no question,” Edgren
says. “Having Stansfield and [production supervisor] Doug Pope in place early, managing
the labor involved and overseeing everything
allowed me to run around working with the
Archdiocese.”
So many of those in place had worked
with Edgren on the Papal visit in 1995, including Stansfield and Doug Pope. “The Archdiocese had complete trust in me as far as
bringing people on board for this,” he says.
“They didn’t question my choices of vendors,
because they knew I was picking the best
people in the business.” One new aspect was
bringing in Ken Ashby, who produced the
pre-Mass show, and Danny Ezralow, who directed it. The Concert of Hope featured performers such as Harry Connick Jr., Jose Feliciano, among others.
Look for the Union Label
Hudson Theatrical Associates was given
the daunting task of putting together the entire labor force. Hudson’s Sam Ellis was the labor supervisor, and says it was a long process
to figure out how many hands were needed.
“At any given time during the load-in and
set up there were 200 to 250 Local #1 hands
working on this,” he says. “But the total number of people involved was close to 490.”
All involved commented that the planning was critical.
“First, we had to sit down with all the
people in charge of the individual elements
— the video people, the lighting, the staging,
and figure out how many people they each
needed,” Ellis says. “Then we assimilated all
that into a gigantic schedule.” For example,
they figured out that the electric needs required a dozen electricians at a certain point,
and they needed such-and-such time to make
it happen. “The first five hours were just laying
the flooring, so we had to figure out what we
could do while that was happening — in this
case, start putting the chairs in and hanging
lighting trusses off the FOH balcony rails.”
Where to Begin?
“First of all, you pick the captains, the
heads of the departments, and that was very
important to us,” Ellis says. “It was important to
us that they be the best because they had to
go reach out to their best workers.” Ellis stresses that the best were found in the unions. “Often times there are critics of union labor, but
in our instance, only by using union workers
were we able to accomplish what we needed
to do. So in addition to union stagehands and
technicians, we also used teamsters to load
and unload the trucks. We had 70 or 80 trucks
to unload, and we were very happy with their
professionalism.”
Impressively, it was all done safely, too:
“With all the people involved, we had two
very minor accidents: One stage hand slightly
sliced a finger requiring a few stitches, and
www.fohonline.com
another twisted an ankle. Probably 1,000
people were in harms way and everybody
could walk out!” he laughs.
“It was an amazing team of union workers,” echoes Doug Pope. “ IATSE Local #1 especially and IBEW Local 3 did an amazing job.
They knew their crafts and they didn’t mess
around.”
They couldn’t mess up the grass, either.
To protect the sacred greens, they used Terraplas, a patented system of breathable sheeting capable of handling light-duty loads, so
chairs and people could walk on it, but no vehicles. For vehicles, there was Bravomat, “The
entire warming track was covered by 1,400
pieces (at 100 pound per) of 4’ x 8’x 5”-thick
Bravomat: heavy-duty interlocking modules
capable of supported loaded forklifts,” says
Stansfield. “The first 41/2 hours of the load in
was just laying that track. So, we really only
had 45 hours to build the altar and performance stage and decorate the stadium.”
And then there was security: Stansfield
points that every single person involved, and
those attending the event, had to submit
“name, Social Security number, birth date,
place of birth, and all were duly screened. All
80 trucks were scanned electronically, and
laminated passes for the crew were distributed daily and never left the stadium.”
Hearing the Spoken Word
“The biggest concern was the sound —
that’s what had me tossing and turning at
night,” Edgren says. His call went to Clair Bros.,
and was picked up by Ralph Mastrangelo, executive vice president of touring. A long time
friend and associate of Edgren, he had a history of working on big events with him.
Looking back in hindsight, Mastrangelo
seems to appreciate the task more even more
Doug PoPe
Lyn Parker
(L-R): Clair Brothers’ Mike Wolf, Gaffer Tom Blancato, Lighting Designer Alan Adelman, Programmer/Operator Paul Sonnleitner
More than 50,000 people attended the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium.
then when he was in the thick of it. “It was a
lot of work all the time,” he sighs. “We were
handcuffed in so many different places.” But
he, Mike Wolf, and others on the Clair Bros.
team just “stared at [the project] for a while
as we consulted with the guys at Mountain
Production.”
Quickly, they concluded that they had
to put the main speakers on the roof and
hang some line arrays (but not too many less
sightlines to the Pope be obscured). With no
room for error, and certainly no real sound
check or rehearsal, he says they flew by pure
experience and AutoCAD. “We’ve done this
long enough that once we came up with a
plan, we knew it was going to work.” He too
credits Edgren, Stansfield and Doug Pope
with putting together an incredible team of
people. “Everyone brought their ‘A’ game,”
Mastrangelo says.
Clair Bros. Lead Audio Designer Mike
Wolf has a long history of working on all
things religious. He worked on Pope John
Paul II’s visit to St. Louis’ Busch Stadium in
1999 and also has been involved with projects for the Greek Orthodox Archbishop
Christodoulos, Sun Myung Moon and Billy
Graham. He was there for the first site meeting back in November for this event.
“The biggest challenge was the logistical problems of the stadium of not being allowed on the grass, so everything was built
or bridged directly between first and third
base, the Papal Throne being roughly over
second ” Wolf explains. “The performance
stage was on home plate, and the orchestra
and choir were between home plate and the
foul ball net.”
The keep-off-the-grass mantra highly
influenced the system they designed for it,
as say a Super Bowl Event, carting the sys-
tem out on the field was never on the table.
“The only place left was placing the system
on the roof of the stage. It’s the first time I’ve
known that the main P.A. was on top of a roof
like this — there has been some big shows
where some speakers would be placed on a
roof, but never the entire P.A.”
Up on the roof was a six-column Clair
Bros. i4 system.
The sheer size and weight of going this
route was something the team took very seriously. “We worked with Mountain Production to make sure the staging could take the
weight, plus handle hanging some smaller
line arrays below for the Cardinals and Bishops on the ground.”
No details was left unresolved: Sure,
it’s one thing to put speakers on top of the
roof of a temporary stage, but you can’t just
have the traditional speaker covering left…
uncovered. Doug Pope points out that they
painted the grills gold to match the overall
color scheme of the event. The grills of the
hung line-arrays were covered in white fabric.
“We didn’t want people out of sync,
so Clair Bros. came up with an ear monitor
for everyone performing and that way the
choirs and orchestras could all stay locked
into the same beat,” Edgren adds.
“The biggest drawback was the lack of
time to set up,” Wolf sums up. “And it’s telling that it took three days to load out the
audio!”
Pope on the Pope
Doug Pope, who has a 30-year history
with Edgren, and also worked with him on
the 1995 Papal event, said early on a key
factor was bringing in Hudson Theatrical
Associates. “Neil Mazzella and Sam Ellis put
The “Other” Gigs
St. Joseph’s Seminary
Imagine a four-person crew controlling sound for thousands in a rather
unconventional venue — not to mention your client is the Pope. No pressure or anything. That was precisely
the case with Maryland Sound International’s (MSI), role as soundco for Pope
Benedict XVI’s visit with seminarians
and disabled youth at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.
“As far as my crew at MSI, it was
only four of us,” says Lead FOH Engineer Ryan Beck. “We had some help
with the local crews, but most of the
work was done on our end. “It was one
of the most difficult gigs to keep track
of since a lot of performers came in at
the last minute.” In addition to Beck,
the MSI crew consisted of Monitor Engineer Mickey Beck (Ryan’s brother),
Patchman Chris Hall and Lead Patchman Travis White.
After leading Mass at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York City, the Pope
spoke at a youth rally featuring 22
performances on the grounds of the
seminary. Performances ranged from
national to regional acts including musicians, choirs and dance acts leading
up to the Pope’s appearance. Performances began at 10 a.m. and lasted until about 4 p.m. when the Pope arrived
during Kelly Clarkson performance of
“Ave Maria.” The Pope was on stage for
approximately two hours.
The biggest challenge for Beck was
the complexity of the event. “Twentytwo acts are a lot to go through in
one day,” Beck says. “It was definitely
a stressful experience trying to make
sure everything went smoothly.”
Compared to a stadium venue,
setting up the audio system on the
grounds of the seminary caused what
Beck described as “real estate issues”
due to the lack of structure to hang the
JBL VerTec line arrays. “We did some
speaker hangs from the stage and we
also hung speakers off four self-standing poles we set up,” Beck reports.
“With a 8-feet-by-8-feet footprint, they
are very low profile.” In total, system
setup took five days including a full
day of rehearsal. Each act had about 45
minutes to go through soundcheck on
the day of rehearsal and the morning
of the event.
The seminary grounds are approximately 500 feet wide by 900 feet long,
a large space for the sound system to
cover. “It’s easier than a stadium show
because you don’t have to deal with
echoes. As long as you’re aiming in the
right areas, you can get a nice, even
coverage throughout the whole field,”
Beck notes.
The sound system consisted of a
cluster of eight JBL VerTec 4889s aiming outward with an in-fill cluster of
four 4889s on the main and delay poles,
eight 4889s suspended on the left and
right of the stage and a center cluster
of six JBL VerTec 4887s. The system was
run from a Studer Vista 5 digital consoles at front of house and monitors. A
Yamaha PM5D was also used at monitorland for bands who had requested
it.
“The most difficult thing was to
make 22 acts work through one console at each mix position,” Beck says.
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“We integrated the PM5D through the
Studer console where everything was
stored in snapshots. The unique snapshot capability of the (Studer Vista 5)
made it easy to recall each artist.”
The event also employed Crown
I-Tech amps and a mix of Shure and
Sennheiser microphones. The Pope
requested a specially designed AudioTechnica mic, Beck reports.
“I have to say it was an amazing opportunity to mix for the Pope. I know
he’s an amazing man with a lot of history behind him,” Beck says. “It was
definitely a worthwhile experience for
me.”
Nationals Stadium
As the first non-Baseball event for
the brand new Nationals Stadium and
the initial step of a high-profile journey across the Eastern U.S., the Papal
Mass in our nation’s capital presented
a unique set of challenges for MHA Audio.
Asked about producing audio at
the beautiful and elegantly proportioned stadium with its own stateof-the-art system, MHA Audio Owner
Mike Scarfe explains, “We couldn’t
use the existing audio system because, as with all stadiums, the sound
comes from above and behind the
audience. Since the stage for the
Papal Mass was at one end, it would
have been impossible to time-align it
to the stage. We provided sound for
the entire stadium and 47,000 people
from 60-foot towers on either side of
the stage.”
He continues, “Basically, we had a
550-foot throw from the speaker tower
to the farthest seat. Working with Jim
Cousins at Martin Audio in the UK, and
using Display software, we were able to
come up with optimum angles for the
line array. We had 16 W8L Longbow on
each side firing forward, and 12 W8LCs
a side, firing sideways. Then, six W8LCs
firing to the rear of stage left.
The total speaker complement included 32 Martin Audio W8L Longbow
cabinets, 30 Martin Audio W8LC, six
Martin Audio WSX subs and two Martin
WT3s.
“It wasn’t just about clear spoken
word reproduction because on stage
right behind the speaker tower we had
a 700-member choir and an orchestra
of 50. The program started at 5 a.m.
once the gates were opened and there
was a variety of entertainment including notable opera singers Placido Domingo and Denyce Graves up to the
start of the Mass at 10 a.m. The choir,
cantors and orchestral accompaniment
continued throughout the Mass until
noon.”
The MHA crew consisted of FOH:
Zane Marshall, assisted by Peter Maher; Monitors/Orchestral Stage: David
Colella, assisted by Tom Buckley and
Monitors/Entertainment Stage: Gavin
Pearce, assisted by Bruce Coffman.
Asked about the audio results for
this historic event, Scarfe concludes:
“The client Showcall, an event production company specializing in large format, high threat events, was very happy
with the sound. We received positive
comments all around; everybody was
impressed.” — Breanne George
2008 JUNE
17
Lyn Parker
Production Profile
The line array wore white.
spaces to put things!” he laughs.
Looking over the creative team’s
shoulder the entire time, of course, was
the Yankee Stadium grounds crew, making sure nothing damaged the play. As
intrusive as that sounds on paper, Doug
Pope assures that they did their job with
professionalism and respect for what the
team had to do.
“People like us, we’re only there a little bit,” he explains. “But the Yankee Team
Personnel have to carry on, and they have
a love and respect for their grass, and we
respect that. Hats off to the Yankees for
all they did, including allowing us to use
the team’s locker rooms and everything
else.” Everything else included the umps
changing room, which was magically
transformed into an elegant room for
the Pope to vest in (that’s “suit up” to you
non-Catholics out there).
Doug PoPe
together a crack labor team, starting with
scores of department heads.” How important was this gig? “People dropped out of
their Broadway shows to do this.”
For Doug Pope, spreading the work
around as much as possible was going
to make this event a success. “We didn’t
want to wear people out — just the [department] heads!”
After the first site survey way back in
the fall, they put together a time line of
how it would all go down. They knew they
would be starting at midnight, and knew
the Bravomats needed to go down quickly and seamlessly in order for the forklift
and rest of the worker to be done.
“We did have the benefit of a pre-rig
day, the Monday before, where we moved
in as much equipment as possible, which
was still not very much — it is an 87year-old stadium and there’s not a lot of
Bird Watching
“The icing on the cake was the release of several hundred live doves of peace,” says
Stansfield. “It was done in coordination with the 150 kids running and circling the stadium
track with faux flying doves made of lightweight foam, and each attached by a lead to
fishing poles. At a dramatic point, we released these 200 live doves that circled the stadium twice and then flew back to their home in New Jersey just like they were suppose to.”
A word about the doves… those jaded by the technological achievements pro audio,
lighting and video will surely be dazzled by this: Basically, there is such a thing as advance
team of doves, made up of a lead dove who calls the shots, and some dutiful lieutenants.
They were brought to the stadium about a week before the big event. They checked out
the stadium, and then the lead dove circled the stadium twice and flew back home, lieutenants in tow.
On the day of the big event, a couple hundred other doves were released with them,
and following the team leader, executed their assignment with aplomb.
Were these doves in the union? What is in their rider? And how does one get to be the
lead dove — is it based on merit and hard work, or just a matter of how you coo?
Producer Stig Edgren chuckles and sighs. “Oh yeah, there were a lot of dove jokes
— even the secret service guys got on it saying they needed to frisk ‘em and check their
beaks.”
Final Thoughts
Edgren says he would have liked to
see the young people who ran around
the stadium track with the foam doves go
running out on the field for “just one moment right before the Mass, but it was just
something that didn’t get asked in time.”
Composer Benoit Jutras was brought
in to compose special music for the event.
“He’s very brilliant and quick, and he came
up with themes for the opening and closing that sounded like angels,” says Edgren.
This music inspired Edgren to imagine
doves, and passed the idea along to his
creative team. Ezralow, director of the preMass show, then asked if they could make
a moment out of this, and brought in Michael Curry, a renowned designer known
for his work with The Lion King. “He came
up with these doves and the sticks that
would carry them.”
CREW
CREATIVE STAFF FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE
OF NEW YORK:
Executive Producer: Stig Edgren
Co-Producer: Patrick Stansfield
Production Designer: Rene Lagler
Creative Consultant: Imero Fiorentino
Production Supervisor Doug Pope
Pre Mass Show Director: Daniel Ezralow
Pre Mass Show Producer: Ken Ashby
Pre Mass Technical Director: Rick Southern
Head Sound Mixer: Howard Lindeman
Communications Director: Larry Estrin
Production Controller: Mark Aurelio
Media Director: Maris Segal
Backstage Managers: Scott & Beth Schneider
Communications Manager: Pete Erskine
Production Site Electrics: James Eisner
CAT Event Power head Burt Bracegirdle
Lead Production Coordinator: Dennis
Mennard
Media Project Coordinators: T.J. Morehouse & Nancy Shefts
Traffic Manager: David McDaniels
Runner: Jedi Keith
Crew Caterer: Gordy Hebler, Full Plate Catering Inc.
FOR YANKEE STADIUM:
Yankee Stadium Operations Mgr Doug Behar
Yankee Stadium Superintendent Pete Pullara
New York Police Department Capt. Drew
Kastner
Head Yankee Stadium Electrician Fran
Ninivaggi
Clair Bros. speakers in place on the Mountain Productions roof
18
JUNE 2008
Again and again, when summing up
the success of the event, everyone comes
back to teamwork.
“I had the best team in the world,”
Edgren says. “They surrounded me, protected me, and I was honored to be part of
it. It was magical.”
Kudos and shout-outs go to those of
a Higher Power, too. The weather, for example, could not have been more perfect.
“At the youth rally the day before it was a
warm beautiful day. Then at the Pope’s visit
to ground zero of the World Trade Center,
the clouds were dark and ominously low,
and it was as if you felt the [victim’s] spirits in the air. That stayed like that through
Sunday morning, and then when Jose
Feliciano started to play, that’s when the
clouds broke…
“It was good advance work from God Almighty!”
www.fohonline.com
SOUND—CLAIR BROS AUDIO, LITITZ, PA
Account Executive: Clair Bros. - Ralph
Mastangelo
Lead Sound Designer: Mike Wolf
Orchestra Mixer: Doug Nightwine
Choir Mixer David Staub
Additional Clair Bros. Associates: Tom
Huntington, Christopher Fulton, Robert Bussiere, Kevin Dennis, Anthony Sabao, James
Ward
LABOR by Hudson Theatrical Associates
Contractors/ Labor Supervision: Sam Ellis,
Susan Bristow, Irene Wang-Supervisors
For IATSE Stagehands Local #1
Electrics
Jimmy Maloney: Head Production Electrician
SOUND
Head Production Sound: Tommy Arrigoni
Assistant: Rich Gilmour
LOAD MASTER/FORKLIFT CREW
Head: Pat Quinn
TEAMSTER
Head: Vinny Russo
LOCAL ONE STEWARD
Head: Dan Gilloon
REHEARSAL STUDIO & MUSIC RENTALS
Studio Instrument Rentals: NYC Bo Holst,
Carly Vena, Erik White
Rat Sound
Feature
Three Days, Five Stages, 60,000 People, 100+ V-DOSC boxes and 19 PM5Ds
By Thomas Freeman
I
n its ninth year, the Coachella Valley Music
& Arts Festival — located in Southern California’s desert town of Indio, 125 miles east
of Los Angeles — the king of the American alternative rock festivals took place April 25-27
with attendance reaching 60,000 on each of
the three-day mega concerts.
All-Star Lineup
With two stages and three live tents, concertgoers were treated to an all-star lineup
consisting of second night headliner Prince
performing at the Empire Polo Field, Roger
Waters, Jack Johnson, Portishead, Kraftwerk,
the Verve, the Raconteurs, Death Cab for Cutie,
Love and Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Aphex
Twin, the Breeders, Justice, Café Tacvba, Fatboy Slim, Spiritualized, Tegan and Sara, Goldfrapp, Serj Tankian, the Swell Season, Sasha
& John, Digweed, Gogol Bordello, Rilo Kiley,
Chromeo, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., the National, Metric, Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Animal
Collective, Kate Nash, Múm, Slighty Stoopid,
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Above & Beyond, Danny Tenaglia, Pendulum, DeVotchKa,
Booka Shade, Simian Mobile Disco, Sharon
Jones & the Dap-Kings, Murs, Stars, Flogging
Molly, Mark Ronson, Redd Kross, Dimitri from
Paris, Battles, Autolux, Aesop Rock, the Field,
Les Savy Fav, Scars on Broadway, Linton Kwesi
Johnson, Midnight Juggernauts, Islands, the
Chris “Hoover” Rankin, FOH engineer at
the Gobi tent.
20
JUNE 2008
Cool Kids, Does it Offend You, Yeah?, Enter
Shikari, Sons & Daughters, Minus the Bear, Sia,
Calvin Harris, Spank Rock, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Boys Noize, Diplo, Junkie XL, Black
Mountain, Adam Freeland, Annuals, Cinematic Orchestra, Santogold, Jens Lekman, Kid
Sister with A-Trak, the Teenagers, John Butler Trio, Duffy, I'm From Barcelona, Vampire
Weekend, VHS or Beta, Deadmau5, Carbon/
Silicon, Manchester Orchestra, Dan Deacon,
Erol Alkan, Architecture in Helsinki, Man Man,
Sandra Collins, Yo! Majesty, AUSTIN TV, Busy
P, Little Brother, Cut Copy, Shout Out Louds,
Bonde Do Role, Plastiscines, Black Lips, St.
Vincent, Brett Dennen, Datarock, Akron/Family, MGMT, Professor Murder, Surkin, Para One,
Orgasmic Curses, James Zabiela, the Bees, SebastiAn, Kavinsky, Porter, Rogue Wave, Dredg,
the Bird and the Bee, Yoav, Modeselektor,
Grand Ole Party, 120 Days, American Bang,
Luckyiam, Electric Touch, Yelle, Uffie featuring
DJ Mehdi, Lucent Dossier, Do LaB.
All-Star Crew and Gear
The decision to use PM5Ds (19 on one gig
— a record!) was made due to the multiple
acts performing over five venues, the small
footprint of the console and its onboard effects. Rat Sound Systems Inc. provided sound
reinforcement for the Coachella Festival this
year with the company’s Head of Touring Jon
Monson in charge of all aspects of audio production. “We decided to use Yamaha digital
consoles across the board so that engineers
could send in their files ahead of time and
have their show come up easily," says Monson. Ronnie Kimball, front of house engineer
for the Sahara Dance Tent, says he ‘likes consistency and the PM5D gives me that. It's also
convenient and saves me a lot of time.’
Lee Vaught and Roz Jones served as
front of house engineers at the Main Stage
with George Squiers and Shaun Sebastian at
monitors. Squiers is also monitor engineer
for R.E.M. “The Yamaha 5D was a great festival console for the Coachella main stage,” he
says. It’s not complicated, which means it’s
easy for engineers to walk up and use. Storing
sound checks scene-by-scene delivers awesome recallability for changeovers. The idea
of e-mailing a file ahead of time is great for
bands already set up to use the 5D. A simple
soft patch lines things up nicely for a festival patch. Being that all the dynamics are on
board and you have access to them on every
channel there is no need for racks and racks of
processing, which eliminates hard patching,
saving time and helps avoid crosspatches that
could cost precious minutes during a changeover. The same is true of the great sounding
onboard effects to choose from, internally
eliminating the need for outboard racks. The
FOH Mixer Derek van Nord at the Coachella
Festival
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nice, compact size of the 5D saves on real estate offering more room at the mix positions
for bands’ carrying their own production.”
Jamie Harris was FOH engineer for
the Outdoor Stage and Dustin Delkar handled monitor duties. Jim Jorgenson handled front of house at the Mojave tent and
Steve Walsh, monitors. The Sahara Dance
tent was manned by Ronnie Kimball and
Mike ‘Milk’ Arnold at front of house and
Chris ‘GGG’ Rymarz at monitors. The Gobi
tent was manned by Chris “Hoover” Rankin
at FOH and Jared Woods at monitors.
Rat Sound used L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC,
dV-DOSC for three of the five biggest stages, with L-ACOUSTICS Kudo in the Mohave
and Rat Trap 5 in the Gobi tent. Rat Sound
also provided an eight-tower surround
sound system for Roger Waters consisting of 48 L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC and 12 dVDOSC for the Sunday evening headliner.
The EAW MicroWedge 12 made its debut
at the festival. “It’s little, it’s light, and it’s
loud. It sounds awesome!,” commented
Tony Luna, who was taking time out of his
monitor engineer gig for KISS and Trans Siberian Orchestra to be Rat crew chief for
the Outdoor Stage. “By the feedback we
received from the different bands and engineers, it definitely was used with great
success.” The microphone arsenal con-
Yamaha CommerCial audio SYStemS, inC./VertiS, inC.
“We
decided
to
use
Yamaha digital consoles
across the board so that
engineers could send in
their files ahead of time
and have their show come
up easily.” — Jon Monson
sisted of Shure, Sennheiser, Neumann,
AKG, Audio-Technica, Audix and Beyer.
Crown and L-ACOUSTICS amps were
used throughout.
Dirty Hands Caravan
On the morning after the final day of
the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival,
a caravan of bio-diesel buses transporting
up to 300 people drove 1,800 miles in an effort designed to engage a new generation
of activists. The Dirty Hands Caravan, as it is
known, is the coming together of individuals who get involved by building houses
for the homeless, protesting the war in
Iraq while supporting the needs of veterans and their families, caring for the sick or
needy, cleaning up parks or neighborhoods
across America, taking part in clean water
initiatives for foreign lands and engaging in
whatever way they feel compelled to help
others. The caravan, which is the brainchild
of actor Sean Penn, made stops in numerous cities when it arrived at its final destination, New Orleans. The spirit of Coachella
joined in on the close of the New Orleans
Jazz & Heritage Festival to help better the
Big Easy through their good works.
For a complete gear list from Coachella visit
www.fohonline.com/Coachella
Nineteen Yamaha PM5D-RH digital audio consoles were used for front of house and monitors
at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.
FOH Interview
By BillEvans
Photos By LindaEvans
F
ans of Saturday Night Live (I know you gig
on Saturday nights — that’s what Tivo is
for) will recognize the skits that all play on
the “competition” between certain hosts for the
record of who has hosted the show the most
times. Here at FOH, it is pretty rare for us to feature an engineer in the FOH Interview slot more
than once. I can only think of three: John Cooper,
Big Mick and Cubby Colby.
Cubby is someone we could feature a dozen
times and still not get the entire story. For those
of you unfamiliar, the short version goes like this:
Genesis and Phil Collins, Grammy Awards house
mixer for years, more tours with Prince than any
other mixer alive and a ton of other stuff.
Back when he was still doing the Grammys,
he mixed Ricky Martin for the award show and
was asked to do his tour. With some time on
his hands, Cubby agreed, and no one had any
idea just how big Livin’ La Vida Loca would get
or how it would usher in a new generation of
Spanish-speaking artists. And all of them —
from old-schoolers like Luis Miguel to youngsters like Shakira wanted the guy who mixed
Ricky behind their board, too. As a result of that
desire and Cubby’s unbelievably good chops,
he has been doing Latin artists almost exclusively for about a decade.
We caught up with him on a Las Vegas tour
stop for Colombian rocker Juanes. An artist I
had never heard of, but who has won a dozen
Latin Grammys, fills 100,000+ seat stadium
shows throughout Europe and South America,
and who had pretty much every member of the
fairer gender — including my photograper/wife
— dealing with a drooling problem throughout
the show.
For this one, Cubby is driving an Eighth
Day — provided d&b rig with a DiGiCo D5 at the
front end. Musically, it was like going back to the
‘70s with a guitar player using a real, honest-toGod E-Bow and the keyboard player using a Rhodes, a B3 and a Mini-Moog. The mix was one you
never could have heard on the gear of that era.
It was, without a doubt, one of the best, punchiest, clearest mixes I have ever heard. It was such
a pleasure to listen to that I stayed for the entire
show of an artist I had never heard of. (Not that
I could have dragged the photographer away
with a tow-truck if I had wanted to leave…)
FOH: How's your Spanish?
Cubby Colby: It's getting pretty good. I
know where the bathroom is. I know how to
say hello and goodbye and introduce myself.
Production is bilingual, and everybody in
the band is bilingual, and I'd say there's 50%
Americans, and the band is pretty much all
from Colombia. And then, the rest of the production is either from Mexico City or Colombia, so, now that I think about it, it's more like
65% Latinos and 35% Americans. If you think
about it South America is part of the Americas… So no big deal.
22
JUNE 2008
This is a pretty long tour…
There weren't too many artists I would
have gone out on such a long tour with, but I
did say that if I got the call from Juanes again I
would, and lo and behold, last July I got a call.
So I actually started this in August of 2007 because I did all the promo all through Christmas into January and February; we started
rehearsals in March, and here we are in May.
We're about 20 shows in, and we have about
10 more in the States and then we start up in
Europe and we're over there for eight weeks.
that maybe we should have added a few more
sub boxes. "I'll be right back," the guy says, and
he goes back and resets some amplifiers. Consequently, the software shuts down and he
comes back and I'm waiting and waiting, and
he goes, "OK guys, let's play the song again."
I bring the band, VCA up, and he says, "I gave
you 3 dB more," and I know that 3 dB should be
like twice the amount but never has been — I
mean, when's the last time you ever got that?
And this is when I got educated on what happens with this technology.
BE: And you worked with Prince, Genesis…
Two live albums with Genesis, a live album with Phil… I basically did 10 years with
Phil and Genesis, and then he got ill, and everything just stopped. I've never been one to
fear when the phone's not ringing, but when
you've had such a long run with people, you
need to move on. And it all came about in a
funny way. I mean, Phil ended, and I'm mixing
the Grammy Award shows at the time, and
now I'm off doing Ricky Martin stuff because
of the Grammys, so one door closed and another door opened, and you go down that
road. I never ever knew how much I would
enjoy doing a tour like that.
He's a much bigger deal outside the U.S.?
We do six weeks in Spain alone, and everything is sold out. It's mega-outdoor bullrings and the Barcelona room and the Madrid
arenas and so on and so forth… And then, it's
like the Beatles because when we were doing
the promotional stuff, I never expected Helsinki, Finland, to have 3,000 people wanting
to come to see Juanes. We played a 700-seat
place, and they turned away 2,000 people.
Same thing in Zurich, Switzerland. Same
thing in London. Same thing in Paris. It was a
small, condensed band — Juanes; the drummer playing some percussion, and Toby, the
acoustic guitar player on stage left, and Emanuel, the keyboard player. It was just those four,
and Eva, Fernan the Manager and myself, and
I was the monitor guy, the front-of-house guy,
the guitar tuner — but that's OK. The guys really understood me. They knew I was doing
gigs where the speakers were in the ceilings
and the worst you can say is that this isn't going to do it, and you turn it down.
And you've been doing the Latin thing for a
while…
Since 2000, that's when I was doing the
Livin' La Vida Loca tour, which was almost
18-months long with really nice breaks though.
One of the things I kind of like — it's funny —
about Latin artists is that a lot of them don't like
to work in the summer months, so that was nice
for me when my son was at an age when I wanted to be around more. And then I just rolled into
Shakira, and then Luis Miguel, and then Latin
Grammys. I think the first time Juanes did the
Latin Grammys I was the music mixer for that,
and then the second time he came around I was
doing it as well, and I formed this really quick
relationship with management and the rest of
the audio crew he had with him at the time; and
Frank, who was the front-of-house guy, moved
to monitors and I got the call that they were interested, so I came out and auditioned for the
gig in Las Vegas and LA — there was a back-toback with some promotional stuff — and I got
the callback. Them not knowing anything about
my background and my history — I didn't really
want to get the job based upon who I had done
in the past; I wanted to get the job based upon
what I can do and what I can offer.
But the tech has changed a lot. I would venture to say that even some of those ceilingspeaker systems were OK…
It's like the first time I ever used dV-DOSC
stuff and said, "It's not going to happen." And
then you turn it on and it's more than you could
have ever hoped for. Similar thing with the d&b
stuff. We were doing the promotional part and
about 40% of the promotional things we did
involved the entire band. We were down in the
Mexico City area and we had three full-blown
shows where he played for about an hour with
the full band. And in all three of those shows it
was a d&b Q series with the B2s. The first night
was 1,200 seats, the second night was 3,600
seats, and they brought in the same amount
of gear, and I went, "Well, gee guys, don't you
think we should have…" Well, in this guy's broken English, he explained that the d&b has a
mode where it's like a doubling of the P.A. in efficiency. And I said, "Well, I'm just not thinking
that line array’s going to be the problem, it's
more of the sub bass frequencies because the
room was going to be so big." So the guy does
his deal and we get ready and we're doing the
line check and we're right on the edge. Everything's hitting pretty hard. I tell the provider
What kind of mix are you going for?
Well, it is in your face, but it's more of an
impact sort of a mix and this is what he really
likes. And I could feel it, but I wasn't battling
it onstage. Well, there's this whole cardioid
sub bass approach that keeps all of this off
the stage and really cleaned up his ear mix. The
same consoles, same guys, same ear molds —
different P.A. — he's having a great time, and
having a much easier time finding pitch and
so on and so forth. Granted, this is early on
in the tour, so they're starting to get really
acquainted with this other system. We do another with it and, you know, I'm asking more
and more questions, never to think that this
would be something that's going to fall in our
lap, and lo and behold, management and the
artist were extremely pleased, as I was and everybody else that was there with the system,
so we decided to give it a go. We took bids
from four companies, and it was a really, really
hard decision because all of them were very
worthy of doing the tour, as you're saying —
everything out there is extremely good, and
we would have been happy with any of them
— it just so happens that…
Now, I'd never heard of this guy.
He's been around. He's 35, this is his fourth
album, he's got 12 Latin Grammys, and he’s
got quite a few accomplishments. He's got the
12 Latin Grammys, and with this new album,
the one that we're touring with right now, he's
probably going to have another three or four
under his belt by the next Latin Grammys. He
just got recognized by the Billboard Awards
for the Humanitarian Award. We just did the
Nobel Peace Prize concert, and he did that two
years in a row. He has a foundation for all the
underprivileged children in Colombia. He's
very human. He's the songwriter, the lyricist,
the musician… that's why I feel really privileged to be here, and that's what attracts me.
People are like, "Cubby! Why more and more?"
This guy, for me, is a wonderful replacement
for some of the other wonderful people I had
the opportunity to work for.
www.fohonline.com
Eighth Day has a d&b rig…
And Tom did a really good job in the
negotiation of the things, equipment spec
and so on. It was tough as I had nothing but
really great time with Clair/Showco on the
last tour, and I'm sure we'll work together
again in the future, but it was more of a artist/management vibe that made us change
things. And again, the packaging, we can fit
this entire system into two-thirds of a truck.
We have this full system with backline in
one truck, and it's just time for things to
shift that way a little bit. Economically for
us, we found something that the artist and
management and myself and everyone else
is happy with and happy to be a part of and
enjoy this accurate technology where you
can sort of come into a room and make it
happen. We're using this system in the soldout arenas at Madison Square Garden or
Miami Arena — that's a 21,000-seat arena.
We did two Puerto Ricos, that was 18,000,
no problem covering it with what we have.
We're happy.
(L to R): System Engineer Edgardo Vertanessian, System Tech Craig Laskowski, FOH
Mixer Cubby Colby, Monitor Engineer Anselmo Rota, Monitor Tech Jordan Kolenc
Cubby Colby mixing Juanes’ show in Las Vegas
This is an odd room to mix in.
I never mix in the center, so I'm always 4 to 6
feet off center; and I never mix on a riser, it gives
me a better idea of where the rest of the room
is at by being slightly off-center, so if it's punchy
for me, I know that in 80% of the rest of the
room it's good, There is going to be a couple of
aisle ways that are going to be a little bit under
because of the characteristics of the sub bass.
Verta (system tech) and I — he's an extremely
knowledgeable guy — we are really working
hard at evening things up. I'm using the J-Series
subs in the air and the B2s on the ground, and
everything's in cardioid mode. The B2s on the
ground are off the aux buss, so we're really trying to make it really even. That's been my problem with all of the systems I want the same impact up on the sides as I'm having on the floor.
I understand the floor gives us that coupling, I
know, but there's a way to make this happen.
We've got to strive to make that better way up
on the sides, and we're getting there.
The guys on the sides are paying decent
ticket prices…
My theory is, even the people in the nosebleed seats, those are the ones with the cheapest
tickets, and those are the biggest fans. They're
the ones who can't afford the seats down front,
but they're going to be there. They're the ones
who stand in line and wait overnight, and those
are the ones who deserve to have just as good
a sound as well as the ones up front. That's been
my theory for a long time.
It was funny; I went through this with Fernan, the manager for Juanes, on the last tour.
We realized on that tour the Miami Arena was
going to be sold out, so I had extra I-4s to be
brought in, eight per side to be flown for side
coverage. Management was really concerned
about the extra money, transportation, etc…
I said, "Listen, it'll be really worth it. All those
people up there, they're going to be singing at
the top of their lungs, every lyric. Please, Fernan,
go up there during the show." We didn't waste
our money. He went up there during the show,
came down during the show and said, "I'll never
doubt your word again. Those are the biggest
fans. I went up there and saw those fans really
enjoying themselves just as much as the ones
in the front rows. We did the best thing in the
world to Juanes' fans by putting all of that P.A.
on the sides, all the way around.
It's great to have a manager recognize that.
Yeah, Juanes has a hands-on manager
(Fernan Martinez) where he's at all of the
shows, all of the promo. He's down in the
trenches with us everywhere we go. Much
like Tony Smith with Collins and Genesis.
So are you still having fun?
I'm enjoying myself more with this new
technology, and that's what's keeping me
here. It's because I know there's more here,
there's more out there, there's more to learn
now than there ever has been, and now I can
hear things the way I conceived wanting to
hear them. Vocal intelligibility, punchy — I'm
a drum mix/guitar, musical mixer guy, tight
bottom end, but I want it to be clean, and it's
a loud show, it's in your face, it's punchy, but
when I leave the building, my ears don't hurt.
How is that possible I think then I realize its
these P.A.s — and I used to say this about the
Prism system, because I loved that P.A., because I worked with it for such a long time and
got along with it very well, had great people
helping me all the time as well, and that's the
other part: "It's so great!" Well, I got a ton of
help…anyway, my point is, all of these P.A.s
now make the bad rooms sound good.
That's true, but a line array in the wrong
hands…
Yeah, but luckily for me, like right now, Verta
who's been out here, he's just an unbelievably
great guy. I met Verta doing Shakira and Luis
Miguel going through South America. He's the
big P.A., big system handler for Buenos Aires, for
Argentina and Chile and they don't have a lot of
stuff to work with down there, and every time I
came down there, this guy did such an amazing
job, it was like I had any P.A. up there that I could
have conceived. He's just a very humble, knowledgeable, smart guy that is musical and loves
that position — doesn't want to be a mixer! It's
important to recognize everybody as a team
unit. We all work together.
I'm not even going to try to hang with the
big dogs because I don't have that kind of experience. I'm a live mixer, that's all. So maybe I
can find a niche for me there, and I'd be happy
to be able to do that. We've all heard this many
The Rest of the Team
When we set up the interview, Cubby made
sure to tell me that he wanted me to spend
some time with the system engineer Edgardo
Vertanessian and monitor mixer Anselmo Rota.
On this tour it really is a team effort and everyone gets the credit they deserve.
FOH: What was the reasoning behind going
with d&b and what do you like about it?
Edgardo Vertanessian: For me, it’s the
best-sounding system right now. Eighth Day
Sound, which is the company providing the
gear, has a huge d&b rig with D12 amplifiers.
The good thing about d&b is that is not only
the speakers, but a complete system including
networked digital amps and software.
Had you used d&b before? Were you comfortable going into it?
No, this is my first tour with it.
Anything that is still a struggle?
Language difference sometimes. We have
this runway that comes out 32 feet and there's
a little B stage on the end of it, so I have usually an A and a B mic, and I have all my scenes
stored for when he's in what position. The
other night I cut him off mid-sentence and
I wasn't even thinking about it. I went to my
next snapshot. I messed up. Generally, I'll wait
for him to stop talking, but he talks in Spanish
pretty much 80% of the time. He'll talk to the
audience a little bit in English, depending on
the demographics that are up around him. So I
went back and I talked to him after the show to
apologize. We talk every night after the show
about tuning and playing and arrangements,
but I mentioned to him, "I apologize," and he's
such a very understanding guy. He goes, "It's
not your fault. We changed the show around,
and you've got your snapshots…" This is the
type of guy that he is. He gets it.
Was there a learning curve?
Ah, no. I’ve been trained at the Eighth Day
Sound facility, so when I first came in here, I
knew everything about it, and on a daily basis
it’s very friendly and consistent, there are no
surprises. On the rigging side, it’s very easy and
fast to fly, too. We use a delta plate at the back
so you can aim it not just vertically, but horizontally as well. So it hangs from three motors and
it’s a very smart system.
We had some fairly intense racial comments
posted on the FOH forum about non-Latin
engineers on Latin tours. Ever have an issue
being the gringo mixing the Latin artist?
Never. As a matter of fact, it's been quite
the opposite. It's a very embracing community. In fact, it has been the complete 100%
opposite of that. I did two Latin records for
artists from South America based upon the
work that I've done down there, and I've
only done live gigs down there, and now
I'm being asked to do record mixes. And for
me? I'm not a recording engineer, I'm not
trying to be a studio guy. I'm just fortunate
that I get a call now and then when I've got
the time to do it. And I'd like to see myself
go down that path a little bit more in the
future.
What are you using to drive the rig?
Dolby processors.
How long does it take you guys to put the
system in the air every day?
We start dumping the truck at 9 a.m., and
by 1 p.m., we have the P.A. running, the monitor
world running, and we’re waiting for the risers
and the backline to start getting on the stage.
So we’re about three, four hours. Every day by 2,
3 p.m., we’re ready to line-check. Not bad. And
we’re an hour and 20 ‘til load-out from show
end…
How do you like those?
You can have all the options you´d need,
the tablet interface is very helpful and you
can choose from any type of filter you want.
Regarding time aligning and tuning, it is very
helpful to have them in the rack. Cubby knows
exactly what he wants. He has a quite amazing attention to detail, that is great because he
helps a lot during PA tuning. I learn from him
every day, he has a huge experience dealing
with large PAs. For time aligning, as we have
subs in the air and ground stacked, we set delay times between them so we have a pretty
even coverage in that range. Our PA consists
www.fohonline.com
200.0806.22-23.indd 23
times: Music is universal. I don't know what he's
singing all the time, but I can certainly tell by the
emotions and the inflections of his voice what
this must be about. And I feel the same way
whether it's in Spanish or it's in English.
of 16 J8 + 2 J12 + 6 B2 subs + 6 J subs + 12
Q1 + 3 Q7 per side. With all that we get a very
good coverage pattern and we can choose
what to fly depending on the venue we are in
that day. Cubby is one of those engineers who
really care and love what they do. The result of
all of the above is a crystal-clear and punchy
mix every night.
Did you have a hard time getting used to
them at first?
Yes, at the very beginning, until you set
up your mind to the way it works, to the way
the platform is. Once you get used to it, it’s
very natural, but the first time you need a
little bit of time. Everything is round and nice.
After a couple times of using them, you’re
very comfortable with them and you don’t
want to go back.
Anything interesting from a miking level
onstage?
We have 56 inputs and all the drums/
microphones are Sennheiser and Neumann,
because the drummer is sponsored by Sennheiser and Juanes is sponsored by Shure. All
the drum microphones are Sennheiser and all
the rest of them are Shure. We have 8 RF mics
and 14 IEM channels.
Monitors: wedges, PMs, both?
Anselmo Rota: All PMs, and only wedges
for Juanes. He uses two wedges onstage in
one mix and another couple at the end of the
thrust in another mix. He has PMs, too but it
depends on the day. Sometimes Juanes asks
for more level on the wedges. He changes
from day to day.
What kind of ear molds are you using?
AR: All molds are Shure E-5. He felt a little
bit isolated with custom molds. He tried different brands, but finally, he wanted E-5.
Subs for the drummer?
AR: No, a thumper. He also has a small mixing board to where I send SIX sub mixes and he
makes his final mix. The keyboard player and the
percussionist have mixers at their positions too.
Keeps the stage nice and clean. What kind of
monitor console, the D5?
AR: Yes.
Is that your console of choice?
AR: Yeah, I chose it. I don’t want to use
anything else but D5. I am very used to it
and it has a lot of useful features that make
mixing monitors very easy.
EV: We’re waiting for the SD7…
2008 JUNE
23
5/30/08 9:31:21 AM
Gallo Center for the Arts
Installations
Modesto has a symphony? Who knew?
Exterior shot of the Gallo Center for the Performing Arts
By BreanneGeorge
T
he Gallo Center for the Arts is a shiny
gem in the Central Valley of California, satisfying a need for performing
arts in the Modesto community. The center,
which opened in September 2007, is home
to four resident companies including the
Central West Ballet, Modesto Community
Concerts Association, Modesto Symphony Orchestra and Townsend Opera Players. With two performance spaces — the
1,250-seat Mary Stuart Rogers theater and
the intimate 444-seat Foster Family theater
— the center is also designed to accommodate a variety of performances, from
touring Broadway productions to rock ‘n’
roll concerts. “We’ve seen everything from
symphonic and acoustic performances all
the way up to Broadway shows and pretty
much everything in between. We’ve seen
ballet, contemporary dance, even break
dancing,” says Brian Svoboda, sound engineer at the Gallo Center for the Arts. “It really is an answer to a call for performing arts
in Modesto.”
With the array of acts to perform at the
center, the sound system needed to be
flexible and user-friendly. “(Staff ) wanted
to make this theater adaptable to accommodate our resident companies, but also
accommodate these big Broadway tours,”
Svoboda says. “We needed a system in
place that could cover all the audio requirements.”
A Smooth — and Clean — Install
PCD of Santa Rosa, Calif., was contracted to install the audio system at the Gallo
Center via a competitive bidding process.
President of PCD Henry Beaumont says he
was aware of the Gallo Center prior to its
construction, and introduced himself to the
county project manager in charge of the
project. “The county had built the center
with a general contractor and had decided
to outfit the theater through direct contracts with the various vendors,” Beaumont
reports. “That way all the curtains, lighting
and sound would be installed after the center was completed.”
When PCD started the four-month installation process, the center was already
built and final aesthetic touches were being made to the two theaters. This greatly
simplified the install for the sound crew.
“Usually, you’re trying to get the sound system in at the same time that general construction is still going on,” Beaumont says.
“In this case, I think the county wisely chose
to complete the building and then bring in
the specialty trades, which created a lot less
confusion.”
From the sound crew’s perspective,
they didn’t have to worry about installing
expensive gear amid sheet rock dust in a
24
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
Dan Van Gorkom
Installations
Yamaha PM5D at front of house in the Mary Rogers Theater
physically dirty environment or face time
constraints and conflicting schedules with
the general contractors. One drawback with
not being present during the center’s construction, however, was the lack of input in
the design process.
“I think the biggest challenge was working through the installation with an existing conduit system over which we had no
input. In a normal construction process,
there are coordination meetings that allow
us as the audio-visual contractor to have
input and oversight over the conduit arrangement, and that was not the case on
this job,” Beaumont says.
PCD installed a JBL VerTec system into
the Mary Rogers theater, including 16 JBL
VT 4888s and four VT4882s in a left/right
line array configuration on each side of the
proscenium and center cluster. In addition,
the system includes three Renkus-Heinz
TRAP40M/6K MH, three TRAP40K/7K FR and
five Tannoy iW6TDC stage lip fill monitors.
The system is driven by Crown amplifica-
tion. Two Yamaha PM5D digital, which can
be used for a wide variety of acts, reside at
front of house and monitorland.
The Foster Family theater’s narrow dimensions offer an intimate venue for unamplified performances. The sound system is similar to the Rogers with 12 JBL
VRX932LA line arrays, four JBL VRX918S
subs, three Reinkus-Heinz TRAP40M/6K
MH, three Tannoy Iw6TDC stage lip monitors and a Yamaha M7CL digital console at
front of house.
An Acoustical Gem
Nestor & Gaffney Architecture LLP of
Santa Ana, Calif., designed both theaters
with acoustical purposes in mind. The Mary
Stuart Rogers theater is a traditional shoebox shape to accommodate its primary use
as a classical music venue. It has a maximum
width of 97 feet that tapers to approximately 72 feet between the sidewalls in front of
the proscenium to direct sound reflections
toward the center orchestra seating. “I think
the Rogers is clearly the acoustical gem,”
compressors and equalizers built right into
the board, it minimizes the need for outboard gear, making it easy to tweak sound
on the fly.
A particular challenge for Svoboda is
mixing sound for performances by smaller
groups and soloists who will sing along
with the Modesto symphony. “The most
challenging thing for me is to get a really
good hybrid sound when some component
of the performance is acoustic and the other
component is amplified.” He says he uses
almost every tool available on the mixing
console to achieve this desired balance.
Bringing Broadway to Modesto
Svoboda mixes for the resident company performances and smaller shows,
while Broadway touring productions
bring their own sound engineers. Three
Broadway shows have graced the Gallo
in the past year, including Gypsy, Evita
and Cats. Svoboda notes that sound engineers for each production used a PM5D
at front of house. “Not only is it a popular
roadhouse console, but also a popular
touring console,” Svoboda says. “If I have
a PM5D, and I go somewhere else that
has a PM5D, then I can transfer information very easily via a flash-based memory
card.”
For the opening week, the Gallo
hosted a multitude of performances for
both the younger and more traditional
crowd. The first show featured Broadway
legend Patti LuPone singing along with
Crown i-tech amp racks in the Mary Rogers Theater
the Modesto Symphony. “It was a major
event and a lot of fun,” recalls Svoboda.
“We did a live broadcast outside on the
plaza and it turned out to be a sold-out
show.” Shortly thereafter, Tony Bennett
performed in the Mary Rogers theater and
was so impressed by the acoustics that
he made an interesting request. “Tony
asked his FOH mixer Tom Young to cut
all the microphones right then and there
— three quarters of the way through the
show! He cut the mics and Tony sang a
piece by himself accompanied by a piano
and light rhythm section,” Svoboda says.
“ You could hear every word he sang.
It’s definitely a testament to how good
this theater can sound even without
reinforcement.”
“ We ’ ve se e n eve r yt hin g f r om s ym phon ic an d a c o us ti c
performances all the way up to Broadway shows and pretty
much everything in between. We’ve seen ballet, contemporary
dance, even break dancing.” — Brian Svoboda
Beaumont says. “That’s where the Modesto
Symphony plays — that’s their flagship
room. The theater also fashions beautiful
wood veneer walls that increase reverberence as part of the acoustical design.
The theater also has a certain amount
of adjustable acoustics with retractable
drapes and other elements that can be
brought in or taken out depending on the
type of performance. “One of the great
things is you can put an un-amplified orchestra in here and it will sound great,
but you can also do a rock ‘n’ roll show or
musical and it will still sound great,” comments Svoboda. He admits that it can be a
challenge bringing an amplified sound to
theaters designed for symphonic or acoustical music. Because the Yamaha PM5D has
Dan Van Gorkom
Dan Van Gorkom
Dan Van Gorkom
JBL VerTec line arrays in the Mary Rogers Theater
Yamaha PM5D at FOH in the Mary Rogers Theater
Installations
New install for prestigious music school
had to be “beyond reliable.”
Yamaha PM1D at FOH position at Berklee College of Music’s Performance
By KevinM.Mitchell
I
t’s hard to imagine a room that sees (and
hears) as much music variety as Berklee
College of Music’s Performance Center.
The space, the largest of five performance
centers on campus, is host to at least 200
events a year, which cover everything from
classical to electronica, jazz to hard rock,
bluegrass to hip-hop, and even delves into
the world of avant guard.
The Boston Globe calls the space “one
of the premier venues for jazz and pop in
the country,” so whatever is done to the
1,215-seat room has to be done well. After
all, former students include such luminaries as Quincy Jones, Keith Jarrett, Steve Vai,
Aimee Mann and Melissa Etheridge.
Another unusual aspect is that there
are a lot of hands on deck — it’s all student
run. This means that when it came time to
upgrade the audio gear, in addition to being
able to sound as worthy as the performing
talent, it needed to be beyond reliable.
That’s a lot of pressure on the picking and
installing of a new sound system — and the
mission appears to have been accomplished.
“I think the sound system is incredible —
it’s definitely what I’m most proud of,” beams
Brad Berger, associate director of production, of the 16 M’elodie line array loudspeakers flown at the proscenium and four MJF212A stage monitors on the floor.
FOH
AALot
Lotof
ofDifferent
DifferentSpeakers
Speakers
Berger began his career doing “everything — designing the lights, being FOH,
monitor engineer, even driving the truck”
for a variety of bands in the early 1970s. A
decade after he started that, he found himself at Berklee, and now for 26 years has
seen and spearheaded many changes and
updates. But he’s especially pleased about
this one.
28
JUNE 2008
It’s a historic space dating back to 1915
when it was called the Fenway Theater, a
vaudeville venue that quickly became a
movie theater. Berklee bought it in 1972,
and it was renovated to enlarge the stage.
Today, half the events are performances by
students; the other half are popular acts
brought in by local promoters (most recently, Chuck Berry and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed at a special fundraiser).
“We had a Meyer sound system, the
Legacy, which we installed in 1988,” Berger
tells. “So, we had already been all Meyer for
20 years, and that it still sounded good, and
the fact that we moved that old equipment
over to another performance space to be
used some more, says a lot.”
Not that Berger went into this with a
closed mind.
“We brought in all kinds of stuff here to test.
Sometimes we rented, sometimes we asked
companies to come in and demo for us. We
looked at a lot of different speakers, he says.
One thing he knew for sure was whatever got the nod would have to be line arrays.
Because it is a narrow theatre (45’ wide, 120’
deep), finding the right fit for the best coverage was key, and for Berger, that meant a
good line array. “I made up my mind when
I first heard the M’elodies demoed in Nashville almost a year and a half ago,” he says.
“I got to hear them with a lot of different
styles of music — funk, rap, jazz, country
— and that’s what we do here. So hearing
the speakers with different live bands really
won me over.” Helping also was the long relationship they’ve had with the company.
“The install went very well,” confirms
Meyer’s Sandy Macdonald. “We originally
did a full-on demonstration there with
M’lodies and Brad was excited — he actually kind of drove this entire project through.
In the end, the higher ups were ecstatic.”
The physical install went quickly, which
Macdonald attributes to the MAPP-Online
acoustical prediction program they use.
Berklee Expands Recording Possibilities, too
Reggie Lofton is the institution’s
For years, whenever Berklee wanted to
film and record a concert event — which associate director of video services,
was often — the equipment would take and he says that while all the students
up the back two rows of the precious few who work at the facility initially have
seats. A few years ago, they punched a other goals, like becoming performwhole in the wall and set up a control room ing artists themselves, many of his exstudents have gone on to work for in variin the room next door.
With this recent renovation, it’s been ous capabilities for companies like Variexpanded into a full audio/video suite. Light, Bandit, High End, and local compaLike everything else associated with the nies. He says soon the audio/video suite
performance spaces, it’s all student run, will be capable of recording 48 multitracks
and apparently run very well — they turn locked up with Sony digital cameras for
out DVDs of every event in a day. The DVDs higher quality DVDs. “On a daily basis, we
are sold or given out, and more impor- will be able to provide a higher quality
tantly, placed in the library so students can mix, and soon we’ll be mixing 5.1 Surround
Sound for that room,” he says.
review past performances.
www.fohonline.com
“We used it to predetermine placement
of speakers and the actual angles,” he explains. “After that, you go into the room,
and you’re already 95% and just have to
tweak the other 5%, usually with little or no
additional EQing.”
Size isn’t everything, either. “These are
diminutive little boxes — not the biggest
in the world, but the sound produced from
them is phenomenal. And we only used
two subwoofers, which are under the stage,
so that’s pretty impressive.” Also impressive
is the amount of power and volume: “When
demoing, we probably just got it up to just
35% to 45% — so there is enough power
there to pin you up against the wall!” he
laughs. “Suffice to say there is a lot of head
room.”
(Fun fact: Macdonald himself is a Berklee alumni. The professional pianist hopes
to play in the room himself someday…)
Teaching
TeachingTools
Tools
FOH
A prevailing consideration for every
choice made is that, in essence, the performing arts center is also a teaching facility for students. Learning on a board that
is widely used and accepted as opposed to
learning on some piece of equipment that
students will never see in the real world is
critical to their educational development.
The board of choice is the Yamaha
PM1D, which Berger is also happy with. He
swapped out his Yamaha PM4000 for the
digital unit two years ago. “Yamaha has
been on the forefront of digital consoles,
and they were hands down the most reliable. Even if I were purchasing one today,
I’d probably still go with it. We have more
than 100 touring shows come through
here a year, and everyone has been comfortable with it.”
All phots by theodorA K. MArA
B erklee Re novate s H is t o r ic
Performance Center
View of Berklee College of Music’s Performance Center
The sound system includes 16 Meyer M’elodie line-array loudspeakers at the proscenium and four MSF-212A stage monitors
Brad Berger
Budget restraints keep too much
happening all at once. For instance,
they are mostly sitting tight with their
20-year-old monitoring system, which
is also Meyer gear. “But over the years
we’ve upgraded, added different pieces. For instance, we did add four new
MJF-212 High-Power Stage Monitors
— you know, the ones Metalica use,
although, we don’t usually do that
kind of music!” he quips.
“The monitor board is the last
piece that needs to be changed out,
and I’d like to put something compatible to the PM1D — maybe the 5D or
some smaller Yamaha unit.”
Mics are always an ongoing process too. It’s such an acoustically
well-designed space, they don’t always need them (“you can whisper on stage and here it from every
seat”). Mics are sometimes used on
instrumental music, if only to add a
little reverb. And they are used to record, of course. But they add about
half a dozen new mics every year
and now have around 250 in their
arsenal. Most recently, they picked
up some Shure KSM9s and AKG 45a
reissues. Also added this round was a
ClearCom intercom system with multiple stations for sound and lights.
“Just working with the budget
was the biggest challenge,” Berger
reflects. “Also, the theater structure is
limiting. We’d like to have a little more
room, but…”
Compromises and wish lists aside,
it’s been a very satisfying experience
for him. “The line system is everything
we hoped it would be,” Berger says.
“The coverage is phenomenal.”
www.fohonline.com
2008 JUNE
29
Installations
Bartlesville Community Center completes extensive
audio system revitalization.
By R.Maxwell
Marie Foster Performing Arts Hall
Exterior shot of Bartlesville Community Center
W
hile Bartlesville, Okla., may not
find itself included in the same
sentence as New York or Los Angeles when one discusses performing arts
venues, the city’s main cultural facility is
at the cutting edge in every sense of the
word. This vibrant community of roughly
35,000, some 47 miles due north of Tulsa,
is home to the Bartlesville Community
Center, a positively stunning complex
designed to provide cultural and educational opportunities for the city.
A Unique Performance Space
FOH
Designed by William Wesley Peters, a
student of Frank Lloyd Wright and vice
president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the Bartlesville Community Center’s dramatic architecture emphasizes
the use of sweeping curves, circles, ovals
and acute and obtuse angles. Mrs. Wright
selected most of the interior décor. In addition to concerts, the Center presents
ballet, a wide variety of stage productions, an art gallery, and meeting facilities for a broad spectrum of civic groups.
The beautiful multifunctional facility is
equipped to handle events as large as
state conventions, and as small as group
meetings of 15.
The Bartlesville Community Center
recently completed an extensive upgrade designed to enhance the sound
reinforcement capabilities in the building’s primary performing arts space —
the Marie Foster Performing Arts Hall.
After an extensive evaluation period that
included onsite demonstrations from all
the major equipment manufacturers,
the contract was ultimately awarded to
SFH Productions, LLC, of Tulsa, Okla. The
system that won the bidding process
required the ability to easily adapt to a
broad spectrum of presentations. Key
components in the new sound reinforcement system include all self-powered
loudspeakers from D.A.S. Audio, a Yamaha digital console and LightViper Fiber
Optic audio transport capability.
The Marie Foster Performing Arts Hall
is a highly sophisticated performing arts
venue. At approximately 125 feet long
by 125 feet wide, the space has a concave ceiling that is 60 feet at its highest
point with a 25-foot slope to the floor.
There are 1,692 seats, with an additional
30
JUNE 2008
space able to accommodate 10 wheel
chairs. There is no center aisle — seating is arranged in the Continental style,
with each row 42 inches wide. Each row
is actually considered to be an aisle. The
sound reverberation rate in the space is
controlled with the drapes on the side
and rear walls in optimized ranges of 1.9
seconds for symphony concerts to 1.1
seconds for theater performances.
With capacity for 64 microphones and
input capability for a variety of playback
sources, the room has a number of unique
attributes. Chief among them is a stage
lift at the front of the stage area. This lift
is 62 feet wide and 11 feet deep and can
be raised and lowered to address a variety
of room configurations. At the uppermost
of five available levels, the lift can be used
as an extension of the stage. At the Auditorium level (the next lower level), it
can provide seating for an additional 86
people. At the orchestra pit level, the lift
can accommodate 45 musicians. The remaining two levels facilitate stage access
and storage.
According to Gary Howard, principal
of SFH Productions, a full-service A/V
firm that offers equipment rental, audio
recording and related services in addition to systems design and installation,
“The space required a system that would
complement the room’s already very nice
acoustics. Further, it had to be capable of
providing a natural sound that patrons
who are accustomed to non-amplified
acoustic performances could enjoy. The
system’s ability to provide even dispersion throughout the entire seating area
without sounding harsh or overpowering was also a key design mandate and,
of equal importance, the client requested
that it have the ability to blend aesthetically with the room as much as possible
and present a clean, unobtrusive appearance to the audience.”
The Nuts and Bolts
FOH
The D.A.S. loudspeaker system installed by Howard and his crew consists
of three main components: two symmetric left and right flown line arrays, floormounted double 18-inch subwoofers
and four D.A.S. Audio Variant 25A ultracompact line array modules that can be
positioned for front fill — typically along
Anthony Hinton, technical director for the BCC, at the FOH mix position
the front edge of the orchestra pit. Each
line array consists of two Aero CA-215A
monoamplified arrayable subwoofers positioned atop ten Aero 28A two-way, compact line array elements. Each line array
is flown using StageMaker SM5 Electric
Chain Hoists. The arrays are raised and
lowered for each performance as necessary — to avoid visually conflicting with
the regularly scheduled acoustic performances of the local symphony orchestra.
Complementing the flown loudspeaker arrays are dual, ground-stacked
Aero 182A 2K subwoofers — positioned
just to the outside of each loudspeaker
column. When monitors are required, a
combination of seven D.A.S. SML-12A and
two SML-15A powered stage monitors
are provisioned according to the requirements of the specific performance.
The front of house mix position is located near the very back of the space —
just left of center. Here, a Yamaha LS9-32
digital mixing console with 32-mic/line
inputs and a total of 64 channels resides.
Audio transport between the stage area
and FOH is managed by a LightViper Fiber
Optic digital snake with 32 x 8 stage inputs and a 2-way monitor split (one digital over AES/EBU, one analog over standard DB-25 to XLR connections). The FOH
board has 32 digital channels fed by the
LightViper snake and 32 analog channels
fed by their existing analog patchbay, all
of which can be used simultaneously for
a total of 64 channels. An additional LS-9
console is available for monitors, providing up to 16 monitor mixes. This console
is fed by the analog monitor split from the
www.fohonline.com
LightViper snake. The decision to feed the
monitor console via analog rather than
digitally was made to provide independent gain control for the monitors and to
enable external touring acts to use an existing analog monitor console if desired.
Howard commented on the system’s
audio transport facilities. “One of the
requirements was that their existing
64 channels of analog line cabling to
FOH still be accessible, but with signal
transport on the new digital snake. For
this, we took their existing patch panel,
which was hard wired from the stage to
the FOH position, and broke that connection. Using short XLR patch jumpers,
we created a patch panel at the stage
area where they could patch from any
analog channel into any channel on the
digital snake input box. This gives the
house audio tech the ability to use up
to 32 of their existing analog lines —
carried over the higher quality digital
snake.”
The LightViper snake feeds the Yamaha mixer via the LightViper VIM-MY32 MY
expansion cards. Two runs of multimode
duplex fiber are provided for stage left
and right to accommodate moving the
snake into position for touring acts who
wish to use various components of the
system (such as their own monitor board,
but with the house PA system and/or mixer). Due to the extremely long cable runs
— the longest of which is over 450 feet
— fiber was the logical choice. All FOH
connections are made to the snake with
Neutrik OpticalCon fiber connectors.
An Ashly Protea 3.24CL 3-input, 6-out-
Installations
Marie Foster Performing Arts Hall
The Light Viper patch panel adjacent to the main stage area
Anthony Hinton kneels next to the D.A.S. Audio Aero 192A 2K subwoofers
put loudspeaker processor controls the
main left and right arrays and subwoofers. Inputs to the Protea are fed with
three of the eight returns from the digital
snake — ensuring an all-digital FOH signal path until just before the inputs to the
processor. Additional returns are used for
front fills and sidefills as required, using
the LS-9’s matrixing capabilities. The Yamaha LS9-32’s onboard EQ also augments
the system.
In addition to an existing microphone complement of various Shure and
AKG models, Howard specified six Audix
OM3 handheld dynamic microphones
for vocals, four Audix i5 dynamic instrument mics for general purpose use, and
three ADX51 condenser instrument mics
for group vocals and string sections. For
drum miking applications, an Audix DP7
dynamic mic kit is available.
Ready for the Down Beat
FOH
The Marie Foster Performing Arts Hall’s
audio upgrade was completed in January
2008 and was immediately placed into
service. “The system made its ‘baptism by
fire’ debut on Jan. 16 with a performance
by the Temptations,” notes Howard. “Since
that time, it has also been used for a concert by the 1st Infantry Division Band.
What really makes this system so compelling is the combination of the D.A.S.
loudspeakers and the digital capabilities
of the combined Yamaha mixer and LightViper digital snake. Throughout the entire
hall, there is no more than a ± 3 dB SPL
variance. The D.A.S. loudspeaker system
delivers clean and even sound coverage
without overpowering the audience. It’s
a high quality sound that never gets aggressive.”
Anthony Hinton, technical director
for the Bartlesville Community Center, is
equally enthusiastic. “When I was looking for an audio system for the community center,” said Hinton, “I knew I needed
something that would enhance the auditorium and not take away from the natural
feel of the room. The D.A.S. Aero line array
system did just that. Integrated with the
LightViper digital snake and the Yamaha
console, audio throughout the entire system is extremely clean and natural sounding. The combined system is not too loud
as to distract one from enjoying the show,
and yet it fills the room with whatever is
taking place on stage without going overboard. The reproduction is very smooth
and accurate. I am very impressed with
the D.A.S./LightViper/Yamaha combination and would recommend this system
to anyone.”
32
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
FOH Digital Consoles Under $50K Buyers Guide
Digital Consoles for the Rest of Us
W
e have been trying to do this Buyers Guide for three years. With the
growing adoption and acceptance
of digital consoles in the live event audio
workplace, a real “have-vs.-have-not” environment had developed for quite a while.
Digital consoles are a great tool and increasingly demanded on show riders, but their
cost puts them simply out of reach of many
— if not most — smaller companies. These local and regional soundcos were stuck either
not getting gigs they once did or renting the
demanded digital desk.
But with the introduction of the Yamaha
PM5D, the landscape started to change a bit
and prices were dropping at least to the point
where they rivaled a good analog board. Our
editorial calendar in 2006 had a Buyers Guide
listed with the same headline you see on this
one. The problem was that while some prices
had dropped, most had not, and there were
not enough offerings under our sub-$50K
price point to really do it.
We got closer last year, but received a
tremendous amount of pressure to raise the
price point, which we did. Even in hindsight,
it is hard to say if that was or was not a mistake. We pride ourselves at FOH on editorial
independence and not allowing advertisers
to dictate content, and this was a rare occasion where we adjusted the parameters of a
planned piece due to manufacturer angst.
Company
Model
MSRP
Size and Weight
Allen & Heath
allen-heath.com/us
iLive-80
$31,727
29.6” x 13.9” x 27.7”
for 64-in/32-out
$39,995
17.5” x 17” x 15.1”
74lbs.; Profile Control Surface: 45.22”
x 6.65” x 31.1”, 90
lbs.
Digidesign
www.digidesign.com
Mackie
www.mackie.com
Roland Systems Group
www.rssamerica.com
Yamaha Commercial
Audio Systems, Inc.
www.yamahaca.com
D-Show Profile
Mix Rack
System
Gate and Compressor with
side-chain option
32
4-band parameteric
48 recallable analog
XLR mic inputs
Any combination of
groups or auxiliaries
equaling 24 Plus 8
Mono and 8 Stereo
Matrixes
4-band fully parametric per channel, available in either analog
or digital emulation,
plus 4 TDM Plug-in
slots per channel
1 Compressor, 1 Noise Gate, plus 4
TDM plug-in slots per channel
4-band fully
parametric
Dedicated Gate and Compressor
for analog and digital input banks.
Compressor only on all Aux master, Sub-group and main outputs.
Dynamics and EQ on digital bank
requires optional UFX2 card.
$9,995
V-MIXSYS-EXP
$14,795
V-MIXSYS-STD
$11,495
PM5D
$49,800
61.1” x 37.4” x 11.1”
216 lbs.
56 onboard, 56 addition remote or with
DSP5D expander
$19,999,
$24,999
M7CL-32: 41.7” x
27.6” x 11.3,” 93 lbs.;
M7CL-48: 50.2” x
27.6” x 11.3,” 110
lbs.
40, 56 onboard
JUNE 2008
Dynamic Processing per Channel
Up to 64
V-MIXSYS-BAS
$5,999,
$10,999
good-sized tours (we worked a show on one
of them to Road Test the console); and we
sent a Mackie system out on a show with a
still-touring classic rock band. The sow was
for 1,000-plus people and the reviewer was
loath to part with the review unit when it was
done. There is enough to work with in this
price range today.
Some companies are staying in the upper
part of the market only and that is a totally
legitimate approach. But with times as tight
as they are, we are glad we can finally present
a list of digital consoles that can do the gig
for less than it costs to buy a house. Here is a
peek at what is out here for those of us on a
bit more of a budget...
Number of Mic Inputs Maximum Number of EQ Characteristics per
with Dedicated Fader
Output Mixes
Channel
$13,000
LS9-16, LS9-32
34
The truth is that a year ago there were still not
many offerings in the price range we were
looking for.
But that really changed this year. And
while the sub $50K digital consoles — those
made "for the rest of us" — may not be as
sexy or have the huge feature sets of their
larger siblings, they get the job done and
offer many of the same advantages of more
expensive units. I have been on half a dozen
good-sized gigs in the past month where
the monitor board was a Yamaha M7CL. I
have seen the Digidesign D-Show Profile on
a number of tours and bigger shows; RSS is
making headway in the HOW and install markets; the Allen & Heath iLive is out on some
ttSystem32
M7CL-32,
M7CL-48
42.6” x 25” x 10.5”
By BillEvans
56
22
8
N
UE
Bom
Mo
4
Del
26
29.5” 24-11/16” x
9-1/16”
58
18 buses + stereo REC
18
Gate, Compression, Filter, EQ
4 du
ver
ers
42
LS9-16: 18.9” x
19.7” x 8.7,” 26.5
lbs.; LA9-32: 34.8” x
19.7” x 8.7,” 43 lbs.
16 onboard, 16
optional remote;
LS9-32: 32 onboard,
32 optional remote
24 Mix, 8 Matrix,
Stereo A, Stereo B
Outputs
4-band fully
paramentric EQ (Type I
& II) plus dedicated HPF
Two independent dynamics
processors: Compressor, Gate, Expander, Ducking and Compander
16 Mix, 8 Matrix, Stereo + Mono Outputs
4-band fully
paramentric EQ (Type I
& II) plus dedicated HPF
Two independent dynamics
processors: Compressor, Gate,
De-Essor, Expander, Ducking and
Compander
www.fohonline.com
8
4S
nnel
Mackie TT System 32
D-Show Profile Mix Rack System
Yamaha PMSD
Allen & Heath iLive
Built-in Effects, Types and Quantity
Digital Control Characteristics, I/O Types
Special Features
8 digital effects, reverbs, delays, flanges, chorus, etc.
80-channel capability. Audio transport via ethernet.
I/O types: mic/line, AES3, ADAT, Aviom, s/pdif, Phoenix
Available in 4 sizes 80, 112, 144, 176. Fully configurable I/Os. Digital
snake. Digital console with analog feel.
lus 4
nel
Noise Gate and Compressor per channel plus VENUEPack Plug Ins; Impact, Revibe, Reverb One, Smack,
Bomb Factory BF-3A, Pultec, Slightly Rude, Classic and
Moogerfooger bundles, Focusrite d2 and d3 and Troo
Trace audio analysis plug-in
Recallable mic/line preamps, 16 analog, digital, analog
& digital and A-Net output options, dedicated analog
insert points, 2-track analog and digital I/O, Dedicated
local monitor outputs, MIDI I/O, COM and Talkback
inputs, Pro Tools
Up to 3 DSP Mix Engine Cards, D-Show 2.7 Software, VENUEPack 3.0 plugin bundle, built-in ECx Ethernet port for remote control, and a full complement of primary and ancillary audio I/O implementable at no expense to
base I/O counts. HD or Pro Tools LE interface and Ehternet remote control.
ssor
anks.
masputs.
ank
d.
4 Busses, Reverb, Gate+Reverb, Mono Delay, Stere
Delay, Chorus, Flanger... Fully editable with presets and
dedicated EQ
LCD touch screen, luminated rotary “V-Pots” with push
function, luminated buttons. Standard connectors for
analog I/O. (XLR, 1/4”, etc.) ADAT I/O (3 ports). Stereo
S/PDIF and AES/EBU, Propietary “U-Net” multichannel
(via Cat5E & RJ45 connector) for digital snake.
The TT System32 combines the TT24 Digital Live Console, DS3232 Digital
Snake. With flexible I/O, full DSP capability and total recall, TT System 32
brings remote stage connectivity and control at a “console-only” price point.
4 dual-mono Effects processors + 4 GEQs, 50 Effects: Reverbs, Delays, Choruses, Flangers, Phasers, Pitch Shifters, Gates, Para-EQ, GEQ, Expander, Ducking, De-Esser
I/O Types: Analog Mic or Line, AES/EBU, SPDIF Out, USB
Play/REC, Talkback. Control: MIDI, RS232, USB Remote
Software, REAC Ethernet for Pre-Amps: Gain/Pad/
Phase/Phantom
8 SPX Effect Processors + 12 31-band Graphic EQs +
Input/Output Channel Delay
3 AES-3 In/Out, optional MY-Card Interfaces: AES-3,
CobraNet, Ethersound, ADAT, TDIF, MADI, A-Net 16,
Optocore
h
Q
s
, Exnder
s
te,
and
A complete system with scalable digital snakes; built-in Ethernet Split to
Sonar for multitrack recording; on-board USB WAV Play/REC; assignable
user privileges and Scenes; limitless Split locations.
V2 features Virtual Soundcheck - switch between live inputs and from
multi-track recorder. Effect Library Programs: De-Essor, add-on VCM
effects built-in, analog modeled compressors, EQs. Channel Move can
move channels for layout reorganization.
Touch panel display, 4 stereo inputs, 3 mini-YGDAI expansion card slots,
16 mix buses, 8 matrix buses, an L-C-R bus, 8 DCAs, 16 omni outputs.
Built-in power supply is backed by an optional single or double failsafe
external PW800W PSU.
4 SPX Effect Processors + 4 31-band Graphic EQ + Output Port Delay
1 AES-3 Output, optional MY-Card Interfaces: AES-3,
CobraNet, Ethersound, ADAT, TDIF, MADI, A-Net 16,
Opticore
www.fohonline.com
The LS9 consoles can be used as auxiliary mixer/channel expanders for
the M7CL and PM5D consoles. It features built-in MP3 recorder and the
same sound quality, built-in effects, EQ, and dynamics as the M7CL.
2008 JUNE
35
Road Test
Aphex 230 Master Voice Channel
By LarryHall
Aphex 230 Master Voice Channel
S
ometimes a piece of gear comes
along that looks kind of cool, but
you look at the modest price and
think “What’s the catch?” Most of the
time there are several catches. Not this
time…
The Gear
RT
The Aphex 230 Master Vocal Channel is a bunch of tools in one rack
space. It is tempting to just look at it as
a tube pre-amp, but that’s a mistake. It
also includes dynamics processing and
parametric EQ plus an insert point — in
short, everything you need for a real
vocal channel. In addition to an analog
out, you get three flavors of digital outs
as well.
The front panel is an old sound guy’s
dream. Look ma, no menus! Just some
buttons to engage or bypass the 230’s
various functions and real, honest-toGod knobs for making adjustments. The
layout makes the function pretty selfevident, and it is real easy to use. I don’t
think I ever cracked the manual.
Before we get on to the gig section
of this Road Test, a small disclosure. Before I was asked to do the review, I already owned a 230, which I had bought
for my home studio. If you look for the
230 online you will find it listed under
recording and broadcast, but not live
sound. I actually never thought about
taking it out live.
The Gig
RT
I was so blown away by its overall
performance and punch that I finally
brought it to a gig where I mixed front
of house for a pretty famous pop singer.
She was kind enough at sound check
(yes, she even showed up) to let me put
it in and out of her channel so I could
hear the difference between the 230
and the digital console I was using.
Remember all of the warm fuzzy love you
used to get with a good analog console?
Well, it is back, but with a lot more headroom and deep, rich tone and texture.
36
JUNE 2008
Remember all of the warm fuzzy
love you used to get with a good analog
console? Well, it is back, but with a lot
more headroom and deep, rich tone and
texture. Did I mention you get a sweet
EQ and all of the other cool Aphex toys
such as an Aural Exciter, Big Bottom,
Gate, Compression and High Pass? Basically all of the REAL channel strip stuff
in a high-dollar unit — except the 230 is
surprisingly affordable. Big bang for the
buck! By the end of sound check I really
needed one for all 40 of my inputs.
I was so impressed with the one unit
that I bought five more to use with an
old school R&B vocal group that I work
with weekly. It is at the point where I
literally don’t want to do a gig without
them, and they are now the preferred
vocal processor on my rider. At a recent
gig, another sound guy asked what was
so great about the 230s. The timing was
perfect because the show was coming
to an end and the five singers — all
on 230s — were leaving the stage as
the keyboard player walked them off.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the legendary
“insert name of famous old school R&B
group here.” Same mic model through
the same system, but the singers had
sounded fantastic and it sounded like
the announcer was talking into the mic
through a couple of blankets. No explanation needed.
So now I own six of them. And don’t
tell Marvin, but I am planning on buying
at least five more this year for our rental
stock. I recommend the Aphex 230 for
everything from your home project studio to a major studio. From big tours
to little bar bands. This will make your
home studio sound real and your “million dollar” PA sound like, well, 1 billion dollars! OK, maybe not that good,
but pretty close. What the audio world
needs is more 230s!
What It Is:
Vocal magic in a box. Tube
pre, compressor, gate, de-esser,
EQ, Aural Exciter and Big Bottom.
Who It’s For: Anyone who wants
their vocals to sound great.
Pros: Simple layout, awesome
sound, reasonable price.
Cons: You’ll want one for
every channel.
How Much: $799 MSRP
Web site:
www.aphex.com
Road Test
Klark Teknik Square One Splitter
By MarkAmundson
Klark Teknik Square One Splitter
The Gear
RT
Occupying two rack spaces, the Square
One Splitter has eight channels, including
a Midas XL8-derived mic preamp for each
channel. And “splitter” is not a truly adequate description of the unit, as it has dual
inputs (front and rear), preamped dual outputs and a third transformer-isolated set of
fixed gain outputs for recording purposes.
of the transformers for net -6 dB loss driving 600-ohm or higher output loading. The
inputs are directly connected to the rear
panel inputs so users can choose where to
clutter up the panels with connections.
The eight Midas preamps are worth
the cost of a Square One Splitter alone, as
they are the same circuits used on the flagship XL8 digital console. After the phantom supply switch, each channel has a
5,000-ohm input impedance that splits off
the signal to variable gain preamp and the
transformer buffer preamp. The variablegain preamp is not controlled with potentiometer, but an eight-position switch
choosing preamp gains from unity to +40
dB in 5 dB increments. By switching gain
increments instead of infinite variability,
I found the preamps sounded smooth and
were without any “flavors” in their usage, both
in frequency response and distortions.
Then there are the goodies on the preamp
section, like a 0 to 40 dB gain control, +48
volt phantom power switch, 30 Hz high-pass
filter switching, 4-LED bargraph metering
and a solo switch that routes to an onboard
headphone amp for local monitoring.
The Square One Splitter front panel is
split in half, with 16-XLR connectors on the
left side and the eight mic preamps plus the
headphone amp on the right. The left side
contains two rows of connectors, with eight
mic input jacks on the bottom row (XLRF), and eight transformer-isolated outputs
(XLR-M) on the top row. These outputs are
electronically buffered on the primary side
the preamp provides superior gain accuracy and even better common-mode noise
rejection over the other potentiometer
implementations.
After the variable gain preamps, the
30 Hz, two-pole (12 dB/octave) high-pass
active filters are selectively switched along
with the solo switching. Thankfully, no
mute switch is implemented or we would
have another system tech nightmare to
deal with. Just before the dual balanced
output line buffers, the 4-LED bar graph signal pickoff is done, with -15, 0, +12 and +21
dB levels over a pair of green, single yellow
and single red LEDs, respectively.
On the rear panel, the expected IEC power inlet jack feeds a 25-watt switcher power
supply for the Square One Splitter, having a
100 to 240 VAC input voltage range for universal acceptance. The remaining part of the
rear panel consists of three rows of eight XLR
jacks, with the top two rows being the A and
B groups of preamped outputs (XLR-M). The
bottom row is the paralleled group of inputs
(XLR-F) replicating the front panel inputs.
But there is more! Each output group
has recessed ground lift switch for opening
pin 1 connections to reduce or eliminate
hum sources. And the switches also illuminate a red LED as a warning indication. And
the Square One Splitter also doubles at a
press box splitter by using another recessed
switch near the bottom row of XLR connectors, which takes the channel 8 input and
shares its post variable gain preamp output
to the other seven channels of outputs, creating a 1 In x 16 Out Media splitter for press
conference-type applications.
The Gig
RT
The Klark Teknik Square One Splitter has
all kinds of possible uses beyond the applications described above. You could use the
Square One Splitter as an on-the-fly minimixer to a powered speaker-on-a-stick application, especially if equalization is not a high
priority. Obviously, the intent of the unit is
to reside onstage near patch-central for receiving sub-snake inputs and dividing up to
the front-of-house and monitor snakes, plus
an optional transformer isolated split for a
recording interface. Another application is
to use multiple Square One Splitter units as
golden mic preamps in front of a digital mixing console that may have a lesser-quality
mic preamp needing substitution.
I put the Square One Splitter out on
a couple of gigs, doing the classic FOH/
monitor split function, and auditioned
the results during the line checks and actual performances. I found the preamps
sounded smooth and were without any
“flavors” in their usage, both in frequency
response and distortions. While I did not
need a whole lot of gain in these gigs, I
did play with the gain controls and attempted to find audible differences when
running hot or at low levels. The fact that
I failed to note differences speaks well of
the preamp quality.
On the bench, I checked the gains
and THD distortions; I found them accurate and within the 0.02% THD specifications, respectively. Overall, the Square
One Splitter is well worth its $1,425
street price, and a natural “must-have”
for most large sound companies’ gear
inventories.
Contact Mark at mark@fohonline.com
What it is:
Mic splitter on Steroids
How much: $1,583 MSRP
Pros: High audio
quality, much
flexibility, fair price.
Cons: None, if
you can live
with purple
cosmetics.
W
hen I think about the Square One
Splitter from Klark Teknik, it reminds of the comedians that parody the kitchen utensil gadgets advertised
on TV. “It slices, it dices, it…” is pretty much
the same with this splitter, as its engineers
were given some liberty to add features beyond a mic-level XLR active splitter.
Product Spotlight
KSC Industries
Sometimes it is hard to figure out how
to write about a company even when
they make a really good product.
Digmoda Plate Amps with DSP Engine
By BillEvans
K
SC Industries has been around for a
long time, but chances are that while
you have used their stuff, you have
never heard of them. That’s because they
are an OEM company. They make stuff that
other companies put their names on and
sell as their own. In fact, we are using stock
photos here because I had to take care not
to shoot someone else’s box while working
with this new system. Again, OEM companies are very discrete about who their customers are or they don’t last long, and KSC
has been around for 37 years.
What It Is
ps
The Digmoda system is a line of plate
amps — made for installing directly into
a speaker cabinet — with a powerful DSP
engine that can be purchased separately.
In other words, Digmoda is the active part
of an active speaker system. And they are
good amps, but nothing you can’t get from
somewhere else. They use the same ICEpower modules from B&O that power lots
of active systems. The thing that makes
and were ready to show me the results.
But first they sat me down at the computer and let me play with the program. I
was able to start tweaking the tuning of
the box within five minutes. You read that
right — the learning curve is almost zero.
If you know how to use a compressor and
an EQ you will master the Digmoda software in minutes.
Later, we took the two cabinets — one
still stock and the other with the Digmoda
corrected settings — outside for a sideby-side comparison. The Digmoda wiped
the floor with the stock amp. In fact, it
made these high-level MI but not really
pro boxes sound good enough to take out
on a real gig.
And here is the part I really liked. You
can create and save different setting for
the software and “flash” it to the boxes in
seconds via a straight USB connection.
This means that if you are a rental company and are sending boxes out on a hiphop or metal show where you know they
are going to get pushed really hard, you
Digmoda Plate Amps with DSP Engine
The thing that makes this system special
is the Digmoda software engine and its
DSP hardware — and the Digmoda DSP
just flat-out rocks.
this system special is the Digmoda software engine and its DSP hardware — and
the Digmoda DSP just flat-out rocks.
The real difference between this and
most everything else out there is ease of
use. Trying to adjust the crossover or delay
on an active speaker is all but impossible
on most models and most mfgs would go
ballistic at the thought of anyone trying to
do so. But what is “ideal” as far as settings
go for one gig or soundco may not be right
for another.
When first talking with the guys at
KSC and trying to figure out how to really
check out their product, we were coming
up blank at first. Then I remembered that
way back in the dark recesses of my garage was a set of three-way active speakers gathering dust. I offered to truck them
down from Vegas to Chula Vista (outside
of San Diego), and KSC offered to supply
the truck. The idea was to measure the
speakers with the stock amps and settings
and then switch them out with a Digmoda
plate amp and compare.
The Digmoda plate amps come in sizes
from 250 to 2,000 watts at four ohms and
the software is the same for all systems.
What you get are all of the tools you need
to voice — and protect — speakers. This includes dual-threshold compressor/limiters
and 16 configurable filters per channel.
How We Used It
can put a nondefeatable limiter IN THE
BOX and protect your drivers no matter
what anyone tries to do with the system.
If you are sending the same boxes out
on an acoustic gig, you can change them
over for a less-restricted response and
make the change in just minutes.
If you build your own active boxes,
these are worth a look. If you are a manufacturer who is looking for an OEM solution, the DSP and software of the Digmoda system will give you something that
no one else is offering — total control and
flexibility in an active box. The Digmoda
DSP engine can be purchased separately
and used with any amplifier system. The
Digmoda plate amps in 2- and 3-channel
configurations are available from stock
and the subwoofer version is ready for
production and will be available shortly
in limited supply.
Digmoda Plate Amp
ps
I dropped the cabinets off in the late
afternoon and checked into my hotel. I
had some dinner with the guys and got
some sleep. By the time I arrived at about
10 a.m. the next morning, they had already
measured the speaker with the stock amp,
switched it out, corrected it via the software
38
JUNE 2008
Digmoda software
www.fohonline
www.
www.fohonline.com
fohonline.com
fohonline
.com
Welcome To My Nightmare
This Is Why I Don’t Do Rock ‘n’ Roll
I
work in an audio/visual department at
Harvard University. My clients are brilliant economists, poets, physicists and
historians. On any given week, I’m kneedeep in Noble Prize winners. I’ve pinned
mics on Mikhail Gorbachev and Yo-Yo Ma.
But what kept popping into my dreams
at night? Mixing for a rock ‘n’ roll band. I
mean, come on, you can only sit through
so many high-level organic chemistry
lectures before you start yearning for the
world of rock ‘n’ roll.
So, I put the word out on the audio message boards that I was looking to shadow
a sound guy in the Boston area: free labor
in exchange for a day in the trenches. An
owner of a regional sound company emailed me and offered to let me tag along
for a show he was working that Saturday
— four punk bands playing at a mediumsized club in Boston. Perfect! I couldn’t ask
for a better introduction to the world of
rock ‘n’ roll sound than a punk show.
The sound company owner was a great
guy — taking the time to give me various
tips and tricks that you just don’t pick up
in the Ivy League lecture halls. Things like
how to route the snake run around the
probable beer spillage areas, and how to
work with the grizzled old ex-REO Speedwagon roadie that was now our stagehand. The load-in went as planned, and we
set up the FOH position on the main floor
surrounded by bicycle rack security barriers. The sound check rolled along pretty
smoothly, and we all broke for dinner before the show. I was really digging this rock
‘n’ roll lifestyle.
Then I started to get some exposure
to the flip side of the coin. I started to see
the security staff arrive for their shift, and
I started to wonder why there were hordes
of them. Oh, yeah, punk show. They opened
the doors and our FOH position was engulfed by throngs of teenagers amped up
for the show. About three minutes before
the show started, I was introduced to the
concept of the band bringing its own FOH
engineer. He appeared 15 years old, and obviously got the job because he let the band
use his parent’s basement to practice.
It was painfully obvious that the FOH engineer was overwhelmed by the Soundcraft
Series Five console, but it was even more
painfully obvious that he wouldn’t accept
help from any of us. The show got started and
the band’s engineer settled into a nasty look-
E
E
FR
Just go to
ing, but workable mix. About three songs into
the show, the band started playing their big
hit. The crowd started jumping in unison and
the energy level in the place started achieving LA riot levels. As I mentioned, our FOH
position was right in the middle of the main
floor, so I was really getting the full rock ‘n’ roll
sound guy experience now.
Then, faster than you can imagine, the
bicycle rack barriers around our FOH position gave way to the weight of the crazed
teenagers, and they start literally spilling
in toward us. A wave of youths crash into
the back of the console and the desk slides
about three feet toward us. The EZ-tilt was
now like a toboggan. It comes to rest still
upright. We’re trying to comprehend what
just happened then we see the console
start slowly tilting backwards. Three of us
grab for it, but there’s no way to stop this
behemoth from moving. It goes crashing down on its rear, and I had no doubt
in my mind that the 400-pound console
was crushing some poor teenager. So now
my rock ‘n’ roll experience has gone from
pretty cool to pretty terrifying. A couple of
us stood on the EZ-tilt stand while a few
others lifted the console upright. We were
all so filled with adrenaline that I bet one
of us could have single-handedly lifted the
desk at that moment.
By the grace of God, we found no
teenagers under the console, and nobody
even had a scratch on them. The FOH engineer yelled into the VOG mic to stop
the show; we picked up piles of teens and
repaired the barriers. All of the connectors were absolutely fine on the back of
the desk, so the show went on without
another hitch. After the commotion died
down, I started having daydreams of being back working those organic chemistry
lectures and quickly determined that the
rock ‘n’ roll scene just isn’t for me. But, as
if the rock ‘n’ roll gods were saying get out
and stay out to me, I kneeled down to disconnect some cables from the back of a
rack after the show and realized I had just
placed my knee in a nice pile of vomit. So,
it’s back to the ivy-covered walls and lecture halls for me!
Mike Tomei
miketomei@hotmail.com
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Start Your
FREE
Subscription
TODAY!
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40
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
In The Trenches
Evan Lineberry
Audio Engineer
Evan Lineberry Productions
Charlotte, N.C.
http://evanlineberryproductions.
blogspot.com
704.241.7944
evanlineberry@gmail.com
Services: Freelance audio for concerts,
video, churches, etc.
Clients: A-1(audio for video), Black
Enterprise Entrepreneur Conference,
Charlotte Convention Center), MorningStar Ministries Healing Conference
(Fort Mill, S.C.), Elevation Church (Charlotte, N.C.), Upcoming gigs include the
Asheville Music Jamboree, Ernest Leonard Ministries & the Cornelius Connection International Network Summit.
Quote: “Work hard, create energy, don't
complain, do it up and be thankful. In
the end, if the people are jamming then
you got the job done.”
Personal Info: I am 26 and live in
Charlotte, N.C. I’ve been married
for 3.5 years and have an almost 2year-old daughter. They are my life.
When I was younger, I went to ministry
school where the church had concertstyle production with front of house
and monitor consoles. I ran monitors for
three years for up to 12 mixes, wedges
and in-ears for several services a week
and different bands each service. I like
to say this honed my senses. I then got
a full-time job for a sound production
company in Charlotte where the focus
was corporate audio, and I learned the
ins and outs of audio and video.
From there, I worked at MorningStar
fellowship church as the live sound
engineer and volunteer instructor, responsible for several reinforcement
systems. The church also did audio for
video, which I was a part of. The church
was and still is a major conference center doing multi-day conferences each
month. I went completely freelance in
December and am on my way to de veloping contacts and companies to
work for. I currently freelance as an
A-1 front-of-house mixer for most clients, but also do A-2 work and monitor
mixing. My goal now is buying gear to
make myself a better candidate for clients, but I have to start somewhere. I
have worked fulltime in audio for over
three years and also mix front of house
and monitors at one of Charlotte's biggest music venues, the neighborhood
theatre.
Hobbies: Reading, writing, my family,
Jesus, my iBook, photography, listening to music, being a part of live music,
Law & Order, Animal Planet and the History and Discovery channels.
Equipment: Yamaha M7CL, Heritage
3000, Verona 58-channel, Soundcraft
Spirit, Ramsa S40, basically whatever console each production has for me to use.
Don’t leave home without: Light,
tape, tools, Real-time analyzer, tone
generator, headphones (if possible),
Mac iBook.
Robert “Void” Caprio
Chief Engineer
Interzone Studios
West Babylon, N.Y.
www.interzonestudios.com
631.278.0794
void@interzonestudios.com
Services: Live and studio sound/production
Clients: Push Play, Hot Action Cop, Nokia
Theater, Irving Plaza/Fillmore NYC.
Personal Info: Twenty years of experience in
world-class studios and 10-plus years of experience in live sound.
Hobbies: Hockey, martial arts, music, travel
and food.
Equipment: Digidesign HD2 Accel w/
C/24. Soundcraft GB2, Crown amps, JBL
speakers, TC Electronic, PreSonus, Trident, Neumann, Shure, AKG, Sennheiser,
many others.
Don’t leave home without: Multi-tool,
Sharpies, pain reliever, sunscreen, iLok,
USB thumb drive.
Quote: “Better to ask a stupid question
than to remain stupid.”
AVI
Regional Slants
Brings the Sound
of Integrity
to Eastern Tennessee
This small town A/V company started with local church gigs and eventually
landed one of the largest college concerts in the country.
Text and Photos By BillEvans
Bill Evans
T
he e-mail was unusual in that it
came from an unexpected source.
I get notes all the time looking for
coverage of some show or another, but
80% come from the PR department of
some audio manufacturer, while the rest
come from someone at one of the big
touring companies. Occasionally, I’ll get
a call from a church or performing arts
center looking for coverage of an install.
“I am very proud to announce that
the small AV company I work for will be
putting on this year's largest college
concert in the country,” wrote Production Manager Rob Abercrombie. Had to
be an overstatement, but he got my attention through a combination of humility (“how can we get a snippet in FOH?”
he asked) and gonads (“or a cover story?”). I e-mailed back and told Rob how
to send us info for a Showtime listing
or perhaps a small news story. Then, as
more of an afterthought than anything,
he added that I could cover it myself if
someone else were to foot the travel expenses. Small company, small town — I
figured it would never happen and that
I was safe.
The AVI family (L-R): Jeremiah Nave, Aaron Free, Jacob Mathews, Chris Burks, Natasha Tenney, Owen Johnson, Garrett Harris, Jeremy
Godsey, Chris Collins, Chris Taylor, Rob Abercrombie.
So about six weeks later, there I was
standing in the Johnson City, Tenn., air
airport waiting for my ride to the venue to
cover Audio Video Integration’s work on
a Carrie Underwood show at East Ten
Tennessee State University. Yes, I was sur
surprised to be there, but that was just one
of a series of surprises.
Non-Arrogance of Youth
pp
I was met at the very small airport by
Chris, who looked to be about 20 years
old. He said he would get me to my ho
hotel, and I would meet the rest of the crew
in the morning. After an hour or so of
driving around lost (by myself — I had
to go back to the airport to retrieve a
forgotten piece of luggage) and calling
Chris to guide me back, he had me meet
him at the restaurant he was at with the
rest of the AVI crew. Sure enough, there
was Chris along with a couple of other
kids. I was introduced, but the names re
really didn’t stick. It had been a long day
and I just wanted to get some rest.
Fast-forward to late the next mornmorn
ing when I walked across the street from
my hotel into the venue. I asked the first
person I saw with a radio if he could direct me to Rob and he pointed toward
the surfer-looking kid from the night
before. When I started talking to Rob,
he quickly steered me toward the other
kid from the restaurant and the runner,
Chris. It was only at that moment that
I figured out that these two “kids” were
Chris Taylor and Garrett Harris — coowners of Audio Video Integration.
Friends from high school, Chris and
Garrett went off to different colleges,
but both eventually ended up working
up the road a piece in Nashville. After
nearly a decade of working for others,
touring and working in town with a
series of Nashville acts, they both decided that they wanted to get back to
the small town where they grew up. So,
they moved to Johnson City and started
up AVI.
Today, AVI is well stocked and busy
with a Renkus-Heinz PN102LA self-powered line array and subs along with industry standard dynamics and signal rocessors and a nice selection of mics. They
even have their own stage and lighting.
But it was not always thus.
“For two years, we didn’t do anything,” Garrett recalls. “And when we
did work it meant going back to Nashville.” There was one AV company in the
general area already and only so much
business. But eventually the gigs started
coming — slow and small but coming.
And this being rural eastern Tennessee,
it comes as no surprise that most of the
gigs were in churches. They began acquiring more gear, but still making the
trip to Nashville more often than either
of them wanted to.
Sounds like the story of many a failed
soundco, doesn’t it? So how, in just six
years, did AVI go from scrambling for
gigs to giving instructions to Carrie Underwood’s Clair Bros. touring crew? For
that info we need to get “Ludacris.”
Banned In the Bible Belt
pp
“The university here puts on a concert for the students every year,” explains
Chris. “It’s a free show — If you have a
student ID you can get a ticket — and
the past few years, they have really been
stepping up the level of acts they are
bringing in.”
After nearly a decade of working for others, touring and working in town with a
series of Nashville acts, they both decided that they wanted to get back to the
small town where they grew up. So, they moved to Johnson City and started up AVI.
42
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
“Nashville is still right up
the road, and by renting
what we need, we can
always meet the rider. It
keeps us flexible and has
allowed us to grow other
parts of our business.”
View of the stage.
Not only are the shows free, but the
university administration also lets students vote on who they want to bring in.
Three years ago, the verdict was rapper
Ludacris. “The shows used to be held in
a smaller venue up the street called Freedom Hall Civic Center,” Chris continued.
But all was not peaceful in Johnson City,
and some members of the local religious
community had issues with the rapper appearing in town. With so much of the local
business being church-based, the established company in town made the safe call
and backed out along with the venue.
“They moved the show into the
field house here,” Garrett says, gesturing around the cavernous building that
presently houses Underwood’s very
large stage. “We got the call and came in
and did the show.” Was there fallout from
their church clients? “We did have some
clients who had a problem with us doing
the gig,” says Chris. “But,” interjects Garrett, “we just told them that he was a client like any other client. Just because we
did his sound did not mean we approved
of what he was saying.”
It seemed to work — the company
lost none of its church business. Ironically (and this may have something do with
AVI keeping its church business), some
local churches set up a protest concert
of sorts on the other side of campus. And
the sound company was? Yep. AVI.
From that point, things kind of
took off and the trips to Nashville be came fewer and fur ther between. The
following year, the university brought
in the Goo Goo Dolls, and AVI got the
bid. The show went well enough that
they now have a five -year contract
with the university as its exclusive
audio provider.
From New Kids To Big Kids
pp
Soon there was more work than the duo
could handle alone. Today, AVI has several
full-time employees and are in the process
of opening an office in North Carolina. But
while their inventory has grown along with
their business, they have taken an unusual
stance of owning no large consoles. That’s
right. Zero. None. Their console inventory
consists of a Soundcraft GB8-40, 40-channel
FOH console and an Allen & Heath GL2400,
32-channel monitor desk. Nothing fancy.
Nothing digital.
“Nashville is still right up the road, and
by renting what we need, we can always
meet the rider. It keeps us flexible and has
allowed us to grow other parts of our business,” says Chris.
But success has not been without its
issues. “I had a heart attack two years
ago,” says Garrett (who is 38). “Slowed
me right down. We were doing a concert
on Satuday until 3 a.m. and then had to
be back out for a church gig at 5:30. I was
catching a couple of hours of sleeping on
a couch in the office.” AVI has dropped
– Chris Taylor
most of their club gigs, kept their church
business, and added the university and
a good deal of commercial install work.
(While we were in countdown mode for
the Underwood show, AVI’s Install Man-
ager Chris Taylor was busy dealing with
Fed Ex about a shipment of flat screen
TVs for an install at a string of Chili’s restaurants that was scheduled to begin
the next morning.)
Oh, that and supervising a full production crew from some of the biggest production companies in the world as they prepared
for a show by an A-list country act. And they
say you can’t go back home…
The Bleeding Edge
By SteveLaCerra
Untie Me a Ribbon
E
very once in a while it’s nice to look
over your shoulder and see how far
technology has progressed. In the
audio world that progression accelerates
at an alarming rate, bringing us better and
better technology at lower and lower prices with increased reliability, while breaking the sound barrier between studio and
live sound gear. Although this is also true
of microphones, the basic principles of microphone technology have not changed as
radically as other areas of audio.
Dynamic microphones still operate using electromagnetic induction, and the basic concept of the condenser microphone
is pretty similar to what it was when it was
first invented [FYI, Western Electric developed a condenser microphone circa. 1917,
and Neumann developed and marketed the
CMV3 circa. 1928]. Of course, microphone
technology has become incredibly refined
over the years. We have stable and durable
materials for diaphragm construction. Exotic magnetic metals yield increased output.
Capsule construction has become a science
unto its own, producing better sound, reliability and consistency. So where does that
leave the ribbon microphone?
Well, as with moving coil and condenser microphones, the principle behind the ribbon microphone is essentially the same now as it was in the early
1930s when RCA introduced the 44A. A
flat piece of metal is loosely suspended
within a magnetic field. When sound hits
that metal (the ribbon) it vibrates, moving back and forth within the magnetic
field, thus creating voltage at the ends of
tages. The high-frequency response of a
ribbon mic tends to be very smooth and
musical, and since the ribbon is relatively
light in weight, the transient response of
the ribbon is much quicker than that of
a moving coil mic. If you’ve never tried
a ribbon on an electric guitar amp, you
owe it to yourself because it’s a wonderful thing. There are, unfortunately, a few
disadvantages of using ribbon mics. The
These companies have addressed two very important
issues that otherwise would keep ribbon mics off the live
performance stage: output level and durability.
the ribbon. Incredibly enough, that voltage is a pretty darn good representation
of our audio signal. That this concept
works so well is not as amazing as the
fact that it works at all.
Pros and Cons
TBE
Microphone aficionados have observed that ribbon microphones have
some distinct advantages and disadvan-
output level of most ribbon microphones
is very low, requiring a preamp with a lot
of gain and very low self-noise. Ribbons
tend to be delicate, so much that a blast
of air can stretch or even snap the ribbon,
rendering it useless.
For those reasons, engineers have
been cautious regarding the use of ribbons, and even through the mid-1990s
ribbon mics weren’t very popular (though
beyerdynamic continued to market their
ribbons throughout that time, and still
do). In the late 1990s, ribbon microphones
experienced a resurgence in popularity. At
the forefront of this renewed interest were
AEA and Royer Labs, both of which are
American companies that are well known
for manufacturing ribbon microphones
of modern design. They have since been
joined by Crowley and Tripp, Cascade and
Nady, plus a plethora of other companies
that re-badge Chinese-manufactured ribbon microphones.
A Ribbon Resurgence
TBE
And why should we care? Because these
companies have addressed two important
issues that otherwise would keep ribbon
mics off the live performance stage: output level and durability. Royer Labs (www.
royerlabs.com) manufactures several models of ribbon mics that became popular for
studio use such as the R-121, SF-12 and the
active R-122. The R-122 was probably the
first “active” ribbon mic ever produced: It
contains a phantom-powered preamp used
to increase the output level, and it has an
impedance matching circuit that makes it
useful with just about any preamp. These
mics were mostly intended for studio use.
Last year, Royer introduced their Live
Series of microphones. Based on their studio models, the Live Series mics employ a
thicker, more robust ribbon that retains the
sonic characteristics of the studio models.
So far there are three mics in the Royer
Live Series, including the R-121, R-122 and
SF-24. Perhaps most interesting is the SF-24
phantom-powered stereo microphone. The
SF-24 employs two matched ribbon capsules
mounted one atop the other in a Blumlein
coincident pair (two bidirectional microphones crossed at an angle of 90 degrees).
This allows an engineer to place a single microphone overhead for stereo pickup of (for
example) a drum kit and/or cymbals, while
obviating the need to tediously tweak two
mono mics into position.
44
JUNE 2008
At the Fall 2007 AES Convention,
Crowley and Tripp (www.soundwave
research.com) introduced their el Diablo
microphone. This microphone uses the
Crowley and Tripp’s proprietary Roswellite ribbon material, a high-strength,
shape-memory ribbon technology designed to hold up under high-SPL situations. El Diablo can be used close-up on
kick drum, horn and loud electric guitar
www.fohonline.com
amplifiers, as well as for vocals on open,
outdoor stages without worry that the
ribbon will break or stretch. Roswellite
is also used in a version of Crowley and
Tripp’s Naked Eye, a microphone that
features what the company calls True
Dual Voicing, whereby each side of the
microphone delivers a distinct tone. The
front side of the mic provides a “classic”
ribbon response tailored for electric guitar, while the back of the mic has a significantly brighter, rising curve that mimics
the frequency response of high-quality
vocal condensers. The Naked Eye’s highoutput, low-noise ribbon and highefficiency transformer enable the mic to
be matched with just about any mic preamp used for stage or studio.
Endless Offerings
TBE
No discussion of ribbon microphones
would be complete without looking at
the offerings from AEA (Audio Engineering Associates, www.ribbonsmics.com).
AEA’s R92 Big Ribbon mic is optimized
for close miking at distances from three
to eighteen inches. At such close range,
some mics exhibit a ton of proximity effect, making the instrument sound muddy. The R92 was engineered for reduced
proximity effect, so it can be used at close
range without over-exaggerating the low
frequencies. AEA designed the R92 to produce different frequency responses from
the front and rear of the microphone. The
front side is the “crisp” side while the rear
is the “smooth” side, which, according to
AEA, has a bit of a classic ribbon highend rolloff that can help handle harsh
transients in a refined and flattering way.
The AEA 92 is capable of handling SPL up
to 135 dB, which should be enough for
most lead guitarists. If it’s not, then you
can consider AEA’s R84, which is rated to
handle SPLs up to 165 dB above 1 kHz.
The ability to use ribbon microphones
onstage is a wonderful option for engineers
because they produce tones unlike what we
already get from moving coil dynamic and
condenser microphones. Now that the major issues of durability and low output have
been addressed, there’s no reason not to try
a ribbon mic for use on stage.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the front-ofhouse engineer and tour manager for Blue
Öyster Cult. He can be reached via email at
Woody@fohonline.com
Theory and Practice
By MarkAmundson
Rider-Friendly Gear
T
he topic of “rider-friendly” gear
is an ageless debate among
sound company personnel, and
a beauty contest of what is currently
rider-friendly and what is not. In this
column, I will throw out some thoughts
on rider-friendly, and see if the readership can concur.
Quality or Capability
tp
When a fledgling sound company
chooses its gear, just having something
that fills a basic capability is the game.
We all know the infamous MI brands
and the types of speakers, consoles,
signal processing and accessories that
are provided by the weekend warrior
sound companies (anklebiters). Examples like piezo drivers on wedges,
15-band graphic equalizers, carpetcovered main speakers and an outboard rack that looks more appropriate
for a guitarist than serious sound reinforcement are common. These are dead
giveaways for a soundco still in the "capability" stage of the business.
As a live sound company transitions from merely capable to more
quality performing gear, the “riderfriendly” question begins gnawing on
the subconscious of ownership making new gear decisions. Media such
as FOH are great at showing you the
newest offerings from the live sound
gear manufacturers, but are these offers rider-friendly? The answer is often
no, at least not immediately.
Old School
tp
By definition, rider-friendly gear
tends to be older gear, just from the
idea that industry consensus takes time
to build. Great examples of rider-friendly gear are EAW KF850 speakers, Yamaha SPX-990 multi-effects processors
and Klark-Teknik DN360 dual graphic
equalizers. All of these items are nearly
20 years or more in service to the pro
audio consumers, but very few professional act production crews will object
to these gear items. Granted we have
tour grade line arrays, higher-fidelity effects and digital equalization available,
but the risk is that the wrong gear for
the rider may come up and bite you.
Your Customers
tp
The tough question to ask of
yourself is, “are you after A and B-level
acts, or are your current and future
customers local acts without much
technical specifics on production?”
While you may fantasize about pulling
down regular touring acts with your
C-rig while taking every club gig that
pays, paying up for rider-friendly
gear may turn your profitable, small
business into a money-losing hobby. If
you are on the verge of chasing after
infrequent B-level acts in small festivals
As a live sound company transitions
from capability to more quality
performing gear, the “rider-friendly”
question begins gnawing on the
subconscious of ownership making
new gear decisions.
If you do not have many clues on
what is rider-friendly gear, you can use
the Internet review act/agent Web sites
or rifle through your recent stash of A
and B act riders to gain this knowledge.
So, if you’re bent on procuring riderfriendly gear, do not look at eBay pro
audio listings. Rather, check out the
more popular acts in the FOH Showtime
section and similar rundowns of gear
from other trade magazines. You can
take chances on new gear, but it is not
the kind of gambling I would do if riderfriendly is the quest.
or special events in medium clubs, do a
sanity check first using typical B-level
acts that frequently come into your
region of the country.
For example, I know a well-known
rock/country B-level act that has a rider,
and in that rider there is need for: decent FOH and monitor consoles (VCAs
at FOH), six monitor mixes to 10 tourgrade quality bi-amp wedges, quality
sidefill speakers, and plenty of famous
brand mics, DIs and stands. If you do
not have the majority of these items,
then bidding that show next time is go-
ing to cause you some problems. And
B-level acts are pretty flexible on gear
brand names.
B-level acts are great places to
break into the rider-friendly business. These acts are typically rising
stars or former top acts (A-level) that
are making a graceful decline in show
business. In any case, they are generic
but picky about what you have to offer, and generally have good experienced-based instincts if you are going
to come up short in a rider-specified
technical aspect.
Building In the Basics
tp
Thankfully, most B-level act riders
are getting more production provider-friendly by specifying capabilities
and mentioning less specific brands.
A good example is contract rider verbage like “shall provide a house speaker
system capable of 100 dB SPL peaks in
the back seats of the venue”. It sounds
fairly straight-forward, but if you do the
acoustics math you may suddenly realize that you need 140 dB+ of SPL (at
one meter) mains speakers or additional
delayed rear-fill cabinets to get the required SPL to the rear seating. Beware
of the technical rider words, as they can
catch you at a point of weakness.
When thinking rider-friendly, be
thorough when running through your
gear list. Are your stage monitors biamped and configured with enough
cabinets with 15” plus 1.4” horn throat,
or double 12” plus 1.4” horn throat, tourgrade cabinets that can be physically
abused by artists standing on them? Are
your wireless mics of tour-grade quality
with diversity receivers, plus enough
of them for acts with multiple-lead
vocalists plus a couple back-up units?
Do you have the middle- to high-end
analog or digital FOH console with
the standard premium-quality name
dynamic processors from Europe,
and the same for equalizers, plus the
standard top names in digital reverbs
and delays? Does that console have
at least 32-channels going back to
the stage? Can your monitor console
handle a half-dozen stereo in-ear
mixes with six equalizers and reverbs
enough to get the job done? Are your
racks and stacks of the popular brands
and tour-grade lines, or are they music-store brand offerings in disguise?
In general, think like a tour manager/production person for a B-level
act; and scrutinize how your equipment list fares. Sound companies taking on A-level acts do not get much
accommodation, and are expected
to have rider-friendly gear top to
bottom, plus artist special requests.
There is nothing wrong with gear not
rider-friendly, just keep that gear in
the shop or out on those club gigs
where it belongs.
Contact Mark at marka@fohonline.com
46
JUNE 2008
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The Biz
Every Dinosaur
Has Its Day
O
f the top 10 music touring acts
on Pollstar’s chart as of late April,
two date back to the 1970s (the
Eagles, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street
Band); two more hit their peaks in the
1980s (Metallica, Van Halen); the 1990s
are represented by the Dave Matthews
Band, Pearl Jam, Counting Crows, Radiohead and the Stone Temple Pilots.
The tenth touring act, the duet outing by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
at number 10, is kind of a hybrid of the
1960/70s and the 1990s and a one-off to
support their remarkable 2007 album. It
might also be keeping Robert Plant’s
pipes in good shape after Led Zeppelin’s
reunion concert late last year in London,
which has raised rampant speculation
about a Led Zep tour going out later in
2008 or in ’09 (despite Plant’s denials).
Relying on Revenue
BIZ
But what the list does underscore
is the fact that the music industry has
come to rely more and more heavily on
revenues derived from live performances, specifically lengthy tours, at a time
when many of the biggest ticket-makers
are artists whose origins can be carbondated. What happens when those artists
reach the point at which they cannot or
(authentically) do not want to subject
themselves to the rigors of the road
anymore?
By DanDaley
Buffett — six of the top 10 who had
their first hits before 1975.
The fact that the modern concert
industry has consistently been fueled
by artists that have been around for
decades is a topic that’s come up frequently and plenty of explanations are
available, including the Boomer phenomenon and the subjective but persistent assertion that they simply made
better music back then. The point isn’t
to marvel at how long one can keep
touring, but rather to ponder how
much longer they — and fans willing to
pay huge sums for tickets — can keep
it up.
Ticket Sales vs. CD Sales
BIZ
In a reversal of for tune from the
early days of rock , when the top touring bands also had the top -selling re cords, headlining tours came hot on
Who ’s going t o keep t he engine
of live performances running?
Radiohead? Green Day? Carrie
Underwood? Hannah Montana?
The respec t-your- elders theme
has been in place for some time. In
2007, of the nine top - grossing music
tours (I’m leaving out Cirque Du Soleil
for obvious reasons), four — The Po lice, Genesis, Rod Stewar t and Roger
Waters — accounted for about $464
million, nearly 60 percent of the ap proximately $803 million the top nine
totaled for the year. The previous
year, the Rolling Stones led the pack
with $437 million (total for the Bigger
Bang tour that k icked off in 2005), followed by Madonna’s Confessions tour,
who booked $195 million in ducats.
The year had lots of other aging (or,
if you prefer, ageless) touring successes including Bon Jovi, Aerosmith
and Motley Crüe. Back in 2005, it was
U2, the Eagles again, Paul McCar tney,
Rod Stewar t, Elton John and Jimmy
the heels of initial record sales success. The Beatles, for instance, led the
Nor th American tour char ts in 1964
and 1965 even as they were char ting
a string of hits on the radio. (No point
in repor ting grosses since the value
of the dollar has changed so radically
since then, but their 1964 U.S. tour
repor tedly had cash advances larger
than any in enter tainment histor y
at the time.) But the music industr y
has also changed radically, with pre recorded sales plummeting steadily
since 2002. Fall Out Boy was one of
the few new ac ts that could correlate
good tour numbers to good (relatively
speak ing) CD sales in 2006. The band
grossed $11 million in sales, but more
impor tantly, they sold nearly 400,000
tickets, which was more than all but
eight ac ts on the Top 100 that year.
48
JUNE 2008
www.fohonline.com
The Future
BIZ
So, who’s going to keep the engine
of live performances running? Radiohead? Green Day? Carrie Underwood?
Hannah Montana?
Don’t laugh — Miley Cyrus booked
$36 million in tickets sales last year, putting her tour at number 16 for the year.
Country music also seems to be putting
more of its minions into the top of the
mainstream touring charts: Tim McGraw,
Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts and Toby Keith
all made the top 20 in 2007, with Brad
Paisley and Keith Urban showing strong
increases. Another trend is the increasing popularity of spin-offs from other
media. American Idols Live, Dancing
With the Stars and High School Musical
The Concert all made Pollstar’s top 50
tours for the year.
The future of live touring music
might be more like the way the prerecorded music business is headed: a
smaller core of best-selling artists surrounded by a huge mass of mid-market
acts working on an increasingly regional
basis. Pollstar’s 2007 year-end analysis
shows a fall-off in ticket sales by nearly
2 million tickets sold, centered mostly in
the mega-gross category. That suggests
that the mega-touring artists — the still
robust relics of past decades — are both
slowing down and are not likely to be
replaced on the same scale.
There are two key trends to be aware
of. First, the number of festivals is increasing. New entrants this year are Outside
Lands Festival in San Francisco, headlined
by Beck, Wilco, Radiohead and Tom Petty;
Mile High Music Festival in Commerce
City, Colo., with the Dave Matthews Band,
John Mayer and Tom Petty; All Points
West Music & Arts Festival in Jersey City,
N.J., headlined by Radiohead and Jack
Johnson; and Rothbury Festival, in Rothbury, Mich., with Matthews, John Mayer
and Widespread Panic. Secondly, festivals
are less and less peripatetic than in past
years. Lollapalooza transformed from a
traveling circus to a permanent fixture in
Chicago’s Grant Park.
Regional Aggregation
BIZ
This regional aggregation of live music has implications for the live sound
business. The larger players will need
more systems for more and smaller
shows and will have more competition at the regional level, thanks to increasingly sophisticated and less-costly
technology. Festival contracts will become more crucial and could start to
be locked up for years at a time. Digital
FOH and monitor consoles have already
transformed the festival business by
making changeovers vastly faster, allowing more stages and performers at
these gatherings, another factor that
will continue to boost festival growth.
The end of the Paleolithic era of live
music is inevitable and, in the long run,
positive, allowing the live music industry
to evolve along the same lines as the recorded music business. But I’d still like to
see Led Zeppelin one more time…
Contact Dan at ddaley@fohonline.com
Sound Sanctuary
Know Your
Microphones
I
know it may seem a little over the top to
spend an entire article on microphones,
but these are probably the most important tools you have, especially in a houseof-worship setting. We will be covering
the three popular types of pickup or polar
patterns and dynamic microphones versus
condenser microphones.
I will not be discussing brands and
models of mics, as there are just too many
to touch on. If you are a hired gun, meaning you do not belong to a particular congregation but you work as a mixer, you
should have a selection of mics with you
every time you mix. If you are part of the
church membership and are either paid
for your services or you volunteer your
skills, you probably use the mics that are
already at your house of worship. Unless
your particular house has a vast selection
of microphones, I would encourage you
to pick up some of your own. Good mics
are always a valuable commodity in any
sound reinforcement setting.
Polar Patterns
ss
OK, let’s take a look at the three different types of polar patterns and what
they are good for. The first polar pattern
I will choose is the omni-directional mic
pattern. Omni means “all” (like God being
Omnipotent), which explains why the mic
picks up sound in a 360-degree spherical
pattern. I only use this type of mic for my
live worship recordings. I like to use one
or two out in the room while I am recoding a service. I can get live sound off the
stage and also the reaction of the congregation. For anything else, this type of mic
is subject to too much feedback.
By JamieRio
Next, we have the cardioid pattern.
Sound is picked up in a heart-shaped
area in front of the mic. This type of mic
is unidirectional as opposed to omni (figure it out). This is by far the most popular pattern. It can be used for preaching, singing and miking of instruments.
Generally, the cardioid pattern has good
feedback rejection. Lastly, we have the
Unless your particular house has
a vast selection of microphones,
I would encourage you to pick up
some of your own.
Supercardioid pattern. This is another
unidirectional mic, but with a more narrow sound pickup in that now familiar
heart shape in the front of the mic. And
a slight bit of pickup directly behind the
mic. This type of mic can be used anywhere the cardioid can, but I like them
for miking guitar amps or drums where
I want a little extra isolation. That pretty
much gives you an idea of the types of
polar patterns, so why don’t we look at
dynamic and condenser microphones.
Dynamic Versus Condenser
ss
Dynamic mics are the most common
type of microphones used in live sound
applications. First and foremost they are
very durable. Church mics can receive
some very harsh physical treatment. A
good dynamic mic can endure a fall, an
orator’s spit and even double as a hammer in some occasions. You can find designs for almost any application and they
can sound very good.
Condenser microphones for the most
part are the second choice for sound engineers. To my ears, a good condenser is
better sounding than a good dynamic
mic. They are also more able to pick up
sound from a distance. You will find that
all top-quality choir and podium mics
are condenser. They are typically smooth
and natural sounding. The one draw
back is they tend to be more susceptible to damage. It’s not a good idea to
drop a condenser mic or get is wet. However, there are some very tough ones
out there on the market that can take
as much of a beating as a dynamic mic.
Don’t forget all condenser microphones
need a power source. Usually, it comes
from a phantom power supply built into
your mixing console via your balanced
50
JUNE 2008
mic cable, but some models have battery
compartments. Now that we have a basic
over view of mic types and mic patterns,
let me give you a few examples of how I
use my microphones.
As I said earlier, you may not have
the luxury of being able to walk into a
house of worship with a road case full of
mics, but I do. And when I have a choir in
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front of me I will put up two really nice
condenser mics on two mic stand just in
front and above the choir. At one of my
churches they already have a couple of
choir mics hanging from the ceiling. In
this senario, my two mics just pick up a
little more of the choir and add to the
richness of the singers.
Speaking of singers, I work with a
six-singer, ten-piece gospel band and I
use a different condenser mic for one
of the female singers who has a great
voice, but not a lot of horsepower. A
good condenser mic can certainly pump
up your vocalist. It is also nice to have a
good pair of condensers for any of your
percussion micing needs. All the aforementioned condenser mics have a cardioid pattern.
I do, however, use a condenser with a
supercardiod pattern in cases where I really
want to isolate a guitar amp, an acoustic
guitar sound hole and the occasional violin,
viola or cello. That particular mic I don’t use
very often, but it sure is nice to own it.
With my dynamic cardioid microphones, I will bring them out for solo
singers, various guitar amplifiers and
specific drum miking.
Just having some extra microphones
can make your job easier and more fun.
If you are a hired gun or a paid church
member, good mic will make you the
king of your mixing environment. If
you work as a hired gun, a reputation
for bring extra (and cool) mics will certainly increase your business. So, if you
already own mics, please bring them to
your worship sound gigs. If you don’t
have your own microphones, think
about getting some.
You can e-mail Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com
To Advertise in Marketplace, Contact: Leslie Rohrscheib • 702.932.5585 • lr@fohonline.com
COMPANY PG #
TEL
WEBSITE
A&S Case Company
14
818 509 5920
foh.hotims.com/18506-210
Adamson Systems Engineering
11
905.982.0520
Aphex Systems
47
818.767.2929
Carvin Pro Audio
50
800.854.2235
Crown Audio/ Crown International
33
574.294.8000
d&b Audiotechnik
7, 8
828.670.1763
DAS Audio
24
888.237.4872
dbx Professional Products
31
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DiGiCo/ Group One
26-27
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Digidesign
25
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Dolby
41
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Dynacord/ Bosch
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Electro Voice/ Bosch
19
248.876.1000
FDW-W (Violet Designs)
32
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Gamble
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HEAR Technologies
36
256.922.1200
Heil Sound
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Innovason
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ISP Technologies
48
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JBL Professional
45
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KSC Industries
3
619.671.0110
Martin Audio
10
519.747.5853
Meyer Sound Laboratories
C2
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OVO/ Mega Systems
40
210.684.2600
PAL
43
416.490-1871
Peavey Electronics
39
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Production Intercom
48
847.381.5350
QSC Audio Products
C4
800.854.4079
Radial Engineering/ Cabletek
49
604.942.1001
Ramtech
37
800.817.2683
Rane Corp.
13
425.355.6000
Renkus-Heinz
5
949.588.9997
RSS by Roland
44
800.380.2580
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6
860.434.9190
Soundcraft
29
888.251.8352
Spectraudio
46
212.744.2255
TMB
15
818.899.8818
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4
719.540.9333
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems
1, C3
714.522.9011
MARKET PLACE
Gabriel Sound
51
973.831.7500
Gear Box Pro
51
877-789-5774
Hi-Tech Audio Systems
51
650.742.9166
New York Case/ Hybrid Cases
51
800.645.1707
Sound Productions
51
800.203.5611
Transamerica Audio Group
51
702-365-5155
FOH-at-Large
By BakerLee
“ L i b r a ry ”
I
Andy Au
A Trip To the
take a fair amount of pride in my writing, so I was humbled when an audio
engineer with whom I was working
with told me he enjoyed my column in
FOH and that it made for great reading
while on the crapper. Although storing
FOH in the bathroom — whether it’s on
a tour bus, a venue or in an audio shop
— seems totally logical, his comment,
nonetheless, seemed like an underhanded compliment. My first reaction, after all,
is that I am an author who writes words
that convey lofty ideas. I articulate the
inexpressible. I transmit cosmic truths to
thousands of readers who hang on my every word — and this dumb schmuck reads
my vaulted letters while sitting on the
toilet. The nerve of him! OK, I’m humbled.
It’s neither the first time, nor will it be the
last time, and I’m sure I’ll recover. After all,
humbling experiences are often a chance
to reevaluate one’s perspective and grow
past previous misconceptions.
Humbling Experiences
FOH
Speaking of humbling experiences, perspective and misconceptions, I was recently
contracted to provide audio for a show that
took place at the Waldorf Astoria. I was
contacted by the tour manager of a Turkish
band by the name of POW, or Painted on
Water. The band featured a woman by the
name of Sertab Erener, who is described on
the Eurovision Web site as “the Turkish diva
that brought the Eurovision Song Contest
to Istanbul in 2004.” For those who may be
unfamiliar with the competition, Eurovision
Song Contest has been in existence since
1956 and has taken place in many European countries as well as Jerusalem. It is the
longest-running show on television and is
akin to American Idol in terms of its popularity. Playing the show with Sertab Erener
was an all-star Turkish band that also included such jazz luminaries as Al Dimeola
and Dave Weckl.
As we spoke, the full scope of the event
was revealed to me and it wasn’t pretty.
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
All well and good, but my “red flag”
sensor had been triggered when I was informed of a 5 p.m. load-in and 7:30 doors.
So, with only a three-day notice before the
event, I decided to investigate. On my first
trip to the Waldorf, I met one of the event
managers from the hotel, as well as my
friend Michael from Presentation Services,
the in-house AV Company. We went to the
event site, the Starlight Ballroom, which is
approximately 120 feet by 35 feet. The hotel
agreed to provide a 24-feet by 12-feet stage
placed against the wall in the middle of the
room facing the entrance. There was to be
a small dance floor directly in front of the
stage; the rest of the room would be filled
with rounds (tables) that could seat 10. As
we spoke, the full scope of the event was
revealed to me and it wasn’t pretty.
Regional Slants
The Plot Thickens
LD Systems does lots of gigs, but
they are known far and wide for
the Houston Rodeo.
Road Test
Parnelli winner Bob Heil is still
making some great mics. We’re
gonna take a couple out and try
to break them.
Buyers Guide
It is an easy part of the rig to
overlook. Until you need it and it
isn’t there. Hello? We’re talking
intercoms here...
FOH
Apparently, the American Turkish Society sponsored the event in honor of the
successful partnerships of two huge conglomerates, GE and Dogus Group. This gala
was to be attended by nearly 400 leading
executives from both the American and
Turkish business communities, as well as
dignitaries from the U.S. and Turkish governments. The chairman of the Society was
none other than the late Ahmet Ertegun,
founding chairman of Atlantic Records.
That said, the plot thickens. As it was told
to me, apparently, the Dogus Group has in
their contract that POW is to play at any and
all events that include the Dogus Group.
Not wanting to insult their honorary guest,
the Turkish Society accepted this stipulation from the Dogus Group, although they
insisted that the event was to be seamless
in every way possible, and regardless of
time constraints or demands by the band,
the doors were to open at 7:30 sharp. This
is why, after seeing the band’s rider, the AV
representative from Presentation Services
told the band to call me.
All That Jazz
FOH
As it turned out, Ertegun had personally
chosen a society jazz band to play at all his
Foundation events, which had already been
booked for the evening. They were easygoing and let me know that they could play on
whatever gear was available. I was in charge
of providing all the backline, and the opening
band’s compliance gave me the hope that the
stage changeover would go smoothly, especially since POW’s rider requested seven mixes and 12 wedges on stage plus a sub for the
drumfill. Unfortunately, “seamless transaction”
was not meant to be — Dave Weckl insisted
upon using his own kit, which, of course, he
would not share or move. This meant I was
required to bring a second set of drums for
the opening band and place them in front of
the Weckl kit and strike them off to stage left
upon completion of their set. The event planners did not want any time between bands,
but regardless of how they tried to explain
to POW that a 15-minute changeover would
lose the crowd, there was no way to dissuade
Weckl from his position.
What a Trip
FOH
Load-in to the room was a trip from the
loading dock to the 18th floor and then a push
across the hotel, which is a good city block.
Because the loading dock at the Waldorf is
closed between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., we could
not access the ballroom until 5 p.m. when the
other event (did I mention the other event?)
ended. This meant that we could not get into
www.fohonline.com
the room until 5:30 p.m., or, in real time, after the other AV Company was out. When
that moment came, the Waldorf team would
quickly set up the stage; the catering department would start to set up the room; and we
would work around the new video company
as we labored to set up sound and backline in
a timely fashion. Due to the way in which the
other event was booked, we needed to load
in at 12 p.m. so that we could beat the 2 p.m.
dock shutdown. However, we were required
to store the gear in one room away from the
first event until 4 p.m. when we were allowed
to stage the gear next to the ballroom. I had
hired an eight-man crew for an eight-hour
load-in and four-hour load-out. There were
also two A-1 technicians, one A-2, one backline tech and myself.
The system we brought in for this particular event consisted of a Clair Brothers
12AM monitor rig for the stage and 10 LACOUSTICS 108 self-powered speakers for
a front-of-house system. These 108s were
placed against the upstage wall spaced out
at a distance of approximately 20 feet apart
down the length of the wall, or four per side
with two speakers on stage as near fills for
the dance floor. It was absolutely the perfect
system for the needs of this particular event
since the speakers are low profile and provide
a great sound and coverage. Two ElectroVoice self-powered subs were used on either
side of the stage to handle the low end. The
whole system was driven from one PM5D
placed just outside the ballroom with the
150-foot snake run around the perimeter of
the room from the console to the stage. The
crew worked quickly and efficiently, and with
precision planning, we were set up and ready
to go with 15 minutes to spare.
No Music In the PA
FOH
The distinguished guests filed in and
found their seats. The jazz band took the
stage and smoothly executed such standards
as “Georgia On My Mind” and “What a Wonderful World.” The mix was great, the coverage
was perfect, the volume seemed fine and all
was good in Mudville. That was when one of
the event planners came up to me and asked
to have the sound turned down. I had our
engineer lower the volume, and the event
planner came back to me to tell me that the
music was still too loud. Again, we dropped
the volume, much to the chagrin of the FOH
engineer, only to have the event mistress return and demand that we lower the volume.
We took everything out of the mix except the
vocals, and shortly after that, Dave Weckl informed us that there was no music in the PA.
By the time POW hit the stage, two-thirds
of the room had cleared and the mood was
solemn. The sound was kept in check according to the needs of the grand affair. Regardless of how brilliant the musicians were, how
well we executed the staging of the show,
how superb the system could have sounded
or how astute the engineers were, there are
simply times when one’s ego must be set
aside for the greater good. It’s a humbling
moment, but quite frankly, I would have
probably enjoyed that whole event while
sitting on the crapper.

Coachella Heats Up California Desert

Transcription

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