Strike Over, Shows on Broadway Resume · DECEMBER 2007 Editor’s Note By BillEvans Publisher Terry Lowe [email protected] Editor Bill Evans [email protected] Managing Editor

NILES, IL — Earlier this year, Shure Incorporated worked closely with Chi-nese customs to seize a large quantity of counterfeit Shure microphones that were destined for Indonesia. The investigation by Shure revealed that the Shen Qiao Xing Trading Company, which is based in Shenzhen City, was exporting this large shipment of counterfeit microphones. Subsequently, Shure filed a civil complaint for trademark infringement in the Guang-zhou Intermediate People’s Court against the exporter; judgment is pending.

“This is an industry-wide problem…not just a Shure problem, that we simply will not tolerate,” said Sandy LaMantia, president and CEO of Shure. “For our part, we are committed to fighting it so that our customers are confident every time they purchase a product bearing the Shure name.”

Shure has also been successfully conducting similar operations in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Africa and the United States.

“We encourage our customers to only purchase our products from authorized Shure dealers, whether they’re making an in-store purchase or buying from an on-line seller,” added LaMantia.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Hosted by Neil Young, the annual Bridge School Benefit concerts are unique in one important respect: no backline amplifiers are allowed on stage. As in previous years, organizers of this ultimate unplugged concert series held at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., turned to Hayward-based Sound On Stage for an L-ACOUSTICS loudspeaker system to reinforce the acoustic sets of an eclectic lineup of artists including Metallica, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Waits fronting the Kronos Quartet, John Mayer and, of course, Neil Young.

NEW YORK — Late Wednesday, Nov. 28, IATSE Local One, which represents Broadway stagehands, and the League of American Theaters, whose members own the majority of Broadway theatres, came to an agreement for a new contract governing stagehand labor on Broadway. Both sides declared the contract a success, with important gains for both the stagehands and producers. The contract has not been released yet and still needs to be ratified by the Union membership before it can be officially adopted, but all signs point to that happening. All shows were up and running for curtain on the eve-ning of Thursday, Nov. 29.

Coming in to negotiations, the pro-ducers were seeking to make massive changes to the contract terms that gov-ern how many stagehands need to be hired during the load-in process, which the producers have repeatedly termed “lengthy,” and govern work rules dur-ing the run of the show, in which the producers have accused the union of “featherbedding.”

ORLANDO, FL — There’s a reason Tony Bennett is smiling — his mixer Tom Young just won the 2007 Parnelli Award for FOH Mixer of the Year. But he wasn’t the only backstage hero honored at the Parnelli Awards gala on Friday, Nov. 16, at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Fla. The hundreds in atten-dance constituted a Who’s Who of players in the live event industry, and they all rose to their feet in honor of Lifetime Achievement award winner Gerry Stickells and Audio Innovator award winner Bob Heil. More stars paid their respects to their crews, too, with members of Velvet Revolver, the Steve Miller Band, Queen and Jimi Hendrix’s band offering their kudos via video. For the story on the awards and a full list of winners, check out page 18.

DECEMBER 2007 Vol. 6 No. 3

Parnelli Awards Gala Huge Success

continued on page 7

Not Just Another Tribute Band

Strike Over, Shows on Broadway Resume

Bridge School Benefit Demands Big Sound for Acoustic Show

Ad

info

: http

//ww

w.fo

hh

otim

s.com

No, we haven’t turned into a lampie magazine, but the tribute band Think Floyd has been garnering praise and working at a level most original bands never reach — they opened for Roger Waters, yes, that Roger Waters. So, when we interviewed their FOH mixer (over the strenuous objections of Trip Khalif, who doesn’t believe any Floyd mixer should ever speak to the press — it’s a joke, Trip! A joke, for goodness’ sake!), we figured they deserved a shot on the cover. To find out what it’s like to live-mix entire Floyd albums, including the panning, effects and theatrics, turn to page 14.

Shure Files Complaint Against Chinese Counterfeiters

continued on page 6

THE NEWS MAGAzINE FOR LIVE SOUND

Road TestsBBE serves up its new BBE DS24 speaker processor, and we take a look at the Sensaphonics 3DAA Personal Monitors.

26

24Cool ToolsOur annual gallery of cool audio tools for your holiday wish list.

Theory and Practice This month, we sound off on gates. 31

http://infox.hotims.com/16596-133

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/


Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/


Features

Feature

www.fohonline.com

Go to the wall with Think Floyd and find out what it’s like to mix sound for rock legends — well, sort of.

FOH Interview

Columns

DECEMBER2007, Vol. 6.3

Installations

Oaks Christian High School’s football team kicks butt — so does the school’s new sound system.

Nate D

ura

N Ph

oto

graPh

y

14

20

18 Parnelli Awards CoverageThe 7th Annual Parnelli Awards celebrate the best in our industry.

24 Cool ToolsWe put together a holiday wish list of must-have gear — perfect for hanging on the refrigerator for a subtle hint.

26 Road TestsWe get up close and personal with Sensaphonics 3DAA Personal Monitors and BBE’s DS 24 Speaker Processor.

30 Regional SlantsNorth Carolina’s SE Systems went from good ol’ boys to the big time.

32 Vital StatsWhat is hip? Hear Technologies.

28 Bleeding EdgeWe said we’d shush about wireless audio technology. Well, we lied.

31 Sound SanctuaryHow to employ a godly tech for house of worship installs.

31 Theory & PracticeThis month, we take you to the gates of hell, I mean audio.

32 The Biz Extended stay artists = ka-ching! The impact of Manilow and Dion on the concert biz.

33 AnklebitersWhen it comes to your business, it’s all about location, location, location.

36 FOH-At-LargeSex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll — we get real about life on the road.

2 Feedback 4 Editor’s Note 5 News 8 International News 9 New Gear11 On the Move12 Showtime33 In the Trenches

Departments

HIGH-DEFINITION TELEVISION

GO

LD S

PON

SOR

S

SILV

ER S

PON

SOR

S

PRO

DU

CTIO

N S

PON

SOR

S

Ariel Rigging

All StagingUnlimited

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOUWe would like to take this opportunity to recognize the generous sponsors

who made the Seventh Annual Parnelli Awards such a special event. We couldn’t have done it without you!


DECEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com�

Editor’s NoteBy BillEvans

�

Editor’s Note

PublisherTerry Lowe

[email protected]

EditorBill Evans

[email protected]

Managing EditorGeri Jeter

[email protected]

Associate EditorBreanne George

[email protected]

Technical EditorMark Amundson

[email protected]

Contributing WritersJerry Cobb, Brian Cassell,

Dan Daley, Jamie Rio, Steve LaCerra, Nort Johnson,

David John Farinella, Ted Leamy, Baker Lee,

Bryan Reesman, Tony Mah

PhotographerSteve Jennings

Art DirectorGarret Petrov

[email protected]

Production ManagerLinda Evans

[email protected]

Graphic DesignersCrystal Franklin

[email protected]

David [email protected]

Web Master Josh Harris

[email protected]

National Sales ManagerDan [email protected]

National Advertising DirectorGregory [email protected]

General ManagerWilliam Hamilton Vanyo

[email protected]

Business and Advertising Office

6000 South Eastern Ave.Suite 1�J

Las Vegas, NV 89119 Ph: 702.932.5585 Fax: 702.932.558�

Toll Free: 800.252.2716

CirculationStark ServicesP.O. Box 161�7

North Hollywood, CA 91615

Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 6 Number 3 is published monthly by Timeless Communications Corp., 6000 South Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV, 89119. Periodicals Postage Paid at Las Vegas, NV and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Front Of House, P.O. Box 16147, North Hollywood, CA 91615-6147. Front Of House is dis-tributed free to qualified individuals in the live sound industry in the United States and Canada. Mailed in Canada under Publications Mail Agreement Number 40033037, 1415 Janette Ave., Windsor, ON N8X 1Z1. Overseas subscriptions are available and can be ob-tained by calling 702.932.5585. Editorial submissions are encouraged, but will not be returned. All Rights Reserved. Duplication, transmission by any method of this publication is strictly prohibited without the permission of Front Of House.

Publishers of...

Ad

info

:http

:// foh

.ho

tims.co

m

Last weekend — post turkey/trip-tophan-induced stupor — I had the absolute pleasure of going

to a Tony Bennett show here in Las Ve-gas that was mixed by recent Parnelli award winner Tom Young. After the show, he took us backstage to meet the boss (not something I generally go for, but it was not like it was some wannabe kiddie celeb. Tony Bennett is a f*&%ing legend) and then, cigar and diet coke in hand at the bar, my wife and I hung out with Tom and just shot the shit for a good hour or so.

We talked about gear and gigs and the biz and family and a bunch of other stuff, but one thing he said in passing really struck a chord. Talk-ing about great musicians and how they make our jobs as mixers easier, more fun and more fulfilling he said, “Being an accompanist is an art.” And he is so right. There are a lot of re-ally great musicians out there, but relatively few who can follow a singer and bring something beautiful to the table without getting in the way. You have to do more than hear the singer, you must listen. Hearing you do with your ears. Listening requires using your mind and soul.

It may have stuck with me because of two other recent events. One was the presentation of the Parnelli Audio

Innovator award to Bob Heil, an abso-lute pioneer in the world of live audio, who attributes his success to the fact that he is a good listener and who has been quoted for years as saying that “Hearing is a physical process. Listen-ing is a mental process.”

It drove home the fact that every-one I really respect in this business knows how to listen. That includes mu-sicians, engineers, company owners and, hell, even those lowly lampies.

In contrast was another recent event where a number of sound sys-tems from different manufacturers were set up in the same location and demos were conducted in a kind of round-robin format. I had heard every system out there except one in other settings, so I had some idea of what to expect. But what I expected was not what I got. What I got, unfortunately, was one big, loud, muddy mess.

Systems that I like a lot sounded marginal. Systems that I merely like sounded just plain bad. What was the problem? Not only were most of the engineers — with perhaps one excep-tion — not listening (that process that requires the use of the mind and soul), I don’t even think they were hearing. Hearing requires the use of the ears, and as best as I can tell, most of them were hearing — and mixing — with

another body part that lies south of the waistline.

Does a demo really need to be pushed to 110 dB? How much bass is enough for a freaking blues band? When the whole parking lot starts to hum, is that enough? When a system that costs more than many people spend on a home reminds you of that asswipe in the car with the tinted win-dows and bling wheels that pulls up next to you at the stoplight and shakes YOUR entire car with the bass from HIS system, is that a good thing?

I know some of us, especially those of the male persuasion, can get pretty uber-competitive, and everyone there wanted to show what their system could do. But this event turned into one messy “mine’s bigger than yours” throwdown. And the winner is?

No one.

Mixing with theWrong Appendage


�2007 DECEMBERwww.fohonline.com

News

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

TORONTO — ACS Productions Sound and Lighting Inc. of Ontario, Canada, recently de-ployed its new M.LINE compact line array rig for Toronto’s version of the worldwide Sen-hora de Luz (or Lady of Lights) festival.

Working with local provider 5 Star Pro-ductions, the two companies teamed up for the four-day event. Steve Ferreira of 5 Star Productions said it was his first experience with the ACS M.LINE rig. “We’ve been doing this celebration about eight years,” he says. “What’s great is that it’s free to the public and goes on for about four days. St. Matthews Church throws the event for the parish every year, but this is the first year we decided to use a line array system to reach all in atten-dance.”

He continues, “I contacted Carlos Costa at ACS, and he helped me put together the right rig for the festival. Our event coordinators were beyond impressed with the results of

the show and have confidently booked next year’s festival with the same setup.”

Costa provided 5 Star Productions with a total of 18 M.LINE cells for the show. With nine boxes per side, Ferreira was working with 14 M90s and four M120s. “I also supplied Steve a Midas Verona 36-channel console, with a DBX 482 drive rack and Crown 3600s to power the whole system. It was truly amazing to see how such a small box could cover an outdoor event so well,” says Costa.

A major part of the decision to purchase the M.LINE Array was the short amount of time it takes to set up. “Not only does it sound phe-nomenal,” Costa explains, “but you can’t beat the price, you can’t beat the rigging and you

definitely can’t beat the quality for the price. Period. As soon as the stage was set up, it took about 15 minutes to fly the whole array for this event. I can’t do that with any other rig. It was absolutely mind blowing on how little time was spent in getting this ready for the show.”

Liberato “Lee” Correia, sound engineer and event photographer for ACS, has been con-tacted by surrounding production companies regarding the system. “It’s interesting, other people in the industry have contacted us to talk about how well the concert was dialed in and how great all the gigs have sounded since we’ve been using this line array system for pro-duction. After the Lady of Lights, the M.LINE really started generating a lot of interest.”

Audio Praised at Festival of Lights

The stage and rig for the Festival of Lights

Bull Durham Blues Festival Jams Out

DURHAM, NC — Presented by the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation Inc., the 20th annual Bull Durham Blues Festival was held at the historic Durham Athletic Park in downtown Durham and featured a lineup of blues and R&B legends, including Buddy Guy, Booker T. & The MGs, Percy Sledge, Shemekiah Copeland, Big Bill Morganfield (Muddy Waters’ son), Betty Pride and a host of North Carolina blues artists.

According to Raleigh Music Brokerage’s Cooper Cannady, a longtime audio provider for the festival, “The weather was excellent, and on Friday night, they set a record for attendance with 12,800 people filling the entire park. The night before, they had an excellent tribute show at another venue celebrating the 20th year of the festival, which honored Piedmont and Carolina blues legends John Dee Holman, Joe Thompson and the late Etta Baker.”

Asked about the audio challenges for this year’s blues and roots music get-together, Cannady describes one significant change: “We had been talking to the client about reconsidering everything, a new look, new stage, everything. After a course of three years, we finally got them into a mobile stage, which tightened up the sightlines, gave us more room and brought the visual focus into the stage. And with that stage, we could fly line arrays without having them look obtrusive. It gave us a nice clean look, with excellent ac-cess, and the company we used for the mobile stage, Main Stage, did a terrific job.”

To provide maximum audio quality and coverage from the front to the back of the crowd, RMB flew nine Martin Audio W8LC compact line arrays.

As Cooper explains, “We really needed cov-erage from 15 feet in front of the stage at the barricade lip to 400 feet back, and we didn’t even need to go that far because we wanted to keep it enclosed in the park. Nine W8LCs gave us a very comfortable level, and everywhere you walked, the coverage was absolutely seam-less. It really sounded exceptional, all the way to 400 feet back within the park without any of the concert sound going into the neighborhood, which was important. The nice part was that the sound stayed on the field and all the seats.”

In addition to six Martin Audio W8S subs a side, LE700 biamped wedges and S18 drum subs, the sound system consisted of Yamaha M7CL consoles for front of house and monitor-ing, Lab.gruppen and Chevin Research amps, BSS Minidrives and a microphone comple-ment that included Shure UHF wireless with Beta 87 capsules, Shure Beyer, Sennheiser, Crown and AKG.



News

Ad

info

:http

:// foh

.ho

tims.co

m

COHASSET and HYANNIS, MA — The South Shore Music Circus and its sister venue, the Cape Cod Melody Tent, stand tall as the last two continuously operating in-the-round tent theatres in the U.S. Meyer Sound M’elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers were recent-ly installed at both historic venues.

“These tents might be the hardest rooms in the country in which to achieve quality

sound,” says Dave Wentling, produc-tion manager for the South Shore Music Circus. “You’re working in the round, in a reflective vinyl tent. There’s a cement floor and 2,300 hard parabolic curves — the seat backs — aimed right back at the stage dur-ing sound check. Part of my job is to help engineers deal with these chal-lenges, and it was frustrating until we acquired the new M’elodie system.

In-the-round live concerts are a relatively new concept, originating with 360-degree venues built for the-atrical productions. Ever since English progressive rock group Yes held the first in-the-round concert in the mid 1970s, sound designers and engineers such as Lars Brogaard and Francois Desjardin have worked through signif-icant acoustical challenges to evolve this concept into a working success.

Now, a number of high-profile artists, including Rod Stewart, Celine Dion and comedian Dane Cook, have all performed in-the-round using Meyer Sound equipment.

“For years, I’ve recommended six short-throw line arrays, preferably positioned in a circle around the stage, to give us uniform coverage and allow alternating left-right-left feeds for stereo imaging,” says Wentling. This year, Wentling got his wish after teaming up with Bill Blaine, head of the new WHB Concert Production in Hampstead, N.H., to determine potential loudspeaker solutions.

After visiting Meyer Sound factory in Berkeley, Calif., and consulting with its De-sign Services team, Wentling was convinced that the M’elodie systems, combined with Meyer Sound’s innovative digital audio pro-cessing, would provide the power and clarity needed for the historic music tents.

WHB installed both systems before the opening of the 2007 summer season. “It’s the best thing that has ever happened to this venue,” says Wentling. “It gives us smooth transitions for seamless coverage, which is something we’d never seen the likes of in here before.

Wentling used Meyer Sound’s MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program to determine proper positioning of the six M’elodie arrays. A Galileo loudspeaker management system splits the signal, feed-ing each six-cabinet array into three zones: three cabinets to cover the rear of the venue, two to cover the middle and one cabinet for downfill. Wentling also sets delays in Galileo to obtain a cardioid coverage pattern from four flown 600-HP compact high-power subwoofers.

“The main challenge in both ven-ues was creating good, uniform sound throughout the tent, and also containing the sound, the bass in particular, so as not to disturb the neighbors,” says Blaine. “The Meyer system allows us to successfully at-tain both of those goals.

Wentling is pleased to see an end to the venues’ ongoing sonic difficulties. “We had constant problems with sound

washing back on stage and creating feed-back,” he says. “Now that the vertical coverage is so tight and uniform, the feedback problems are gone. And that’s even with the bottom M’elodie pointed almost straight down at the first row, which we do because there’s no room for fill on the stage lip.

The air absorption compensation filter-ing provided by the Galileo system has also proved valuable to Wentling when switch-ing from an afternoon sound check to an evening show in the non-air-conditioned South Shore Music Circus. “It’s hot and hu-mid in the room for sound check, but both temperature and humidity go way down for the evening shows,” he says. “The Galileo allows me to re-equalize the room to compensate for those changes.”

Audio systems for both tents are large-ly limited to the Meyer Sound “stacks and racks,” as most acts tour with their own FOH gear. For those that do not, WHB Concert Production provides two Yamaha PM5D con-soles that shuttle between the two venues for FOH and monitor duties.

Established in 1950, South Shore Play-house Associates (of which both “tents” are part) is a not-for-profit organization dedi-cated to encouraging and supporting arts, cultural and educational organizations throughout the communities of the South Shore and Cape Cod. Since its inception, the association has donated more than $2 million to arts education programs in the region.

Tent Theatres Upgrade Permanent Sound

A band performs inside the Cape Cod Melody Tent.

By some estimates, the producers were looking for a 38% cut in jobs and wages. Furthermore, although the producers seemed shocked that the Union would strike, they had been quietly building up a $20 million defense fund by directing to the fund a few cents from each ticket sold.

It takes a long time to build up $20 million a few pennies at a time. The producers’ requested cuts, combined with their combative attitude toward negotiations (accusing the union of “featherbedding” means corruption at worst, and laziness at best), and a public misinforma-tion campaign (at least one paper disparagingly — and erroneously — reported that the aver-age stagehand salary was $150,000, due to info from producers) led the Union to believe it was

under attack, and the only way to protect its members was to strike. So, on Nov. 10, it did, for the first time in its 121-year history.

In a statement released on Nov. 11, James J. Claffey Jr., the president of Local One, apologized for the disruption of the theatre schedule, but stated, “Broadway is a billion dollar a year industry and has never been more profitable than now. Cuts in our jobs and wages will never result in a cut in ticket prices to benefit the public, but only in an increase in the profits for producers. Unlike the producers, we are not fighting for our second or third homes; we are fight-ing to keep the one that we have. We ask for your understanding in our efforts to defend ourselves and protect our families.”

To cut to the heart of the dispute, it helps to take a closer look at what divided the Union and the League as negotiations broke down: the load-in period and work rules during the run of a show.

The League has called the load-in period “lengthy” and wishes to reduce the number of stagehands called. While it’s hard to get exact numbers on approximately how long a load-in and tech period goes (specific num-bers change on a show-to-show basis, and I couldn’t get a response from the League or the Union — plus, it doesn’t seem as if any-one else tracks it), talking with stagehands and designers who have worked on Broad-way, you would be hard-pressed to find a load-in period that lasted longer than four weeks. I spoke to some people involved with a current prominent Broadway show, and they estimated that the load-in and tech for that show lasted approximately six weeks. That’s six weeks to load a 20-ton lift into a theatre that’s over 100 years old, build the set on it, figure out how to fly the actors in and out, program all the automation and cues for the moving set pieces, lights, sound, etc., and then rehearse with live actors to make sure it all works — in six weeks. The load-in itself was approximately four weeks. That show had been playing on Broadway for one year when the strike hit — 52 weeks. Which means the load-in period is already less than 8% of the time the show has spent making money. As it continues to run, that number will only get smaller. So exactly how is that “lengthy”?

Granted, this show was special. This show was a hit and had an open-ended run available to it. The load-in for limited-run shows will be a greater percentage of time — but the Union has already shown its flex-ibility in working with these types of shows

in its dealings with something like Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Musical! — where the Union made changes to the contract to allow more shows so the produc-ers could recoup.

But what if the show’s a flop, like say, High Fidelity, which played earlier this year for ap-proximately one week? Well, why should the Broadway stagehands take measures to reduce the producers’ risk, if the producers are not willing to share the rewards of that risk? By try-ing to change the work rules, producers were trying to cut the Union in two ways: by reduc-ing the pay on the in, and reducing — in the long run — the pay when a show is successful. The Union fought to make sure its members weren’t put at risk financially or health-wise, by ensuring that the proper — safe — amount of crew was on hand at all times.

Everyone benefits when a show is suc-cessful — when the marquees are lit along Broadway. But the producers came in to the negotiations attempting to convince the Union to accept a deal that would put an undue assumption of risk on the stage-hands (both in terms of safety due to lack of a proper crew and less money to support themselves) without a willingness to share any of the rewards (cutting pay for stage-hands) when a show was successful. Fur-thermore, they had planned this for years and knew exactly what they were asking the Union to give up.

Now that it’s over, we can be happy that both sides feel an equitable contract has been reached, but during negotiations, both sides have claimed it wasn’t about the money, it was about respect and fairness — but when you look at what the producers were trying to do with the money, it’s easy to see why the Union didn’t feel much respect.

continued from coverStrike Over, Shows on Broadway Resume


News

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

Sound On Stage has provided P.A. systems and engineers for nearly every production of the event over the decades and has for the past sev-eral years specified L-ACOUSTICS products as the P.A. of choice.

“We are a huge fan of L-ACOUSTICS line source array, side-fill and stage monitoring systems,” says SOS General Manager George Edwards, who act-ed as FOH second engineer during the acoustic concerts. “We flew ten V-DOSC and four dV-SUB cabinets per side, with an additional four SB218 subwoofers ground-stacked and four ARCS cabi-nets flown per side as side-fills.” Four more ARCS cabinets were provided per side, arrayed hori-zontally on the stage floor as in/outside fills. “We also used 10 115XT HiQ bi-amplified coaxial stage monitors,” Edwards adds.

Sound On Stage’s GM cites five reasons why he’s such a huge fan of L-ACOUSTICS’ designs. “First, the V-DOSC and ARCS systems offer out-standing intelligibility; I can rely upon them to provide exceptional fidelity throughout the per-formance space,” he says. “Second, they are also very coherent, producing even sound coverage across a wide area; third, they are steerable and focused, allowing us to put sound only where we need to; and, fourth, they are very powerful and capable of throwing sound to the far audience sections. Finally, they are flexible; we can use our L-ACOUSTICS rigs on everything from jazz to hard rock. These systems aren’t pigeonholed; they handle a lot of gigs for us. We were very pleased with the results at the recent Bridge School Benefit concerts. Neil Young congratu-lated us on the sound performance and told us that it went flawlessly.”

SOS Chief Engineer Dennis Deem adds that the company regularly supplies sound systems to Shoreline Amphitheatre, which seats up to 25,000 patrons. “With a lot of open mics onstage during the recent Bridge School Benefit, we needed an uncluttered P.A. that was very directional. The ARCS cabinets we arrayed on the side were particularly appropriate, because of their tight coverage pat-terns. Despite the fact that the rehearsals and sound checks took place in an empty amphitheatre — and one that features a lot of reverberant concrete and plastic seating — the event went very well.”

“L-ACOUSTICS line source arrays always sound very nice,” says Deem. “These systems are also extremely flexible and work for all of our needs. We can run them wide open — they get very loud — but without ear fatigue; even at 110 dB levels at the mix position, the V-DOSC array sounds extremely clean.”

For the 2007 Bridge School Benefit, Sound On Stage ran more than 150 lines from the stage to three separate FOH consoles and 45 lines back to the three stage consoles for monitoring. Young’s recording truck, parked backstage, also recorded the concert for archiving and Apple iTunes down-loads via another console and Pro Tools setup.

Proceeds from the concert each year benefit the Bridge School, an education program dedicated to ensuring that children with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative and alterna-tive means of communication (AAC) and as-sistive technology (AT) applications. More in-formation on the program and annual concert can be found at www.bridgeschool.org.

Bridge School Benefit Demands Big Sound for Acoustic Show continued from cover

BUENA PARK, CA — Singer/composer Loreena McKennitt embarked on a North American tour in support of her latest studio re-cording An Ancient Muse and recent DVD/CD re-lease Nights from the Alhambra. In turn, her tour is supported by Allstar Show Industries, which

has office locations in Western Canada: Ed-monton, Calgary and Vancouver. Clive Alcock, one of three directors of the company, mixes front of house for the tour with audio support by a Yamaha PM5D-RH connected to the new DSP5D Expander via a Yamaha DCU5D. Two

PM5D-RH consoles are used for monitors with an Aviom interface card in one of the PM5Ds.

With nine musicians on stage, plus McK-ennitt delivering around 70 source channels to front of house and monitors, Alcock says he strives for the clearest and best sound possible. All the consoles and the Yamaha DSP5D are run-ning at 96 kHz. Having specified digital consoles since around 1998, when Allstar determined digital consoles were viable for live mixing, Al-cock says his experience with digital dates back to a Yamaha 02R. He’s been mixing on a Yamaha PM5D-RH for about six years and has used the Yamaha DM1000, DM2000 and PM1D, as well as consoles from other manufacturers.

“A very important thing for me is that the console can be run at 96 kHz,” says Alcock. “To my ear, there is a significant difference in audio quality between 48 kHz and 96 kHz, so I always run Yamaha PM5Ds at 96 kHz. I also think it is the deciding factor between the PM5D and the other professional digital mix-ing consoles that are out in the market. The difference is particularly noticeable when

mixing a lot of channels. The current tour input list is based around 72 inputs, which means two consoles at front of house and two monitor consoles on stage. Typically, we do theatre shows, and every seat that is not used for front of house equipment is poten-tial revenue for the show.”

“The Yamaha PM5D-DSP5D system sounds even, clear and very neutral, which works well for me because there is an amazing array of sounds that come off the stage,” Alcock adds. “If the system sounds colored, then it compro-mises the individual tonalities of many of the instruments and makes the mix a lot cloudier.”

The tour uses a Meyer P.A. with Milo cabs for front end and CQ2 and M1D for down and front fill, respectively. The downstage moni-tors are Meyer UM1 and UPA speakers; most of the backline musicians use ear monitors controlled by Aviom personal mixing sta-tions. Microphones include Neumann KSM-105s, AKG C-535 and C-2000s, Shure Beta 98, Beta 91 and Beta 57, along with Audio Tech-nica PRO-35R and PRO-37R.

Loreena McKennitt Tours with an Ancient Muse

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, IL — Modest Mouse has been touring most of the year in support of the band’s CD, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. FOH Mixer Jason Raboin and Monitor Engineer Myles Kennedy are using a gear package from Thunder Audio, based out of Taylor, Mich., that includes a Digide-sign Profile console, combination Meyer MJF-212s and Nexo Alphas (wedges and side fills), and a Midas XL250 monitor board. Also, along at every stop are Heil microphones in-cluding PR 30s PR 40s and PR 35s.

“I put the small Heil mics on the toms of one kit, and love them,” Ra-boin says. “They have a softness to them that is really pleasing to the ear. Those mounts are fantastic, and with a few turns of the screwdriver, they stay in place quite nicely. Of course, the other drummer asked why he doesn’t get the cool new mics, so I found myself adding more Heil mics to the drums. I also use the Heil PR 30s on the guitar rigs.”

Modest Mouse Boasts About Mics

Clive Alcock at FOH




International News

LEDBURY, ENGLAND — Dobson Sound Produc-tions supplied the audio infrastructure for all the Big Chill festival stages for the first time this year and took the opportunity to make Big Chill all digi-tal for the first time.

Five DiGiCo con-soles were deployed, a D5 at front of house on the Open Air stage, D5s at both FOH and moni-tors on the Castle Stage

and D1s at FOH on the Sanctuary Stage and in the Big Chill Nights tent.

“As we were providing sound for all the stages, it made sense to follow our instincts and go digital through-out,” says Dobson Sound Managing Director Paul Dobson. “I t was a bit of a step, but it went very well.

“ We chose to use the DiGiCo con-soles for several reasons, not least of which is that they sound really good,” he continues. “ They are also very flex-ible — we already use them on a wide variety of projects, and Big Chill was further proof to us that here was an-

other environment in which they ex-cel. Another important thing was that they are very user fr iendly. The way they are laid out is fair ly conventional in a lot of ways, so they don’t tend to phase band engineers who come into a festival situation and have never used one before.”

The consoles were controlling flown d&b P.A. systems on all stages — J series on the Open Air stage and a combination of other types, mainly Q series, on the others. The DiGiCo con-soles also minimized the amount of outboard that was carried.

“Apart from a few channels of valve compression and Lexicon reverb on the two biggest stages, all processing was done using the onboard effects, which saved both space and time,” says Dob-son. “We really got the most of what we could from them.”

DiGiCo’s Technical Sales Manager Tim Shaxson was on site for the whole weekend, and he also brought along an ADK MADIcorder. “I took it along at the behest of Jerry Damas and the Spatial AKA orchestra,” says Shaxson. “But once people realized it was there, I recorded a number of other acts, in-cluding Red Snapper and Ted Barnes. Their engineer, Darius Kedros, loved the concept of recording 56 channels with one BNC cable.”

Paul Dobson pronounced himself very pleased with the per formance of the DiGiCo consoles and expects next year ’s Big Chill to feature a similar high DiGiCo profile.

“ Weather wise, we had a bit of ever ything throughout the week-end, and they were absolutely f ine,” Dobson says. “ I ’d have absolutely no qualms about using them as fest ival consoles again. I can’t see any reason why we would want to do anything different next year.

Engineers Warm Up to Console at Big Chill Festival

Ad

info

:http

:// ww

w.p

lsn.co

m/in

stant-in

fo

Celestion and Group One Ltd. Celebrate

IPSWICH, U.K., — Celestion and Group One Ltd. are celebrating their 10th an-niversary as partners with an impressive 25% year-on-year increase in distribution sales. Group One has operated as prima-ry distributor of Celestion premium gui-tar, bass and professional audio speakers to dealers and retailers in North America since October 1997. Both companies ex-pect this relationship will continue for many more years.

Jack Kelly, Group One president, wel-comed the news of this significant an-niversary. “Celestion is a successful and high-profile loudspeaker brand,” he says. “In 1997, Group One felt it could take the distribution sales to the next level throughout the U.S. and Canada, and over the past 10 years have had consid-erable success doing so.”

Celestion General Manager Nigel Wood identified the consistency of this partnership over a 10-year period as a principal factor contributing to a signifi-cant increase in sales.

New Young Pony Club plays at The Big Chill Fest.


QSC Installation Line Array

Aimed squarely at the house of worship and performance venue install markets, the QSC WideLine WL2082-i Installation Line Array uses a pair of high-power, neodymium magnet, eight -inch diameter low-frequency drivers in a two-and-a-half way configuration. Both woofers produce low frequencies, but only one covers the midrange, which reportedly results in more uniform directivity in the crossover region. For high frequencies, a pair of 1.75-inch (voice-coil diameter) neodymium compression drivers with titanium domes is mounted on a multiple aperture diffraction waveguide and is designed to provide 140-degree coverage.

The system may be used in bi-amplified or tri-amplified mode. The low-frequency range of a WL2082-i array will be adequate for speech, voice and many acoustic music uses. For reinforcement of program material with more demanding low-frequency content, a companion subwoofer, the WL115-sw, is also available. The WL115-sw is a 15-inch subwoofer using a fourth order, bandpass enclosure. Tooled ports with gently rounded terminations inside and out eliminate port turbulence distortion. Mesh grilles are integrated into the port design to obstruct the entrance of foreign objects into the enclosure.

Available in black or white, the WL2082-i enclosure is made of high-impact polysty-rene with extensive internal ribs to eliminate acoustic losses due to sidewall flex. The Installation Line Array may be used in outdoor applications where the system is not directly exposed to the elements. The enclosure material is formulated with UV inhibi-tors; the grille is made of aluminum and the woofer cones are weather resistant.

QSC Audio • www.qscaudio.com

Soundcraft Adds EtherSound to Vi Series

Following the development of the Studer EtherSound inter-face card, Soundcraft and Ether-Sound network developer Digi-gram have announced a similar interface card for the Soundcraft Vi4 and Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound consoles.

Designed with versions to fit into either the Vi Series Local Rack or Stagebox, the card will allow up to 128 channels of audio (64 inputs/64 outputs) to be connected to the rack via a single Cat5 connection. A second Cat5 connection allows daisy chain or redundant ring topologies, the latter allowing for the network to remain uninterrupted should a cable be broken. One of the advantages of EtherSound in the live sound do-main is its extremely low latency.

Inputs and outputs can be patched internally within the console on its own routing screens. Digigram’s own control software can be used to route signals between different EtherSound-enabled devices over a standard Ethernet network.

Soundcraft • www.soundcraft.com

New Gear

Zaxcom STA200 Microphone Input Adaptor

It’s one of those things you almost never need, but that ONE time you need it, it will make life a lot easier. Zaxcom’s STA200 microphone input adaptor is tailored for use in dance and theatrical applications and allows you to transmit multiple audio channels from a single body pack. The new adaptor expands on the feature set of Zaxcom’s popular TRX900 wireless microphone trans-ceiver by allowing the production staff to connect two additional microphones for a total of three microphones supported by just one unit.

The STA200 has two auxiliary microphone connectors facing downward for mounting on a performer’s tap shoes during theatrical and dance presentations. The signals from these two microphones are mixed together for transmission on a discrete channel. A vocal microphone also is connected to the TRX900 and transmits on a second channel for a total of three microphones on a single performer. The Zaxcom receiver will output the two discrete channels, ensuring that the tap shoe audio is completely separate from the vocal channel.

In addition to supporting additional inputs, the STA200 also includes an audio out-put to support an earpiece. This output is can be used as a click track to keep dancers in perfect time or to communicate staging instructions directly to the performers.

Zaxcom • www.zaxcom.com

Worx M80i Installation Line Array

A member of WorxAudio Technologies’ TrueLine Series, the new M80i is a two-way, ultra compact line array loudspeaker system designed for natural sounding reproduction of speech and music program material. This new loudspeaker system is designed for a wide variety of sound reinforcement applications, including corporate/industrial presentation venues, performance venues and clubs, houses of worship, theatres and AV production.

It incorporates a medium format, one-inch exit compression driver coupled to a stabilized proprietary FlatWave Former (wave shaping device). Dual eight-inch cone transducers coupled to the (A.I.M.) Acoustic Intergrading Module minimize cone filtering throughout the entire operating range and are designed to provide a rich, fully balanced sound with a frequency range that spans from 300 Hz to 18 kHz.

The loudspeaker enclosure is constructed from sturdy multi-ply Baltic Birch and is heavily braced for cabinet rigidity. Protecting the enclosure is a multi-layered, catalyzed polyurethane finish — available in black or white — designed to withstand the most demanding conditions. A 16–gauge, perforated, cloth-backed and powder-coated steel grill with a high transmission ratio protects the transducer complement.

Worx Audio • www.worxaudio.com

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

Ad

info

:http

:// foh

.ho

tims.co

m



Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/


Richard Markus has accepted the position of division manager of the music instrument division of American Music & Sound, a Cali-fornia pro audio and musical instrument distributor. Markus will be responsible for op-erations of the AM&S/MI division, in addition to managing the sales and marketing for the company’s proprietary guitar and bass brand Jay Turser, the distribution scheme for Hag-strom guitars, Walden Quik Lok instrument stands and other current and future brands to be distributed by the division.

Markus was most recently president of EMD Music Inc. from its inception in Novem-ber 2002. Prior to that, he was president of MAPEX USA.

DiGiCo has appointed Marketing Con-cepts as its new U.S. representative to cover Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Founded by Bruce Marlin 20 years ago, the firm focuses on comprehensive customer support. “When I started the company, the Southwest already had a lot of rep firms. But they were all sales-oriented, whereas I want-ed one that came from a technical perspec-tive,” says Marlin. “I have been impressed with the new DiGiCo management and their vision

of the future. I like the direction that the com-pany is going in; it works very well with the other manufacturers we represent,” he says.

Hosa Technology announces the promo-tion of Ben Sweeney to the position of opera-tions manager. In his new capacity, Sweeney will be charged with overseeing Hosa’s internal systems and processes, which includes develop-ment of the company’s Web site and catalog ma-terials. He will also serve as the liaison between internal departments and third-party provid-ers, including manufacturer’s representatives. Further, Sweeney will be responsible for imple-menting data management and warehouse pro-cedures as well as coordinating the company’s international distributors in the areas of sales and marketing.

Possessing an extensive background in the music products and consumer electronics industries, including positions as sales and product manager with several prominent companies, Sweeney brings a wealth of experience to his new position at Hosa. Most recently, he was the national retail sales manager for Sibelius Software of Australia. Prior to that, he served as national sales manager for Intelliware Australia.

LMG Inc., a national provider of video, au-dio and lighting support with offices in Orlando, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, has hired Scott Sherrer

as sales engineer for the firm’s system integration division. Sherrer’s duties will include developing new business, maintain-ing client communica-tion and advising clients on the optimal equip-ment to meet design and budget needs.

Sherrer previously worked for LMG as an installation technician from 2000–2003 and has freelanced for the firm during the last several years.

Meyer Sound an-nounces the appoint-ment of Bob Langlois to the position of senior technical support repre-sentative. Langlois will be providing technical support and design ser-vices and will also join the company’s worldwide education program to teach seminars on audio concepts and real world applications. A pro audio veteran with more than 30 years experience, Langlois joins Meyer Sound from Audio Analysts in Colorado, where he held the positions of vice president of worship design and senior project manager. Langlois has de-signed and managed the sound system installa-tions at some of the best known churches in the country, including Phoenix First Assembly and Jubilee Fellowship Church. His career has also in-cluded positions with MXR, Whirlwind and other manufacturers in the audio industry.

Meyer Sound also announces that audio system design, analy-sis and tuning author-ity Bob McCarthy has joined the company in the position of senior design consultant to work on the design of Constellation electroacoustic architecture, the company’s newest technology. McCarthy was an early employee at Meyer Sound and was in-strumental in the development of the company’s SIM source independent measurement system.

He also taught the first “SIM School,” which later evolved into Meyer Sound’s ongoing education program. Besides working on Constellation, Mc-Carthy will continue his involvement with Meyer Sound’s worldwide seminar series.

Ultimate Support, a designer and manufacturer of music accessories, announces additions to its new managerial team: Jeff Moore as vice president of Sales, Chris Zerbe as director of Sales and Marketing, and Robin Slaton as director of Design/Marketing. Collectively, the trio brings a wealth of experience and expertise from MI, Pro Audio and consumer soft-case goods industries.

As VP of Sales, Jeff Moore will manage Ultimate Support’s three sales markets — U.S., International and OEM — as well as oversee Customer Support. Moore comes to Ultimate Support after a nine-year tenure at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

In his role as director of Sales and Marketing, Chris Zerbe’s responsibilities will include the design, implementation and management of company sales and rep training programs. Previously, Zerbe served as western regional sales manager with Line 6 and as national sales manager with Event Electronics.

Ultimate Support also welcomes back Robin Slaton as director of Design/Marketing. During his original tenure, Slaton designed Ultimate Support’s popular products including the TS-90 TeleLock Speaker Stands, TS-80 Speaker Stands, Genesis Guitar Stands, IQ X-Stands and Colorado Custom Microphone Stands. Over the course of his career, he has designed products, for prominent corporations, including HP, Toshiba, Sony, Hummer, Canon, Apple, Microsoft, SanDisk, Roland, Creative Labs and T-Mobile.

On the Move

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

Bob Langlois

Bob McCarthy

Richard Markus

(Left to Right) Robin Slaton, director of Design/Marketing Jeff Moore, vice president of Sales; CEO Mike Belitz; Chris Zerbe, director of Sales & Marketing.

Scott Sherrer

Dear Tom:

Congratulations on the Parnelli Award and Thank You for All of Your Hard Work.

You’re Our ‘Live Sound Engineer’ of the Year Everyday.

Tony Bennett, Vance Anderson, Paul Langosch, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones, and Lee Musiker


Showtime

Soundco KPS

Countdown to Kickoff: 100 Days and Counting

SoundcoVideo West, Inc.

Showtime

AugustFest ST

Venue Lake County FairgroundsGrayslake, IL

CREWFOH Engineer: Brad Galvin Monitor Engineer: Jim LichSystems Engineer: Brad GalvinSystems Techs: Ron Wirth, Brad Galvin

GEARFOH Console: Yamaha PM5DSpeakers: (16) Meyer Milo 90, (16) 700HPAmps: Meyer Processing: Meyer GalileoMics: Beyer, AKG, Sennheiser, Shure Power Distro: Motion LabsRigging: CMSnake Assemblies: Whirlwind

MONConsoles: Yamaha PM5DSpeakers: MacPherson, MeyerAmps: Crown Micro-TechProcessing: Yamaha PM5D

Soundco STS Concert Sound,

TC Furlong

ST

Homecoming Concert: Common & Ben JelenST Soundco Boulevard Pro

VenueSt. John’s UniversityQueens, NY

CREWFOH Engineer: Anthony Cioffi Monitor Engineer: Bob PotankaSystems Engineer: Harry Shue Production Manager: Vernon Perrone

GEAR FOH Console: Yamaha M7CL-48 Speakers: L-ACOUSTICS dV Dosc line array, dV Subs, L-ACOUSTICS 218 Subs Amps: Lab.gruppen Processing: (2) XTA 224 Mics: Sennheiser, Shure UHF-R, Shure RF Power Distro: Lex Products

MON Console: Yamaha PM5D Monitors: L-ACOUSTICS 112P, 115P, Dynacord Cobra-4 line array sidefill Amps: L-ACOUSTICS self-powered, Dynacord

Venue Westgate City CenterGlendale, AZ

CREWFOH Engineer: Burt West Monitor Engineer: Phil ReynoldsSystems Engineers: Todd Eldridge, Chad AndersonEvent Production: Entertainment Solutions, Inc.Video/Audio: Video West, Inc.

GEARFOHConsole: Crest Century VX52, Midas Heritage 3000

Speakers: (4) EAW 695E speaker front fill cabinets, (16) EAW SB1000 subwoofers, (18) JBL Vertec 4888 line arrayAmps: BSS FDS-366 Omni Drive system processors, (6) Crown I-T4000s, (14) I-T6000s, (1) Crown MA3600VZ, 2 Crown MA2400VZ, Video West Proprietary Phase Coherent DSPProcessing: dbx, Lexicon, Klark Teknik, Manley, TC Electronics

MON Console: Yamaha PM5D 48-channel digital mixing consoleSpeakers: (3) Apogee AE-12 subwoofers, (16) EAW SM200 monitors, (2) EAW 695E speaker side fill cabinets, (7) station in-ear

monitor systemAmps: Crown 4 I-T4000s, (8) I-T6000s, Crown MA3600VZ, (2) MA2400VZ, BSS FDS-366 Omni Drive system processors computer/wireless networked, Video West Proprietary Phase coherent DSP Processing: dbx, Lexicon, TC Electronics, Klark Teknik, ManleyMics: Beyer, Sennheiser, Shure UHF R-J5 series Snakes: WhirlwindPower Distro: Motion Labs custom power distribution

DECEMBER 200712 www.fohonline.com

You don’t need to steal a copy ofGet your own Subscription!

It’s FREEJust go to www.fohonline.com/subscribe to start your own personal subscription

www.fohonline.comwww.fohonline.com

http://www.fohonline.com/suscribe

Minnesota State Youth Convention ST

Venue Taylor ArenaRochester, MN

CREWFOH Engineer: Greg KneprathMonitor Engineer: Brendan WickstromSystems Engineer: Peter JohnsonProduction Manager: Steve KneprathSystems Techs: Dave Hartman, Tracy Paulson

GEARFOHConsole: Mackie TT24Speakers: Community SLS920 w/ATM FlywareAmps: QSC PowerlightProcessing: BSS, Community Mics: Audio Technica, Shure Power Distro: Motion LabsRigging: CM Lodestar 1-tonSnake Assemblies: RamTech

MONSpeakers: Agape (wedges), Sennhesier (P.M.)Amps: QSCProcessing: ShureMics: Audio Technica, Shure, Power Distro: Motion Labs

Soundco

KPS

Pepe Aguilar/Joan Sebastian U.S. Tour 2007ST

CREWFOH Engineers: Jean Smit, Ingeniero Tarugo Monitor Engineers: Miguel Angel Cruz, Andy Schuler Systems Engineer: Mike GutierrezProduction Manager: Manny GutierrezSystems Tech: Luis Acosta

GEARFOHConsole: (2) Yamaha PM5D-RHSpeakers: (12) ASL Dual 18” subwoofer, (6) EAW JF29036, JBL VerTec VT4889 Amps: (24) Crown I-T8000, (8) Crown MA5002Processing: (2) dbx Driverack 4800Power Distro: (2) Nutech 3-phase 200 amp

Rigging: (8) 1-ton motorBreakout Assemblies: (5) ASL 16-ch sub-box, (4) ASL 16-ch sub-box Snake Assemblies: ASL custom 56-ch 2-way split, ASL custom 40-ch 2-way split

MONConsoles: (1) Midas Venice, 320 (2) Yamaha PM5D-RH Speakers: (2) ASL “W-Bin” sidefill subwoofer, (11) ASL 2-way 15” wedge, (4) ASL 3-way sidefill, (2) ASL “W-Bin” sidefill subwoofer, (2) Shure PSM700, (18) Shure PSM600HW, (11) Shure PSM 600HW Amps: (1) Crest Pro6001, (8) Crest Pro7001, (2) Crest Pro8001Processing: dbx Driverack 482Mics: AKG, Sennheiser, ShurePower Distro: 1 Nutech 3-phase 200 amp

Soundco Atlas Sound and Lighting

13www.fohonline.com 2007 DECEMBER

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

Venue St. Matthews Church Parking Lot Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CREWFOH Engineer: Steve Ferreira, 5 Star ProductionsSystems Engineer/Production Manager: Carlos Costa, ACSFOH Systems Techs: Mark Radu, PA Plus

GEARFOHConsole: (1) Midas Verona 32 ChannelSpeakers: McCauley Sound M.LINE Series 14 M90 and 4 M120Amps: (8) Crown MA3600Processing: (2) dbx driverack 482

Mics: (2) Shure U4D wireless mic kitsPower Distro: PA Plus 2-phase distroRigging: (2) McCauley Sound MB1 Flying BumperBreakout Assemblies: (1) PA Plus custom splice Snake Assemblies: 32-channel radial

MONSpeakers: (2) EAW LA 215Amps: (1) Crown XTiProcessing: System Architect 1.4Power Distro: PA Plus 2-phase distro

Soundco Boulevard Pro

The Lady of Lights Festival (Senhora de Luz Festival)ST

SoundcoACS Productions

Sound and Lighting, Inc.

We Want You! FOH wants your gig shots, horror stories and résumé highlights! Go to www.fohonline.com/submissions to send us your

Showtime pics, Nightmare stories and In The Trenches stats. Or e-mail [email protected] for more info. We cover the industry — and that means you!


After spending over 20 years play-ing in bands in the Chicago area and the Midwest bar scene, Mitch

Blumfield had a vision. You might even call it a momentary lapse of reason.

A band he was in was doing a lot of covers. However, it was their versions of Pink Floyd songs that were gaining the most attention with their flock. “There was a Pink Floyd Show that we threw in among all the other cover songs that included Aerosmith, Tom Petty and the usual cover fare,” says Blumfield. “Pink Floyd got the most attention.” So, Blum-field did the unthinkable for a single parent with a young daughter. He quit his six-figure marketing gig in down-town Chicago, got a home equity loan and went to work on a dream.

Today, that dream is a reality. He fronts and manages the largest touring produc-tion of Pink Floyd music in the country. Think Floyd USA is playing theaters nor-mally reserved for the likes of Wilco, Ian Hunter or Paul Rogers. They also have cornered the festival market, playing in front of over 12,000 at Shwag Stock 2007 in Missouri. Milwaukee’s Summerfest, the largest festival in the world, has seen the band back three years in a row. In 2007, their production played before former Floyd frontman Roger Water’s show!

So, how did Blumfield and his hand-picked seasoned professional studio and session cohorts do it? “A lot of phone calls and networking,” he said. “In the be-ginning, I really didn’t understand much about sound at the level we are at now. I just started asking people in the busi-

ness for help!” The Project, as Blumfield likes to refer to it, is always evolving. “We spend a lot of time rehearsing — not just the music and vocals — but lighting cues and sound bites, plus projection scenes for our custom-made screens.”

The marketing of Think Floyd USA is the real genius of the band’s success. They play Pink Floyd albums in their en-tirety. “One show might be The Wall with full theatrical effects, including ‘The Wall’ itself, and then the next show could be Dark Side Of The Moon, says Blumfield. “We do the albums in their entirety, take a short 15-minute intermission and then do another hour or so of the ‘greatest hits’ so they get the whole ‘Pink Floyd Ex-perience.’” The shows can run over three hours on some nights.

FOH sat down with Ken “Bo” Bohan-non, owner of Blizzard Sound in Wiscon-sin and FOH engineer for Think Floyd USA, to find out how he approached this project.

FOH: How did you come across working for Think Floyd USA?

KB: The band crossed our stage at a festival here in Mishicot, Wisc., three years ago over the 4th of July. We had a really good show. We’ve been working together on and off ever since.

The band seems to be playing different and bigger venues than most tribute acts?

Most of the shows have been a fes-tival sort of date or an amphitheater date or a theater show. They are a major touring act and a large production.

What kind of progression have you seen in their production?

As far as progression and produc-tion, they’ve come along quite a way. They pay a lot of attention to detail, such as the sound effects they use with the keyboard patches and the guitar tones. There’s been a lot of tweaking along the way trying to recreate the show — and they do it so well.

I think just dialing in the tones has progressed, be it the Hammond tone or the keyboard tone, a synth patch or the sound effects, including the barking dog. They’ve really tweaked that stuff to a pretty refined level.

What is your rig of choice for this production?

We’re using a Martin Wavefront rig with WSX subs, W8T and W8Cs. It’s a real good rig for their show. It’s so smooth with the top end, and it’s real natural sounding. It’s got the extended low end with the WSX — it’s a real bump tool.

We use about eight boxes per side for subs and about eight boxes for front of the house. We’ll bump them up if we need to. Depends on where we’re at.… It’s mostly ground stack. If there’s a place to fly them, we fly them. It de-pends on the size of venue.

What type of FOH console are you using?A Midas Verona 480 desk — 40

channels.

You have a nice mic selection. What are you using on the band?

There’s an assortment of mics. Two mics on the kick: Shure SM91 inside the drum, with an Audix D6 in the hole. On the snare top and bottom is the D-1 Au-dix, and rack toms are Shure Beta 98s. There’s D6 on the floor tom, and Shure SM81 run overheads and high hat. We are also using a vintage Sennheiser 409U, which is perfect on the lead guitar, and we use the EV RE20 on the bass.

They are using their own personal monitor rig?

That’s right. The monitor rig they use is a Crest XRM 12X20 with four Shure PSM 200s, one Shure PSM 600 and one Shure PSM 700, along with one Shure E5 ear bud and two E3 ear buds. Then they have six Westone UM Dual Driver Uni-versal earpieces and dbx 266 compres-sor/limiters in there..

They have their own monitor mix? How do you like it?

I think once we got it dialed in, we’ve got it. It’s real easy; it’s real sweet.

So, what’s there for the monitor guys to do?

We still have a monitor guy for wedg-es — they use PMs and wedges. Mitch (guitarist/lead singer) has two; Tom (lead guitar) has two. The girls (backup vocals) have PMs and wedges as well.

I noticed some unusual effects during the show. How do they get there?

The barking dog and other effects are on a laptop computer drive. There’s a left and a right, so it comes up in stereo.

What type of effects do you have to use with a band like this?

A Yamaha SPX 2000 handles the vocal reverbs, and there’s a TC D2 for the tap delays. Some of the stuff goes in direct — the computer effects are direct in, and they’ve got a split that comes off. Some of it goes to the house snake, and some of it they pick up directly off the stage.

How do feel about mixing the music of Pink Floyd?

It’s a lot of fun mixing these guys. It’s cool to mix some Floyd without mix-ing Floyd. It’s a lot of fun doing that show. EQs, effects, with the delays flying around. You need to get a big verb pack-age, and that’s what we have.

DECEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com14

FOH Interview

Ken Bohannon and Scott Steffenof Think Floyd USA

By NortJohnson

He quit his six-figure marketing gig in downtown Chicago, got a home equity loan and went to work on a dream.

Owner of Blizzard Sound & FOH engineer Ken “Bo” Bohannon (L) & Scott “Yeppin” Steffen, Monitor engineer (R) for Think Floyd USA

Think Floyd USA in concert





Is it an active mix?It can be an active mix. There’s a lot

of panning. We move a lot on some songs where

there’s reverb and delay times. On Mitch’s vocal, I use a Klark Square One compres-sor inserted with a gentle 2/1 ratio and drive a second compressor, a Drawmer DL241, from an aux send, this one set with a 12/1 ratio. I hit it pretty hard and bring that back into another channel. These two channels are mixed together with the vocal delays and reverbs all sent from the heavily compressed channel. Sometimes Mitch doesn’t sing real loud; it’s a good technique to get his vocals up front in the mix.

Anything else that you do? Running subs off of aux sends on

some shows. Not only does it make for a cleaner mix, but there are parts of the show that demand big bottom end on the keys and sound FX.

What are in the plans for a bigger and better production?

We’re tossing around the idea of get-ting a new digital board. We’re looking at a couple of them: the Yami, the M7CL48. Depending on how many dates we do, we might go with the PM5. It depends on how much preproduction time we have.

Mitch didn’t know much when he started out, but he’s been doing it for three year’s now. What are your thoughts on that?

He’s picked a lot of people’s brains. Learned from his experience; learned from other people’s experience. It’s a good rule of thumb.

Anything you would like to add to this interview?

It’s a fun show to mix. It’s a good show to see.

What about the band as a production to work with?

They’re good people to work for… never a hassle, never a temper, everyone’s laid back and everyone is a pleasure to work with. Not like some acts. Here, there’s no temper, no egos. They’re so nice.

17

Ad

info

:htt

p:/

/ fo

h.h

oti

ms.

com

“It’s cool to mix some Floyd without mixing Floyd.” — Ken “Bo” Bohannon

2007 DECEMBERwww.fohonline.com


Seventh Annual Parnelli Awards By JacobCoakley

The Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Fla., was the site of the 2007 Parnelli Awards, but inside the ceremony ballroom it looked like Hawaii. Large portions of the crowd arrived decked out in their finest Hawaiian shirts, and FOH Editor Bill Evans abandoned his usual sandals for signature purple Bob Heil custom Converse high-tops. The hundreds in attendance constituted a Who’s Who of players in the live event industry, and whether they were wearing purple shoes or not, they all rose to their feet in honor of Audio Innovator award winner Bob Heil

and Lifetime Achievement award winner Gerry Stickells.In addition to honoring Heil, FOH publisher Terry Lowe, editor Bill Evans and industry notables such as Buford Jones, Dave Shadoan and others gave out awards for FOH Mixer of

the Year, Monitor Mixer of the Year, Sound Company of the Year and many others. Veteran tour manager and Chairman of the Parnelli board Patrick Stansfield presented Joe Aldridge of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), with a check in continued support of a Parnelli scholarship at UNLV for students studying entertainment design and engineering.

A centerpiece of the event was the Audio Innovator award given to audio legend Bob Heil. In his introduction, Sound Image owner and longtime friend of Heil Dave Shadoan spoke of the lasting effect Heil has had on the live sound field:

“When you’re serious about a career, you want to know its history. I learned about Bob Heil right away, as he wrote the book on live sound — literally, and I still have a dog-eared copy of it. I’m lucky to have been able to meet and develop a friendship with Bob. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, when you do, you’ll understand instantly why he’s one of the most well-liked guys in the business.”

The audience let Shadoan know that he wasn’t alone in his appreciation, and even the stars paid their respects, with members of Velvet Revolver and the Steve Miller Band offering their kudos via video.

It was a night to shine the spotlight on the people who work outside the light, honor the pioneers of our industry and contribute to its success moving forward — and, thanks to the help of everyone in attendance, the readers who voted and everyone in the industry, we can continue to celebrate everyone who makes the show happen.

Toasting the Best of the Live Event Industry

And the Awards Went to . . . Lifetime Achievement Award: Gerry Stickells

Audio Innovator Award: Bob HeilLighting Designer of the Year 2007: Patrick Woodroffe

Set/Scenic Designer of the Year 2007: Seth Jackson, with Elizabeth O’KeefeLighting Company of the Year 2007: Upstaging

Staging Company of the Year 2007: Mountain ProductionsSet Construction Company of the Year 2007: Tait Towers

Video Rental Company of the Year 2007: NocturneRigging Company of the Year 2007: Atlanta Rigging

Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year 2007: Theatrical Lighting SystemsPyro Company of the Year 2007: Strictly FX

FOH Mixer of the Year 2007: Tom YoungVideo Director of the Year 2007: Kevin Daniels

Monitor Mixer of the Year 2007: Stuart DelkSound Company of the Year 2007: Sound Image

Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year 2007: Carlson AudioProduction Manager of the Year 2007: Chris Adamson

Tour Manager of the Year 2007: Fitzjoy HellinCoach Company of the Year 2007: Four Seasons Leasing

Trucking Company of the Year 2007: Road ShowFreight Forwarding Company of the Year 2007: Rock-It Cargo

The 2007 Parnellis were made possible by Timeless Communications and its sponsors. Charter Sponsors: All Access Staging and Production, Apollo Design, Brown United and Martin Professional. Gold Sponsors: Nocturne Productions, Pixel Range, Precise Corporate Staging & Dedicated Staging, Rock-It-Cargo, Sound Image and Syncrolite. Silver Sponsors: Littlelite

and TMB. Production Sponsors: Aerial Rigging, ASI Productions, All Staging Unlimited, Paradise Sound & Lights, Production Resource Group and Technilux.


Bob Heil spoke from his heart — into one of his trademark mics — during his acceptance of the Audio Innovator Award.

Mark Carlson of Carlson Audio accepting the award for Hometown Hero Audio Company of the Year.

Tom Young, longtime mixer for Tony Bennett, won the award for FOH Mixer of the Year.

Dave Shadoan of Sound Image was all smiles as he accepted the award for Sound Company of the Year.


Production and Sports GetEqual Billing at Oaks Christian

For a number of years, the name Oaks Christian has evoked exclamations from sports fans across Southern

California and beyond. That will happen when your teams dominate the local sports scene, your football team wins the Califor-nia state championship and your starting quarterback goes to Notre Dame.

Last August, locals who had just seen the new 30,000-square-foot Bedrosian Pavilion, which includes one of the most technologi-cally advanced performing arts centers and media production facilities in the area, ut-tered the name Oaks Christian in awe. Sports fans were especially pleased because the per-forming arts center doubles as a gymnasium and will be used for the school’s basketball and volleyball teams. That these two venues are housed in the same two-story building on a 15,000-square-foot plot is equally amazing.

The Design INST

The Bedrosian Pavilion was opened after two years of thought, design and construc-tion, reports Oaks Christian Vice President of Business Operations/CFO Paul Oberhaus. “We had the need for some gym space, and we always had the dream of building a per-forming arts center,” he says. “We started thinking about finding a way of combining them without sacrificing in either area, be-cause it was going to be very expensive to build just a standalone performing arts cen-ter. So, we came up with this concept of mak-ing it multipurpose, but with really high-end performing arts and not compromising.”

Not compromising, indeed, consider-ing the two-story facility boasts a stunning assortment of hardware and software to

make any live performance come off with-out a technical hitch. The first floor includes classrooms dedicated to performing arts and theatre technology applications, including dance, choir and band rooms, a black box/green room, digital piano music lab and a me-dia studio stocked with Digidesign Pro Tools and Apple Final Cut Pro. The second floor is the theatre and gym multipurpose room.

The budget for the entire project was $16 million and came from donations from Oaks Christian board member John Bed-rosian and a number of donors who gave $1 million or more.

The center was designed by the archi-tectural firm NTD Stichler Architects and built by Matt Construction. Kip Kibler of Kip Kibler Construction Management Ser-vices was brought in during the facility’s preconstruction to manage the perform-ing arts side of the facility. In turn, Kibler brought in a handful of companies to help with the theatrical lighting and staging as well as the acoustic treatment in the build-ing. Oaks Christian and Matt Construction tapped Edwards Technologies Inc. in Los Angeles, Calif., for the audio installation.

Construction INST

According to Ravi Shankar, ETI vice president of operations, this project was broken down into five distinct phases. The company handled all the cabling and patch panels in the first phase, outfitted the mul-tipurpose and control rooms and the media studio during the second and third phases and then set up the classrooms during the fourth. The fifth, uncompleted, phase is the purchase of five High-Def cameras.

The cabling of the Bedrosian, reports ETI Chief Engineer Roger Goodman, was handled with great care. “Because of the ever growing speed of networking and HD, we have to handle cable differently, and a lot of A/V companies are probably not even aware of that,” he says. “It’s only starting to get to become an issue because we’re dealing now with a lot of data trans-fer, and when you deal with bandwidths of two gigs and above, you’d be very sur-prised at what will cause unbelievable amount of problems.” Included on that list, he explains, is the fact that digital cable cannot be tied down because any loop in a cable causes a notch, which over a long distance, will cause a loss of signal.

David Alexander, who serves as Oak Christian’s technical director/facility man-ager, points out there is very little copper going from the stage to the booth. “It’s all Ethernet,” he reports. “They decided to not go with much wireless because they could pull cable when they were designing the building from the ground up. The wireless snakes would have been a little overkill for this venue, since we were able to set up an infrastructure.”

Acoustic Challenges INST

In terms of acoustic treatment, the team installed heavy curtains down the long walls of the auditorium that measure 110 feet long by 75 feet wide and 24 feet high. Each curtain weighs 500 pounds and is moved via motorized controls. In addi-tion to cleaning up the room’s acoustics, these curtains help differentiate the the-atre from the gym.

The auditorium’s ceiling also pro-vided a challenge, Shankar adds. “We worked in unison with the architect after doing some acoustical analysis predic-tions early on,” he says. “He had put some acoustic panels in there, but not enough, so he made sure the entire ceiling deck was acoustically treated.”

Once that was done, ETI started to look at boxes and points. Because a wide variety of pieces, including music, dra-matic performances, dance and film, will be performed there, flexibility was the key. “They brought us 11 seating plans that they wanted us to be ready to set up for,” Project Manager David Archer re-ports. “The system turned out to be flex-ible enough that we didn’t have to have 11 configurations.”

Goodman says, “I think I went through eight iterations of facility drawings before they settled on the overall design. That’s the most I’ve ever done in my life as an engineer,” he says. “It was unbelievable. I think that it had a lot to do with the fact that the facility was expanding, and as they were putting things together, they realized that they could do this and try that. We gave them some restrictions, but for the most part, they had a free rein in what they decided to do.”

The final design provided a full sur-round sound field, so Goodman picked boxes that would accentuate that oppor-tunity. Front left and right boxes are JBL VP7315 and VP7210s. There are also an ad-ditional six 7315s (two on each wall) posi-tioned around the room. A center cluster is stocked with a pair of 7315s and 7210s


Installations

By DavidJohnFarinella

The lighting equipment at Oaks Christian



and four VPSB7118DP subs. Monitoring on stage comes through six JBL MRX 512 Ms that are powered by QSC amps.

The 7315s can be controlled via separate DSP and sounds and can be steered through the sound field. This feature will be used dur-ing the school’s dramatic performances, in-cluding a presentation of The Diary of Anne Frank in November and Godspell this spring.

A Digidesign D-Show console is the high-light at front of house, located 18 feet above the finished floor. In fact, other than a pair of studio monitors, a CD and DVD player, a CD-R machine, patch bays and an intercom, that’s all that is up there. Both the audio and video signals can be split and sent to the me-dia control room on the first floor. On the au-dio side, a live mix and a record mix into Pro Tools can be run independently. Video can be sent into Final Cut Pro and then sent back to the three HD-capable projectors in the main room. “Those two systems are married together, so there’s a lot of flexibility. We’re two steps away from being a broadcast stu-dio,” Alexander says proudly.

Given the technical prowess in this venue, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the fact that the Bedrosian Pavilion is lo-cated on a high school campus. So, was there ever a consideration that this gear was going to be used by students? “Yes,” answers Shankar, “but as we talked to the school, one of the things they told us was that they wanted these kids to be more proficient [in audio and video] than anybody else out there before they hit college. They’re not at an entry level. They’ve used Final Cut Pro; they’ve used Pro Tools; and they’ve used high definition cameras. So, they know how to edit, mix and put things together.”

DigiDesign D Show Profile mixing console

Installations

Ad

info

:http

:// foh

.ho

tims.co

m

“ We’re two steps away from being

a broadcast studio.”

The stage rack at Oaks Christian

Another view of the DigiDesign D Show Profile mixing console




Primera Bravo II Disc Publisher $2,695

Again with the recording gigs thing. A lot of us do double duty — especially when touring with club acts — doing audio and, maybe, merch. If the band is trying to sell instant CDs of the night’s show, you take a master CD of the show, throw a stack of blank printable discs on the spindle and walk away. The Bravo will dupe the discs AND print ‘em up nice and pro looking. You get to be the hero and still have time to hit on the cutie who was eying you during the set.

Yamaha Silent Brass System $155.95

This one is gonna sound a little weird, but if you have to mix horns on a quiet gig, you know that the volume of the band is often determined by the trum-pet player. This pickup looks and acts like a mute and is meant as a practice system. But shove it in an out-of-control horn and use the output instead of a mic. Presto! You instantly regain control of your mix.

Shure KSM9 $699

A truly great vocal mic meant for truly great sing-ers. This is a real pro tool that you don’t want to use on a marginal vocalist. But on a great singer, it brings out ev-ery nuance of the performance and just sounds great. But it will bring out the nuances you might not want to hear on a less-than-great singer or even a great singer having a bad night. Use with care.

BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer $499.99

I have taken some crap over the years because I ALWAYS have a Sonic Maximizer in the rack. I may not always use it, but it has saved my butt on many occasions when I needed a bit more punch out of an underpowered or just plain crappy system. And I see more of them than you might expect in pro touring racks all the time. A great audio “backstop.” This version has balanced XLR I/O.

TC Helicon Correct $345

Not all of us work with singers who have perfect pitch. This is a gig-bag item that inserts between the mic and the console so you can use it in any situation regardless of inserts available on the board. Throw it on the floor, plug in and that pitch-challenged singer starts to sound pretty good.

Digidesign Mbox Micro $279

Like it or not, we are all increas-ingly expected to be able to record shows, and Pro Tools is the medium of choice. This little beauty is about the size of a USB flash drive and comes with Pro Tools LE software. No input capability, but it will let you mix the recording of last night’s show on a laptop. On a plane. In coach.

Future Sonics Atrio M5 $199

The best-sounding universal fit P.M.s available — hands down. They are comfy, look cool and have buckets of bass. If you can’t get that wedge-addicted bass player or drummer to go in-ear with these, then it’s time to stop trying. Take them for yourself. They work great with that new iPod.

Heil PR-40 $375

A dynamic that sounds like a condenser and that can take all the SPL you can throw at it (movie sound guys use it to mic can-nons for God’s sake). And Heil is one of the most notable innovators in the biz, so this is no cheap Chinese knockoff of a mic that has been around for decades.

iPod Touch $399

How many of us actually carry CD players for canned music anymore? The 16GB version will hold something like 400 tunes in full, un-compressed AIFF format, and you can use it to browse eBay for new gear between sets. And face it, it is just the coolest thing out there. Sure to make you the subject of iPod envy.

Peavey Distro $599.99

Not all of us need or can afford a big pro dis-tro, but power is a con-stant issue on smaller gigs. This one box lets you search out a 40 amp, 220 outlet (just unplug the dryer or that room air conditioner) and get six — count ‘em — sep-arate 20 amp, 110 circuits each with its own breaker. That will run your whole P.A. and backline on most small gigs. Let the squints find their own juice….

AT ATM250DE Drum Mic $649

This is the affordable version of the coolest kick mic I have used. With both a dynamic and a condenser in the same housing with separate XLR outs, you get the punch of the beater from the dynamic and the tone of the shell from the con-denser without having to deal with placing two mics. It also works great on guitar cabs. And, as an added bonus, you can find it online for about half the list price.


Product Gallery

Cool Tools Or, Some Neat Stuff That I Hope Santa Leaves Under the Tree for Me

The year is coming to an end and, as we have done in years past, we are forgoing our usual chart-and-specs buyers’ guide format for a wish list of cool stuff we have seen this year. Feel free to tape this page to the fridge as a gentle reminder for those buying holiday gifts.

No real qualifying facts here — not even a maximum price point. What is outrageously expensive to someone buying gifts for me may be pocket change to the significant other of someone mixing, say, the Stones or Springsteen. In the spirit of the whole 12 Days of Christmas thing, here are a dozen candidates. Maybe someone will get me one for each day…

RSS S-1608 Digital Snake $2,995

16 x 8 all on a single run of Cat5. The mic pres are transparent, and you will likely be shocked the first time you use it at how much detail you are losing over that long run of copper. This modular system can be expanded easily and uses stan-dard Ethernet protocols, so you can grab an off-the-shelf hub to split the signal between mains and monitors.


RT

RT

RT

RT

By BillEvans

I have reviewed a ton of personal monitors for FOH and other books. It is at the point where I have pretty much decided to pass

any future reviews on to someone else be-cause there is so much good stuff out there that it really comes down to a question of

sound quality versus price. And sound quality is a totally subjec-tive thing. There are units that I like a lot that others think stink, and units that I am not fond of that others swear by. So, it is fit-ting that my swan song on P.M. reviews is for something that is unique. Others have talked about it and said it was in the works, but to the best of my knowledge, no one else is doing what the Sensaphonics 3D Ac-tive Ambient System does.

The GearLike most P.M.s, the Sensaphonics are ar-

mature-based. That means they use vibrating rods to produce sound. This is basically hear-ing aid technology that has been refined and adapted for use in pro audio. Unlike most P.M.s I have used, the actual earpiece is made

of a soft silicone that is very comfortable and that Sensaphonics says is “unbreakable.” (Hav-ing once ruined one side of a pair of custom P.M.s by running over them with a car — long story — I really appreciate that.)

Where most P.M.s terminate in a stereo mini-plug, the 3D earphones use dual ste-reo miniplugs to connect to the system’s bodypack mixer; they can’t really be used with anything else. Built into the actual struc-ture of the earpiece is a pair of mini mics (the reason for the second plug). The whole deal plugs into a belt pack that is essentially a mix-er. The belt pack lets you mix sound from the mics with the monitor mix from the console.

The version we tested uses a stereo 1/8-inch jumper to plug in to your wireless belt pack re-ceiver, while the standalone wired version takes a stereo signal straight from the monitor board via a pair of XLRs to a LEMO input.

There are two operating modes — Perform and Full Ambient. In Perform mode, you dial in

how much of the mic signal you will hear mixed with what is coming from the monitor feed. A flick of an easily accessible switch puts you in Full Ambient mode, which bring the mics up to full unity gain and dials back the input from monitor world. This results in something very much like not wearing P.M.s at all. The idea is that the performer (or monitor engineer) uses the Perform mode during performance, and the mics are there to dial in enough stage and room sound to eliminate the feeling of isola-tion that is common when using any P.M. sys-tem. If you need to talk to someone on or off stage without resorting to a talkback mic, you simply switch to Full Ambient mode and speak — and hear — normally. Let’s see how that idea works out in real life.

The GigsI did the gigs for this review differently

than I usually would have. Since I did not have any standalone monitor

Sensaphonics 3DAA Personal Monitors

BBE DS24 Speaker ProcessorBy MarkAmundson

The BBE DS24 speaker processor in-trigued me because of its low cost (around $299.95 street) and its profes-

sional looks and performance. The BBE name is famous for its Sonic Maximizer processors, a hotly contested piece of gear that some engi-neers dismiss as a crutch and others swear by as a gig saver. Now BBE is putting its substan-tial experience behind universally accepted gear, including equalization and DSP speaker processing that may have even the skeptics taking a good hard look….

The DS24 starts out with an eye-catching red-brushed aluminum front panel with the LCD, switches, rotary encoder and LED bar-graphs, making it obvious that the product is a speaker processor from its look and feel. The backlit two-row monochrome LCD with adjoining six editing switches (back, next, menu, enter, gain and quit), plus the rotary encoder for parameter adjustment, provides plenty of menu-surfing capability. The two signal inputs and four signal outputs get a seven-LED bargraph treatment (-30, -24, -12, -6, -3, Limit, Clip) with the output having mute switches below the bargraphs. A convention-al curvette rocker on/off power rounds out the front-panel interfaces.

The back panel maintains the “all busi-ness” feature set, but with black paint and white legends. Prominently featured are the two XLR-F balanced audio inputs and four XLR-M balanced audio outputs for handling the typical ins and outs expected of this basic speaker processor design. A nine-pin D-sub serial port connector (RS-232) is also provid-ed for standard personal computer interfac-ing with the included SYSOMAX software for graphical control of the processor’s parame-ters. After the RS-232 interface, the obligatory (and welcome) IEC inlet is evidence that the DS24 will have the power supply and signal headroom like other professional speaker processors.

The GearThe BBE DS24 uses quality 24-bit analog

to digital to analog converters working at 48k samples per second with low-latency conver-sions. With this knowledge, the 0.01% THD and 110 dB dynamic range are easily met. The downside of the DS24 design is that the maxi-mum signal levels handled are 7.6 volts peak to peak (~14.6 dBu). While 14.6 dBu is plenty enough snort for most power amplifiers, it is not the usual +22 to +28 dBu advertised by many other professional speaker processor manufacturers.

The DS24 includes most of the essential speaker processor elements needed to get the job done. These processing elements are: gain adjustment on the inputs and out-puts; polarity flipping; pass and crossover filters for Bessel (12/18/24/48 dB), Butter-worth (6/12/18/24/48 dB) and Linkwitz-Riley (24/48dB); parametric eqs; output delays; and a flexible limiter. A couple of limitations caught my eye in checking out the DS24. First was the 0 –7-millisecond output delay element in 0.5 millisecond increments. To me, this means there is about a six-inch dis-tance correction for each increment of delay — quite a bit less resolution than I would like when phase matching the voice coil displace-ment in speaker cabinets. A better compro-mise would have been 0.1 millisecond incre-

ments (resolution), but over just a couple of milliseconds of range. Also, the DS24 could have enjoyed a much longer delay range, up to a second, for setting up delay speakers in a large venue scenario.

The second niggle I ran into is the 31 ISO frequency choices on the encoder when set-ting up the parametric filters. When jogging the encoder fast, I noticed better resolution, but it was thwarted when the speed was re-duced to home in to an exact frequency. Here is an instance where a better feature could have been designed for no extra recurring cost. Also, the encoder detenting had in-be-tween settings that concerned me. This may have been a case of good design intent and cost cutting at production.

The GigsThe important part of the BBE DS24 is its

performance once set it up the way I want it. In both the shop critical listening and out at the clubs, the DS24 performed very nicely and compared well to much more expensive speaker processors. The metering was easy to read and useful, and the audio quality was clean and without noticeable artifacts.

In weighing the technical issues and the outstanding aural performance, it re-ally depends on your sense of frugalness versus your technical scruples. On the nega-

tive side, you are battling issues like dBV scaling, encoder resolution, delay resolu-tion and limited parametric frequency set-tings. On the positive side, you are getting a ton more flexibility than a standard analog crossover, with pristine audio added in for a bargain price. I would offer the proposition that cost-conscious sound engineers would jump at the BBE DS24 from the value stand-point, while fussy and less frugal engineers would take a pass to fuller-featured speaker processors.


Road Test

What it is: Economy speaker processor.

Who it’s for: Budget-minded soundco’s needing solutions for bi-amping, tri-amping.

Pros: Nice looks, great price, quality audio processing.

Cons: Limited delay and parametric selections, encoder detenting.

How much: $429.00.

continued on page 34



We told you that we were go-ing to lay off the discussion of wireless audio technology

for a while. Well, we lied. It seems like developments in the wireless world are happening so fast that by the time the ink dries around here, there’s more news to report. So this month, we shine the spotlight on X2 Digital Wireless Systems and Audio-Technica. X2 Digital (www.x2digitalwireless.com) — with a bit of help from Audio-Technica — has just augmented its XDR Series of Digital UHF wireless systems with four new products: the XDR952 (omni lavalier microphone with A-T MT830-X); the XDR953 (cardioid headset mic with ATM75-X); the XDR954 (cardioid lavalier mic with A-T MT831-X); and the XDR957 (clip-on instrument mic with A-T Pro35-X).

“Big deal,” you say while you reach for the remote control. Well, yeah it is kind of a big deal. XDR wireless sys-tems are based on multichannel, 24-bit digital wireless transmission. The sys-tem features several stages of operation, starting at the XD4 body pack transmit-ter, which is capable of handling in-strument-, line- or microphone-level signals. A 24-bit analog-to-digital con-verter resides inside the XDT4, and the system transmits the audio signal, sans companding, to the XDR4 Receiver over a 300-foot operating range, using two separate RF carrier frequencies.

[For those of you who don’t recall, companding is the process of compress-ing a signal before transmission and ex-

panding it after reception in an effort to reduce noise, which it does. It can also create some very strange, audible side effects such as pumping and breathing and high-frequency loss. Lectrosonics is another wireless manufacturer that avoids companding].

Transmission from the XDT4 is in the

range of 902 MHz to 928 MHz and em-ploys X2’s proprietary Q-DiversityPLUS (a type of diversity reception technolo-gy). Q-DiversityPLUS is a dual-frequency broadcast system that ensures that the data being transmitted — your precious audio — is isolated from unwanted inter-ference. The XD4 transmitter turns audio into a unique digital data stream that is modulated over two separate RF carrier frequencies for frequency diversity.

The XDR4 receiver, with its four re-ceiver sections multiplexed in pairs, executes the next stage of Q-Diversity-PLUS. Each set of two receivers works to receive one frequency. Two of the re-ceiver sections connect directly to inter-nal antenna, while two more receive RF signals from external antenna through BNC jacks on the XDR4’s rear panel. All four receiver sections work together to grab the two RF signals that carry the digital transmission. The receivers are smart enough to recognize only the dig-

ital data that originates from the XDT4 transmitter, effectively “locking out” competing sources of RF interference.

An onboard microprocessor analyzes the transmitted data, sorts it out and sends it to a 24-bit digital-to-analog converter, resulting in a dynamic range in the vicinity of 118 dB with a frequency

response from 10 Hz to 20 kHz. Since XDR systems operate in the 900 MHz band, they are (at this moment) free from DTV and FCC licensing concerns and may be run on any of five user-chosen operating channels. The result is an increase in the resistance to interference from compet-ing technologies and better performance under “hostile” RF conditions.

So far, so good. So what? Here’s the kicker: All X2 Digital Wireless XDR systems are “2009 compliant,” giving them the abil-ity to operate freely throughout North and South America without frequency coordi-nation issues or concern for DTV and the “white space” issues we have been jumping up and down about over the past year. In other words, X2 says “digital television, hostile RF environments? Bring ‘em on.”

In addition to microphones from Audio-Technica, XDR body-pack trans-mitters can be used with headset, ‘lav or instrument microphones from other manufacturers when wired with a 1/8-inch

TRS connector. Furthermore, XDR prod-ucts are backward compatible with pre-vious products in the company’s XD Se-ries of wireless components.

Audio-Technica (www.audio-technica.com) is working on wireless technology from a completely different angle. (The com-pany has incorporated Ultra Wideband wireless technology from Multispectral Solutions Inc., using it for the first time in commercial sound applications. Be-lieve it or not, UWB dates back to the 1800s and Marconi, when it was used for long-range communications. Dubbed SpectraPulse Ultra Wideband, the system does not employ conventional wireless channels and carrier frequencies. UWB uses a series of extremely short (nano-second) pulses that occupy an instanta-neous bandwidth of 500 MHz within the 6 GHz frequency spectra. The signals are broadcast in precisely timed sequences, resulting in reliable, coded transmission of information.

What’s really interesting about UWB is that (in addition to being extremely short) these pulses are broadcast at an extremely low level. Our current wireless systems typically broadcast a signal with strength of about 50 milliwatts of pow-er. SpectraPulse transmission strength is roughly 40 nanowatts, placing it down near the RF noise floor of the typical environment. Ironically, this low signal level makes SpectraPulse transmission difficult to detect by all receivers other than the UWB device(s) that have been programmed to decode the precise sequence of data pulses. Since Spec-traPulse operates in a region of the RF band where few other RF devices have been licensed, interference is unlikely. In other words, UWB is kinda’ invisible to other wireless technology.

Current SpectraPulse products from Audio-Technica include the mtu101 Microphone Transmitter Unit (bound-ary mic), the drm141 Digital Receiver Module, the aci707 Audio Control Inter-face and the cei007 Charger Encryption Interface. At this time, SpectraPulse is intended for use in conference rooms, courtrooms and corporate events, and supports 14 simultaneous channels. With a sample rate of 24 kHz, audio bandwidth of a UWB system is approxi-mately 100 Hz to 12,000 Hz, latency is around one millisecond and the system does not employ companding. I think we can expect to see this technology ex-tended to instrument and handheld vo-cal mic applications in the near future.

Score two for the wireless geeks!

Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour man-ager and front-of-house engineer for Blue Öyster Cult. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

“Digital television, hostile RF environments? Bring ‘em on.”

We Lied


The Bleeding Edge

By SteveLaCerra

LIVE SOUND, Theory & Practice

Mark Amundson’sfirst book

AVAIL ABLENOW

atwww.fohbookshelf.com

http://www.fohbookshelf.com


When Cliff Miller was a touring mu-sician, he had many things going through his mind. Sure there was the

tuning of his guitar and the song the band was playing, but Miller’s mind would occasionally drift to how the band was sounding out in the house. It was the early ‘70s, and Miller, who was playing guitar with Doc and Merle Watson, had already started to think about starting a regional sound company.

In the nearly 35 years since then, Miller and a team of employees and associates have built SE Systems into one of the best regional sound companies in North Carolina. Headquartered in Greensboro, SE Systems is a full-service production company that provides audio, lighting and staging and boasts retail outlets in Greensboro and Charlotte.

Hometown Hero RS

Miller came to music, audio and elec-tronics early in life. “I started out in a band in junior high, and at the time, I’d modify an old Stromberg-Carlson amplifier, put a speaker with it and make a guitar rig,” he recalls. “So, when I first started, I was putting together my own stuff, fashioning a P.A. out of old tube components and a couple cut-away speakers.” [Pause] “Yeah, it’s changed quite a bit.”

That experience lead him to all sorts of work before SE Systems was born, including working as a service technician for a couple of music companies in town, where he’d fix church organs, install small systems or work on gear. At the same time, he was working at a radio station as an engineer and DJ.

The schedule enabled him to continue playing music and learn about P.A.s. The first P.A. he bought was the one he built for the mu-sic company employing him. “I was still doing service work because I needed the income to buy everything I needed to buy,” he says.

Somewhere in the mid-’70s, the company started to pick up steam, and Miller began pro-viding sound services — first to local music fes-tivals and then at college venues. The college work, since he was between Duke, N.C. State and the University of North Carolina, kept him busy. In addition to working with the Watson’s, with whom he continued to play, some of Mill-er’s early gigs included Dizzy Gillespie and Doc Severinsen.

So, working with big, boomy auditoriums with no acoustic treatments and equipment circa 1975 must have been exciting. “Oh yeah, nothing like trying to stack stuff up to hit the balconies and the back of the room,” he says with a laugh. “The funny thing? How big can the box be and still have only two speakers?”

While he laughs after saying that, the truth of the statement led him to start building his own enclosures and then loading them with JBL components. “At the time, the things that you could buy from the manufacturer were not suited for live reinforcement,” he reports. “Typi-cally, we could build our own cabinets and do a really nice job of it using good plywood and save a whole lot on shipping across the coun-try. Actually, they’d hold up better because a lot of [the manufacturer-built cabinets] were built from particle board and would not hold up on the road.”

Learning from Others RS

His time on the road as a musician also taught him what worked and what didn’t

when it came time to start SE. “You pick up a lot from dealing with other sound companies,” Miller says. “It still sticks out in my mind the companies that I enjoyed working with, and it always came down to people who were attentive, had good service and good people, and who understood the music that you were doing. So, as we picked up more employees, and as the company grew, I put in that philosophy of be-ing customer-friendly, reactive and attentive to anybody on the stage.”

Diving headfirst into the sound compa-ny market meant, of course, that he would

have to leave some of his performing dates behind. It wasn’t difficult for him to make the switch. “The longer that I played as a musician, and the more musicians I met travel-ing around doing festivals, I felt that my first limitation came as a musician versus as a sound engineer,” he says. “So, I felt like I was in a better position being on the console end, still understanding what needed to happen on the stage. I was all prepared and ready to make that switch because being around that many great musicians gave me the desire to make them sound as good possible.”

In addition to sound services, Miller ex-panded SE so that the company now provides lighting and staging to clients. Lighting and

staging came because some of the region’s leading companies were putting together full pro-duction packages, and promot-ers began to expect it. “They felt that if they could have one big truck come in and bring all the gear, they were saving a little bit of money,” he says. “So, we al-most got forced into the lighting business to be able to compete. The next thing you know, people were asking us for a stage, and we bought staging. We own a couple of mobile stages and lots of decks and stuff like that. All of it still helps to pay the bills.”

In the ‘80s, SE Systems opened a pair of retail stores in Greensboro and Charlotte.

Turns out, that may have been the most important move the company has made. “Today, the sales side of the business does about six or seven times the gross of the sound reinforcement, lighting and staging side of the business,” he reports.

Good, Not Cheap RS

The local competition, Miller reports, is strong, yet each company has its own niche. SE Systems continues to service some of the top touring acts that come through the area and has added a number of corporate clients to its roster. “I tend to think that we may be the priciest company in the area,” he allows, “but at the same time, we’re one of the old-est. One of the things we continue to invest in is personnel. Everybody in this business realizes it’s not just about the gear, it’s who you’ve got running it and the people who you have representing the company.”

Eventually the company’s reputation, and Miller’s musical history, led to a num-ber of phone calls from bluegrass bands looking for regional support as they’d roll through the Southeast. Then, in 2002, the company was tapped for the Down from the Mountain Tour, which featured some of the biggest names in the genre. “They wanted us to do the summer tour, which was na-tional. At the time, we had never toured, and I have a lot of good engineers who work for me because they didn’t want to tour,” Miller reports with a laugh.

So, Miller decided it was time for him to go back on the road. “A lot of my friends and a lot of people I’d known for years were on that tour, so I thought it was a great thing to be able to go out with that kind of music and expose it to the national audience,” he says. “I wanted to do my best to make them sound as good as possible. We had 12 bus-ses and one truck. We kiddingly called it the Hillbilly Lollapalooza.”

That tour was enough of a success that the company opened the door to other tours. Since then, SE Systems has provided audio gear, as well as Miller’s talents as production manager, to national and international tours by Alison Krauss and Union Station.

Miller has 48 JBL VerTec boxes out on that tour, while the company’s headquar-ters is stocked with an assortment of JBL HLA and VerTec boxes to service regional work. On the console front, SE has pur-chased boards from Midas, Yamaha and Soundcraft. “A lot of people still ask for an analog console,” Miller reports. “They just like it, they’re comfortable with it and that’s what you’ll give ‘em. For the people who like carrying their card with them, plugging in and using a digital console, then we can do that. We’ve been using two PM5Ds with Alison for quite a few years, and they work really well for us.”

Building the book of business, and con-tinuing to service it, has been the recipe of success for SE Systems. “It’s funny, over the years when you keep customers long enough — as they are growing you tend to grow along with them,” Miller says. “If you really want to keep that client for the long term, you really have to be attentive to their needs and respond to their requests. So, a lot of the things that we do come directly from the re-quests we get from our customers.”


Good Ol’ Boys Grow Up

Regional Slants

North Carolina’s SE Systems Has Grown from a Local Staple to National Tours for Select Clients

By DavidJohnFarinella

Cliff Miller (L) and Chris West at Winston-Salem Symphony at LJVM Coliseum

Cliff Miller (top) and Bernie Velluti at FOH for the Alison Krauss/Tony Rice tour

Haley Miller (L) and Cliff Miller at load-in for Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas

Cliff Miller (L) and Chris West at Winston-Salem Symphony at LJVM Coliseum

TP

TP

TP

Along with my writing efforts for FOH, I work with a variety of houses of worship. I guess that is

more than obvious, since I am the guy who writes Sound Sanctuary. Well, I also own and operate a secular (nonreligious) regional sound company that designs and installs residential and commercial sound systems.

Generally speaking, I will hire anywhere from one to six techs for my secular or wor-ship gigs. They are actually independent contractors. But rather than get into the le-gal qualifications of my employees, I will tell you what I need in terms of technical skill and physical attributes. Qualifying as a Rio Deluxe (my company) tech is pretty easy. You need to understand live audio setup (lift speakers and plug in the right wires), signal flow, EQ, compression, etc., and be strong enough to handle the big stuff, but smart enough to position the small stuff. Shower regularly and wear the company shirt. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

However, in the worship end of this business, the rules and requirements are a little tighter. Appearance can be right up there with technical ability. If I have one of my boys mixing a Sunday service, they have to know what they are doing and dress for the occasion.

Let me give you my dress code for church gigs (indoors or out).

First: Wear a clean, collared shirt (solid colors preferred).

Second: Bathe, comb your hair and shave (if you have a beard, trim it).

Third: Brush your teeth, use mouthwash and Visine (if you smoke and were out work-ing late the night before).

Fourth: It is imperative that you never let a foul word exit your mouth. I don’t care what the circumstance, a pure vocabulary is a must. Appearance is not as important for install gigs, but a clean vocabulary is vital.

Now, is this not the absolute antithesis of your average sound guy? If you are working on the road, you most likely are mixing in your favorite or lucky T-shirt. You probably haven’t had a shower in three days, you lost your tooth-brush, your eyes are as red as stop lights and you really don’t give a f*#k if you ever shave.

It doesn’t take much to see the differ-ence between the secular and the spiritual mixing worlds. It’s not that church sound guys are pussies, we just show the more refined side of live sound mixing. I live and mix in both worlds, and it has taken me some time to adjust to the changes be-tween the two.

My biggest challenge was getting my language under control. There is nothing worse than letting the f-word or s-word slip when selling the pastor on a new sound system. “I’ll tell you pastor, this new system will rock the f#*k out of your congregation.” That just isn’t going to fly with most reli-gious folks. So, the real question is: How do you find a tech who will go out there and represent your company with grace, style and a reverence for the Lord.

I think that your primary test is finding an employee who believes in some sort of God and respects that belief in others.

You don’t have to hire a Jew to mix at the temple or a Catholic to mix in the Catholic church, but you need to hire a tech who un-derstands the depth and the seriousness of most religious groups’ beliefs.

Once you have found someone who can and will conform to house of worship work and mixing needs, you need to intro-duce him to the church elders or pastors or the powers that be. And the folks who run that church need to like the guy and feel confident. I took one of my boys to a very spiritual, mostly black church in L.A. I love the energy of this church, but I wasn’t sure if my guy was going to be a good fit for this particular house of worship. It turned out that my tech and the pastor hit it off beautifully. I spent one Sunday with my tech at this church, and I haven’t been back for six months.

I took the same guy to a church in La Cañada (an L.A. suburb) and introduced him to the staff. They just didn’t click. He never even had a chance at mixing even one church event or service. I doubt that they will ever use him. I really don’t un-derstand the decision-making process of a lot of houses of worship. Whether they prayed about my tech or just went on first impressions, I’ll never know. I only know he didn’t get the gig.

Of course, bringing in a crew for an in-stall is another story. I basically make sure they look decent and wear the company polo shirt. But I am always reminding them of the importance of good language, espe-cially in the sanctuary.

When doing install work, you also have to make everyone conscious of their surroundings. Religious buildings can be full of spiritual icons (especially Catholic churches), and these icons are almost al-ways valuable. You really don’t want to drop your drill on the statue of the Virgin Mary from 16 feet up. Or knock over the Star of David with your ladder. Just train your crew to be extra careful.

I also have no problem praying with the pastor or rabbi or whomever before a ser-vice, and none of my guys do either. Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t have to hold the same beliefs as my clients, I just have to respect them. And, besides, praying never hurt anyone (it probably helps).

I think that is about all I have to say about this subject. Oh, maybe one more thing. Go slow. Choose your church tech wisely. If they shine for your company, then you look good and will get more refer-ral work. If they can’t handle the pressure of spiritual mixing, they can send your biz straight to hell.

Employing a Godly Tech In the worship end of this business, the rules

and requirements are a little tighter. I don’t have to hold the same beliefs as my clients;

I just have to respect them.


Sound Sanctuary

By JamieRio

Audio gates are what I call an accessory, and pretty far down the list of new gear purchase priorities. But if everything

further up the list is okay, then procuring a few gates to insert on percussion and other noisy/buzzy sources is a good thing. This column will address a little history of “noise gates,” how they work, key features to look for when shop-ping for gates and typical applications.

The Bad Old DaysIn the bad old days, noise gates, as they

were called, were just electronic mute switch-es that would unmute their channels when the input signal level reached a specific threshold in dBu. This all worked nicely, but most of the circuitry employed on these early noise gates were nothing more than CB/Ham radio microphone “squelch” circuitry cleaned up as best as could be for live audio usage. They tended to be high in self-noise, had not much headroom before clipping, and were pretty much one knob (threshold level) and an LED to indicate a muted status.

The good news in those days was that you could get a quad channel noise gate rea-sonably cheap, and a lot of small companies began producing them for both live sound

and personal recording applications. Today, the bad news is that a lot of these noisy noise gates are still around, hiding out in various in-stall club systems as a way of spitefully saying, “Here! Here are the gates you requested.” I am hoping that eventually these ancient pieces of “technology” will bump into a real engi-neer, who will promptly do the dumpster-toss routine on them.

Kudos to IvorBack in the United Kingdom in the bad

old days, audio tinkerer and sound engineer Ivor Drawmer was tired of using the old noise gates as they could often be unmuted, not by the desired audio source, but by another source with a bit of transient loudness close and loud enough to trigger the gates. So Ivor started to tinker with his prototype of noise gate circuitry, using a modestly narrowed au-dio frequency filter before the threshold cir-cuit. Thus, the dawn of frequency-conscious gates began, with the Drawmer brand lead-ing the pack and many quality brands adding the feature as well.

Today, the typical frequency-conscious gate for live-sound/recording use is ex-tremely quiet, very versatile, and most of

the brands contain similar circuit architec-ture. Now I am not saying that a Behringer Multigate has the same circuitry as a BSS DPR-504, but the system architecture is the same, with the quality of components different, along with the quality of perfor-mance. At present, I prefer the Drawmer brand of gates — not so much because I know Ivor personally, but because I do like the way his “sidechain” performs with mini-mal gate clicking and the whole control from attack through release. But choosing popular brand gates (dbx, Drawmer, BSS) is like Fords, Chevys and Dodges — everyone finds a brand they are fond of.

Gate GutsFigure 1 shows a typical noise gate ar-

chitecture block diagram. The audio signal enters through TRS phone or XLR jacks, is buffered, sent to the VCA, rebuffered and sent back out another set of TRS phone or XLR jacks. The first thing to note is that the VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) is the heart of the unit, and its quality deter-mines the overall fidelity of the audio sig-nal progressing through the gate. Thank-fully, dedicated audiophile-grade VCA chips of excellent quality now replace the bad-old-day squelch chips.

Theory and Practice

By MarkAmundson Gates—Pearly and Other Kinds

continued on page 34

BUF

BandpassFilter Threshold

Voltage ControlledAmplifier (VCA)

Freq Thres Release

VCAKey Listen

Input

Sidechain

Main PathBUF

Metering

ANALOG GATE BLOCK DIAGRAM

Figure 1


Extended StaysThe Biz

By DanDaley

Vital Stats

BUSINESS

What: Hear Technologies

What it does: Manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording, TV, video post-production and live sound.

Where: Huntsville, Ala.

When: Founded in 2001.

Services/products provided: Mix Back Moni-tor Mixer, Talk Back Personal Monitor System, Talk Back 600MV, ADAT Extreme Extenders, Freedom Back Wireless system, Future Sonic Atrio personal monitors and Hear Bud and Headset personal monitors.

Claim to fame: Hear Technologies won the Innovations in Technology Award at the National Sound Contractors Association (NSCA) Expo 2003 in Dallas. New products from over 500 NSCA exhibitors were nominated across six categories. Products from each of the finalists were displayed in the Innovations

in Technology Pavilion. More than 10,000 low-voltage professionals, including designers, integrators and installers voted the “Hear Back” Personal Monitor Mixer System from Hear Technologies as the top innovation in the Audio category.

Brush with greatness includes… Les Paul, who selected the company’s Future Sonics Ear Monitors brand custom personal monitors.

People might be surprised to know: Hear Technologies is a division of Quantum Research.

PERSONAL

Who: Dave Holland.

First Gig: “I played in a nine-piece horn band at the age of 14.”

I knew I wanted to be in this business when… “I wired my first P.A. at age 14.”

What I love about this business is… “Helping

people achieve great sound and music.”Career low point: “I’d rather not dis-cuss it, but it in-volved playing a song in the wrong key!”

What bugs me about this busi-ness: “Long trade shows, though I really enjoy seeing my friends there.”

What bugs me at concerts: “Engineers who think that the kick drum and bass gui-tar are the only reason for mixing sound. Come on guys — what about vocals and other instruments?”

The CDs in my car right now are… “Tower of Power, Jackson Brown, Ugly Stick, James LeBlanc and Jeff Tamelier.

Best concerts I have ever heard were: “Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.”

Over there, they just call it food: “My favorite food is real Chinese food in China.”

Last good movie I saw was: “Real Genius.”

If I were a cartoon character, I’d be: “Marty Martian.”

Motto/Favorite Quote: “Live, Love and Laugh.”

HEAR TechnologiesBy KevinM.Mitchell

When Celine Dion began a five-year performance residency at the Col-osseum at Caesars Palace in Las

Vegas in 2002, it certainly didn’t seem like a signal that the touring concert business was about to undergo any major changes. Dion’s is a talent perhaps best suited to a home the-atre rather than sequential one-night stands. And she certainly seemed to make the right real estate deal: Her 700 shows in the past five years generated more than $500 million, ac-cording to the Wall Street Journal, with Elton John pulling in pro rata numbers for his inter-im Caesars stints when Dion took breaks.

But that remarkable theatre built to accom-modate Dion’s show won’t stay empty for long. In February 2008, Bette Midler will begin an extended run, committing to 200 shows. The same trend appears in other venues by other big sellers: Prince did a 21-night run in London in early 2007 (ticket sales benefited from the free distribution of his new record as a cover mount on the Daily Mail newspaper), and Bon Jovi inaugurated the new Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., with a 10-night run in October.

Given the way concerts have become the new revenue generators of the music industry, and given the competitively induced complex-ity of concert productions, plus the growing

cost of putting tours on the road (e.g., oil is ap-proaching $100 per barrel), to reposition a con-cert as a destination rather than a traveling road show is economically attractive.

Since the music business is changing so radically, it’s worth reexamining what is nor-mally taken for granted. The basic economics are pretty stark. “When you put the show into one place and have your audience come to you,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar magazine, “you’re bringing your over-head costs down to a fraction of what they are on tour. From an artist’s point of view, it’s a very attractive proposition, financially speaking.”

It’s appealing in other ways, too. As much as digital consoles and systems controllers can offer to log and recall information about a particular venue’s acoustical and sonic char-acteristics, nothing trumps the ability to walk into the same FOH area night after night and know exactly what the reflections are, what the delay values are or how adverse weather one night is going to create a hole in the room that changes sound wave behavior.

When it’s your room, you can control the consistency of the entertainment experience and ensure that the audience, who is paying high three figures for tickets, is going to get its money’s worth. Also, it ensures that the artists

know that their music is being presented in the best possible way. In the new music busi-ness, it’s all about building brands and build-ing relationships. To do that, you need more than quality — you also need consistency of quality. When you control the environment, you control the experience.

This strategy could impact concert sound in other ways. Music artists and engineers are still fond of vintage signal processing and consoles — plug-ins are simply more afford-able and more travel-friendly. But can you imagine the kind of processing and consoles that would be viable if an artist were to be in residence for while? There’s no reason why you couldn’t recreate an accurate recording studio effect when that kind of environmen-tal control is available. There is, in fact, no rea-son why the artist’s next recording can’t be done in that same environment.

While the extended-stay concert strategy has thus far been mainly limited to older artists who have the stature to pull sufficient numbers to distant venues, like Barry Manilow’s ongoing run at the Las Vegas Hilton, the strategy could become viable for a larger number of artists, too, especially those catering to niche audiences.

Consumers used to check Ticketmaster or Pollstar to see when (and if) an artist was com-

ing to a nearby venue. Now, when the artist is no longer a moving target, fans can plan their lives — vacations, weekend breaks — accordingly.

But could this trend freeze out a lot of potential listeners, as well? Will everyone be able to make the hajj to his or her own per-sonal musical Mecca? It’s possible that artists will have to occasionally do an old-fashioned tour now and then. Or maybe the creativity of the market will come up with new solu-tions. Maybe when Linkin Park reaches its own relative seniority, some promoter in the city of Chicago will see the benefit in setting up the by-then-creaky band for an extended stay at that landmark: “Come see Linkin Park in Lincoln Park.” Asbury Park might be a little cramped for the Boss, even these days, but who’s to say Atlantic City couldn’t get some of its luster back from Vegas with a long run of Bruce Springsteen?

Celine Dion didn’t invent the extended stay; Branson figured it out years ago, as did Wayne Newton in Las Vegas. But where Branson had an end-of-the-road feeling about it, and Newton was known as much for his kitsch and camp as for his talent, the extended stays of Dion’s suc-cessor, and those who will follow ,will continue what has been the makeover show of the cen-tury — the new music business.

Dave Holland

Headquarters for Quantum Technologies Inc./Quan-tum Research International

Jazz organist Tony Monaco The organ at Flamingo Road Church Larry Hammel of Deep WaveRoger Smith

Brian: So Ken, I’ve just recently moved, and I’m finding myself dealing with a new frus-tration. All of my equipment is still 10 minutes up the road from my old house, which puts it about an hour and a half from my new home. I’ve got to get my shop closer to where I’m living now, but I don’t have a nice three-car garage, and I certainly don’t have the money for some big commercial space. Have you got any thoughts on a good way to store lots of equipment?

Ken: Brian, Brian, Brian.... are you asking the wrong person! As a sound professional who plays living room Tetris every day, let me warn you that it is not quite the turn-on for your new wife that you may think. Friends who would like to have a cheap weekend in Las Vegas are appalled when I explain that they have to bunk on the racks — yet another reason for matched-height gear. My personal best was having a well-endowed young lady find the cremated remains of my father on a speaker cabinet I was repairing. My laughter did not seem to help the situation.

Brian: That might be a little more than I needed to know.... I’m not really sure. I guess it depends on what you were doing with this coed at the time. Fortunately for me, I don’t really have the option to store equipment in our living room. We have an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building, and there’s no elevator for this loft. I know you won’t find me hauling racks and stacks up and down these steps. Bringing the gro-ceries in is bad enough. I know I won’t be put-ting my gear around the dining room table, but where can I put all of that stuff?

Ken: It sounds like you might be moving out of anklebiter status. I think leasing commercial space gives your business more

than a whiff of a “grown-up” job most of us avoid. I, of course, have to maintain my rootless style in case the Rolling Stones call and need to replace touring bassist Darryl Jones. In the meantime, check your local ads for garage space for rent that is attached to a residential home. People who don’t need the extra room frequently offer these spaces, and that can mean an older homebody, so you get the added benefit of a security guard with a vested interest in protecting his or her own property. And they’re cheaper than regular commercial space. You like cheaper, right?

Brian: Oh, we like cheaper. And that sounds better than renting a storage locker, which is how I’m storing stuff now. Those things can be dank and dark, unless you pay extra for climate control. Not to mention that finding one with an electrical outlet is close to impossible. My current “shop” has a deep cell marine battery and two tractor lights wire-tied to the ceiling, just so I can have some light to unload by after the gig. I’ve thought about adding a power inverter and a solar panel to keep it charged, but how elaborate does one get with something that is sup-posed to be temporary?

Ken: From what I understand, it’s just as tough with a “real” warehouse space, where you need an advanced degree in electrical engineering and a touch of MacGyver to fake the three-phase power you require when you reach that stage. Next item for your research should probably be security systems.

As with any piece of gear, it sounds like the permanent solution will require a little ef-fort on your part. Maybe list what you desire and then put those items in order of impor-tance. As a person not facing that predica-ment, perhaps our ever-faithful and smarter

readers have suggestions?Brian: Well, some of them probably could

shed some light on the subject. I have a feel-ing that those readers who have been in my situation would tell me that there just came a point where they just bit the bullet and leased or built a real warehouse space. I know that I eventually had to dive in and buy a truck to haul all this stuff. Some day, I guess I’ll have to

buy a real shop too. I do know that one of the best business

moves my grandfather ever made was to run his construction company from the same piece of property where he lived. Less over-head means more profit any way you slice the pie. Speaking of…I have a taste for another slice of pumpkin, complete with whipped cream.


Anklebiters

Location, Location, Location

In the Trenches

FOH Audio Engineer The Live GroupMiddletown, CT860.538.2951 [email protected]

Services Provided: FOH audio engineer

Clients: Queen Latifah, Steve Tyrell, Lew Soloff, Manhattan Brass

Quote: “Does anyone remember a proper sound check?”

Personal info: Rob Treloar has been involved in the pro sound industry for over 20 years in the fields of live sound

production, recording engineering, technical testing and manufacturing, as well as marketing and product development. He is currently working as FOH audio engineer for the Queen Latifah Trav’lin’ Light tour.

In his early days as a musician, Rob worked alongside the designers and technicians of audiophile companies Mark Levinson, Madrigal Audio Labs and Cello Laboratories (now Viola Audio Laboratories).

Rob also spends off-the-road time at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., mixing shows for artists such as Ronan Tynan, the Nancy Wilson jazz band, Steve Tyrell, Monica Mancini, Ben E. King, Jim Brickman, comedians Lewis Black and Richard Jeni, among many others. Broadway stars have graced the stage as well, including Patti LuPone, Eartha Kitt, Petula Clark, Lea Salonga and Kristin Chenoweth. When not mixing Ms. Latifah, you can find Rob in New York doing location recordings and live sound for today’s jazz, rock and classical performers.

He has worked for such well-known companies as Sennheiser Electronics Corp. and Neumann. Rob helped introduce microphones like the Neumann KMS-105

handheld to the U.S. national touring marketplace, working alongside sound companies and artists, including Dave Matthews, Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant, Paula Cole, Static-X and Peter Gabriel.

He also supplied Sennheiser micro-phones to the artists involved in the September 11 Concert for America. Rob has recorded congressmen at the Washington D.C. Democratic National Committee recording studios and toured with artists such as bassist Meshell Ndegeocello and Crash Test Dummies.

Hobbies: Working in the yard, hanging in my studio, watching movies with the family.

Equipment: Digidesign Profile, Cubase, Excedrin.

Don’t leave home without: Wallet, cell phone, pass, laptop, Sharpie, pic of wife!

Rob Treloar

By BrianCassell & KenRengering

TP TP

Sensaphonics 3DAA Personal Monitors

gigs on the books, I used them in a situation that — for me anyway — is way more stressful. When I rehearse my own band, I get to be frontman, guitar player and monitor engineer at the same time for a nine-piece band. We use the Hear Technologies Mix Back and Hear Back system, which has made life easier as each person has a degree of control over his or her own P.M. mix. But it is still a hell of a juggling act, and I almost always end up with the “one-in, one-out” P.M. situation just so I can both hear and communicate.

I used the 3D system in three situa-tions: a straight rehearsal, a live record-ing and a lip-synch video shoot. When I first plugged them in, I did what I nor-mally do — wing it. And, not having read the manual fully or called for any advice, I was, of course, using them all wrong. I thought that Perform mode was just the MON feed and that Full Ambient brought in the mics. So I played the whole time in Full Ambient, which actually worked fine. The only problem was that another player was sharing my Hear Back output, which I had cranked up to compensate for the “ducked” MON level in that mode. Almost ripped his head off with sheer volume. But I was happy, which is all that matters….

Next time out, I actually took the time to figure out what I was doing. Dialing in just a bit of ambience in the Perform mode gave me a better feel for what was actually happening in the room, and I found myself laying back just a little both vocally and playing. It made for a better performance on the recording.

So how does this apply for a monitor engineer? First, the ability to communi-cate with another crewmember by flick-ing a switch instead of yanking out an ear-piece is a huge improvement, and the 3D system is worth checking out just for that. But the biggest advantage is in getting a performer who is fighting the whole P.M. thing comfortable with the idea.

The 3D system totally negates two of the three “reasons” I get from performers I am doing monitors for as to why they stick with wedges — the isolation factor from both the audience and other band members, and the ability to communi-cate among each other onstage. This is especially true for looser acts that tend to mix up arrangements and song order in the middle of a set. For bands like that, onstage communication is vital. The one excuse that this system does not really address is the perceived lack of low end

in P.M. systems. The 3D sounds very good, as good as any balanced armature system – and the sound from the onboard mics is natural and undistorted — a neat en-gineering trick. The system is spec’d out as going down to 30 Hz, but I did not per-ceive the bass response of something like the Future Sonics Ear Monitors. On the other hand, the 3D offers advantages that are not even available using any other system, so it comes down to what is best for the situation.

The entire world of monitoring is changing, and the increasing use of P.M.s is inevitable. They result in a cleaner stage sound, which makes it easier to mix a good show out front and — if you keep both of them in your ears all the time — they cut the level by up to about 26 dB, which can save the hearing of both a performer and a monitor engineer. And that really says it all. No matter what the client is using, if you are mixing a band whose stage vol-ume constitutes a hazardous work environ-ment, P.M.s are simple self-defense. The 3D system lets you defend your hearing (and extend your career) and still hear the bass player screaming for more kick in his mix. No other P.M. system does that.

What it is: P.M. system with built-in mics for dialing in room and stage ambience.

Who it’s for: Monitor engineers and recalcitrant per formers.

Pros: Hear the band and your system engineer at the same time. Very comfortable over long periods of wear.

Cons: The addition of mics and mixer makes this an expensive system.

How Much: 3D Active Ambient IEM Systems: 3DAA-WL2 — (as tested) 3D-2 dual driver ear-phones and mixer, for use with wireless IEM $2,500; 3DAA-WL1 —3D-1 single driver earphones and mixer, for use with wireless IEM, single driver 3D-1 earphones $2,000; 3DAA-HW2 — hardwired standalone system, 3D-2 dual driv-er earphones and mixer $2,800; 3DAA-HW1 — hardwired stand-alone system,3D-1 single driver earphones and mixer $2,300.


Road Test

The gate sidechain starts by picking off the buffered input signal and processing the audio through a variable bandpass fil-ter circuit to form the frequency-conscious feature. This is where the different brands of gates begin to vary in performance. Some lower-cost frequency-conscious gates will just implement a medium-Q bandpass filter around the lower octaves of the audio fre-quency spectrum, while more full-featured gates will cascade low-pass and high-pass filters to allow the user to tweak in the audio frequencies of interest to trigger the unmuting function. Since most gates are used on per-cussion sources, the best gates focus on hav-ing wide 50 Hz to 500 Hz frequency span on the sidechain filter controls to catch specific drum head tuning resonances as the trigger audio.

After the frequency-conscious filters, the remaining part of the sidechain circuitry is devoted to the threshold detection function along with the ADSR (attack, delay, sustain, release) shaping of the “key” waveform. The key is just a buzzword for the sidechain sig-nal as it progresses from audio to a rectified control signal that follows the audio ampli-tude, to the chopped up control voltage that opens and closes the VCA and is visualized through the metering LEDs. The threshold control is just the trigger point adjustment where the VCA is commanded to open.

On the backside of the audio signal trig-gering, the release control permits an adjust-able time before remuting the VCA, once the sidechain signal retreats below the set thresh-old. For drums, the threshold time may be a half-second to several seconds to permit the drumhead sound to decay. For instruments like keyboards, a tight fraction-of-a-second selection of release is useful to reduce hum/buzz or to create a staccato musical effect.

Setting Up a GateYes, setting up a gate could be as easy

as dialing in a reasonable threshold, like -20 dBu, and letting the loudest thing nearby to open it up (presuming it is a mic source). But what you really want is some extra time at line check to have the drummer hit the toms (or snare, or kick, etc.) while you PFL the chan-nel with the gate inserted in it, and with the “key listen” switch activated. Referring back to Figure 1, the key listen switch lets you hear the filtered version of the signal that the gate’s sidechain will rectify and unmute to. By adjusting the filter characteristic to each drum’s primary (or secondary) resonance, you can keep adjacent drums from opening up other gates than the desired one.

It is nice to have the time to set up each gate’s frequency-conscious filters at line check, but often time pressure will cause you to either bypass the gate in the begin-ning of the performance, or at least bypass

the key filters out, if there is that option on the gate. Then you get to go back after the mix is settled and key listen to the gates during performance, hoping for a drum fill to catch a hit or two to tweak in the filters of each drum channel. There is never a dull moment for a house engineer when there are new bands every night, and likely each new drummer will have different tunings for each tom.

ApplicationGiven that most gates are provided in

pairs, fours or six-packs, the question is: Which inputs get the gate treatment? I al-ways focus on getting the tom-toms gated first, and if there are spare channels, then pursue the snare drum, followed by the kick drum channels. It used to be that a lot of di-rect inject (DI) keyboard channels used to be notoriously noisy, but thankfully this is most-ly a thing of the past.

With percussion rating a priority, setting the release times on the drums becomes a tasteful choice thing. If you have a drummer with badly dampened toms, then shorten-ing up decays under a second makes things sound more pleasant than they really are on-stage. I find with a well set up drum kit that I can progressively open the release times from 0.5 seconds to over one second as I go from small toms (6 inches to 10 inches) toward floor toms (16 inches to 24 inches).

Too much release time, and the stage noise swells every time a drum-fill starts. And too short release times cause the drums to sound unnatural or synthesized.

Today, with digital consoles, every input can have a gate if desired. However there is a difference between setting -50 dBu floors to drop some hiss out of the overall mix and hard gating drums or other noisy sources. Gates on tom-toms are meant to stay silent if the toms are not hit, then the remaining open mics are how you are miking the re-maining drum kit. Think of how drummers were miked in recording studios in the old days — mostly with a kick drum mic and one or two mics placed over the drummer’s head to pick up the cymbals, snare and toms. To-day, with the luxury of individual drum mic channels, it still is best to remember the old technique and let kick and overheads do the heavy lifting, as far as sound reinforcing and balancing the drum kit sound.

But I have a confession to make: I love gating the toms and letting them open up with near full level on the channel faders. This “drums from hell” sound is enjoyable, but can get old really fast if you overdo it. My com-promise is to just do it at the start and trim back the tom fader levels to the point were they are not so objectionable.

Now that you have my secrets on gating, experiment and invent some hot tips of your own.

Theory and Practice

continued from page 31

Gates—Pearly and Other Kinds

continued from page 26

35Month 2005www.fohonline.com

Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/

Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/

Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/

Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/

Ad

info

: http

://foh

.ho

tims.co

m/

EMPLOYMENT

ADVERTISER’S INDEX

For Advertising Information Call Dan Hernandez at 415.218.3835

COMPANY PG# PH URL

2007 DECEMBER 35www.fohonline.com

AKG 25 818.920.3212

Allen & Heath 16 800.431.2609 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-176

Audio-Technica U.S., Inc 17 330.686.2600 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-131

BBE Sound 7, 9, 11 714.897.6766 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-148

EV, Electro Voice/ Bosch 15 248.876.1000 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-171

Crown International 9 574.294.8000

D.A.S. Audio 8 888.237.4872 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-162

d&b Audiotechnik 5, 6 828.670.1763 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-132

dbx Professional Products 19 801.568.7660

DiGiCo Consoles 27 877.292.1623 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-105

DPA Microphones C4 303.485.1025 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-163

EAW/ Loud Technologies 23 800.992.5013 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-173

Full Compass 22 800.356.5844 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-175

Heil Sound 9 618.257.3000 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-158

JBL Professional 3 818.894.8850

Lab.gruppen C1 818.665.4900 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-133

Meyer Sound Laboratories C2 510 486.1166 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-112

OVO/Mega Systems 7 210.684.2600 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-154

Precise Corporate Staging 10 480.759.9700 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-164

TMB 13 818.899.8818 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-120

Westone Music Products 4 719.540.9333 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-121

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems 1, 21, C3 714.522.9011 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-123

MARKET PLACE

AudioEast 35 866.274.4590 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-124

Consolidated Audio Technology/ Gabriel Sound 35 973.831.7500 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-149

Hi-Tech Audio 35 650.742.9166 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-127

New York Case/Hybrid Cases 35 800.645.1707 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-168

Sound Productions 35 800.203.5611 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-129






An engineer friend of mine, who is now retired from the business, started his audio career in the

early 1970s and spent most of the ensu-ing 30 years traveling throughout the world mixing front of house and moni-tors. As well as being an excellent engi-neer, he is endowed with a charismatic charm, wit and a talent for networking. He was in with the rock ‘n’ roll elite and always worked with top name acts in the business.

In the latter part of the last century, he navigated a glamorous course that took him on an odyssey via the world of towering platform boots, big hair and colossal snare drum sounds to the north country of plaid shirts and ripped jeans. After a final bit of touring, which took him across an ocean of lip-synching di-vas to the lucrative strip-mined fields of boy bands, he finally hung up his shoes and decided to settle down.

Settling down turned out to be a bit of a challenge and, as most people who have tried know, the party never ends, and the road goes on forever. It’s not easy to bring 30 years of nonstop mo-tion to a seemingly grinding halt, but he had made up his mind and was at-tempting to give it his best shot.

Part of the therapy in adapting to his new life was to regale anyone within earshot with tales of his fantastic life of adventure. An engaging speaker, he easily enthralls his listeners with anec-dotes of glamour, music and distant vistas; invariably, his tales start the same way. “OK, so there I was, all gakked up and sitting in the back of the bus…” or “OK, so we were all in the bar, drinking and all gakked up….” Once in a while, he may start a road saga with a slight variation on the theme, “OK, so there I was. I just had a big hit of some amazing weed, which was nice because we had been gakked

up all day….” The narrative that follows his opening sen-

tences is always interesting, informative and amusing, but after hearing a few of these bio-graphical reminiscences, an emerging pattern becomes hard to ignore: It is evident that my friend spent most of the past three decades of his life drunk, high or “all gakked up.”

“All gakked up,” for those who do not know, is a fairly accurate way of describing the feeling in the back of one’s throat, as well as the high, that is associated with snorting a white pow-dery substance. Believe me, I know of what I speak. I came of age in a world that was “tuning in, turning on and dropping out,” and I lived and worked through the same three decades as my friend and in the same business.

Drugs and alcohol have been prevalent in our society for many years, and their seductive attraction is not unique to our chosen field of work. Many people snort, drink, smoke and inject intoxicating substances. Although this behavior was, at one time, indicative of en-tertainers and other people of questionable background, the playing field has opened up, and everybody has joined in. I do not mean to imply that everyone who goes out on the week-

end is a hopeless drug addict or an alcoholic, but while most people are relegated to “party” when they go out once or twice a week, as tour-ing or venue engineers, we are basically at the ball all the time.

Since we are always working in a social environment, the opportunities to imbibe are countless. Various reasons can be given for traveling down the not-so-straight-and-narrow path. As a touring engineer, it can be the excite-ment of the show or the numbing monotony of travel that leads us to the bottle, pipe or spoon. As a club, or venue engineer, the long hours and late nights — not to mention the easy access to a multitude of spirits — can lead us down the sobriety-challenged trail. Last, there is the event itself, which is most always a soiree regardless of its nature, and again we, the engineers, are right there in the middle of it all. Even when it’s over, it’s difficult to let the good times end.

I am not against alcohol or drugs, nor do I think of them as evil. I am in favor of drug law re-form and propose that all substances should be as legal as liquor in our society, thereby allevi-ating the overcrowding of our prisons by many noncriminal types. However, drugs and drink-ing do change one’s perspective and can lead to impaired judgment, which can definitely be

a problem in the workplace, even one as loose as ours. Gear can be damaged, people can get hurt, schedules can be ruined and, similar to a DUI charge, none of it matters until something hap-pens or someone is caught.

It’s probably a good rule of thumb not to imbibe while loading or unload-ing a truck, flying an FOH rig or while hunting quail with good friends. Mix-ing a show or doing monitors should be done as soberly as possible, and if one is responsible for the power tie-in, I would again suggest it be done while sober. Speaking to the client is not advisable while under the influ-ence, nor is being high while doing settlement for a show. That said, I am sure that many of us have done all of the above plus more while “all gakked up” or something like it.

So, when does substance use be-come substance abuse? Easy signs might be if you feel a beer with your morning cereal is a good idea, or if you’d rather skip breakfast and have a line with your coffee. Oversleeping and missing load-in might be forgiven once, but should be given a serious look if it happens again. When the phone stops ringing, and the gigs become less fre-quent — that’s also an indication that something is askew.

Junkie logic is something that would have to be pointed out, since impaired logic still seems logical to a junkie. A friend of mine, who is now in a program and four months sober, once told me that his plan for getting rid of his cocaine habit was to stop snorting it and start smoking it instead, because by doing this, he wouldn’t be able to af-ford to buy it, and he would be forced to quit. Seemed logical at the time….

Cocaine is not a musical drug! It doesn’t have rhythm, melody or nuance, and when one takes cocaine, it is akin to dressing up the neurons when they (the neurons) have no place to go. However, it’s difficult to assess oneself regard-ing substance use and abuse, and most people claim that they can be in charge of it — even as they are careening out of control. Though not everyone has an addictive personality, it’s often difficult to recognize it in yourself until, one day, you realize that the drug is controlling you and not the other way around.

A good many of my friends are in recovery and doing well, while others have gone the oth-er way and are still struggling with their habits. A few people I know with less addictive person-alities, including me, have either given up most of their evil ways or transferred their addiction to something more socially acceptable such as chocolate or fast food. Many things about a life in audio can lead one to seek a diversion, and while it’s nice to have hobbies, there are some that are more detrimental than others.

Therefore, if you suspect that your avoca-tion is beginning to interfere with your voca-tion, it might be time to get into one program or another and possibly consider taking up a different pastime.

www.fohonline.com

FOH-At-Large

COMING NEXT MONTH...

Salt Lake Tabernacle renovation

Product Gallery looks at speakers on a stick.

What it takes to be a hired gun for God.

•

•

•

OK,

While most people are relegated to “party” when they go out once or twice a week, as touring or venue engineers, we are basically at the ball all the time.

so there I was, all gakked upand sitting in the back of the bus…

Image by andy au

By BakerLee



Ad

info

: h

ttp

://f

oh

.ho

tim

s.co

m/


Strike Over, Shows on Broadway Resume · DECEMBER 2007 Editor’s Note By BillEvans Publisher Terry Lowe [email protected] Editor Bill Evans [email protected] Managing Editor

Documents