Midas Has Left the House (of Bosch)
By Bill Evans
PEOPLE. PRODUCTION. GEAR. GIGS.
JULY 2009 Vol. 7 No.10
Denise Truscello
Stripped Down Audio...NOT!
LOS ANGELES — FOH has been trying to break this story for months ever since
we noted a series of announcements that distribution of Midas and Klark Teknik was
being moved from Bosch-owned companies to independents around the world. We
made inquiries through official channels and some less official. And we got plenty of
info—just nothing we could print. And then the night before the InfoComm show,
a source came through and we were able to report that the last major domino had
fallen and that Midas/KT distribution in the U.S. was transitioning from Bosch’s U.S.
headquarters to a newly created company called Midas Consoles North America.
This new company has some familiar faces. American Music & Sound—a wholly
owned subsidiary of JAM Industries—is taking the lead here with Midas Consoles
North America (also a JAM subsidiary) sharing many executives with AMS including
Lynn Martin. Jay Easley who has been heading up Midas sales for Bosch since Matt
Larsen made the jump to competitor DiGiCo some time back will remain the point
man as he changes employers to MCNA but basically keeps the same job.
Some days after the show, the final step took place, as U.K. distribution was
moved from a Bosch-owned company to be handled in-house by the U.K. Midas
team.
“This is a huge new chapter in our company history,” said David Cooper, sales
and marketing director for Midas and Klark Teknik. “It ensures that our present and
future customer base in North America is offered dedicated, brand-orientated sales
expertise and technical support.”
To translate from Corporate Happy
Talk, what that means is that products
as specialized as Midas consoles and
KT processing need to be sold and
serviced by people who are just as
specialized.
Martin gave a pithy quote for the
offical press release but summed it up
best at the press conference officially
announcing the change on the opening morning of InfoComm when he
strayed from his
continued on page 5
Buyers Guide
Jake Berry to Receive
Parnelli Lifetime
Achievement Award
Yes, you have great custom earmolds.
Now what are you gonna drive them
with? This month we cover wireless personal monitor systems. Turn to page18.
By Kevin M. Mitchell
Yes, it is a topless show in Vegas. But Peep Show has much more in common with Broadway than your friendly neighborhood strip club—including a million-dollar audio system
and some really sharp guys running it. Not a bad gig if you can get it… Turn to page 16.
The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien Tunes In
with Yamaha Consoles, JBL Loudspeakers
BURBANK, CA — When Conan O’Brien
took over NBC’s The Tonight Show on June
1, it was the first time in nearly 40 years
that the show received a new home. Crews
worked for months to prepare the new digs
at Universal Studios, the same Hollywood
soundstage built in the 1950s and occupied
by The Jack Benny Show.
Jeff Peterson of Green Audio was contracted by ATK AudioTek to handle the design and
act as project manager for O’Brien’s Tonight
Show sound system, and as part of that undertaking, chose two Yamaha PM1D digital audio
consoles and an M7CL for the theater, plus elements from JBL’s VRX, SRX, VerTec and Control
Contractor series.
continued on page 6
LAS VEGAS—The Parnelli Awards
Board of Directors announces that Jake
Berry will receive this year’s Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award honoring an
astonishing career in the live entertainment industry. Currently production
manager for U2, the venerable professional will be honored for his work and
contributions at an awards ceremony
in Orlando on Nov. 20, 2009.
“He is a credit to the industry, and
to all who have the pleasure of knowing
him, including me,” says Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, who hired Berry as
a roadie in the mid-1970s (Berry later
worked with Yes, too). “After a few years
of working with me, Jake moved on to
AC/DC and then continued to climb
the ladder of success. No one could be
more proud of what he achieved than
me.”
continued on page 8
Installations
20
The sound system in the Atrium at
the Westfield Mall in London has to
be visiting-engineer-friendly, cover
a large area without sound leaking
into adjacent retail spaces and able
to host everything from fashion
shows to concerts to a chocolate
maze. Yummy.
Theory and
Practice
24
How much power do you really
need? Is there a “power per person”
formula that actually works?
www.ProAudioSpace.com/join
Ad info: http//www.fohhotims.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
www.fohonline.com
JULY 2009,
Vol. 7.10
What’s Hot
InfoComm 09 Show Report
Columns
Features
Feature
24 Theory and Practice
16 Production Profile
Making it loud, even with lots of meat absorbers in
the room.
When Mrs. FOH Editor did a blog on Peep Show, it
got Tweeted with the line, “Finally, a review of the
show and not the skin.” This one is kinda like that,
too.
25 On the Digital Edge
18 Buyers Guide
12
For an audio show, there were a hell of a lot of video
displays and digital signage and life monitoring stuff
and… Oh wait, InfoComm has become an audio
show by default. I almost forgot.
Yep, you have snazzy new custom ear molds. But
they only make a difference if there is, like, ya know,
sound going through them. Here some ways to
make that happen without wires.
20 Installations
FOH At Large
What’s Hot
26 Sound Sanctuary
So what do you do when the actual church building still sounds bad?
Departments
We live in a world where everything has to sound
good. Even a mega-mall.
22 Road Test
How to transport plug-ins and the hardware required to use them.
How do make a drum sound like a drum through
a PA and not some kind of Frankenstein “created”
sound? Really really really really good mics. Oh, and
that whole “knowing how to use them” part…
4 Editor’s Note
5 News
10 International News
11 On the Move
12 New Gear
14 Showtime
Letters
Agua Caliente’s Unsung “Headliners”
28
Yes, your resume should make you look as good as
possible. But do think anyone is going to take you seriously if it says that you toured with Deep Purple, Black
Sabbath, the Beatles and the Jackson 5? Okay, that’s a
pretty impressive list. But how do you explain the fact
that you did all of these gigs and you are 24 years old?
As the head of engineering at Sound Image, I
am involved enough with all our projects to spot
the heroes. I must confess that it bothers me a
little when I see one person take credit for the
work of a whole team. In the case of The Headliner Room at the Agua Caliente Resort & Casino,
Michael Maxson at Meyer designed the speaker
package and Rob Hill headed up the team at APF
that designed the rest of the job including Video,
Lighting & Theater Systems. I don’t know the
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
2
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
story behind what Rob Hill and the APF crew
went through, but they had a huge task that
goes well beyond just the sound system.
At Sound Image, project engineer Rebecca Sullins and project manager Jerry Fleury
handled the integration with great skill and
poured their lives into making the job a success. Bob Delson (also a project manager)
and Rich Davis (FOH for Jimmy Buffet) were
key members of the installation crew that
contributed skills that no engineer sitting at
a desk could ever hope to achieve.
—Mike Martin, project manager
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Editor’s Note
By BillEvans
Publisher
Terry Lowe
A Lesson From the Pirates
Yes I am a pirate
Two hundred years too late
The cannons don’t thunder
There’s nothing to plunder
I’m an over 40 victim of fate
—Jimmy Buffett
I
have alluded—hell straight out
said—on more than one occasion
that ours is a business largely populated by people who would have been
pirates in a generation long gone by.
Note that this is not an indictment of
the morals ad ethics of those in the live
sound biz—well not most of them anyway. It is more about the attitude of adventure and the drive to get it done despite the odds against and the obstacles
thrown before them. (If you really want
to get into it, there are some that will
tell you that some of the more historic
pirates were originally doing what they
did under the sanction of a government
and became outlaws when that sanction was removed.)
So, anyway I am a regular reader of
Wired, and in a recent issue they ran
a piece called “Cutthroat Capitalism”
about the pirates operating off the
coast of Somalia. No doubt that they are
criminals, but as the article points out,
this is a business. Wages are based on
a multiple of the average per-capita Somali income. Shipping companies weigh
the risk of attack against the increased
cost of sending a cargo ship around the
Cape of Good Hope. The pirates operate
based on an organizational chart more
detailed than most companies I know in
the live event production industry, with
the equivalent of a board of directors
and outside investors who get 50 percent of the take.
But here is what really stuck with
me. Putting everything else aside, there
is something of a code about how much
money to demand and actually settle
for. It is based on previous ransoms
paid, and they will not go below a certain point lest they risk the ire and retaliation of other pirate crews. One crew
lowering their price screws up the “business model” for everyone else. Everyone—from the shippers to the navies to
the insurers to the private security companies that conduct negotiations to the
pirates themselves—operates on cold
hard numbers, and if one crew brings
their prices down by too much or too
often then it brings down the potential
value across the board.
I have seen this happen even with
the few small sound gigs I do. Often I
find myself in need of doing a gig in order to review a piece of gear for a Road
Test. But if I take a gig for little money
because I need to get a review done
and in doing so take a gig from someone else I not only screw that company
I—by extension—screw everyone in
that segment of the industry because I
have lowered the value of the gig. And
the next time a similar gig comes along
whether it is me or some other soundco
doing the gig, that lower price will be
the place where negotiations begin.
I know I am far from the only guy out
there driving a console who also occasionally straps on a guitar and works the
other end of the mic and I have had the
same situation come up there as well. We
had a self-described promoter out trying to book some gigs and after some
time she came back with some stuff—at
about 20 percent of the minimum I usually book for. And things are tight enough
that some of my band mates were pretty
pissed off when I turned the gigs down.
But do one gig for less than a grand and
you become a sub-grand act forever.
We face the same dilemma on an
almost daily basis with FOH. As some
of our competitors drop their prices for
advertising to new lows seemingly every month, we face pressure from some
companies to do the same. Like most of
you reading this, we are running just as
lean as we can and have the advantage
of not having to live and die by quarterly
numbers. And as much as it hurts to lose
some short-term cash flow because we
have stuck to our guns in terms of price,
we know that we are steering the right
course for the long term. Getting you
the info and features you want does not
happen in a vacuum, and we know that if
we drop trou now to get the deal, raising
rates back to where they should be when
things turn around will be difficult if not
impossible.
So when that call comes in from a
long-time client who wants a 30 percent
cut in their already negotiated rate, keep
that in mind. Maybe you make a token
cut to make the client feel like they got
something, but think hard before you
cave on an unreasonable demand. If they
really want the price lowered that much,
then you may lose them. But the person
they hire will have cut corners so much
that he will likely screw up the gig and
the client will be back eventually if they
care at all about quality of product and
service.
And you won’t have a bunch of angry
sound guys knocking at your door asking
you to explain why you dropped the going price in your town by 30 percent. For
everybody.
tlowe@fohonline.com
Editor
Bill Evans
bevans@ fohonline.com
Managing Editor
Frank Hammel
fh@fohonline.com
Technical Editor
Mark Amundson
mamundson@fohonline.com
Editorial Assistant
Victoria Laabs
vl@fohonline.com
Contributing Writers
Jerry Cobb, Dan Daley,
Daniel M. East,
David John Farinella, Steve LaCerra,
David Morgan, Baker Lee, Jamie Rio
Art Director
Garret Petrov
gpetrov@fohonline.com
Production Manager/
Photographer
Linda Evans
levans@ fohonline.com
Web Master
Josh Harris
jharris@ fohonline.com
National Sales Manager
Dan Hernandez
dh@fohonline.com
National Advertising Director
Gregory Gallardo
gregg@fohonline.com
Advertising Manager
Matt Huber
mh@fohonline.com
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
wvanyo@fohonline.com
Business, Editorial and
Advertising Office
6000 South Eastern Ave.
Suite 14J
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Ph: 702.932.5585
Fax: 702.554.5340
Circulation
Stark Services
P.O. Box 16147
North Hollywood, CA 91615
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 7 Number 10 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 distributed
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 obtained 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...
4
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
News
Midas Has Left the
House (of Bosch)
continued from cover
official statements to say “Look, folks.
We are selling Ferarris here.”
So what does it all mean? Back
when Bosch bought EV/Telex/Midas/
KT, FOH was one of the few to publicly
state that while the fit with EV and Telex made sense, we had doubts about
how well things would go with Midas
as part of such a large corporation.
And though Midas/KT is still owned by
the German conglomerate, it has effectively been taken out of the day-today-Bosch orbit. We fully expect that
the next announcement will be that
ownership has been transferred to the
folks in the U.K. who design and make
the gear. But that is a story for another
day.
If you would like to see the press
conference announcing the change
you can find it in my blog on ProAudioSpace.com.
LOUD Restructuring Creates Pro Audio, Music Gear Groups
ORLANDO — LOUD Technologies
Inc. (LOUD) announced the unification
of its previously separate engineering,
brand management and product management functions and the creation of
two new groups: the Pro Audio Group
and the Music Gear Group.
“By unifying these disciplines
around our core brands and the markets they serve, we will markedly increase our technical innovation and
speed the delivery of the next round
of products,” said Rodney Olson, LOUD
CEO.
Jeffrey Cox, VP of the Pro Audio
Group, will manage the EAW and Martin Audio brands and their market positioning, product strategy and product development efforts.
Cox’s group will include the
Whitinsville, Mass.-based EAW Engineering team headed by Jeff Rocha,
who will also take on EAW product
management responsibility; the High
Wycombe, U.K.-based Martin Audio
Engineering team headed by Jason
Baird; and the Victoria, B.C. Canadabased Pro Audio Software/Hardware
Development Group headed by Chris
Jubien.
While the two groups will focus on
their respective brands, they will also
share core technology where it makes
sense, as they have already done with
the new Mackie HD High-Definition
powered speakers.
John Boudreau, vice president of
the Music Gear (MG) Group will oversee teams devoted to engineering and
industrial design for Mackie, Ampeg,
Blackheart, Alvarez and Crate products.
L-R: David Cooper (Midas and Klark Teknik); Lynn Martin,
Gabriel Whyel and Jay Easley (Midas Consoles North
America); John Oakley (Midas and Klark Teknik)
theMovement Makes a
Transition to Digital Console
Chris Matthews, engineer, with Paul Abbott, director of
audio, for theMovement.
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
SAN MARCOS, CA — A non-denominational church called theMovement opted to use
Soundcraft’s Si2 digital console as the heart of
its recent sound system upgrade. The church
was making the transition into digital for the
first time and chose the Si2 based on sound
quality, DSP power and ease of use.
“TheMovement church is very familiar with
high-tech gear,” noted Chris Matthews, an engineer who helped the church with the upgrade.
“We needed a console that had the sound quality and the power to be able to use all gates and
compressors and EQs at one time. We wanted a
console with history behind it, and Soundcraft
has a rich history including the Vi6,” Matthews
said. “Their partnership with Studer is very appealing,” he added.
Citing its ease of use, Matthews said he liked
the fact that “there are no real pages I have to go
to in order to get an aux or EQ etc. I don’t have
to rely on a screen to tell me what’s up.
“We looked at a couple of digital boards,
but I was not caught up in the ‘trend’ consoles,”
Matthews added. “Just because everyone else
has one does not make it a great board or even
a great sounding board.”
www.fohonline.com
2009 JULY
5
News
The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien Tunes In with New Consoles, Loudspeakers
continued from cover
“Between NBC and ATK, we decided
to use Yamaha PM1D consoles for both
the front of house and monitor positions
based on their flexibility, familiarity and
reliability,” said Peterson. “While the front
of house PM1D has 192 available inputs,
we still needed to add a Yamaha M7CL as
a sidecar for additional channels.”
In addition to the 192-input PM1D at
the monitor position, the monitor set up
includes a two-tiered 16-channel Aviom
Personal Mixing System to drive in-ear
monitors for drummer Max Weinberg and
his band, eight channels of Sennheiser
EW350 wireless in-ears, and four channels of Shure PSM700 in-ears, available to
accommodate guest bands. The wireless
in-ears and Aviom inputs are fed analog
from the PM1D monitor console.
“The PA system is driven 100 percent
AES/EBU from the Yamaha PM1D through
two BSS Sounbdweb London Blu-800s,
then AES directly into the amplifiers,” said
Peterson. “Care was taken to keep everything synchronized and to keep latency
to a minimum.”
Peterson also noted that the sound
reinforcement system needed to be visually unobtrusive. “We designed a system
to provide audio that met the standards
of both live performance and television
broadcast, configured to blend in seam-
lessly with the set design,” he said.
The main PA system consists of left
and right clusters, each containing four
JBL VRX932LA-1 compact constant curvature array systems with one VRX918S subwoofer on top. A center cluster features
three VRX932LA-1 loudspeakers. The system is enhanced by a center array of two
VerTec VT4880A full-size arrayable subwoofers. The system also features two delay clusters flown 40 feet downstage from
the main PA system, each containing two
VRX932LA-1 loudspeakers.
The wireless complement is a 12-channel Sennheiser 3732 receiver with 5212
belt packs and 5200 handheld transmit-
ters using VT500 lavs for the belt packs
and 12 channels of Shure UHFR receivers
with handhelds using SM58 and KSM9
heads, with VT500 lavs on belt packs.
Three custom ATK 4-way Universal
56PR splitters distributing microphone
and production hi-level signals to all
consoles were also installed. ATK permanently installed 168 inputs from the stage
to the FOH position as part of the splitter
system.
Peterson’s system design features a
unique approach to nearfield sound support, with a JBL Control 23 surface-mount
speaker underneath every other audience
seat in the theater for dialogue, creating
an “under-seat” system of 178 individual
speakers.
Each row in the under-seat system is
treated as an individual zone for signaldelay purposes, time-aligned to the main
PA so they can be used in tandem. Onstage are 16 JBL SRX712M stage monitors
for performers, four VRX915M stage monitors for drums and two VT4881A compact
arrayable subwoofer for the drum monitor system.
Crown I-Tech 4000 amplifiers power
the PA system, with high-powered I-Tech
8000s driving the subwoofers. Crown ITech 4000 amplifiers power the stage
monitor system.
Signal processing for the entire audio system is accomplished via two BSS
Soundweb London BLU 800s, while the
system is networked for remote control
and monitoring with Harman HiQnet™
System Architect™ software.
O’Brien’s June 1 debut featured guest
actor/comedian Will Ferrell and musical
guest Pearl Jam. The show generated the
program’s highest ratings for a Monday
in four years, 82 percent higher than the
show’s average in major markets in the
second quarter of 2009.
Bartlett
Appoints Dealers
in the U.K., U.S.
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
ELKHART, IN — Bartlett Microphones, developer of the TM-125
and TM-125C stage-floor microphones, appointed two new dealers on both sides of the Atlantic:
10 Out of 10 Productions Ltd. in
the U.K. and Church Audio Supply
in the U.S.
London-based 10 Out of 10 Productions is the sole U.K. distributor
for Bartlett Microphones. Formed
in 1989, they have worked in most
fields of technical production for
the entertainment, conference,
theater, tradeshow, radio, film and
television industries.
Church Audio Supply in Norwich, N.Y. specializes in sound
equipment, wire, cables and connectors for the church audio market. They are owned by Mody Company Creative LLC, have a custom
metal shop, and offer fundraisers
for churches.
6
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
News
Jake Berry to Receive Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award
continued from cover
Berry’s resourcefulness is legendary. Tour
manager Ian Jeffery tells of an AC/DC gig that
was scheduled to go down in an outdoor arena in Phoenix, but torrential rains had created
a pool of water in front of the stage. There was
talk of canceling the gig, but Berry strapped
all the equipment on stage and hired a helicopter. In logic that exists only in Berry’s mind,
the idea was that the helicopter would hover
down close and the blade’s wind force would
push the water down the sides of the stage. It
worked, and the gig went on.
Berry was born in 1953 in the village of
Exeter, Devon, U.K. As a young man, he drove
trucks. One day his brother, who was thatching rock legend Wakeman’s roof, asked him to
bring some things to Wakeman’s house. “Rick
invited me to join him for a quick pint at the
pub, which lead to an evening of drinking,
and then a job offer,” Berry says. “I first met
Jake in 1974 when I moved to Devon to try
to cut back on my drinking,” jokes Wakeman.
“Jake was a tremendous help and played an
enormous part in increasing my alcoholic intake by about 300 percent.
Berry jumped from Wakeman’s roadie to
production manager for AC/DC when they
were first starting to break out. His tenacity,
work ethic and ability to get along positioned
him as king of the heavy metal bands during
the 1980s. He would also work for Ronnie
James Dio (the only person to ever fire him),
Metallica, and Motley Crüe, among others.
Beginning in the 1990s, he would work for
Cher, Tina Turner, and Janet Jackson.
In 1993 he began a stint with the Rolling
Stones, becoming an integral part of some of
their most successful tours. In 2002 the Stones
again summoned him for the Forty Licks tour.
While preparing for a show in Munich, Berry
was informed that Mick Jagger wanted to see
him in his dressing room. It was a sobering
request, as Berry has learned through experience: If one is summoned to a rock star’s
dressing room it is not to have lavish praise
heaped upon oneself.
Jagger ushered Berry into another room
backstage. When Berry got there, a party was
in full swing — for him, to celebrate his 50th
birthday. Across the room, he did a doubletake after seeing his mom, brought in by limo,
sitting between Keith Richards and Ronnie
Wood.
From there, he went to work for U2, and
is currently preparing for their next tour. In
what time there has been in between these
huge gigs, he’s never hesitated to bring his
rock ‘n’ roll skills to any act, including shows
acts such as Barney, Bob The Builder, and the
Wiggles. Probably his “biggest family show”
act has been the touring mega-hit Walking
with Dinosaurs, where he was a key player
in figuring out how to transport more than
a dozen life-size dinosaurs around the world.
Of that show, he quipped: “There are less egos
but more luggage.”
“When I got my start as AC/DC’s manager,
I was told to hire Jake Berry as our production manager,” Peter Mench says. “I count that
as among the smartest decisions I have ever
made. Culminating with a couple of Metallica
tours, Jake did an amazing job. Clearly, now
he is at the top of his game with U2.”
Famed LD Willie Williams, who has worked
with Berry on U2 tours, says, “He’s unafraid of
a challenge, responsibility, Very Big Things, or
very large numbers of trucks. He’s unafraid of
a tight schedule, management, promoters,
agents, or Live Nation. He’s unafraid of rock
stars, lighting designers, set designers, video
directors, or sound engineers. He’s unafraid of
dinosaurs, be they large and life-like or purple
and fluffy. Can he build it? Yes he can!”
“When you receive something like this, it’s
humbling,” says Berry. “At the end of the day,
Jake Berry
when you work in a field for 35 years and you
get [a Parnelli], it’s your platinum album. It’s
like winning Wimbledon or the Super Bowl,
and I’m thankful to be receiving it.”
“Jake Berry has set the gold standard for
professionalism in the live event industry,” declares Terry Lowe, Parnelli Awards executive
producer and publisher of live event magazines PLSN and FOH. “He’s had a backstage
pass to rock ‘n’ roll history, has been a key
component of some of the greatest rock ‘n’
roll shows of all time, and is a genuine, funny,
and good human being. We are delighted to
honor him with our industry’s highest award.”
Berry will receive his Parnelli Award at a
gala dinner on Nov. 20 in Orlando. For more
information on the Parnelli Awards, go to
www.parnelliawards.com.
Parnelli Event to Feature Neil Diamond Crew Reunion Party
LAS VEGAS — Since the early 1970s, Neil
Diamond has been a touring legend, selling
out shows all over the world and offering up
amazing performances marked with his signature laser beams. The hundreds of men and
women behind those memorable tours are
now cordially invited to a special cocktail party
in their honor to be held in Orlando this November prior to the popular Parnelli Awards.
“We at the Parnellis are pleased to organize what will be a must-attend event in honor of those of us who were fortunate enough
to work with Mr. Diamond,” says Patrick Stansfield of the Parnelli Board of Advisors and a
veteran of many of Diamond’s tours for more
than 25 years. “It will be a wonderful opportunity to see everyone again.”
The special event will be held prior to the
Parnelli Awards, described by National Public
Radio as “the Oscars of the live event production industry,” from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on
Nov. 20, 2009 — the Friday of the LDI Convention. This will offer the chance for old friends
who have worked for Diamond to mingle,
recall old times and reminisce over all that
they’ve accomplished.
“A few years ago, there was the Parnelli
Tom Field Associates Reunion, and that was
pretty cool,” says Doug Pope. “There’s a history
for this kind of thing, and I’m looking forward
to it.” Pope, who like Stansfield is a longtime
veteran of many a Diamond tour, has been
appointed by the Parnelli Board of Advisors
to help organize the special event.
Pope and Stansfield say they have kept
track of many of those who worked on Diamond’s shows, but not all. Those who fell out
of touch or know of someone who worked
on those crews who might be interested
are encouraged to contact Pope directly at
NDCrewReunion@aol.com.
Additional information about the Parnelli
Awards can be found at www.parnelliawards.
com. Watch these pages and the Web site for
more details as they become available.
Corrections
Okay, we dorked out and left both EV
and Peavey out of last issue’s Buyers’ Guide to
Drum Mic Kits. (Hey, EV and Peavey rhyme —
maybe that was the problem?) Nope. We’re
just dorks. Anyway, here is the info we left
out…
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Model
Kick
Mic
Snare/
Tom
Mic
EV
PL DK4
PL33
(x1)
PL35
(x3)
EV
PL DK4
PLUS
PL33
(x1)
PL35
(x3)
EV
PL DK5
PL33
(x1)
PL35
(x4)
EV
PL DK7
PL33
(x1)
PL35
(x4)
PVM
321
(x1)
Snare:
PVM
325 (x1)
Toms:
PVM 328
(x3)
Peavey
DM-5
8
JULY 2009
Overhead/hat
mics
Accessories Included
Case (and size)
Description
MSRP
None
3 DRC-1 Drum Rim Clamps
for PL35s, standard mic
clamp for PL33
19” X 15.5” X 6” gig bag
style EVA foam case
with padded handle
and strap.
A ready-for-the-gig microphone kit for a 4 piece drum set
containing 1 PL33 dynamic supercardioid kick drum mic, and
3 PL35 dynamic supercardioid tom/snare mics, all packaged in
a high-quality firm-exterior gig bag with padded handle and
shoulder strap.
$625.00
PL37 (x1)
3 DRC-1 Drum Rim Clamps
for PL35’s, standard mic
clamp for PL33, and 1 SAPL-3
shock mount clip for PL37
19” X 15.5” X 6” gig bag
style EVA foam case
with padded handle
and strap.
A ready-for-the-gig microphone kit for a 4 piece drum set
containing 1 PL33 dynamic supercardioid kick drum mic, 3 PL35
dynamic supercardioid tom/snare mics, and 1 PL37 condenser
cardioid overhead/hi-hat mic, all packaged in a high-quality
firm-exterior gig bag with padded handle and shoulder strap.
$775.00
None
4 DRC-1 Drum Rim Clamps
for PL35’s, standard mic
clamp for PL33
19” X 15.5” X 6” gig bag
style EVA foam case
with padded handle
and strap.
A ready-for-the-gig microphone kit for a 5 piece drum set
containing 1 PL33 dynamic supercardioid kick drum mic, and
4 PL35 dynamic supercardioid tom/snare mics, all packaged in
a high-quality firm-exterior gig bag with padded handle and
shoulder strap.
$775.00
PL37 (x2)
4 DRC-1 Drum Rim Clamps
for PL35’s, standard mic
clamp for PL33, and 2 SAPL-3
shock mount clip for PL37’s
19” X 15.5” X 6” gig bag
style EVA foam case
with padded handle
and strap.
A ready-for-the-gig microphone kit for a 5 piece drum set
containing 1 PL33 dynamic supercardioid kick drum mic, 4 PL35
dynamic supercardioid tom/snare mics, and 2 PL37 condenser
cardioid overhead/hi-hat mics, all packaged in a high-quality
firm-exterior gig bag with padded handle and shoulder strap.
$1,070.00
None
Four mic clips for snare and
toms along with four 90° XLR
cables and one straight XLR
for the kick mic.
Padded plastic case.
13.25” x 12.75” x 5.62”
For the professional drummer who wants an all-in-one package, on stage or in the studio. The PVM 321 offers a frequency
response of 20 Hz - 10 kHz and a 140 dB Max SPL. The PVM 325
features a frequency response of 50 Hz - 16 kHz. The PVM 328
features a frequency response of 20 Hz - 12.5 kHz. Both the PVM
325 and PVM 328 offer a 134 dB Max SPL
$499.99
www.fohonline.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
International News
Events AVP Supports Papal Mass with Line Array System
AMMAN, Jordan — Events AVP, distributor of Outline gear in Jordan, supported the
needs of a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict
XVI at Amman International Stadium, which
drew 50,000 worshippers and was accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and 200-voice
choir using Butterfly vertical line arrays.
King Abdulla II of Jordan invited Pope
Benedict XVI to give the mass, and the Royal
Protocol Department oversaw the overall
production and running of the event, which
Sharif Tabbara, co-owner of Events AVP, noted
was of an “importance…on an international
scale.”
To provide acoustic coverage of the venue, Events AVP used a system including 100
Butterfly Hi-Packs and 32 Subtech 218 subwoofers, all powered by T-series amplifiers.
BALS Supports
Elton John, James
Blunt in Argentina
The two stars performed before a crowd of 25,000.
BUENOS AIRES— Buenos Aires Live Show
(BALS) chose Proel’s Edge system for stage
monitors during Elton John’s first tour stop in
Argentina in 16 years. James Blunt opened the
show.
The two stars, backed by a group of international musicians, performed before a crowd
of 25,000.
BALS provided 16 Proel Edge15CXPB biamplifiable coaxial floor monitors powered by
six Powersoft Q4002 amplifiers.
To prepare for the papal mass, Events AVP
also decided to increase its stock of Outlinearray, purchasing additional elements to reach
their current total of 40 CDH 483 Hi-packs and
20 Subtech 218 subwoofers. The crew used
Outline DVS 12 enclosures for frontfill, while
the monitor setup for the Pope and the cardinals included Outline Micra II SP systems.
“Given the time deadline, we put our
best crew on the job and all operations were
scheduled ahead of delivery” said Mona
Ammoura, managing director of events for
Events AVP.
“At a distance of 120 meters, I had full
voice intelligibility and the bottom end
sounded great,” said Vincenzo Testa of Events
AVP, who served as FOH engineer and production manager.
System engineer Carlo Gennaro, who is
familiar with Outlinearray gear and it is relative timing software, Outline VIP (Vector Implementation Protocol), fine-tuned the Butterfly rig.
“The requests of the Vatican audio technicians, in particular the person responsible
for the Pope’s voice, Roberto Calvigioni, were
very precise, but once again we exceeded all
expectations,” Gennaro said. “The distribution
of the people in the stadium meant extra care
had to be taken to keep the sound level at a
very constant 105 decibels for 270 degrees of
coverage around the stage during the event.
“I know the Butterfly system very well,”
Gennaro added. “It’s a reference point at world
level in terms of precision, acoustic transparency and phase coherence, and I’m
Teatre Principal Upgrades with Loudspeakers and Monitor Components
MAJORCA, Spain — The Palma Teatre Principal, which dates back to the 1600s, launched
an effort to take advantage of the technology
available in the new millennium in 2001, including a more recent sound system upgrade
with gear from EAW.
To meet the need for the venue’s variety
of theatrical productions and musical events,
Fernando García Carrión, head of AV for
Chemtrol’s theater division, selected an assortment of EAW loudspeaker and monitor
components.
EAW’s Spanish representative, Pro3 & Co,
S.L., also supported Chemtrol’s installation of
the new gear. Pro3’s engineering department,
headed by Victor Pérez Cejas, started with an
acoustic simulation of the theater.
The theater is laid out in a horseshoe design, typical of venues built in the 17th century. To help the venue handle everything
from a single spoken voice to a full orchestra,
Chemtrol installed two separate sets of loudspeaker components.
The first is a fixed installation, which itself
can cover most of the theater. The second is a
more mobile, modular and configurable system, adaptable for
concerts and louder events.
The first set of components
included EAW LS832 Line Source
loudspeakers in each of the hall’s
balcony levels — 10 loudspeakers in total, and four EAW SBX220
compact subwoofers, installed in
the orchestra pit.
The second set of components includes 12 KF730 Compact Line Array Modules, flown
from the proscenium arch, which
allows for a stereo configuration
or a three-channel L-C-R array.
To maintain uniform coverage throughout the venue, four EAW JF60z Compact FullRange Loudspeakers were installed as stage
frontfills, covering the theater’s first few rows.
For stage monitoring, the system is rounded out by four EAW LA212 and four LA215
Compact Full-Range Loudspeaker/Monitors
with LAKE processing and Lab.gruppen amplification.
OBITUARIES
George MacPherson, 78
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
George MacPherson, former executive
director of American
Theater Productions
and president of
Masque Sound, died
June 3 in Orangeburg, S.C. from lung
cancer. He was 78.
George MacPherson
MacPherson is
credited with helping to “bring down the curtain on bus-and-truck road shows and usher
in the big-box-office age of polished national
touring companies,” according to The New York
Times.
His career began as a veterinarian for the
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus
and included roles as a press agent and manager in the 1960s and 1970s.
He led American Theater Productions as
executive director in the 1980s and early 1990s
and was president of Masque Sound from 1997
until his retirement in 2000.
MacPherson is survived by his daughter,
Morag, of Brookdale, N.J., his wife, the former
Judith Winter; his sons Duncan, of Hartford, and
Malcolm, of Toronto; a sister, Dee Deibel of San
Rafael, Calif.; and two grandchildren.
10
JULY 2009
Events AVP’s new Outlinearrays helped ensure that Pope
Benedict XVI could be heard as well as seen.
www.fohonline.com
The Teatre Principal in Majorca, Spain
“EAW products offered us exactly what
we needed for this project,” said Carrión. “We
needed to be able to configure this system for
a wide variety of applications and sounds, all
while maintaining coverage in a challenging
space and making sure the loudspeakers keep
a low profile visually. And of course sound
quality is paramount. EAW delivered all these
things and more.”
Winfield “Buz” Ward III, 59
Winfield W. “Buz”
Ward III, age 59, who
had worked in the
music touring industry for more than 30
years, passed away
June 20.
After working
at first as a truck
Buz Ward
driver, Ward ran Night Moves with Robert Roth
in Atlanta in the 1980s and early 1990s, worked
for Suddath Transportation from 1991 to early
1996, and was Stagecall’s Southeast rep from
1996 until he rejoined Suddath as entertainment sales manager in 2005, leaving that post
in 2008.
Ward was remembered as being well-read,
a great story teller and an avid baseball fan, particularly of the Atlanta Braves. Born in Detroit,
Ward settled in Jefferson, Ga., where he was
considered a local historian and an advocate for
historical preservation.
Ward was preceded in death by his parents,
Winfield Webb Ward II and Louise Newton Ward,
and a sister, Jeanne W. Sauban, and is survived
by two sisters, Sue W. Johnston of Douglasville,
Ga. and Karen W. Thomas of Alpharetta, Ga., and
two brothers, John F. Ward of Marietta, Ga. and
Mark G. Ward of Woodstock, Ga.
On the Move
Commercial Audio Systems hired
Kyle Stewart as operations manager, Neal
Carney, Jr., as sales engineer and Jay Foster as sales manager.
JaffeHolden, with headquarters in
Norwalk, Conn. and an office in Santa
Monica, Calif., opened an office in Chicago. Jonathan Laney, a 20-year veteran
of the audio and video industry who has
held senior positions with Bridgewater
Custom Sound, JaffeHolden, Talaske, and
Shure Inc., will lead the Chicago office
as principal, according to Mark Holden,
chairman.
RCF named Alessandro Barbieri as the
new sales area manager for the Far East. Barbieri’s previous experience includes positions
for other Italian firms operation in Europe, the
Middle East, Africa and Asia
TC Group
Americas
announced
that
Marc
Bertrand will
succeed John
Maier as CEO
effective July
31,
2009.
TC
Group
Americas Inc., formed in January 2009,
distributes Tannoy, Lab.gruppen, TC Electronic, TC-Helicon, Dynaudio Acoustics,
Lake and Linn products in the U.S. and
Canada. Anders Fauerskov, CEO of TC
Group, confirmed the appointment. Bertrand has been involved with the Tannoy
brand’s North American sales since 1996
and was named managing director of
Tannoy North America in 2004. He most
recently acted as vice president of sales
for the commercial installation division
for TC Group Americas, while overseeing
operations of the Canadian-based headquarters and sitting on the TCGA board of
directors with Maier.
Telefunken Elektroakustik is the new
name for the division previously called
Telefunken USA, according to CEO Toni
Fishman and Alan Veniscofsky, director of
operations.
SEND NEWS OF PEOPLE
ON
THE MOVE
To:
pr@fohonline.com
Marc Bertrand
L-Acoustics
has
named Peter
Owen and
Tim McCall
international sales managers. Owen
will handle
Peter Owen and Tim McCall
Northern,
Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian
Federation, India and the Middle East.
McCall will handle southern Europe, Africa and Australasia/Oceania. Owen, who
was raised in Doha, Qatar, previously
worked for Harman’s UK distributor, Arbiter, Martin Audio and Biamp. McCall has
spent the last decade working for BSS and
Turbosound.
Neutrik
USA has appointed Thomas Chudyk, former regional
sales manager
of Panasonic
Industrial, distribution manager. Prior to
Thomas Chudyk
Panasonic Industrial, Chudyk worked for
14 years at Arrow Electronics.
Outline North America LLC, based
in Farmingdale, N.Y., was formed recently, and 30-year industry veteran Thomas
Bensen was appointed to lead the new
division for Outline, which has its headquarters in Brescia, Italy. The division exhibited at InfoComm 09 in Orlando and
has handled installations and live events
including the Clear Channel Theater in
New York, the Healing Place Church cathedral in Louisiana, the Imperial Palace
Casino in Biloxi, Miss. and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Shure Inc.
named
Rick
Renner
regional sales
manager for
the Northeast.
Before joining
Shure, Renner
served
for
seven years as
Rick Renner
regional sales
manager and sales representative at Sennheiser Electronics Corporation. Before
that, he was a staff recording engineer
at Streeterville Recording Studios in Chicago.
www.fohonline.com
2009 JULY
11
New Gear
Excuse Me, Can You Show Me How to
Get to the Audio Ghetto?
By BillEvans
I
nfoComm has always been more about
video displays and digital signage and
that kind of stuff than about live event
gear. But given the lack of other outlets, it
has really become the de facto live event
audio trade show for the year. While those
of us in the audio tribe knew why we
were there and there were some important business announcements and some
cool new stuff to see, there was no doubt
that we were separated from the rest of
the show. I mean the color of the freaking
carpet changed when you went from the
audio ghetto into the main show floor. I
guess they wanted to be sure we stayed
“in our place.”
For yours truly, the big new thing was
actually writing about the show as it was
happening and posting videos of a couple
of things on ProAudioSpace. Expect more
of that as we figure out ways to do it quicker. (Great excuse to buy a new iPhone—it
does video and I can edit and upload right
in only four feet of truck space with only
four pushes and no lifting.
As long as we are talking about impressive stuff, everyone I know feels that way
about the d&b rigs and I got to see the
new T-Series for the first time. The design
basically offers two different loudspeaker
technologies in one package. It serves both
as d&b’s smallest line array and transforms
into a stand-alone point source system
providing remarkable economy of scale.
The T10 is a passive 2-way design that
houses two 6.5” neodymium LF drivers
positioned in a dipolar arrangement and
a 1.4” exit HF compression driver that is
fitted to a waveguide horn. This produces
vertical line source directivity with a 90°
horizontal pattern that is maintained down
to approximately 600 Hz. An acoustic lens
placed in front of the horn widens horizontal dispersion to 105°; rotation of the horn
by 90° relative to this produces a point
source dispersion transforming a vertically
stall show, and getting the benefits of
a line array without the size, price and
tech hassles appears to be becoming
a trend. Electro-Voice introduced the
EVA (Expandable Vertical Array) series
for installs. EVA is a modular system,
with four two-way models available to
provide a range of directivities from 90°
x 6° to 120° x 20°. The units may be assembled in various configurations to
provide the required coverage.
The two vertical coverage angles (6°
and 20°) can be combined to create line
arrays optimized for spaces ranging from
40 feet to more than 200 feet deep. Each
module contains two EVS2008 8” woofers and four DH2005 1.25” high-frequency compression drivers on Hydra plane
wave generators. The loudspeakers are
arranged in two sets, with a slight inclination angle between sets. This angle is
engineered to provide optimum vertical
wavefront shape for EVA arrays.
EAW’s MicroSub
subwoofer
Sennheiser G3
wireless system
T-SUB mixed
array from d&b
Sound-Bridge
line array
from the show floor. Maybe by AES…)
But we are here to talk gear so
enough of the delays, let’s start with
speakers (ok, bad pun…).
I have only had the pleasure of using their stuff a few times but I have never
failed to be impressed with anything from
Sound•Bridge. Their XYON 7208XY Compact Line Array is a replacement for midto large-format arrays in a nine inch tall,
93lb enclosure. Because of its fidelity and
output (117dB 1W/1M—147dB peak) it
can replace boxes three times its weight
and size. (Sightline issues, anyone?) Modules are 10° vertical by 120° horizontal
with captive rigging adjustable in 1° increments. It features patent-pending QuadOne focusing process whereby modules
are rigged in mirrored pairs, allowing for
two boxes to form one shared low-mid aperture resulting in control of low-mid polar
behavior and increased output. Trouping
six modules per dolly, a 24-box system capable of an arena size venue can be nested
12
line array utilizing 16 soft dome tweeters
and four high power 5” woofers at a 70 cm
height. The J-shape of the array works in
conjunction with the Constant Beamwidth
Technology circuitry to provide asymmetrical coverage similar to that of expensive
line arrays commonly used in concert systems. The column’s top half projects highly
concentrated sound toward the back of
the venue, while the bottom half downfills a broader, less concentrated sound to
the front of the venue.
Geez we have only covered speakers and we are almost out of space. Okay,
some quick high points. Yamaha has announced the availability of a card for it’s
digital mixers that allow users to employ
Audinate’s Dante digital transport technology. Instead of trying to pick a winner
this early in the game, Yamaha’s strategy of
doing a card for whatever format you want
to use makes a lot of sense.
Audio-Technica introduced the BP892
JULY 2009
oriented T10 into a stand-alone full range
loudspeaker with 90° horizontal and 35°
vertical directivity pattern. The horn can
easily be rotated from the outside of the
loudspeaker without tools or removing
the front grill. This is achieved through apertures in the cabinet sides allowing rotation to both the line and point source positions. The T-SUB shares the same width
and integrated rigging fittings as the T10
for deployment either flown at the top of
a T10 array, in a separate column or it can
also be ground stacked.
The MicroSub stage subwoofer, the latest offering in EAW’s MicroWedge Series of
stage monitor products, is a single 15” enclosure stage and small venue subwoofer,
designed to address onstage low frequency demands—in other words, it’s for drummers. The MicroSub can be configured and
interlocked in a huge range of different
combinations — by itself, with other MicroSubs or with other MicroWedge units.
Remember though, this is an in-
Each module passive crossover network (no DSP required) and six EVA
modules can be operated in parallel
from a single amplifier channel capable
of driving 2.7 Ohm nominal.
JBL showed a new series of line-array
columns called the CBT series. The coverage pattern of the CBT models can be adjusted—with a simple switch—between
Broad Mode (designed for mid-throw
situations) and Narrow Mode (for longthrow applications). The CBT 50LA is a
very compact 50 cm high column that
utilizes a straight line of eight 2” drivers,
while the taller CBT 100 LA is a straight
100 cm high column utilizing 16 2” drivers and handles 325W continuous. Combined with Constant Beamwidth Technology circuitry, both provide constant
directivity coverage. Both also contain
low-saturation transformers, so they can
be used on 70V/100V distributed speaker
lines or as low impedance speakers.
The J-shaped CBT 70J is a 2-way coaxial
www.fohonline.com
MicroSet Subminiature Omnidirectional
Condenser Headworn Microphone, the
first of their sub-minis to be capable of
handling high SPLs and delivering accurate sound in a tiny package. The new MicroSet utilizes a condenser capsule with a
diameter of a mere 2.6mm, making it ideal
for applications requiring minimum visibility. And now you can yell into it. Cool.
Sennheiser introduced their G3 wireless systems in three flavors covering a
very wide range of frequency needs ad
price points. Handhelds and body packs
are out now with IEM units expected to
ship soon.
And Astatic showed a very cool overhead choir mic with a variable polar pattern that can be switched remotely and
on the fly. Tres cool. There is a video of
the demo on my blog at ProAudioSpace.
And there is a bunch more but we’re out
of space. Stay tuned both online and in
print for more…
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Showtime
Andrea Bocelli
VENUE
American Airlines Center
Dallas, Texas
CREW
FOH Engineer: Andrea Taglia
Systems Engineer: Bill Hart
Production Manager: Sparky Nielsen
FOH System Techs: Alan Hart,
Mike Bendure
Soundco
Production
Services
International
ST
GEAR
FOH
Consoles: 2 Midas Heritage 3000s
Speakers: 27 L-Acoustics V-DOSCs,
54 L-Acoustics dV-DOSCs,
12 L-Acoustics SB218s,
8 L-Acoustics 108Ps, 4 Apogee AE5s
Amps: L-Acoustics LA 48, LA 8, Crown
MA-1200, MA-2400
Processing: XTA 448, Meyer Sound
Galileo 616
Mics: Schoeps, DPA, Shure, Schertler
Power Distro: Motion Labs
ST
Breakout Assemblies: L-Acoustics,
Whirlwind
Snake Assemblies: Whirlwind
MON
Speakers: 5 Meyer Sound UM-1Ps,
5 L-Acoustics 115XT HiQs
Amps: L-Acoustics LA 48
Processing: XTA 448
Cross Canadian Ragweed Music & Mayhem Concert
VENUE
GEAR
Eufaula Cove Amphitheatre
Eufaula, Okla.
FOH
Consoles: Midas Heritage 2000,
Yamaha PM5D
Speakers: 16 JBL VerTec 4889s,
12 JBL subs
Amps: 20 Crown I-Tech 6000s
Processing: Klark Teknik DN360,
Drawmer gates and compressors,
Yamaha SPX900, SPX990, Yamaha
REV500, TC Eletronic D-Two
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, Audix
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM hoists
CREW
FOH Engineer: Eder Moura
Monitor Engineer: Glen Mattingly
Systems Engineer: Eder Moura
Production Manager:
Levelland Productions
MON
Consoles: Midas Heritage 3000,
Yamaha PM5D, Yamaha DM2000,
Yamaha LS9-32 channels
Speakers: Omega Speaker Systems,
Shure PMs, Sennheiser PMs
Amps: 8 Crown I-Tech 6000s
Processing: 8 dbx 2231s
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, Audix
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Soundco
Miller Pro
Audio
California State FFA Conference
VENUE
GEAR
Seland Arena
Fresno Calif.
FOH
Console: DiGiCo D5
Speakers: 22 Meyer Sound (2 MILO
120s, 4 MSL-4s, 4 MILO DF-4s, 8 700-HPs,
4 UPMs)
Processing: Meyer Sound Galileo
Mics: 10 Shure UHF-Rs, 2 Shure Beta
87s, 8 Shure Beta 58s, 4 AKG C 480s /
4 Shure SM81s, 3 AKG C 418s, 6 AKG C
419s, 1 AKG D 112.
Rigging: CM Lodestar hoists
CREW
Soundco
Live Light
Entertainment
FOH Engineer: Ryan Wissink
Monitor Engineer: Steve Ratcliff
Systems Engineer: Paul Alonzo
Production Manager: Mark Willhoite
FOH System Tech: Josh Powell
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
14
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
ST
MON
Console: Crest Audio X-Monitor
Speakers: 10 Meyer Sound PSM-2s,
4 Meyer Sound UPMs
ST
Fargo Rib Fest 2009
VENUE
GEAR
Fargodome,
Fargo, N.D.
FOH
Console: Yamaha M7CL digital
console
Speakers: JBL VerTec 4888, VerTec
4882
Amps: Crown Audio I-Tech 4000,
I-Tech 8000
Processing: dbx DriveRack 4800
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, ElectroVoice
Power Distro: Ramtech
Rigging: CM hoists
Breakout Assemblies: Ramtech
Snake Assemblies: Ramtech
CREW
FOH Engineer: Tom Vein
Monitor Engineer: Chad
Mathiason
Systems Engineer: Jamie Lunski
Production Manager: Chad
Mathiason
FOH System Tech: Clint “Duke”
Ducheneaux
MON
Speakers: JBL / PAS
Amps: Crown Micro-Tech
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser,
Electro-Voice
Soundco
HB Sound &
Light
Rockfest 2009
VENUE
Liberty Memorial Second Stage
Kansas City, Mo.
CREW
Monitor Engineer: Pat Murphy
Systems Engineer: Josh Berneking
FOH System Tech: Andrew Beer
GEAR
Soundco
FOH
Console: Yamaha PM5D-RH
Speakers: Nexo Geo T and Nexo
CD18 subs
Logic
Systems
Amps: Camco Vortex Series
Processing: Nexo and dbx DriveRack 4800
MON
Console: Yamaha PM5D-RH
Speakers: Electro-Voice and Logic
Systems wedges
Amps: QSC PowerLight
Processing: Electro-Voice, Ashly
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, AudioTechnica, Heil Sound
White House Correspondents
Association Dinner
GEAR
Washington Hilton Hotel
Washington, D.C.
Console: Yamaha LS9-32
Speakers: 16 JBL VRX 932s,
16 EAW JF100s
Amps: QSC (MX 1500, MX 2000,
EX4000, PL4000, PLX2400, PLX3400)
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM motors
Snake Assemblies: Ramtech
(54 pairs)
FOH Engineer: Jeremy Meyers
Systems Engineer: Tim Hitchens
We
Want You!
FOH
wants
your
gig
shots, horror stories and
resume
highlights!
Go
to
www.fohonline.com/submissions
to send us your Showtime pics,
Nightmare
stories
and
In
The
Trenches stats. Or e-mail
pr@fohonline.com
for more info. We cover the
industry
— and that means
you!
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Soundco
ST
VENUE
CREW
Entertainment
Sound
Production
ST
www.fohonline.com
2009 JULY
15
Production Profile
We Went For the Audio, Really….
By BillEvans
J
effrey “Jj” Hillman has a tough job. He
mixes audio for a show full of stunning
hotties who just happen to spend much
of the show topless. Sounds cool, right? But
it is not what it appears. “I just came off a 60
hour week,” he says. “Nice paycheck but…”
That “not what it appears” applies to pretty
much everything about this show.
Skin It Back
This is Las Vegas. There is no shortage of
places to go to look at half-naked women,
and burlesque-style shows are a long tradition. In the past few years, there has been a
general “sexing up” of the city and there are
topless revues in many of the properties
on the Strip (pun not intended…). But Peep
Show shares more with Broadway than with
the local gentleman’s club. The current cast
includes performers from both Tarzan and
Wicked. The overall production values are insane, and the audio was designed by ACME
Sound Partners, which has done half of the
shows currently on the Great White Way, and
the audio system (designed by Mark Menard
and assistant Nick Borisjuk) is a high-ticket,
zoned theater-style system. It requires most
of the horsepower in the FOH Yamaha PM1D,
and there are hundreds of cues to deal with in
a 90 minute show.
The rest of the system consists of two
hangs of Meyer Mica line array cabinets being run by a Meyer Galileo system and XTA
processors running and Yamaha and Crown
amps powering everything from front fills to
surrounds and under-balcony fills. The theater is set up with two levels of regular seating and—in classic Vegas showroom style—
VIP table seating on the floor. Given the kind
of show this is, there are three runways extending into the floor area and the tables are
between those runways. These are VIP seats,
boys and girls, which means big bucks, so the
fill system is extensive.
An LCS Matrix 3 system running Wild
Tracks is used for sound effects, some tracks
and click for the band (which got a whole
bunch more interesting as time passed, so
keep readin’…). Monitors are run by Jacob
Smith on a PM5D.
“To be honest,” Jj says, “he is doing a lot
more work back here than I am out front. The
way that they broke down the monitoring
GEAR
Consoles: Yamaha PM1D (FOH, MON)
Reverb: TC Electronic M3000s (2)
Effects: Akai S6000
Speakers: Meyer Sound MICAs (11 per side)
Meyer Sound CQs (6/center cluster, 4/balcony
delay)
EAW UB 12 speakers (14/under balcony)
EAW JF60s (30/surrounds)
Meyer Sound UPMs (8/frontfills)
Meyer Sound MM4s (12/runway fills)
zones as far as where the cast is throughout
the song. They may start at the bandstand
(an enclosed platform about 30 feet above
the back-center stage right between the two
main elevators), continue down the elevators
and end up downstage. Jacob is taking separate cues to move their monitors along with
them from zone to zone to zone.”
“That was the intent of the designers”
says system tech Adam Loesch. “It is as much
about muting speakers in areas that are not
in use as it is about keeping the cast happy.”
Wouldn’t it have been easier to just put everyone on personal monitors? “I believe that
was a budget consideration,” says Adam. And
one that makes sense. Peep Show has a large
cast. Some 20 dancers plus a male lead vocal and two female singers plus Bo and the
Diva. So call it 25 people at a minimum of two
grand per including custom ear molds. That is
$50,000 plus the headaches that come with
that much wireless. Currently only the Diva
and male lead vocal are on personal monitors.
And, this is a Broadway style very zoned
system. “If you go look at the FOH board, the
band, track and vocal mixes are different for
each zone,” says Jj. “And we are using all 24
matrix outputs,” Adam adds. The system designers, they both report, spent the entire
two weeks of previews sitting in the audience
with wireless tablets controlling both the AudioCore and PM1D Manager tweaking mix
to matrix levels and actual zone levels. “Two
weeks night after night after night just to
make sure that the imaging was right in every
seating area.”
System tech Adam Loesch, left, with FOH engineer Jeffrey “Jj” Hillman, FOH at the CHI Theater at Planet Hollywood.
From the Beginning
Installing the system presented its own
challenges. Even once Jj, Adam, Jacob and
others finished putting in the mixed Meyer/
EAW system, there was work left to do. With
four HP700 subs flown, parts of the show
needed more thump. So after the array was
installed and scrimmed, they decided to add a
pair of 605Ps beneath them where they could
take advantage of the ground coupling. One
issue—there really was not enough clearance
to get them in without pulling down the array. And there was no time for that.
Jj and Adam pulled the scrim away from
the cavity that holds the Micas and the 650s
Meyer Sound UPAs (Onstage monitoring)
Meyer Sound UP Juniors (Onstage monitoring)
EAW JF-80s Amps: Crown Macro-Tech, Yamaha m5000
Processing: Galileo (for the MICAs)
XTAs (all other systems)
Playback: LSC Wildtracks
Mics: Sennheiser (wireless and PMs)
Neumann Kms-105s (Mic capsules)
The latest star to fill “Bo’s” stilettos is Holly Madison.
16
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
Denise Truscello
The Broadway-style show operates with a zoned system.
Peep Show features a cast of more than two dozen performers.
and show how tight the fit is. There is a
structural piece between the two, and looking at it, you would never think that the
650s could be installed without pulling the
Micas. “We got a lift in here and got the 650
up onto the lift railing and then pushed back
on the Micas and had just enough room to
squeak the 650s in,” says Jj. Adam measured
it and they had about one inch of clearance
to work with. It makes for a fun afternoon.
The original plan called for a month of
40-hour weeks to install audio, but when the
audio crew arrived and saw that the seating areas were not finished and the stage
(which is three feet higher than what was in
the room before) was still being worked on,
it immediately went to two weeks, seven
days a week and 12 to 14 hour days to get it
done. And it was not just hanging speakers.
“There was existing wiring, but it was not
what we needed for this design, so we were
in the ceiling above the restrooms tracing
conduit and fox-and-hounding wiring and
resplicing wiring. There was no cable run
to the under balcony, so that now comes
straight from up land through a ventilation
shaft to the catwalk and from the catwalk
over beams in the ceiling, dropping down
near an exit door. There were a lot of changes to what was originally in the room.”
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Roll With the Changes
And the changes continue. The show
is actually ingeniously designed, not only
from the production side, but the marketing
side as well. The story line (and, yes, there is
one. I mean, would I go to a show that was
just about naked breasts? Please…) has
“little miss innocent can’t find love” (Bo) falling asleep alone in her apartment and falling (literally, dropped from the grid) into a
dream where the “Peep Show Diva” leads
her through a series of set pieces/fantasies
loosely based on nursery rhymes. When the
show opened, former Spice Girl Mel B had
the role of Diva and Kelly Monaco (who
my wife tells me was on Dancing With the
Stars) as “Bo.” But because it is really about
the production, the stars are interchangeable. Just before we went to press, the first
of what will likely be regular changes went
down with Wicked’s Soshonna Bean taking
the Diva slot and Girl Next Door Holly Madison stepped into Bo’s stilettos. With a worldclass singer now in the Diva role, they shed
one backup singer, and the tightness of the
bandstand was a big part of a decision to
go from five live musicians to just live keys
and drums with bass, guitar and reeds being transferred to tracks and the show recued in the space of a week. In a city that
re-invents itself on a regular basis to keep
the tourists coming in, change is about the
only thing you can count on.
www.fohonline.com
2009 JULY
17
18
JULY 2009
Half rack
4 groups
with 14 precalculated
intermod free
channels
16 channels
per band
961
120 - Four
UHF Channels
256 per block
1680
2
32
AKG USA
IVM4
Audio-Technica
U.S. M3 Wireless
In-Ear Monitor
System
Carvin
EM900
Hear Technologies Freedom
Back
www.fohonline.com
Lectrosonics
IFBR1a/T4
Sennheiser USA
EW 300 IEM G3
Shure
PSM 600
Shure
PSM 700
Half rack
Half rack
Rack mountable
Stand alone
Half rack
Half rack
Metal chassis
1/2 rack with
included
rack ears
Transmitter
Form Factor
Transmitter
Channels
Company and
Model
100 mW
100 mW
10/30 mW
250mW
100 mW
10 mW
524 to 952 MHz (country
dependent)
626 - 862 MHz (country
dependent)
various: 516-865 MHz
9 blocks from 470 - 692 MHz
Band A and Band B
470~960MHz
Band L: 575.000 to 608.000
MHz (1321 frequencies);
Band M: 614.000 to 647.000
MHz (1321 frequencies)
AKG IVM4
100 mW
audio
output
power
Yes. 6 user
banks with 16
programmable
channels each
No
No
Infrared sync, advanced limiter, high
frequency boost, EQ, built in Ethernet for computer control via WSM
Transmitter: Input level, headphone
volume Receiver: output volume,
balance/MixMode
Transmitter: Input level, headphone
volume Receiver: output volume,
balance/mixmode
N/R
N/R
20mW,
mono
100 mW
Yes
Yes
60mW
65 mW
(at 32
ohms)
Yes. Allows
programming
of custom
frequency
groups
Yes
N/R
Receiver
Output
Power
No
Save Individual
Programs?
No
No
300 feet
300 feet
+300 feet
Yes. New
adaptive
diversity utilizes
the headphone
cable as a secondary antenna
XLR and 1/4 inch
XLR and 1/4 inch
Combo TRS/XLR
Neutrik jacks
with additional
TRS passthrough ports
XLR
Combos
About 300
feet
depen ing on
conditions
up to 1200 ft.
TRS, XLR
XLR/1/4” combo
(x2)
2 X combined
XLR/1/4” jacks,
balanced,
Audio Input
+25 dBu
+25 dBu
+22 dBu max
+20 dBu
+4
-10dB
+26 dBu
10dBV max
Maximum
Input Level
Sennheiser EW 300 IEM G3
300ft
300 ft
100 meters
Effective
Distance
No
No
yes
no
No
Receiver
Diversity
Audio-Technica M3T UHF stereo transmitter
Lectrosonics IFB Receiver R1a/T4
Mic/line, Comtek, Clearcom inputs
Front Panel HP on TX, 12 dB Pad for
Input on Transmitter
Stereo/Mono switchable
2-channel mix control with stereo
option; ambient mic input with
mute control; scan control
Hi Pass filter, 8 settings of EQ, 8 settings of Compression, and 8 settings
of Binaural Room Simulation, Mono,
Stereo, and Dual modes
Additional Controls
Shure PSM 700
1200 possible frequencies
per band, frequency bands
500-530 MHz, 580-600 MHz
Transmitter
Freqeuncy
Carvin EM900 UHF transmitter
10 mW/50
mW (switchable), 50 ohms
10,20,50, 100
mW adjustable
Transmitter
Output Power
Your intrepid FOH’ers have covered personal monitors (also known as “speakers in your head”) from that
end of the signal chain a couple of times. But no matter
how good your earpieces are, they are of no real use unless you have a wireless IEM tranceiver package that is
at least as good as your earmolds. And in the post-700
world, doing more in less bandwidth is just something
wireless guys have to deal with. Here is some of the cooler stuff we have seen to help that happen.
By BillEvans
Wireless Personal
Monitor Systems
Stereo or MixMode control for custom
mixes, 16 compatible frequencies, compatible with all Shure wireless systems (country
dependent)
Stereo or MixMode control for custom
mixes, 10 compatible wireless frequencies,
compatible with all Shure wireless systems
(country dependent)
L2015G2 charging station BA2015 rechargable battery Transmitter can be rack mounted, receiver
has pouch or belt clip option.
EM-DR rack mount kit EM902 - extra ear buds EM901 - extra receiver Multiple accessories, earphones, antennas
available; see www.audio-technica.com for
more information
Note: IVM4 employs an AKG exclusive Digital MPX circuit that provides flat frequency
response at any output level
Options
Hear Technologies Freedom Back
Buyers Guide
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Installations
By DavidJohnFarinella
Y
stereo rack memory recorder, was
ou hear many great things
installed to enable playback where
when you get the call to
necessary.
work on a brand new installation. When Lee Dennison, project
foh
A Straightforward Console
manager at Delta Sound in Surrey,
U.K. picked up the phone, though,
Knowing that both experienced
he did not hear many great things.
and rookie technicians would be
First, the client let him know the
working with the system, Dennison
space he’d be working in was in the
picked the Yamaha M7CL console.
middle of a 43-acre site, that it was
“It’s very straightforward to operate,”
in a shopping center and that the
he says. “The menus make sense to
location’s construction called for
non-technical sound engineers and
glass ceilings and marble floors.
it’s a desk that most people are fluOh, and there was no time or inent with when they come in.” That
clination to add any kind of aural
said, if visiting engineers want to
treatments to the space.
bring in an analog board there is
Yes, welcome to Dennison’s
analog wiring available.
head-scratcher of a challenge that
At this point, any kind of moniplayed out over the past two years
toring is controlled via the M7, but
as the Westfield London upscale
if there is an event where a monitor
mega-mall was being constructed.
console is needed there is a stage
“Well, it was an interesting one to
rack with Yamaha preamps and
approach, shall we say,” he says
three Lab.gruppen amps. Another
now with a laugh. “As the details
desk can be networked in via the
came through more and more, I
facilities panels.
was a bit like, ‘Right, this is going to The Westfield London mall’s 70,000-square-foot atrium hosts a multitude of special events and up to 60,000 visitors per day.
Given the time constraints bebe a bit more interesting than we
tween the actual installation and the
ing to them two years ago,” he says. “I asked line array gave us that focusing ability,” he ex- opening night festivities, Dennison and the
thought.’”
The Westfield London, reports the mall’s them if they thought it was achievable and plains. “That’s why it so tight in there. You can team did not have time to properly analyze
technical manager Simon Jones, is one of they said, ‘Well, let’s go for it.’ Lo and behold, hear the difference of where the focus hits. and EQ the space. “We were working at midthe largest malls in the U.K., and since it’s they developed the HALO compact system It’s very self-contained. Plus, the headroom is night to 3 a.m. and there was constant noise
opening in October, 2008, it has been visit- with a radiator driver. It’s phenomenal.”
phenomenal. We walk up and down the cat- from the builders,” he reports. “So, we tried to
Dennison is quick to point out that walks with lavs and handhelds and gaining SMART and SIMM as much as we could, taked by an estimated 60,000 people a day. “It’s
a black label center with all the major fash- while he loves the HALO product, this was up to the max and the system behaves.”
ing three or four references and then reacting
ion brands here,” he says. Indeed, the mall not a quality versus quality decision. “We
All of the boxes had to painted to match to the average each time.”
features 260 retailers along with 50 places were driven by budget and it was chopped, the exact color of the Westfield’s specificafoh
A Busy Schedule
as is always the case, so I had to take away tions, Jones says. “Everyone knew exactly
to eat and a 14-screen movie theater.
the French option,” he says.
where those boxes were going,” he states
While they got it nailed down enough
foh
Flexible and Contained
with a laugh, “because that shade of white to make the first events successful, Jones
foh
Accurate and Clean
is very specific to our mall.”
points out that they were booked through
The Atrium, a 70,000-square-foot rectTo power the system, Dennison selected Christmas. “So, there was a long time before
angular space, not only had to be flexTo ensure that the space was covered acible enough to service a list of events that curately and cleanly, Dennison selected EM four Lab.gruppen PLM10000Qs, a PL6000 we could re-EQ the system,” he says. “That
ranged from fashion shows to product Acoustics’ EM 121 full range cabinets and the and three FP2600s. The Lake software, he was good in a way, because we knew exactly
launches to musical performances to a Quake sub boxes. While the cabinets can be adds, is doing all of the EQ in the system. how we wanted to use the system and how
chocolate maze, it had to be somewhat flown in a number of configurations and the A Yamaha DME24 manages the system and it was going to work in the venue. So, we
contained so that sound did not leak into subs located wherever necessary, the most acts as an interface between whatever is could make any amendments to the software
adjacent retail stores. “The people in the common array set up is six EM 121s and two happening in The Atrium and the mall’s that we wanted to make our lives simpler and
background music and emergency evacu- easier.”
shops don’t necessarily want to hear what’s Quake subs per side. “
From the debut performance, which feagoing on out there,” he reports. “They are
The fact that we had radiator drivers in the ation systems. A Fostex UR-2, which is a
tured London’s mayor Boris Johnson
trying to bring customers in the
and singer Leona Lewis, until today,
door, not chase them out.”
The Atrium has stood up as a solid
One of the ways the team
venue in town. Dennison, for one,
solved the coverage and flexhas been impressed by the actual
ibility requirements was by putacoustics of the space. “It’s remarkting up an extraordinary amount
ably dead,” he says now. “When you
of trussing so that rig points run
first see it, you think it’s going to be
the length of the space. “We built
a lot livelier than it is and for some
custom dollies so we can drop
reason it’s not. It fills quickly, don’t
the system, move it to another
get me wrong, as soon as you start
area and re-hang it,” Dennison
winding things up, but there’s not a
explains. “It’s up in the air in 10
lot of slapping around, there’s not a
minutes.” On the wiring side, the
lot of losing stuff in the roof. I don’t
team placed facilities panels in
know what they’ve done, but from
the floor of the mall so that engian engineering point of view, it’s
neers could access the traditional
relatively straightforward. I’ve done
system’s network via CAT 5, CAT 6
worse supposedly treated rooms
or copper wiring.
than I have that space.”
When Dennison was still pickJones, who works with the
ing equipment, he turned his eye
system day in and out, remains
towards a number of known mansatisfied. “We’ve been really imufacturers, including L-Acoustic.
pressed with it and all the enIn fact, he originally imagined a
gineers that have come in have
dV-DOSC line array in the system,
been really happy as well,” he
but then he touched base with EM
says. “That’s the main thing — evAcoustics, a company that he had
eryone is happy with what we’ve
known of for a couple of decades.
put in and nobody has asked us
“I knew they were developing The Atrium’s flexibility as a venue for events is enhanced by the truss system and custom dollies that allow for quick changes in the placement of gear.
for anything else.”
their line array and I started talk20
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Road Test
Earthworks FullKit Drum Mic System
By DavidMorgan
I
f you saw the June issue of FOH you
may remember that we did a Buyers
Guide looking at some of the “prepacked” drum mic kits available out
there. The bias against these kind of
kits has been that they are just a way to
package mediocre mics and that they
weren’t really for pros. If that is your
thinking you have not used the Earthworks Kits.
The Gear
rt
Earthworks has designed a complement of microphones intended to be
used with a 4 tom drum kit called the
FullKit drum mic system.
The system consists of one DP25/C
snare microphone, four DP30/C tom
microphones, five RM1 RimMount mic
clips, nine -15/-30 dB inline LevelPads,
windscreens to mike one snare, two
rack toms and two floor toms. It also
includes two SR25s for overheads,
one SR30 for hi-hat, one SR30 for kick
drum and a designated inline pad/eq
network for the kick. There are foam
windscreens for each SR series microphones. Additionally, there are two
larger SRW2 screw-on stainless steel
windscreens for the two SR30s. The
entire system comes housed in two
high-impact road cases that securely
hold each component in shaped foam
cutouts.
The Gigs
rt
The Colosseum Theater at Caesars
Palace, Las Vegas, NV:
Cher drummer Nate Morton uses a 5
tom Pearl set.
Bette Midler drummer Sonny Emory
uses a 5 tom Yamaha Pro set.
My experience with miking live drums
has customarily influenced me to always choose microphones that impart their
particular coloration to magnify and enrich
the drum sound... y’know... a thumping
kick, a fat snare, and big resonant toms. It’s
a philosophy that results in a created drum
sound that begins with the natural sound
of the drums and then amplifies certain
characteristics to achieve the desired end
result.
Earthworks has taken an alternative
path. All the mics in the system are so
transparent that one feels as though one
is listening to the live sound of a drum
kit being played acoustically in an optimum listening environment. The sound of
each drum and cymbal is so well-defined
and accurate that even the most subtle
sonic idiosyncrasies are captured beautifully. Leakage from adjacent drums is not
a problem, because the off-axis frequency
response and phase characteristics of these
cardioid mics are so consistent that there is
no adverse effect to the direct sound. Each
component in the kit speaks clearly. Drum
attack is amazingly fast. Sustain is clear
and undistorted. Decay is natural and uncolored. Cymbal sounds are rendered with
incredible detail and complexity.
Each component in Earthworks’ FullKit Drum Mic System “speaks clearly. “
With this system, shaping the sound
of the drums is more about interacting
with the drum tech and the drummer
rather than simply cranking the knobs
on the equalizers. Once the tuning has
been optimized, it then becomes a matter of adjusting mic placement to best
bring out the particular qualities of each
drum. When Sonny Emory first heard
the mics, he loved the tom and cymbal
sounds, but he expressed some concern
about the snare. I asked him to first make
sure the drum was tuned exactly the way
he wanted it, and then I invited him to
move around the DP25C.
Sonny quickly found a placement he
liked and he is now extremely pleased
with the overall sound of his kit and he
greatly appreciates the marked improvement that the Earthworks system has
brought to our live drum sound.
Kick drum miking with the SR30 was
a trial-and-error experiment. I started off
using the SR30 mic in the manufacturer’s
recommended position when working
with Nate Morton’s kit. However, placing
the mic away from the hole in the front
head near the rim at a 45º angle to the
skin resulted in a marching band bass
drum kind of sound that was not the desired result. I tried a variety of positions,
but I really wanted both bottom end and
top end with good definition. Due to the
intense air movement, Earthworks does
not recommend using the SR30 in the
cutout hole. However, when I used the
large screw-on windscreen for the SR30
and put the mic in the hole, it all came
together. Nate has also been very happy
with what he has been hearing during the
Cher show, and he is an enthusiastic supporter of the change to the Earthworks
system.
Earthworks FullKit Drum Mic System
What It Is: A high end condenser microphone package for implementation on an entire drum kit.
Who It’s For: This is not a low-cost system and is therefore not
within reach of every budget. The mics are made for high-end
users whose goal is to hear all the subtlety and tone in the drum
kit.
Pros: The “pros” are easy to state. The nuts and bolts of the system are truly excellent. The packaging is rugged and secure. The
mics are made out of tough steel and very strong plastic materials. The goosenecks on the snare and tom mics are supple,
resilient and stay in position once they are placed. The rim
mounts don’t choke the drum or inhibit the drummer. The small
heads (with or without the foam windscreen) on the snare and
tom mics make them easy to keep out of harm’s way. As stated
above, the sound of each of the mics is extremely transparent
and totally accurate in all respects while retaining the essential
aggressiveness of drumming.
Cons: Aside from cost considerations, the only “con” I can think
of would be the lack of coloration if a highly stylized, heavy rock
drum sound is the desired result. These mics are super clean and
may not provide enough “dirt” for some users unless outboard
devices or plug-ins are employed to add the thickness or distortion.
MSRP: $12,000
22
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
I am impressed with this system and
I am really looking forward to employing
these mics on Steve Gadd’s kit during this
summer’s James Taylor European tour. I
know that Steve is going to love them as
much as I do.
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Theory and Practice
How Much Power?
I
really do not know where this old rule
came from, but many old sound persons
used to budget a “number” of watts per
persons in the audience as a way to size a
sound system. Now this could be useful if
the rig offered is fixed in size and dispersion so that multiple rigs splayed together
could get close to a “watts per person” criteria. But imagine a 2-watt per head system
in an outdoor festival gig with ground stack
speakers.
With 5,000 attendees, 2-watts per head
means 10,000 watts of power amps driving
speakers that may handle that power. In the
late 1970s and 1980s, I could envision racks
of Crown DC-300s or Peavey CS-800s driving full range speaker stacks for the mass
of attendees. Yep, horn-loaded Perkins bins
and Altec multi-cell horns galore in super
efficient but low fidelity music, blasting to
the masses.
But today I run nearly 8,000 watts into
four speakers for 300-person clubs, and that
watts-per-person equation just does not
make sense. Granted, about 5,000 watts of
the 8,000 watts might be going into a pair
of subwoofers, and that just was not con-
By MarkAmundson
sidered 30 years ago. So how does one determine how much “PA” for an event these
days?
The Pressure Of Sound
tp
The current rule of thumb is that concert loudness is in the 90dB to 120dB SPL
levels in a C-weighting. So how do you get
back to gear in the trailer? I look at the venue and first get an idea how far back do I
have to get +90dB SPL of rockin’ sound. If
the venue is the infamous outdoor festival
and you got a stage to beyond 200 feet to
reinforce from that stage. Then all that is left
is coverage angles and the math.
To convert back the math, we know
that each doubling or halving of distance
requires a 6dB SPL change in loudness. So
first I go metric and get about 62 meters
of distance. If I round up to 64 meters, the
doubling math gets convenient; so that
64m is 90dB, 32m is 96dB, 16m is 102dB,
8m is 108dB, 4m is 114dB, 2m is 120db, and
1meter is 126dB. Simple enough? Here is
where the fun begins.
Most smaller speakers cannot continuously provide 126dB SPL at one me-
Mo’ Snort
Figure 1
ter, let alone handle the amplifier power.
And that perfect amplifier power is based
on the efficiency of the speaker cabinets.
If you have subwoofers with a 98dB SPL
rating at 1-watt and 1-meter, you need
28dB watts or about 630 watts of unobstructed subwoofer power needed for
that speaker.
tp
If we were to complicate things and double the coverage distance from 64 meters to
128 meters, then add on 6dB more SPL from
the stage. Now if you could keep the audience away from the stacks up front, that126dB SPL just went to 132dB SPL. Given the
same old 98dB efficient speakers, then the
36dB difference means about 2500 watts.
But many subs and tops do not handle this
kind of power. So doubling the subs and running them at a modest 1250 watts gets you
close enough if they are coupled together.
Stacked tops might have to be four-up with
close coupling and 625 watts power each. Or
maybe it is time to break out the line array for
the mids and highs. So what started as four
subs and four tops just went to eight subs
If you have a lot of people, they are not
going to conveniently congregate in a
single speaker stack’s coverage angle.
Thankfully, today we have speakers
and amplifiers capable of easily handling
this problem. And of course, the top boxes
need to solve the same problem based on
similar efficiency ratings (see Figure 1).
Coverage
tp
Notice that I did not even mention the
number of persons between the speakers
and 200 feet from the stage for 90dB SPL.
But if you have a lot of people, they are
not going to conveniently congregate in a
single speaker stack’s coverage angle. So
you may double up on speakers to widen
out the coverage from, say, 60 degrees
wide to 120 degrees wide. Oh, did I mention a “stereo” mix? Now double that number of speakers and place them on each
side of the stage. So what was just 2,000
watts evenly split into subs and tops just
went to 8,000 watts and four times the
speakers.
and 16 tops when the venue gets deeper.
Now if the promoter said that 90dB SPL at
200 feet is not loud enough, and wants 102dB
at 200 feet, you got a worse problem. That
12dB more at 64 meters is 12dB more at 1 meter, or 136dB SPL. With the same 98dB subs,
you have 38dB more power or 6,300 watts per
coverage angle or 25,000 watts of dual zone
stereo sub-woofer nirvana. But 6,300 watts
can couple up into four subs or eight subs per
stage side for stereo and 120 degree coverage.
And now either track down 40 low-efficiency
ground stack tops, or beef up your line array
with less curvature and more boxes on the
hangs. Back in the 1980s we had nice 105dB
efficient top boxes ( like KF850s), so only eight
of these cabs per side would work wonders.
Welcome to the world of racks and
stacks…
Mark Amundson can be reached at marka@
fohonline.com
Software is the New Hardware
Such a novel idea only 10 or 12 years ago, plug-ins are
now the nucleus of studio mixing and mastering — and are
rapidly becoming the nucleus of live sound processing. We’ve
seen the explosion of digital technology and software in live
sound equipment, first with outboard processing, then system processing and mixing consoles. Now we are witnessing the move of source processing (i.e. your microphone and line inputs) from hardware boxes to software.
N
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
—From Steve “Woody” La Cerra, “On the Digital Edge,” FOH, June 2009
24
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
On the Digital Edge
By SteveLaCerra
Portable Plug-Ins
L
ast month, we discussed audio software plug-ins. To refresh your memory,
we observed the fact that audio processing is rapidly moving from hardware
to software. Just about every digital mixing
console currently manufactured includes a
plethora of onboard processing such as EQ,
dynamics, reverb and delay.
Some manufacturers offer software expansion options for their consoles (Yamaha’s
Add On Effects package, for example), and
Digidesign’s D-Show system allows integration of popular third-party plug-ins. Still, we
do not have the ability to do with software
what we have been able to do with hardware for many years: easily interface our favorite “outboard” processor with any mixing
console.
As manufacturers struggle to resolve (or
maybe completely ignore) this compatibility
issue, we mentioned the idea of creating an
recording here. I could have a session open
in DP with tracks in record-ready, set DP to
“Monitor Record-Enabled Tracks Through
Effects” and go nuts with processing. Not a
bad idea, but alas, there are issues.
Baggage
de
The first issue is that the 24 I/O requires
connection to a PCI or PCIe card, which will
not fit in my (or anyone else’s) laptop. I’d
have to carry a desktop computer with me.
I can just see Buck Dharma’s face when I
tell him that we are leaving one of his guitars home so I can check a road case with a
MacPro every time we fly. (Excess checked
baggage is expensive, and thus very limited
these days).
Even if I could carry the MacPro, I’d still
have to deal with processing latency: audio
must make a round trip to and from a computer so that it can be processed in real time
I can just see Buck Dharma’s face when
I tell him that we are leaving one of his
guitars home so I can check a road case
with a MacPro every time we fly.
industry-wide plug-in standard that would
allow use of any software plug-in with any
digital mixing system. We can hope for that
in the future (and monkeys might fly out of
my butt…—ed.), but right now it ain’t happening.
Since I do a fair amount of studio work in
addition to my live sound activities, I recently pondered the idea of how it might be possible to incorporate some studio technology
in a live application. I use Digital Performer
constantly and I have a fair amount of plugins, some of which are part of the DP package, and some of which I purchased separately. I got to thinking that maybe I could
take a stripped down version of a recording
system with me on the road and use it to
process my stage inputs.
I have a MOTU 24 I/O audio interface,
the back of which is essentially a 24x24 TRS
patch bay. Hmmmm. Who says I could not
interface this with the inserts on an analog
console and use the plug-ins in DP to process
my stage inputs? I’m not even talking about
and that equates to a small delay. How small
depends upon the muscle of the computer
and the efficiency of the A/D and D/A converters in the interface. This is starting to get
complicated.
A simpler idea would be to use a FireWire
interface that could connect directly to my
laptop, which I always carry anyway. MOTU
as well as other manufacturers produce
interfaces that combine audio I/O with onboard effects processing (no latency) and
often provide a way to manage those effects
without need for a computer. A definite possibility.
There is, however, a more elegant solution
to the problem of how one transports plugins and the hardware required to use them:
the plug-in player. A plug-in player is a hardware box designed to “host” plug-in software
without the need to deal with a computer,
mouse, keyboard and monitor. The idea is to
take all of the required computer technology
and place it in a single box that is faster and
easier to use than a computer.
It might help to keep in mind that audio
engineers are not the only ones suffering the
plug-in dilemma: many keyboard players use
virtual synths and samplers. They also require
a way of transporting their software instruments to the stage in an efficient manner. In
this case, “efficient” means “without aggravation” and “with minimal latency.”
The latency issue is far more crucial for
a keyboard player because it translates to a
delay between the time a key is struck on the
MIDI controller and the time the sound is produced — so the device has to process audio
extremely fast. Audio guys can usually live with
a bit of delay, and in fact, there is often more
delay between the backline and the house
speaker stacks than that (though you should
be time-aligning your backline with the house
stacks. That’s a topic for another day).
Several manufacturers market standalone plug-in players. Examples include
SM Pro Audio (www.smproaudio.com)
and Muse Research (www.museresearch.
com). Manifold Labs manufactured a
similar device called Plugzilla, but it is no
longer in production. Most of these are
rack mount boxes, though SM Pro Audio’s
V-Machine is a tabletop box that looks
like an external hard drive. SM Pro Audio
also offers the V-Pedal for guitarists who
wish to use their favorite software plugins with a hardware foot pedal controller. All of these devices run Windows or
Linux-based VST plug-ins. They vary in
their I/O complement, hard disk size and
internal CPU muscle. Obviously, the faster
the CPU, the more ability the device has
to run multiple plug-ins while keeping latency minimized.
The Receptor2 from Muse Research is
available in various rack mount configurations supporting sample rates up to 96
kHz. Balanced analog line level I/O is pro-
vided on TRS jacks, and ADAT Optical I/O
is also included. The stereo analog I/O
makes this more a candidate for keyboard
players, since it limits that analog channel
count to two. Muse even offers a version
called “Komplete Inside,” which already
has the Native Instruments Komplete 5
plug-in instrument and effects bundle preinstalled, pre-authorized and ready to use.
SM Pro Audio’s V-Machine and V-Rack
also provide a stereo I/O complement,
but their V-Rack XL steps into territory
where audio pros need to go: this unit
provides eight balanced channels of audio I/O on XLR jacks, with the inputs accepting mic or line level — a configuration more akin to what audio engineers
require for outboard processing. I’d like
to see a unit with 16 audio ins and outs
on TRS connectors — which would make
it much easier to interface the box with a
typical mixing console.
Still, we face the issue of compatibility. Sure, there are hundreds —maybe
thousands — of VST plug-ins available
on the market, but right now, non-VST
compatible plug-ins cannot be used with
these devices. Back to square one? Not
quite, since the huge variety of available
VST plug ins is bound to offer something
you’ll like in the way of compression, reverbs, delays and amplifier simulations.
You load your plug-ins into the player
and off you go.
Next month, we’ll take a look at a new
audio beast on the block: Hybrid consoles, which are equally at home for recording as they are for live mixing.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour manager and FOH engineer for Blue Öyster Cult.
He can be reached via email at woody@
fohonline.com
High Power 2-Ohm Loading
Do’s and Don’ts
N
www.fohonline.com
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
DON’T be the guy with the 2500-watt-per-channel
tour-grade amplifier who runs 50 feet of 12-2 speaker
cable to a 4-ohm sub-woofer and then jumps in another
10 feet of 12-2 speaker cable into another identical subwoofer. They were just perfect at 4-ohm loading, but now, at 2-ohm loading, that
50-foot cable is just too light for the task…DO seek one of two alternatives: 1)
Use a “Y-split” right at the power amplifier, so that each speaker gets an individual 50 12-2 speaker cable run to keep the damping factor high. 2) Run a pair
of 10-gauge speaker cabling to the first speaker, and then lighten up with a 12-2
patch to the second speaker.
—Mark Amundson, from Theory and Practice, FOH, June 2009
2009 JULY
25
Sound Sanctuary
The Sound of Your
Worship Room (Part
A
s I start this month’s installment of
Sound Sanctuary, I need to remind you
that this is actually part 2 of “The Sound
of Your Worship Room.” So of you haven’t read
part 1, please pull out the June edition of FOH
or go online and read it at www.fohonline.
com in the Current Issue section. If you don’t,
the information in part 2 won’t be quite as
useful.
Okay, now that we are all on the same
page (a little writers pun), let’s get on with it.
After reading part 1 you should have a better
understanding of the sound in your house of
worship.
Sound Absorbing Materials
ss
An easy and cost-effective way to do this
is to hang sound absorbing panels or draperies on the wall. I’ve read about sound absorbing paints, too, but because I have no real experience using them, I won’t focus on them
here. So let’s start with draperies.
If possible, you want your drapes to be
installed floor to ceiling on retractable rails.
The heavier the drapes, the more high and
mid-range frequencies they will capture, and
not reflect. Hanging your drapes on retractable rails allows you to adjust just how “live”
Hanging your drapes on retractable rails
allows you to adjust just how “live” your
room is. Close the drapes so that they cover
the wall completely and you “deaden” the
acoustic environment. Open the drapes,
and you will add more reflected frequencies
to the room, making it more “live.”
The next big question is, what can you
do to improve your particular space? Since
I don’t know the exact sound needs of your
house of worship, I will have to talk in generalities. The first area I want to address is
the wall directly opposite your main front
of house speakers. If that wall is made of a
hard surface, such as brick, concrete, plaster
or even drywall, the surface will be reflecting
a lot of the sound waves that leave the main
speakers and hit it. You will want to arrest or
diminish as much of that reflected sound as
possible.
your room is. Close the drapes so that they
cover the wall completely and you “deaden”
the acoustic environment. Open the drapes a
little, or a lot, and you will add more reflected frequencies to the room, making it more
“live.”
Acoustic Panels
ss
If drapes aren’t your thing, you can also
use acoustic panels to control the reflected
sound in your worship house. Acoustic panels
come in a variety of shapes, sizes, thicknesses
and densities. These panels are mounted on
By JamieRio
2)
a hard wall to absorb sound and defeat as
much reflected sound as they are designed
for. If you decide to use acoustic panels to
remedy your overly “live” room, I suggest you
mount them so that they can be removed
and re-hung easily. As with the drapes on
rails, you will have more control of how “live”
or “dead” you room is.
Many houses of worship have balconies.
If possible, the front of these balconies should
be covered with drapes or acoustic panels.
And depending on how your worship house
is designed, the back wall of the balcony may
need treatment.
Floors and Ceilings
ss
If after treating your back wall and/or
balcony, you still want more control over
reflected sound in your worship space, take
a look at your floor. If it is carpeted, you are
fine. If it is wood or tile or marble or stone,
it will need some treatment. The simplest
thing to do is install a carpet runner down
the main aisle or aisles. The next thing is to
make sure your house is filled every Sunday.
Human bodies absorb high and mid-range
frequencies quite well.
If your floor is tight, how is your ceiling?
Vaulted ceilings and low ceilings can be
very reflective, depending on what materials were used in their construction. Ceilings
will involve more work and more expense.
The acoustic panels I discussed earlier can
also be mounted to a ceiling, either attached horizontally or hung vertically. High
ceilings lend themselves to vertical panels
as there is more room up there. Lower ceilings obviously can only use horizontal panels.
Now that the reflected sound from your
ceiling, floor and back wall has been con-
Company
Company
Page
Phone
Web
American Music & Sound/
Allen & Heath
13
818.597.7711
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-223
Audio-Technica
6
330.686.2600
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-131
Bass Maxx
25
713.397.4466
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-250
Bosch/Electro-Voice
C1
248.876.1000
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-161
Checkers Industrial Products
2
800.438.9336
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-215
Digidesign
9
650.731.6287
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-169
Hosa Products
24
800.255.7527
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-245
Kaltman Creations
C2
678.714.2000
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-216
MARKET PLACE
KS Audio
5
727.447.9656
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-241
Midas
3
818.597.7711
QSC Audio Products
C4
Radial Engineering
Page
trolled, you can next direct your attention
to the side walls of you worship room. These
walls are where your windows are likely to
be. Drapes hung over your windows will
help capture the sound waves reflecting off
of the window glass. Acoustic panels would
seem odd here, but acoustic blinds may be a
good look in your house, especially if it has a
modern look to it. Drapes and or panels can
also be hung on the side walls of your worship house, and they can look great while
helping out the sound in your room.
All of these things will cost your house
of worship some money, but your house
will sound better.
Easier Fix for “Dead” Rooms
ss
Should your particular house of worship
sanctuary be “dead,” the fix is much easier.
You will only need to have an outboard reverb unit or delay (or both) to add some life
to the room. When using a tool like this you
have the advantage of experimenting with
different reverb or delay time. The most
important sound to concentrate on is your
preacher’s voice. No matter how good the
worship band is, if the message doesn’t get
out to your congregation the whole purpose of the service is lost. So, dial in a nice
“live” but not overly affected sound for your
preacher. Once you have a good, clean articulate, intelligible voice reverb, you can create another effect for the band or choir.
That is about all I have to say, friends.
Start using your ears and in less time than
you think, you can identify the sound issues
in your house of worship and begin correcting them. Your house may need a lot of work
or it may need just a little. But your congregation will appreciate whatever you do to
improve the sound. So, have fun.
Phone
Web
Sweetwater Sound
23
260.432.8176
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-247
TMB
15
818.899.8818
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-120
Waves Audio
8
011.972.36084113
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-195
Westone Music Products
4
719.540.9333
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-121
Worx Audio
10
336.275.7474
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-122
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems
1, C3
714.522.9011
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-123
Yamaha Corporation of America
21
714.522.9011
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-159
Audioeast.com
27
866.274.4590
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-124
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-223
Hi-Tech Audio Systems
27
650.742.9166
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-127
800.854.4079
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-115
New York Case/ Hybrid Cases
27
800.645.1707
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-168
19
604.942.1001
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-179
Plexpodium
27
303.778.0045
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-251
RSS by Roland
11
800.380.2580
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-165
Sound Bridge
27
800.628.9084
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-314
Sennheiser Electonic Corp.
17
860.434.9190
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-209
Sound Productions
27
800.203.5611
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-129
Sound Bridge
7, 14
800.628.9084
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-314
Under Cover
27
508.997.7600
http://foh.hotims.com/23510-234
26
JULY 2009
www.fohonline.com
To Advertise in Marketplace, Contact: Greg • 702.454.8550 • gregg@fohonline.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
STAGING • LIGHTING • SOUND
Order online TODAY at www.plsnbookshelf.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Check out what’s on our shelves!
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Employment
NOW HIRING
Carnival Cruise Lines is seeking professional Entertainment
Technicians in the fields of Lighting, Audio (FOH), Backstage and
Stage Automation looking to work aboard luxury cruise liners in
the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe.
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
If you think classifieds don’t work...
why are you reading this?
Call Greg at 702.454.8550
For more on this and other Job Listings Go To
2009 JULY
27
FOH-at-Large
The “Art”
of Self-Promotion
By BakerLee
I
’m not sure if it’s the recession or just that
time of year when all the schools let
out, but I have recently been inundated with a boatload of resumes from out
of work audio engineers and technical
personnel. A few of these resumes come
from some very qualified people while
many others are from the new graduates
of the Full Sail and Institute of Audio Research programs, but regardless of anyone’s experience, the resumes I receive
are always exaggerated. Inflated resumes are par for the course, and while it
is known that there are those professional resume writers who will resourcefully
inject your resume with steroids, there
are some ways of inflating a resume that
work better than others.
The resumes I receive from the more
experienced applicants usually detail
their theater and studio experience and
their knowledge of the latest technology such as protools, digitalized lighting consoles and computer based programs. Other aspirant audio engineers
detail some of the new digital consoles
they have worked on such as the PM5D
and DigiDesign’s Profile and Venue, but
for the most part the boards most listed are SSLs and other studio consoles.
Apparently many of these seeminglyqualified engineers have fairly extensive
backgrounds in postproduction work for
various film companies and commercial
houses, as do the newer college graduates.
It’s implicit that when applying for a
job, one needs to submit an application
everywhere and anywhere that might be
hiring. It is also understood that people
are capable of adapting from one discipline to another — such as from studio
work to live production — but with jobs
being scarce and the competition for
each job being at a premium, I for one
am prone to scan a resume, not only for
keywords indicating that an applicant
possesses the specific type of skills I am
seeking, but for the names of artists, ven-
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
Annual FOH House of
Worship Issue
Time to go back to
church. Expect a couple
of cool church install
stories a bunch of
HOW-appropriate Road
Tests, a never-ending
gaggle of church-y news
pieces and, of course—it
has to be in the House of
Worship issue—the long
awaited and promised
look at the current
Britney Spears tour.
(Now that’s what we call
the “whole package”…)
Audio engineers and production people
who have been in the business for a
while are the kings of resume inflation.
ues and companies with whom the applicant may have worked. Not that working
in a big name venue or with a major artist
makes the candidate more capable, but it
does tell the prospective employer, such
as myself, that the aspirant is familiar with
a certain level of the business.
Don’t Forget the “Live” Skills
FOH
Name-dropping pieces of gear such
as “Protools” and “SSL” may look sexy on a
resume, but as a future employer, I would
also like to know that a potential hire
knows how to figure-eight a snake and
wrap cable as well as understand such
things as psycho-promoters as well as
psycho-acoustics. Packing and driving a
truck may not be a course that’s taught at
school, but in our line of work it certainly
comes in handy, and quite often these
basic “Live” skills are overlooked for the
more intriguing studio expertise of mixing and editing.
Don’t get me wrong, studio skills are
good to have and look good on a resume,
but one needs to see that an aspiring engineer likes the excitement of being in
the moment with no need for a second
take or remix. An employer also needs
to know that an engineer can handle the
pressures and restrictions of working with
a big name artist in a major venue. Therefore, while reading the name of a major
venue or well-known artist on a resume is
not going to ensure that the applicant is
a knowledgeable audio engineer, it does
tell an employer that candidate has experience in a certain market.
A word of advice to those applicants
with limited experience is to not inflate
the resume to increase said applicant’s
importance or skills. One resume I received listed the applicant as: “Facilities
engineer at large hotel; Responsibilities
include management and overseeing
maintenance of equipment operation;
consulting and advising high profile clientele such as CEOs, CFOs and management.” Hey, while this is a nice way to
write “Bathroom attendant,” in the long
run, most prospective employers will see
through the large words and not hire you
anyway. Be to the point on your resume.
If you lack experience, then your various
jobs do not need fancy descriptions to
impress an employer and your willingness to work and learn may be all that’s
needed to get a foot in the door.
That said, most audio engineers/production people who have been in the busi-
www.fohonline.com
ness for a while are the kings of resume
inflation. These are people who rely upon
verbal resumes and don’t even give out
written resumes anymore usually because
they have gotten to the point where their
achievements speak for themselves. These
resumes read like a Who’s Who of entertainment (as I said before, it is always good to
drop names on resumes), but as a practice
it is not required to list every artist that
passed through a club or venue that one
has worked.
As a matter of fact, when the venue is a
larger name than the artist, it’s better to list
having worked at that venue instead of listing the artist you may have worked with at
the venue. Regardless, we list artists in the
same way that we as teenagers used to list
our sexual conquests — just another notch
on the belt. For example, a verbal resume
usually has sexual overtones and a conversation between two audio engineers might
go like this:
“Aa ya doin’?”
“Doin good.”
“Workin’?”
“Yeah, I’m doin’ (insert big name artist).”
“ Really? One off or tour?”
“I’m doin a couple of dates in town
then I’m doin the tour. After that I’m doing
the Garden with some band and then (another big name artist) has me doin’ a couple
of corporate dates and after I do her I’ll be
doin’ some T.V. show with (yet another star’s
name). If those dates work out well then I’ll
be doin’ that tour.”
“Where will you be touring?
“I’m not sure yet, but I think I’ll be doin’
Europe and Japan.”
As you can see there are no fancy words
in the verbal resume, but there is a lot of
“Doin” going on. So for all the new audio
graduates who might be reading this column
remember that once you get your interview
you should act nonchalant and talk about
“doin” as many stars and famous venues as
you are able. While a list of celebrity clients
on your written resume can often be seen as
grandstanding, your practiced insouciance
of a verbal resume is sure to impress.
Just to give one last example of resume
inflation; the other night I mixed a show
for a charity event that was attended by
many corporate executives. Since there
were no real stars on the bill and the venue — though having a theater district address — is somewhat unknown, my verbal
resume is, “I was mixing a Broadway show.”
Notice I used the word “mixing” rather than
“doin’” as it’s a little more impressive in the
context. That would have been the end of
my night as well as my verbal resume entry, but something happened on the way
to the forum. Apparently Diana Ross is a
large contributor to the charity and they
dragged her out at the end of the show to
thank her for her generosity. After saying a
few words about the charity she thanked
the crowd and left. Of course, that changes
everything, including my resume. So now if
you ask me what I did that night I’d tell you,
“I was doin’ Diana Ross.”
Baker Lee can be contacted at blee@fohonline.
com.
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/