It is not often that in the same three-hour period you get to see the promise of the future and a living example of the greatness that got us here in the first place. That probably sounds confusing, so allow me to do what I do...

OSLO - In preparation for President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and related music events, the sound system at Oslo City Hall was upgraded with Allen & Heath digital mixing and audio distribution systems and a Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC32 Digitally Steerable Array system.

LONDON - The new self-powered Meyer Sound UP-4XP loudspeaker recently made its debut at the Royal Albert Hall's renovated Elgar Room. The UP-4XP is noted for combining the advantages of a remote DC power supply and the acoustic power output of a three-way self-powered system.

POTTERS BAR, U.K. - Soundcraft Studer recently produced and tested the first Studer Vista large-format consoles on its new U.K. production line, which has taken on manufacturing for Vista, OnAir 3000 and Router production formerly done in the Studer Regensdorf facility near Zurich in Switzerland.

LONDON - Florence and the Machine used a combined iLive FOH and monitor system on its European tour this fall, which included dates in the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Austria. iLive was subsequently specified on dates in the U.S. and Canada, and rented from SRD Systems in Kent by management production company, Britannia Row, for a performance as part of the Electric Proms at Camden's Roundhouse.

HITACHINAKA, Japan - The Rock in Japan concert, produced by Rockin' On publisher Keiichi Shibuya, was held for the 10th year in 2009. More than 165,000 attendees came to Hitachi Beach Park to hear performances by some 150 Japanese artists, including Eikichi Yazawa, Unicorn, Ulfuls and Perfume.

LONDON - Sound engineer Randy Meullier, who is using a Soundcraft Vi6 for the U.K. and European legs of Alice Cooper's Theater of Death tour, credited Pete Russell at SSE Audio Group for giving him access to his first-choice console.

As ranked by Billboard Magazine, based on revenue.

1. U2

Sound Co: Clair

Crew
FOH Engineer: Joe O'Herlihy
Monitor Mixers: Dave Skaff, Niall Slevin, Alistair McMillan
System Engineers: Jo Ravitch, David Coyle
Monitor System Engineers: Chris Fulton, Jason O'Dell
Techs: Tom Ford, Jennifer Smola, Benjamin Blocker, Joel Merrill, Kelsey Gingrich

Danny Leake runs a company in Chicago called Urban Guerilla Engineers, through which he runs, as he says, "all my sound stuff" - both studio and live work. For almost two decades, that live work has included FOH duties with the legendary Stevie Wonder.

 

 

 

Some shows are the stuff of legend. While the advent of YouTube has made it possible for a wide audience to get a small glimpse of the scale of these shows, it's impossible to truly appreciate the behind-the-scenes complexity of today's largest productions without witnessing them in person.

Shortly after the installation of an all new set of racks and stacks at the City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium last spring, production manager Tony Bova and his staff started to hear a curious observation from the venue's season ticket holders. "People thought it was too quiet," Bova remarks with a laugh. "That's an interesting reversal in the complaint department, but it's been a nice change and everyone has noticed the improvement."

I was out on a gig a couple of months ago and one of my favorite people in this business, Buford Jones, was on the same gig. Somehow as we were talking it came out that we both have the SoundMeter app from Faber Acoustical on our iPhones. We began comparing notes, agreed that we both liked it. He asked if mine was calibrated, and I said "sorta," explaining that I went to a show and just jacked around with the settings until it was reacting consistently within a couple of dB of the "real" meter sitting a few feet away on the console. I asked how he has calibrated his, and he told me he used MAPP and the anechoic chamber at Meyer Sound. So I'm guessing his is a bit more accurate.

Once upon a time the pastor of my church asked me, "What can be done so that I can hear the choir?" My response was, "With a rock band on the stage, the choir has no chance unless we put them in another room and give them a TV to watch the service."

In the Road Test you are about to read, I am combining a review of the PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixing console with the PreSonus Studio One Pro software. Either one of these products warrants its own review, but I had the opportunity to use them together. So, here goes.

Time alignment is a very important yet often overlooked aspect of system setup and tuning. A correctly time-aligned system has many benefits, including more even coverage where two sound sources overlap and a more even response across acoustical crossover points. It can give the cheapest of systems a couple decibels more in the area where engineers tend to like them most: bass frequencies. So let's take a look at subwoofer time alignment.

In the Oct. 2008 issue of FOH, I relayed a story about an experience I had at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston Ore. The long and short of that story was that while attempting a sound check, the area was hit with a nasty hailstorm and winds upwards of 70 miles per hour. The net result was that the tarp blew off the front-of-house position - including a Yamaha PM4000 - and the bucket of the 4K became a bucket full of water.

I sat down to write this month's installment when I realized that we have not only entered a New Year but we are now in the second decade of the new millennium. Whatever happened to that first decade, I ask myself.

Live sound courses have been added to the curricula at many major pro audio education facilities in the last several years. The one at the Curb College at Belmont University, in Nashville, seems to be taking it a step further, though. Clear As A Bell (CAAB) Audio is the name of the SR provider based at the school that's staffed and operated by a dozen students enrolled in Curb College's Audio Engineering Technology Advanced Sound Reinforcement course.

Once I was supplying our Meyer system for a speaking engagement where the guest speaker was the Prime Minister of our country, Brian Mulroney. It was the Cattlemen's Barbecue held at Poplar Hill, Ontario. Mr. Mulroney was one of those gifted public speakers who is able to talk and hold the audience in the palm of his hand. He talked and everyone just stopped and listened.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines the word Soul as: "The principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part."

Waves Audio is now shipping WavesLive MultiRack Native, the first-ever software application designed to run Waves plug-ins with live analog and digital mixing consoles. MultiRack Native is a software host that lets FOH and Monitor engineers run multiple simultaneous instances of the same Native Waves plug-ins used in recording studios and mixing rooms the world over.

The PXB2:2k5CX is Eminence Speaker LLC's latest 2-way addition to the company's selection of high-performance crossovers. It features an on-board fixed level L-pad for tweeter level correction as well as onboard tweeter overload protection circuitry.

Community Professional Loudspeakers' Pole Mount Brackets have been designed for mounting the company's smaller-sized R-Series and WET Series loudspeakers on poles, posts or columns. The brackets can be used to attach Community's R.25, R.5 and RMG, and WET W2-218, W2-228, W2-2V8 and W2-2W8 loudspeaker models to poles or columns greater than 6 inches in diameter.

Avid has announced that Pro Tools 8 now supports the new Snow Leopard OS X. This added support lets customers upgrade to the latest operating system without worrying about Pro Tools compatibility. Those purchasing a new Mac system for faster processing, reliability and ease-of-use (shipping with Snow Leopard) will now have support for Pro Tools as well.

Harman Professional's System Architect 2.1 upgrade, made available recently to HiQnet users worldwide, allows System Architect to automate many of the more time consuming system design tasks based on the application's understanding of how a user constructs a system. System Architect 2.1 has been upgraded to allow greater compatibility between HiQnet devices from Harman Professional's brands, including Crown, JBL, dbx, AKG and BSS Audio.

Earthworks' PM40T Touring PianoMic System, based on the company's PM40 Piano Microphone System, is geared to match the sonic performance of its sibling while simplifying setup and traveling in a compact case.

EAW's KF740 three-way full range line array loudspeaker is a high-output, lightweight and compact speaker module designed for touring and fixed installations. Each module contains two HF compression drivers with 2.5-inch voice coils and two 8-inch MF transducers with 3-inch coils, all of which are integrated into a single horn that occupies the entire face of the enclosure.

The Radial Komit is a 500 series compressor-limiter that simplifies the process of dynamic manipulation while expanding upon creative tone shaping. The design provides flexibility by introducing automatic functions that are both musical and intuitive.

The Electro-Voice ZXA1 - a self-powered version of the ZX1 compact two-way loudspeaker - made its debut at Winter NAMM 2010. The ZXA1 is powered by an 800-watt amplifier module derived from EV's Tour Grade series. The ZXA1 has been designed with a molded enclosure that is durable and, at less than 20 lbs., light in weight. The ZXA1 also features an 8-inch woofer and 1-inch titanium compression driver.

Blue Microphones has expanded their en-Core live stage microphone series with the addition of the en-Core 100i. It is designed with a wider and flatter frequency response to capture a variety of instruments and a tighter polar pattern to reduce off-axis noise.

The PSM 900 Wireless Personal Monitor System from Shure, previewed at Winter NAMM 2010, has been designed to enhance both audio quality and RF performance for use with events, installations and tours.

Sensaphonics' 3Max triple-driver custom earphones feature soft-gel silicone for comfort and a field-replaceable cable as standard. The earphones also combine a twin-driver bass system with a high frequency driver for enhanced accuracy, higher SPL and more bass headroom.

Audio-Technica's MCB4 PM Antenna Combiner allows the signals of up to four A-T M3 wireless PM stereo transmitters to be combined onto a single transmitting antenna, reducing rack clutter.

AKG's updated Perception Live series of microphones, which provide a balanced output on a 3-pin male XLR connector, include the P2, P4, P3S, and the P5 series of microphones, and can be used for any vocal or instrument application, for both live and recorded sound.

The ultra-flat Nynja KJ50vb (MSRP: $6,512.22) is a variable dispersion, high-tech 3D line-array element. Also available in black or white, the KJ50vb is designed for live stage and TV monitoring, as well as ceiling PA or monitor installations.

The Focusrite OctoPre MkII Dynamic features eight channels of Focusrite's mic preamplification, with new, single-dial, VCA-based compressors derived from the Focusrite Red 3 on every channel.

Allen & Heath has added two new models to the iLive digital mixing series, the iDR-16 3U MixRack and iLive-R72 rack-mountable Control Surface. Together, they provide a space saving, lightweight digital live mixing system, bringing the same power, sonic performance and flexibility of the larger touring iLive systems to a significantly lower price point.

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems' latest addition to the M7CL digital console product line, the M7CL-48ES, will be available in the spring of 2010. Its main I/O interface is the SB168-ES remote stage box, and it connects via a single Cat5 cable.

Audinate announced that Lake's new LM 26 Digital Audio Loudspeaker Processor has Audinate's Dante networking inside. The Lake LM 26 is the successor to the Dolby Lake Processor (DLP) with digital matrix functions including Dante digital networking, which provides compatibility with Lab.gruppen's Dante-enabled PLM Series as well as legacy DLPs.