To download a PDF of the October 2009 FOH Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE.

Line arrays—in the right hands and set up properly—provide almost unprecedented pattern control. But what if the room you are working in (say a church or a small-ish theatre) needs that kind of control but a big concert array is just too much in terms of space, SPL and money?

For a PDF of the September 2009 FOH Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE.

The days of hauling tons of copper around to get the audio signal from the stage to the console are rapidly fading. This short chart will give you an idea of what is out there that will let you carry a good reel of Cat5 cable instead of a giant multi-core snake.

For a PDF of the July 2009 Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE .

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.

For a PDF of the May 2009 Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE .

With one of these puppies you should never have to hear those fateful words, “I haven’t got enough power, Captain” on a gig.

For a PDF of the April 2009 Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE.

Cheap DSP has meant many changes in the pro audio world, and most of them mean we get to sell off or leave boxes at the shop, because what used to take four separate boxes is now done with one. The system controller is maybe the best example. Where your “drive rack” once contained crossovers, EQs, compressor/limiters and time delay, these computerized wonders do all that—usually in a single rack space—without breaking a sweat. As we see more processing migrating to the actual amps themselves, even these boxes are not safe from the march of progress. But here is a look at the current state of affairs. 

For a PDF of the March 2009 Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE 

Concert quality subs with drivers of at least 18 inches are already beasts. So, what the hell, we might as well put the power in the box, too. Truth is, we decided to do a Buyers Guide on powered subs and realized that unless we were prepared to publish it in book form we would need a way to further limit submissions.

For a PDF of the Feb. 2009 FOH Buyers Guide. CLICK HERE . 

Mid-line live production digital audio consoles. Remember just a few years ago when such a thing just didn’t exist? You either had $100K+ to spend or you could get toy from an MI mfg and pretend. (Hey, I actually did GIGS with one of those. OK I did ONE gig. One.) 

As prices fell and consoles got smaller and more powerful, about a year ago we did one of our Buyers Guides and put in a price limit of, I think, $60K and set off a firestorm of protest from the folks who didn’t make anything for less than $60K. So this time around we have raised the limit a bit to be a bit more inclusive.

To download a PDF of the Jan. 2009 FOH Buyers Guide chart, CLICK HERE

OK, you’re not going to do a Madonna show with one of these. In fact, you will be hard pressed—given the channel count on most of them—to do anything bigger than a five piece. But that is not the point. The point is that these small boards allow you to easily mix the show and record it without any extra gear. Some of them actually will work well in a small studio, which means you can use it to record during the week and pack it up on the weekend for gigs—and record the gigs as well with just the console and a laptop. 

I still consider it the day I went from "band guy who owns a PA" to "fledgling anklebiter sound guy." It was an outdoor festival. Two days. Probably a dozen acts total with canned music in between. I had my small collection of typical rock ‘n’ roll mics and — with the addition of a few more lent by friends — I thought I was set. Things went well until the second day when I discovered that my next act was a magician hired to entertain the kids, and he was pretty pissed that I didn’t have a headset or lav for him.