Jerry Krulewicz has wired the last four decades of the live event industry. From his days as a teen working with big bands to Broadway, through Saturday Night Live to a political summit at the threshold of Soviet Union's fall to the Olympics and houses of worship, he's stared down every technical challenge with one simple approach: There must be a better way.
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The Feb. 2004 issue of FOH had an article that featured Trinity on the Hill United Methodist Church in Augusta, GA. The church had just hired a new Minister of Music and installed a sound system that was state-of-the-art (in 2004). That sound system functioned flawlessly for six years, but it's being retired and replaced as part of a major renovation called the Nehemiah Project.
Read More »Have you ever promised to take on a task that you thought would be easy and simple only to find – after the promise has… Read More »Recording the Gig
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In this day and age, we all want more for less. Whether it's your car, phone, computer, TV, or even a Smart Amplifier. We all want it to do more, weigh less, and have the cost cut in half. I say good luck. Every time something new comes out, it cost more for that one feature that I can't live without. But, dammit, I'm not going to sleep tonight until I've stood in a line that nearly traverses the earth and purchased my new whatchamacallit.
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Microphones may just be my favorite pieces of gear to review (insert sarcasm here). I actually find a microphone review to be one of the hardest to do, because just about everything to do with a mic is matter of opinion. And my opinion may or may not differ from everyone else's. But in the case of this review, mine will be the only one that matters!
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Calling the Waves C6 a "compressor" is like calling Ben & Jerry's Phish Food "chocolate ice cream." It really doesn't complete the description. Users of Waves' C4 Multiband Compressor will find the C6 familiar, but the C6 adds two "floating" bands (details below) as well as a sidechain input. Combining this with the C6's ability to perform dynamic EQ results in an incredibly flexible and powerful dynamics tool that does way more than just "compression."
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Harvest Productions of Kansas City got its start in 1987, incorporated in 1992, and in the nearly two decades since has grown to be one of the most successful and dependable sound/lighting/video companies in their corner of the Midwest. Harvest's founder and president, Ron Davis, is a Kansas City native himself, and likes that his company's name reflects the agrarian roots of the region in which it thrives. "And," he points out, "the company is always growing."
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I was doing sound for a Hare Krishna event. I had the usual surprise instruments show up for several of the acts – but that's no surprise to me anymore. Anyhow, there was a bit where this guy was doing a long speech on a hand-held wireless. This seemed like the opportune moment for me to grab a bite to eat.
Read More »Live music, the putative savior of the music industry, took a hit in 2010, and that has serious implications for live sound systems providers and operators. According to Pollstar's end-of-year report, concert touring revenues declined steeply last year: ticket sales for the 50 biggest grossing tours globally fell 12 percent, to $2.93 billion, from $3.34 billion in 2009. In the U.S., the world's single biggest music market, the drop-off was even larger, with concerts here reporting a 15 percent decline to $1.69 billion. And those same top 50 acts played 8 percent fewer shows in 2010, says Pollstar.
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Last month, we covered the different causes of speaker malfunction. If a system is not protected properly, it can lead to a lot of money spent on speaker repair bills that could have been easily spent on other things, such as a good system limiter. But even with the best system limiter in the world, if the system is not set up properly the consequences can be just as bad as without one.
Read More »A short while ago, I received e-mail from a reader named Tim Wright of Des Moines, IA. Tim wrote me about questions and concerns his congregation had with regard to the effect bass (sub frequencies) may have on pacemakers and internal heart defibrillators.
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Many of the audio engineers I know possess enough versatility to mix any type of music or event that should come their way and, just like the great musical session players who have a grasp on a multitude of styles. they are able to move with ease from one gig to another. Of course, it's not really that difficult to mix a wide variety of music and speech, since we are dealing primarily with the technical aspects of the audio program, but while our job is of the utmost importance, we engineers need to be aware that we are not the content but rather the conduit to carry the program to the listener's ear.
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