What is dedication in the touring audio biz? Is it enduring long hours, crappy road food and psuedo-intellectual lighting guys? Or is it taking the time out of a crazy schedule touring one of the biggest bands on the road to write an XL-4 recall scene that spells out the name of the band in lights? We put that conundrum to Muse FOH engineer Marc Carolan and system engineer/crew chief Patrick "Paddy" Hocken.
Read More »I am a huge fan of a really well-crafted tune. I am not talking about art or music as a tool for social change. I am talking about pop songs that still sound fresh years after their release. One-hit wonders like "Smoke From a Distant Fire" by the Sanford Townsend Band, or "Brandy" by Looking Glass, and guilty pleasures like "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! or "Where's the Love" by Hanson. Every one a little pop gem.
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The Salute to the Military USO Concert on the White House South Lawn on July 4, now in its second year, honors troops and their families for their service to the country. While officially on hiatus, The Killers reconvened to perform six songs at the gig, mixed by their longtime FOH engineer James Gebhard on a DiGiCo SD7.
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Chris Brown, owner of production company SOUNd CHeK MUSIC, dealt with torrential rain and a heat index swing from 70º to 105º at the Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do stage, one of 12 at this year's New Orleans Jazz Fest.
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Karrie Keyes, who has been mixing Pearl Jam's monitors since 1991, opted for a Midas PRO6 console supplied by Rat Sound for the band's 2010 tour in support of its Backspacer album. This represented a change for Keyes, a longtime devotee of Midas' Heritage desk and other analog consoles.
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Sound Image is supporting Erykah Badu's current Out My Mind, Just In Time 2010 AD tour with a Soundcraft Vi6 console and JBL VerTec line arrays.
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First Assembly of God Church in Manhattan, Kan. recently renovated their sanctuary with design and installation services provided by MSM Systems (Lawrence, KS). The church makeover included complete audio, video, lighting and acoustic systems.
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Ubi-Tech, a design-build contracting firm serving the house of worship market, recently installed an L-Acoustics KUDO system at Sa-rang Community Church in Anaheim, Calif., a mega-church with an 80-member choir, 25-piece orchestra and two full praise teams for Korean and English services.
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Sound Decisions provided Danley loudspeakers and subwoofers for One Lord Sunday, an annual event staged at the Wasilla, Alaska Multi-Use Sports Complex that brings 4,000 congregants from 20 churches and dignitaries including the governor of Alaska together for a mixed-style worship service.
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Marc Carolan was having a rough day. The Irish-born engineer who has spent the past nine years mixing Muse, in venues ranging from stadiums to theatres and headlining to opening for U2 on the 360° tour is not used to the dry Vegas climate or the blasting air conditioning inside the Mandalay Bay Event Center, where his clients have a sold-out show in a touring season that has been very tough for a lot of acts. Not that he does not like the weather. "Ireland is great," he says. "If you like rain. We have a saying there that our two favorite days in Ireland are Christmas and summer."
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Imagine that after years of banging boxes on one-show-a-night tours, you land in a venue and manage to stay there for three decades. Everything is where you left it the show before, from input lines to coffee mugs. All you need to do is show up and put the key in the ignition.
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I think I speak for most of us in the live sound biz (especially those of us who use powered speaker boxes) when I say we would all like more sound pressure level and more wattage in a smaller package. Years ago I joked about having speaker enclosures the size of a pack of cigarettes. I also expressed my desire to mix my shows in California while I was sitting on a beach in Cabo. Well, K-array has brought me closer to that goal with their Redline Series speakers.
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