Last month a relationship I have been building and nurturing for several years paid off in the kind of gig that companies like mine rarely get called for. A couple of days before the Academy of Country Music Awards were held at the MGM Grand, we did a "pre-concert" show in conjunction with the ACM and The Fremont St. Experience. With 25 or more A- and B-list acts doing one or two songs each and two primary headliners doing full sets, we had our hands full.
Read More »How many times has the following happened to you? You're in a room watching a band (or perhaps a public speaker), and you notice that the sound of an instrument or voice is coming from the P.A., not from the physical location of the source. Sometimes it's subtle, but sometimes you think: "Why am I seeing this guy directly in front of me but hearing his voice to my left?" It's such an unnatural phenomenon that it distracts from delivery of the musical content or message.
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I was contracted to bring audio on board the "Freedom of The Seas" promotional voyage around the New York harbor and down the eastern coastline to somewhere off the coast of Virginia. We were to cruise with a boatload of travel agents and marketing people who were all there to take advantage of the free food, booze and entertainment offered by the Royal Caribbean company as the world's largest cruise ship was introduced to the world via a live, onboard broadcast of "The Today Show" with Katie Courac and Matt Lauer. It was a gala event that included a bottle of champagne broken across the hull of the ship as well as performances by Barry Manilow, Jon Secada and Lauren Harris.
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Over the course of a 20-year career, John C. Clark III has gone from stagehand work in clubs in his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M. to running FOH for R&B phenom Kanye West. Today he finds himself on the backend of West's "Touch the Sky" tour–a massive undertaking that started out as a coheadline thing with U2 where Clark was driving a huge Meyer-powered rig that included four M3D line array loudspeaker s, eight MILO cabinets, four MICA units, and nine 700- HP subwoofers per side–doing one-off fly dates with the system du jour and making his boss sound great on whatever gear he is given.
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LOVE, the latest production from Cirque du Soleil is a collaborative effort between the Cirque and Apple Corps. The show features original Beatles tracks from master tapes at Abbey Road studios prepared specifi – cally by Musical Directors Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin. "We wanted to make sure there are enough good, solid hit songs in the show, but we don't want it to be a catalog of 'best of's'," said Sir George Martin. "We also wanted to put in some interesting and not well-known Beatles music and use fragments of songs. The show will be a unique and magical experience."
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I was back in Gibson City for a really small rock concert–only about 250–300 people in the crowd. I had a small rig complete with an old Yamaha 1604 mixer for FOH and monitor mix all in one, and let me tell you that dinosaur can do some damage. I had two Peavey Impulse 1015 speakers and subs, with an ART EQ-355 and Alesis 3630 compressors. Well, the man I purchased my Impulse speakers and subs from said that they were all 8 ohms "speakers and subs". The venue was a little bigger than what I was told on the advance so, with my QSC RMX 1450 and a 2450, we decided to bridge both to get more power.
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FOH engineer Rob "Cubby" Colby has been doing so much Latin work of late (Luis Miguel, Robi "Draco" Rosa, Juanes, and Shakira) that it is easy to forget that his R&B roots runs deep, including tours with both Prince and Janet Jackson. Likewise, DB Sound Image has provided plenty of thump over the years. The latest R. Kelly tour was a reunion after years of separation for Cubby and DB Sound Image's Harry Witz. Together, they put together a system and crew that wowed the R. Kelly production staff–a group known for their collective critical ear.
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When we first heard about the Audio- Technica AT2041SP Studio Pack we asked them to send one out for review right away. Why, you might ask, would a magazine that covers LIVE audio want mics that are being marketed to home and project studio guys? Because this is one of the best values out there and we knew that regardless of the name it was marketed under, at a price point of $249 MSRP (and available online for a lot less than that; $149 estimated street price) we were going to see a bunch of these on a bunch of stages in the near future.
Read More »Like it or not, monitor mixing tends to get a "water-boy" image compared to the FOH position. But a bad monitor mix situation can really create a bad performance as performers suffer through less than ideal conditions. And, interestingly enough, a bad FOH mix may not even be noticed by the performers as they enjoy a good vibe onstage thanks to a great monitor mix.
I want to share my mindset when monitor mixing, because one can achieve great pride doing this task and not worry much about the prima donna working out at the FOH console. After all, you are working for the band, and the job is to deliver maximum satisfaction to them within the limits of the equipment. However, I also look at monitor mixing as how I would want things done for me if I were performing on the stage. And if you are a current or former musician, monitor mixing should be a position you desire.
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It is actually surprising that the revival of Stephen Sondheim's classical musical Sweeney Todd, which stars Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone, was nominated for this year's Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and won for Best Direction of a Musical for John Doyle and Best Orchestrations, done by Sarah Travis. It's not because the show is brooding and sinister, although that could be considered. After all, it tells the tale of a man who seeks revenge on the judge who unfairly imprisoned him, resulting in a bloody path of retribution via a barbershop that also leads to a reinvention of the idea of "mystery meat," thanks to a pie-making accomplice. But this unorthodox production, which features ten actors who also sing and play instruments and who often do not face each other during conversations, is unusually abstract for the Great White Way. The fact that it won two Tonys is an artistic triumph, and the fact that it continues to do well months after it opened is a testament to an audience that wants to see something dark, unusual and completely different than a huge production with lots of glitzy musical numbers.
Read More »The battle between physical media and virtual distribution as the dominant modality in the entertainment business continues to rage. Billions of dollars get invested in the next generation of optical discs, Blu-ray and HD-DVD, even as Bill Gates declares them DOA and predicts a virtual future. This debate has very real consequences for the concert and touring sound industry: Forms of entertainment no longer stand apart from each other, and that CD you got at Yankee Stadium not only has cool music on it but is also a coupon good for a pack of Ballpark Franks at your neighborhood Von's. The concert event is becoming less an "event" and more of another stage in the larger evolution of music as a marketing tool. And we're not talking bannering a venue here, either.
Read More »Cheikh Mbacke
President/CEO/Engineer
Bamba Productions Group, Inc.
Las Vegas, NV
Live sound, DJ services, Corporate A/V, Lighting
Clients:
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