Skip to content

Digital Consoles for the Rest of Us

Digital Consoles for the Rest of Us

We have been trying to do this Buyers Guide for three years. With the growing adoption and acceptance of digital consoles in the live event audio workplace, a real “have-vs.-have-not” environment had developed for quite a while. Digital consoles are a great tool and increasingly demanded on show riders, but their cost puts them simply out of reach of many — if not most — smaller companies. These local and regional soundcos were stuck either not getting gigs they once did or renting the demanded digital desk.

Read More »

This Is Why I Don’t Do Rock ‘n’ Roll

I work in an audio/visual department at Harvard University. My clients are brilliant economists, poets, physicists and historians. On any given week, I’m knee-deep in Noble Prize winners. I’ve pinned mics on Mikhail Gorbachev and Yo-Yo Ma. But what kept popping into my dreams at night? Mixing for a rock ‘n’ roll band. I mean, come on, you can only sit through so many high-level organic chemistry lectures before you start yearning for the world of rock ‘n’ roll.

Read More »

Rider-Friendly Gear

The topic of “rider-friendly” gear is an ageless debate among sound company personnel, and a beauty contest of what is currently rider-friendly and what is not. In this column, I will throw out some thoughts on rider-friendly, and see if the readership can concur.

Read More »

Know Your Microphones

I know it may seem a little over the top to spend an entire article on microphones, but these are probably the most important tools you have, especially in a house-of-worship setting. We will be covering the three popular types of pickup or polar patterns and dynamic microphones versus condenser microphones.

I will not be discussing brands and models of mics, as there are just too many to touch on. If you are a hired gun, meaning you do not belong to a particular congregation but you work as a mixer, you should have a selection of mics with you every time you mix. If you are part of the church membership and are either paid for your services or you volunteer your skills, you probably use the mics that are already at your house of worship. Unless your particular house has a vast selection of microphones, I would encourage you to pick up some of your own. Good mics are always a valuable commodity in any sound reinforcement setting.

Read More »

Klark Teknik Square One Splitter

When I think about the Square One Splitter from Klark Teknik, it reminds of the comedians that parody the kitchen utensil gadgets advertised on TV. “It slices, it dices, it…” is pretty much the same with this splitter, as its engineers were given some liberty to add features beyond a mic-level XLR active splitter.

Read More »

AVI Brings the Sound of Integrity to Eastern Tennessee

This small town A/V company started with local church gigs and eventually landed one of the largest college concerts in the country.

The e-mail was unusual in that it came from an unexpected source. I get notes all the time looking for coverage of some show or another, but 80% come from the PR department of some audio manufacturer, while the rest come from someone at one of the big touring companies. Occasionally, I’ll get a call from a church or performing arts center looking for coverage of an install.

“I am very proud to announce that the small AV company I work for will be putting on this year's largest college concert in the country,” wrote Production Manager Rob Abercrombie. Had to be an overstatement, but he got my attention through a combination of humility (“how can we get a snippet in FOH?” he asked) and gonads (“or a cover story?”). I e-mailed back and told Rob how to send us info for a Showtime listing or perhaps a small news story. Then, as more of an afterthought than anything, he added that I could cover it myself if someone else were to foot the travel expenses. Small company, small town — I figured it would never happen and that I was safe.

Read More »

Pope Benedict XVI’s Massive Mass at Yankee Stadium

A sacred ceremony in a sacred place pulled off flawlessly.

Pope Benedict XVI came to America in April, and was astutely handled by the best, most experienced hands in the live event industry, from stadium rock to Broadway shows.

The Pope’s visit was a six-day series of events highlighted by a mass held at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the fourth in New York City’s history, but none of the previous events had as many limitations as this one. All the talent assembled and tools available had to make up for a considerable built-in scarcity: the lack of time.

Read More »

KSC Industries Digmoda Plate Amps with DSP Engine

Sometimes it is hard to figure out how to write about a company even when they make a really good product.

KSC Industries has been around for a long time, but chances are that while you have used their stuff, you have never heard of them. That’s because they are an OEM company. They make stuff that other companies put their names on and sell as their own. In fact, we are using stock photos here because I had to take care not to shoot someone else’s box while working with this new system. Again, OEM companies are very discrete about who their customers are or they don’t last long, and KSC has been around for 37 years.

Read More »

New Gear

Allen & Heath ZED 4-Bus Series

Allen & Heath has announced the ZED-420 (16 mono + 2 dual stereo channels), ZED-428 (24 mono + 2 stereo) and ZED-436 (32 channel + 2 stereo) mixers. Similar to the smaller ZED-14, the 4-bus series features the same performance DuoPre TM padless preamp, which is a microphone circuit and an optimized line input circuit, rather than one pre-amp handling both mic and line signals. It uses a two-stage design with carefully controlled amounts of gain in each stage, offering high headroom and a low-noise, clean signal path. The ZED 4-bus series has a responsive 4-band, 2-swept mids EQ with in/out switch, 6 aux sends (2 pre, 2 post, 2 pre/post), 4 sub groups, direct outputs on each mono channel, separate L, R & M main buses, 100 mm long-throw faders, 2 matrix outputs and a talkback facility to auxes or LRM. The connectors are placed on the top surface for easy plug-in and patching, and the construction, with individual circuit boards nutted to the top panel, is identical to Allen & Heath professional touring mixers.

www.allen-heath.com

Read More »

Keeping it In Your Face

Cubby Colby on great artists, great technology and a great crew

Fans of Saturday Night Live (I know you gig on Saturday nights — that’s what Tivo is for) will recognize the skits that all play on the “competition” between certain hosts for the record of who has hosted the show the most times. Here at FOH, it is pretty rare for us to feature an engineer in the FOH Interview slot more than once. I can only think of three: John Cooper, Big Mick and Cubby Colby.

Cubby is someone we could feature a dozen times and still not get the entire story. For those of you unfamiliar, the short version goes like this: Genesis and Phil Collins, Grammy Awards house mixer for years, more tours with Prince than any other mixer alive and a ton of other stuff.

Read More »

Enhancing a Cultural Icon

Bartlesville Community Center completes extensive audio system revitalization.

While Bartlesville, Okla., may not find itself included in the same sentence as New York or Los Angeles when one discusses performing arts venues, the city’s main cultural facility is at the cutting edge in every sense of the word. This vibrant community of roughly 35,000, some 47 miles due north of Tulsa, is home to the Bartlesville Community Center, a positively stunning complex designed to provide cultural and educational opportunities for the city.

Read More »