LOS ANGELES — This past November, Tony Bennett recorded a live performance at the L.A. Theatre for broadcast for a TV special, Tony Bennett: An American Classic, which aired November 21 on NBC. The concert featured the live vocals of Bennett, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Diana Krall, Michael Bublé and Barbra Streisand.
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RIO RANCHO, NM — Lectrosonics reports that its new SMQ "Super-Mini" quarter-watt wireless transmitter has cleared FCC regulatory requirements and is now available. The SMQ provides a 250mW RF output and RF-isolated output for when the transmitter is used in multi-channel systems.
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BURNSVILLE, MN — Satis & Fy, who recently took delivery of X-Line and Tour Grade amplifiers from Electro-Voice, have been selected to handle the sound reinforcement for this year's Simply Red tour of Germany.
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Dear Anklebiters,
I run a small sound company out of my garage, and I can no longer fit all of my equipment in my trusty work van. Lately I have been renting a small box truck from a local homeowner truck rental store. This really gets expensive and digs into my profits for each show. Worse yet, renting a truck for each show has become a huge inconvenience. What do you suggest?
Read More »No, it's not the name of the next band you'll be working with or even a way of looking at the future of analog consoles. I saw that phrase on the cover of a magazine recently. It was a teaser to an interview with the publisher of Wired Magazine, and it referred to the entire idea of print publishing — from its efficiency as a way to disseminate information in a timely manner, to its effectiveness for advertisers seeking to get their stuff seen by the right audience. The phrase has stuck with me because it does a great job of describing the way I have felt but have been unable to express well for the past decade-plus.
Read More »You can tell what part of the pro audio industry is healthy and what part is struggling pretty easily just by keeping your ears open to conversations around you at the Audio Engineering Society show. Over the past few years the phrase heard with increasing frequency went something like, "It was, of course, designed for the studio, but we are seeing lots of them used live." This phrase gets me on a couple of levels. First, I am filled with gratitude that I do not own a recording studio, and second, depending on who says it, that phrase is either illustrative of the direction we are heading in the live event audio field, or it is total marketing BS. Example: Yamaha's DM 2000 mixers were designed as production mixers for recording and perhaps some smaller broadcast operations, and they were as surprised as anyone else when nearly half of the units sold ended up in the live arena. On the other hand, a several-thousand-dollar mic that ships in a shock-mounted titanium case with a bodyguard won't be on any stage I am working. Sorry, but I still ask, "What happens when it gets dropped?"
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Last month we talked about a lot of things in our rapidly changing world of digital audio, one of which was copy protection of audio software. Copy protection has long been a problem for companies that manufacture all sorts of software. Several years ago I had a conversation with a rep at an AES who told me that his company's program had approximately 1,000 registered purchases but an estimated 30 times as many users with illegitimate copies of their program. That's a lot of lost revenue due to cracked code, and it's totally unfair to folks who are trying to stay afloat developing software. If you really like using a program, and you'd like to see its continued support, ante up just as you would for a piece of hardware. Now I'll get off my software-soapbox and get on with it.
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With the proliferation of outdoor amphitheatres in recent years, the onus increasingly falls on sound designers to integrate audio systems that are capable of performing in less-than-ideal conditions. In turn, it's up to manufacturers to provide these designers with state-of-theart technology through the development of powerful, controllable and versatile audio components. These advances in technology, combined with the creativity of designers, have led to dramatic improvements in lawn delay systems for amphitheatres, or "sheds."
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With so many choices for gear on the market today, it's a wonder that anyone can make heads or tails of it. Cutting through the marketing hype to determine what is really needed for a good audio system can be challenging for professionals, as well as the staff and volunteers at smaller venues like churches or theatres that may not eat, sleep and breathe live sound on a daily basis. FOH sat down to talk with Steve Raslevich, president of Northern Sound & Light (NSL) to get some insight into the market. NSL often gets calls from customers who know what they want after browsing the information on the NSL web site, but still need help interpreting the marketing verbiage using the real world experience of the sales staff.
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Maybe it's the fact that, as the owner of a mid-level company, I never get the chance to slow down long enough to get complacent, and instead find myself looking at every aspect of the rig, crew and all the other details that can make or break a gig, examining them over and over again to make sure nothing is missed. Or maybe when you travel with the same act for a while you just naturally get used to a specific way of doing things. Or maybe it's both. Whatever. But I had a gig recently that made me think about what we think about.
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We live in a media saturated environment, where we are constantly receiving and processing excessive amounts of information, which we then file and store away in the recesses of our overworked and over-stimulated brains. Often we disseminate this information as verified knowledge, with, more often than not, only a partial understanding of whatever the subject might be. All of us lead busy lives, and there are only so many hours in the day that can be devoted to following up on all the information we receive in that given time. Between work, family and whatever civic duties one might have it becomes increasingly difficult to find the time for more than the headline news, and even if we find the time to actually read a paper we, more often than not, skim the headlines and give a quick read to the article before moving on to the next headline. With all the information that we are required to process, it's not surprising that we take what we need from any given article or sound bite and then spew it back out with the authority of an expert. It is also not uncommon for us to be a bit cynical about some of this information we receive due to the fact that it is often wrong.
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For those of you who do not recognize the name Howard Page, you should. His audio credits include Van Halen and Sade, as well as the design and creation of six sound consoles, including the Showco Showconsole, one of the first digital mixing desks (OK, digitally-controlled analog). In addition, Page currently serves as director of engineering for Showco, part of Clair Brothers Audio. In a career measured not in years but in decades, Page has mastered the art of the live mix, so there is little wonder why many in his native Australia refer to him as "The Legend."
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