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Using Digital Effects Processors

Using Digital Effects Processors

While it is much lower in the procurement priority list, procuring and using digital effects processors is still something that requires a bit of thought. For professionals, choosing the right effects processor is more than the strength of the preset list or the user interface; it is a long-term investment and a gamble that the effects purchased will continue to be popular for many years of touring usage. Take the ubiquitous Yamaha SPX-90 effects processor; while very technically obsolete, it is still found today in many club installs, and the outboard racks of many regional and touring soundcos. Ditto for the Lexicon PCM-81, Roland SDE-1000, TC Electronic 2090 and Yamaha SPX-990.

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Wings of Desire

This month, we go way Off-Broadway to the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and their co-production with Toneelgroep Amsterdam of Wings of Desire, a play based upon the famous Wim Wenders film about an angel (Damiel) who seeks to become human so that he can spend his life with a beautiful trapeze artist (Marion). The show uses a lot of sound, from an audio montage of the inner thoughts of citizens to an occasionally noisy two-piece group (guitar, bass, vocals), to help recreate the world of the epic film, and trapeze artist Mam Smith elegantly performs with silks to poetic effect.

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Parallel Universes

"Sector overlap" is the somewhat clinical term for what happens when technology creates a convergence between areas of expertise. For instance, going back a few decades for a more dramatic instance, what happened when you converged a pilot and a physicist is you got an astronaut.

An area of nascent convergence at the moment is in the domains of live event audio and fixed installation media. The taxonomy would seem to place them on one side of the aisle or the other: live sound moves around a lot and installed sound doesn't. But definitions can be deceiving. In fact, the overlap between the skill sets, both technical and business, in live touring sound and installed sound have more in common now than a decade ago, and in the process have actually diverged from music recording.

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HK Audio Powers Sugababes

LONDON — The Sugababes recently played at the 100 Club in London's Oxford Street, and Concert Sound (Luton), the show's equipment organizer, chose HK Audio's ConTour Array, brought in from London-based ConTour users, Euroscope TV and Picture It Facilities Ltd. FOH engineer was Chris Madden.

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Digidesign Appoints Ritland Worldwide Public Relations Manager

DALY CITY, CA — Digidesign has announced the appointment of Kyle Ritland to the position of worldwide public relations manager, in which role he will be responsible for leading artist relations and public relations efforts across all Digidesign product lines and market segments, including home and project studio, professional recording and mixing for post and music, and live sound products.

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Sennheiser GmbH Electronic Restructures

OLD LYME, CT — Sennheiser Electronic GmbH has restructured their corporate leadership, with a number of employees shifting positions within the company. The shareholders of Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co KG have decided to separate with Rolf Meyer, president marketing and sales and speaker of the executive committee with immediate effect.

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SLS Loudspeakers to Support IAJE Conference

NEW YORK — SLS Loudspeakers will provide the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) with a sound solution in audio support during the organization's 34th Annual Conference, to be held at the Hilton and Sheraton New York Hotels between January 10th and January 13th. This year's four-day show, celebrating jazz, will be outfitted with an SLS line-up composed of 52 SLS RLA/2s, 48 SLS RLA/3s, 10 SLS FF2605s and several SLS LSB8115 subwoofers.

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Harman Pro Group Creates Strategic Marketing Position, Appoints Michael MacDonald Executive VP, Mark

NORTHRIDGE, CA — The Harman Pro Group has announced the creation of a new strategic marketing position focused on integrated systems and coordinated multi-brand communications. According to Blake Augsburger, president of Harman Pro Group, Michael MacDonald has rejoined the company to assume the newly created position of executive vice president, marketing, based at the Group's Northridge, Calif. headquarters.

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Crawford, Sample Touring Europe with Alcons Line-Arrays

ZWAAG, THE NETHERLANDS — For the promotion of their latest album Feelin' Good, jazz artists Joe Sample (piano) and Randy Crawford (vocals) have been touring through Europe, accompanied by Joe's son Nick on (contra-) bass and Johnny Vidacovich on drums, reinforced by Alcons pro-ribbon line-arrays.

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Peavey Crowns Singing Champ During 'Afterschool' Rally

MERIDIAN, MS — American Idol's Bo Bice visited Peavey on November 28, 2006, as a celebrity judge in the Peavey "Afterschool (Not) Idle" K-12 singing competition finals, the centerpiece event of Lights On Afterschool. Bice addressed the afterschool-program kids, media and state leaders after helping crown Marisa Potate the winner of $1000 in Peavey gear and studio time with backing musicians.

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