Change is, once again, in the air. There has been so much happening in the past month or so, and so many things in flux that I am finding it impossible to put it into any kind of coherative narrative (I know, that should be coherent, but it just sounds so much cooler the other way…), so I think the best approach this time is just to throw out a bunch of bullet-point ideas and see what makes sense in the end.
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I remember the first time I mixed sound at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. I was the engineer for a Brazilian jazz artist and The Hague in Holland was the first stop of a three-week European tour. Also, I might add, this was my maiden voyage into the world of being a touring engineer. I was enthralled to say the least, by everything and everyone around me. The atmosphere was electric, and I could think of being nowhere else as I was sure that I had arrived at my own personal nirvana. I was feeling alive and energized to be a part of an international, artistically vibrant music scene that touted a who's who in the world of jazz and blues, and I was particularly elated to be rubbing shoulders with some of the most famous and talented musicians on the planet.
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Cirque Du Soleil may like tents, but they dispense with the notion of three rings. In fact, their first arena tour (called Delirium) features a stage that cuts every venue in half so that the show is viewed from two different sides of an auditorium. It's a giant catwalk that allows performers and musicians to prowl across the expanse of an arena, and it's also a huge challenge for the sound designer, line engineer and every technical person involved.
Read More »So, is this what it means to go from anklebiter to regional guy? I mean, I have received the odd invite to industry events before, but never anything on this level. Every year, the Harman Pro Group hosts a three-day event for their dealers, select soundcos and press people where they get an in-depth look into the technology and marketing plans for Harman's current crop of gear. (For the record, the actual title was the Harman Professional 2006 Global Business and Technology Conference. Harman Camp is shorter.) And all of this just prior to the Winter NAMM show.
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It's out with the Blue and in with new as Las Vegas's Luxor Hotel bids farewell to its azure-painted performers The Blue Man Group and makes way for a brand-new draw–the hit Broadway show Hairspray. The musical turns the back the clock to 1962 when big 'dos ruled and plus-sized trend setter Tracy Turnblad just wanted to dance on a local Baltimore television show.
The show, which opened on Feb. 15, is a shortened, 90-minute reprisal of the multi- Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of the John Waters film that came out in 1988 and made actress and talk-show host Ricki Lake into an instant star.
Read More »I have such warm memories of my first audio spectrum analyzer. It was in a box the size of a small television–a tube television, that is. The screen of the analyzer was a matrix of red LEDs that turned on or off to indicate signal level at 1/3-octave frequencies across the spectrum. It worked very well and was easy to read in dark clubs, though it wasn't very useful in daylight. I guess you could say it was portable because it came with a small carrying case for transport, but it weighed about the same as I did in those days. It ran strictly on 120 volts AC and employed a separate measurement microphone that connected via XLR cable. I wonder if those warm fuzzy feelings came from the heat that thing threw off the top of the rack…
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Back in the day, Crown created a startling audio development with their pressure zone boundary microphone design. The PZM-30D was brand-new on the market. I had seen them in use at South Street Seaport–12 of them on Plexiglass plates in front of a choir standing on risers! My God, the sound was crystal clear, uncolored and beautiful! I had to have a pair for hanging on our stage. No more dangling microphones over the heads of actors! This was going to be the best!
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It was Super Bowl Sunday and the freeways of Los Angeles were surprisingly forgiving. While most citizens were settling in for a long day of chicken wings and clever commercials, I was tooling toward Ground Zero for the music industry: the Staples Center, home to the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
Despite the tranquility of downtown L.A. that morning, as I approached the Staples/ Convention Center staging area, I could literally feel the hum of activity in the hive. It was the first of three days of rehearsals, the technical shakedown before Wednesday's live broadcast of "Music's Biggest Night."
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Klark Teknik Square ONE GEQ and Dynamics
By Mark Amundson
Sporting three rack spaces and purple epoxy on the front and rear panels, the Klark Teknik Square One series of products takes the essence of KT signal processing excellence to a mid-market category of customers. I am going spoil the ending for you slightly by saying that both the Square One GEQ and eight-channel Dynamic Processor units are worthy in any application from touring outboard to garage band rehearsal rig.
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As with most installations, the one at Twin Cities Church in Grass Valley, Calif., started with an idea, continued with a plan and included a handful of adjustments along the way.
Over a three-year period, the Twin Cities ministry team worked with CCI Solutions, an Olympia, Wash.-based company that specializes in the design and implementation of audio, video and lighting systems for contemporary worship spaces. Prior to the new building project, CCI Solutions had established an ongoing business relationship with both Twin Cities Church and their architect, Gordon Rogers Associates. The first planning meetings for the new facility were held in 2002 and the final installation pieces were put into place so that the facility was ready for services in June 2005.
Read More »While this month's column is not theory, it is a whole lot of "practice" –the contractual technical description of your provided rig is an important part of winning bids. Yes, you can call contract terms part of the "biz," as most of the smaller gigs you take do not include riders and just want you to deliver the sound (and sometimes, stage lights) in a professional manner. But by describing your services in quantitative and generic ways, you connotatively express to your customer that you are all business and not over-promising a touring rig for an amateur event.
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One of the hottest tickets on Broadway is Jersey Boys, which tells the mostly-unknown behind-the-scenes story of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons; their rise from a working-class New Jersey town, where they were connected to the Mafi a, up through their staggering pop success and eventual dissolution. What's impressive are not just the dramatic performances, multiple set changes, live musicians and two-tiered stage with projections, but the quality of the lead actors' performances and their musical abilities. Audiences really buy them as the Four Seasons, and John Lloyd Young, making his Broadway debut as Frankie Valli, brings down the house every night.
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