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DPA Microphones Teams Up With Pearl Drums for Dennis Chambers’ Solo Performance at NAMM 2016

Dennis Chambers Pearl NAMM

DPA Microphones Teams Up With Pearl Drums for Dennis Chambers’ Solo Performance at NAMM 2016

ANAHEIM, CA – Renowned drummer Dennis Chambers used a combination of DPA microphones on his Pearl drum kit during his solo performance at the Pearl booth at NAMM 2016. Chambers had d:vote 4099D Instrument Microphones on all the toms, one d:dicate 4018F Supercardiod Microphone on the large suspended kick drum, and d:dicate 2011C Cardiod Microphones on the kick drum, snare drum and high hats.

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Kirk (Eek) Shreiner FOH Engineer Carrie Underwood

Clair Global Takes Delivery of First Two Yamaha Rivage PM10 Consoles to Arrive in U.S.

LITITZ, PA — Clair Global has taken delivery of the first two Yamaha Rivage PM10 Digital Audio Consoles to hit U.S. soil, according to Yamaha Commercial Audio. Both consoles are currently being used at front of house and monitors for Carrie Underwood’s “The Storyteller Tour.” Front of House engineer Kirk “Eek” Schreiner, pictured here, praised the console’s sound quality. “The Yamaha PM10 is the first digital desk that sounds analog to me,” he said.

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FRONT of HOUSE magazine editor George Petersen

Nashville: After the Flood

It is nearly six years since early May of 2010, when torrential rains and flooding struck Tennessee, parts of Kentucky and northern Mississippi, leaving a horrific swath of death and destruction in its wake. And Nashville was far from immune to the effects of the storm, with major damage to the city and surrounding areas. But especially hard hit were those along the Cumberland River, which crested at nearly 52 feet, creating a nightmare for companies like Soundcheck and the many music and touring businesses housed there. Also affected with serious damage were the Gaylord Opryland Resort, Opry Mills, Bridgestone Arena, LP Field, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Grand Ole Opry House itself. But Nashvillians are a close-knit community and pull together in times of need. So other venues — notably the Ryman Auditorium and the War Memorial Auditorium (ironically, both former homes of the Opry) — pitched in to host Opry performances during the few months while the Grand Ole Opry itself was refurbished and repaired.

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NAMM 2016 Show Report. Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images

Product Hits of the 2016 NAMM Show

From January 21 to 24, the 2016 Winter NAMM Show welcomed a record number of exhibitors and registrants to Anaheim, CA. And while entire sections of the rest of the country were snarled in blizzards and ice storms, the sunny skies of Anaheim shone on, as a record 1,726 exhibiting companies (including 409 new exhibitors) brought the entrepreneurial spirit to life. Meanwhile, this year’s NAMM netted 101,736 registrants — a 2 percent increase over last year’s record-setting event.

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Marathon Music Works

New Music City Venues

Nashville’s not just where tours start anymore. It’s become a major performance destination.

Nashville has become the main hub of music touring in the U.S. The metro area offers everything from the lights and the LD and the sound systems and the system techs to the buses and the drivers. Oh, yeah, and there are a few guitar players, too. Ironically, what it wasn’t for the longest time, was a place where touring acts came to perform. As the local weekly put it, “There was a time — and not all that long ago — when it seemed like almost every big tour or vanguard emerging artist skipped Nashville.”

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Nashville skyline

Nashville Vendor Profiles

Here’s the factoid that sums up Nashville nicely: When we started putting this sponsored section together in November, Nashville ranked 20th on the list of fastest growing cities. Today, in February, as we went to print, it rates fifth. Any one calling Nashville home there will not be surprised by this meteoric rise, pointing to the good (opportunity) and the bad (occasional L.A.-like traffic snarls). And who is living there? Why, production companies and live event personal, of course. Among the dreamers and those in our business seeking a piece of the explosive growth, plus an affordable place to live and raise a family. It’s not just country music propelling this growth – rock, metal, pop, and everything else imaginable is increasingly based or starting tours out of the Music City. In addition to that, there’s this: 70 percent of the North American population is within a 12 hour drive, making it extremely advantageous to warehouse here.

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The Raleigh First Assembly Church features an L-Acoustics rig and a Yamaha CL5 console.

Recent House of Worship Projects

The pace of technology upgrades in the house of worship market seems unstoppable. And why not, as congregations — both traditional and contemporary — take advantage of modern audio, lighting, video and broadcast systems to help spread the message. With the rise of high-energy praise bands and choirs, these days, a ‘60s Lowrey organ and a couple of well-worn Shure Vocal Master columns don’t cut it when presenting contemporary music services.

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The Experience, Lagos, Nigeria

Inspirational Speakers and Performers Draw 500,000 to Lagos, Nigeria; Live Event Heard via Outline GTO System

LAGOS, Nigeria — One of Africa’s largest concerts and religious gatherings, The Experience, is an interdenominational gospel concert and word-based gathering organized The House On The Rock Church.
The most recent event, staged Dec. 4, drew as many as a half-million people to Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. Cytech World Communication deployed an Outline audio system including 30 GTO C-12 line arrays, two GTO-DF down-fills, 16 DBS 18-2 subwoofers and four LAB 21 HS infra-low subwoofers to cover the large crowd.  The lineup of inspirational speakers and performers included Don Moen, Donnie McClurkin, Fred Hammond, Micah Stampley, Kim Burrell, Hezekiah Walker, Jessica Reedy and Sonnie Badu.

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Passion 2016 used DiGiCo consoles

Passion 2016 Makes Use of DiGiCo Consoles

ATLANTA — With the promise that “three locations will be connected across two cities with a single heartbeat,” Passion 2016 delivered worship sessions, speakers, and praise music through nine Optocore-networked DiGiCo SD7 digital audio mixing consoles at arenas in Georgia and Texas. Rat Sound networked nine SD7 consoles across three different venues for the Christian conference held Jan. 2-4 at Infinite Energy Arena and Philips Arena in Atlanta and Toyota Center in Houston.

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Nashville Rings In 2016

Nashville Does NYE Right

It’s All About the Music for 150,000 Revelers at This Year’s “Jack Daniel’s Bash on Broadway”

Nashville knows how to bring a crowd out: First of all, name it “Jack Daniel’s Bash on Broadway.” What’s not to like about any of those words? An annual event since 2009, this party keeps getting bigger and better. Making it more so is that Sound Image was brought in to handle the sound — which they accomplished by pretty much clearing out their warehouse for this end of 2015 event (188 speakers were used on the two stages) and bringing out all their top-notch crew.

 

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Fig. 1 - A fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley filter with point source drivers.

The Science Behind Feedback

Other than dead silence, feedback must be the most hated thing in professional audio. Feedback has been with us since the first microphone was placed in front of a speaker and is something every audio technician learns to manage. As long as loudspeakers are returning sound information back to presenters and performers the potential for feedback will remain. This month, we’ll define the cause of feedback, and then see how some aspects of monitor speaker design can contribute to causing feedback.

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