Over the years, headworn microphones have become significantly more improved, with better performance from smaller, near-invisible packages. So last year, when Audio-Technica debuted its BP894 MicroSet — a design that takes a completely new approach to headworn microphones, I was intrigued about its performance — and sound.
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I’m one of those types who likes to avoid wireless if at all possible and I usually shake my head wondering why when a client or artist insists on using an RF mic when they never wander more than about five feet in any direction. So last year when Alto Professional announced its Stealth Wireless speaker system, I initially wasn’t too impressed. In most portable sound systems, adding another component (and level of complexity) just to replace 25 feet of cable feeds from a stagebox or snake to the mains just didn’t seem worth the extra effort.
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In last month’s column, I expressed the opinion that the greatest challenge in making a digital console platform change is coming to terms with the data legacy of one’s digital history. Saved within the Avid VENUE platform, I have compiled and stored seven years of complete console data from several tours with James Taylor, Mariah Carey, Joe Walsh, Cher, Bette Midler and Five For Fighting. Among these archives are extensive input/output patches, complete channel libraries, EQ libraries, and individual libraries for an extensive number of Waves, TC Electronic, Trillium Labs and Avid/Digidesign plug-ins. I have repeatedly employed this store of information contained in these libraries to quickly and easily construct shows for varying band formats or random one-offs with entirely different bands. Having this dense repository of information literally at my fingertips is a luxury to which I have grown rather accustomed.
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We never needed the word “analog” until digital came along. In the technologically antediluvian universe of pre-zeroes-and-ones, analog, like God, simply was, with no reason to have to somehow quantify it. Similarly, when Thomas Edison came along with his new-fangled recording machine, we then had to adapt our understanding of the word “live.” Before you could record it, music, of course, was always performed live. Edison’s invention led us to the irony of the “live” album, which had its heyday in the 1970s, as well as endless variations meant to fool not our frontal lobes but rather our limbic cores with phrases like “recorded before a live studio audience!” Is it live or is it Memorex? After a while, we seemed to stop really giving a damn.
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Last month, we began discussing ideas on how to get a great electric bass sound onstage. If you missed it, you can check it out here: fohonline.me/1laHdMc. We examined how the sound of an electric bass can be seriously influenced by the phase relationship between the DI and the bass amp, and we looked at possible solutions.
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A few years ago, I installed a really nice sound system in a church located in the South Bay area of Southern California. The church had been damaged by a fire 12 months earlier and they were having Wednesday and Sunday services in a large tent that had been set up in the church parking lot. A local audio company supplied the sound and lighting for the services. You may be wondering where I am going with this story, but read on. Anyway, the audio company was charging the church $2,000 a week to rent and operate the sound and lighting system.
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It’s been a long winter, but spring is just about here and hopefully it signifies an end to the bad weather and the beginning of a beautiful summer touring season. All the road dogs who recently submitted resumes to me looking for off-season work are now mostly unavailable when I call. The bus has left the dock, and audio is on the move! Once again, the musical caravan is carving a path through the clubs, sheds, theaters and summer festivals on this continent and across the globe. Regional audio companies will be getting calls to fill venues with sound for concerts and corporate events, and local television stations will require assistance with band appearances as they promote the show du jour when the tour comes to town. For a month or so, high schools and colleges will be having their graduation ceremonies and — in association with their formals and proms — there should be a good amount of work for local audio companies and audio technicians.
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VANCOUVER – Catering to both live and online audiences, the annual TED Conference requires gear that matches its prestige. To meet those needs, the McCune Audio team once again turned to DPA Microphones’ classic 4088 Directional Headset Microphones and d:screet 4060 Omnidirectional Microphone.
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OXFORD, U.K. – Solid State Logic named Dr. Enrique Perez Gonzalez chief technology officer for the company’s board of directors. Dr. Perez, who joined SSL in 2011 and had been serving as head of R&D, became a board member as of April 1.
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CLEVELAND – As the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, embarks on its latest tour, co-sound designers David Patridge and John Shivers teamed up with Masque Sound to develop a sound system that would not only fill a variety of venues with great sound, the system needed to be easily portable and capable of fitting into the truck. The L-Acoustics dV-DOSC system is driven by a Yamaha CL5 mixing console at FOH.
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WUPPERTAL, Germany — Riedel Communications, a leading provider of real-time video, audio, data, and communications networks, today announced that Daniel Huard, who previously served as the company’s sales manager for Canada, has taken on a larger role that includes oversight of the Northeast U.S. In this new capacity, Huard will work closely with key Riedel clients including broadcast networks in New York, as well as ESPN in Connecticut.
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LUTON, U.K. — Cadac named Paul Morini general manager of Cadac USA. Morini, who is based in New York, joins Cadac from Music Group, where he was customer service manager for Midas and Klark Teknik for the U.S. and Canada. He will help establish the company’s office and sales representative network for the U.S. and Canada, mirroring the recently announced initiative in the U.K. and Ireland.
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