MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – ADLIB Audio & Lighting supplied equipment for the high-profile Versus Cancer show at Manchester Evening News Arena. The lineup included nine leading artists including The Enemy, The Fratellis, Happy Mondays, Fun Loving Criminals, Athlete, The View, Inspiral Carpets, The Farm and the XFM winners All Bar 3.
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The stampede of artists moving from screaming wedges to “personal” monitors has changed many of the rules. (Before we go any further and in case you missed it the last 100 times we have explained: Yes, most of us refer to this kind of gear as “ears” or “in-ears” when we’re doing a gig or talking about gear. But both of those terms are trademarked and can only be used officially when referring to the products made by the company that holds the trademark. Hence our compromise term “personal monitors.”)
Our goal here is not to list every piece of gear used when mixing personal monitors. Rather, it is to look at some of the peripheral stuff that makes using them easier. So, you will find no info on earpieces — neither universal, custom-fit — or wireless rigs. Honestly, that is a fight I would rather stay out of, but here is a look at some of the other tools we have found valuable on the gig.
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I was contacted by a regional electronic music festival to handle their main stage — they needed someone who could mix esoteric/eclectic "bands" with bizarre instrumentation based around DJs. We've done lighting for the gig and I was looking forward to the experience… until the festival called and told me that they had booked racks 'n' stacks already and just needed me to bring "the rest.”
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BUSINESS
Who: Robert Scovill, market manager for Digidesign’s Live Sound Products.
What: Manufacturer of Pro Tools software and hardware; ICON control surfaces; and the VENUE Live Sound Environment.
Where: Daly City, Calif.
When: Founded in 1984.
Current clients include: Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Radiohead ¬— “too many to list!” — are all users of VENUE technology.
Recent company highlight: The release of the new I/O product called Mix Rack.
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In Soldering 101 last fall, I went through the basics of tools, tips and technique on getting good soldering skills. In this soldering 102 session, I still want to keep it basic, but show more examples and commonly encountered soldering tasks.
Read More »Hello my friends. As I go through my daily work with houses of worship, I am always looking for something meaningful and helpful to write about. My recent experiences with a couple of churches may appear to be unique individually, but I think the theme has much wider implications. Let’s talk about “discovering” the sound level that is acceptable to a particular house of worship.
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Community Loudspeakers is an under-sung hero of the live sound world compared to other brands. Even though Community’s Bruce Howze and staff have lent many innovative features to install and portable speakers, too, many people forget about the advances they have brought us over the years. It’s nice to root for an industry “underdog” when they bring forth a new series of speakers.
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The Gear
Built in Mount Juliet, Tenn., LiveWires personal monitors feature dual-balanced armatures (tweeter/woofer), a published frequency response range of 20 Hz to 18 kHz and a sensitivity of ~126 dB/mw at 1 kHz. Depending on the accuracy of the impressions, the isolation range is between 25 and 28 dB with distortion less than 0.3%. They also feature a gold-plated swivel connection on each ear bud and a 1/8th connector for the belt pack. This is all packaged into a sturdy carrying case with a cleaning tool included.
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Bruce Sandler went to Hawaii on vacation. He’s still there 15 years later…
Saying that Bruce Sandler’s life changed when he landed in Hawaii for a vacation 15 years ago is a bit of an understatement. After about a week on the islands, Sandler decided to head back to his Indianapolis home, pack his bags and road cases and head back to the 50th state.
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If sound for video games is the new film sound, mixing games live takes FOH someplace it’s never been before
Part rock concert, part “Let’s Make A Deal” live, part religious experience, Video Games Live is a 135-minute-long amalgamation of the scores and songs from popular video games performed by an orchestra and a choir and set to both preprogrammed and random game playing on a massive video screen. Perhaps the best analogy would be Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show of the late 19th century, which sought to recreate the environment of the frontier west as a traveling circus.
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No, we didn’t change our name to MON magazine, but this month we recognize the art of monitor mixing.
The OTHER end of the snake: A place so foreign to most of us FOH personnel that just the very thought of going there makes us shudder with anticipation of horrible-yelling rock stars in a relentless barrage of insults and abuse. In fact, as a FOH engineer, the closest I ever want to get to that world is to check mic placement on stage.
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Getting the audio under control at Glendale, Ariz.’s Jobbing.com Arena
So, Neil Rosenbaum hears the phone ringing in his office one day last August and his boss is on the other side. The Jobbing.com Arena production manager picks up to hear the order to completely revamp the audio system. Good news. Bad news? It’s got to be done by Oct. 4 when the arena’s prime occupant, the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL, opens its season.
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