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Cruisin with Jonny B

Cruisin with Jonny B

From Bass Player to Soundco Owner — Growing Up Without Growing Old

Hundreds of bar bands around the States are looking for a few things — a singer that can captivate an audience, a guitar player who can play quieter than 110 dB and a rhythm section that can hold the whole thing together. Jon McDowell, known to his friends around Rockford, Ill., as Jonny B, could help with the rhythm section bit, since he’s been playing bass in local bands for over a decade. The fact that he also owned a set of mains and a lighting rig when he joined his first band was a bonus.

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Bikes, Bands and Buffalo Chip

Sure Sound and Light powers Sturgis Rally’s “best party anywhere”

Take one of the longest running fan club gatherings in history, an estimated 500,000 folk riding gleaming hogs around thousands of square miles of the Black Hills in South Dakota, the city of Sturgis — usual population 6,000 — and a huge natural amphitheatre, hosting some of the biggest rock’n’roll bands on the planet, and you have a true North American phenomenon. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the legendary Buffalo Chip, for 27 years the rockin’ heart of Sturgis Rally, and the campground where aficionados of the Black Hills Motor Classic come to party. For two weeks every year, it becomes the state’s third largest city.

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2007 Parnelli Ballot

Below are the nominees for the 7th Annual Parnelli Awards. Cast your vote to honor those individuals and companies who have
done outstanding work in the past year. Voting for the Parnelli Awards is limited to subscribers
of Projection, Lights & Staging News and Front of House. To cast your vote, go to www.parnelliawards.com/vote

To ensure only one vote per person, you much input the subscription code from your address label. (See Web site for details.)

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AES Preview

Or is it PLASA in review? With the big Euro show and the most significant U.S. audio show just weeks apart, it is hard to really tell. Some of this stuff was introduced in September in London, and you are sure to see all of it in New York in October. Now, if there were only an actual show that actually focused on live event production — especially the audio side — all would be right with the world. Meanwhile, here are some new goodies…

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We Want Our Own P.A.

Smashing Pumpkins Install Their System into the Legendary Fillmore Auditorium for an Extended Run

As one of the most legendary venues in the land, The Fillmore in San Francisco has hosted many of yesterday and today’s music legends. Pick your era, pick its definitive band and the odds are they have performed on the hall’s hallowed stage. So, it made perfect sense for the Smashing Pumpkins to reintroduce themselves to fans during an 11-night run at The Fillmore.

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Rich Morris, Lance Longley

Rich Morris
Owner
Soundguy Productions
Portland, OR
www.prosoundguy.com
503.998.5420
[email protected]

Services Provided:
Live sound reinforcement, installs, consulting, diagnostics, recording

Clients:
PG&E Park; Outlaws Bar & Grill; Mambo Lounge; City of West Linn; Pacific Northwest Church of God; Cascade Blues Association; Best of the Best Music; Latin Expressions; Debris; Brace the Fall; Shunt and many, many more…

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AES: Let The Feeding Frenzy Begin…

The AES convention is the feeding frenzy of the audio world. Like sharks to chum, audiophiles from the world over descend upon the caucus and devour the newest, the latest and the yet-to-come of the best that audio manufacturers can offer. It is a feeding frenzy catering to the most basic needs of any gear-head. As exhilarating as it is overwhelming in its enormity, the experience of AES truly has the feel of a school of sharks gorging themselves on the massive body of a whale until they are overly satiated by their own gluttony and can do nothing but float belly-up in a stupor. Each year seems to bring more vendors, newer products and, in short, more bells and whistles. While many products are just the same old offerings in a new package, there are always the new designs, add-ons and plug-ins that make the convention exciting and worthwhile. 

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Montreux Jazz Festival

For 41 years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has been drawing a phenomenal array of artists from all corners of the world and all over the musical map. For nearly three weeks every summer, the festival presents a diverse roster of musicians spanning jazz, rock, blues, world beat and more. With two main halls and several smaller stages, the logistics of staging a festival of this magnitude are challenging. FOH spoke with several visiting engineers, as well as the festival’s sound coordinator Pierre-André Aebischer of Niveau2, the soundco for the festival, to get a sense of what it takes to put the show together every year.

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A Long Time Ago, On a Channel Strip Far, Far Away

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Hertz, a small duchy in the southwest corner of the Land of Ohm, a rebellion was brewing among the foot sol-diers who made the kingdom’s many events sound excellent. These foot soldiers once were seen as the equal of the kingdom’s high priests, as their knowledge and expertise allowed them to make even the rattiest of sound systems sing like a choir of angels. But they had recently seen their status in the kingdom drop precipitously as some in positions of power in the kingdom began to suggest that they could be replaced by a new magic called digital technology.

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FOH Hometown Heroes

Peers Honor Six Who Stand Out in Their Region

Despite their different zip codes, backgrounds and equipment preferences, every one of these six sound companies quickly jumped to the same ex-planation when asked about what makes them successful: It’s the people they hire.

“We invest in people,” Bobby Brantley says emphatically. “I say this again and again, you can have the best gear out there, but if you don’t have the right people behind the gear, you’re starting with one hand behind your back.”

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Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Yeah, it’s a cheesy headline, what can I tell ya? Like so many other choices we make in life, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  So, it is actually official. FOH has made it through five years. Pretty amazing. I know there are a few folks out there who lost money on this particular bet.

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Avlex On Stage During Santa-Cali-Gon Days

INDEPENDENCE, MO — Attracting upward of 250,000 people, this year’s Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival featured live music performances distributed across three stages and included appearances by artists Mark Chesnutt, the Bellamy Brothers, and others. A Crest Audio Century GTX 40-channel, eight-bus console handled mixing tasks. Wireless microphone systems included MIPRO ACT-707D UHF receivers used with MIPRO ACT-707H condenser handheld transmitters as well as MIPRO MR-212 VHF true diversity receivers along with MIPRO MH-202 dynamic handheld transmitters. For monitoring, MIPRO MI-808 wireless personal systems were used.

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