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DiGiCo SD8

DiGiCo SD8

DiGiCo launches the next product in the SD Series, the SD8. The SD8 has a fixed architecture and employs a smaller Super FPGA than the SD7, but contains the same features and versatility of the DiGiCo D Series, the company says. The SD8 incorporates Stealth Digital Processing, based on the single Super FPGA and combined with Analogue Devices Tiger SHARCS, to bring you the Tiger SHARC FX engine. This is designed to provide audio quality, precision and processing power with a range of built-in effects, reverbs, dynamics, output matrix and more.

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Pat Benatar Tour Engineers Choose Yamaha

BUENA PARK, Calif. — Long Island-raised signer/songwriter, certified rock ‘n’ roll superstar and four-time Grammy winner Pat Benatar embarked on her first live concert tour in more than two years this summer, and both engineers chose Yamaha consoles for front-of-house and monitors.
 

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Headset and Lavalier Mics

Shure Incorporated Beta 54

I still consider it the day I went from "band guy who owns a PA" to "fledgling anklebiter sound guy." It was an outdoor festival. Two days. Probably a dozen acts total with canned music in between. I had my small collection of typical rock ‘n’ roll mics and — with the addition of a few more lent by friends — I thought I was set. Things went well until the second day when I discovered that my next act was a magician hired to entertain the kids, and he was pretty pissed that I didn’t have a headset or lav for him.

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Color Codes

Color-coding of cabling, road cases, speakers, etc. is one of those “how do you know that?” questions I get all the time. In all honesty, I have to blame my eighth grade industrial arts teacher (in electronics shop) for the lifelong passion into all my esoteric electronics knowledge. But, of course, it was 1974, and my first project was a one-tube AM radio. I remember a lot of both the good and bad habits of electronics from that class; bad things like how to toss molten solder from the iron-tip toward other classmates, and good things like the color code.

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Mixing Sound God’s Way

Since I have been writing Sound Sanctuary, I have spent a lot of time in houses of worship, mixing live sound, installing sound systems, tuning up systems and interacting with the people that operate and volunteer at worship houses. The one theme that seems to be common among the different houses that I have visited is the lack of volunteer training.

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Spectr Audio SPX 1534s, SPX218T Subs and AP28s

SPX 1534 over a SPX 218T sub

I have this one annual gig in the LA area that I should really give up. But I like the people, and the nature of the event lends itself to trying new gear, so it is a great Road Test opportunity. In fact, in the five years I have been doing the gig I don’t think we have used the same speaker system once. This year, the boys at Spectr Audio got the call. After going back and forth a few times on the requirements of the gig, we agreed on a configuration.

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Electro-Voice PL Series Mics

Electro-Voice PL Series Mics

Electro-Voice has revived the PL series of pro audio microphones, and brought forth a promising crop of both vocal and instrument microphones that are value priced, but professional in performance. The PL Series is currently on the road with STAIND, Finger Eleven and ZZ Top (on drums). The mics have also proved roadworthy on this summer's Vans Warped Tour. With three-year warranties, EV is making a promise that the quality is worthy for road usage. I received one of each model for this road test review.

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Crown Macro-Tech i Series Amplifiers

Crown Macro-Tech i Series

If you think Crown would gracefully sunset the popular Macro-Tech line of tour-grade audio power amplifiers, well you are in for a surprise. The new Macro-Tech i Series provides a decent series life extension by keeping the front-panel look and feel, while sneaking in some of the same technology from the I-Tech series amplifiers. One could spend a lot of time comparing the I-Tech with the Macro-Tech i, but the little time I spent on this tells me there are both similarities and differences.

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Sound on Stage

Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco

“Somebody had to figure out the microphone thing. So that was the first thing I did.”

Jerry Pfeffer got into the PA business while playing in his first band. He was in grammar school. “Somebody had to figure out the microphone thing,” he recalls with a laugh. “So that was the first thing I did.” A handful of years later, Pfeffer was working at a hi-fi store in San Francisco when the phone rang and somebody needed a PA system. The owner let him borrow the van and he loaded up a couple of speakers with a handful of microphones. “It’s been one of those things where it’s one job to another to another,” he says of his company’s growth, “until it’s got to this point. It’s a little crazy now.”

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A Symbol of the Future

Crew

MGM Grand and Foxwoods Resort Casino join forces to build a new entertainment venue.

The symbol of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is a reflection of the past. A tree perched on a rocky knoll and framed against a clear sky represents Mashantucket, the “much wooded land” where the people hunted and prospered. A statue of a fox stands as a vigilant reminder of the turbulent times when the Pequots adopted the name that still remains today, the “Fox People.”

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