BEIJING — Few sports test an Olympic athlete the same way that cycling does. It requires maximum strength and endurance for the cyclist to perform at the highest level. At the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, cyclists are competing in the new Laoshan Velodrome, whose sound system is only matched in excellence by the Olympians themselves.
Read More »SAN FRANCISCO — At San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the first Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival will treat a record audience to more than 60 bands, including headliners Radiohead, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Jack Johnson. Outside Lands urges attendees to think and act on climate change by featuring the Eco Lands interactive conservation program, a solar-powered stage, an organic farmers’ market and plenty of educational opportunities. Meyer Sound has signed on as the festival’s official Audio Systems Partner, providing its award-winning sound reinforcement equipment in collaboration with its dealer, Hercules, Calif.-based Pro Media/UltraSound.
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BUENA PARK, Calif. — Kool & The Gang's story starts in the Jersey City, N.J. projects. They were teenagers, studying Miles Davis albums and James Brown singles while jamming in basements. In 1969, they made their first record. Still teenagers, and full of confidence, they named that first record after themselves. Their confidence and creativity produced a string of loose-but-tight records, culminating in the Pop Chart smash Jungle Boogie. Kool & The Gang found a special sound at the unique intersection of jazz, r&b, funk and pop. The group’s current monitor sound, and for the past seven years, can be attributed to Alfred ‘AL-Tee’ Williams who for the past four years has been using a Yamaha PM5D digital audio console.
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NHA TRANG, VIETNAM — Eighty contestants competed this year at the Diamond Bay Resort's Crown Convention Center in the 57th Miss Universe beauty pageant. Broadcast globally on NBC, the event was the first major U.S.-based television production originating in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War. Bringing audio to the event proved to be a logistical challenge managed adroitly by Red Hook, N.Y.-based Firehouse Productions Inc., which assembled the components needed for an entire PA in the U.S. and then shipped them to Vietnam with the aid of Rock-it Cargo USA. Purchased outright for permanent installation by the convention center, the system included a microphone package delivered from Shure Incorporated’s world headquarters in Niles, Ill.
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When people ask me what part of the live event audio world has changed the most in the past three to five years, they probably expect an answer like digital consoles or line arrays. Most would probably be surprised that my answer would be — hands down — personal monitors. They have come a long way since Marty Garcia used some Sony earbuds and denture cream for Todd Rundgren.
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I don't like taking parties or bar gigs, but sometimes you have to pay the bills, right? So there I was loading gear into the back of my Toyota Prius. We were loading for a venue that did not provide parking, and a rooftop gig meant a very small amount of gear. Of course, I was reassured there was an elevator. Fortunately, years of experience told me to look at this venue the night before, which by the way was just about an hour after I got the call to do the gig. Yup, no elevator!
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BUSINESS
Who: Tony Marra, owner/founder of Thermal Relief Design, Inc.
Where: “Vegas, Baby!”
When: “I started the company with my wife, Lori, as TLM Electronics in 1987 in Pleasantville, N.Y. When we moved to Las Vegas in 1996 I changed the name to Thermal Relief Design.”
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Zeroing out a console — the methodical process of bringing all the live audio mixing console knobs, faders and switches to a benign state of usage. This way the future engineer using the console will not have to be observant of every last detail before connecting the system to the console and fear immediate mayhem. But zeroing out a console is more than a courtesy after the gig; it should also be a practice before the gig.
Read More »Over the last two months, we have spent time exploring the variety of microphones and the importance of having your ears as sharp as possible. This month, I would like to talk about basic stage setups and EQ scenarios. I know a lot of you have a basic idea of how to make your pastor, choir or worship band sound good. However, some of you don't, and we can always use a little tune-up, especially me. So, here we go.
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OK, so I have come into the digital age in a lot of ways. I own four digital consoles and I use Reason in my studio. While I am plenty comfortable with plug-ins, there are still times when I just want a piece of hardware — a box with knobs that responds exactly how I expect without having to think about it. Waves is best known for their plug-ins. It you are a Pro Tools guy or mixing on a Venue system, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you have at least one of them in your arsenal. But what a lot of people don’t know is that they make some pretty nice hardware as well.
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We first saw the Peavey Versarray system almost two years ago, and have been trying to work out a road test ever since. As we have done with larger pieces of gear (including other line arrays) in the past, instead of having Peavey send out a rig for us to use on a gig, we went to a gig that had the system already on it and worked the show. In this case, that meant hooking up with Dave Albro, who is doing FOH and associated duties for the VIP events surrounding the current Tim McGraw tour. Most of the stops on the tour feature “side” events including local and regional acts, plus a VIP-only acoustic show by McGraw prior to the actual arena show, which is a Clair deal.
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Whether you are mixing in a club, at a house of worship or almost any venue for that matter — what is the age-old problem? The stage is too loud, right? You tell the drummer to play softer and he complains. You tell the bass player to turn down and he says he can’t feel it anymore. You tell the guitar player to turn down and he says that now he doesn’t have good tone. Being a guitar player turned sound guy, I can’t say that I disagree with him. If you can’t turn the amp up, it’s hard to make it sound the way you want to. But as an engineer, especially in a house of worship, I want to kick the speakers out of the amp and throw it away.
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