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Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience World Tour

The audio crew, from left, include stage tech Alex Bibeau, FOH engineer Andy Meyer, crew chief Colin St-Jacques, monitor engineer Paul Klimson, monitor tech Matt Holden, system tech Étienne Lapre, P.A. tech Marc Blanchard and RF tech Éric Marchand. All photos by Sara Bill.

Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience World Tour

If there’s such a thing as a modern Renaissance man, Justin Timberlake comes pretty close to fitting the description. From his early days as a child star on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club and youngest member of heartthrob boy band *NSYNC to his more recent years as a respected actor (The Social Network, Trouble With The Curve) and Grammy Award-winning solo artist, one starts to get the distinct impression that everything he touches turns to gold. Or quadruple platinum, more likely.

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The heart of Webster Hall’s new sound system centers around its L-Acoustics KARA rig and DiGiCo consoles.

Historic Webster Hall Gets a Sonic Makeover

Webster Hall, the venerable music venue in New York City’s East Village, has been many things to many people over the years. Starting in the late 19th century as a hub for bohemians, artists and anarchists, it became a hangout for hoodlums during Prohibition, including a purported ownership stint by Al Capone himself. During the 1950s, the facility did a turn as Webster Hall Studios, operating as RCA’s East Coast recording studio, where Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and countless other icons recorded albums on the Grand Ballroom stage.

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A vintage ad touting the Unidyne 55’s cardioid feature.

Shure: 1925 to 2015, and Beyond

90 Years of Innovation in Technology

This year, Shure marks a significant milestone, celebrating 90 years since founder Sidney N. Shure began the Shure Radio Company on April 25, 1925. Certainly in the years since that day, Shure has developed into a world leader in technology — and covering it all could consume an entire library, so we’ll focus on a few key products that helped shape the development of the sound reinforcement industry today. But first, a little history…

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A highlight of the special Christmas performance was an appearance by the Muppets — and plenty of inputs for all, including the 360-voice choir, orchestra soloists and special performers. Photos by Edgar Thompson

LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City Gets Major Digital Upgrade

Every year, the Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter-day Saints present a Christmas show with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra at Temple Square and Bells on Temple Square. The event takes place over three evenings at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. This year’s series of shows included special guest Santino Fontana, the Sesame Street Muppets and also myself. Of course, I wasn’t in the show, but I had an amazing time watching and listening to this incredible event.

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The elements of the human ear — a series of complex components that define and enable exactly how we perceive sounds.

Mixing With Your Brain

Psychoacoustics and the Mix Process

Our brains are adept at ignoring enormous swaths of visual and auditory information as we process the world. We are so used to this pre-processing that it likely rarely occurs to us that we are missing anything. And yet we are great at ignoring many acoustic problems. Reflections, comb filters, level differences, etc. are smoothed over by our brains.

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The DMSTetrad Vocal Set includes a D5 mic transmitter and the rack mountable receiver

AKG DMSTetrad Digital Wireless

During last summer’s InfoComm show, AKG introduced the DMSTetrad, a four-channel 2.4 GHz digital wireless microphone system for live sound, corporate events, church and industrial installations. It is designed to be set-up quickly and be simple to use. And from a first glance at the receiver, it is indeed very streamlined looking with a knob, a volume pot and three LEDs per channel. Pretty straightforward.

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PreSonus RM16AI with large touch screen

PreSonus RM-Series Digital Mixers

About a year ago, I had a hands-on introduction to the wonders of PreSonus’ Active Integration technology when I reviewed the StudioLive 32.4.2AI digital console (FRONT of HOUSE, Nov. 2013). The system — with iPad control via the Universal Control-AI app — was one of the easiest digital console interfaces I had ever encountered. It was quite literally play and go, right from the start, quickly accessing the power of the system with hardly a need to consult the manual at all.

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Terry (TJ) Jackson

A Boost for Headphones; Tips for Wintry Weather

Live audio pros can be a resourceful lot. They’re also willing to share the cool ideas they come across so that their fellow sound reinforcement pros can benefit from solutions that can make the next gig easier, knowing that they, in turn, will be able to benefit from the ideas shared by others. We came across a number of interesting solutions recently. The first is from FOH engineer Terry “TJ” Jackson, who credits Mo-Fi powered headphones from Blue Microphones for giving him a reference point he can rely on in a variety of large venues. Separately, we listened in on the discussions Pro Audio Space (proaudiospace.com) members were having about practical solutions to the seasonal challenges posed by wintry weather conditions. Enjoy!

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In Memoriam: Jack Sondermeyer, 75

In Memoriam: Jack Sondermeyer, 75

MERIDIAN, MS — Peavey Electronics announced that Jack Sondermeyer, the company’s chief engineer for 29 years, died Jan. 4 at the age of 75. Describing Sondermeyer as “a brilliant and gifted analog design engineer,” company founder and CEO Hartley Peavey noted that Sondermeyer had more than 30 patents to his credit and was well-respected in the engineering community.

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Downtime Projects

As I write this, 2014 is coming to a close and I am slowly but steadily re-acclimating to life off the road. This long but extremely rewarding touring year extended all the way to Christmas, concluding with a long flight home from Moscow on Dec. 23. On that same day, my son drove down from Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, CA, and completed our holiday family reunion. Usually, I go through a “Don’t talk to me!” phase for a couple of days upon returning from a tour, but this year’s travel schedule thrust me straight into holiday cheer. Thankfully, we had a very laid back, simple celebration with friends and family coming to our house, allowing both my readjustment from road mentality and recovery from jet lag to be gentle, pleasant experiences.

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