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Jon Martin

Jon Martin

It is somehow appropriate that my first contact with Jon Martin came, not at a show, but online. When we first opened ProAudioSpace a couple of months ago, Jon was one of the first to join and was the first of what we hope will be many-a-sound-dude-or-chick to at least take a stab at blogging a tour. In fact this is a real cyber-interview. I went to the show, met Jon and we chatted some during the show. After, he went to work tearing down, I went home and we did the interview via messages on ProAudioSpace. Pretty Jetsons, eh?

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Goin’ To A Go Go…

Music fans around the world would be hard pressed to name a venue that’s had the history that the Whisky a Go Go has had since its opening on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in 1964. Indeed, the famed club has hosted a virtual who’s who of rock and roll royalty that starts at The Byrds and The Doors in the 1960s, runs through The Kinks and The Who and continues with such bands as Roxy Music, Nirvana, Soundgarden and The Police.

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Allen & Heath ZED R16

When I first saw the ZED R16 last year, I initially wrote it off for the FOH audience. A 16-channel recording mixer did not seem like an FOH product. But I took a second look and am glad I did. This is one instance where things are not all that they appear on the surface.

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Earthworks PM40 PianoMic System

Accurately miking an acoustic piano and doing it consistently is one of the eternal challenges of live audio (and recording for what that’s worth). Over the past year plus, FOH has covered at least a handful of approaches at prices ranging from downright cheap (the Helpenstill pickup system) to compromise (standard miking coupled with control of a MIDI piano module for John Legend) to proprietary and expensive (Tom Young’s Scheops array that he carries with him for every Tony Bennett gig).

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“Raindrops Keep Falling On My Gear…”

This time every year, the summer outdoor gig season becomes upon us, and our attention is distracted by the “extra” things we have to drag along to do outdoor gigs. For the new local sound companies who have been used to club and hotel indoor gigs, all it takes is one or two nightmare outdoor gigs before lessons are learned.

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Backup Non-Singers

There is a National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, held each year, and my company got the contract for the “Blues/Rock” venue for a few years. This was quite a challenging venue, takes about a 1000 PAX with a squeeze, and with the best of South African bands showing their stuff over a 10-day period. A band, whose name I won’t mention, requested a DAT recorder/player on their rider. DAT at the time were just starting to make inroads.

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Going Pro

If you are a regular reader of this column you know that I pretty much direct its contents to those of you who volunteer as sound technicians. However, I don’t volunteer my sound services very often.  It’s not that I am a hypocrite, it’s just that installing and mixing sound is what I do for a living. That brings me to this month’s installment of Sound Sanctuary. I want to talk to those of you who operate in the live worship sound industry for financial gain, or would like to, full or part time.

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Get on the Bus

What you are about to read may contain content that is distasteful to some people therefore, if you are one of those people, please cover your eyes when you get to the offensive parts.

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