Classical-crossover sensation Sarah Brightman’s Dreamchaser World Tour kicked off in Guangzhou, China in mid-June. Now, having just completed the Asian and North American segments of this 67-stop marathon, the show is currently playing in Central and South America, and goes back to China in January 2014, followed by the Middle East, Russia, Finland and Eastern Europe in February. It’s truly a “world” tour.
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The pro audio world is filled with clichés. On the one hand, you’ve got the “mad scientist” type who toils away at the workbench creating seemingly magical solutions. The other is the funny, gregarious marketing guy who can price a product to sell. Now what if there was someone who was both of those things? Mark Engebretson. The 2013 recipient of the Parnelli Audio Innovator Award, Engebretson is likely the most influential pro sound engineer you’ve never heard of.
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On a lazy summer Sunday in 1986, a small group of faithful gathered at Zale Library on the campus of Bishop College in Dallas, and named their group the Provisional Baptist College. By September of that same year, the group had found a pastor, a meeting place, and a new name: Antioch Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church. Nearly three decades later, Antioch Church’s congregation has swelled to multiple thousands, drawing from all parts of the Dallas metroplex, and the 80,000 square-foot facility includes a large-scale multi-purpose hall with classrooms, bookstore, a full AV production suite and a 2,800-seat sanctuary.
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Founded in 1984 by Dr. Christian Heil, L-Acoustics has long been recognized as the inventor of modern line source arrays, with its V-DOSC technology accepted as a world standard of sorts for large-scale sound systems. Now L-Acoustics previews its next generation — the K2 medium-large line array, matching the V-DOSC in performance, but at about half the weight. The company’s director of application/touring Florent Bernard and director of marketing Stéphane Ecalle, offered these insights.
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There’s no single product that’s more iconic to the live industry than the handheld vocal mic. And while condenser models have caught on in popularity over the past few years, there’s something comforting about a rugged, tough-as-nails dynamic model that night after night, can stand up to the roughest treatment — and keep on ticking. We looked for some examples in this genre and found a great selection of models that combine durability and excellent performance for any pro live sound application. Check ‘em out!
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In last month’s column, we covered the concepts behind common methods of AC power distribution, and a number of power specific terms that have specific definitions in the context of the National Electrical Code (NEC). That article was to lay the groundwork for this month’s discussion of portable power distribution in the language of the code. Readers are encouraged to reference that article, and generally re-familiarize themselves with the definitions within.
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The much-anticipated next generation of StudioLive consoles has finally arrived. The new StudioLive AI line is offered in 16-, 24- and 32-channel versions. And the numbers refer to full channels with mic preamps — there’s none of that “24 input board with 16 mic inputs and four stereo line inputs” business. All are four-bus designs.
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Maybe it’s because I’m also a drummer, but whenever a company introduces a new microphone designed for kick drum, I’m all ears. So earlier this year, when Telefunken Eletroakustik announced its new M82, I was definitely interested and even more so because the M82 also has onboard tone shaping switches to tailor the response to the job at hand.
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This past weekend, I had the pleasure of mixing a performance by Seal for a large corporate event held at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City. This event was my first time working for this particular artist, and I must admit it was a completely enjoyable experience. Although I was familiar with his hits, I had no previous experience of any kind with Seal’s live shows. When taking on a fresh project, I believe two things to be of paramount importance: preparation and networking.
Read More »When wind or rain imperil lives and property at an outdoor concert, the authorities take notice. When recreational drugs do the same thing, it’s Wall Street that’s reacting. That’s what can be inferred by the cancellation of the last day of the Electric Zoo Festival on New York’s Randall’s Island Sept. 1 after a pair of concertgoers died of alleged drug overdoses. The cancellation was ordered by the city’s outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg, who’s name is synonymous with the financial markets. He build a fortune worth over $20 billion by leasing specialized computer terminals for his market-data business before he was elected to (or purchased outright, depending on who you talk to) the office of Mayor of New York City.
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Officer: Excuse me sir, do you have any idea how fast you were driving?
Me: Officer, I swear I didn’t know I was speeding.
Officer: The neighbors can hear you seven miles away, and that’s across two rivers, a Christmas tree farm, a football stadium and an asylum for unstable musicians. I’ll have to take you in.
Me: Please officer, don’t take me in. I need this gig. So… exactly how fast was I going?
Officer: 118
Me: 118??!!! That’s impossible. This thing can’t even squawk out a hundred.
Officer: Sir, you’ll have to come with me…
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Do you know when the lavalier microphone was invented? Well, lapel mics date back to 1932. Back then, any small microphone that could be hooked in the buttonhole of a lapel of a coat would qualify as a lav mic. Various models included condenser, ribbon, moving coil and carbon button mics.
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