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Justin Bieber’s “Believe” World Tour

Justin Bieber tour photo by Steve Jennings

Justin Bieber’s “Believe” World Tour

Chances are, even if you are not a “Belieber,” as the hard core fans of 19-year-old Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber call themselves, you probably know someone who is. Bieber has become a true worldwide phenomenon since he burst on the scene in 2009. He has sold millions of albums and toured relentlessly since June 2010, first on the My World tour (U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia, Mexico and South America, through October 2011), and, since September 2012, on the Believe tour, which runs through November 2013 and will have hit old and new locales in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Central and South America, Asia and even a few dates in the Middle East and South Africa. There is no escape; surrender to the Bieb!

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Hollywood Bowl photo by Ramesh Shihora

Hollywood Hi-Fi

There are few outdoor venues in the world as instantly recognizable and respected as the Hollywood Bowl, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1922. With its iconic concentric ringed shell and dramatic Hollywood Hills backdrop, the country’s largest natural amphitheatre has been immortalized in dozens of films and television shows over the decades.

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Detroit's Movement Electronic Music Festival

Detroit’s Movement Electronic Music Festival

The Detroit Electronic Music Festival began in 2000 and has been located in Hart Plaza in the center of downtown Detroit for 14 years. That first DEMF event was enormously successful and has since led to annual reprises, improving and expanding its scope. It became the Movement Electronic Music Festival in 2006. The Movement Electronic Music Festival has long been lauded by both fans and city officials, who have witnessed these events as a boon to the city, both in pride and financial returns, bringing in millions of dollars of local revenue to local businesses over the years.

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FOH July 2013 Buyers Guide: Two-Inch Compression Drivers

Two-Inch Exit Compression Drivers

In many ways, the 2-inch (exit) compression driver forms the heart of the typical large-format sound reinforcement speaker. True, other versions of compression drivers — from half-inch to four-inch exit models — exist, but the 2-inch versions offer a combination of efficiency, power handling (band-limited, of course) and serious midrange punch that has made these such a popular component in high-output live sound systems for more than a half century.

To download a PDF of the July 2013 FOH Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE.

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Fig. 1: The Honda EU6500is inverter-based generator is an example of a “floating neutral” design used in pro audio applications. See sidebar for a discussion of floating neutral generators.

Generators and Portable Primer, Part 2

In part one of this series on generators (FRONT of HOUSE, June 2013, page 50), we investigated some underlying details behind Ohm’s law, and that led to investigating when and why current flows in electrical circuits. We then investigated two key concepts in power distribution: bonding and grounding. We showed that bonding — not grounding — creates the primary low-impedance path for fault current in the circumstance where a ground-fault event occurs. In this second article on portable power distribution, we build on the concepts in part one and investigate generator grounding and bonding in light of the existing 2011 National Electrical Code (NEC).

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St Kitts Music Festival

Preparing for Festivals and One-Offs, Part 2

Last month, I wrote about working with James Taylor at a one-off outdoor event in Greenwich, CT. At this show, I was able to use my normal Avid VENUE console system with existing show files modified for this particular event. The PA system, the monitor system and the microphone complement were not our accustomed touring gear, but being able to initiate our work from a familiar console platform with saved individual song snapshots gave both me and monitor engineer Dave Staub an advantageous starting point. The Greenwich show and the two subsequent one-off shows in this short run went extremely well.

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Spacebar

Spacebar Puts the Show in Your Pocket

You want to stay within the comfortably familiar confines of pro audio. Burrow into Gearslutz. Hang out in ProAudioSpace. But the reality is that you’re going to have to spend as much time on Amazon as on Sweetwater, and in Best Buy and the Apple Store as in GC Pro. It’s inevitable, because the confluence of pro and consumer is far from over. The live sound business is still somewhat protected from the economic tumult that the studio side of the industry has experienced — you still need racks and stacks to move the kind of air that live sound requires, not just near-field monitors and a laptop.

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One solution for grand piano miking is Earthworks’ PianoMic system, which has a removable mounting bar that incorporates two wide-range condenser capsules on goosenecks for versatile placement. It can be used with the lid open or closed.

Miking Piano

My first experience miking a piano was about two decades ago. The Sunday school teacher at my church decided she wanted her first and second graders to perform in the “big church.” So, five volunteers carried a vintage Kimball upright piano into the main sanctuary and placed it in front of the platform. I had one rehearsal with the teacher and her children’s choir. During that rehearsal, I simply opened the top of the Kimball and positioned a Shure SM57 microphone (on a mic stand) slightly inside the piano at the middle of the harp. To my surprise and joy, it sounded pretty authentic.

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Illustration by Andy Au

And Why, Exactly, is That My Problem?

Every time I answer the phone for an audio call, it’s another adventure in problem solving and — for the most part — I do enjoy the challenge of solving the logistical difficulties of any given event. The concert events in real theatres or sheds usually entail the standard fare of negotiating load in/load out times, labor calls, required gear, bus/truck parking and feeder and snake runs.

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Boiling Springs with Bose RoomMartch

South Carolina Church Upgrades with Bose RoomMatch Gear

BOILING SPRINGS, SC – The First Baptist Church here recently upgrade its 1,100-seat sanctuary’s sound system with Bose RoomMatch gear.  Systems designer Jim Deal, who utilized Bose Modeler Sound System Software, specified Bose RoomMatch RM5505, RM5510, RM7010, RM9010, RM12040 and RM12060 speakers along with RMS215 subwoofers and six PowerMatch PM8500N amplifiers to power the system. MusiCraft Sound & Video helped with the installation.

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