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Waves Bass Rider Plug-in

Waves Bass Rider Plug-in

Waves Bass Rider Plug-in

After a hiatus that began in February 2011, work has returned me to Las Vegas and the 4,082-seat Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace, where I spent the better part of three years mixing FOH for Cher and Bette Midler. This past month, rehearsals for Shania Twain’s new Still The One show commenced at Solotech in Las Vegas. Ten musicians and three singers will be joining Shania onstage, and sheer numbers are making things very cozy right now in the 45-by-50-foot rehearsal room we now occupy. The Solotech staff has been incredibly helpful and accommodating while our entourage has nearly overrun their facility. This is a fantastic conglomeration of musicians and vocalists, and many of Shania’s amazing songs already sound show-ready after less than two weeks of work.

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Yamaha exec Chris Gero will supervise the media side of the Yamaha Entertainment Group.

Yamaha’s New Media Content Division Puts It on Both Sides of the Board

With record sales in a decade-long slump, this might seem an inauspicious moment to start a record label. Then again, I’m surprised that Warren Buffet didn’t bid on EMI. As the world’s most successful investor has pointed out more than once, look where everyone is running and then run the other way. So perhaps the announcement, in September, that Yamaha was launching its own record label and video production company might not be as puzzling as it first seems.

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Acoustical absorbers (such as the panels shown here) attached to a highly reflective “hard” wall surface can help break up sound waves that strike it, thus reducing echoes for a cleaner sound with improved vocal intelligibility.

Improve The Acoustics, Improve The Sound

Let me begin by saying that 99 percent of the churches that I have I worked in were built before I was born. So what does this little bit of information have to do with this month’s Sound Sanctuary? Well, the fact is that most houses of worship were originally built without much concern for the acoustic environment inside the finished building. And until recently, many of these facilities built in this country (and the world for that matter) were constructed with little or no consideration as to how the spoken word and music will sound during a typical service.

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Illustration by Baker Lee

My Big Idea

Note: Baker Lee was among those East Coasters plunged into darkness via a massive power failure resulting from hurricane Sandy, so his column this month combines some new material and with a bit of a classic “FOH at Large” from 2010. We hope you enjoy this blast from the past. —ed.

Just recently, I had a conversation with a former FRONT of HOUSE editor. We were discussing the particular qualities of the different IEMs on the market and, during the conversation, he mentioned that he was getting a new set of Ultimate Ear monitors that very day. I reminded him that, a few years back, I had received a set of UE earsets and that I was going to write about them in this column.

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Charlie Hernandez at the 2012 Parnelli Awards

Parnelli Awards Dazzles, Surprises, Inspires

The one thing you can expect at the Parnelli Awards is the unexpected. That was certainly true at the 12th Annual Parnelli Awards gala held Oct. 20, 2012 at the Mirage Las Vegas when Jake Berry (Tour Manager for Madonna, U2) showed up, followed by rocker Billy Squier, who spoke briefly and then thrilled the audience with a spirited performance of some of his songs. Both wanted to surprise Lifetime Achievement Honoree Charlie Hernandez, and that they did (and everyone else).

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AES 2012 in San Francisco

Show Report: AES San Francisco 2012

The Audio Engineering Society (www.aes.org) show came to San Francisco from October 26 to 29 during a wild week marked by the SF Giants sweeping the World Series. Meanwhile, on the eastern seaboard, hurricane Sandy left an unprecedented wake of destruction, disrupted travel, closed major airports and left many east coasters stranded on the left coast after the show.

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Church of the Savior, Lexington, KY

Pro Sound & Lights Uses Ashly ne8250.pe Amp for Last-Minute Change During Install at Church of the Savior

LEXINGTON, KY — Pro Sound & Lights systems engineer Chris Naughton was able to accommodate an eleventh-hour change in plans for an audio install at Church of the Savior, based here. Additional processing and amplifier channels were required after the project was well underway. Naughton was able to make the additions without going over budget by using an eight-channel Ashly ne8250.pe amplifier with optional onboard Protea DSP processing.

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Premier Sound Services provided a JBL VTX line array system at the Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans.

Premier Production & Sound Services Provides JBL, Other Harman Gear to 14 Events in One Day

BATON ROUGE, LA — Oct. 25, 2012 was a busy day for Premier Production & Sound Services, based here. The company supported the sound reinforcement needs at the Voodoo Experience Festival and more than a dozen additional events in the region — 14 gigs in all. Premier Production & Sound Services provided a range of Harman gear including JBL, Crown, dbx and BSS Audio.

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Audinate Joins OCA Alliance as Associate Member

PORTLAND, OR — Audinate, owner of the Dante media networking solution, has joined the Open Control Architecture (OCA) Alliance, which recently incorporated and now functions as an open-standards trade association. Audinate is now an associate member of the trade group.

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