Once I was supplying our Meyer system for a speaking engagement where the guest speaker was the Prime Minister of our country, Brian Mulroney. It was the Cattlemen's Barbecue held at Poplar Hill, Ontario. Mr. Mulroney was one of those gifted public speakers who is able to talk and hold the audience in the palm of his hand. He talked and everyone just stopped and listened.
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I was out on a gig a couple of months ago and one of my favorite people in this business, Buford Jones, was on the same gig. Somehow as we were talking it came out that we both have the SoundMeter app from Faber Acoustical on our iPhones. We began comparing notes, agreed that we both liked it. He asked if mine was calibrated, and I said "sorta," explaining that I went to a show and just jacked around with the settings until it was reacting consistently within a couple of dB of the "real" meter sitting a few feet away on the console. I asked how he has calibrated his, and he told me he used MAPP and the anechoic chamber at Meyer Sound. So I'm guessing his is a bit more accurate.
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In the Road Test you are about to read, I am combining a review of the PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixing console with the PreSonus Studio One Pro software. Either one of these products warrants its own review, but I had the opportunity to use them together. So, here goes.
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Once upon a time the pastor of my church asked me, "What can be done so that I can hear the choir?" My response was, "With a rock band on the stage, the choir has no chance unless we put them in another room and give them a TV to watch the service."
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Shortly after the installation of an all new set of racks and stacks at the City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium last spring, production manager Tony Bova and his staff started to hear a curious observation from the venue's season ticket holders. "People thought it was too quiet," Bova remarks with a laugh. "That's an interesting reversal in the complaint department, but it's been a nice change and everyone has noticed the improvement."
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LONDON – Sound engineer Randy Meullier, who is using a Soundcraft Vi6 for the U.K. and European legs of Alice Cooper's Theater of Death tour, credited Pete Russell at SSE Audio Group for giving him access to his first-choice console.
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HITACHINAKA, Japan – The Rock in Japan concert, produced by Rockin' On publisher Keiichi Shibuya, was held for the 10th year in 2009. More than 165,000 attendees came to Hitachi Beach Park to hear performances by some 150 Japanese artists, including Eikichi Yazawa, Unicorn, Ulfuls and Perfume.
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LONDON – Florence and the Machine used a combined iLive FOH and monitor system on its European tour this fall, which included dates in the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Austria. iLive was subsequently specified on dates in the U.S. and Canada, and rented from SRD Systems in Kent by management production company, Britannia Row, for a performance as part of the Electric Proms at Camden's Roundhouse.
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POTTERS BAR, U.K. – Soundcraft Studer recently produced and tested the first Studer Vista large-format consoles on its new U.K. production line, which has taken on manufacturing for Vista, OnAir 3000 and Router production formerly done in the Studer Regensdorf facility near Zurich in Switzerland.
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LONDON – The new self-powered Meyer Sound UP-4XP loudspeaker recently made its debut at the Royal Albert Hall's renovated Elgar Room. The UP-4XP is noted for combining the advantages of a remote DC power supply and the acoustic power output of a three-way self-powered system.
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OSLO – In preparation for President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and related music events, the sound system at Oslo City Hall was upgraded with Allen & Heath digital mixing and audio distribution systems and a Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC32 Digitally Steerable Array system.
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Some shows are the stuff of legend. While the advent of YouTube has made it possible for a wide audience to get a small glimpse of the scale of these shows, it's impossible to truly appreciate the behind-the-scenes complexity of today's largest productions without witnessing them in person.
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