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My Love/Hate Relationship with Chat

My Love/Hate Relationship with Chat

When FOH first started publishing three years ago (yes, this issue marks the end of our third year), we had already talked about the electronic components of the magazine. The Web site has been there for a while, and the electronic version has grown rapidly and has extended our reach to areas of the globe that were impractical when it came to mailing printed copies of the magazine. But on the question of peer-to- peer, electronic communication online, it might have seemed that we were slacking.

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Grand Ole Opry Turns 80

For a place that acts as the tabernacle for old-time American music, the Grand Ole Opry has kept itself remarkably up to date. Like country music itself, it benefits from a periodic infusion of new ideas. The Opry is an institution that once banned drums from its stage (though bolder artists in the 1950s would have a kit playing behind the velour curtain of the Ryman Auditorium, the Opry's original home). But on a night this spring, the drums were as up-front in the mix as they are on the radio. Top 40 radio, even.

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That's "Mr. Expert" to You

OK, it's official–I'm an audio expert. No, really, I'm not just saying this to impress; I am officially an expert and I can prove it. Unfortunately, at this time, if I do reveal any references, names or places I will have to erase the reader's memory by writing a subliminal memory erase code into this text. This, of course, I'd like to avoid at all costs because it is not a specific memory erase code and, if used, may erase much more of the user's memory than necessary. It could mean that the reader, while not being able to remember anything written in this article, may also lose the capability to remember things like how to set up gain structure, how to read an input list or even simple things such as the formula for Ohm's law or how to use the internal computer on the Midas H- 3000 console. Therefore, be satisfied with the information I give you and all will be well.

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Night & Day

I have been privileged to provide audio gear and production for Good Charlotte on a few occasions and the band has always sounded great–a fact that I attribute not only to the equipment, but to the professionalism of their seasoned engineers. I was scheduled to arrive at the Good Charlotte show at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia to interview their audio engineers, but true to form, I got overbooked and couldn't make it. Fortunately, I managed to catch up to Vince Buller (monitors) and Gary Ferenchak (FOH) in cyberspace for a conversation, and they were sporting enough to make the dialogue happen.

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Too High-Tech for Hockey?

Owned by the City of Anaheim and managed since 2003 by Anaheim Arena Management, LLC, the Arrowhead Pond opened in 1993. In addition to being home to the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Pond hosts major sporting events and yearly shows such as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Disney on Ice, and books major concerts each year. Some of those events pushed the limits of the arena's previous console–a 16-input analog board with eight subs, eight matrix outs and four aux outs.

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The Spirit Runneth Over…Me

During my meager eight-year career in live sound, I have only feared for my safety on two occasions. One was an angry rap concert with no security to speak of, which isn't surprising, but the other was a Pentecostal revival.

Being a Christian, I always enjoy working church-related events, especially those which are, to some degree, more energetic than the ones I've experienced in my entirely Southern Baptist upbringing. But this was an evening I'll never forget.

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Old School

The music on the current Robert Plant tour is a mix of different eras and vibes. Some covers, some tunes from the new record, some of the solo hits from the '80s and '90s and a whole bunch of Zep. Most of the band backing this rock and roll elder statesman consists of kids–what's left of the Brit trip-hop unit Portishead. Likewise, the production is a mix of state-of-the-art Meyer MILOs mixed with old-school stalwarts, including Midas H3000s at both FOH and monitors, and lots of screaming Turbosound wedges on stage.

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Crest Audio HP-8 Mixing Console, Furman AR-15 Voltage Regulator and Power Conditioner, beyerdynamic

Crest Audio HP-8 Mixing Console

By Mark Amundson

When the Crest Audio HP-8 Mixing Console was first announced at Winter NAMM 2004, it sparked a great deal of anticipation. Finally, here was a console with pro features at an anklebiter price. But we got through the better part of a year before we actually got our hands on one and, truth is, we were underwhelmed. A call to Crest engineering confirmed that they were aware of the same issues we had noted (manufacturing and not design-related) and said they were being addressed. We opted to wait to review the HP-8 until that happened and it appears to have been worth the wait.

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Flying High

[We're pretty sure that Richard Rutherford is on vacation this month. He'll return with his insights in our October issue. We're pretty sure… –Ed.]

Talk about a mega church. While some church sound systems can get dicey when the size of the congregation reaches into the thousands, production company Band World of Toronto, Ontario, had an interesting challenge on their hands while rigging the site of this year's 58th Session of the General Conference for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church–the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Mo. The venue, which serves as the home base of the St. Louis Rams, has a capacity of 70,000.

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Wireless Microphones

My favorite saying is, "Everything is an antenna, some things just work better than others." When it comes to wireless microphones for live sound, the rules of the game are stacked against wireless mic manufacturers. The best we can do as users–and operators–of wireless mics is to understand the situation and play it to our best advantage. This article takes a practical look at how to best operate wireless mics and introduces some rationale into how things are done.

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Gently Padding The Pillowman

One of the most compelling plays on Broadway in recent memory, the Tony Award-winning The Pillowman stars Billy Crudup as a writer of morbid, Grimmlike tales that are being replicated by a child murderer. When the police of his totalitarian country (Jeff Goldblum and Zeljko Ivanek) haul him and his dim-witted brother in for questioning about the homicides, they are faced with issues of trust, truth, fate and freedom of expression. Further amplifying the dark drama unfolding onstage is the music of Paddy Cunneen and the sound design of Paul Arditti, which interlock to create an ominous, unsettling atmosphere for the show.

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Road Dogs and Studio Cats

I was sitting in Nashville airport one day in July, waiting for weather to clear at LaGuardia. My gate shared a seating area with the adjacent gate, where delayed Los Angeles-bound passengers were also waiting for air traffic control to give their flight the all-clear. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around to see Bruce Bouton, pedal steel player extraordinaire, standing there surrounded by other top studio Nashville names, including guitarist Jerry McPherson, whose work appears on tons of records for artists like Amy Grant and Toby Keith, and keyboardist Jimmy Nichols, who has equally impressive credits. What was more surprising than finding this concentration of studio talent together outside of a recording studio was that they were all part of singer Reba McEntire's touring band, headed out to play the last date of her 2005 tour in Paso Robles, Calif.

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