My Election Prediction
No matter what side of political spectrum you fall into, you must admit that this year’s presidential contest has at least has been entertaining and has taken a few unexpected turns. On the bright side, every time some candidate utters a single syllable, there’s a mic there to pick it up, and probably a system set up by some sound company to make those gems of wisdom even louder. Hey, it’s a campaign cost — spread the wealth.
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Megadeth 2016 World Tour
Since 1983, guitarist Dave Mustaine and gang have continued to keep thrash metal relevant, and here they are again out in support of their latest album, Dystopia. Bradley Johnson of KRF Audio, based in Newport, WA, is once again at the DiGiCo D5 on FOH with Dave Rupsch again handling monitor duties on a DiGiCo SD8. As these engineers were fans of the band when they were teens, it is a great gig for both — professionally and personally. “They are playing new songs from their new album, which, incidentally, is quite good,” Johnson says. “Also there are two new players in the band — Kiko Loureiro on guitar and Chris Adler on drums. They are both scary good!”
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Holy Holy: A Celebration of David Bowie’s Music
Named after a David Bowie single, Holy Holy is a touring band that performs the works of the late superstar. But formed in 2013-2014, Holy Holy is no quick money grab. And it’s not quite your average tribute band.
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Bill Hanley: The Father of Festival Sound
Editor’s Note: While not exactly a household name, Bill Hanley (seen here in a recent photo) made an indelible impact on the development and advancement of modern live sound systems. He’s often referred to as the “Father of Festival Sound,” and there has been growing interest to encourage the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation to induct Mr. Hanley. Longtime readers of FRONT of HOUSE may recall a decade ago, when he was selected for the 2006 Audio Innovator Award at the Parnelli Awards. Hanley is certainly deserving of that, but we also felt this would be an appropriate time to not only revisit his historic career, but also allow researcher John Kane a platform to expand his efforts to further honor the work of Bill Hanley. —George Petersen
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Plying the Trade: Composite Wood Products for Pro Sound Applications
This month, we are going to talk about plywood. Plywood is everywhere in professional audio. It is used in trailers and ramps, speaker boxes and cases, stands and stages. Even though plywood is ubiquitous, we rarely pay it much mind. At least if you ignore the constant complaints about how heavy it is. Plywood is a versatile material, and an excellent introduction to a class of substances known as composites. The behavior of plywood is a good example to delve into in terms of thinking about some of the properties of materials in general. This month, our aim is to uncover some of that in a way that shows why plywood is preferred to solid wood for many structural applications.
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Martin Audio CDD LIVE! Powered Portable Loudspeakers
At last year’s InfoComm show in Orlando, I had an opportunity to hear Martin Audio demo its CDD Series coaxial loudspeakers — which ranged from the micro (five-inch) CDD5 to the powerful CDD15 — all combining distinctive curved enclosures with Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology intended to deliver high performance and consistent coverage to the install market.
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64 Audio A12/U12 IEM Earpieces
Over the past few years, 64 Audio (formerly 1964 Ears) has come on strong as a provider with a full line of IEM earpieces for musicians and audio professionals alike. The A Series offers a choice of eight designs from $599 to $1,999 made from your custom earmolds. The U Series (Universal fit) has models starting at $399 (for the dual-driver U2) and ranges up to the U12, which are $1,599.
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Rolling Stones Rock Cuba
HAVANA — The Rolling Stones performed a concert in Havana, Cuba on Friday March 25, 2016. The free concert took place at the Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana and drew hundreds of thousands of attendees. FRONT of HOUSE senior staff writer Kevin M. Mitchell provided this account of the behind-the-scenes production supporting this historic event for the April 2016 issue of FOH (page 18).
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Product Hits of 2016 Prolight + Sound/Musikmesse
Frankfurt, Germany became the capital of the pro audio, lighting and music technology world as Prolight + Sound (5 to 8 April) and Musikmesse (7 to 10 April) came to town. It definitely sparked some controversy, as this year’s fair launched a new concept where PL+S would begin two days before Musikmesse. Previously run concurrently, the two 4-day shows would only overlap for two days, leaving some manufacturers scurrying to decide whether they would have to run two separate exhibits or pick one show and hope for the best.
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Avid VENUE S6L Console, Part 2
As is the case for any computer-based product, a digital audio console is a system in a continual state of evolutionary flux. In my article from the December 2015 issue of FRONT of HOUSE, I presented my initial impressions of Avid’s VENUE S6L live console. In that “On the Digital Edge” discussion, I expressed great satisfaction with audio produced by this new system. From input to output, the 96k S6L is very powerful machine. However, due to its work-in-progress status, I chose to delay discussing many of the specific features and operations until more agility and refinement had been added to the console/computer system.
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Concert Recordings: Is the Third Time the Charm?
We’ve been down this road before. Way back in 2004, I told you about the initiatives by several companies (most notably, including Clear Channel, the radio giant that was a huge stakeholder in the touring business before it spun off Live Nation), to take a two-channel mix of a show as its last notes rang out and have it ready for sale before it had a chance to cool off. A copy, on CD, would be picked up by attendees who had either prepaid for them when they bought their tickets or as an impulse buy, like a pack of gum at the checkout counter.
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