Gladys Knight
Sound Co
Spellcaster Productions
Venue
Investors Bank Performing Arts Center
Washington Township, NJ
Nashville: After the Flood
It is nearly six years since early May of 2010, when torrential rains and flooding struck Tennessee, parts of Kentucky and northern Mississippi, leaving a horrific swath of death and destruction in its wake. And Nashville was far from immune to the effects of the storm, with major damage to the city and surrounding areas. But especially hard hit were those along the Cumberland River, which crested at nearly 52 feet, creating a nightmare for companies like Soundcheck and the many music and touring businesses housed there. Also affected with serious damage were the Gaylord Opryland Resort, Opry Mills, Bridgestone Arena, LP Field, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Grand Ole Opry House itself. But Nashvillians are a close-knit community and pull together in times of need. So other venues — notably the Ryman Auditorium and the War Memorial Auditorium (ironically, both former homes of the Opry) — pitched in to host Opry performances during the few months while the Grand Ole Opry itself was refurbished and repaired.
Read More »
Product Hits of the 2016 NAMM Show
From January 21 to 24, the 2016 Winter NAMM Show welcomed a record number of exhibitors and registrants to Anaheim, CA. And while entire sections of the rest of the country were snarled in blizzards and ice storms, the sunny skies of Anaheim shone on, as a record 1,726 exhibiting companies (including 409 new exhibitors) brought the entrepreneurial spirit to life. Meanwhile, this year’s NAMM netted 101,736 registrants — a 2 percent increase over last year’s record-setting event.
Read More »
New Music City Venues
Nashville’s not just where tours start anymore. It’s become a major performance destination.
Nashville has become the main hub of music touring in the U.S. The metro area offers everything from the lights and the LD and the sound systems and the system techs to the buses and the drivers. Oh, yeah, and there are a few guitar players, too. Ironically, what it wasn’t for the longest time, was a place where touring acts came to perform. As the local weekly put it, “There was a time — and not all that long ago — when it seemed like almost every big tour or vanguard emerging artist skipped Nashville.”
Read More »
Nashville Vendor Profiles
Here’s the factoid that sums up Nashville nicely: When we started putting this sponsored section together in November, Nashville ranked 20th on the list of fastest growing cities. Today, in February, as we went to print, it rates fifth. Any one calling Nashville home there will not be surprised by this meteoric rise, pointing to the good (opportunity) and the bad (occasional L.A.-like traffic snarls). And who is living there? Why, production companies and live event personal, of course. Among the dreamers and those in our business seeking a piece of the explosive growth, plus an affordable place to live and raise a family. It’s not just country music propelling this growth – rock, metal, pop, and everything else imaginable is increasingly based or starting tours out of the Music City. In addition to that, there’s this: 70 percent of the North American population is within a 12 hour drive, making it extremely advantageous to warehouse here.
Read More »
Recent House of Worship Projects
The pace of technology upgrades in the house of worship market seems unstoppable. And why not, as congregations — both traditional and contemporary — take advantage of modern audio, lighting, video and broadcast systems to help spread the message. With the rise of high-energy praise bands and choirs, these days, a ‘60s Lowrey organ and a couple of well-worn Shure Vocal Master columns don’t cut it when presenting contemporary music services.
Read More »
Nashville Does NYE Right
It’s All About the Music for 150,000 Revelers at This Year’s “Jack Daniel’s Bash on Broadway”
Nashville knows how to bring a crowd out: First of all, name it “Jack Daniel’s Bash on Broadway.” What’s not to like about any of those words? An annual event since 2009, this party keeps getting bigger and better. Making it more so is that Sound Image was brought in to handle the sound — which they accomplished by pretty much clearing out their warehouse for this end of 2015 event (188 speakers were used on the two stages) and bringing out all their top-notch crew.
Read More »
The Science Behind Feedback
Other than dead silence, feedback must be the most hated thing in professional audio. Feedback has been with us since the first microphone was placed in front of a speaker and is something every audio technician learns to manage. As long as loudspeakers are returning sound information back to presenters and performers the potential for feedback will remain. This month, we’ll define the cause of feedback, and then see how some aspects of monitor speaker design can contribute to causing feedback.
Read More »
Shure KSM8 Dualdyne Vocal Microphone
In 2004, my friend Harold Blumberg, a product consultant for Shure for more than 30 years, contacted me about a prototype microphone. I rarely heard him speak so glowingly about a piece of gear, but he said Shure engineers created a truly revolutionary condenser live vocal mic. He asked if I was interested in beta testing the then-new KSM9. Always open to experience better performance and more pleasing results from a vocal mic, I enthusiastically volunteered to give the new unit a shakedown on the road.
Read More »
DiGiCo S21 Digital Console
Representing a significant departure from what the company has done over the past 10 years is the S21 — the latest offering from DiGiCo. In an effort to reach a new set of customers that can’t afford its higher-end desks, DiGiCo went back to the drawing board to create a console that they hope will redefine the industry’s expectations of what a sub-$10,000 console is capable of. My demo system consisted of an S21 surface in a custom road case, as well as a D-Rack for remote I/O and a Cat-5 snake for connecting the two together. In the time I spent with the S21, it was clear that DiGiCo has something new and special that isn’t just another digital console.
Read More »