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George Petersen

The Long Throw

These days, the once-common huge stadium music shows are less of the norm, except for the occasional special events (such as the Oklahoma Twister Relief Concert spotlighted in last month’s FRONT of HOUSE) or the rare mega-tour. Even The Rolling Stones’ last outing hit more arenas than stadiums. For some reason, stadium shows are more common overseas — perhaps because certain popular artists only come through on a far less frequent basis, so fans may consider such events more like once-per-decade events rather than annual occurrences, thus providing a larger draw.

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Celebration Church, Jacksonville, FL

Spotlight: 10 Recent House of Worship Projects

Recently at FRONT of HOUSE, we’ve noticed a huge increase in installation projects, both in secular venues — such as performing arts, theaters, schools and sports facilities, but particularly, also with church and house of worship (HOW) sanctuaries. In fact, the latter market has experienced a major bump in activity over the past year, and it’s not limited to simple changes, but major projects, often involving high-end, high-tech approaches to providing superb audio for both the spoken word and music. With that in mind, we decided to spotlight a number of recent HOW installations that captured our eyes — and ears.

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Taylor Swift Red tour photo by Jana Zills

Mixing Taylor Swift’s “Red” Tour

Amidst rave reviews from top media outlets from The New York Times to Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift’s Red tour is currently in full swing. The country-pop queen is working her way across the U.S., headlining 58 shows in 45 cities in 29 states and three provinces in 2013. Three DiGiCo SD7 systems and a d&b audiotechnik PA, provided by Eighth Day Sound Systems, deliver sizzling sound on the tour. The trio of SD7s are in place at FOH and two in monitor world — one for the band and one for artist monitors.

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Todd Rundgren tour photo by Benjamin Wick

An Evening with Todd Rundgren

If anything’s predictable about Todd Rundgren, it’s to expect the unexpected. A brilliant songwriter/guitarist/synthesist with talents both onstage and in the studio, Rundgren’s career (solo or with his band Utopia) has spanned just about every musical genre, ranging from rock to pop to smooth soul to edgy electronica and most recently, EDM. And even at 65, he shows no signs of slowing down, hopping from continent to continent to promote State — his 24th studio album, as well as a series of “An Evening with Todd Rundgren” shows to stay in touch with the legions of fans of his catalog standards such as “Hello, It’s Me” and “I Saw the Light.”

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Fig. 1: The “sound pyramid” is a schematic representation of a how the coverage pattern, output and frequency balance of a loudspeaker system should vary from the front to the back of the audience area.

The Long and Short of Loudspeaker Throws

A common phrase in pro audio is “I need a P.A. that has enough throw to cover the audience.” Of course, loudspeakers do not lob sound like a baseball, but instead set up sound waves in the air that then travel to the ears of the audience, which then detect the sound as it passes them. Regardless of the questionable terminology, the concepts behind “throw” are an important to the audio industry.

The ability to cover patrons at increasing distances from the sound system opens doors to bid on larger events and ultimately get the show to the ears of more paying customers. Let’s examine the acoustic factors behind throw, the limitations loudspeakers impose on throw and some practical tips for getting the most coverage out of your sound system.

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Paul Gussack

A Response to “Tour Managing for Dummies”

I enjoy the insights and tips Steve La Cerra often imparts in his “Theory & Practice” columns, including his recent series “Tour Managing for Dummies” (FRONT of HOUSE, June 2013, page 57, and “Tour Managing for Smarties” (FOH, July 2013, page 33). That said, I would like to echo some of his advice and add a little perspective from the “other side” — the venue production manager’s point of view.

Remember, many of us greeting you when you enter have toured, and we understand the situation you’re in. We know that your last venue had a lousy load-in/load-out/crew/sound system/etc. — or perhaps a better load-in/load-out/crew/sound system. However, this is today. I will do whatever I can in my power to make your gig as good as possible.

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The 24-input MGP24X

Yamaha MGP24X and MGP32X Consoles

Yamaha’s had a long history of building solid analog consoles, going back to 1974’s PM1000, which brought balanced I/O’s, 3-band channel EQ, matrix mixing and tough, roadworthy construction into 16/24/32-channel packages and began a legacy of pro-quality live gear that continues to this day. As the years progressed, Yamaha evolved digital consoles, which like its analog boards, have become world standards. There’s no doubt that the future lies in digital technology, but our old pal analog still survives and thrives, particularly in certain market segments.

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The input screen simplifies console setup/configurations.

My Day with the SSL Live Console, Part 2

Last month’s column (FRONT of HOUSE, Aug. 2013, page 30) presented an operational overview of the Solid State Logic Live console from a mixing engineer’s perspective. This entry will focus more closely on individual channel operations and onboard processors. But before I dive into those areas, I need to discuss a critical organizational number — 192. As explained by SSL product specialist Fernando Guzman, 192 is the total number of mono audio “paths” the SSL Live processing system is able to support when operating at 96K.

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Silent Events is one of the pioneering companies providing technology for headphone concerts.

Silence is Golden. Really.

Walking into an anechoic chamber is one of the most disorienting experiences anyone attuned to sound can have. The lack of reflections confuses the brain, its usual aural cues stifled by the deadened environment. Sometimes you don’t realize just how distorted your perception has become until you exit the chamber, relieved to feel the ambient world around you once again.

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The 1970’s-era Blue Öyster Cult (left to right): Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (front), Eric Bloom (rear), Albert Bouchard, Allen Lanier and Joe Bouchard.

Farewell, Old Friend

If you are reading FRONT of HOUSE, there’s a pretty good chance that you — like me — take audio production pretty seriously. When no one cares about time alignment, we still delay the balcony fills to the main stacks. When no one cares about polar patterns, we’re moving the snare mic to reject the hi-hat. When people start to accept MP3s as an audio format, we yell and scream that such crappy sound is unacceptable.

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This ADA-compliance sign has a “T” designation indicating the availability of a telecoil system.

Can You Hear Me?

When Jesus went out preaching, I am pretty sure everyone could hear him. Whether he spoke to five people or 5,000, every word went directly into the ears of his followers. I guess we could call that a miracle. Anyway, fast-forward 2,000 years, and we find out that a lot of people just can’t hear what the preacher is preaching.

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Illustration by Andy Au

A Delicate Balance

Let’s face it. For most of us, the choice of a career in audio production rarely involves a traditional nine-to-five week. Travel, last-minute schedules, late (and/or extended) hours and weekend/holiday gigs are typically part of the audio lifestyle, and trying to juggle one’s personal life and career often becomes a delicate balancing act.

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