On April 27th, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business presented its GSB Show 2012, an entirely student-written/student-run production that provides a humorous reflection on the past academic year. Held in Palo Alto’s 950-seat Spangenberg Theatre and located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, it’s no surprise that technology played an integral role in the production.
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Rob Zombie takes no prisoners. His live show is a full-on assault every second he and his dynamite band — guitarist John 5, drummer Ginger Fish and bassist Piggy-D — are onstage. The group’s blazing metal/hard rock sound pummels the audience, but it’s the multimedia spectacle accompanying Zombie’s dark, tongue-in-cheek songs that really whips them into submission: Thousands of bizarre images flash on screens behind the stage — everything from hypnotic op-art visuals (on “Living Dead Girl”), to flowing blood (on “Dragula”), to eerie old black & white footage from a 1930s Frankenstein film (for “Jesus Frankenstein”), to flashing patterns, flaming pentagrams, pyrotechnics and the occasional lyric prompt for the crowd to shout out with the charismatic Mr. Zombie. Real flames burst up from behind the band, skeletons adorn the sides of the stage, and other strange characters appear for a few moments, then vanish in this macabre rock nightmare.
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Audio-Technica’s ATM510 cardioid dynamic handheld microphone is a rugged, full metal shaft mic fitted with a rare-earth Hi-Energy® neodymium magnet structure that is holstered in an internal shock mount to reduce handling and stage noise. The multi-layered grill provides a great first line of defense against the pesky “plosives” and assists in controlling distortion that may be caused from sibilant sounds and wind noise. MSRP is $169, with street pricing around $99.
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Coming on the heels of a sold-out European arena run, German hard rock band Rammstein continues its Made In Germany tour with 21 dates throughout North America. A lot of offshore bands play in the States, but this time, Rammstein brought its entire production. And this was not some partial system with locally supplied racks and stacks. For this tour, a full-tilt, 120-box L-Acoustics rig came along for the ride, assembled, tried and tested before being packed into sea containers for the three-week ocean voyage to the States.
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Miking Unamplified Instruments Onstage
Larry Cumings is hardly a newcomer to the art of mixing and miking acoustical instruments. This Grammy Award-winning engineer spent nearly a quarter of a century on the road doing FOH with the David Grisman Quintet and has been the audio producer and FOH engineer for the acclaimed Strawberry Music Festival for 30 seasons. Held in a large campground at 4,600 feet, high in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains just outside of Yosemite National Park, the event takes place during the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends each year, with the three-day festival offering a non-stop lineup of bluegrass, folk and other styles of acoustic music.
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There is no escaping the sea change in professional audio, arguably initiated by L-Acoustics, towards widespread use of vertical loudspeaker arrays, more commonly named “line arrays.” Whether for large touring productions or the new generation of column loudspeakers installed in conference rooms, vertical arrangement of loudspeaker transducers is now firmly affixed in the industry’s consciousness.
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Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI
The home of the 2011 NFL Champion Green Bay Packers, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI, is famous, not only for Cheesehead fervor (the average wait time for the 81,000 on the waiting list for season tickets within the 73,000-seat venue is 30 years) but also for brutal winter weather conditions.
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For some years now, the Roland Systems Group has enjoyed a great deal of success with its M-series digital mixers. That said, I have never had the pleasure of mixing on one. Which is why editor George Petersen felt I was the perfect choice to review the Roland M-480 V-Mixer digital console. So, what you are about to read are my first impressions of this piece of technology.
Read More »Back in March of this year, right on the eve of the Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound show in Frankfurt, there was a surprise announcement about a new pro audio company. The “new company” part wasn’t much of a shocker — new companies spring up nearly every day. But the real issue of interest here was that this new enterprise known as VUE Audiotechnik is headed by Ken Berger and Jim Sides, two well-known industry icons with an impressive track record.
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Built a century ago, Washington DC’s historic Howard Theatre is back to life. Located near the corner of 7th and T Streets in an area known as “Black Broadway,” the historic arts landmark that launched the careers of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye and The Supremes, reopened in April after a $29 million renovation.
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Like many regional companies, Frequency City Sound & Lighting Ltd. started off from humble beginnings. Like many others, it’s a familiar tale — local rock ‘n’ roll guitar player with PA (Peavey mixer/amp head, some mics and a couple Peavey SP3 speakers) decides to branch out and make money doing sound for other bands between his group’s gigs. Eventually the business grows into a serious operation.
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We have recently completed James Taylor’s 2012 European tour, and I am writing this column while kicked back in a comfortable London hotel room, enjoying a couple of days of R&R. My flight home from Reykjavik to LAX was routed through Heathrow (yes, really), so I decided I would do two things. First, I spent two extra days in Iceland sightseeing with my friend (and JT monitor engineer) Rachel Adkins. It was the first time either of us had been to Iceland, and we each figured that we might never get back there. It is a starkly beautiful country, and we enjoyed every minute we spent there exploring the island. Second, I jumped ship in London and took a little time to myself. Everyone in our business deserves a little pampering once in a while.
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