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2010 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Randy “Baja” Fletcher

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn issued a joint statement upon hearing the news: "We can't imagine what we did to be blessed with the likes of Randy ["Baja"] Fletcher. We hate to think about what our career might have been like without him, as so many have been won and lost on the road. The importance of a trail boss like Baja is impossible to put into words. Not a show goes by that someone doesn't talk about the quality of our crew, and it all filters down from him."

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No Improvisation Required: Solotech, Gerr Audio and Meyer Sound at the Montreal Jazz Fest

Late June in Montreal, and the weather hasn't been cooperating for the Montreal Jazz Fest. It may be the world's largest Jazz Fest, but it's still an outdoor festival, with all the unpredictability that entails. Around 2 in the afternoon, after a morning of solid rain, the clouds parted long enough for Jess Gagnon, FOH mixer for Canadian trip-rock band Beast, to run sound check-but the plastic dome tent over FOH stayed up and the plastic tarp to cover the console stayed close at hand.

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Shure PSM 900 Personal Monitor System

The idea of having sound directly delivered to our clients' ears and having each person control their own levels without affecting others on stage is brilliant. Through my company, Onyx Sound, we have provided IEMs for a number of years to our clients and have liked them for the most part. As a result of these good experiences, we purchased Sennheiser EW300 IEM G2s and EW300 IEM G3 systems.

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Line 6 XD-V70 Wireless System

Working with a mid-sized sound company (HAS Productions) in Las Vegas, I get to wear a lot of different hats. On any given gig in any given week, I could be a system tech, an audio babysitter making sure the band's guy does not blow anything up, or mixing anything from a B-level national to a local band.

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Westone ES5 IEMs

It was not that long ago – less than a year – that I swore off personally reviewing in-ear personal monitors. I have done so many reviews that I have multiple units from most of the major players. I have not heard/used the stuff made by JH Audio or Fidelity, but I have, or have used, multiple models by Future Sonics, Sensaphonics, Ultimate Ears and Westone.

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Naked Guy and Mace…Bad Combo

Around 1990 I was working for a sound company in Cleveland Ohio, and my first day on the job, we did a show with Murphy's Law, The Dwarves and The Exploited. Murphy's Law plays, nothing out of the ordinary happens. Perfect. We do the set change and out come the Dwarves. I remember the singer wearing a tutu, but the guitar player was naked. Wearing only his guitar and some beaten up tennis shoes.

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Wireless Is Dead; Long Live Wireless!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a hard-wired connection for your favorite microphone or guitar, here comes some new wireless technology. Undaunted by the recent restructure of wireless frequency allocation by the FCC, at least two manufacturers are rethinking their approach to wireless audio. Rather than transmitting analog audio via conventional methods, new systems from Line 6 and AKG refine wireless transmission of digital audio, providing resistance to interference in busy RF environments.

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