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This is This

I caress the smooth spool of solder as I wait in anticipation for the soldering gun to heat up. I strip the rubber from my cable just enough to give myself a workable amount of copper, and with heated iron in hand, I touch the tip to the end of the solder melting just enough to coat the end of the cable. I repeat the process over my solder point and leave a perfect shining spot where I then touch the end of my cable and hold for a moment before I release the iron. A thin line of smoke wafts up and tickles my nostrils with its delicate fragrance. Ah, I love the smell of solder in the morning.

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Hitting the Road with Boston, Styx and Slamhammer

Take two big rock bands from the 1970s, make them co-headliners, let them loose on the summer shed circuit and pray for ticket sales and no rain. Boston is your typical “make it sound like the records” kind of show, with the studio engineer bribed into going out on tour to preserve the essence of leader Tom Scholz and bandmates. Then take road veterans like Styx, who do yearly tours with 150 to 200 gigs per year for the last 10 years and has done the co-headline thing with everyone from Journey to Peter Frampton, but also tours with their studio guy at FOH.

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Here’s a Nod to the Unsung

So, it’s a Friday late afternoon and I am trying like hell to get access to the Journey/Heart/Cheap Trick show in town. I figured we already had interviews with the crews for Boston and Styx in the can and we could do a real classic rock extravaganza. But, of course, me being me, I was trying to do this at about 4:30 p.m. on show day. A couple of friends in the biz with ties to a couple of the acts tried mightily (a big tip of the hat to Dave Shadoan and Greg DeTogne), but it was just too late to make it happen.

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Correct Yourself

Since studios have been moving into less acoustic-friendly spaces (e.g. spare bedrooms that quite frankly have no business hosting a music production system), the need for some means of compensating for poor acoustics has materialized. Studio monitor manufacturers have responded by developing various types of room correction technology. At the most basic level, room correction analyzes the frequency response of a room/loudspeaker combination and produces compensatory equalization.

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Come Together

Have you noticed the music in your elevator getting better lately? Installed sound, in general, has taken leaps forward in terms of quality and management in the last few years. At the InfoComm show in June, the purveyors of installed sound systems gave plenty of praise to the live sound sector for raising the sonic bar across the board. They cited how the enhanced emphasis on touring in the music business has raised expectations of consumers for better audio in all aspects of their lives.

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Trials and Tribulations

Oh, into the summer I go, alone, as apparently my writing partner is MIA. Join me as I relate the exciting trials and tribulations of a true anklebiter. And let me know some of your experiences so I can pass them on to other catfish in the sound engineering pond.
 

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A&S Makes Its Case

Made-to-order case company introduces “FlyWeight” cases.

The case brought back into A&S the other day was old — 22 years old. But it was hardly the historic artifact you might think.
The band that had been using it all that time had no interest in letting it go, rather, they just wanted some of the interior foam replaced. That’s not exceptional in the experience of A&S Case Company, but rather typical. “There are cases being actively used out there that were made when the company was first formed in 1976,” says Bill Waskey. “They may have had a caster replaced, and, of course, they look a bit worn but they are still very serviceable.”

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Optimization of High-Frequency Drivers

In previous columns, we discussed speaker processor operation and how to phase/time match mid-range drivers to high-frequency drivers. And we went through the various crossover filters for differing size high-frequency throats and diaphragms. But this time, I want to focus on frequency response adjustment of high-frequency drivers, as it is crucial to the quality of the sound system.

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Ears

I realize the title of this month’s piece is not all that witty. In fact, it simply states what I will be discussing. I don’t need to tell you the importance of our ears. Without them we can’t do our jobs as house-of-worship techs, or any sound mixing job for that matter. Nonetheless, the question that comes to mind to me, and hopefully to you, is where can we go to get good ear training? I have no idea. So, this month I will tell you my beliefs and experiences in training ears. 

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Heil PR 35 & Handi-Mics

Just when you think the pro-audio microphone market is well in hand by the big brands in the industry, up springs a viable contender with a lot going for it. Not only does Bob Heil’s Heil Sound enterprise offer some great professional microphones, but Bob does it with equal parts flair and engineering expertise. While the big brands have world-class product design facilities and worldwide manufacturing, Heil Sound does the same with a small staff located in the St. Louis metro area.

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Crown XLS 5000 Power Amplifier

If you need a brute of an amplifier for subwoofer duty, but you are limited on funds, consider the Crown XLS 5000 your salvation. Yeah, your salvation comes in three rack spaces and 62 pounds, but wimpy was not specified.

The Crown XLS amplifiers are bare basics, made-in-China power amplifiers, but good old Elkhart, Ind. engineering is what makes this series worth a look. The front panel is simple with two detented level controls with clip/signal/fault LED indicators for amplifier operational status. Then there is the pushbutton power on/off switch. And with three rack spaces, plenty of cooling air inlets are available.

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