'Twas the night before Christmas; the deadline was tight.
The tempers were flaring; there was no end in sight.
The ground plans were hung on the walls without care,
While hundreds of box truss were flown in the air.
The Clients were nestled all snug in their beds
While us in production were banging our heads.
The script had revisions; the computer had crashed.
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On a perfect Las Vegas evening, a recordbreaking audience gathered in a Venetian Hotel Ballroom to pay tribute to the very best of the year in our annual "Oscars of the Live Event Industry" affair.
"When you think about it, it's against our very nature to attend an event like this," observed master of ceremonies and president of Timeless Communications Terry Lowe during the ceremony's opening moments. "We tend to be the kind that shuns the spotlight. We'd rather be pointing it. We'd rather EQ than speak into a mic."
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We were playing a street dance, and they told us there was a generator for us to use. When we got there we found that the generator's distro panel was 150 feet from the stage, and the generator was in an alley behind a fence and 12 feet below the street level. Oh, and the generator was being shared by us and all the street vendors. (Uh-oh.)
We got everything plugged in and checked the power meters on the FOH rack, and discovered that the generator was cranked up to 130 volts, so my guy had to walk around two buildings to get to the generator to turn its output down to a reasonable level. We continued with our setup and got ready to start sound check, when the GFI on the distro panel popped.
Read More »No, it's not the name of the next band you'll be working with or even a way of looking at the future of analog consoles. I saw that phrase on the cover of a magazine recently. It was a teaser to an interview with the publisher of Wired Magazine, and it referred to the entire idea of print publishing — from its efficiency as a way to disseminate information in a timely manner, to its effectiveness for advertisers seeking to get their stuff seen by the right audience. The phrase has stuck with me because it does a great job of describing the way I have felt but have been unable to express well for the past decade-plus.
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We've been on a roll lately in discussing how digital technology is changing the business models for the live sound industry. Few aspects of music have escaped unscathed, and live recordings are no exception.
The onetime "ne plus ultra" of the live LP, Frampton Comes Alive, has transitioned from milestone to artifact. In the RIAA's list of alltime top-100 albums, only one, Garth Brooks' Double Live, made the top ten, one of the few on the entire list. Steady declines in the number of conventional (I'm using that word for a reason) live recordings were countered to a degree by the explosive growth of music on DVD; from 2000 to 2004 the category grew by double and even triple digits annually. However, 2005 was a watershed year that saw the sector cool off and decline by 4%.
Read More »You can tell what part of the pro audio industry is healthy and what part is struggling pretty easily just by keeping your ears open to conversations around you at the Audio Engineering Society show. Over the past few years the phrase heard with increasing frequency went something like, "It was, of course, designed for the studio, but we are seeing lots of them used live." This phrase gets me on a couple of levels. First, I am filled with gratitude that I do not own a recording studio, and second, depending on who says it, that phrase is either illustrative of the direction we are heading in the live event audio field, or it is total marketing BS. Example: Yamaha's DM 2000 mixers were designed as production mixers for recording and perhaps some smaller broadcast operations, and they were as surprised as anyone else when nearly half of the units sold ended up in the live arena. On the other hand, a several-thousand-dollar mic that ships in a shock-mounted titanium case with a bodyguard won't be on any stage I am working. Sorry, but I still ask, "What happens when it gets dropped?"
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In previous Theory and Practice installments, I have gone over many lists of things to do while setting up for the show, but it's a whole new game once the show starts. From the sound check, you should have your performance mix roughed in, or at least your usual fader starting locations for vocals and the various instrument inputs. And once the performance is started, all your senses are required. This means a lot more than the standard "no alcohol consumption" bromide. (Repeat after me class: "It robs you of your high-frequency hearing temporarily.") "All senses required" means a mind emptied of all non-performance issues as the show starts. See the board, be the board. Or, if you prefer, get your Jedi on.
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Last month we talked about a lot of things in our rapidly changing world of digital audio, one of which was copy protection of audio software. Copy protection has long been a problem for companies that manufacture all sorts of software. Several years ago I had a conversation with a rep at an AES who told me that his company's program had approximately 1,000 registered purchases but an estimated 30 times as many users with illegitimate copies of their program. That's a lot of lost revenue due to cracked code, and it's totally unfair to folks who are trying to stay afloat developing software. If you really like using a program, and you'd like to see its continued support, ante up just as you would for a piece of hardware. Now I'll get off my software-soapbox and get on with it.
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With the proliferation of outdoor amphitheatres in recent years, the onus increasingly falls on sound designers to integrate audio systems that are capable of performing in less-than-ideal conditions. In turn, it's up to manufacturers to provide these designers with state-of-theart technology through the development of powerful, controllable and versatile audio components. These advances in technology, combined with the creativity of designers, have led to dramatic improvements in lawn delay systems for amphitheatres, or "sheds."
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I guarantee that you've never seen anything like Slava's Snowshow. It will transform your perception of clowns in the way that Cirque Du Soleil has reinvented our idea of the circus. The two-act show features a yellow clown and his green companions wandering the stage, improvising various gags and parodying many famous movie or theatre clichés, from two people lost at sea to two lovers parting at a train station. And they do so in brilliant and unconventional ways. The costumes are wild, the set pieces are surreal, and the climactic "blizzard" that engulfs the audience has to be experienced to be believed. Make sure you stay during the intermission, too, as the clowns come down from the stage to wreak havoc and play around with the audience.
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With so many choices for gear on the market today, it's a wonder that anyone can make heads or tails of it. Cutting through the marketing hype to determine what is really needed for a good audio system can be challenging for professionals, as well as the staff and volunteers at smaller venues like churches or theatres that may not eat, sleep and breathe live sound on a daily basis. FOH sat down to talk with Steve Raslevich, president of Northern Sound & Light (NSL) to get some insight into the market. NSL often gets calls from customers who know what they want after browsing the information on the NSL web site, but still need help interpreting the marketing verbiage using the real world experience of the sales staff.
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Dear Anklebiters,
I run a small sound company out of my garage, and I can no longer fit all of my equipment in my trusty work van. Lately I have been renting a small box truck from a local homeowner truck rental store. This really gets expensive and digs into my profits for each show. Worse yet, renting a truck for each show has become a huge inconvenience. What do you suggest?
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