We always seem to learn the most about a show and the people behind it when we get to spend some time just hanging out beforehand. The way a certain trick or piece of gear is described can tell you a lot about the people driving the rig. In the case of Dirk Durham and Earl Neal with Toby Keith, they seem to vacillate between merely pleased and downright giddy as they show this intrepid reporter around the stage.
Read More »Driving can be a dangerous thing. Not only for the obvious "the guy in the other car may be drunk, or an idiot, or both" reasons, but because long drives can lead to thinking–in my case, a very dangerous thing.
In this case, I was headed across Highway 166 from the central coast of California (specifically Pismo Beach) where I had done a weekend as a guitar sub for an '80s tribute act, headed for Bakersfield and then Highway 58 to Barstow and up the 15 home to Las Vegas. I was home for 36 hours before heading south again to the Timeless Communications headquarters for production on the issue you are reading now.
Read More »A couple of years ago, I wrote about an emerging trend that would have CDs of live concerts burned and ready for distribution just as the last notes were ringing from the stage. Three companies were vying to get this concept off the ground–a couple of indies and Clear Channel.
Today, Clear Channel is out of the concert business. Its entertainment holdings, ranging from Ozzfest to Jason Giambi's supermarket-opening appearances, are now part of Live Nation, a publicly-traded spin-off venture. It also inherited Clear Channel's CD-burning venture, Instant Live, which has been used on a slew of shows in the last year, including Hall and Oates, O.A.R., Black Crowes, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and The Cult.
Read More »Of all the mail that I receive, the subject of power distribution seems to bring the most pleas for more info. I have plenty of stories of arcs and sparks, but thankfully, few have emanated from my handiwork. I will tell you a secret: I have been deathly afraid of medium voltage (120, 240 volts) ever since I was a kid; and I think that my healthy perspective has helped me from being overconfident. But my parents do remind me that I, as a toddler, did stick my hands into a few uncovered outlet boxes; received a shock, ran crying back to my parents and repeated my curiosity a few more times that day. And you wonder why I am an electrical engineer today?
Read More »Dear Anklebiters,
When you are mixing monitors for musicians (regardless of whether you mix them from a dedicated monitor desk or from FOH), isn't it really up to the engineer to decide what the musicians should hear in their on stage monitor mixes?
Thanks,
Clayton Bennett
Lincoln, NE
Brian Cassell: While it is physically up to the engineer to make the adjustments, I don't think it's really up to him or her to decide what should or shouldn't be in a musician's monitor mix. An engineer really needs to communicate clearly with the musicians to know what they need to hear. And from my experience, the musicians are the only ones who really know what they need to hear. After all, they are the ones who need to stay in tempo and stay in pitch with the other performers onstage. Now, an experienced engineer may have a rough idea of what each musician may need to hear in their monitors, but I find this to be no more than a good starting point.
Read More »
I remember the first time I mixed sound at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. I was the engineer for a Brazilian jazz artist and The Hague in Holland was the first stop of a three-week European tour. Also, I might add, this was my maiden voyage into the world of being a touring engineer. I was enthralled to say the least, by everything and everyone around me. The atmosphere was electric, and I could think of being nowhere else as I was sure that I had arrived at my own personal nirvana. I was feeling alive and energized to be a part of an international, artistically vibrant music scene that touted a who's who in the world of jazz and blues, and I was particularly elated to be rubbing shoulders with some of the most famous and talented musicians on the planet.
Read More »
Cirque Du Soleil may like tents, but they dispense with the notion of three rings. In fact, their first arena tour (called Delirium) features a stage that cuts every venue in half so that the show is viewed from two different sides of an auditorium. It's a giant catwalk that allows performers and musicians to prowl across the expanse of an arena, and it's also a huge challenge for the sound designer, line engineer and every technical person involved.
Read More »
As with most installations, the one at Twin Cities Church in Grass Valley, Calif., started with an idea, continued with a plan and included a handful of adjustments along the way.
Over a three-year period, the Twin Cities ministry team worked with CCI Solutions, an Olympia, Wash.-based company that specializes in the design and implementation of audio, video and lighting systems for contemporary worship spaces. Prior to the new building project, CCI Solutions had established an ongoing business relationship with both Twin Cities Church and their architect, Gordon Rogers Associates. The first planning meetings for the new facility were held in 2002 and the final installation pieces were put into place so that the facility was ready for services in June 2005.
Read More »Joshua J. Pechette
Department Head: Audio
The Egg
Albany, NY
Quote: "It's better then it was."
Services Provided: Mix FOH/mon and/or system tech–depends on show. Maintain house P.A. for both theatres in venue.
Read More »
It's out with the Blue and in with new as Las Vegas's Luxor Hotel bids farewell to its azure-painted performers The Blue Man Group and makes way for a brand-new draw–the hit Broadway show Hairspray. The musical turns the back the clock to 1962 when big 'dos ruled and plus-sized trend setter Tracy Turnblad just wanted to dance on a local Baltimore television show.
The show, which opened on Feb. 15, is a shortened, 90-minute reprisal of the multi- Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of the John Waters film that came out in 1988 and made actress and talk-show host Ricki Lake into an instant star.
Read More »
Back in the day, Crown created a startling audio development with their pressure zone boundary microphone design. The PZM-30D was brand-new on the market. I had seen them in use at South Street Seaport–12 of them on Plexiglass plates in front of a choir standing on risers! My God, the sound was crystal clear, uncolored and beautiful! I had to have a pair for hanging on our stage. No more dangling microphones over the heads of actors! This was going to be the best!
Read More »
It was Super Bowl Sunday and the freeways of Los Angeles were surprisingly forgiving. While most citizens were settling in for a long day of chicken wings and clever commercials, I was tooling toward Ground Zero for the music industry: the Staples Center, home to the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
Despite the tranquility of downtown L.A. that morning, as I approached the Staples/ Convention Center staging area, I could literally feel the hum of activity in the hive. It was the first of three days of rehearsals, the technical shakedown before Wednesday's live broadcast of "Music's Biggest Night."
Read More »