Road Tests

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.

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.

I first had a look at the IM8 prototype at the NAMM show a couple years ago, but it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that I had a chance to get my hands on the IM8-40. Back at NAMM, I was told that the console was designed with houses of worship in mind – basically, because the mixing board has enough bells and whistles to satisfy a variety of mixing demands but is still very simple to operate. However, as I looked over the board, I thought it would work well in an array of operations outside of worship.

Up for review this month is the APB ProDesk-4. I hadn't used an APB console before, so I was pretty excited to check this one out. Typically, the items out for review are something on the smaller side, but this one almost didn't even fit in my truck. You know it's a tight fit when you have to get out a measuring tape to see if it was gonna fit! But with a little finagling, we did get it to fit, and I got a chance to put the ProDesk4 through its paces.

I think I speak for most of us in the live sound biz (especially those of us who use powered speaker boxes) when I say we would all like more sound pressure level and more wattage in a smaller package. Years ago I joked about having speaker enclosures the size of a pack of cigarettes. I also expressed my desire to mix my shows in California while I was sitting on a beach in Cabo. Well, K-array has brought me closer to that goal with their Redline Series speakers.

Well… This time we have quite the pair. We will be trying to destroy a Crest X20R and X20RM. I got the call for this month's review and thought I was reviewing amps, but was surprised to open boxes and see that they contained X Racks.

Once again, I find myself running late on the review, which undoubtedly makes someone pissed off at me. And as with most of the reviews I procrastinate on, I wish that I had done it sooner, because I usually find myself pleasantly surprised. This go-around, my victim is AKG's DMS 700 Digital Wireless RF system, using AKG's DSR 700 digital receiver.

The T-Series is the latest addition to the growing iLive family of digital consoles. Within the T-Series family, there are two different control surfaces, the T-80 and the T112. Both control surfaces are accompanied by two different MixRacks named the iDR-32 and iDR-48. The system that I was sent to review was the T112 surface with the iDR-48 MixRack.

This one is short and sweet. The ever-increasing use of computer firepower in the live sound biz has resulted in a plethora of laptops on gigs.

Our test pieces for this go-round are a robust pair indeed. We're taking the new A-T 4080 and 4081 ribbon microphones for a spin. In the past, I've found it difficult to remain constructive while reviewing mics. They're one of those things that is most certainly left up to a matter of personal preference.

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past year, you already have heard at least something about the WavesLive MultiRack system. It was first talked about or at least alluded to right after NAMM in 2009. And we said then and maintain after using it that this is a potential game-changer that allows mix engineers to access Waves plug-ins using any console be it analog or digital.

I have field-tested and written about many audio amplifiers, and a common thread in all those reviews is power versus weight. Every sound guy wants as much horsepower per pound as they can get in their amps. Of course it goes without saying that the power must be colorless and transparent. So that brings us to the Peavey IPR 1600 stereo power amplifier.