Road Tests

You can say one thing for certain about Blue mics – the company offers some of the most interesting-looking ideas in microphones out there. With the en·CORE 300, Blue also seems bent on offering up a competitive road-worthy live performance mic that delivers not only on sound but durability.

There appears to be a quiet shift going on in the wireless mic world. As new FCC mandates make the not-perfect-but-long-counted-on UHF spectrum less and less desirable for wireless mics, companies not generally thought of when it comes to mics – including Line 6 and Sabine – are leading a charge into the 2.4 gHz range and, increasingly, those familiar handheld transmitters you see are not sporting the capsules that they shipped with.

How many times have we found ourselves looking at a new phone, TV, laptop, or any other manner of device and wondering how they packed so much into a package so small? As I stare down the Turbosound Flex Array, I found myself with this very problem once again.

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.

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.