Road Tests

My first real speakers were Cerwin-Vega. I can't remember the model number, but I can tell you that they incorporated a 15-inch woofer and one high compression horn, and they put out plenty of bass frequency response for that design. When I first bought them I felt like I had finally entered the pro sound world. This really has nothing to do with my review, but I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I received them.

Finding dedicated monitor mix mixing consoles is getting more difficult as time goes by. Sure the new digital console offerings have reasonably good flexibility, and the higher-end analog consoles have enough auxiliary sends to get the job done. But what about the market that needs inexpensive and simple-to-use monitor mixing gear? With every musician stealing two mixes for stereo in-ear monitoring, where are you going to get a dozen aux sends per channel and enough channels to handle modern music bands? Well, Allen and Heath’s new MixWizard line has just expanded to solve this dilemma.

I have this one annual gig in the LA area that I should really give up. But I like the people, and the nature of the event lends itself to trying new gear, so it is a great Road Test opportunity. In fact, in the five years I have been doing the gig I don’t think we have used the same speaker system once. This year, the boys at Spectr Audio got the call. After going back and forth a few times on the requirements of the gig, we agreed on a configuration.

Electro-Voice has revived the PL series of pro audio microphones, and brought forth a promising crop of both vocal and instrument microphones that are value priced, but professional in performance. The PL Series is currently on the road with STAIND, Finger Eleven and ZZ Top (on drums). The mics have also proved roadworthy on this summer's Vans Warped Tour. With three-year warranties, EV is making a promise that the quality is worthy for road usage. I received one of each model for this road test review.

If you think Crown would gracefully sunset the popular Macro-Tech line of tour-grade audio power amplifiers, well you are in for a surprise. The new Macro-Tech i Series provides a decent series life extension by keeping the front-panel look and feel, while sneaking in some of the same technology from the I-Tech series amplifiers. One could spend a lot of time comparing the I-Tech with the Macro-Tech i, but the little time I spent on this tells me there are both similarities and differences.

OK, so I have come into the digital age in a lot of ways. I own four digital consoles and I use Reason in my studio. While I am plenty comfortable with plug-ins, there are still times when I just want a piece of hardware — a box with knobs that responds exactly how I expect without having to think about it. Waves is best known for their plug-ins. It you are a Pro Tools guy or mixing on a Venue system, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you have at least one of them in your arsenal. But what a lot of people don’t know is that they make some pretty nice hardware as well.

We first saw the Peavey Versarray system almost two years ago, and have been trying to work out a road test ever since. As we have done with larger pieces of gear (including other line arrays) in the past, instead of having Peavey send out a rig for us to use on a gig, we went to a gig that had the system already on it and worked the show. In this case, that meant hooking up with Dave Albro, who is doing FOH and associated duties for the VIP events surrounding the current Tim McGraw tour.  Most of the stops on the tour feature “side” events including local and regional acts, plus a VIP-only acoustic show by McGraw prior to the actual arena show, which is a Clair deal.

Whether you are mixing in a club, at a house of worship or almost any venue for that matter — what is the age-old problem? The stage is too loud, right? You tell the drummer to play softer and he complains. You tell the bass player to turn down and he says he can’t feel it anymore. You tell the guitar player to turn down and he says that now he doesn’t have good tone. Being a guitar player turned sound guy, I can’t say that I disagree with him. If you can’t turn the amp up, it’s hard to make it sound the way you want to. But as an engineer, especially in a house of worship, I want to kick the speakers out of the amp and throw it away. 

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.

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.

When I think about the Square One Splitter from Klark Teknik, it reminds of the comedians that parody the kitchen utensil gadgets advertised on TV. “It slices, it dices, it…” is pretty much the same with this splitter, as its engineers were given some liberty to add features beyond a mic-level XLR active splitter.