It's either ironic or just plain dumb, but as the live event audio industry gets more and more digital, the one piece of the signal chain that most lends itself to bits and bytes — the transport of signal between stage, console and speakers — is the part that is having the hardest time really catching on.
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Great city, great weather, OK gear
If you didn’t make it to the City by the Bay for this year’s AES, you missed out. Fun show. Great chance to see and meet old friends. Lots of new and shiny gear. How much of it is applicable to what we as live audio providers do every day? Well, that’s a different story.
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OK, you have been reading these things for a while, so you know the drill. Chart comparing a bunch of line array boxes is on the following two pages. A couple of notes… First, remember that manufacturers provide this info. We do our level best to make sure that everyone provides info in a consistent manner, so it is an apples-to-apples comparison. We do not always succeed, but it should at least be fruit to fruit and not apples to doughnuts, if you know what I mean.
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Digidesign D-Show Profile Mix Rack System
Developed specifically for small- and mid-sized performance venues, houses-of-worship, touring and fixed installations, or as an upgrade for existing analog systems, the D-Show Profile Mix Rack System combines a D-Show Profile console with the new Mix Rack, a compact 11-space rack enclosure that incorporates all audio I/O (stage and local) and DSP into a single chassis. The resulting system combination is designed to offer a compact, portable and cost-effective way to take advantage of the power and flexibility of VENUE, including native control of a vast library of TDM plug-ins and tight integration with Pro Tools software for live multitrack recording and playback. www.digidesign.com/venue
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I still consider it the day I went from "band guy who owns a PA" to "fledgling anklebiter sound guy." It was an outdoor festival. Two days. Probably a dozen acts total with canned music in between. I had my small collection of typical rock ‘n’ roll mics and — with the addition of a few more lent by friends — I thought I was set. Things went well until the second day when I discovered that my next act was a magician hired to entertain the kids, and he was pretty pissed that I didn’t have a headset or lav for him.
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Ahhhhh. Smell that? It’s the exciting but somehow slightly putrid smell of trade show season bearing down upon us. And the dance begins. Everyone wants A) their stuff covered as widely as possible and B) to have it still be a surprise when officially unveiled at PLASA in September or AES in October. You know, everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. Can’t have it both ways.
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I got the call on Wednesday that I would be leaving for England on Monday, having been invited by the folks at Midas to be present for their latest and greatest product unveiling. I knew Midas would not spend the time and money necessary to gather journalists from all over the U.S. and Europe if they didn’t have something big to show off. I figured that they had created a new digital mixer or stage box, but Midas was keeping their new baby a secret.
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When people ask me what part of the live event audio world has changed the most in the past three to five years, they probably expect an answer like digital consoles or line arrays. Most would probably be surprised that my answer would be — hands down — personal monitors. They have come a long way since Marty Garcia used some Sony earbuds and denture cream for Todd Rundgren.
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AKG D7 Dynamic Vocal Microphone
AKG Acoustics introduces the D7 vocal microphone for live sound applications. AKG`s newest dynamic microphone features a humbucking coil that reduces electrical interference and stage feedback. The D7 also features an integrated high-pass filter that cuts out low frequencies, eliminates handling noise and provides audio clarity. The D7 delivers high-end sonic performance with its new Laminated Varimotion diaphragm. This design allows the diaphragm to be fine-tuned without extra tuning resonators. The D7 response evokes the subtle, open sound of a condenser microphone, while maintaining the rugged reliability of a dynamic microphone. The D7 comes complete with a carrying case, mounting clamp and replacement windscreen. Two additional models are also available: the D7-S, which features an on/off switch; and the D7-WL1 microphone capsule for use with AKG wireless systems. www.akg.com
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I was out on a local gig a few weeks ago and things were going south fast. You know the kind of gig — about 1,000 bands with little to zero changeover time and production managers showing up with stage plots and input lists that have no resemblance at all to the one you were sent when the show was advanced a month ago.
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Let’s start by getting the obvious out of the way. With NSCA folding their trade show into InfoComm there is now really only one install show of real interest to the FOH crowd (CEDIA doesn’t count). And there were a number of marketing-type references to that fact including a big sign outside touting the “One Show.”
Now I have made it pretty clear for a long time now just how much I “enjoy” trade shows. So you would think I would be doing some version of the Happy Dance that there is one less show to go to this year. But it ain’t quite that simple. It is all about timing. First, the timing sucked because Summer NAMM moved back to Nashville and had to move to June to do so, which meant that it overlapped by a day with InfoComm. That meant almost zero presence for audio companies in Nashville and, say what you may about musician-oriented events, but musicians grow up to be sound guys, and it’s important to learn ‘em right while they are still learnable.
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We have been trying to do this Buyers Guide for three years. With the growing adoption and acceptance of digital consoles in the live event audio workplace, a real “have-vs.-have-not” environment had developed for quite a while. Digital consoles are a great tool and increasingly demanded on show riders, but their cost puts them simply out of reach of many — if not most — smaller companies. These local and regional soundcos were stuck either not getting gigs they once did or renting the demanded digital desk.
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