PORTLAND, ME – Moonlighting Production Services, LLC recently added one dozen Radian Audio Engineer APEX-1200 low-profile, 12-inch, two-way coaxial stage monitor wedges to its rental inventory and quickly put the gear to work.
The gigs started with a performance by Pink Martini at Portland's Merrill Auditorium, followed by the annual L. L. Bean concert series, which this year included artists such as Madeleine Peyroux, Patty Loveless, Blues Traveler, the Wallflowers and Asleep at the Wheel.
The rental and sales company, co-founded by Gary Massey and Ted Dunbar, provides production services for concerts, corporate events and special events.
Massey, vice president of operations, noted that for the show by Pink Martini, a 12-piece band, "we had 11 wedges on 11 mixes, plus a cue wedge. The wedges were run in passive mode with fantastic results. Very little EQ was required to make the engineer and lead vocalist happy. With a nine-foot grand piano, a lot of percussion and an opening act the stage was pretty tight, so having a small wedge was nice." Moonlighting's wedges are powered in passive or active mode by QSC PL236 power amplifiers.
"We had been looking for active/passive 12-inch monitors," he added. "We needed something that sounded good; that was our first priority. Cosmetics are important, but if it doesn't sound good, why bother?" After evaluating Radian Audio's APEX-1200 at their Portland facility, Moonlighting ordered a dozen.
Massey said he and chief engineer Nick Pires ran tests on the APEX-1200 wedges using Smaart analysis software at some of the venues at which Moonlighting regularly works and optimized their audio system accordingly. "Sometimes you need to attenuate certain things depending upon the venue you are in," he explains. "We've been able to build up a catalog of four presets that we use, depending upon the application, where we are and what we're doing."
Moonlighting's rig and the APEX-1200 stage monitors are dialed-in very nicely, he added. "Everybody that has used the wedges has been very impressed with them."
For more information, please visit www.radianaudio.com.
