RED BANK, NJ – The Sony Pictures Television produced series, The Sing-Off, is hitting the road for its first live tour, featuring Season Four’s a cappella winners, Home Free, along with finalists Filharmonic and VoicePlay. The production crew is using Roland Systems Group’s M-480 V-Mixing System at monitors. They are also touring with Roland’s R-1000 for multi-channel recording and virtual sound check.
More details from Roland Systems Group (www.rolandsystemsgroup.com):
Bryan Farina is production manager and FOH Engineer for the tour. His extensive background includes sound engineer for Manhattan Transfer for the last 12 years as well as New York Voices, Straight No Chaser, and Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Kurt Elling. He states, “I have been fortunate enough to do shows all around the world from the Sydney Opera House to the Hollywood Bowl. The V-Mixing System will help bring consistent sound for the performers of The Sing-Off tour night after night.”
The monitor setup consists of the Roland M-480 with the S-1608 digital snake. The M-480 takes a MADI split from the Midas PRO1 Console and Klark Teknik DN9650 format converter using the Roland S-MADI Bridge. There is a mixture of Shure PSM 900 Personal Monitors and monitor wedges all being mixed on the Roland M-480 V-Mixer console.
Mixing sound for a wide variety of vocal groups in one night can be tricky. Farina says, “The Roland V-Mixing System makes it easy…. we just hit store, save the scene, name it, and hit recall when we are ready to go live.”
Another V-Mixing System component deployed on the tour is the Roland R-1000 Player/Recorder that is used for virtual sound check with the Midas Pro1. Farina configured this by taking AES 50 from the Midas to the KT 9650 format converter, and then optical out to the Roland S-MADI converter into the R-1000 using a Cat5e cable. The R-1000 has an In/Out Patchbay, which allows Farina to configure, name, record and playback the live channels off the REAC A port. Farina says, “It was really easy. I hooked it all up and the Roland units saw the signals and locked in immediately”. The R-1000 records the shows and then Farina uses it to playback the audio during sound check. The direct outputs go to the R-1000 and then they return to the tape returns on the desk. Farina explains, “All I have to do is push a button on the tape return which activates the virtual sound check and everything works great. I’m ready to tune the room”. This saves an incredible amount of time from venue to venue. Farina also likes having the R-1000 on hand in case anyone wants to record something on a whim.
