LOS GATO S , CA — Los Gatos Ca l va ryChurch neded a large system that would provide the power of a rock concert and thedefinition and articulation of a concert hall,for which Lorente Productions turned to thenew PD Series from JBL.

“They wanted a system that could handle120dB SPL for sustained periods and last,”said Steve Lo re nte, owner of Lo re nteProductions. “We knew the PD Series couldhandle that SPL demand and perform well inthe acoustics of the space. For these kinds ofchurches where the technical and artisticdemands are ve ry high, we wa nt to useequipment that is high quality and that wecan trust under any circumstances. It has towork every Sunday, without fail.”

“We are seeing demand from churchesfor the highest level of sound re i n fo rce-m e nt,” said JBL’s Di re ctor of Engineere dSound, Ted Leamy. “The PD Series is able toprovide integrators like Lorente with concerthall quality sound for the performance nowbeing demanded in the church market.”

Overall, the installation comprises a 56-channel MH3 So u n d c ra ft co n s o l e, n i n ePD5322/64 loudspe a ke r s, four ASB6128 double 18 subwoofers and eight MarquisSeries MS28s, a two-way system with dualeight-inch woofers for under-balcony cover-age. Monitors are handled by twelve MPro412s and four MPro 415s. The spe a ker systems are powered by Crown CTS ampsand processed by dbx processing.

The new sound sys tem at Los Gatos is partof a co m p l e te ove rhaul of the building thatwas originally an old-fashioned Baptist churc h .As such, it was designed to acco m m od ate simple acoustic piano and a choir. With theg rowth of the co n g re g ation and the desire toadd high-powe red co nte m po ra ry Ch ri s t i a nrock music as well as host to u ring pro fe s s i o n a lCh ristian bands, the church decided a morep ro fessional sys tem was in ord e r.

LOS ANGELES, CA—Water seized centerstage at the recent premiere of Water PassionAfter Saint Matthew, an exotic and visceralpiece that includes three water percussionistswho pe rfo rmed on large bowls of wate r,splashing with their hands and using otherdevices to draw music from the water itself.Sound designer Jody Elff turned to DPA’s 4052Co m p a ct Omni-Di re ctional Mi c rophone tocapture the dizzying array of musical soundscreated by the relentless motion of the water.

“The obvious technical challenge is howto amplify a bowl of splashing water,” Elff said.“At various points in the show, the water isextremely quiet—no more than tiny drips—and yet these sounds are essential to the larg-er picture.” Elff also noted that another, moreobvious challenge was to keep the micro-phones dry enough so that they would notfail during some of the more aggressive pas-sages of the show that involved much morewater splashing.

VENUE Goes Worldwide With NewMarketing Team and Dealer Network

THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR LIVE SOUND

In ThisI s s u e :Got Blues?As blues festival season gearsup, FOH engineers sound off on the pleasures and pains ofmulti-act concert bills

Road TestsIt’s all about monitors.Wetake a couple of wedges anda PM beltpack out on gigs and try to break ‘em

Sound Gets All Wet at Disney Hall

D A LY CITY, CA — You have been heari n ga bout VENUE for the be t ter part of a ye a r, a n dn ow there are some dealers who may be ableto help you actually see the thing. Also new isthe VENUE te a m , which curre ntly includes ninelive sound professionals—including notedFOH engineer Ro be rt Scovill—who are re s po n-sible for int roducing VENUE to the wo rld of liveevent audio professionals and providinghands-on assistance to new custo m e r s.

Says Ch ri s topher Boc k , Di g i d e s i g n’s v i ce pre s i d e nt of sales and marke t i n g :“These guys know life on the road as well as the needs of live sound pro fe s s i o n a l sworking in system integration and houses of worship. It’s also thrilling to see so muchinterest from dealers in such a short periodof time.”

For a list of North American and interna-tional dealers, see page 7.

Lorente Thinks Large andLoud for Los Gatos Calvary

May 2005 Vol. 3 No. 8

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F e a t u r e s

14. FOH Interv i e wPaul Allshouse is master of all thingsaudio for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

16. Production Pro f i l eTony Blanc and Chris Schutz each grab an end of the snake for the newAlicia Keys tour

19. “You Gotta Love WhatYou Do”In this guest editorial, an FOH reader tries to explain the joys of a great gig to a newbie

24. Got Blues?Will Romano takes a look at the peopleand companies making noise on the bluesfestival circuit

C o l u m n s

18. On Bro a d w a yTurning a movie into a musical is always tricky, but Bob Biasetti is makingthose Dirty Rotten Scoundrels soundsqueaky clean

32. The BizThe quick deployment and acceptance ofline arrays has resulted in something of abusiness feeding frenzy in the live eventaudio world

34. Theory and PracticeWhy is there never enough power when you need it? Mark Amundson gets us ready for often “brown” outdoorsummer gigs

36. Sound SanctuaryControl the drums, and the rest falls intoplace a lot more easily

37. The AnklebitersHow to avoid disaster when mixing andmatching gear

40. FOH-at-Larg eAll audio engineers are not created equal.How do you deal with the guy who has no clue?

D e p a r t m e n t s

4. Editor’s Note5. News8. International News9. On the Move10. New Gear12. Showtime28. In the Tre n c h e s28. Welcome to MyN i g h t m a re

Survival of the Fittest?I agree with your editorial (“Surviving

the Squeeze,” April 2005). However, howabout the guy who low-balls a gig that istoo big for him/her? That’s what happenedwhen the scaffolding tower fell over at theHatch Memorial Shell in Boston. Momalways said if you can’t say somethingnice... But we’re talking safety and reputa-tion. Low-balling means no outriggers, andin my case of being a state employee, all Icould do was document these vendors toCYA (or CMA). Artists will remember thepoor sound they had at the Hatch Shell, butmaybe not the name of this local sound co.We welcomed all the vendors (except onebackline company), but as the house guy, itwas always a pleasure to have “real” compa-nies like Scorpio Sound, Capron Lightingand Sound and New England Audio Tech.

Bill MagodMusic First ProductionsFormer PM and A1 of the HatchMemorial Shell, Boston, MA

Blunder BussFirst let me say that I really enjoy and

appreciate Mark Amundson’s articles andreviews. They are very real-world and userfriendly.

A couple of comments on the April2005 “Mixing Blunders” article. In relation to“counter-equalizing”... it would seem that ifa number of channels are cut at nearly thesame frequency, the problem would bebetter addressed at the FOH equalizer. Themost common problem I find doing walk-ins is a mis-aligned/mis-EQ’ed FOH system.Usually a few room hot spots are ignoredand left to torture all who man the board.I’ll admit that a better time may exist ratherthan during the one-set show.

Pertaining to “Double assigns”... this is acommon discussion subject on the LiveAudio Board and many of us intentionallydouble-buss, usually to compress thebussed tracks and mix them in with theuncompressed tracks. This technique, com-mon in multi-track recording, yields a differ-ent dynamic “flavor” than just raising gains

and EQ’ing. This is assuming that all systemparameters are adjusted correctly and plen-ty of “regular” gain is already available.Again, thanks for your efforts.

John ChiaraAlbany Audio Associates, Inc.

Hi John,Thanks for your comments on the column

and in particular the “blunders” article.Yes,there are always exceptions to the norm, andyou bring the ones I would rebut as well. Thedouble channeling with and without com-pression is the hallmark of Robert Scovill forlive performance, and many recording per-sons (as you mentioned). It would be fun tohave Scovi explain his perception of the tech-nique’s benefits in a live setting.

Mark Amundson

(Hey Scovi, you up for it? -b)

More on the Mic-MuteThanks for the article on the Mic-Mute. I

use them often for audience response/Q&Amics. The audience members learn quitequickly that they have to stand closeenough to the mic to “turn it on.” The LEDindicating an active mic also helps in that“learning process.” I find the Mic-Mute hasmuch greater depth perception (in thesense that greater range of adjustment canbe achieved on the switch itself ) when Iuse an SM57 than when a 58 is used. Itcould be that the windscreen of the 58 isshadowing the IR proximity switch. The last,and most important, point is a gig saver. Ifyou don’t like how the Mic-Mute is workingand you are using a dynamic mic, you canbypass the Mic-Mute by switching offphantom power to that channel. Works likea charm!

Carl HordykCalvin College

F e e d b a c k

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W h a t ’sH o t

20 I n s t a l l a t i o n s :Rocking with“ C h u rch Unusual”

With a system that includes componets by InnovaSON, NEXO,Sennheiser and Aviom, Arlington,Texas’ High Point is not your typicalneighborhood church.

W h a t ’sH o t

22 Who Do I Need To Know?

While the old saw “it’s not what youknow, it’s who you know” may not be100% true, it’s at least 90% true. A notedevent producer lets FOH readers in onwhat it takes to get the gig.

May 2005

C o r r e c t i o nIn our April issue, on Pg. 21, Maureen

Droney’s feature about the 2005 GrammyAwards mistakenly attributed supply ofthe primary FOH P.A. to JBL.The systemwas actually provided by ATK AudiotekInc. of Burbank, Calif. FOH regrets theerror and any confusion this statementmay have caused for our readers.

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4 May 2005

Geez, have I used that headline before?Maybe. With any luck, it was foranother magazine or at least a long

time ago. This is one of the pitfalls of doingthis for as long as I have been in an editor’schair for some publication or another.Between these editor’s notes, news stories,editorials, columns and reviews, I haveshot my big mouth off in print hundreds of times, and not repeating yourself canbecome a challenge.

One of the biggest challenges (and thething that keeps my inte rest) in the wo rlds ofp u b l i s h i n g, l i ve eve nt audio/prod u ction andp l aying music it is that something is alwaysc h a n g i n g. In the past decade (actually a lotless than a decade in most cases) eve ry t h i n gf rom the te c h n o l ogy to the basic businessm odels of all those industries has changedp re t ty ra d i ca l l y. In eve rything from gear tothe way you set up and run your business,s m a l l e r, be t ter and cheaper has be come aself-fulfilling mant ra of sort s.Those of us whoh ave been around for a while are still gettingused to the pace of change, while those withless gray hair ex pe ct that what is new tod aywill be obsolete to m o rrow.

When it comes to putting out FOH everymonth, the “change factor” is exciting for meand the rest of the editorial team, but moreof a constant irritant to the folks who selland actually produce the magazine. Case inpoint: In this very same space last month, Ipromised a piece in this issue of FOH on theconcept, pros, cons and how-tos of settingyourself up as a one-stop shop. But a quickglance at the table of contents will revealthat... it ain’t here. For those of you whohave been reading FOH for a while, this willnot be a big shock, as I can’t count the num-ber of times that something in the “coming

next month” banner failed to appear when promised.

It’s like this: F O H i s,at its heart, a newsp u b l i cat i o n , and my most fo rm at i ve ye a r swe re spe nt wo rking on news p a pe r s.To me itis just a basic truth of the universe that newschanges and develops on no one’s schedule.If F O H is to really serve this industry, we needto be able to “t u rn and burn .”Th at is, c h a n g ed i re ctions in an instant when circ u m s t a n ce sor eve nts demand it. Some of our co m pe t i-tors have been around for a ve ry long timeand have be come the publishing equiva l e nt sof battleships—big and ve ry powe rf u l ,but it takes a long time to change co u r s e.

F O H is more like a spe e d bo at—it may notseem as imposing at first glance, but we are alot quicker and more flex i b l e.

Like I said, it makes some other folksnuts.“Hi. Production department? This is Bill.Remember that story that I gave you lastweek that you have already designed andhave finished and ready to print? Well some-thing better just came in and I am going tohold that for next month.” Or this one.

“Sales department? No, I won’t give youa carved-in-stone calendar of editorial con-tent for the next six months. I’ll type up whatI am planning right now, but I guarantee itwill be fiction before it comes off the laserprinter. Yes, I know your clients want one to

plan their advertising. Just tell them that theFOH audience is the best and most qualifiedgroup out there and that advertisers whoare serious need to be talking to them every month.”

It makes me a real popular guy. So this isbasically the long way of telling you that Imade the decision to push that one-stopshop piece until next month. And I promiseit will be there... unless something really coolcomes along that I like better.

On the whole issue of changes, my familyand I have been dealing with the fe e d i n gf re n zy that is the So u t h e rn Ca l i fo rnia re a le s t ate market and are finalizing the sale ofour home here and getting re a dy to move toLas Ve g a s. It is all about change, and one ofthe biggest changes in publishing is how theI nte rnet has made off-site editors more then o rm than the exce p t i o n ; in some cases ito f fers a lot of adva ntages over having a singlestaff in a single locat i o n .

Vegas is be co m i n g, in many ways, t h eeve nt prod u ction hub for the West Co a s t, a n dmy pre s e n ce there will allow both F O H a n dP L S N to really be dialed in to the explosion ofl i ve eve nt business there and the new showst h at open seemingly once a month and areco n s t a ntly pushing the enve l o pe of prod u c-tion te c h n o l ogy.

As long as I can keep my lovely wifeaway from the poker tables, we oughta dojust fine. Wish me luck.

P u b l i s h e rTerry Lowe

t l owe @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

E d i t o rBill Evans

beva n s @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Technical EditorMark Amundson

m a m u n d s o n @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Associate EditorStephanie Fletcher

s f l e tc h e r @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Copy EditorLinda Evans

Contributing WritersJerry Cobb, Dan Daley, Maureen

D r o n e y, David John Farinella, Nort Johnson, Ted Leamy, BakerLee, Tony Mah, Bryan Reesman,

Jamie Rio, Richard Rutherford, JoyceS t o r e y, Tim Williams

P h o t o g r a p h e r sSteve Jennings, Bree Kristel

Production ManagerShawnee Schneiders s c h n e i d e r @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Senior Graphic DesignerRobert A. Gonzalez

rg o n z a l ez @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Graphic DesignersEzra Padua

e p a d u a @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Josh Harrisj h a rri s @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

National Sales ManagerPeggy Blaze

p b l a ze @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

National AdvertisingD i r e c t o r

Gregory Gallardog re g g @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Manager of OperationsWilliam Hamilton Va n y o

wva nyo @ fo h o n l i n e. co m

Business and Advertising Office

18425 Burbank Bl vd.S u i te 613

Ta rz a n a , CA 91356Ph : 818.654.2474 Fa x : 8 1 8 . 6 5 4 . 2 4 8 5

C i r c u l a t i o nSt a rk Se rv i ce sP. O. Box 16147

No rth Ho l l ywood, CA 91615

Fro nt Of Ho u s e (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 3 Nu m be r8 is published monthly by Timeless Co m m u n i cat i o n sI n c. , 18425 Burbank Bl vd. , S u i te 613, Ta rz a n a , CA9 1 3 5 6 - 6 9 0 2 . Pe ri od i cals Postage Paid at Ta rz a n a , CAand additional mailing office s. Po s t m a s te r : Se n da d d ress changes to Fro nt Of Ho u s e, PO Box 16147,No rth Ho l l ywood, CA 91615-6147. Fro nt Of Ho u s e i sd i s t ri b u ted free to qualified individuals in the livesound industry in the Un i ted St ates and Ca n a d a .Mailed in Canada under Pu b l i cations Ma i lAg re e m e nt Nu m ber 40033037, 1415 Janette Ave. ,Wi n d s o r, ON N8X 1Z1 Overseas subscriptions areavailable and can be obtained by calling 1-818-654-2 4 7 4 . Ed i to rial submissions are enco u raged but willnot be re t u rn e d. All Ri g hts Re s e rve d. Du p l i cat i o n ,t ransmission by any method of this publication iss t ri ctly pro h i b i ted without the pe rmission of Fro ntOf Ho u s e.

Publishers of. . .

B i l lE v a n s

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Editor’s Note

FOH is, at itsheart, a news

publication

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News

N EW YO R K , N Y — When Do l by Labo rato ri e smade its debut on the New Yo rk Stoc kE xc h a n g e, t h ey wa nted to make a splash thatsignaled the co m p a ny’s ex pe rt i s e : in this ca s e,ringing the opening and closing bells for thefirst time ever in surround sound.To do so, t h eycalled on Scharff We i s be rg to provide theaudio sys te m . “We wa nted to do somethings pecial for the IPO and came up with idea ofh aving the opening and closing bells ring ins u rro u n d,” co m m e nted Bill Al l e n , Do l by’s senior dire ctor of prod u ction serv i ce s. “Th atwould have re q u i red a multi-channel play b a c ks ys te m , which did not exist in the Stoc kE xchange building.”

Dolby created a custom multi-channels u rround re co rding of the opening and closing be l l s. A Yamaha DM2000 digital audio console was provided by Scharf fWeisberg to route the discrete channels ofaudio to Apogee AE5 spe a ker cabinets

s u s pended on the catwalk above theExchange floor. Mike Derosa was the accountmanager for Scharff We i s be rg and Mi keAlboher the audio engineer.

“We understand that this was the firsttime the opening and closing bell sound hasbeen altered in the history of the Exchange.In addition, we captured the room’s surroundexperience and provided a ProLogicII feed tothe Exchange’s broadcast center that wasrouted to the world’s news services. Needlessto say, the pre s s u re was on,” said Al l e n .“Everything went exactly as planned.”

The setup was managed by Dolby engi-neers Ken Hunold, Tom Kodros and AndrewTurner as well as Scharff Weisberg staff. “Wecouldn’t gain access to the Exchange untileveryone left the floor the night before theevent, but the setup and testing were done ina very efficient manner,” concluded Allen.“The teamwork was phenomenal.”

CO LO RADO SPRINGS, CO — With theo pening of the new 7,500-seat audito rium atNew Life Ch u rch underway, Da ryl Po rte r,chief audio engineer for New Life Ch u rc h ,t u rned to Av i o m , m a n u f a ct u rer of the A-Ne tPro16 Mo n i tor Mixing Sys te m , for a monito rs ys tem that could handle the churc h’s larg ep raise band. The 11-piece band fe at u re sd ru m s, b a s s,key bo a rd s,e l e ct ric and aco u s t i cg u i t a r s,s t ri n g s,wind instru m e nts and a choir.

Po rte r, who has wo rked in the co nte m po ra ryc h u rch market for a number of ye a r s, h a sn o t i ced a tremendous change re g a rding theaudio te c h n o l ogy used for worship serv i ce s.“Music is a big part of the worship ex pe ri-e n ce at New Life Ch u rc h .We started using afew pieces of the Aviom gear in the old sanc-t u a ry and we re ve ry happy with it. In the newf a c i l i ty, i n co rpo rating the Aviom sys tem hasg i ven us a much cleaner house sound.”

Dolby Rings Wall Street’s Bell

New Life Church CelebratesAnniversary with Aviom

M I A M I , F L — The Miami Ca rn i val is one ofthe most impo rt a nt and popular eve nts ofFl o ri d a’s Hispanic co m m u n i ty. Be t ter kn ow nas the 8th St reet Ca rn i va l , the eve nt bro u g httogether more than 1.5 million people fro mMi a m i’s diverse Latin co m m u n i ty for a day ofce l e b rat i o n ; L atin food, music and dancetook over Mi a m i’s 8th stre e t .

Six of the major stages offe ring pe rfo rm-a n ces we re equipped with line arrays. Ofthese six, four we re D. A . S . Au d i o’s Ae ro pow-e red line arrays. From smaller sys tems madeup of four CA-28A mid-high units and twoCA-215A subwoo fers per side to larger sys-tems made up of 10 mid-high sys tems andfour subwoo fers per side, the Ae ro sys te m sd o m i n ated the stages of the Miami eve nt .

Miami-based High Inte n s i ty Sound &L i g hting provided sound re i n fo rce m e nt fo rthe stage spo n s o red by the Mi c co s u kee Go l f& Co u nt ry Cl u b. Four CA-28A powe red mid-high modules and two powe red CA - 2 1 5 Aswe re used per side of the stage, and fo u rpowe red Co m p a ct 015 monitors on stage.Eric Lu i s, audio engineer and pro p ri e tor ofHigh Inte n s i ty, re m a rk s, “The clari ty andsound pre s s u re that these sys tems prov i d ecombined with the ease of handling suchco m p a ct units make wo rking with the Ae ros ys tems a pleasure.”

Just a few ya rds away was the stages po n s o red by He n e s s y, w h e re another D. A . S .Ae ro line array was installed. He re, New Yo rk -based E&M Audio opted to use six CA - 2 8 Asand two CA - 2 1 5 As per side. The majori ty ofthe artists pe rfo rming at the Henessy stagewe re of the re g g a e ton genre, a Ca ri b be a nspin-off of hip-hop, so E&M Audio re i n fo rce dthe low fre q u e n cy section with four pow-e red Co m p a ct 218 Subs to provide ext rap u n c h . Powe red Co m p a ct 2 sys tems we reused for on-stage side-fills, and stage moni-to ring was provided by powe red Co m p a ct115 two - ways.

On the Bud Light stage, 16 CA-28Asarrayed in two columns of eight units perside were flown from the stage wings andreinforced with four ground stacked CA-215A powe red subs, supplied by USASound Reinforcement. A wide variety of livee nte rt a i n m e nt was offe red on the Bu dLight stage throughout the day.

On the stage suppo rted by Latin te l evision and radio bro a d ca s ters Univisión Ra d i o, Miami-based Inte rf a ce,headed by Ralph Alvarez, flew 20 CA-28As,10 per side, with eight CA-215As providingl ow - e n d. On stage, D. A . S . Co m p a ct - 1 1 5 scombined with Co m p a ct 18Subs we reused as side fills.

Line Arrays Dominate Miami Carnival

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F O RT PECK,MT—On the easte rn Mo nt a n ap ra i rie sits a small wooden theat re with a ri c hc u l t u ral past. Built as a silent movie house in1934 by the U.S. Army Co rps of Engineers, t h eFo rt Peck Th e at re was long a vital part of theco m m u n i ty. The theat re’s heritage and thet i reless effo rts of vo l u nte e r s, a ctors and te c h-n i c i a n s, for 35 years had fo rged a good namefor the Fo rt Peck Th e at re, but there was a fly inthe oint m e nt : sound in the theat re was bur-dened with a bad re p u t at i o n .Now, the theat rehas reclaimed its 1930s status as the cultura lh e a rt of Fo rt Peck and its env i ro n s, thanks inp a rt to a Meyer Sound sys tem designed andinstalled for the theat re by DECK Prod u ct i o n s.

Faced with possible demolition in the1960s, concerned citizens formed the Fort

Peck Fine Arts Council, Inc. Over the years,local business support, private donations andgovernment grants helped the Council fulfilltheir dream of restoring the theatre to itsoriginal beauty.

While the outside of the art s - a n d - c ra ft s -s tyle building was being re p a i nte d, the roo fwas being re p l a ce d, and the elect ri cal sys te mu pd ate d, the bo a rd of dire ctors of the Summer Th e at re knew something had to bedone about the ve n u e’s sound. Ch a i rwoman of the bo a rd Patt Etc h a rt elabo rate s, “The t h e at re was built in a hurry, and had noa coustics for live theat re. Actors we re n’t ableto pro j e ct .” Ch ri s topher Kri s t a nt, the theat re’ste c h n i cal dire cto r, witnessed the problem d u ring the prod u ction of Ch i ca g o t h at ran at

the theat re : the pe r-fo rm a n ce was gre at,but the majori ty of the audience could not hear, resulting in many unclaimeds e at s. Cl e a rl y, if the t h e at re was to surv i ve,the sound had to be addre s s e d.

The first challengewas money: Kri s t a ntand Etchart knew theannual budget wouldnot cover design andinstallation fees for anew audio system. Buttheir desire to returnthe 1,209-seat theatreto its former standingled the two to organ-ize a radio fundraiserand the “seat for life”p rog ra m , both ofwhich helped raise the nece s s a ry funds.Kristant and Etchart shared their vision withDECK Productions’ Elton Halley, who was tooversee the system’s design and installation.

From Halley’s first meeting with the theat rebo a rd members and staff, their passionbe came his ow n .“I wa nted to supply a sys te mt h at would be really good for them. Th ey we renot only investing in a new sound sys te m ; t h eywe re investing in me.”

However, the building’s incredible crafts-manship and its place on the Nat i o n a lRegister of Historic Places made implementa-tion of the sound system somewhat chal-l e n g i n g. H a l l ey assessed the roo m’s audiore q u i re m e nts and unique arc h i te ct u ra ldesign, including beams nearly two feet thickand 74 feet long, and settled on a systembased around a center cluster of five M2Dco m p a ct curvilinear array loudspe a ke r s,f l own using Qu i c k Fly rigging hardwa re.Halley filled out the system with two USW-1P

compact subwoofers and an LD-3 compen-sating line driver.

An invaluable tool in Halley’s design ofthe sound sys tem was the Meyer So u n dMAPP Online acoustical prediction program.“MAPP Online is just one more thing to giveme confidence that I have designed a roomthat meets, and even exceeds the needs ofthe client.” MAPP Online allowed Halley tovirtually “build” the room, calculate the loadof the speaker system, determine distancesand speaker placement, and even show theclient how the sound system would performin their space.

A sound sys tem designer with ex pe ri e n ceon Bro a dway, H a l l ey readily ackn ow l e d g e s, “ Id o n’t ca re how good you are ; a nydesigner/installer is nervous until the sys te mis cra n ked up.” He need not have wo rri e d.While the theat re’s rich histo ri cal past mighti n d u ce pat rons to a show, it is the high qualitysound sys tem that keeps them coming back.

News

6 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

DECK Productions Upgrades Historic Theatre’s Audio System

AUSTIN, TX—Held from March 11 toMarch 19, this year’s South by Southwestagain featured thousands of participantsand show g oe r s, each person somehowi nvo l ved in music, film or inte ra ct i ve m e d i a . Ne a rly 1,300 bands pe rfo rmed in the 60 part i c i p ating venues over the week-long co n fe re n ce, and 10,000 people registered for the accompanyingtrade show.

EV sponsored a music stage at the bag-gage claim at Austin International Airport,greeting visiting attendees and musicians

with acts spanning all genre s, l a rge EV banners, and EV pro audio equipment.

Headhunters, a Tiki/Polynesian-themedrock club, kept crowds partying into thewee hours with a total EV/Dynacord sounds ys te m . Co m p rised of two Zx5 loud-speakers, a Dynacord PowerMate II 1000m i xer and EV N/D967 mics, the small system was more than accurate in terms ofcoverage and intelligibility. From the AmishArmada to the Black Iri s h , He a d h u nters fe at u red a number of cra zy, n o - h o l d s -barred bands throughout the week.

SXSW Rocks Austin

200.0505.News.EP.qxd 5/2/05 11:03 AM Page 6

MIAMI, FL—Sound designer Terry McNeilof Pro Sound - Miami drew on every inch ofhis extensive experience to come up with thegoods for DJs Sasha and Digweed, playingthe 20,000-capacity American Airlines Arena.

So u rcing gear from Co n ce rt Sys tems USA,( Gu l f po rt and Ta m p a ) , Mc Neil used loudspe a k-er cabinets from three diffe re nt NEXO ra n g e sto achieve his object i ve of 360-degree dispe r-sion from an end-stage co n f i g u rat i o n . “At thepeak of the night, I mete red the sys tem at117dB A-we i g hte d.The clari ty was amazing.”

McNeil, who specializes in large-scale sys-tems for dance music events, chose a relative-ly unusual co m b i n ation of NEXO tangenta rray boxe s. The main ste reo cluster wa sformed by 24 GEO T full-range cabinets: twoarrays of 10 T4805 with two T2815 downfillboxes. For side fill arrays, 24 GEO S compactcabinets were used in two arrays of 12, and12 of NEXO’s Alpha enclosures were used forthe backfill and VIP area. For subs, McNeilspecified four CD18s each side, with six AlphaS2s ground-stacked in the middle. The sys-tem was pow ered by 29 CAMCO Vortex 6amps, and that was just the main P.A. For theDJ rig monitors, three further CAMCO ampspowered more NEXO cabinets, an Alpha Eand PS15 combination.

Ra n dy Fri e r s o n , owner and MD of Co n ce rtSys tems USA, pulled inve nto ry from both hisGu l f po rt wa rehouse in Mississippi and fro mhis new regional office in Ta m p a . “The showwas co n f i rmed quite late in the day,” ex p l a i n sFri e r s o n , “so we had to pre p, t ra n s po rt and

o rg a n i ze personnel from our two locations inless than 24 hours. We handled the ent i re pro-d u ct i o n , s u b - re nting some S2 subs and PScabinets from 6th Se n s o ry So u n d, and ourc rew list included myself as one of the sys te m se n g i n e e r s, alongside Harry Brill Jr, Dave Dra keand Joe Rod d a . In addition to the arena sys-te m , we provided a good - s i ze Alpha sys te mfor the main co n co u r s e.”

Lead systems engineer for the Ultrafesteve nt was Harry Brill Jr, who kept taki n gSmaart Live measurements to confirm whathe was hearing.“The SPL of the T rig was con-sistent throughout the lower bowl, it was justamazing. I also thought the GEO S rig was agreat complement to the T rig for the sidehangs. NEXO never fails to impress me.”

News

Pro Sound and Concert Systems USA Get Jiggy for DJ Show

VENUE WorldwideDealer Networkcontinued from Cover

North American Dealers:• Anderson Group International

(AGI): Oregon • Audio Analysts: Colorado • Clair Brothers Audio: Pennsylvania • Contact Distribution

(Distributor): Canada • Firehouse Productions: New York• FM Systems: Canada • Hi-Tech Audio Systems: California • Masque Sound: New Jersey• Platt Design Group: California • Sound Image: California • Spectrum Sound: Tennessee • Sweetwater: Indiana • T.C. Furlong: Illinois • Washington Professional: Maryland

International Dealers:• A/D Systems: Italy • Arva Trading AB: Sweden • AudioPro: Portugal • Benum A/S: Norway• Dispatch SA / Best Audio: France• Heavy Moon: Japan • Hermes Music: Mexico• Lagoona SA: France• Marquee Audio: United Kingdom • Niveau 2 Mediasystems SA

(Distributor): Switzerland • Seesound: Spain • Seki Electronics: Korea • Soundata: Finland • Sun Muse: Japan

Circle RS# 112

Please see more NEWS on pg. 35

200.0505.News.EP.qxd 5/2/05 11:03 AM Page 7

PA RC DE LA FONTAINE DE JOU-V E N C E, F RANCE—Half a dozen soundre i n fo rce m e nt companies around thewo rld have signed on as new L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC partners.

Lab Beijing and Lab Shanghai in ChinaAfter joining the V-DOSC Network,

both companies provided their V-DOSCsystems for Elton John’s September 2004co n ce rt in Shanghai and Je a n - Mi c h e lJarre’s October concert in the ForbiddenCity. Lab Beijing and Lab Shanghai eachown 24 V - D O S C , 12 dV-DOSC and 16SB218, plus L-ACOUSTICS amplification.

MSI Japan Hong Kong Company LTDMSI JAPAN HONG KONG COMPANY

LTD is a subsidiary of MSI Japan, which,with an inventory of more than 180 V-DOSC cabinets, is one of the largest V-DOSC partners worldwide. Shortly aftera c q u i ring its own sys te m s, MSI Ho n gKong sent a 24 V-DOSC, 12 dV-DOSC and16 SB218 rig out on tour with the popu-lar Chinese actor/singer Andy Lau. Morere ce nt l y, the co m p a ny provided thesound sys tem for a co n ce rt by thefamous Taiwanese singer Jay Chau, heldlast November in Hong Kong Coliseum.

CSP Productions - SingaporeCSP Productions has been named L-

ACO U S T I C S’ V-DOSC Pa rtner fo rSingapore. Its first system consists of 24V-DOSC cabinets, 30 units of dV-DOSC, 16SB218, 8 dV-SUB subwoofers and 46 L-ACOUSTICS LA48a amplifiers. Within thepast two months, CSP’s V-DOSC systemhas been used on various shows andeve nt s, including the Si n g a po re IdolGrand Finals, concerts by Avril Lavigne,Sting, Norah Jones and Diana Krall, theMosaic Music Festival, MediaCorps’ APMMusic Awards, and The African Coca-ColaConference in Singapore.

TURIN, ITALY—In late February, ErnestoOlivero and Mauro Tabasso presented a con-cert of Dal Basso della Terra in honor of PopeJohn Paul II. The Salone della Idee in Turin’sArsenale della Pace was packed to capacitywith attendees. The concert, featuring well-kn own co n d u ctor Sa l vato re Ac ca rd o, wa stransmitted over Italian national broadcasterRAI’s channel 3 on March 7.

The Outline audio rig, installed and fine-tuned by Bologna’s Nuovo Service, consistedof three arrays made up of Butterfly Hi-packC . D. H . 483 (6+5+6), two Vi ctor Live sub-woofers, four H.A.R.D. 212 monitors and fourMicra enclosures, used for front-fill purposes.The entire system was powered by OutlineSeries T power amps.

Nu ovo Se rv i ce’s ow n e r, Willy Gu be l l i n i ,commented, “With artists of this caliber, it’sthe precision and the naturalness with whichsound nuances are reproduced that makesthe diffe re n ce be tween one sys tem anda n o t h e r, and there fo re give the best endresult. Outline Butterfly once again ensuredus a high-end pe rfo rm a n ce without anyproblem at all.”

International News

Dal Basso della Terra Concert Honors Pope John Paul II

L-ACOUSTICS Gains V-DOSCPartners Around the World

continued on page 9

8 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

200.0505.News.EP.qxd 5/2/05 11:03 AM Page 8

Se n n h e i s e rE l e c t r o n i cC o r p o r a t i o nhas pro m o te dJamie Scott tothe position ofwe s te rn re g i o n-al sales manag-e r, p ro fe s s i o n a lp rod u ct s. S co t twill have p ri m a ry salesoversight acrossall of theS e n n h e i s e rp rod u cts and distri b u ted brands for theregion. He will also be responsible for manag-ing and developing the we s te rn re g i o n a lsales re p re s e nt at i ve s, m a rket deve l o p m e ntmanagers and assistant regional managers.He assumes the job previously held by LeeStein and will re po rt dire ctly to Je f fAlexander, Sennheiser vice president of sales.Scott joined Sennheiser in 2000 as a salesrepresentative in the Northern California ter-ritory. He will work from his home office inthe San Francisco area.

SLS Lo u d -s pe a ke r s h a sappointed severalkey executives tohelp spe a rh e a dthe next phase ofthe co m p a ny’sg rowth in thee n g i n e e ri n g, c u s-tomer service andsales and market-ing are a s. To mTyson has be e na p po i nted fielde n g i n e e r i n gd i re cto r. SLS alsohired Harry Klaneas the new U.S.Ea s te rn re g i o n a lsales managerand Joel Moak asthe U.S. We s te rnregional salesm a n a g e r. In addition, the co m p a ny hire dGa rth Sh owa l ter as customer serv i ce manager and in-house design assistant forcontractors and dealers. The company hasa p po i nted Rick Davidson to head up l ogistics for all trade show activities and dealer demo prod u ct ro t ation as well as

coo rd i n ating tra n s po rt ation for all of theregional and national sales managers’product demonstrations.

Sh u re Inco rpo rate d has appo i nte dO s car Fulvio He rn a n d ez as the plant manager fo rthe company’sm a n u f a ct u ri n gf a c i l i ty inSuzhou, China.The state - o f -the-art Suzhoum a n u f a ct u ri n gf a c i l i ty hasbeen conduct-ing productiontrials since late2 0 0 4 , and full

p rod u ction of select prod u ct lines is expected this spring. Hernandez has beenwith Sh u re for nearly 22 ye a r s, wo rking in the Agua Pri e t a , So n o ra (Mex i co) andDouglas, Ariz. facilities. He began his career as a test engineer and progressed through a va ri e ty of positions in the Agua Prieta m a n u f a ct u ring org a n i z at i o n . In 2001, he was appo i nted plant manager of Agua Prieta. He earned a BS Industrial Enginee-ring degree in elect ronics from theTe c h n o l og i cal Institute of He rm o s i l l o, and an MBA in human re s o u rces administra -tion from the Un i ve r s i ty of Ch i h u a h u a ,both in Mexico.

Celestion has augmented their sales andmarketing team with two new additions. JayCresswell, the new U.K. sales manager, comes

to Celestion with more than 10 years of expe-ri e n ce in sales and acco u nt management in the pro audio field. He most re ce ntly managed key acco u nts for Toursound m a rkets at Harman Pro UK. His role atCelestion is U.K.-wide and focused on maximizing sound reinforcement sales andrationalizing channels of distribution.

Based in Norco, Calif., Rick Skillman, thenew OEM sales manager for North America, isa professional musician who also has sub-stantial experience in sales. As regional man-ager with CSI, Inc, Skillman played a key rolein substantially increasing annual sales andoverall customer satisfaction ratings, as wellas establishing the company as a leader in itsindustry. His role at Celestion is to maximizeOEM sales of pro audio components, guitarand bass speakers in the Western half of the United States.

9w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m May 2005

On The Move

JamieScott

TomTyson

JoelMoak

Oscar Fulvio Hernandez

Playback Music – TurkeyPl ayback Music has joined the V -

DOSC Ne two rk , a n d, as such, its firstinventory order consisted of 16 V-DOSC,12 dV-DOSC, 16 ARCS and 8 SB218.

Backstage - AustriaNew V-DOSC partner Backstage has

been inte g rated into the V - D O S CNetwork after it purchased a completet u rn key sys te m , including 36 V - D O S Cand 24 dV-DOSC enclosures. Backstageprimarily works in the market segmentsof corporate, classical music and festivals,and many projects are currently beingorganized for the summer.

L-ACOUSTICS Gains V-DOSCPartners Around the Worldcontinued from page 8

200.0505.News.EP.qxd 5/2/05 11:03 AM Page 9

A-Line AcousticsALA10 with EZALH a r d w a r e

Based on their AL10 line array, with itsunique patented EZAL rigging system, thepowered ALA10 delivers 1,000W to two 10-inch drivers and 250W to one 1.4-inch HFd ri ver utilizing Bang & Ol u fsen ICEpowe rtechnology. Features include built-in com-p u te r - co nt rolled DSP and switchable dualvoltage power supply for operation at 90-132VAC (55-65Hz) or 190-265 VAC (45-55Hz).The ALA10 can be mixed and matched withu n powe red AL10 enclosures for using asd ow n f i l l , e tc. The inte g rated EZAL sys te mallows cabinets to be positioned and focusedunder load for quick and easy set-up. EZAL(Easy Alignment) hardware consists of side-m o u nted re ctangular bra c kets with leve ra d j u s t m e nt and four set pins—three fo r

attaching and one for positioning. The blackpowder-coated high-strength steel riggingincludes top-mounted swivel tabs with holesfor attaching cabinets. Up to 16 enclosuresmay be coupled and flown. Set on a fulcrum,one person can easily raise or lower any cab-inet, from zero to five degrees—while cou-pled and under load. This is accomplished bypulling out pins on each side and positioningthe metal bar, by hand over holes in quarter-inch increments for the first two degrees andhalf-inch incre m e nts from three to fivedegrees, then reinserting the pins to securethe desired angle. Further adjustment to 19d e g rees is possible by selecting alte rn ateattachment holes.

A-Line Acoustics814.663.0600www.a-lineacoustics.comRS# 132

Allen & Heath GL2400Live Sound Mixer

Allen & Heath has launched the 4-bus,dual-function GL2400 live mixer, a successorto the GL2200. Available in 16-, 24-, 32- and40-channel frame sizes—all with individualvertical PCBs and copper bus bar ground-ing—the GL2400 boasts an extended pre-amp gain range of 74dB with input on XLR orjack, differential balanced +26dBu outputsand a new ultra-quiet mix head amp designfor optimum dynamic range. The GL2400 hasa third master fader, which can be configuredto create a center fill or sub-bass mix fromAux 6, a mono sum of the LR mix, or a moni-tor wedge output. All channels have pre/postfader aux switching, and in Monitor mode, allauxes are available on faders with mutes,inserts, meters and XLR drive. One of the keyfeatures of the GL2400 is the new 7x4 matrix,which provides ext ra output flex i b i l i ty. I nFOH mod e, i n d e pe n d e nt fill spe a ker andacoustics compensated recording feeds canbe created, while in Monitor mode, the matrixoffers more monitor outputs from the groupsand LR with added ambience for PM applica-tions. From $1,999

Allen & Heath800.431.2609www.allen-heath.comRS# 133

A u d i o - Technica AT892 MicroSetHeadworn Mic

The MicroSet utilizes a condenser cap-sule with a diameter of a mere 2.5mm, mak-ing it ideal for applications requiring mini-mum visibility. In addition, the MicroSet offersan erg o n o m i c, f l ex i b l e, u l t ra - l i g htwe i g ht,under-ear design that is both comfortable towear—The MicroSet hooks behind the earand can be worn for hours without fatigue—and highly secure. Intended for high-quality,l ow - p rofile inconspicuous ope rat i o n , t h eMicroSet is available in either a non-reflectiveblack or theater-beige finish. Available in amultitude of terminations to work with A-Tand other manufacturers’ wireless systems,the MicroSet includes two windscreens, twoelement covers, a cable clip and a protectivecarrying case. $439-$499

Audio-Technica U.S.330.686.2600www.audio-technica.com

LCS LX-ML8 Mic/LineAnalog Input Module

LCS Au d i ohas re l e a s e dthe LX-ML8, a ne i g ht - c h a n n e lb a l a n ced XLRaudio inputm odule for theLX-300 audioe n g i n e, t h ebuilding bloc kof the Mat ri x 3p rod u ct seri e s.The ML8 pro-vides softwa re - co nt rolled microphone andline level gain settings of +26dBU and+ 1 6 d BU down to -57dBU in 1dB ste p s.Cu e Console and Va riable Room Aco u s t i c s(V RAS) sys tems now provide co m p l e te pro-g ra m m a b i l i ty of the ent i re signal pat h , f ro mm i c rophone level settings through to signalp rocessing for loudspe a ke r s.

LCS Audio626.836.0446www.lcsaudio.comRS #109

Meyer Sound MVC-5L o u d s p e a k e r

The MVC-5 is a gra d u ated ve rt i cal cove r-age loudspe a ke r, a self-powe re d, m u l t i p l e - e l e-m e nt,c u rvilinear array with fixed splay angles,housed in a single co m p a ct enclosure.The sys tem is ideally suited for vo i ce re p ro-d u ction in large spaces with single-level l i s tening areas at minimal or gradual eleva-t i o n s. Though pri m a rily intended for vo i ce,the MVC-5 is also capable of re p rod u c i n gre co rded music and sound for audiov i s u a l

p re s e nt ations in the co ntext of meetings,co rpo rate and other eve nt s, or in houses of wo r s h i p. The MVC-5 loudspe a ker is func-tionally similar to a line array consisting of f i ve M1D ultra - co m p a ct curvilinear arrayl o u d s pe a kers with splay angles optimized for mod e rately high SPL and co nt rolled g ra d u ated ve rt i cal cove ra g e. For applicat i o n sw h e re cove rage needs are co m p atible withthe MVC - 5 , this design results in a ve ry flatre s ponse and even cove ra g e, f rom a singleunit in a smaller space or multiple units in ad i s t ri b u ted sys te m .

Meyer Sound Laboratories510.486.1166www.meyersound.comRS #111

New Gear

10 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

New Gear

Link AD AudioDistribution System

The AD System is a modular PCB basedaudio distribution sys tem that prov i d e sthe flexibility of up to four outputs (paralleland/or tra n s fo rmer isolated) for use instage boxes or wherever input and outputconnection points are required. The ADSys tem fe at u res LK Co n n e ctor panels,Input and Output panels and add onTransformer modules. All system compo-nents are connected by flat ribbon/busca b l e s, which are sold te rm i n ated andavailable in different lengths. This plug-and-play system is easily configured and

upgradedable. There are many combina-tions for the AD system, including panelswith one to five LK 25 multipin connectorsallowing the sub snakes to come into themain stage box in groups of eight via oneconnector. Also, by ordering special cableharnesses, the AD IN and OUT modules canbe used as conve ntional XLR connectori nte rf a ces for DSP mat ri ces that usePhoenix connectors.

Link USA407.774.0088www.linkusa-inc.comRS# 131

Sennheiser ASA3000Antenna Splitter

The new streamlined ASA3000 single-rack space device may be used to combineup to 16 channels of Sennheiser 3000 Seriesre ce i ve r s, co n f i g u red as eight EM3031 single channel, eight EM3032 dual-channelor EM3532 dual-channel true dive r s i tyreceivers. The broadband ASA3000 may beoperated across the entire UHF range orm ay optionally be fitted with select i ve

f i l te ring for more foc u s e d, n a rrow bandoperation across a micro-frequency inputrange. The unit provides DC power to theantenna head amplifiers. $1,750

Sennheiser USA877.736.6434www.sennheiserusa.comRS #134

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Circle RS# 130

200.0505.Ads.SS 5/2/05 10:40 AM Page 11

V e n u eWilliamson County Pavilion, Marion, IL

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: T Productions Concert Sound &Lighting Inc.FOH En g i n e e r s : Nick Turner, Steve WilsonMo n i tor En g i n e e r : Jon Finn

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Midas XL200, Allen & Heath GL4Spe a ke r s : CV D32D, CV L36PE

Am p s : QSX MXaProce s s i n g : XTA DP226, KTDN3600, SPX900, REV 5,Intelligate, Composer, XTA GQ600Mi c s : Shure Beta 91, 57, 58, SM81, D112,Power Di s t ro : Proprietary 200-amp Three-Phase,Prop 200-amp Single-Phase

M O NCo n s o l e : PM2800Spe a ke r s : EAW SM222Am p s : QSC MXaProce s s i n g : ART HD31

David Allan Coe, Shooter Jennings,Kentucky Headhunters, Lance Thompson

V e n u eFlorida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Tech-TronicsFOH En g i n e e r : Ron KramerMo n i tor En g i n e e r : Gary HarveySys tems En g i n e e r : Ted RoepkeProd u ction Ma n a g e r : Dave MeolaSys tem Te c h : Adam Evans

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e s : Yamaha PM4000, Midas Venice 320Spe a ke r s : L-Acoustics dV-DOSCAm p s : Lab.gruppenProce s s i n g : Omni DrivesMi c s : Shure Beta seriesPower Di s t ro : Motion Labs

M O NCo n s o l e : Midas XL3Spe a ke r s : Yorkville TX2Am p s : QSC

Dierks Bentley

Showtime

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Eighth Day SoundFOH En g i n e e r : Chris RaboldMo n i tor En g i n e e r : Brad BlettenbergSys tems En g i n e e r : CW AlkireProd u ction Ma n a g e r : Chris RaboldTour Ma n a g e r : Trey AllenSys tem Te c h s : Joe Langholt, John Switzer

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : DiGiCo D5

Spe a ke r s : L-Acoustics V-DOSC, dV-DOSC,d&b audiotechnik B2, C7Am p s : Lab.gruppen, d&b D12Proce s s i n g : EL8 Distressor, Lake Contour, SummitDCL200, TC Electronic M3000, D2Mi c s : AKG, Audio-Technica, Shure, SennheiserPower Di s t ro : Creative

M O NCo n s o l e : Yamaha PM1DSpe a ke r s : d&b audiotechnik M2, C7, SennheiserE300 IEMAm p s : d&b A1, P1200

Widespread Panic US To u r

200.0505.Showtime.EP.qxd 5/2/05 11:31 AM Page 12

Venue The State Theatre, Portland, ME

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Audio East, Inc Mo n i tor En g i n e e r : Derek Penrose Sys tems En g i n e e r : Dan BouchardSys tem Te c h : Duncan Mackinnon

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Midas Verona 480

Spe a ke r s : EV XLc Line ArrayAm p s : EV P3000, Crest Pro Series Proce s s i n g : DX38 Mi c s : Shure, A-T, AKG, Audix Power Di s t ro : AEI

MON Co n s o l e : Crest HP840 Spe a ke r s : EV XarrayAm p s : Crest CAProce s s i n g : dbx

Breaking Benjamin, Theory of a Deadman, The Exies

13w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

H a r l e q u i nV e n u eThe Exchange Event Centre, Winnipeg,Canada

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Audio WorksF O H / Mo n i tor En g i n e e r : Philippe KwonSys tems En g i n e e r : Jimi Kinsman

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Soundcraft DeltaSpe a ke r s : JBL, proprietary subsAm p s : CrownProce s s i n g : dbx DriveRack, Roland SDE3000,Lexicon PCM80, Yamaha SPX990, BSS404Comp/limiters, Aphex gatesMi c s : Shure, AKG, Sennheiser, AudixM O NCo n s o l e : Mackie SR24Spe a ke r s : TOA bi-amped monitors, Elite

1000 (drums)

Jamie O’NealV e n u eHu Ke Lau Restaurant, Chicopee, MA

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: SPL SystemsFOH En g i n e e r : Tim MooreMo n i to r / Sys tems En g i n e e r : Bill ForbesSys tem Te c h : Scott Larochelle

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Soundcraft K2Spe a ke r s : EAW AS300e, SB1000Am p s : Crest 7001,8001, Crownvz5000Proce s s i n g : Lexicon PCM80+90 Drawmerquad comps+gates

Mi c s : ShureM O NCo n s o l e : Soundcraft K2Spe a ke r s : Ramsdell 15” co-axAm p s : CrestProce s s i n g : Ashly

Virginia DECAState LeadershipC o n f e r e n c eV e n u eWaterside Marriott, Norfolk, VA

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: M & M Productions USAFOH En g i n e e r : Al LudwigSys tems En g i n e e r : Mike BrownProd u ction Ma n a g e r : Mike BrownSys tem Te c h s : Tony Cox, Josh Gilliland,Aaron Gilliland

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Midas Venice 320Spe a ke r s : JBL Vertec 4887, Bag End QuartzAm p s : Crown MacroTechProce s s i n g : BSS, Klark Teknik, TC ElectronicMi c s : CustomRi g g i n g : Genie ST24M O NSpe a ke r s : Yamaha PassiveAm p s : Crest

Rogue Va l l e yF e l l o w s h i pEaster ServiceV e n u eMedford Armory, Medford, OR

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Garon Lee SoundFOH En g i n e e r : Bill CruzeMo n i tor En g i n e e r : Garon WellsSys tems En g i n e e r : Jeff ShermonSys tem Te c h s : Bill Cruze, Jeff Shermon

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Soundcraft Series 5Spe a ke r s : L-Acoustics ARCSAm p s : Lab.gruppenProce s s i n g : BSS Minidrive 336Mi c s : Audix OM5-D1-D2-D4, Shure SM 58 SM57 SM81, AKG 414, CADM O NCo n s o l e : SoundcraftSpe a ke r s : L-Acoustics 112XTAm p s : Lab.guppenProce s s i n g : BSS Minidrive 336

F o r e i g n e rV e n u eRoute 66 Casino Legends Theatre,Albuquerque, NM

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Audio ExcellenceMo n i tor En g i n e e r : Sean TrujillioSys tems En g i n e e r : David BuehlerSys tem Te c h : David Lewis

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Yamaha PM-1DSpe a ke r s : EAW KF-750/755Am p s : CrestProce s s i n g : BSS OmniDrive CompactMi c s : Shure Beta 58, Beta 98, SM57, SM58,AKG 391, 414, SM81, Sennheiser MD-421 Power Di s t ro : Motion Labs RacPack,In-house PDRi g g i n g : CM Lodestar

M O NCo n s o l e : Allen & Heath ML-5000-48Spe a ke r s : JBL TTM-149, Meyer Sound MSL-4Am p s : Crown 36x12, Meyer

Proce s s i n g : dbx EQCrown

S k i l l e tV e n u eMuscle Shoals H.S. Auditorium, MuscleShoals, AL

C r e wSound Co m p a ny: Icon EntertainmentFOH En g i n e e r : Gary J BrunclikMo n i tor En g i n e e r : Michael EmbrySys tems En g i n e e r : Seth DanielsProd u ction Ma n a g e r : Seth DanielsTour Ma n a g e r : Gary J BrunclikSys tem Te c h s : Seth Daniels, Michael Embry

G e a rF O HCo n s o l e : Midas Legend 3000Spe a ke r s : EV XLC-127+ , Mackie 1800Am p s : EVCP3000 Proce s s i n g : EV DX38Mi c s : Shure, beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, A-TPower Di s t ro : PropietaryM O NCo n s o l e : Allen & Heath 3300Spe a ke r s : EV XW15, Shure PSM600Am p s : QSC Proce s s i n g : KT9848

FOH Wants to know what you’re working on! Visit www.fohonline.com/showtime to submit your information online, or send a crew and gear list tosfletcher@fohonline.com. Photos are optional but

make a great addition to your listing.

May 2005

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Under the name of the Alvin AileyAmerican Dance Theater, Alvin Ailey’smission and vision of American

dance has been thriving for more than 46years. The AAADT brings a wide variety ofAiley’s 79 ballets and more than 190 worksby more than 71 choreographers to audi-ences across America and around the world.Under the ubiquitous title of “SoundEngineer,” Paul Allshouse is master of allthings audio for AAADT. While he believesdeeply in the values and goals of the com-pany and each performance, at the end ofthe day, he has a job to do, and doing thatjob means battling some very familiardemons. Having started with the companyin September of 2003, Allshouse tells us a lit-tle about audio design on the fly, life on theroad and abroad, and the oldest battle in thebook—fiscal responsibility while deliveringthe best show possible.

As the sound engineerfor the AAADT, what areyour responsibilities?

Paul Al l s h o u s e : I pre t ty much take ca reof eve ry t h i n g, f rom the music libra ry at theo f f i ce to making rehearsal copies and editingwo rkshop mate rial for the dancers and theo u t reach prog ra m s. The Alvin Ai l ey Da n ceFo u n d ation has an outreach prog ram wheret h ey go into the schools and teach kids abo u td a n ce.Th ey have these all over the co u nt ry,so I edit their pe rfo rm a n ce music… any t h i n gt h at re l ates to the music, even archiving it toan exte nt, t h at all falls under me. I have aPro Tools setup at my house, so I can get wo rkdone from home.Th at helps a lot be cause Ican do some of my editing in the eve n i n g s. I

h ave all of the curre nt music on my hardd ri ves at home.

What does this season’sschedule have in storefor you?

Th e re are five weeks at Ci ty Ce nter inDe ce m ber and January. Th at’s pre ceded bytwo weeks of pre p.Then we usually haveanother two weeks in New Yo rk pre p p i n gfor the domestic to u r, for a total of abo u tnine or 10 weeks in the city. The domestictour runs from January to the end of May orJune and then we’re back in New Yo rk fo ranother week or so. After all that we heado f f, usually to Eu ro pe, but this year we’regoing to Se o u l , South Ko rea and To kyo,J a p a n . Then we come back in July and buildnew ballets. Eve ry year there are three or sonew wo rks that are cre ated from theg round up. Th ey hire chore og ra p h e r s, o rsometimes our artistic dire cto r, Ju d i t hJ a m i s o n , c h o re og raphs a new wo rk . Wh e nt h ey hire chore og ra p h e r s, we wo rk with thebe s t . We’ve wo rked with Ro be rt Bat t l e,Renee Harri s, Al o n zo Ki n g, you name it.David Parsons did a ballet last ye a r.

Is all the music pre-recorded or is there alive orchestra?

Usually we wo rk with pre - re co rded music.Th e re are oc ca s i o n s, for ex a m p l e, at Ci tyCe nte r, w h e re we do live music. We doReve l a t i o n s l i ve for the first week we’re at Ci tyCe nter and they pick one additional ballet todo live. This year it was Shining Star, w h i c hwas chore og raphed by David Parsons toEa rth Wind & Fi re music. This was arra n g e d

with a full 15 piece band in the pit and thosewe re some pre t ty spe ctacular pe rfo rm a n ce s.My backg round is more with live wo rk , so fo rme it’s a real tre at to be able to do that withthis co m p a ny. Eve rything else on tour is pre -re co rded and we have that on CD.

What system do youuse for playback?

We have two Denon C635 CD playe r sw h e re we have “Y - e d” the re m o te to tri g g e rboth units at the same time. This way we’rerunning a real-time back-up all the time d u ring pe rfo rm a n ce s. From the CD playe r s,to the ca b l i n g, all the way into the bo a rdeve rything is totally indepe n d e nt for eachp l ayer so that if a cable we re to fail, or a dri vem o tor we re to fail, the sys tem is just a pushof a button from jumping to the second CDp l aye r, which is always in time with thed a n ce r s. The dancers have all been tra i n e dso if anything happens to the music, t h eyshould keep their co u nt in their head andjust keep going and not stop unless stagem a n a g e m e nt tells them to. This way, if theykeep going, and I have to flip to the back-up—which happens in an instant—it shouldbe ri g ht in time with the dance.

Has this ever happened?Yes! Not fre q u e nt l y, by any means, b u t

ye s. Usually it’s a skip in the CD. O n ce wehad a skip in one of the CDs when we we reoverseas and we we re able to jump into theb a c k - u p, and it wo rked fine. I had anotherone where there was a co m po n e nt failurewith the CD player and it sto p ped re a d i n gthe track IDs, so instead of stopping at theend of a track it would keep play i n g, but only

f ra g m e nts of the tra c k . Ag a i n , I was able toflip to the back-up, which was still in the co r-re ct position and time for the dance r s.

When you get to othercountries, what equipment do you travel with?

I always tour with at least my Front ofHouse package, which is a Yamaha DM1000,and that’s new as of a year ago. Before thatwe were using a Yamaha 03D. I am veryadamant that we stay with digital, and Ithink that’s the correct way to go.

Not long after I started, we got new pro-cessing gear and the new board. I’ve had alot of experience on the DM2000, but it wasa little hard to justify that many inputs on aplayback show, so we went with theDM1000.

W h a t ’s the diff e r e n c ebetween a DM1000 anda DM2000?

Basically, its number of channels. The2000 is a 24-channel control surface and the1000 is a 16-channel. Basically they run offthe same software, but the 2000, being thelarger control surface, has more functionkeys and more keys readily available. Withthe 1000, most of the functions are stillthere, you just have to go find them orassign them to user defined keys—theDM1000 is about half the size of the 2000.

What about processing?The old processing was BSS Va ri c u rve,

which was switched over to the Kl a rk Te kn i kHelix sys te m , which gives me more funct i o n s,

By JoyceS t o r e y

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

FOH Interview

14 May 2005

Paul AllshouseThe FOH Engineer

Is Dancingas Fast

as He Can

P a u l A l l s h o u s e

200.0505.FOHInterview.JH 5/2/05 10:56 AM Page 14

m o re flex i b i l i ty and fe wer rack spaces so it’seasier and lighte r - we i g ht for to u ri n g. Wi t heve rything prog rammed into the DM1000 itm a kes it easier to deal with the fact that wechange pe rfo rm a n ces eve ry night ; each bal-let is alre a dy pre - p rog rammed with level set-tings and EQ. A lot of the music is quite old.Some of the really old stuff was re co rded inthe ‘ 2 0 s. We’re doing a new piece this ye a rcalled Bu rl e s q u e which is all old Lo u i sArm s t rong music. It’s a really beautiful piece,but a lot of the music was originally re co rd e din the ‘ 2 0 s. I can sto re all of the EQ and co m-p ression settings for each specific section ofmusic in the DM1000 and re call it instant l yd u ring the run of the show.

Is there any kind ofback-up for theD M 1 0 0 0 ?

No. Th e re really isn’t a back-up to theD M 1 0 0 0 . If that happe n s, we punt . But anykind of failure like that is really unlike l y. Atthe same time, t h e re was last summerwhen we we re on the Asian tour in

Shanghai and I got hit with a voltage spiket h at took out the CD players and the bo a rd.I ended up having to punt for four morevenues on that to u r. I was using whateve rco n s o l e — a n a l og or whateve r — t h at thevenues happened to have sitting there. Th es p i ke actually happened during our load-in,so the show wa s n’t affe cte d. Come to thinkof it, I don’t even think the dancers knew ith a p pe n e d. Th at was ve ry stre s s f u l , b u tthose kinds of things happen…

Broadway seems tofavor the Cadac console,are you a Cadac fan ordoes that desk not really work for what you do?

I am a fan. I certainly love the Cadac, theCadac and the Midas both. But the cost fac-tor, for what we do as a non-profit dancecompany, is a little high. Compared to theCadac, we can do similar things, in terms ofautomation and MIDI firing. The Yamaha is acost-effective way to get the automationfeatures we need, but in a smaller, moretransportable console.

We’re not commercial; this is a non-profitorganization, so we watch every penny. Wedo things less expensively, while maintain-ing our quality. Our artistic director is veryquality conscious, and she is always willingto find and spend the money, but only if itmeans better quality.

How many days do youget to load in and howmany people do youhave to help?

With sound, a load-in starts at 8 a.m. a n dwe will do a single day load-in with a showthe same eve n i n g,so it’s a pre t ty quick turn-a ro u n d. Th at load-in is usually me, plus twol ocal cre w, and by noon I’m doing soundc h e c k s. While the rest of the crew breaks fo rl u n c h , sound will stay on until 1 p. m . and thath o u r, f rom noo n , is my sound check time.After lunch we’ll take ca re of clear co m , we’l lset up paging for stage management and do

all of those kind of things. By 3 or 4 o’ c l oc kwe turn the stage over to the dance r s. Th ey’l ldo space and rehearsal and then we co m eback for the evening pe rfo rm a n ce.

For the most part, sound set-up is re a l l yjust setting up Fro nt of Ho u s e, and ty i n gi nto the house sys te m . We tour with anE AW FOH re i n fo rce m e nt package that co n-sists of six EAW self-powe red 400s on eitherside and three EAW 180 subs on either side,so there’s a lot of power there. Th at’s usual-ly ground stacked ri g ht on the pro s ce n i u m ,and we usually tie into the house cluste rand house under-balco ny delays if theyh ave it.

Before you arrive at aparticular house, do you know what theirsystem is?

Yes. We take care of all of that on theadvance work. If I determine that their regu-lar reinforcement system is of high enoughquality, then we won’t necessarily use ourEAWs. I find that most of the time I do use a

house rig; our artistic director gives me lot ofnotes on sound quality. The artistic directorlikes warm tones with very potent bass.Really, this reinforcement system has beenwith the company for five years now, it’s thesound that the artistic director and the com-pany are used to and find familiar.

The system works well for me, but Iwould also like to make improvements.We’re doing some research into new d&bgear, which also comes back to the cost fac-tor, because d&b is much more expensivethan what we have now. In talking to ourvendor, it’s clear that changes like this couldreally jump our price, but it’s something thatwe’re looking into for the future.

Is your show different in New York than when you’re on tour?

There’s a lot of emphasis put on the factthat the performance, in Kansas City, or L.A.,or anywhere is the same show as in NewYork—the same quality, the same lighting,the same sound. There’s a lot of emphasison the fact that everyone gets the highestcaliber of performance possible. We actuallyuse all of our lighting touring rig, our touringdance floor, and I use my touring FOH atCity Center.

Tell us a little about yourmonitoring system…

The dancers are very particular as towhat it sounds like on stage. They’re used torehearsing with their headphones on, witheverything turned up loud and really feelingthe music. So the monitoring system is fourEAW 300s, bi-amped, in the lighting towers.And the dancers like it loud. Sometimes itcan be as loud or louder on stage than it isin the house. In most venues I don’t usefront fill for the first few rows because themonitors fill it in. When I use them, I alsohave to delay the EAW stacks a little to meetwith the monitor system.

How do you read a room when you

first walkinto it?

I usually start byplaying music. If we’repondering whether touse the house system,we’ll throw in a showCD and we’ll play it—if its giving me what Iwant, we’ll use thehouse rig and if notwe’ll use ours. Duringour sound check time,I’ll just pick a coupleof ballets and playthem over and overagain adjustingdelays, adjustingfocus, and EQ until Iam listening to what’sin my head, to what that ballet should soundlike. There’s a lot of walking around thehouse and listening. Of course, a housealways changes how it sounds when you get3,000 bodies in there, so a sound check in atotally empty hall, with a totally empty stagemeans you always have to tweak a bit any-way. Usually the second performance is justa little bit better sounding than the first one.

How long do you stay in a venue?

Usually it’s about a week. Sometimesthere are one-nighters where we do load-in,show, load-out, travel overnight and load-inthe next morning, but it’s usually three to

seven days in each venue. Our load-outtakes about two hours and usually happensright after the last performance. On thoseone-nighter days, we load-in at 8 a.m., do aneight o’ clock performance and are out atabout midnight. Depending on what theschedule is, sometimes you go right to thehotel and travel the next day or in rare casesyou get right on a bus and travel overnightwith a load-in at 8 a.m. the next morning.This is relatively rare, like once a year, but itdoes happen. We’re planning a trip toEurope in September where we’re going todo six weeks all over the U.K. and a couple ofthose stops will be like that.

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m 15May 2005

“The dancers are very particular as to what itsounds like on stage. They’re used to rehearsing

with their headphones on, with everythingturned up loud and really feeling the music.”

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Alicia Keys is out in style, with a tourwhose vibe is ‘30s with a moderntwist. With her band all dressed in

white, the stage draped in curtains andAlicia’s vocals smooth yet vibrant, her the-ater/arena tour is selling out everywhere. Wespoke with FOH and monitor engineers TonyBlanc and Chris Schutz about the show.

Tony Blanc: For Alicia’s tour, we are outusing Showco/Clair Bros. and their proprietycabinets, the Prism system.The venues havevaried from theaters to arenas; hence theP.A. size has constantly varied in size. Thebasis of the system comes with sub-bass,and the “Gray” nearfill boxes.

My mixing console is a Heritage 3000with a Yamaha DM2000 for the opening acts.The Heritage is a meat-and-potatoes desk—just very functional. I use a lot of outboardcompression. When the tour was spec’d wehad no idea of the opening acts and their

number. The DM2000 has more memorythan I have left, a compressor/gate on eachchannel and 12 FX engines.

Ch ris Schutz: I ’m on a Yamaha PM5000.The preamp and EQ sound gre at . I am usingall 12 of the ste reo auxes for 10 PM mixe s,which are all ste re o. The main reason I chose

the bo a rd was for the outputs; I had heardf rom other engineers that it sounded gre at .We l l , it doe s ; it is a gre at-sounding bo a rd, a n din true Yamaha fashion, easy to get aro u n do n . The auto m ation wo rks well and is easy ton av i g ate. I use seve ral scenes for cues duri n gthe show: four of the eight mono auxes fo r

we d g e sand the re s tfor FX sends.Th e re are also fo u rs te reo mat rix outs and eightmono mat rix outs. I have an OBTW (“Oh ByThe Way”) PM mix on a ste reo mat ri x , w h i c hhas kept me out of few jams when a be l t-pack has RF inte rfe re n ce. I also dri ve someadditional wedge mixes for John Legend aswell as a few Ba c kline Tech Mi xes from them at ri x . Th e re is also a Midas XL3 sideca r,which handles the opening act inputs.

T B : I ’m not using any gate s.Th ey are inthe ra c k s, but with the way the dru m m e r

p l ays,it wa s

not appro-p ri ate to use

t h e m . I ’m in lovewith Di s t re s s o r s, a n d

t h ey are on all the main voca l s.The remainder of the co m p ression is dbxu n i t s.Th e re are a pair of dbx 160s across as u bg roup of snares and to m s. Eve ntide Ec i l p s eand TC5000 are used for vocal tre at m e nt .

Most of the stuff in my racks I use onevery tour: a couple of reverbs, TC2290 delayand a Wendel. The old Wendel has been withme 15 years. It’s very useful for tuning a P.A.that uses compression as part of its drive. Ifire the kick and snare and can hear theroom react.

Photos and Text By SteveJ e n n i n g s

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m16 May 2005

Alicia K e y s

To ny Blanc

This show re q u i re sas quiet a stage as

po s s i b l e. It is like tak-ing a step back in time

back to the ‘ 3 0 ’s.

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CS: The very nature of this show requiresas quiet a stage as possible. It is like taking astep back in time back to the ‘30’s. Everyoneis using PMs for Alicia’s set, of which all areFuture Sonics’. Two of the band members areusing EM3s, which are Future Sonics genericears. Alicia, the three background singersand the musical director are wireless; therest of the band is hardwired belt packs withStewart PA100 amps driving them. All mixeshave Clair IOs inserted across the mix bus forEQ. There are four SRM wedges, two downcenter, one at both her piano and Wurlitzerposition. I use these sparingly; mostly theyare for comfort.The MD gets one SRM with afull band mix for fill. Two are two R4s forsidefills to augment low-end to give a littlemore feel on stage. I rely heavily on thehouse to fatten up the ear mixes. I am usingthe new Sennheiser G2s for Alicia’s PM mix.The packs are small and sound great—youbarely notice then in her outfits. The rest ofthe wireless are Sennheiser 3000 series. TheDistressor handles Alicia’s vocal—I will notdo a tour without at least two in my rack. Adbx 160SL is inserted across the BGV submixfor Alicia’s mix. The rest of the compressorsare two Valley People PR10 racks withGainbrain IIs loaded in them. They are older,but sound great. Aphex gates for a few of

the drums. A TC M3000 andEventide H3000 for Alicia’svocal FX. Three M-Ones forBGVs, M5000 SPX 990 finishout the rack.

TB: This is my first tourwith Alicia. I hope to domany more with her, as thetalent is quite breathtakingand I love watching her worknight after night. It’s a greattheater show. We have justdone a couple of arenas,which have taken a little get-ting used to, as the environ-ment is so different.

CS: Alicia and the bandare great to work with. Sheknows exactly what shewants and communicates itwell. At the same time, shenever panics on stage. Onenight after her quick-changethey did not connect her PMto the pack. She did thebiggest number of the night

with no PMs or wedges.With perfect pitch, neveronce looking over to me,she did the song. We did-n’t know she had a prob-lem until after the songwas over. She’s a trueprofessional. Alicia hassuch vocal power andnever holds back; she’sgreat to work with. It’s afun show to mix, evenfrom a monitor guy’sperspective.

Alicia’s vocal mic is aShure U4D with a Beta58a capsule. It soundsgreat, I have a few dips inmy EQ but for the mostpart her channel is flat.We have used the Beta58a since Tony and Istarted with her in

January.

TB: This band has been a dream. It is theeasiest show to mix, and make sound greatsince I stood in front of Sting’s Blue Turtlesband. I have a long relationship withShowco/Clair. They have been very support-ive on this project, as always.

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m 17May 2005

Chris Schutz

200.0505.ProdProfAlecia.JH 5/2/05 11:22 AM Page 17

On Broadway

18 May 2005

Set on the French Ri v i e ra and inspire dby the movie with Michael Ca i n eand Steve Ma rt i n , Di rty Ro t te n

S co u n d re l s tells the tale of a pro fe s s i o n a lt ri c k s te r, his co h o rt in crime (a chief ofpo l i ce) and the young charl atan whowa nts to learn more about the art of theco n , p a rt i c u l a rly as it applies to rich singlewo m e n . Co - s t a rring John Lithgow andNo r be rt Leo Butz as the con man and hisp ro t é g é , both of whom co m pe te to swin-dle a young heiress out of $50,000, t h i sBro a dway musical is wittier and more funthan you might think, and it fe at u re ssome catc hy musical numbers to boo t .

The man responsible for giving thesedirty tricksters a clean sound is engineer BobBiasetti, who has worked on The Boy FromOz, Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme and Annie GetYour Gun, among many other shows. Beforea recent matinee, he spoke to FOH aboutmanning the boards for this glitzy,Hollywood-inspired show.

What new challenges didthis show present?

This was the first time we’re using a newDiGiCo D5-T console, so that was probablythe big challenge.

How is it?It’s great. It’s intuitive for someone who’s

a mixer, unlike some other digital desks. Itmakes sense getting around it. I know thatAndrew Bruce had a lot to do with thedesign of the TC. The regular DiGiCo consolewas a rock ‘n’ roll console, then AndrewBruce got involved and they developed theDigico T and TC.“T” as in “theatre.” So it wasvery intuitive when it came to our theatreneeds, between programming software andmixing capabilities.

The producers seem to like it because inthe past, we would probably have 12 or 13seats of space that you would have to takeup with mix position. Now we’ve cut thatdown to half the size, so they get back fourto six seats of what they’d normally have ona big show, which for them is money in thebank. It’s a big plus for them because theyget to actually make a lot more money.

What kind of softwareare you running?

It’s DiGiCo software. It’s all proprietary tothe console. It’s PC-based, unfortunately, butno one makes an Apple-based software[laughs].

How many channels areyou mixing?

We’re using 120. We have about 18 in thepit and around 30 in the cast. We have twoof our principals double-miked. JohnLithgow and Norbert are double-miked witha custom A/B mic-switch box in case we everlose one of the microphones. They neverreally come off stage, so we would never beable to get to them to swap their mics out.We have DPA 4061 microphones on thewhole cast.

Some of the cast mem-bers go out in the audi-ence.

We have three people in the cast whocome out in the audience. We have Norbertin the box, one actress as an usher andanother lead in front.

Have you had any prob-lems with the wirelessmics when people wan-der into the audience?

We’ve had no RF problems at all. It’s justbeen mostly about gain structure and know-

ing where you’re limits are—when peopleare standing right in front of the speakers,knowing how loud you can go. At the sametime, when they’re up there, we’re trying tomake them sound like where they’re comingfrom. When Norbert’s in the box, you wantthe source of the sound to come from upwhere he is, but at the same time let theentire audience hear it.

Do you use any process-ing at all?

No. We’ve done that in the past, but thistime we’re trying to keep it as acoustic aspossible while letting the audience hearwhat’s going on.

Last night’s show fea-tured Laura MarieDuncan filling in for therole of Christine Colgate,and she did a great job,but you’re probably notused to mixing her.

That’s always different. She has a totallydifferent voice than our regular leading per-son [Sherie Rene Scott]. That always presentsinteresting changes. She was nervous, andwe were trying to figure out on the fly howto set that voice in the mix and make it bal-ance with everybody else.

Do you have understud-ies come in very often?

Not so far, but eventually people will goon vacation or get sick. That presents newcomplications every time, especially forNorbert because he wears this hat for mostof the show, so we’re going to do a lot ofextra work with the understudies ahead oftime to mix some new presets and new EQchanges to complement how he sounds andhis understudy’s hat, which he’s going towear through practically the first act.

Do you worry about anybleed in the orchestrap i t ?

When you mic the pit well, you use thebleed to your benefit to help the overallsound. Mic placement and mic choice are a

big part of that. You have 17 or 18 musiciansin a very small area, and you have a lot ofmicrophones down there. You have bleed,and you can’t get rid of it, so by good micplacement and picking the right micro-phones, you use the bleed of the micro-phones to enhance the overall sound of theorchestra.

With so many micro-phones and so muchsound, you don’t want itto be loud, especiallyfor the older audiencet h a t ’s going to thiss h o w, correct?

Ye s. Pa rt of what we’re doing with theconsole is if mics are n’t being used in ce r-tain are a s, we’re muting and unmutingmics with the auto m ation package as pe rw h at we need in the specific numbe r s. Al lthe reeds are double-mike d — t h e re’s ahigh mic and a low mic. We have a lot ofpe rcussion mics, so if pe rcussion piece sa re n’t being playe d, we’re muting thosem i c s. We’re trying to keep the ove ra l la m o u nt of mics that we don’t need dow nto a minimum. In prod u ct i o n , in the be g i n-n i n g, i t’s a little hard, but once you take al ook at the sco re and you figure out whatpeople are playing and those part s, i t’so kay. It’s just a lot of prog ramming wo rkd u ring prod u ct i o n.

Are you using diff e r e n tmics in the orchestrathan with the cast?

For the orchestra we’re using a bunch ofdifferent mics—Neumanns, DPAs and AKGs.Just the complement of normal mics that welike to use.

Are you using speakersall around the ImperialT h e a t e r ?

We have a whole surround system ofEAW UB12s. We have 20 downstairs and 20upstairs. We’re sending orchestra reverb toenhance everything around the theaterwithout getting it too loud.

Some shows are gettingtoo loud these days,d o n ’t you think?

Yes. A lot of times there is no sense oflocation. Someone could be standingupstage left, but it still sounds like you’rehearing it out of a proscenium speaker that’son the other side of the stage. Localizationdoesn’t seem to be as prevalent as it proba-bly should be.

By BryanR e e s m a n

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

Keeping Those

Dirty Rotten ScoundrelsSounding Squeaky Clean

200.0505.OnBroadway.rg.qxd 5/2/05 11:22 PM Page 18

At the risk of sounding like a broken record(does anyone remember those?), the thing thatseparates the wheat from the chaff in the fieldof live event production is passion and pride ina job well done. I have said it many times inthe past, and I love it when I get further confir -mation of this basic truth. The following is aletter we received about a month ago. Not onlydoes it sum up that truth nicely, but it extendsit to the next generation as well. Good stuff...

-Ed.

The following is part of a letter that Iwrote to my niece after she got aninternship with the NBC Agency as a

production assistant.I was obviously very proud of her, but

after writing back to her, and re-readingwhat I had written to her, it seemed to turnon a light for me as well. For so many years Ihave been in this business, and I’ve dealtwith the normal obstacles associated withwhat we do every day, and how it affects us,but I guess I’ve never really looked at it insuch simple terms for myself.

I’ve witnessed epiphanies from severalpeople, including my wife. I wanted to sharethis with you so that you could considersharing it with your readers. Thanks.

“There is, most certainly, a lot of repetiti-tititiveness in what we do, and it still amazesme that most people are so caught up in the‘glitter’ that they can’t even imagine that aone-hour concert or awards function wouldtake more time than that to do.

“We definitely have to love what we doin our fields. We have to understand that thereal appreciation of our accomplishmentsmust come from within ourselves, and alsounderstand that very few other people willever really ‘get’ what we do.

“Don’t get me wrong... People will say it’sgreat, or funny, or that they’re proud of us,but they mostly don’t really get it.

“Every so often, someone who under-stands, and who has credibility, will trulyappreciate, and recognize us for what we do,and that feels great, but most of the timewe’re on our own.

“If I could leave you with anything thatmay help, it would be this...1 ) Keep yourself invo l ved with people whoa re be t ter than you are at what you do.Th ey will be people you can learn fro m . Th i swill help you to appre c i ate what you doeven more.2) Keep yourself involved with people whoare not better than you are at what you do.They will be people you can teach. They willappreciate and admire your knowledge, helpyou to learn even more, and in doing so,they will also help you love and appreciatewhat you do even more.3) Always remember what exactly it is thatmakes you love what you do.

“Two years ago, while I was in the hospi-tal, I started thinking (perhaps over-thinking)

about my life: where I was in life, where I wasgoing, what I’ve accomplished... I guessextended stays in hospitals will do that. Icame to the realization that I have over thepast 30-plus years been honing my skills andknowledge in order to do what I do, and

have been doing it on some level for morethan 24 years.

“The hours are long, the cases are heavyand the evidence, if I do an awesome show,is to not evenbe noticed. Irealized thatthe only peo-ple who canremotelyunderstandwhat I do arethe people Iam working with on that show, and eventhey can only understand ‘their slice of thepie.’ In my position, I am seldom able towork with anyone who can fully understand,and appreciate what I do. I can’t even gohome and talk about it because they don’tget it there either.

“So why do I do it? I just love it! I love toc re ate ; I love to tra n s fo rm pe o p l e’s ideasand co n cepts into an ex pe ri e n ce. I love tobe able to cre ate the emotional re s po n s e s

t h at are need-ed in order toh ave a suc-ce s s f u lf u n d ra i s e r, o rto be able toc re ate theexc i te m e ntneeded to

m a ke people happy about being at anawa rds banquet, even though they didn’twin any t h i n g.

“But mostly, I guess, I love knowing whatit takes, and knowing that I get it! And I lovethat you get it too!”

19May 2005

Guest Editorial

“????

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

Why Exactly DoWe Do This?Why Exactly DoWe Do This? Keep yourself involved with people who

are better than you are at what you do.They will be people you can learn from.

This will help you to appreciate what you do even more.

By RodneyV a l e

200.0505.GuestEditorial.JH 5/2/05 10:58 AM Page 19

Set in Arl i n g to n , Texas on more than 50 beautifully landsca ped acre s,at the heart of the Da l l a s / Fo rt Wo rt h

Me t ro p l ex , is High Po i nt Ch u rc h( w w w. c h u rc h u n u s u a l . co m ) , one of the faste s tg rowing ministries in the co u nt ry. Kn own as“Ch u rch Un u s u a l ,” H P C’s worship style haso bviously struck a major chord with the p u b l i c ; f rom modest beginnings in 1999among friends and re l at i ves who gat h e red atthe home of Pa s tor Ga ry Simons and his wifeAp ri l , it has grown to encompass a 5,000-seata u d i to rium within a 423,000-square - foo tco m p l ex that serv i ces 20 diffe re nt ministri e s.An d — a c co rding to Pa s tor Ga ry’s maste rplan—this is only the be g i n n i n g.

The task of providing a sound sys te m ,(as well as video and light i n g ) , for Ch u rc hUnusual was undert a ken by Na s hv i l l e, Te n n .’sMaxx Te c h n o l ogy (www. m a x x - te c h . co m ) , w h odesigned a sys tem around co re co m po n e nt sby Innova S O N , N E XO, Sennheiser and Av i o m .

Stirring music, a rousing choir and must-hear lyrics are central to the Church Unusualexperience. Presenting that music in all itsglory along with clear spoken word was thefundamental challenge.

“We started with the series of processesand procedures that we use with every job,”says Maxx’s chief of staff, Martin Culpepper.“Our first step is one that the technologyindustry often omits: we actually stop andlisten to the problems and concerns, as wellas the goals, of our clients. When you reallydo that, it’s amazing what you’ll find out.”

The company’s 13-page client “ListeningReport” helps delineate those concerns andfacilitates the development of a packagetruly based on client needs. It’s this kind ofthorough preparation that’s earned MaxxTechnology a steady stream of referrals from

architects, construction managers andacoustical engineers.

“Pastor Gary and the High Point Churchare not afraid of technology at all,” enlight-ens HPC Front of House engineer RudySalazar.“They definitely want to use it toenhance the worship experience. A lot oftimes, churches use music as a warm-up forservices. That’s not the way it is at HighPoint, where music is central to the experi-ence. At our services, from the moment the

first musical note hits, it’s Church! We have a50- to 60-voice choir and a full progressivemusic band: drums, bass, lead and rhythmguitar, two percussionists, a four-piece hornsection and two keyboard players, one ofwhom is our minister of music, Sion Alford,who is also the praise and worship leader.

“Music is key to the service. When Idescribed what I wanted to MaxxTechnology, I said, ‘I want the music toencompass you.’ And they delivered 100% of what I asked.”

A fo rmer Johnson and Johnson wa re-house was gutted to build HPC; co n s t ru ct i o nwas accomplished in re co rd time.“A big chal-

lenge for us was the co m p ressed schedule ofthe pro j e ct,” admits Maxx Te c h n o l ogy pro j e ctengineer Josh Be rry.“Th ey got approval fo rdemolition the day after Ch ri s t m a s, and theyco m p l e ted the audito rium and classroo m s,and opened the doors for Ea s ter thre em o nths late r. We had to quickly come upwith a co m p l e te te c h n o l ogy design thatwould fit in the infra s t ru ct u re, and then wo rkwithin a process that was ve ry fluid due tothe rapid pace of co n s t ru ct i o n .”

The basic layout of the auditorium,approximately 300 feet long and 250 feetwide with a 23-foot-high ceiling, lent itself to numerous challenges.“The ceiling heightalone made this project a technologicalchallenge,” comments Maxx’s general man-ager, Neal Watson.“A 300-foot throw withceilings less than 25 feet is an unusual situa-tion that demands innovative solutions.”

In addition, tie lines had to be run foraudio, video and communication linksthroughout the complex to both CD/DVDrecording studios and to various worshipspaces, including Spanish and Children’s(Kidmo), worship areas that often run

concurrently, sharing program material withservices in the main auditorium.

The sound experience begins in the 450-foot mall entryway, where columns lit withLED lighting are fitted with a JBL 70-voltspeaker system that broadcasts sound fromthe sanctuary to the arriving congregation.

Inside, a NEXO GEO line array LCR sys-tem, powered by Camco Vortex 6.0s, pro-vides coverage, with additional NEXO speak-ers used in a delay ring to cover the back ofthe sanctuary. The main arrays are com-prised of 12 T4805s and three T2815s, while15 GEO S Series speakers serve as delays.Two BSS Soundweb 9088IIS-LL loudspeakerprocessors are also part of the system.

“NEXO was very good at working with us on the full design,” comments Berry.“They put a lot of energy into helping uscome up with solutions to distribute soundevenly all the way across and back intothe room while keeping the speaker clustersas minimally visual as possible. We useAutoCAD, and NEXO also has a programcalled GEOsoft. It measures the width and depth of the room and shows howto angle the speakers properly so the sound waves are evenly distributedthroughout the space.”

“Something else great about theNEXOs,” adds Salazar,“is that, althoughthey’re low-profile, the look of them actuallyfits in with the sense of awe of the room, likea technological work of art.The ceiling isblack, then up in the proscenium there arethe clusters of hanging silver GEOs. Mostchurches try to hide their speakers. But theway the NEXOs hang, it actually adds to thelook of the room.”

“And, because of the compact size of the speakers—about six feet for each array,”

By MaureenD r o n e y

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

Installations

20 May 2005

ROCKING WITH“Church Unusual”

ROCKING WITH“Church Unusual”

Arlington, Texas’ High Point Church is Not Your Typical Neighborhood Church

“Pastor Gary and the High Point Churchare not afraid of technology at all.

They want to use it to enhancethe worship experience.”

– FOH engineer Rudy Salazar

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adds Berry,“they don’t interfere with anyof the six video screens that are placed inthe room.”

H P C’s digital consoles are by Innova S O N :an Sy80 handles FOH while a Grand Live,u pg raded with Sy80 fe at u re s, covers monito r s.

“I’ve been mixing on analog desks formore than 20 years,” notes Salazar.“I’mused to getting to knobs quickly. So I was a little apprehensive about the digital setup of the Sy80, with just one section of control knobs. But once I got past that,and started punching through some of the menus, I saw how quickly you couldbounce through things, and how easy it was to get around. Now I’m very comfort-able. As a matter of fact, just before thisEaster—our biggest service of the year—Josh, from Maxx Technology, and I wentin and modified the configuration to the X fader mode, which uses lots of layers.Again, I was a little nervous, but it was a very simple operation and there were noproblems at all.”

Overall, the FOH Sy80 handles approxi-mately 80 inputs and 48 outputs, includingsix submixes that feed the video controlroom for High Point’s busy CD and DVD creation departments.

Monitor mixes from the InnovaSONGrand Live desk feed both an Aviom personal monitor mixing system, supplying16 mixes to 10 wireless SennheiserEW300IEM personal monitors, and NEXOPS8s and PS10 cabinets, which are used for the horn section and for podium fill.“It gives the musicians more of a studiofeel,” comments Salazar about the Aviomsystem.“And it eliminates a ton of stagewash problems for the FOH engineer.Thanks to the PMs, the stage volume is a lot lower, and it doesn’t change the integrityof the house mix at all.”

Debuting in April at High Point is Glory &the Fire, a live presentation with a cast ofmore than 50 and “earth shaking soundeffects.” Given the expansion into multime-dia and the explosive growth of the church’sministries, the sound system design is getting a workout, something that MaxxTechnology anticipated.

“Our philosophy in general,” states Berry,“is to lay a good foundation, and to also putin key components that will allow easyexpansion for the future.”

“ I m m e d i ately as we ente red the proce s swith High Po i nt Ch u rc h ,”co n c l u d e sCu l pe p pe r,“we re a l i zed how fo rwa rd - l oo ki n gt h ey we re. Th ey are always thinking abo u tthe future, which fits ri g ht in with the way wel i ke to wo rk .”

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m 21May 2005

”

N E XO GEO line arrays in an LCR configurat i o np r ovide audio for the 5,000-seat audito r i u m .

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Recently I was privileged to sit on apanel at Pro Production 2005 that wasmoderated by Glenn Goodwin of the

Spark Agency, and sat in the company of fel-low panelists Sandra Bartsch, Ken Freemanand Pam Scrape. The panel was poised withthe question frequently asked by vendorstrying to break in to the event productionmarket.“Who do I need to know?”This wasan easy topic for me, as I have used a basicphilosophy for years.

First of all, you need to know me. I amthe producer who makes all the productionvendor decisions for my clients’ events.Second, I need to know you. Not just yourcompany and your resume, but you. I have

spent 25 years in the event production busi-ness, and I am not about to throw it all downthe drain on a new vendor.

I have a very simple test I use with the

people I work with. I mustfeel like I could leave mychildren with them. I don’tmean as godparents, but if Ihad to leave for a day ortwo, I would not worry fortheir safety.

This might seem a bitstrange at first, but thinkabout it. I happen to be themajor breadwinner in myfamily. I make that moneyby producing events for myclients. If I were to workwith any vendor that camealong, or only took the lowbidder, I might make more

money for a short time, but

at some point just paying attention tomoney will come back to haunt you. If I loseclients because of poor decisions, my kidswill lose their home.

That does not meanthat from time to timeclients will not need help,but it does mean that youneed to deliver a greatproduct and price yourselfaccordingly so that you willstill be in business and ableto help when that timecomes. As they say on theplane, put on your oxygenmask and then help yourchildren. Build your busi-ness on a solid foundationso that when you need amask, you have one, anddon’t go down in flames onyour first mistake.

Mistakes will happen. We are all human.When a child makes a mistake, how a parent(producer/vendor) handles it will shape howthe child (vendor/employee) deals with hisor her next opportunity to make anothermistake. I look for vendors who are straight-forward and honest. Don’t tell me what youthink I want to hear. Tell me what exactly isgoing on. That way I can deal with the clientfrom an informed and honest position. It ismuch easier to protect a vendor who comesto me when they know there is a problemthan one who tries to cover it up. This is nota time when it is better to beg for forgive-ness after the problem has hit the fan. Get infront of it. Stand up and take responsibility. Itell my clients that one of my selling points

22 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

I have a very simple test I usewith the people I work with.I must feel like I could leave

my children with them.

to Get Hire d ? A Producer Offers Some Words of Wisdom

Who Do You Need to KnowWho Do You Need to KnowBy KenDeans

President Cl i n to n’s 1993 Inte r n ational Airline Summit at the Boeing 747 Assembly Plant in Eve r e t t, Wa s h i n g to n

The Neville Brothers play Agouron Pharmaceutica l s’ launch of new pedia

The I Love Lucy 50th annive r s a ry celebration at Hollywood Ce n ter St u d i o s,produced by MTV Eve n t s, set designed by Te r ry Gipson

200.0505.WhoDoINeed.JH 5/2/05 11:40 AM Page 22

is all of the mistakes I have made in the past.So not only do I know what to avoid, butchances are, if the ball does drop, I can catchit before it hits the ground, or pick it up fastwhen it does.

Communication is critical. On an air-plane, when you have been sitting on thetarmac for 45 minutes with no explanation,it makes you agitated. Same thing with usproducers—we need to know if there is asnag or snafu coming at us.

More on communication: stay in touch. Idon’t mean that I want to get an e-mail blastevery time you do a show, but maybe bi-monthly or quarterly, give me an update so Iknow that you are still there. You neverknow when a producer is going to get thatbig job in your city. A great example is, whencell phones were just coming on the market,

I got a job producing an employee party forthe company that introduced cellular to theU.S. through a vendor in Seattle, Mac Perkinsat PNTA (by the way, thanks again, Mac). Inthe mid-’90s it was sold to AT&T, and I washired to produce a series of market rolloutsacross the country. I used a decorator inCleveland who over the years has sent mevery tasteful, quarterly and sometimes bi-annual newsletters. Not big, but nice. I amgoing back there this summer with a clientand they will get a good piece of businessout of it.

Advertise. When my kids want me tonotice them, they make noise.There areplenty of places to put an ad. Some of themare even free. Seek out the directories forproducers and event planners. Find thepublications, like this one, that send freesubscriptions to people like me. I am anardent reader of advertising. It not only tells

me who and what is out there, but it canalso give me insight into what my competi-tion is doing.

Contrary to what you might think, not allof us are just wannabe production man-

agers. After years of being a musi-cian, I started out in this businessbeginning around 1979 as a run-ner, and have worked my waythrough promoter rep, produc-tion manager, tour accountant,tour promoter, event producerand consultant. I have madeaudio snakes, taken electricalcourses, designed Broadway sets,got an RIAA degree in recordingengineering and been on and offthe road for the past 30 years.There are quite a few of us whohave done most of the jobs outthere on our way to where we aretoday. That is not to say that there

are not bad producers; I would venture tosay there are more bad than good.

So beyond buyer beware, there is vendorbeware. I also approach clients as I do ven-dors. Just because there is business does not

mean that I am the right producer for thejob. As difficult as it may seem at the timewhen all the bills are coming due, some-times it is better to pass on a job that maycause more problems than benefits. If youdo take the job, get invested in it. Get toknow all of those involved as extended fami-ly. Treat each job as if your children’s future(if you don’t have any, pretend) depends onit, because it does.

In the early ‘80s Deans worked as part ofthe North American management liaison forthe musical groups Men at Work, Split Enz andDivynals. Today he produces events for suchclients as the White House, former PresidentClinton, former Vice President Al Gore, theDemocratic National Party, the State ofWashington, and many cities across the U.S. Hecan be reached via e-mail atken@liaisongroupinc.com or by visiting hisWeb site at www.liaisongroupinc.com.

23w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m May 2005

At some point justpaying attention to

money will come backto haunt you.

ca l s’ launch of new pediatric AIDS drug

K e n D e a n s

200.0505.WhoDoINeed.JH 5/2/05 11:40 AM Page 23

The major misconception about blues isthat it is sad, simple music for thedowntrodden masses.

Likewise, many FOH engineers toil underthe misconception that mixing blues is “easyand simple”—perhaps even “boring”—ascompared to doing sound work for artists inother genres.

Imagine having to mix 12 bands, o fva rying blues sty l e s, for a scheduled 10-hour show, doing only a line check (bluesfest schedules ra rely allow for sound-c h e c k s ) , under a hot sun (or in inclementwe at h e r ) , without at t ra cting the at te nt i o nof or ticking off the local decibel po l i ce, a n dm a king sure the plug is pulled in time tomeet the town curfe w. And let us not fo r-g e t — s i n ce a blues fe s t i val is a once - a - ye a reve nt, t h e re’s no room for inadequacy.Eve nt org a n i zers are ext ra cri t i cal of them i x . In some ca s e s, these eve nts are inte-g ral to a town or city’s to u rist tra d e. If yo uca n’t achieve a good cri s p, clear sound thatd oe s n’t offend the audience (which is nor-mally co m posed of anyone from ages oneto 90), or if too many fe s t i va l g oers are co m-plaining that they “ca n’t hear the voca l s,”c h a n ces are you wo n’t be inv i ted back. Nowt h a t’s p re s s u re.

With the blues festival season justaround the corner, FOH invited a number ofsound engineers and production companiesto explain how they have come awayunscathed from the blues festival hot zone.Some of their comments may surprise you.

Unity GainWhy do blues fests present so many dif-

ficulties for sound engineers? As stated earlier, in many cases, sound engineers don’thave the luxury of performing sound checksfor every artist. In fact, it is almost unheardof, unless you are a major national act(which sometimes brings its own FOH engi-neer). There’s just not enough time, and thechangeover is super-quick (about 15 min-utes in most cases on well-run festivals).

“ It is not unheard of that the first songat a fe s t i val is usually the sound check,”co n f i rms Todd Mi tc h e l l , p rod u ction co n s u l t-a nt at Gre at Lakes So u n d, which handlesthe Toledo Bl u e s Fe s t, among other eve nt s.“ It is good to have a line check and listen tow h at the instru m e nts are doing.”

“We don’t do sound checks,” a d m i t sTim Ta ra l d s e n , c rew chief, p rod u ction man-ager and sound engineer for To t a lProd u ction So u n d, which wo rked the 2004Tampa Bay Bl u e s Fest at the Vi n oyWate rf ro nt Pa rk , St . Pe te r s b u rg. “In blues itis a quick ru n - t h rough ri g ht be fo re your setand away you go.”

“We have no permit to make noise untilthe start of the show,” explains Dennis Deemof Sound On Stage, which handles the SanFrancisco Blues Festival.“Sound check aside, Ihaven’t really listened to the P.A. full on untilthe first band starts. That is definitely chal-lenging. I just am basically ballparking it outof experience after a while. It is the best-guess theory.”

The Day BeforeMost FOH engineers and production

companies prefer to arrive at the venue aday (or more) early to set up and check theirsound systems. If a production company hasworked a festival in the past, recalling setupis the first order of priority.“About a monthbefore Blues Fest we actually assemble thesystem, test it, take it down to the park, hangit up, hang all of the delays, and we fire upthe laptop,” explains Ian Hunt of ChicagoSound, which has been handling theChicago Blues Festival since the early ‘90s.“We have been storing our settings fromyear to year and what we normally do isrecall last year and turn it on and makeadjustments. The system belongs to the Cityof Chicago and is 14 years old, so some ofthe parameters have altered. We take a lot ofcare with the main speakers; they are re-coned every year to operate normally. Sothat gives us a couple of weeks to playaround with the system. When it is hangingup there for a couple of weeks, that’s whenwe do our testing.”

“Over time, as we went from stackingTMS4s to flying 850s, we went through thetweaking point,” says Tim Taraldsen.“The 850rig has been out there on the waterfront in

Tampa Bay, Fla. since 1999, so I hope I have alearning curve this year with a new array.”

Knowing what to expect from musicians,and what equipment they use, can save aproduction crew time and grief. Having asolid and professional backline waiting formusicians can speed things along and bene-fit the overall sound.“Most of the backlinegear in use at the San Francisco BluesFestival is rental gear, which is an advan-tage,” says Sound On Stage’s Dennis Deem.“You might have different people playingthe gear, but it is the same Leslie cabinetand it is the same grand piano. That is theone thing that I have in my favor. I’velearned things over the years just by virtueof the fact that different acts use the sameequipment. It is virtually all the same inputlist band after band.”

“The whole idea of a successful gig iswhen you feel the spiri t,” Cl e a ry says.“Yo uget that little magic that happe n s.Anything that is an impe d i m e nt to that isf ru s t rat i n g. You have to be re a l i s t i c, yo ukn ow? These sound guys are dealing with10 acts on the same stage through thecourse of one day. A lot of them are te m-pe ra m e ntal musicians, and guys have justcome off the bus after riding for six hours,

By WillR o m a n o

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

Production Profile

24 May 2005

G e a rFOHConsole: Yamaha PM3500Speakers: SPL TD1 Mid-High,SPL ServoDrive BT-7 SubsAmps: QSC PL236Processing: TC Electronic M-One,TC Electronic D-Two, Yamaha SPX90,Shure P-4800 DSP, Valley Audio Gatex 451,dbx 166A, TC Electronic C-3, dbx 2231,Aphex 661 Tube ExpresserMics: Audix, Shure, A-T, Neumann, AKG

MONConsole: Yamaha M3000AEQ: dbx 2231Speakers: 15” Radian Microwedge,SPL TD-1 w/ SPL - APB subAmps: QSC PLX3402Speakers: 16-200Amps: 2-Main Amp

MONConsole: Crest w/ elec.Amps: 1-6, 7-12Speakers: 1 Sub, 10-EAW

King Biscuit Blues FestCSS Audio

As blues festival season gearsup, FOH engineers sound off onthe pleasures and pains ofmulti-act concert bills

Got Blues?

200.0505.ProductionProfile.JH 5/2/05 11:27 AM Page 24

not eating pro pe rl y. May be even hungove r.Te m pers get frayed and it is hard. But whenit wo rks well it is love l y.”

“The artists at blues events are a lotmore laid back than a hard rock act or someof the more contemporary artists who haveto have a processed sound,” says King BiscuitBlues Festival FOH engineer Mike Grimm ofCSS Audio.“So as long as you get a goodbalance out in front, and the volume level iscomfortable—not too soft, not too loud—and you have a good mix, most people aretickled with what’s going on.”

A good mixer knows that he has to putthe most important elements of the soundout front.“Growing up in Georgia my idolwas always Duane Allman,” explains WilliamsLindsay, who worked FOH for the 2004 BlindWillie McTell blues festival in Thomson, Ga.,under contract for Tracer Audio.“I definitelylike keeping the guitars hot. However, wehad Pinetop Perkins, and you want to keephis piano hot.

“If I remember correctly, I did bus thepiano inputs through a group for just a littlebit extra gain,” continues Lindsay.“Prettymuch, like I do with any festival, I put eightto 12 channels of insertable compression,and, more than likely, I had a compressor onthe kick drum, compressor on the snare withgates on the toms. If I have a lot of dynamicprocessing, I will insert it and use it as neces-sary, and if it is not needed I will just hit thebypass switch.”

Getting your input lists stra i g ht is not justa te c h n i cal co n ce rn . For King Bi s c u i t’s Mi keGri m m , it also saves precious time.“ How ca nwe make it run smoothly and stay on sched-ule from the te c h n i cal end?” asks Gri m m .“ Le ave a blank input here and there so that ifs o m e body comes up with a bigger act yo ucan quickly insert into the open channels. Weh ave headset co m m u n i cation from fro nt ofhouse to monito r s. So as soon as things getset up, or once my monitor guy decides whatis going to get plugged in where, even if it isd u ring one of the acts play i n g, h e’ll ring meup and say, ‘This is going to go in here ; t h en ext band has this many playe r s,e tc.

“We will have the first 10 inputs on themixer be dedicated to drums,” explainsGrimm.“We will only be using perhaps six oreight of them for most of the acts, but wehave a few spares in there. As I said, we dothat in case someone has percussion or if aguy comes in with his own set and needs acouple more toms miked. We then have anopen slot. Bass always shows up on, say,channel 11. I’m using this as just a ‘forinstance.’ Then the next three channelsmight be dedicated to guitar, whether thereis one guitar on stage or three. Then afterthat we might leave a spot for a harmonicaor two. Then we would leave five inputsopen for keyboards, Hammond organs, etc.Beyond that we would leave some openspots for horns and vocals.”

Ofte nt i m e s,FOH engineers will hearco m p l a i nts from an audience member orm e m bers about not being able to hear the(fill in the blank). Sometimes the co m p l a i nt isan accurate observat i o n . Other times it isn’t .Howeve r, whether the co m p l a i nt is legiti-m ate or not, if the sound is not being heardby eve ryo n e, eve ntg oers may walk out e nm a s s e,and vendors will be hurt financially.Sponsors wo n’t get the ex po s u re they we reex pe ct i n g,and money is lost. All of thismeans the FOH engineer is re s po n s i b l e.“ Ifyou provide a sound sys tem that does thejob ri g ht and covers the area appro p ri ate l y,and that takes ca re of the audience, whichmeans the promoters are 90% of the wayhappy, that puts me 90% of the way happy,”

says Raul Saurez of Third Ear Sound.“Butwhen you are not covering an area consis-tently and can’t decide who you are tryingto mix for (yourself? The guy 10 feet over toyour right?), that is when you wind up introuble.”

They Call It StormyM o n d a y. . .

Two of the longest running and most-loved blues festivals are also the ones thatseem to generate the most rain every year:the Chicago Blues Festival and the KingBiscuit Blues Festival. Yet, despite rain and/orthe threat of rain, fans come out, year afteryear, in record numbers. Fan resiliency foreach of these multi-day, multi-stage shows iswhat breathes new life into the event yearin, year out.“One morning, before the start ofthe festival, we found a little dome tent setup at 8 a.m. not far from the FOH position,”says Mike Grimm.“These guys were inside,

set up with theirrefreshments, andthey could seethrough this littleclear window onthe tent flap. Thatis what I callpreparation.”

“Unless theweather is horrible,they won’t gohome,” chimes inChicago Sound’sIan Hunt.“If theywon’t go home, wewon’t go home—provided we cankeep stage safetyand we are comfortable with the water lev-els, or no water level, on stage.”

When it comes to inclement weather,however, some FOH engineers have to be

careful what they wish for.“We were gettingthese terrible dust storms last year and I washoping for a little rain just to pat down someof the dirt that was being picked up by the

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m 25May 2005

Tampa Bay Blues Fe s t i va l

200.0505.ProductionProfile.JH 5/2/05 11:27 AM Page 25

wind,” says Grimm.“Then, wouldn’t youknow it? It poured.”

“Any time you have an outdoor festivalwe’ll get big, dusty winds,” explains RayneGordon, set-up chairman for the King BiscuitBlues Festival in Helena, Ark.“If you are wish-ing for a little rain, it will pour.”

Despite the problems King Biscuit facedin 2004, festivalgoers, which included someblues industry VIPs, were pleased with thesound.”The sound at the King BiscuitFestival was everything an artist and anaudience can hope for—clear, crisp, well bal-anced and punchy,” says Alligator Recordshead Bruce Iglauer.

Probably the one place in the countryyou can count on consistently great weatheris California. While California festivals aregenerally not in danger of being washed,they can be afflicted by fog. Says RaulSaurez, general manager at Third Ear Soundin Richmond, Calif., which works the

Monterey, Russian River and Santa Cruzblues festivals,“Fog is probably the biggestinclement weather issue we have inCalifornia,” he says.“The fog can change thesound quality. The system EQ balance willchange if the day starts off foggy and thenbecomes a nice, hot sunny day. We just workour way through it. I know some of the guysin the Midwest have torna-does, so we are lucky.Pretty much from Maythrough October, we havenice weather.”

“We’ve had weathercome in and hit us prettyhard—especially overnightwhen we would have toscramble and get every-thing covered up,” saysLoren Wiklander of theDuluth Bayfront BluesFestival.“We usually haveFOH tents with side wallsand a monitor tent withside walls. Then we justtarp down everythinggood, rope it and tie it off.We can still operate with alight drizzle and rain if wehave to, since the front-endboxes are all waterproofedand sealed.”

As with many outdoorvenues, many FOH engi-neers are forced to workfrom underneath a roof ininclement weather. Thesestructures can obstructtheir hearing.“The worstpart from an audio per-spective is that you have tostay covered up at FOH tokeep from ruining yourequipment,” says Grimm.“Ihate mixing from under-neath a roof. Even in blaz-ing heat, I would ratherhave the sun on me thanbe under a roof, becauseyou get a different soundunderneath the roof. We were underneath aroof for two days this past year. In fact, wehad to have side panels up because we haddrifting wind, and little breezes would blowstuff in on the mixer. All I had was a windowin front of the board to see up to the stage.That means that I make several trips outsideof the tent from time to time to get a goodperspective on what everyone else washearing, as compared to what I was hearinginside the tent.”

In the case of three-day King Biscuitevent, the Sonny Boy Williamson II mainstage venue (there are four other perform-ance areas for the festival, including theGospel stage, which is indoors) has a 25-foothigh roof. It does not have scrim to catchdrifting rain. In years past, breezes blewmisty rain on the stage—almost clear out inthe middle of it. (Note: 2004 was the first yearthe KBBF used a roofed-over stage for its mainperformance space. Festival organizers plan onadding scrim for the 2005 KBBF, the festival’s20th anniversary.)

This raises interesting and pertinentquestions: What happens when weathergets too bad? When do FOH engineers/crewchiefs decide to pull the plug? “If lightningstrikes nearby, we will shut down,” saysGrimm.“Most guys who have done this for along time have a box full of tarps and cancover up what needs to be covered up. I’vebeen in some tremendous storms, and wehad only five minutes to cover up, but we

survived it. You always get a sick feeling inthe pit of your stomach any time you seedark clouds roll in. Especially at night whenyou can’t tell what is overhead.”

The stage for the Toledo BluesFest, locat-ed in Promenade Park, is made of 4-by-4wood panels and metal frames, with two 12-by 12-foot sound wings on both sides. The

first concern of any sound engineer/produc-tion company should be to ensure that thestage isn’t one large lightning rod. It’s bestnot to “fry your headliner,” joked one FOHmixer.” When the weather turns fall inToledo, safety always has to be the numberone priority,” says Todd Mitchell of GreatLakes Sound.“We are dealing with humanlives up there, and it is always easier toreplace equipment as opposed to humanlife. Any time there is lighting in the area,things have to be powered down. If it is weton the stage, no one plays on the stage untilit is dried off.”

“If there is a sighting of lightning, torna-does, general high winds or heavy rain, theevent will be stopped,” confirms CurtisSlough, special events manager for CitiFest,Inc. (organizers of the Toledo BluesFest), inToledo, Ohio.

Most companies are ready for whateverMother Nature tosses at them.“Tarp patrol ison duty from day one with rain tarps laidout ready for all positions,” says TimTaraldsen.“Kill point is a judgment call fromyour CC/SE/PM. Wind is not our friend, nor islightning. If there is any water build up onstage, you are better off playing it safe.”

The Howlin’ Wolf Blues Festival, unlikemany of the festivals featured here, is heldindoors at the West Point Civic Center inMississippi, where the crowds can climb ashigh as 1,000.This venue, surprisingly, pres-

ents perhaps as many, if not more, chal-lenges than an outdoor show. Why? TheCivic Center has vaulted ceilings with ironbeams, a steel roof, and a carpeted stagewith hardwood flooring that FOH engineerScott Allen contends,“saves the Civic Centerfrom just becoming a screaming mess.”

The light fixtures are painted with nineplates of glass in each lightthat act as virtual mirrors.This is not the most desir-able atmosphere in whichto mix blues.“The CivicCenter is not the easiestbuilding to get a goodsound in,” says Allen.“Theroom will work with yourP.A., but you have to be sureyou don’t overdo it. In 2004,I used only a 2x18 sub-woofer and two EV QRXboxes per side. That helpedout because we usually geta lot of low-end vibrationthat can overtake the mate-rial. It is almost an acousti-cal nightmare, but hasproven to be conquerable.”

“Si n ce our venue for theHow l i n’Wolf Blues Fe s t i va llacks gre at aco u s t i c s, we areve ry fo rt u n ate to have Sco t tto get the sound ri g ht,”explains Ri c h a rd Ra m s ey,p rog ram dire ctor of theHow l i n’Wolf Blues Soc i e ty inWest Po i nt, Mi s s. , and org a n-i zer of the HW Bl u e sFe s t i va l .“Wolf would acce p tno less.”

L o c a t i o n ,L o c a t i o n ,L o c a t i o n . . .

Sometimes the soundquality of the mix is inte-grally tied to the venue’slocation. The ToledoBluesFest, while offeringscenic views of the Maumee

River, presents some sound design prob-lems.“The buildings behind the park andadjacent to the park can create a nastyechoing effect for downtown,” says Slough.“Fortunately most of our ‘loud’ music eventsare held on a weekend or after 5 p.m., so asto not interrupt the downtown businesscommunity.”

“The venue, Promenade Park, is verywide, and not very long,” says Great LakesSound’s Mitchell.“We typically provide 180to 240 degrees of sound coverage per side.The stage also faces towards the downtownarea, so reflections from the high-rise build-ings have always been an issue. We couldeliminate a lot of those reflections by flyingthe P.A. system. However, flying is not usuallyan option due to the architecture of thepark. It would not be cost effective.”

“Up on the hills of Duluth they have a lotof TV towers and a lot of RF interference, sowe have to be careful of the wireless micro-phones to make sure our frequency bandsare dialed in properly and we are not get-ting a lot of RF bleed,” says Loren Wiklander,of the Bayfront Blues Festival.

“We occasionally have problems withelectrical power on the site, largely becausewe share a transformer with Soldier Field,”explains Ian Hunt of Chicago Sound.“Thereis massive power drainage from Soldier Fieldas lights come up and we suddenly findthere is not enough current left for us. Thatis something we have been battling for

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m26 May 2005

C r e wCC/SE/PM: Tim Taraldsen FOH Engineers: DamonDougherty, Adam WebbMonitor Engineer: Ray GronvallCC2/Monitor Engineer: Ozzy Giron Patch Master/Elec: Mike JohnRigger/Stage Tech: Tommy YurkoStage Tech: Cesar Rivera

G e a rFOHConsole: Crest Vx 52

Speakers: EAW KF 850 SB850,KF300Amps: Crest 9200, 8200, 9001, 4801Processing: dbx 480Mics: Audix, Shure, Sennheiser

MONConsole: Crest Lmx 52/22Speakers: Rat/Radian MicroWedge- EAWAmps: QSCProcessing: DCX2496/Ashly Protea

Tampa Bay BluesFestTotal Production Sound

200.0505.ProductionProfile.JH 5/2/05 11:27 AM Page 26

years. It has never been a serious issue, butoccasionally we run the side stages on gen-erators and leave the main stage on themain power to ease the load. I don’t reallylike using generators, but you don’t reallyhave a choice sometimes.”

Local ordinances have a lot to do withhow festival sound carries. (More about thisin a moment.) Dennis Deem, of Sound OnStage (San Francisco Blues Festival), mustplay by the rules just to set up his equip-ment.“We can load in on a Friday for aSaturday show, but we can make no noise,”explains Deem.“If you drive and your tirestouch the grass, it is a $300 fine or some-thing ridiculous like that. To get anythingout to onto the field—I have one delaytower and FOH console—the park servicebrings a little utility cart and we actuallyhave to put everything on it, a piece at time,through the grass. We have no permit tomake noise until the show begins.”

Allowing for AnomaliesIf you have ever seen or worked a blues

or roots festival, you’ve undoubtedly beenexposed to homemade and/or custom-made instruments such as jugs, broom han-dles and washboards. For instance, popularblues crooner Janiva Magness will typicallycome on stage dressed in a stainless-steelwashboard (equipped with breast cones)that covers the entire front of her body. Atthe 2003 Howlin’ Wolf Blues Festival, acousticcountry blues artist Mark Lemhouse (a one-man act) took the stage at the Civic in WestPoint.“He played guitar and couple of otherfunny little instruments,” remembers FOHengineer Scott Allen.“Mark also had thisstomp pad that was basically a piece of 2-

by-4 with plywood on the top and bottomof it. Essentially, it was a little box that hewould stomp on that he amplified by usinga transducer pick-up—the ones that oftengo in your acoustic guitar.”

Says Michael Powers of Lemhouse’slabel, Yellow Dog Records,“Mark’s stomp boxadds the bottom end when he plays NorthMississippi-style trance blues. It lets him addthat hypnotic beat without needing a back-ing drummer.”

“ Ba s i ca l l y, it is a flat, 2-inch-thick sto m pbox , a bout the size of a normal ki tc h e ncutting bo a rd, loaded with a stick-on guitarp i c ku p,” s ays Le m h o u s e, who plays aNational Re s o n ator steel acoustic guitarwhile he gets to sto m p i n’.“I use duct tapewith a bunch of rags to ce nter the picku pand run a quarter-inch line out to a DI. I ’l lkick the thing and then play a little slideguitar as I do it to get a booming ki c kd rum sound.”

“We were used to doing four-piece rockbands, and we were thinking, ‘What do youdo with this thing?’” Allen explains.“We hadnever really miked anything like this before.Luckily, we got to work with Mark a little bitbefore the show, and he helped us EQ-outthe sound he was going for. What we decid-ed to do was just pop the line into a DI.”

The sound at the show was more thanLemhouse could ask for, he says, and he hadto “give props” to the sound guy for knowingwhat to do and successfully navigating thestrange homemade instrument.

DB LevelHow loud is too loud? That is often a

question that FOH engineers allow others toanswer for them due to political and legalconcerns. Because of local ordinances, civicgroups and general complaints from localneighborhood residents, engineers have toplay it by the book to ensure that sounddoesn’t carry too far or too loud for too long.

“As far as the directions Richard Ramsey,the event organizer, gives me, he says, ‘Look, Ikind of run this thing, but I do have a superi-or, too,’” says Allen, FOH for the Howlin’ WolfBlues Festival.“He says, ‘If something is goingwrong, they tell me!’ [laughs]. Richard haswalked up to us before and said,‘Keep it

down a bit.’ After a certain point in the show,I think, after we reach 9 or 10:00, some of theolder crowd leaves. We have about an houror so, so we can kind of cut loose. We canpush the dB limit up to about 105.”

“I spent the first couple of years doingbattle with the dB police,” says Dennis Deemof Sound On Stage.“Because the San Franfest is on federal land—Great Meadow atFort Mason—we can only make so muchnoise. After a couple of years, I figured outthat if I’m at 105 at FOH, then I should begood at the back of the meadow.

“ It used to be that the ranger wo u l dh ave a dB meter at the back of the mead-ow,” Deem co nt i n u e s.“ I ’d look back and Isee her making the trip up to FOH po s i t i o n ,and I knew she was coming be cause it wa stoo loud. I had a dB meter at Fro nt of Ho u s eand I figured out what her bre a king po i ntwas in re l ation to mine. I could set the P. A .so that it probably wo u l d n’t get past thatoptimum level too far. After the initial co u-ple of ye a r s, t h ey have never co m p l a i n e ds i n ce about the leve l .”

“ For the Ch i cago Blues Fe s t i va l , l oca lo rd i n a n ces cover the field and surro u n d i n ge nv i ro n m e nt,” s ays Ian Hunt of Ch i ca g oSo u n d.“Th e re are a number of inte rp re t a-tions of it, but the one that eve ryone seemsto be wo rking towa rd is a maximum of 88dB-A at the pro pe rty bo u n d a ry. De pe n d i n gon winds and we at h e r, t h at tra n s l ates to 104dB-A at the house. Th e re are re p re s e nt at i ve sf rom OSHA who hang around the Fro nt ofHouse mix position just to monitor thel eve l . Po l i t i ca l l y, these things can be ve ryt ri c ky sometimes. Local re s i d e nts can raise alot of fuss.”

Hunt solves dB problems by using“measuring” microphones.“We put them outat the perimeter, and they feed back to a lit-tle computer box at the Front of House posi-tion, which presents the operator with threelights: a red one, an amber one and a greenone,” Hunt says.“If your performance hasbeen at a reasonable level, you will be show-ing a green light. That means you can turnup a bit. If you are showing an amber light,you have pretty much used up yourallowance. If you are showing a red light, it istime to turn down.”

“Due to our location, Promenade Park,which is located primarily in a business dis-trict in downtown Toledo, we have not hadto oblige to any noise ordinance, per se,”says Curtis Slough, special events managerat CitiFest, Inc.“We do work closely with theCity of Toledo and the Toledo PoliceDepartment.They know our schedule ofevents well before the season starts, and ifthey have any concerns with the times ofthe events, they let us know.”

All of this is to say nothing of howwell re ce i ved the sound is by the audi-e n ce. Be cause the ages of most fe s t i va l g o-ers va ry widely, it can be challenging toplease eve ryo n e. O r, m o re impo rt a nt l y, tonot blow them away with vo l u m e. “We seepeople of all ages coming to the Bay f ro ntBlues Fe s t i va l ,” s ays Lo ren Wi klander ofAudio Visions Mi n n e s o t a . “ It seems to bethe same crowd eve ry year with theirl awn chairs and they crowd around theFOH mix po s i t i o n .”

“We try to keep our shows, at the FOHlocation, at anywhere from 100 to 105 dB ina festival situation,” says Great Lakes Sound’sTodd Mitchell.“A lot of it is knowing, fromexperience, to first look at who’s going to beat the festival—the demographics. You haveto look at the type of music you are dealingwith. Certainly a level for an acoustic jazz triois not going to be the same as for theRolling Stones. You have to look at the peo-ple who are attending the festival, you haveto look at the entertainment on the stage.There are some venues that have a dB limit.It is always a constant struggle betweenband and FOH engineer, promoter andattendee.”

Despite all the hassles and uncertainties,FOH engineers love to work blues festivals.They approach blues festivals much in thesame way they do other gigs—as a fun chal-lenge.“You have to be prepared for any-thing,” says Mitchell.“You have to be on topof your equipment and know what all thebuttons do.”

Will Romano is author of Incurable Blues:The Troubles & Triumph of Blues LegendHubert Sumlin (Backbeat Books).

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m 27May 2005

Howlin’ WolfFestival

FOHConsole: Soundcraft Spirit 40-ChSpeakers: E-V QRX 153/75,A&M Entertainment 2x18 SubAmps: QSC PLX3402, 1602 Processing: BSS FDS 960, Ashly Protea4.24C, Yamaha SPX2000, SPX90, LexiconMPX 1, TC Electronic D-Two, dbx 166,dbx 363XMics: Shure 58, 57, Beta 56, AKG 451,beyerdynamic, E-V 868, 308,Countryman Type 85 DI,Rapco Passive DIMONConsole: Allen & Heath GL2200Speakers: Klipsch KSM-1Amps: QSC PLX 3402, 2402Processing: Ashly Protea 4.24G/4.24GS

Blind WillieTracer Audio

FOHConsole: Yamaha M-3000AEQ: K-T DN360Comps: dbx 160 XTSpeakers: E-V X-Line Array XVLS,E-V X-Line Array X-Sub,Proprietary 2x12 w/2”Amps: QSCProcessing: BSS-366 Compact,Yamaha SPX-90 II,Yamaha REV 7, LexiconPCM-60, PCM-41, dbx 166 XL, GatexMics: Shure, AKG, Sennheiser

MONConsole: Yamaha M-3000EQ: AshlyCrossovers: AshlySpeakers: Showco BFM-400/BFM-600Amps: QSC

200.0505.ProductionProfile.JH 5/2/05 11:27 AM Page 27

As the te c h n i cal manager of a mid-sized co m m u-n i ty theat re, one of my duties is to review all pro-posed special effe cts for safe ty. About a year ago

I was pre s e nted with a situation that reminded me toex pe ct the unex pe cte d.

A local organization that provides an educationalalternative for “at-risk” high school students rented ourtheatre to present an anti-gang themed play created bytheir students for presentation to other local high schoolstudents. The director of the group called me to ask per-mission to use a pistol in a fight scene. After a brief con-versation about rules regarding firearms, I asked him todrop by with the gun so I could check it out.

The dire ctor arri ved the day be fo re their load-inand proudly pre s e nted me with a shoe box . I ope n e dthe box to find a fully funct i o n a l , fully loaded .45 semi-a u to m atic pisto l . He had also co nve n i e ntly bro u g htalong the blanks they would be using, m i xed loose inthe shoe box with more live ammunition! I po l i te l yreminded him that for approva l , all stage guns we rere q u i red to have a solid barrel or no firing pin and liveammunition was never allowed in the theat re. I to l dhim that this gun was not acceptable unless the firi n gpin was re m ove d, and to never mix live and blanka m m u n i t i o n . He apo l og i zed for the live rounds andsaid the gun wa s n’t his and he co u l d n’t get pe rm i s s i o nf rom the owner for the mod i f i cat i o n . Co n s i d e ring thed i re cto r’s proven inability to obtain a safe stage pro p, Is u g g e s ted they use a small starter pistol we had. Th ed i re ctor wa nted the look of a larger gun, so we settledon a full-sized toy gun painted black, with sounde f fe cts through the P. A . s ys te m . Th ey bro u g ht the pro p

gun for their first re h e a r s a l , ran the sound cue and it allwo rked out fine. My job was done… or so I thought .

Du ring the afte rn oon of the second rehearsal I got acall from our office re ce p t i o n i s t . A po l i ce officer was inthe office telling us to eva c u ate the building due to aS WAT situat i o n . I we nt to the stage to round eve ryo n eup and we discove red that two of the cast membe r swe re missing. Th ey we re last seen 20 minutes agoheading to our loading doc k . I ca refully opened theback door to an amazing sight—multiple po l i ce cru i s-e r s, e i g ht SWAT Team office r s, the business end of waytoo many M-16s and the missing cast members spre a d -eagle on the pave m e nt .

The two actors had taken the toy gun from thep rop table and gone out behind the building torehearse their fight scene chore og ra p hy, which musth ave been a bit too realistic for someone in the build-ing across the stre e t . Th ey both could have been shotover a toy squirt gun. We sent their stage manager backfor re t raining and amended our rules about pro pwe a po n s :“Th ey are to be loc ked up at all times whennot actually on-stage.”

Dennis Potter

Gigs from Hell. We’ ve all had ‘em and thegood folks at FOH want to hear about yo u r s.Wr i te it up and send it to us and we’ll i l l u s t r ate the most wo rt hy. Send your nightmares to beva n s @ fo h o n l i n e.com or fax them to 818.654.2485

John MurchisonOwner/EngineerJRM AudioRedondo Beach, CA310.798.8125johnny@electricblue.netwww.electricblue.net/JRMAudio

Quote: When life looks like Easy Street, thereis danger at your door.

John Murchison startedhis live audio career in 1978mixing FOH on a Tapcoboard for a country-rockcover band.“We played atMrs. Jay’s Beer Garden inAsbury Park, N.J., next toBruce Springsteen’s famousStone Pony Bar,” he notes.Since then, John has relo-cated to sunny SouthernCalifornia, where he startedJRM Audio. He currentlyprovides sound for localbands, clubs and outdoorconcerts and festivals,including the Ojai JamBand Festival Benefit,Cubensis, Grampas Grass,Electric Blue and StickyFingers.

Hobbies: Camping, com-puters, diving, guitar

Speakers: JBL SRX 4725, 4735, JBL MP418SPsubs, JBL EON1500Amps: QSC PLX, BGW GTBMics: Audix, Sennheiser, ShureProcessing: Behringer MX9000, dbxDriveRack PA, dbx IEQ, Lexicon MPX 1,Yamaha REV 500, BBE i882, Smaart 5.4Playback: Tascam DA029mkII, Tascam CDRW

Do n’t Le ave Home Wi t h o u t : Le at h e rm a n ,d u ctt a pe, f l a s h l i g ht, Sh a rpie and a good at t i t u d e.

Tricia M EllsworthFreelance FOH EngineerPomfret Center, CTtriciaellsworth@mac.com

Tricia Ellsworth is the FOH engineer forthe band American Hi-Fi, with whom she iscurrently touring, and has been mixing themfor the last year and a half. Her travels havetaken her around the country and to Japan.In addition, when not touring with AmericanHi-Fi, Tricia also mixes FOH for Butch Walker.Before going freelance, she worked in theaudio department at Foxwoods Casino.

Hobbies: Snowboarding, playing music

Console: DiGiCo D-5 (own FX rack)Mics: Audix OM-7, D-6, i-5, SCX-oneProcessing: TC D-Two, SansAmp PSA-1,Eventide H3000, Mercenary Edition Drawmer1969, SPL Transient Designer. Korg Kaoss Pad(Current tour has house-supplied consoleand speakers)

Don’t Leave Home Without: Laptop

By StephanieF l e t c h e r

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

In The Trenches

Welcome To My Nightmare

28 May 2005

If yo u ’d like to see yourself fe atured in “In theTr e n c h e s, ” visit www. fo h o n l i n e. c o m / t r e n c h e sto submit your info r m ation to FOH, or emails f l e tc h e r @ fo h o n l i n e.com for more info r m at i o n .

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200.0505.Trenches.Night.rg.qxd 5/2/05 11:39 AM Page 28

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Iam a big fan of self-powered stage monitors. I use them regularly myself,and it has been my experience that they

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The EquipmentLe t’s take a look at what PAS has put in

their monito r.We start with a 15-inch co a x i a ll o u d s pe a ke r, s po rting a 4-inch vo i ce coil andK evlar re i n fo rced co n e,tipping the scales ata mere 4 ohms.The horn fe at u res a 3-inchtitanium diaphragm and a 2-inch co m p re s-sion dri ve r.You get all this for just 8 ohms. Aclass D, two-channel power amp (re m e m be r,

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audio applicat i o n s. In this latest era , both the DXP4800 Digital Sys tem Co nt roller andM12 to u r - g rade stage monitor are proof thati n n ovation is not the exc l u s i ve prov i n ce ofl a rge multi-brand co rpo rat i o n s. I re ce i ve dboth the DXP4800 and the M12 for this ro a dtest rev i e w.

The Gear—DXP4800The Co m m u n i ty DXP4800 is a 4-in/8-out

s pe a ker processor that is flexible in applica-tion and value pri ce d.St a rting with a one-ra c k s p a ce, 8-inch depth chassis, the designersput in 32-bit DSPs and 24-bit ADCs and DAC srunning at 48k or 96k sample rate s.Then thebasics we re added, with 12 XLR jacks, a D-9 RS-232 co n n e cto r, an on/off switch and an IECjack on the rear panel.The fro nt panel is allb u s i n e s s, with ro t a ry thumb wheel and sys-tem keys for menu co nt ro l , cursor co nt ro l ,e nte r / s ys / s peed and ex i t .The four input chan-nels and eight output channels each re ce i ve dtwo backlit pushbuttons for channel select( g reen backl i g ht) and mute (red backl i g ht ) .And the 12 channels each have five LED bar-g raphs for -42dB (signal pre s e nt ) ,- 1 2 d B, - 6 d B,-3dB and over/limit indicat i o n s.

L i ke many spe a ker proce s s o r s, it takes a little familiari z ation time to get the hang ofthe gra p h i cal user inte rf a ce. Howeve r,a quick read of the manual and a bit ofhands-on time, and I was quickly co m pe te nton the DXP4800.I loved the “co py” s ys te mf u n ction on the DXP4800 channels, so thato n ce I polished a bi-amp monitor mix, I co u l d“p a s te” the LF and HF channels three moretimes quickly to get a quad bi-amp sys te mg o i n g. Another power fe at u re was the chan-nel linki n g, so that the chosen channel iss e l e cted and held while other channels aret a p ped to change same para m e ters at thesame time. A wo rd of ca u t i o n : If you pastec h a n n e l s, m a ke sure to edit the channel ro u t-ings afte rwa rd s, or you will have four clonem i xes from input channel one.

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The Gear—M12 To u r i n gStage Monitor

When I re ce i ved the M12 wedge andu n boxed it, I was surp rised a bit at its Tu f - Co at exte rior finish and glass/co m po s i teco n s t ru ct i o n .The bo t tom of the M12 is alsomolded to co ntain the jackp l ate, p a s s i ve /bi-amp switch and handgrip fe at u re s.The M12bo t tom loo ked more like my ki tchen ro a s t i n goven than a we d g e. But the bo t tom is alld e ce p t i o n , as that Tu f - Co at package fo rm e dthe co m p l e te ca b i n e t,f rom the c u rva ceous exte rior to the 90- by 40-degre eh o rn that attached the B&C 2-inch thro at HFd ri ve r. (The asymmetri cal horn pat te rn isunusual and wo rth a ment i o n .The M12’sa s y m m e t ri cal horn pat te rn has a hori zo nt a ld i s persion of 90 degrees at the top and 40d e g rees at the bo t to m — a l l owing full ra n g eoutput close-up or hori zo ntally at a dis-t a n ce—and the ve rt i cal is 70 degre e s. )

Under the “boo t - p roo f” f l at black epoxy -ove r - s t a i n l e s s - s teel grille also resides a custo mCo m m u n i ty 12-inch LF dri ver with 750-wat tp rog ram power rating and a ve ry nice 99dBSPL at one-wat t,o n e - m e ter sensitivity.The HFd ri ver has a 106dB SPL sensitivity with a 160-

watt prog ram power rat i n g. In passive mod e,the inte rnal 1.6kHz cro s s over handles eve ry-thing for a 80Hz to 15kHz (+/-3dB) fre q u e n cyre s po n s e. In bi-amp mod e, you can stay withthe 1600Hz cro s s over po i nt, or move on dow nto 1200Hz with 24dB per oct ave shelving fil-ters and feel co m fo rtable of not blowing theHF dri ve r.

The Gigs in ActionTo be fair in handling the Co m m u n i ty

M12 we d g e, I first did my due diligence on theDXP4800 and inte g rated it with my amp ra c k ,and patched out my ve n e rable TDM 24CX4quad cro s s over with the DXP4800. I then didmy stumbling on my baseline EV Xw12wedges and used both EV presets plus mypink noise/RTA equipment to tweak in a c u s tom pre s e t .The process proved easier thanp l a n n e d, and I had a gre at time-co rre cted andf l at tened mix that sounded beautiful thro u g hvocal mics and CD tra c k s.

In turning my at te ntion to the Co m m u n i tyM12 we d g e, I asked for and re ce i ved the f a cto ry bi-amp tunings. I was shoc ked tw i ce in that the HF split re q u i red nil for para m e t ri cs e t t i n g s, and the RTA mete ring provided me bonafide proof that the HF truly was f l at from 1600Hz to nearly 15kHz. A couple of LF bumps at 88Hz and 1000Hz,and I had a jaw - d ropping gre at bi-amp mix co m i n gf rom the M12.

Both in the shop and out in the clubs, t h eM12 got the full to rt u re te s t . This M12 fe at u re sa medium 56-pound we i g ht with a low - p ro f i l e

21.5- by 20.75- by 10.5-inch set of dimensions.With low deck stages, the M12 can let yo us h ow off your foo twe a r; so it should be a hit in video shoots and te l evision prod u ction s t u d i o s. After all my education with theD X P 4 8 0 0 , the M12 sounded pe rfe ct in almosteve ry way onstage. In the shop I did futz withthe 1000Hz para m e t ric EQ setting be cause my ears liked a bit less mids than the RTA had shown in flat n e s s. My feedback suppre s-sion circuits pre t ty much had a va cation on the M12,as the pe rfe ct co m b i n ation of HF detail with no pre s e n ce spikes wo rke dwell with both ca rdioid and hy pe r - ca rd i o i dvocal micro p h o n e s.

In my search for “cons” on the DXP4800and M12 gear, the only M12 niggle I coulddig up was the hidden carry handle under-neath the wedge. I tend to be a grab-and-go roadie, so that the obvious dearth ofupside handles and the hidden Speakonconnections make life a few seconds longer in the stooped over mode. But other than that, the M12 was visually and audibly sweet.

The DXP4800 is the perfect blue-collarspeaker processor and should attractmany loyal users. The plain logo-lessbrushed black front panel and middle-of-the-road user interface is the only potentialmarketing problem I could cite. Most of the DXP4800 competitors are going toout-do the DXP4800 on cosmetics, butcharge a premium in price for doing so.My feeling is,“just buy it, use it and let thepro-audio fashion police keep flapping theirpie holes at it.”

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

Road Tests

30 May 2005

PAS SW-2.2P

Community DXP4800 Processor and M12 Monitor

By JamieR i o

By MarkA m u n d s o n

What it is: Self-powered stage monitorWho it’s for: Musicians, sound companies, churches, etc.Pros: High-powered, rock solid constructionCons: The finish could be tougher; itscratches off too easilyHow Much: MSRP $2,746

What it is: Tour-grade monitor wedge (M12) and an underdog digital speakerprocessor (DXP4800)Who it’s for: Serious sound companies that know good stuff by hearing it, not for the logos on itPros: (DXP4800) Clean sounding,flexible, great value; (M12) Rugged,great sounding, low profileCons: (DXP4800) Logo-less; (M12) Hidden handlesHow much: DXP4800 MSRP $2,325, M12MSRP $2,330

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b i - a m ped) dri ves this spe a ker and horn , a n dpumps 500 watts into the low fre q u e n c i e sand 110 watts into the high fre q u e n c i e s.Th e re is an on-bo a rd Digital Signal Proce s s o rwith two facto ry - p reset prog ra m s. Th epower amp (besides being beefy) has lots ofp ro te ct i o n .You get thermal and ove r - c u rre ntp ro te ction plus high fre q u e n cy pro te ct i o n .PAS obviously pra ct i ces safe sound. Be s i d e sall the pro te ct i o n , you can switch your maininput power to run at 110 volts or 230 vo l t s.And there is a groovy Ne u t rik AC co n n e cto r.The DSP fe at u res an NC3FP co n n e cto r.I really have no idea what this is fo r.Un fo rt u n ate l y, I did not re ce i ve an ow n e r’smanual with the monito r s, so I just ove r-l oo ked this input.Wh atever this co n n e cto rco nt ro l s,not using it didn’t have any adve r s ea f fe ct on the sound of the monito r s.The DSPs e ction also inco rpo rates the elect ro n i cc ro s s over and the PAS time offset co rre ct i o n

fe at u re. If you are unfamiliar with this ty pe offe at u re, it makes eve rything sound be t ter byd e l i ve ring all the re p rod u ced frequencies toyour ears at the same time.Th e re is an inputl evel co nt rol to increase or decrease your l i s tening pleasure. Plus LEDs to indicate signal pre s e nt, power on, p ro te ct i o nengaged and clipping. A low - f re q u e n cy roll-off (80Hz) button is mounted next to the balanced ins and outs. PAS also gives you a mute button (just for fun).

All this power and technology iswrapped up in a 15mm Baltic birch ply-wood box, covered in a black texturedacrylic, with a gray powder-coated 16-gauge grille, weighing in at 72 pounds.

The GigsNo mat ter how awesome the spec sheet

reads or how cool the pe rfo rm a n ce gra p h sa re, it all really boils down to what the gear

will do at a live show. So off I we nt to myn ext gig, with the PAS monitors in tow. I wa ssupplying sound for a seve n - p i e ce Lat i nband with a single fro ntman/lead singer.I decided to use the PAS monitors for thelead guy, so I placed them acco rd i n g. I thinkI failed to mention that I took the monito r sout of their shipping box at the gig. So Ireally didn’t kn ow what I had until I wa sre a dy to use them.Now you can see whynot having an ow n e r’s manual was a bit of a shoc k . No rmally I’ll just set up whateve rm o n i tors I have, but the PAS monitors havea few tricks that needed ex p l a i n i n g. At anyrate, I got over it, and I soon had things upand ru n n i n g. The bo t tom line with thesem o n i tors is they are clean and loud. Th elead singer could hear himself and the re s tof the band and was generally happy. Th at isp re t ty much as good as it gets when itcomes to monito r s.My main goal is to make

the musicians and pe rfo rmers happy. If the equipment I am using helps me in thise n d e avo r, then life is good.

Off I we nt to the next show and a to t a l l yd i f fe re nt applicat i o n . I was co nt ra cted to supply sound at a high school gym for thecomedian Ga l l a g h e r. Obv i o u s l y, the monito rmix was ve ry simple. In fact, I only used one of the PAS powe red monito r s. I also had tocover the equipment in plastic, as Gallagher is kn own for his “s l e d g e - o - m at i c”ro u t i n e,w h e re he pulve ri zes eve rything from ca ke si ced with mustard to wate rm e l o n s.Eve nwith the plastic cove ring and positioned a distance from the food bo m b a rd m e nt,the monitors sounded good and loud.Loud enough so I probably could have usedthem as mains. By the way, t h ey can bem o u nted on a tri pod and would pro b a b l ys e rve well in a co n fe re n ce/seminar settingor for music dispe r s i o n .

While the increasing use of personalmonitoring systems has made lifeeasier for many FOH engineers by

cleaning up stage volume, it has actuallymade things more complicated for those of us who mix monitors regularly. Onceupon a time, the only wireless was a mic for the LV and maybe a beltpack for the guitar player, and monitor guys didn’treally worry much about it. Hell, sometimesbacking players even shared monitor mixes.Having more than, say, four mixes going was exclusively the territory of the big touring guys.

These days it is not unusual for me togo out on a local festival gig and be asked to take care of half a dozen-plus mixes witheveryone on wireless PMs. So I not only getto deal with “issues” about the mix (whichare much more intense with PMs, BTW), butalso get those looks we all love from thestage if someone experiences the dreadedwireless dropout. To avoid those, the wirelessunits at the other end of the snake went totrue-diversity systems in pro models, but thereceivers for PMs remained single-antennadeals. Until now.

For anyone needing a refresher, truediversity means that the receiver unit houses two receivers with an antenna for each, and a kind of electronic traffic cop monitors the signal hitting each receiver, automatically switching betweenthem to keep the strongest signal as the active one. (Another scheme, calledantenna diversity, uses one receiver with two antennas, and the strongest signal gets sent to the receiver.) Perhapsbecause with PMs, the transmitter is stationary and the receiver is in motion‚ the opposite of wireless mic and instrumentsystems—it may have been a case of engineers and marketing types figuringthere was no reason for diversity. After all, your car radio is basically the same deal, and it does not need two antennas or receivers.

The MI-808 from MIPRO has goneagainst that conventional wisdom, and itdoes make a difference.

I will admit that when I was asked tocheck out one of these units I was not thatenthusiastic, looking at them as one moreAsian knockoff. I was wrong.The MI 808 is areal contender.

The GearHoused in a metal half-rack unit, t h e

t ra n s m i t ter can be switched be tween 16 pre -p rog rammed frequencies in the UHF ra n g e,and you get the ty p i cal gre e n - b a c ked LC Dreadout with four “d i re ct i o n a l”s w i tches fo rn av i g ating menus for set-up. Input is bal-a n ced ste reo on either TRS or XLR co n n e c-to r s.Th e re is a headphone jack on the fro nt,which is handy for doing a quick check of themix at the tra n s m i t ter for tro u b l e s h oo t i n g.

The re ce i ver has a pair of wire ante n n a shanging from it that are not re m ovable buta re ve ry flex i b l e.The volume co nt rol is mount-ed on the face and sticks out partially over theedge of the box , m a king for easy “g ra b - a n d -g o”stage adjustment s.While the MI-808 lacksthe “n o - b ra i n e r” f re q u e n cy-synching be twe e nt ra n s m i t ter and re ce i ver that is be coming f a i rly co m m o n , setting the fre q u e n cy of there ce i ver to match the tra n s m i t ter is a simplet h i n g, and the co nt rols are out of the way, s othe po s s i b i l i ty of a pe rfo rmer accident a l l ys c rewing ‘em up is minimal.

The unit we received came with a coupleof different ear-piece sets that, truthfully,never got used. I have a bunch of high-endPMs available from Future Sonic, Shure andWestone and used those instead.

The GigsFirst shot was in a rehearsal situat i o n

w h e re I play and run PMs and a couple of wedges at the same time (the He a r b a c kSys tem makes that a lot easier). As is the normfor me anyway, I found myself unpacking theMI-808 from the box just minutes be fo red ow n be at . I usually make eve ryone go wire din re h e a r s a l s, so this was an added co m p l i ca-tion that ended up being not so co m p l i cate da fter all. I lite rally took two minutes to set it up.Outs from the Hearback mixer we nt via TRS tothe MI-808, and as it was the only wireless inuse that night, I just we nt with the facto ry #1setting and got to wo rk .

No dro po u t s, easy to set up. I did noticesome hum, but it was minor and easily

i g n o re d. The real test came a week later at ana ctual gig. Th e re we re three wireless unitsbeing used for PMs on this gig, with the re s tof the band on wired PMs or we d g e s. May beI just got lucky, but there was no co n f l i ctbe tween any of the wireless units over fre-q u e n cy ri g ht out of the box . The first thing In o t i ced was that the hum I had heard earl i e rwas gone, which means it is in my re h e a r s a ls ys tem and not the MI-808.Th at sucks fo rm e, but speaks well for the MI-808.

The best thing you can say about a wire-less PM unit is that it is quiet, and once setup, you don’t even realize it is there, whichwas very much the case here. The other twounits were of a more noted pedigree thanthe MI-808—one priced a little less and one more expensive than the MIPRO. Thecheapest unit failed completely, and thebackup singer using it had to go wired afterjust a few songs (always have a wired back-up handy...); the pro unit suffered from quitea few dropouts, while the MI-808 workedflawlessly for nearly three hours.

Bottom LineThe combination of the MIPRO brand

and the “MI” part of the model number heremay lead you to think that this is a cheap,entry-level wireless, but it ain’t so. It workedbetter than the MI unit with the better-known name and as well as the pro unit you see on many a major tour. My only realcomplaint is that putting batteries into thereceiver is a bit of a pain. The spring-loadedblocks that hold the two AA batteries inplace may have looked good on paper, butthey take some getting used to and couldpose a challenge when trying to change outbatteries on a dark stage or dim MonitorBeach. But, to be fair, the batteries are notgoing anywhere once in. Not all AA batteriesare exactly the same size and this arrange-ment guarantees a tight fit.

Yes, there are strong feelings on bothsides of the “offshore” manufacturing issueand, yes, there seem to be several new Asianmanufacturers appearing at every tradeshow and most of them are putting outcrap. Not so with MIPRO. This is one casewhere it is well worth getting over anyoff-shore qualms and checking the perform-ance of the MI-808 out for yourself. I knowit is on the short list for me next time I amshopping for wireless PM units.

w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m 31May 2005

MIPRO MI-808 Wireless Personal Monitoring SystemBy BillE v a n s

What it is: True diversitytransmitter/receiver for personal monitor systemsWho it’s for: Soundcos, operators andmusicians who hate dropoutsPros: Easy to use and set up, goodsound, no dropoutsCons: Replacing batteries is a painHow Much: MI-808T/MI808R MSRP $1,390

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Ire m e m ber once being inv i ted to a manu-f a ct u re r’s demonstration of a digital micro-phone in Na s hv i l l e.I had been truly

l oo king fo rwa rd to it—the notion that one ofthe last two pieces of the pro audio puzzlet h at had evaded digitization was about to beb ro u g ht into the fold was exc i t i n g.

When I arrived, the microphone was setup on a stand for the throngs to marvel at.But cynic that I am, I began to sense that theEmperor’s New Clothes might be hangingon this rack as well. Chatting up the salesrep, I kept asking how the “digital micro-phone” worked, and kept getting elusiveanswers. However, each question brought uscloser to the core of the matter, which wasthat this was a perfectly normal poweredtransducer that, like all microphones, turnedthe energy of moving air into a variablepulse palpated by the diaphragm andturned that into (very analog) electricalimpulses. The digital part had to do with anA/D converter that was mounted in the rearof the microphone casing.This was a digitalmicrophone in the same way I’m a pilotbecause I sit in the first row behind the cock-pit on an MD-80.

The sales rep wa s n’t part i c u l a rly happya bout being oute d, though I admired hiss t a l wa rt ability to maintain the fiction thatthis was indeed a digital micro p h o n e. Iwa s n’t annoye d, e i t h e r, s i n ce the eve nt wa s

d e ce ntly cate red and I was able to takesome co m fo rt in the idea that the ext re m eends of the signal chain—the micro p h o n eand the spe a ke r — we re still firmly in thea n a l og dominion, even if eve rything else inthe wo rld was now pre d i cated on a chip.

However, a walk through some recenttrade shows tells us that the speaker end of

the equation, while still analog, was feelingthe other effects of the digital revolution,the parts of the mantra that go “smaller” and“cheaper.”The era of the mini line array isupon us, and it’s worth considering.

There have always been small portableP.A. systems on the market, starting with thevenerable Shure Vocal Master that helpedthe Beatles get across at Shea Stadium in1966, through to JBL’s clever little EON sys-tem. But the requirement of portabilityalways injected the necessity of compromiseinto any small P.A., be it in terms of throw,power, dispersion or processing possibilities.You could always cobble together your ownsystem from various components, but you

could fail the portability test pretty quickly.Like the digital microphone, a high-endsmall, portable and affordable P.A. systemseemed to be out of reach based on sheerphysics—at the end of the day, you gottamove air.

The line array changed the live soundbusiness radically when it was introduced

more than a decade ago. Power, directionali-ty and ease of rigging brought vastlyimproved audio to a lot of venues andadded a new dimension to concert sound. Alot of people heard what a line array coulddo for a live music performance, and as onepro audio dealer told me, it was just a matterof time before those concert attendeeswould want to take one home with them.Now they ca n .

The mini line array will ce rtainly bri n gi m p roved sound to even smaller ve n u e s.But any number of people at the co m p a-nies that manufact u re and sell live sounde q u i p m e nt have vo i ced a few co n ce rns tom e.The line array, u n l i ke the po rtable P. A . s

of yo re, re q u i res a ce rtain minimuma m o u nt of ex pe rtise to fly and ru n . O n ealso needs to kn ow what sorts of ve n u eco n f i g u rations the array isn’t suitable fo r.For those of you who live in New Yo rk , wekn ow that a miniat u re line array wo u l dwo rk nicely in a long narrow room likeK e n ny’s Ca s t aways, but would be out ofp l a ce in a club like the Bi t ter End, with itss h a l l ow depth and extended wings.

Availability and affordability have signifi-cantly changed the fabric of music record-ing.Wider access to digital recording equip-ment has arguably lowered the bar formusic in general. As you increase the base ofpeople making music by adding people whopreviously had only listened to music, thetalent and knowledge baseline naturallydecrease. (A case could be made for drawinga direct evolutionary line from Milli Vanilli toAshlee Simpson.)

Those same forces, an outgrowth of thedigital juggernaut, could be poised to have asimilar effect on live sound. I’m not suggest-ing a huge jump in hidden backing tracks atconcerts, but as more sophisticated P.A.smove further down the distribution foodchain, the same dynamics as digital record-ing will be present.“There’s something of afeeding frenzy with P.A systems right now,”Mikel Paul, pro audio manager and directorof the systems engineering group at Skip’sMusic in Sacramento, told me.“As the sys-tems become more sophisticated, more peo-ple will be buying before they know whatthey’re buying.”

Paul notes that most musicians wantplug-and-play characteristics in much oftheir gear, including P.A.s.“The trouble is, aline array needs to be flown,” he explains.“Itrequires some level of a truss and rigging. Itrequires more knowledge than you can getin a music store.”

In a separate interview, Larry the O, com-munications guru for Meyer Sound, com-mented,“My concern is that there will be alot of misinformation out there as to whichsystems are appropriate for which applica-tions.” Perhaps Brian English at QSC puts itmore succinctly:“The term ‘line array’ isgoing to become a buzzword, a generic, like‘Kleenex’ is for tissues. A bunch of speakersin a line is not a line array. But for someonelooking for a fast sale, it is.”

This is not to say that there will suddenlybe a mass dumbing down of the live soundbusiness. It still takes a lot of sweat andsinew to put together and run a good soundsystem for a live show, and you can’t buythat at Sam Ash. But it’s interesting to realizehow pervasive the DIY effects of the digitalrevolution really are. However, you don’thave to panic until you see Mattel gettinginto the game.

By DanD a l e y

The Biz

32 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

MINI Me,

MINI You“There’s something of a feeding

frenzy with P.A systems right now...”

Circle RS# 137

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Circle RS# 121

200.0505.Ads.SS 5/2/05 10:40 AM Page 33

As we head into the outdoor gig sea-son, there’s always a lot of concernabout the subject of scrounging for

power for the show. Now, the big shows candemand genny trailers and venue/city elec-tricians for hookups, but many of the smallerperformances are left to people who thinkany electrical access is enough to get the jobdone. In the past, I have written about powerdistribution and load balancing; but let’sthink about not having enough power andwhat to do about it.

Power HogsWhen thinking about live sound and

power co n s u m p t i o n , audio power amplifierscome to mind. In re a l i ty, power amps re p ro-ducing live music do not consume muchave rage powe r, but peak power demands arethe basis of how most elect ri cal power isa l l ocate d. This is easy to see, with tod ay’spower amplifiers capable of 2,000 watts pe rchannel of audio power output, yet stay i n gwell within the 20 ampe re, 1 2 0 VAC circ u i tca p a c i ty of 2,400 wat t s.But if you have to u g hpower gigs ahead of yo u, h ow do you choo s epower amplifiers that can be efficient ?

Power amplifiers typically break downinto two sections and a couple of variantsper section. Today we have the amplifier sec-tion and the power supply unit (PSU) sec-tion. In the amplifier section, two major cate-gories are linear vs. switcher amplifierdesigns. In the linear category, the popularhigh power amplifiers break into classes ofAB, G and H. In the switcher category, theclasses are D, I and TD. In class AB, the mostefficiency you can get is about 66% at fulloutput with the remaining 33% or more lostas heat. In classes G and H, the AB circuitdesign is extended with two or more stepsof increasing power supply voltages thatengage as the input signal increases. The

result is amplifier efficiencies up to about80%, not bad when you consider heat man-agement to circuit complexity.

Digital power amps in the D, I and T Dclasses ty p i cally can render efficiencies upto 90% or 95%, pe rmitting huge outputpowers in ve ry small packa g i n g. So if yo uh ave efficiency on the pri o ri ty list, t h eclass G and H linear amplifiers plus all thes w i tcher amplifiers are ca n d i d ates for sipping powe r.

On the PSU section front, conventionalpower supply units use traditional 60 Hertztransformers to match the input 120VAC tothe required DC voltage rails of the ampli-fiers. Of course, high power capable trans-formers have a lot in common with bowlingballs, especially weight and size. SwitcherPSUs chop the incoming 60 Hertz 120VAC athigh frequencies. And at these 80kHz to500kHz switching frequencies, the trans-formers shrink in size and weight to smallpalm-sized devices while moving the sameamount of power as conventional 60Hztransformers. Think of your amplifier circuitsbeing re-supplied with energy at 250 thou-sand times a second, instead of 60 or 120times a second. The re-supply amounts canbe smaller and more responsive to varyingenergy demands.

But switcher PSUs have more co m p l ex i-ty co m p a red to the bru te fo rce of co nve n-tional tra n s fo rm e r s. So issues of size, re l i a-b i l i ty, we i g ht and cost have to be co m-p a red for selection of a power amplifier.Both co nve ntional and switcher PSUs havea bout that same efficiency, so that doe snot help or hurt the inadequate powe rp ro b l e m . Howeve r, for those of us humpingamp ra c k s, the light we i g ht and smallers i ze of switcher PSUs win out over thec h e a pe r, h e av i e r, bigger co nve nt i o n a lpower supplies.

Think StacksSo now that you are biased towards effi-

cient amplifiers, do not forget that fewerspeakers require fewer amplifiers and lesspower to drive them. Most low frequencydrivers convert nearly 80% of the power atthe voice coils to heat. So make sure youhave more efficient speakers and use less ofthem to make the most of the remaining20% that can be used for acoustic output.

Things like horn-loaded mids and lowsare not just remnants of the Woodstock gen-eration, and many modern touring speakerstacks still retain the horn-load design forefficiency. (See the March Theory andPractice column for brain fodder and somereview on efficiency.)

Other LoadsBackline power for musos is something

that cannot be overlooked when conservingelectrical power draw. While many groupscan get by with a single circuit, you may befighting a lost cause when the Marshallstacks and Ampeg SVTs invade the stage. Ifpossible, communicate with the talentahead of time about the power shortage,and persuade them that smaller backlinegear will make the show a go instead of abreaker-popping event. Also, let them knowthat the 700- to 1,200-watt fog/hazemachines will not be permitted for the gig.

Thankfully, the consoles and processingat Front of House and Monitor Beach tend tosip power, and in some cases these loadscan live paired up with other audio loads.Also ripe for pruning are the number ofmonitor mixes and the redundancy ofwedges per performer. Each wedge sucksjuice, and that can add up fast. Also, notethat larger digital consoles are trending intopower hogs as well. That’s something to con-sider when comparing a 300-watt analogconsole with 200 watts of outboard signalprocessing vs. a 1,000-watt digital consoleand nil outboard processing.

One tip I wish to share is placing powerconditioner/monitor devices in your racks tokeep a visual indication of current draw. Iprefer the older Furman PM-PRO and PL-PRO power conditioners on racks, with theAC draw represented in a LED bargraph, sothat I can monitor from a distance the aver-age and dynamic power consumption ofeach circuit. I cannot do that with subwooferamplifiers, but it helps to know your limitson other circuits monitored.

S n i ffing Out PowerWhen you are giving up on using your

power distro, and are down to the detectivework of finding separate 20-ampere venuecircuits, you have a few tools to use. The clas-sic tool is a neon bulb circuit tester or a plainold night-light, with you snapping off select-ed breakers and tracking down dead recep-tacles that correspond to each branch cir-cuit. Of course, this takes precious time.

Another method involves an electrician’stool called a circuit sniffer or breaker finder.Knowing where the venue’s breaker panel is,and with a little electrician intuition, you canmake pretty good guesses on the circuitpaths on strings of receptacles using thesniffer. Traditionally, a circuit sniffer works by

sticking a transmitter device in an energizedreceptacle, and placing the sniffer device onthe breaker that receives the transmittertones the loudest. But sniffers can also beused to sense the receptacles between thetransmit receptacle and the breaker. So theclever choice of the transmitter location canbuzz out common circuit receptacles with-out having to make treks back and forth tothe breaker panel.

Another note is that you really wa nt toe n s u re all your circuits run to the samep a n e l , at least on the audio loads. I do notre commend a diffe re nt panel feed fo rstage lighting loads, but you may be okayif both panels join to a master panel. Wh e nin doubt, m e ter your grounds and neutra l sbe tween diffe ring panel circ u i t s. In mostn e wer co m m e rcial buildings, you mayh ave good succe s s ; but watch out for oldvenues that could have multiple maste rpower feeds due to decades of re m od e l-i n g. Also consider having the new non-co nt a ct 120VAC finders that use your handas the safe ty ground re fe re n ce. These find-ers are ty p i cally the Fl u ke Vo l t - Al e rt orTriplett Cri c ke t, which light up or chirpwhen they are in prox i m i ty of energ i ze dw i re s. I d e a l l y, all grounds and neutrals willnot indicate, and only hot wires will indi-cate. Vo l t - Al e rts and Cri c kets are also gre atfor finding disco n n e cted co rds when yo uex pe ct them to be energ i ze d.

Low Power OperationFiring up a live sound system under con-

strained power conditions requires an easy-does-it approach. First on the checklist isturning gear on separately instead of hastilyrunning up the amp rack toggling powerswitches. During the actual gig, look for waysto get the loudness good enough, but qui-eter than usual operation. The same goeswith stage light operation, as it can also top-ple audio circuits through heating of nearbycircuit breakers. Keep the energized fixture-count on scenes low and attempt to switchscenes incrementally through fades insteadof just turning fixtures on and off. All thosesudden stage light power-ons have nastypeak current draws that can push a breakerinto the trip threshold.

The science of household and co m m e r-cial circuit bre a kers bears re pe ating from myp revious columns on power distri b u t i o n .These bre a kers trip through a thermal meansw h e re a small (shunt) re s i s t a n ce is monito re d,and if hot enough, will release the branch cir-cuit from the main buss of the panel. Mi n o rove rloads will take minutes to tri p, but majorove rloads will trip in seco n d s.The impo rt a ntf a ct is that a wa rm to hot bre a ker trips quick-er if the load is not lighte n e d. A hot bre a ke ralso wa rms adjace nt bre a ke r s, f u rther lowe r-ing their trip thre s h o l d s.

By MarkA m u n d s o n

34 May 2005 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m

I Need More Power, Captain!

Theory & Practice

200.0505.Theory&Practice.JH 5/2/05 11:36 AM Page 34

35w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m May 2005

News

NEW YORK, NY—At the annual VH1 SaveThe Music Concert, a host of musical greatsturned out stellar performances in support ofV H 1 ’s Save The Music Fo u n d at i o n . Au d i o -Te c h n i ca microphones we re omnipre s e ntt h roughout this star-studded benefit co n-ce rt . Staged at Ma n h at t a n’s legendaryBeacon Theater, VH1’s Save The Music Concertmade use of Au d i o - Te c h n i ca’s Artist El i te5000 Series UHF Wireless System on leadvocals for ar tists including Alicia Keys, RobThomas and John Le g e n d, and alsoemployed A-T wireless and wired mics innumerous other applications. This year’s SaveThe Music Concert was held April 11, withVH1’s first airing of the broadcast on April 17.

A-T Artist Elite 5000 Series Wireless addi-tionally facilitated pre s e nt ations by He i d iKlum, Gisele Bundchen, Christina Applegateand LL Cool J. The large selection of hard-wired A-T microphones on hand includedthe AE2500 for bass guitar amps, ATM35 andAT4054 on horns, AT4051a for hi-hat and ridecymbal, AT4054 on background vocals andAE5100 for audience.

Audio prod u ction mixer Al Ce nt re l l a ,whose credits include A&E L i ve By Re q u e s t a n d

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame awa rd s, n o te d,“ Is t a rted using Au d i o - Te c h n i ca on L i ve ByRe q u e s t be cause most of the time the artist isin fro nt of the P. A . and I need a nat u ra l - s o u n d-ing mic with tremendous gain be fo re fe e d-b a c k . Th at’s ex a ctly what A-T delive r s.”

XM Prod u ct i o n s / Effanel Music lead engineer Joel Singer concurs with Centrella’scriteria for microphone selection.“We contin-ue to choose Audio-Technica based on ourpast ex pe ri e n ces using them. For cri t i ca la p p l i cations such as high-profile awa rdshows and location recording, I know we cancount on A-T mics to deliver the consistencyand gre at sound quality that we need,”Singer remarked.

The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit org a n i z ation dedicated toi m p roving the quality of education inAmerica’s public schools by restoring musicprograms in cities across the country, andraising public awareness about the impor-tance of music participation for our nation’syouth. Since its inception in 1997, VH1 SaveThe Music has donated nearly $30 millionworth of musical instruments to 1,200 publicschools in 80 cities.

BA RC E LO N A , S PA I N — The Un i ve r s a lForum of Cultures recently hosted Toyota’sEu ro pean Regional Dealer Ma n a g e r sConference 2005, an event produced by JackMorton Worldwide. Sound was provided byU.K. sound production company Delta Audio,utilizing DiGiCo D5 Live mixing consoles.

“In the past this event has been held inthe Palau Saint Jordi in Barcelona, and also inLisbon,” explains Delta Audio’s sound design-er for the event, Jim Lambert. “It’s a confer-ence and party for 5,000 Toyota car dealersand managers from around Europe, held overtwo days. This year’s conference venue wasthe Forum, with the associated party held inthe adjoining Ba rcelona Inte rn at i o n a lConvention Centre.”

The co n fe re n ce was a mixt u re of livem u s i c, co rpo rate pre s e nt at i o n s — i n c l u d i n gthe launch of the new Toyota Formula One

car and team for the current season—and a50-strong dance troupe. “We used our ownD5 112EX, operated by Simon Honywill, forthis area, with approximately 80 input chan-nels, including playback from two 24-channelmulti-track machines,” continues Lambert.

The party comprised a dinner and one-hour gala concert from Whitney Houston andher band, followed by a supporting dance actcalled Zig Zag.

“The P. A . was our own L-Acoustics V -DOSC system, and we had two DiGiCo D5Lives, one on monitors and one at Front ofHouse,” says Lambert. “These were specifiedby Whitney’s American crew, who flew intheir Front of House and monitor engineerfor the two concerts. Although both werenew to the console, they were keen to use iton this major event.” Sound project managerfor this element was Delta’s Steve Lutley.

Audio-Technica Mics Benefit VH1 Save the Music Concert

Delta Audio Races Aheadat Toyota Conference

Alicia Keys and Rob T h o m a s

N A P L E S , F L — I m a g i n ation Pro Me d i aprovided audio for the Naples Winter WineFestival, relying on multiple SLS RLA/2s.The festival, which celebrated its fifth year,is a charity event that benefits many localn o n - p rofit org a n i z ations including boysand girls clubs, a fter school prog rams and orphanages.

“When we started out with the NaplesWinter Wine Festival, it was their first year,”s ays Joe Wi s l e r, v i ce pre s i d e nt ofImagination Pro Media Inc. “It is held out-doors in a tent on the beautiful property ofthe Ritz Carlton. Last year when we set upthe speakers, we were faced with a smallproblem because we needed more speak-ers to cover the whole width of the tent.This year, we were looking for a change,and SLS’ RLA/2 gave us that option. Withtwo stacks of the RLA/2s we were able tocover the width of the tent because of their

coverage pattern. It worked quite well andwe were happy we had the SLS speakersthis year.”

With the auctioning of an assortmentof items including private label wines, a cardonated by Maserati, a Rolls Royce madespecifically for this event, vacations revolv-ing around vineyards and a diamond ring,the Naples Wi nter Wine Fe s t i val ra i s e dmore than $12 million.

“We are very excited to be part of thistype of event,” says Rod Falconer, nationalsales manager for SLS. “Th ey are ve ryfocused on what they are doing and itkeeps them wanting to do more each year.The more they do for the kids, the moreexcited they are about it. It really is a greatthing to be a part of.”

Wisler plans to use the SLS units at sim-ilar charity auctions in Napa Valley andSonoma Valley this summer.

Imagination Pro Media SupportsNaples Wine Festival

LO N D O N , O N — 1 8 - year-old Ca n a d i a nIdol winner Kalan Porter followed his victo-ry on the popular TV show with a sold outCanadian tour, performing songs from hisalbum 219 Day s. Lo n d o n , O nt a ri o - b a s e dThe PA Shop provided the EV sound systemfor the tour, opting for XLC line arrays. ThePA Shop’s sales and production manager,Ryan Schroeyens, reported:

“The tour ran Feb 2 through March 26,and was sold out for 37 of 39 shows. Mostof the shows were in theatres of around1,500 seat s, with the largest be i n gHamilton Place, in Hamilton, ON. We usedg ro u n d - s t a c ked arrays of six XLC 127+boxes a side, with four EV MTL-2 subsstacked each side on the outside of thearrays. The combination of a great bandand a great rig meant Kalan was really ableto rock hard on stage—this made theshows a really dynamic experience for theaudiences, who had only seen him on theirTV sets up until that point.

“Taking the XLC rig out saves time with-out sacrificing sound quality and attentionto detail. We played a lot of union halls and

were under considerable time restraints.The stage often had to be black two hoursa fter soundcheck at most venues weplayed. Some nights we were torn downand in the truck less than an hour after thecurtains closed—the combination of easyrigging and punch for the pound makesthe XLC unbeatable on a tour like this.Using the EV LAPS (line array prediction)software means we can precisely addressthe co ntours of a room ve ry quickl y.Running LAPS gives you the diffe re n cebetween good and incredible sound.

“We heard positive responses to theXLC everywhere we went. At bigger venueslike Hamilton Place, we had union guyswho’d been in the business for 20 years sayit was the best rig they’d heard in alongtime. We had moms and dads comment onthe fact that the SPL, though high, wasn’tu n co m fo rtable—it was intelligible and distortion-free. We had sound guys fromtheatre venues with quality rigs of theirown come up to us and say, ‘This soundsp h e n o m e n a l .’ It doe s n’t get any be t ter than that!”

Canadian Idol Tours with The PA Shop

200.0505.NewsAdd.EP.qxd 5/2/05 11:04 AM Page 35

By RichardR u t h e r f o r d

Sound Sanctuary

36 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

SourceSourceGet To The

So many times we have discussed theevil trinity of church sound: incorrectspeaker placement, stage wedges and

live drum kits. These always seem to be adark and persistently integral part of thelearning curve when it comes to gettinggreat sound to the congregation. There aremany reasons why this is the case, but thereare only two general reasons why thisdestroys the faith of the FOH volunteer andhis ability to do a great job. First, the personcan only mix what he gets, and second... hecan only mix what he gets!

This has been the lively topic for a cou-ple of our employees who have a goodunderstanding of the subject (and recordingstudios in their homes). The conclusion ofthese discussions is that the key to a goodlive mix (as in recording) is to capture asmuch of the source material as possible, as“untainted as possible.”The followingrecounts a typical system review and train-ing mission to a local church with one of ourtechnicians, Ron Ross, where the case wasself-evident.

The facility is a large one-story ware-house house affair with 14-foot acoustic ceil-ings and a reasonable amount of wall treat-ment. Overall, not too reflective, with a goodchance for high intelligibility of spoken wordand vocals. We had done the original instal-lation, so we knew that the combinations ofLCR speakers, amps and main processing

were solid and mathematically correct with-out much compromise. (One third of the evildemons cast out!)

As we neared the stage, I could almostsee Ron’s brain as he gave me that look that

said “Why is there so much stuff cluttered allover the place?”The stage was clutteredwith drums, amps, mics, wedges, keyboards,cables, etc. Ron gave me another look whenhe spied the personal monitor system, thenthe wedges. Another look came as heinspected the live drum kit, surrounded byPlexiglas (good) but sorely lacking in anykind of proper mics (bad). Ron soon realizedthat his list of pros and cons about the set-ting couldn’t fit on his legal pad! And theclient’s problem? “We can’t seem to get agood mix...”

Ron immediately reset the drum kit withthe available mics, making sure that theywere actually pointed at the skins and withclose enough proximity to get all the sound.This is where you have to read specs andknow what the mic can do. (You’d be sur-prised at the difference even a half-inch can

make!) He also reset all the EQ channels onthe board for those mics at flat position andbegan getting as tight a sound as possiblebefore adjusting the individual gates andcompressors. Ron always suggests,“Don’t try

to fix your sound with your EQ until youhave all the sound you might need to fix!And if you find that you are adding morethan a couple dB here and there, you shouldprobably go back and reset your mics first!”

With this done, we were ready to pro-ceed. Like many experienced mix andrecording folks, Ron feels that since drumsare typically the loudest instrument on stageand typically the most variant dynamically,starting here is an absolute necessity. Drumsare the root of the rhythm section, and,especially where live kits are used, the rest ofthe talent must play “around” them. Havingwell miked live kits within an isolation shieldcan lower stage noise by as much as 40dB inthe first few listening rows. Where else canyou possibly gain that much overall head-room in the mix? We have now gotten to the

source, gained lots of headroom and doneso with little effects and no cost!

Ron also suggested that the players sim-ply get over the PM issue and spend thetime and money to get ear buds or head-phones they like. Every time you can elimi-nate a live wedge, the players have morecontrol over their own mix (eliminatinghands-on time for the volunteer at FOH),eliminating more potential feedback prob-lems and giving the poor FOH person less“acoustic” clutter to deal with. While Ronempathizes with the players who feel theneed to get chest compressing levels from awedge, he also notes that this is simply notthe best way to get maximum sourcethrough open mics, either for playback orrecording. With a hundred manufacturers ofear buds and headphones, you’ll find some-thing you like. Please try.

With some final checks on the main gainstructure, much improvement on the drumsand a bit of progress with the stage wedges,Ron began to further his quest for more andbetter sources on stage... Oh no... will youjust look at those guitar amps...

Ron Ross is an associate with RutherfordDesign and will from time to time contribute tothe Sound Sanctuary column.

“Every time you can eliminate a livewedge, the players have more control

over their own mix.”

200.0505.SoundSanctuary.JH 5/2/05 11:33 AM Page 36

Dear Anklebiters,After years of working for other out-

fits, I am finally on my own. The one issueI have run into a few times, however, isnot having enough of my own gear for ashow and having to rent additionalequipment. This in itself is not so bad, butoccasionally I have mixed and matchedamps, monitors and Front of Housespeakers. What is your take on this prac-tice?

Charles LeighterPhoenix, AZ

Jamie: In a perfect world, we wouldnever find ourselves short of gear andnever have to hustle to make a show

work. But in reality, unless you are one of thebig boys with the clientele and the cashflow, you will at some point need to supple-ment an event or just limit the size of showsyou take on. I am personally not a big fan of

mixing up Front of House boxes. The obvi-ous reasons are sound quality and visualpresentation. I do, however, use two differentmonitor manufacturers, and I don’t seem tohave a problem giving the musicians whatthey want in a floor wedge. The difference iswith monitors you are tailoring a wedge ortwo to one or more musicians. This is quite abit different than supplying sound to hun-dreds or thousands of people.

Anyway, back to the FOH issue; if youneed to use mismatched speakers, set upyour mix so you can control the outputs ofthe various cabinets. A separate EQ for theadditional boxes is also helpful in this typeof scenario. Let me give you an example: Ihave four JBL speaker boxes and two subsset up in a typical stereo mix. I am nowadding in a pair of Cerwin Vega cabinets tothe mix, but I am controlling them through asub-group. This way I can control the vol-ume, EQ and what I send to them separatefrom my JBLs. I may only need vocals in theextra speakers, or maybe the entire bandminus drums. The point is, I have completecontrol over the speakers I use to augmentmy system. The different cabinets obviouslydon’t look the same, but in this case whatreaches people’s ears is more importantthan what reaches their eyes.

Of course, this all takes more planning,thinking and set-up time, Charles, but you’rethe guy who booked a gig you weren’t

geared up for. At any rate, this approach canand will work. You get the additional horse-power you need for a show and you can stilldeliver quality sound. It has been my experi-ence that this method beats the hell out ofjust setting up some extra speakers andpower amps and hoping the sound willmiraculously fall into place.This is prettymuch the approach I have used in the past.Good luck.

Tim: Jamie and I did an article a whileback where we discussed owning mul-tiples of the same equipment. You

probably own a small or mid-sized soundsystem now. When a job comes around thatrequires more coverage and it becomes nec-essary to add more boxes and power, etc.,there are a few things to consider. Let mepreface this by saying, I do rent additionalequipment on occasion to fill orders that arebeyond my inventory. I frequently rent froma number of audio houses and have man-aged to build a reputation of being a goodclient who always pays his bills. As a result,over the years I’ve been able to rent equip-ment at relatively good rates. These relation-ships have saved me a fair amount ofmoney.

My first suggestion is when trying todetermine whether to purchase new equip-

ment, calculate how many jobs it would taketo pay off the newly acquired item. Forexample, if a monitor rents at $45 per job,and the monitor costs $450, you must use itat least 10 times before you begin to make aprofit from buying it instead of renting.

Secondly, if you make an estimate of the fre-quency of the item being rented—let’s sayfor the sake of argument, once per month—then you can expect to begin profiting offthis item within 10 months. As the frequencyincreases, obviously you’ll begin to make aprofit sooner. Also, before you decide to pur-chase new equipment, take into account thelongevity of the item.

Now, if you keep re nting the same pieceof equipment over and over again, and yo u’ved e te rmined that it would be lucrat i ve to pur-chase the ite m , then by all means, p u rchase it.Most of my wo rk is small to mid-sized jobs,

and I’ve acquired adequate inve nto ry to cove rthe needs of my audio co m p a ny. In genera l , Ionly need ext ra re i n fo rce m e nt a few times aye a r. I have had to purchase some new equip-m e nt, and sometimes the items are five to sixyears old be fo re they’ve paid for themselve s.So my re co m m e n d ation to you is to ca re f u l l yeva l u ate what your immediate needs are andd e te rmine whether it is wo rthwhile to pur-chase additional equipment .Th e re are alsom a ny cre at i ve ways to handle these purc h a s-e s ; you can trade for goods or serv i ce s, o nc redit from the place you re nt from or re nt toown situations etc. But that’s another to p i c.

I personally do not like to see mixedboxes or amps on stage. I think it looksmuch more professional when a company’sequipment presentation is aesthetically uni-form. But if it’s necessary to mix and match,try to keep the frontline matched up asmuch as possible. The drums usually use adifferent system, as well as the side fills. Inthe house system, small center fills can bedifferent, as well as delay systems or matrixsystems. In a perfect world, everything ismatched, but the fact that you are con-cerned about equipment uniformity is a stepin the direction of professionalism!

Have a question? E-mail the Anklebiters atanklebiters@fohonline.com.

37w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o m May 2005

By JamieRio & Ti mW i l l i a m s

The Anklebiters

&MixMatchG e a r

“Of course, this all takesmore planning, thinking

and set-up time...”-Jamie

“It looks much moreprofessional when a

company’s equipmentpresentation is

aesthetically uniform.”-Tim

200.0505.Anklebiters.JH 5/2/05 10:47 AM Page 37

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Being an audio provider requires thatone read the band rider to ensure thatthe necessary equipment is present

for the show. Another part of the audioprovider’s job is to be in contact with thevenue in regard to power requirements,load-in and load-out access, and schedule.The audio company must then transportthe system, set it up, tune it, ring it out and

then, as the system tech, make sure thatthe comps and gates are properly inserted,effects are returned correctly, all speakersare in phase, there are no ground loops and that every piece of equipment is operating at its optimum capacity. Oncethis is achieved, the audio provider can then sit back and relax as the visiting engineer takes over and has all the fun of mixing the show.

Unfortunately, not all audio engineersare created equal, and in many cases the system tech must keep a watchful eye onthe engineer, as well as on the system itself.As the house soundman of a venue or as asystem tech for an audio company, thisbabysitting operation is a two-tiered job.On one hand, the job requires that the sys-tem is looked after to protect it from anyoperational damage, and on the other hand,the duty of the house soundman/systemtech is to ensure that the show sounds greatfor the audience. For the most part, at a cer-

tain level, the majority of audio engineersare competent and respectful, and thoughone may not agree with a particular soundor mix, it is evident that the engineer isversed in gain structure and is posing noimmediate threat to the system. If by chancethere should be some noticeable problemwith the mix, the professional engineer isusually gracious enough to accept a helpful

suggestion and does what is required toameliorate the situation.

Regrettably, there are some audio engi-neers who do not belong in their venerablepositions, but due to some irrational reasonthe sonic fate of the band has been placedunder the influence of their guiding hands.These same engineers, because of pride,ignorance or some other deadly sin, refuseto admit that anything is wrong with themix, even as flames are shooting from theback of the console and horrible fart-likenoises are emanating from the speakers.It is the same unholy spirit guiding thesedemon engineers that makes it impossibleto offer any friendly proposals in regard tocorrecting the error, as each suggestion ismet with a brick wall response.

As the system provider, it is tempting tojust throw up one’s hands and walk away,leaving the engineer to crash and burn, butthis response, while understandable, is notpractical, as it leaves the audio provider in

an extremely vulnerable position. One partof the job is a responsibility to protect theequipment from being damaged, whichshould be fairly easy if all the proper precau-tions are taken ahead of time. The other partof the job is the responsibility of providingquality sound, and if the audio portion of ashow is below par, it is usually the audioprovider that gets the blame, despite thefact that it might have been operator erroron the part of the visiting engineer. A badshow is a disaster for everyone involved, andsince nobody likes taking the blame, it fallson the system techs to protect themselvesas well as the company for whom they work.

I know one engineer who, after repeat-edly telling the visiting engineer that he was posing a threat to the speakers by dis-torting certain channels and tired of gettingthe cold shoulder, and shut down the entiresystem in the middle of the show. This of

course did not sit well with the fairly presti-gious act, the venue or the few thousandpeople in attendance. After a few franticcalls to the head of the audio company, thesystem was restored, but it was the last showthe engineer did for the audio company andthe company had to do quite a bit of apolo-gizing to both the venue and the act so thatthey would not lose future accounts.

Another time, I had hired an engineer tobe the tech at a venue that was hosting ahuge rap artist. The artist’s engineer wasnotorious for his horrible gain structure, butI always got along with him and managed towork with him. Apparently the engineer Ihired didn’t have the same luck or tactfulfinesse, and after making a few suggestions,the artist’s engineer punched him out.

Once, the venue for which I workedhosted a huge star whose engineer had setup such a horrible gain structure that thesystem howled all night. I tried to reasonwith the visiting engineer, but to no avail. Ieven tried to persuade him to let me resetthe gain, but he wouldn’t go for it. Finally Iwalked away and locked myself in the pro-duction room until the end of the show. Thenext day the New York Times review said theshow was pretty good, but that the soundwas horrible. Needless to say it was thevenue and I who looked bad, not the bandor the visiting engineer.

Being a system tech at a venue or for anaudio company often requires diplomacyand good people skills that many techni-cians do not possess or care to acquire. Therelationship between artist, engineer, venue,

promoter and sound company is like anintricately choreographed dance performedby huge egos with a lot of money at stake.Disrupting the delicate balance betweenthese parties can lead to a chaotic eveningor more, to say the least; therefore I will sug-gest a few strategies that have worked forme over the years when dealing with prob-lematic engineers who threaten to upsetthis fragile stability.

If an engineer is distorting a channel ormore on the console, do not just tell him toturn down the gain. Offer to get the level he wants from somewhere else, e.g. theequalizer, the compressor or the crossover.Let him know that you understand what heis trying to accomplish and that you canhelp him if he stops distorting the channels.Also, make him aware that the system isgoing into protect and that bringing downthe gain on the channels in the red will

enable the system to open up. Remind theengineer that you are there to help, and thatwhile it’s his job to make his artist shine, youhave the responsibility to the venue and/orpromoter to do the same. If none of thisworks and the engineer still insists on beinga jerk, then just walk away, but before youleave, drop the threshold on your compres-sors across the main left and right outputand raise your compression ratio. After all,though the review for the show might beless than flattering in regard to sound, youstill have to protect yourself and your gearwhile being diplomatic.

By BakerL e e

FOH-at-Large

40 w w w. f o h o n l i n e . c o mMay 2005

C o m i n gN e x tM o n t h . . .• Digital Ti m e ?

A group of industryheavy hitters look atthe pros, cons andeconomics of digitalconsoles. Here's whatthey have to say.

• FOH InterviewCupped mics, massivesubs and thunderousSPL on the currentNelly tour

THE SOUND GUY

Unfortunately, not all audio engineers are created equal,and in many cases the system tech must keep a watchful

eye on the engineer, as well as on the system itself.

Babysitting

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