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Monday, March 01, 2010

Audio-Technica Enhances MicroSet Headworn Microphone

Ideal for broadcast, live sound, and house-of-worship applications, the AT8464 Dual-Ear Microphone Mount provides additional stability and a comfortable fit.

Audio-Technica is enhancing its BP892 MicroSet Subminiature Omnidirectional Condenser Headworn Microphone with the AT8464 Dual-Ear Microphone Mount.

This high-SPL successor to Audio-Technica’s popular AT892 offers increased dynamic range with maximum audio quality and minimum visibility.

The Dual-Ear Mount allows users to convert their single-ear-worn BP892 MicroSet to a dual-ear-worn unit for maximum stability and comfort.

This device will now come standard with all BP892 MicroSet units, and is also sold as a stand-alone item to retrofit BP892 and AT892 units already in the field.

It easily converts the mic to left or right wearing positions, and the continuously adjustable headband fits both children and adults.

Additionally, it features a durable, lightweight, low-profile design with an included cord clip. Like the BP892 it accompanies, the AT8464 is available in both black and theater beige.

All configurations of the Audio-Technica BP892 MicroSet Subminiature Omnidirectional Condenser Headworn Microphone, with included AT8464 Dual Ear Mount, are now available.

Audio-Technica Website

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Drummer Boy Sound Puts The “Live” In Allen & Heath iLive Digital Mixing System

A small footprint, easy set up, and great sound made all the difference.

The first time Harold Cummings, founder and CEO of Miami-area production company Drummer Boy Sound tried the Allen & Heath iLive-T, he was blown away. “When I began using the console at those [live] shows, I can’t tell you what a difference it made. Small footprint, easy and fast to set up, no outboard gear… and it sounds fantastic!”

One of the first events Cummings worked with the iLive-T was the National Day of Prayer at Miami’s Faith Center, which seats about 4,000. The event was also recorded by the Telemundo network.

“A situation came up,” recalls Cummings, “where a guest musician taking the stage inadvertently crossed through my cordoned off power management area and tripped the power to the iLive-T control surface. 

Since the mix engine is in the MixRack which has redundant power supplies, we never lost any audio.  All mics and speakers stayed live. 

I restored power, and in less than a minute, the control surface was rebooted with all settings in place. The band started the next song and never missed a beat, pretty amazing. The audience never knew.

It was seamless, and it proved to me what a well-engineered piece of gear this is. I turned into a total iLive fan at that point!”

Operationally, Cummings uses the DCA groups of the iLive, usually dividing the music presentation into three or four groups. He is also a fan of the operational design of the iLive. “Just hitting ‘Select’ and having that channel in front of me is a great idea. It lets me work quickly and gives the board an analog feel.”

As a company that does both live events and installations, Drummer Boy Sound is always working to provide high-end sound quality while watching the bottom line. “The preamps and the effects on the iLive sound fantastic, like a high-end analog desk,” he says.

“The sound that I get coming straight off the board is amazing. I record straight to my MacBook Pro out of the matrix, and it’s ridiculous how clean and even the recordings sound.

I don’t have to tweak it on the record side at all, just do a stereo matrix out, set the input so it’s at a non-distorted level, and go. When I send my clients a CD of their event, they are just blown away. That’s the kind of difference the iLive has made for me.”

“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” says Cummings. “Originally, I was sold on this desk as the perfect installation console for the church market, because of its price point, its feature set and sound quality. But using it on live event productions, I saw how much of a weapon the iLive really is….”

Allen & Heath Website

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Mix Engineer Andy Meyer Utilizing VENUE D-Show Console For Guns N Roses On Tour

Console’s flexibility is a major asset on this particular tour

Veteran mix engineer Andy Meyer is utilizing an Avid VENUE D-Show console for his front of house mixing for the latest leg of the Guns N Roses world tour.

Meyer, who has used VENUE consoles since 2006 on artists ranging from Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson to Sevendust, Motley Crue and Rage Against The Machine, points to the console’s flexibility as a major asset on this particular tour.

“It’s a big band – three guitars, two keyboards, bass, drums and vocals – and that means not just plenty of inputs, but lots of challenges in terms of just getting everything to sit right in the mix,” Meyer explains. “The ability to easily set up snapshots is the most important feature for me.

“Setting up different panning and EQ settings in scenes throughout the course of a song allows me to create different imaging and tonality for greater impact. It makes the vocals and solos stand out to really create a better mix.”

The band’s fast-paced show means plenty of quick, complex changes, most of which would be impossible without VENUE’s snapshot automation. “I’m using roughly 238 scenes throughout the show,” says Meyer, adding that he’s connected a footswitch to advance through scenes. “It works great for freeing up my hands, though I realized after the show that I was standing on one leg for three hours!”

Supplementing a compressed schedule of rehearsals with VENUE’s Virtual Soundcheck enabled Meyer to build a massive library of scene snapshots in time for the tour, which spans several continents. “I was brought on kind of late in the game, so I only had about two weeks of rehearsals to put it all together,” he says. “It was pretty intensive, but I was able to sit after the rehearsals and work with the live tracks.”

VENUE’s native implementation of plug-ins is also a major asset, says Meyer. “I’m using 100 plug-ins in all, including Digidesign stuff, Waves and McDSP. All 100 plug-ins are scoped into each of the 238 scenes – from effects changes to compression and EQ changes – per scene, per song. I’m a big fan of the Waves Renaissance and the McDSP ML4000 plug-ins, as well as the Digidesign classic plug-ins.”

With the tour’s demanding schedule, Meyer says VENUE is an indispensable part of his arsenal. “It frees me up and enables me to manage more than I could ever manage on a traditional console. I’m able to spend more time creating a better live mix.”

VENUE Website

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Guitar Center Professional Supplies Equipment For Florida Teaching Studio

Mike Curb College of Art, Music and Science at Daytona State College open new teaching studio with equipment sourced from GC Pro.

The Music Production Technology program at the Mike Curb College of Art, Music and Science at Daytona State College recently chose Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), to supply the equipment for their facilities that just opened to students this January.

Housing two performance venues digitally linked to a recording studio capable of stereo and surround, these facilities were designed by a who’s-who of Pro Audio. GC Pro took the equipment list from Program Developer and Senior Instructor Jake Niceley and filled it exactly including:

Genex GX9000 8trk DSD hard disk recorder Tube Tech CL 1B Opto Compressor Purple Audio MC76 limiting amplifier Empirical Labs Distressors Manley Variable Mu® Stereo Limiter Compressor Neve 33609 JD Stereo Limiter/Compressor Neve 1084 CH Mic Pre/EQ TASCAM DVR1000 multi-format playback system Avid Pro Tools HD3 system and Mbox workstations Korby KAT 4 microphone system Lexicon 960L reverb SSL Duality

Niceley felt GC Pro went the extra mile, finding even discontinued products such as the Lexicon 960L for Daytona State. “That kind of ability to get you exactly what you want or need is amazing, and it‘s the reason we went with GC Pro.”

Guitar Center Professional Website

 

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InfoComm Makes Key Additions to Management Team

Damico's addition and Bocchiaro's promotion are strides of progress for the future.

InfoComm International, a trade association representing the commercial audiovisual industry, has announced that Al Damico is joining the organization in the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer and Joseph Bocchiaro, III, Ph.D., AStd, CTS-D, CTS-I, ISF-C, has been promoted to Vice President for Standards and Best Practices.

Damico has more than 20 years of experience in business management and marketing in the plastics manufacturing sector, most recently serving as Executive Vice President at The Society of the Plastics Industry.

“I am pleased to add someone with Al Damico’s business acumen to the InfoComm team,” said Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., Executive Director and CEO, InfoComm International.

“The new Chief Operating Officer will play a key role in the organization, overseeing key programmatic areas managed by our competent team of Vice Presidents, allowing me time to keep InfoComm on an upward trajectory, through the pursuit of new initiatives and strategic alliances.” 

Bocchiaro is an AV industry veteran who has been with InfoComm International since December 2004.  He served as an InfoComm Staff Instructor before being selected as the organization’s first Director of Performance Standards.  “Joe has done a superlative job working with hundreds of volunteers to build InfoComm’s performance standards program from the ground up,” said Lemke.  “He has the respect of the AV industry and is the logical person to navigate the consensus needed to take our standards and best practices initiatives to the next level.”

InfoComm International Website

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SoundField SPS200 Microphone Gets Extreme Test

The SoundField SPS200 stands up against the Canadian elements to return with sounds of the wild.

For location recordists wanting for proof of reliability in their equipment, the SoundField SPS200 has emerged a worthy asset after being used to capture audio for a unique sound installation at a Zurich cultural museum.

NONAM, Switzerland’s North American Native Museum, is constructing a permanent audio installation representing five of the main geographical regions of North American Native culture.

The engineer responsible for capturing the sounds was Hein Schoer, a German researcher working at the Fontys School of Arts in the Netherlands.

Schoer recorded the sounds and textures during a three-week trip to Canada’s west coast last autumn, in collaboration with the U’Mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, British Columbia.

Schoer needed a recording solution that didn’t involve cumbersome multi-microphone arrays.
“My original idea was to use a couple of stereo mics to make simultaneous recordings on separate stereo recorders and sync them in post-production to create quad soundscapes. However, this idea fell through.”

“I contacted [German SoundField Distributor] SEA and they suggested that I think about taking the SoundField SPS200 instead. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Synchronizing two stereo recordings made on separate recorders could have been very hit and miss and time-consuming, but the SPS200 allowed me to capture the audio independently of the output format with one microphone.”

The audio captured by the SPS200 can be decoded later in post-production using the SPS200 Surround Zone plug-in, which is supplied free of charge with the microphone.

As with SoundField’s other multi-capsule microphones, the output from the SPS200 may be converted to a variety of output formats including phase-coherent mono, stereo, quad, or 5.1 surround, without any phase artifacts.

“The sound installation for NONAM is in quadraphonic, but this is also my PhD project, and I intend to make radio presentations in stereo from the recordings,” explains Schoer. “So the ability of the SPS200 to output audio in different formats is very useful to me. All I have to do is change some settings in the SoundField decoding software on my laptop.”

Schoer recorded over 17 hours with the SPS200 in its custom-made Zephyx windshield kit, including the sounds of the wildlife, birds and lakes of the region, and wind passing through the trees over a nature reserve.

SoundField Website

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Village Baptist Church Makes Fresh Start With INNOVASON Sy48 Digital Console

Handles both house and monitor mixes, while additional feeds are used for recording and distribution throughout the rest of the building

Village Baptist Church near Portland, OR, recently installed an INNOVASON Sy48 digital mixing console with 72 inputs, 16 outputs and a DioCore stagebox following the opening of their brand new worship center.

The new building provides 43,695 square feet of space spread over three floors including a 1,000-seat Sanctuary.

With the new build came a new sound system, at the heart of which is the INNOVASON Sy48 with a DioCore complete with the onboard VB-Audio FX package and a 16 x 2 Aviom A-Net card.

Positioned at front of house in the sanctuary, the Sy48 handles both house and monitor mixes, while additional feeds are used for recording and distribution throughout the rest of the building.

Village Baptist technical director and sound engineer, Jerry Keifer, explained he went through a rigorous selection process before settling on the Sy48.

“A biggie for me is sound quality,” he stated. “I don’t care how many features can be crammed into a console if it sounds bad. I mean, we all like these digital boards for their versatility and processing power, but what good is any of that if the preamps make everything sound like garbage? With the Sy48 I get the same richness as a good analog console, but I have the recall and processing power of digital.”

“Another thing that really drew me to the Sy48 was the layout of the console, or, rather, the lack thereof,” continued Keifer. “That I could design the console using the Personal Console Builder and put everything where I want it was a huge draw.

“Add to that the wonderful functionality of the Xfads, and I have the ability to mix the way I want to mix; I’m not limited to the way some design engineer thought a console should be used.”

Illustrating his point, Keifer described his first configuration of the board: “I had a split of each channel onto virtual faders which were for my monitor mixes, so I was literally able to mix monitors and FOH independently of one another while still keeping my channels divided into groups via the Xfads…it was a bit ambitious for my introduction to a digital system, and I need a little more time to get used to it before I use that configuration in a live situation.

“But my point is that the Sy48 is able to do just about anything an engineer can imagine; the only real limitation is the engineer…”

INNOVASON Website

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IK Multimedia Announces AmpliTube 3 Gear Modeling Software Now Shipping

Packing feature enhancements and new models for enhanced performance.

IK Multimedia has announced that AmpliTube 3, a substantial upgrade to their guitar and bass tone gear-modeling software, is now shipping.

AmpliTube 3 ships with 100 additional models of gear (over 160 gear models in total), from the most sought-after vintage collections to modern-day workhorses. This includes 51 Stomp boxes, 31 Amps, 46 Cabinets, 15 Studio Mics, and 17 Rack effects.

These can be directly expanded with packages like AmpliTube Fender, Ampeg SVX packages.

Additionally, a new preset management and keyword system allows you to organize and quickly recall the massive library of included and custom preset tones

Users will appreciate new features in AmpliTube 3 such as the ability to double mic each cabinet, new impulse-based reverbs and rotary speaker modules, a full-stereo path, an integrated 4-track recorder / player, and much more.

AmpliTube 3 is available to customers in the VST, RTAS and Audio Unit plug-in formats, and also as stand-alone software for Mac OSX and Windows.

AmpliTube Website

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Neumo’s Live Music Club In Seattle Steps Up With Soundcraft Si2 Digital Console

Soundcraft's Si2 chosen after careful consideration due to features and ease of use.

A Soundcraft Si2 digital console was recently installed in Neumo’s Crystal Ball and Reading Room, one of the Northwest’s leading music venues, bringing their monitoring position to the digital age.

The club installed a Soundcraft 48-input Si2 console with 24 monitor sends in December.

The console was sold to Neumo’s by K. Berry Associates, a leading Seattle-area sound and lighting systems sales and installation provider, which also provides the club’s other sound and lighting systems.

Bay Area-based Plus 4 Marketing sold the Si2 console to K. Berry Associates.

Neumo’s is a complex venue, hosting its restaurant, Pike Street Fish Fry, MOE BAR neighborhood pub, as well as its VIP Room.

However, the concert hall side of the business is its priority, with advanced lighting production, a state of the art sound system, and a carefully scheduled music calendar that has regularly hosted nationally known artists including The Shins, Vampire Weekend, The Raconteurs, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Feist, Connor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band, Super Furry Animals, The Avette Brothers and many others.

Kelly Berry, President of K. Berry Associates and designer of the sound system, points out that these and other artists have become heavily reliant on in-ear monitors, and lots of them. “Where before you might have needed a few outputs for stage monitors, today you need as many as a dozen individual monitor mixes for multiple band members, and for as many as three different bands every night,” he explains.

“The musicians have come to expect that capability.” The search for a new monitor console took time; it was first decided that only a digital console would fit the bill. “A traditional analog console simply can’t handle that many outputs,” says Berry.

After reviewing the specifications and performance data of several leading digital mixers, the Soundcraft Si2 was pronounced the clear winner. “The recall capability of the Si2 is incredible,” says Kelly. “Soundchecks go quicker and more productively and there’s no resetting the board between acts – they just hit the recall button and the monitors are ready to go.”

Berry says that the console’s other features were huge selling points, including 24 group/aux busses available at all times, eight matrix busses and a full compliment of monitor talkback and main bus outputs, as well as the fact that every input and output on the Si2 has its own dedicated input socket on the back of the console. The Si2 also uses a combination of rotary encoders and OLED screens on every channel so the engineer mixes at the source, without having to refer to a central screen. Four assignable on-board Lexicon effect engines supplement 4 stereo inputs to provide a really powerful mix package.

“The installation was a breeze—the Si2 fits in the same footprint as a typical analog console – it doesn’t need a stand-alone computer, and the learning curve was not steep at all – the club’s mixers were up and running on it within a half-hour of seeing it for the first time. We know it’s already made a huge difference in how well the monitoring performs at Neumo’s because the bands tell us so, and they’re the ones you have to please.”

Soundcraft Website

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