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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Adamson Systems Expands European Operations

Canadian based loudspeaker manufacturer, Adamson Systems Engineering, is expanding its presence in Europe with the addition of two new employees to its Hamburg based European Headquarters. 

A key influence over the expansion, is the desire to move towards direct business in Germany. 

As Adamson GmbH expand their operations in Germany, it has become obvious to both Adamson, and former distribution partner Trius Vertrieb GmbH, that direct sales and support would best serve Adamson in both, Germany and Austria.

“Most of our major competitors have offices or their own representatives in Germany.”

“As a country, we have a strong economy, and our GDP per capita is very impressive. 

“The potential is clear. In addition to our German needs, we are also on the verge of unveiling Project Energia.”

“This will be an unparalleled release for our firm.  Our new generation of technology is exciting and forward looking to say the least.” comments Jochen Sommer, Director of European Operations.

Adamson Systems Website

The Top Ten Ways To Improve Worship Audio In The Coming Year

This article is provided by Behind The Mixer.

 
Forget the New Year’s resolutions that you never keep.  Instead, consider these ten methods of improving your audio ministry as a list of action items for 2011. 

Action items, well, demand action!

I’m not talking rocket science, however, I am talking about the fundamental steps required for growing and improving a team!

1. Add a new volunteer
Advertise in the church bulletin, newsletter, video announcements, whatever it takes to show that the audio ministry is serious about adding a volunteer. 

Let people know they can stop by the sound booth after any church service to find out more.

2. Bench a player
A volunteer on your team who is also volunteering in other church ministries so much that you rarely see them sitting in the congregation might need to be benched for a season. 

Before benching them, talk with them and explain how you see them giving a lot to the church but not allowing themselves to be fed by the church which will certainly lead to burnout. 

This is part of caring for your team members.

3. Get a budget
First, find out if you even have a budget. 

Then. find out how much it is and what it covers; new or just fix old.  Find out if the money rolls over from the previous year. 

Create an audio budget if you don’t have one.

4. Review your Christmas production
It’s definitely not too late to do this. Determine if you need more microphones or monitors for next year and add that into your budget items for this year. 

If there is a need for a piece of equipment for the Christmas production, determine if it’s equipment you can use throughout the year.  Buy if you can use it a few times a year.  Rent if it’s only needed once a year.

Review the production quality and determine how to improve for next year.

5. Develop a training schedule
Once a quarter, hold an evening training session.  Once a month, have a team member present a technical topic in detail. 

Create an email list so whenever a team member runs across a useful article on the internet, they can forward it to the group. 

6. Review your scheduling process
Do you have problems scheduling people for certain holidays?  Are people scheduled far enough in advance? 

Do people often forget when they are assigned?  Send an email out to the person a week ahead of the scheduled date so they know they are scheduled. 

Our secretary does this with all volunteer positions.  Schedule people for three-to-four months in advance.  Use a scheduling program or see if the church secretary can incorporate this task with other scheduling tasks.

7. Set and explain expectations
Set the expectations of your team and the production quality.  This can include timeliness, behavior, competency, continual improvement, and even weekly reviews if you want. 

8. Replace any broken or unreliable equipment
Do I really need to say more?

9. Meet with the musicians and worship leaders
Find out if they are having problems with equipment, processes, or needs not being met by the audio crew. 

Work towards rectifying the issues, whether it’s through working with your audio team or through educating the musicians on areas where they have to take responsibility.

10. Look to the future
Picture yourself in the same place next year and write down the areas you wish you had tackled/resolved/fixed/improved.  That’s your extended action list for this year.

Which of these ten do you think you’ll tackle first? Let me know in the comments below!

Ready to learn and laugh? Chris Huff writes about the world of church audio at Behind The Mixer. He covers everything from audio fundamentals to dealing with musicians. He can even tell you the signs the sound guy is having a mental breakdown.

Proper Loudspeaker Placement: How To Avoid Lobes and Nulls

Let’s say the sound system in the house of worship you’re working on goes into feedback whenever microphones pass under the loudspeaker array.

Worse yet, there are “soft spots” in some sections of the audience area.

Choir mics “squeal” before they are loud enough and the podium mic “rings” annoyingly for some presenters. You know that the system should be equalized to eliminate these problems.

So you install an equalizer and the feedback is reduced, but the soft spots persist and the system just doesn’t sound good.

But that’s why you, the consumate audio profesiponal, are there.

After some careful listening tests, a “problem area” within the room is chosen for the measurement mic placement.

This is a place in the seating where people complain that they can’t hear, or a place where the mic consistently goes into feedback, such as directly under the loudspeaker array. The measurement looks something like that shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Comb filter caused by a time offset between two loudspeakers. The audibility of comb filters has always been the subject of heated debate. While humans may not be very sensitive to narrow notches in the spectrum, the spacial lobing implied by the comb filter can excessively excite rooms and dramatically reduce gain-before-feedback.

The response clearly shows an acoustic “comb filter” that results from a time offset between two sound arrivals at the measurement position.

The measurer first makes certain that the secondary arrival isn’t simply the result of a bad mic placement (floor bounce, etc.) or loudspeaker placement (ceiling or wall bounce, etc.).

After ruling out these two possibilities, it becomes apparent that the multiple arrivals are due to the overlapping patterns of two loudspeakers being used to provide audience coverage.

Standing at the mic position and simply looking at the array, noting that you are clearly within the coverage pattern of two loudspeakers suspended over the stage, confirms the suspicion. Sound travels at a single constant speed.

Yet, in this case, there are two loudspeakers.

Therefore every location in the room that is receiving direct sound at equal level from both loudspeakers (except for the center line where the distance to each loudspeaker is exactly equal), will receive two signals arriving at different times.

This time offset causes the comb filtering.

Figure 2: Represents the lobing (a form of destructive interference) between two spaced loudspeakers at a single frequency.

An acoustic comb filter can produce undesirable coloration of the sound and loss of definition. It can even change where the sound seems to be coming from, ruining the “imaging” of the system.

The possible “options” are:
1. Set the analyzer resolution to smooth the comb filtering, and then adjust the equalizer for the desired response. This is not a solution. It just masks the problem.

2. Ignore the comb filtering and simply “notch” the frequencies that are prone to feedback. Even though this is a common approach, it is treating the symptom and not the problem.

Excessive frequency notching can ruin the sound of the system. Why filter out sound that needs to be there?

3. Conclude that humans aren’t all that sensitive to narrow notches in the spectrum, so the comb filters are just something that we can live with.

This is rationalizing the problem and is simply not true. It’s usually the explanation provided by someone who is responsible for the problem in the first place!

4. Get out the old one-third octave real-time analyzer. You can’t see the comb filters on it.

For many years, audio professionals did not have high-resolution analyzers that could identify arrival time problems. The system response looked fine on a one-third octave analyzer, but it still sounded bad.

Today’s analyzers are vastly more powerful and can reveal much more about the nature of a sound problem.

5. Inform the owner that the current loudspeaker placement has created some problems that cannot be “corrected” electronically. The only real solution is to relocate the existing loudspeakers or redesign the array.

Unfortunately, the sad reality is that only the last option is likely to fix the system.

Figure 4: Placing a greater physical distance between the loudspeakers.

An acoustic comb filter is a symptom of a more significant problem. When two loudspeakers are placed in close proximity, the resultant distance offset will cause “lobing” in the speaker’s radiation pattern.

Lobes can be described as “fingers” of sound pressure “maximums” in the three-dimensional space surrounding the array.

The fingers are separated by nulls or axis of minimal sound pressure level. The fingers typically cause problems with microphones, since a mic is likely to feedback when it is placed within a lobe.

The nulls cause problems for the audience, since parts of the audio spectrum that are critical for speech intelligibility (understanding the words) are cancelled at some listener’s seats.

Figure 5: Use of aggressive pattern control to reduce the overlap.

When a series of these lobes and nulls exist, the visual representation of the frequency response at one listener position will resemble the teeth of a comb, with a sequence of peaks and valleys.

This is a far cry from the “perfect” system response that would look more like a flat line. As such, a comb filter is the symptom of a spatial problem that has resulted from a loudspeaker selection and placement choice.

To illustrate, look at the simulations shown below (Figure 6), which show such a condition performed with the EASE sound system design software package.

Two loudspeakers with low directivity control have been separated by two feet.

The resultant does not represent accurate sound reproduction and can cause the afore-mentioned problems with acoustic gain and speech intelligibility.

Please note that it is certainly possible to build quality “arrayable” loudspeakers, and there are a number of good examples in the marketplace. However, all of them have several parameters in common:

1. Large physical size

2. Horn-loaded components

3. Aggressive pattern control to minimize interaction with adjacent loudspeakers

If these loudspeaker requirements present problems for a particular venue due to the required large physical size, then smaller loudspeakers can be used (usually in greater number) if they are placed sufficiently close to the listeners (i.e. exploded arrays or distributed systems).

Figure 2 (on page 38) outlines the options, and there aren’t many.

Figure 6: Left - The balloon plot displays the 3-dimensional sound radiation from the two-device array described in the text. Right - The traditional horizontal polar plot views the equator of the balloon as viewed from above for one frequency.

Radio broadcast engineers have understood for years the importance of proper antenna array design to control lobing in RF radiation to steer their signal to certain areas within the listening range and away from others.

For instance, if a station is licensed to radiate 50 killowatts of power, they can use an antenna array to steer the radiated signal up and down an interstate highway rather than out across a sparsely inhabited area. In fact, if they do it wrong, they can be in violation of federal law and therefore subject to prosecution.

Loudspeaker array designers must work with the same physical laws and principles as antenna designers. The only difference is that they can’t be prosecuted for bad sound.

Balloon plots are useful because they show the three-dimensional radiation pattern from a loudspeaker or group of loudspeakers located at the center of the balloon.

The plot describes what is happening at a single frequency. The plots can be generated for multiple frequencies to more fully describe the performance of an array. The balloon plot of a “perfect” loudspeaker would be the same, regardless of frequency.

Comb filtering in the magnitude response (a measurement at a single point in space) is evidence of lobing in the spatial radiation of the array.

Pat Brown teaches the Syn-Aud-Con seminars and workshops. Synergetic Audio Concepts (Syn-Aud-Con) has been a leader in audio education since 1973. With nearly 15,000 “graduates” worldwide, Syn-Aud-Con is dedicated to teaching the basics of audio and acoustics. For more information visit their website.

AVB & Harman HiQnet Chosen By On Stage Audio

Simplicity and reliability met when systems integration company On Stage Audio (OSA) deployed the IEEE 802.1 AVB Bridging protocol at the annual Kawasaki dealer meeting this September.

With 2,500 Kawasaki dealers from across the United States at the Las Vegas Hilton’s convention center, the gathering required a full-range audio delivery system for any combination of music and speech.

The AVB-compliant system from Harman Professional, a leader in the AVB initiative, assured one of the world’s most iconic motorcycle brand’s message would be heard loud and clear.

The AVB system deployed by the OSA team, led by Jim Risgin, OSA vice president, consisted of a pair of dbx SC 32 Digital Matrix Processors and 24 AVB-capable Crown CTs 3000 amplifiers.

The system also included network bridge switches from BSS Audio/NETGEAR, all under the control of Harman HiQnet System Architect, the world’s first connectivity and control protocol to integrate all product categories in the signal chain for professional sound systems of all types, sizes and applications.

“The network ran AVB transport and distribution from the SC 32 to the amplifiers, flawlessly,” said Risgin. “The project was done entirely within a pure AVB signal chain and that’s becoming the case for many of our projects now.”

Risgin notes that despite the short amount of preparation time before the event, very little was actually needed, thanks to the fact that HiQnet System Architect allows systems designers to map out the entire AVB sound system in an intuitive graphical software environment.

“After the components are in their racks, all we need to do is apply the design by dragging and dropping the icons for each component,” continued Risgin.

“With the virtual design, we can select every piece of equipment with accuracy and we have the ability to do all of the patching off-site.”

Risgin, who was an early and active contributor to the AVB industry-wide initiative, was working with the latest iteration of HiQnet System Architect, the soon-to-be-announced version 2.3, which he says adds even more streamlined features to HiQnet System Architect and behind-the-scenes further enhances the implementation of the AVB protocol.

“We were able to set up and run 15 audio streams to the amplifiers for this event. They not only performed perfectly in terms of control, but also sounded just as good as analog,” said Risgin.

“The best thing you can ever say about a piece of technology is that it just works and that’s what we can say about AVB. It just works, all the time, every time.”

Harman Professional

Behind The Glass With Engineer Hugh Padgham - Does It Sound Any Good?

Ah, the eighties. Every record sounded like it was made in a stadium, every singer working their uppermost range until it seemed as if their vocal cords were about to leap out of their throat, every hit wrapped in a glossy package of shimmering guitar leads and silky bass.

And, of course, every snare drum was passing through a gated reverb.

Hugh Padgham is largely responsible for many of those sounds—particularly the latter— but he’s also responsible for crafting many of the greatest records of the era, The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” Genesis’ “Tonight’s the Night,” and Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” among them.

His ultra-clean signature sound raised the bar for every engineer and producer of the era and had a major impact on the shift from the dead, close-miked records of the seventies to the open, ambient sounds of the nineties and beyond.

Padgham’s unique abilities and versatility are probably best reflected in the fact that he’s won four Grammys in four different categories: Album of the Year (Collins’ 1985 No Jacket Required), Record of the Year (Collins’ 1990 “Another Day in Paradise”), Best Engineered Album of the Year (Sting’s 1993 Ten Summoner’s Tales), and the 1985 Producer of the Year award.

Padgham’s career started at London’s Advision Studios, where he served as tea-boy (the British equivalent to a runner), but it wasn’t until he moved to Landsdowne Studios in the mid-1970s that he received formal training, quickly rising through the ranks from assistant engineer to chief engineer.

In 1978, he took a job at Richard Branson’s Townhouse studio (which sadly closed its doors only recently), which gave him an opportunity to engineer for various Virgin artists, including XTC, Peter Gabriel, and Phil Collins.

It was also at the Townhouse that Padgham first met a young bass player by the name of Gordon Sumner. . . soon to be known to the world as Sting.

A couple of years later, just as Sting’s band The Police were poised to reach the heights of international fame, Padgham was brought onboard to co-produce their massive hit album Ghost in the Machine.

We met up at his West London studio, Sofa Sound, one bright summer afternoon, where the affable Mr. Padgham, looking more like a ruffled professor than a superstar pop producer, shared his unique perspective on the evolution of record-making through the past two decades.

Howard Massey: Are you fully sold on digital recording these days, or do you still use tape?

Hugh Padgham: I’m not anti-digital per se, because you’ve always got to stay as current with things as you can. But people who grew up with analog gear can hear the difference, and there’s no doubt in my mind that analog sounds better: it’s kinder to your ears, and not as harsh.

Hugh Padgham

Having said that, there’s also no question that digital now sounds better than ever before. These days I’m running all my sessions at 96k, 24-bit, and that’s a big improvement over 44.1 or 48. Of course, the original RADAR, which was 44.1, 16-bit, sounded a lot better than other machines, so I think a lot of it is down to the converters.

One thing I really miss about analog recording is tape compression, though. By using it carefully, you can actually get some 10 dB of extra level before a well-recorded transient signal like a snare drum clips.

That’s one reason that digital sounds so harsh—because you’re not getting any of that nice rounding off of the transients. So these days, I tend to do my initial tracking onto 24-track tape and then copy that into Pro Tools. That way, at the very least, my drums, bass, and guitars hit tape.

If I have the time and budget, I will continue doing things onto analog, either by premixing and bouncing tracks, or by running a second machine in sync.

However, I still never go over 48 tracks; I set that as my limit. It just gets really difficult to manage more tracks than that, especially if you’re mixing on an analog console.

Don’t forget, we used to quite successfully make records on a single 24-track machine.

How do you know when a recording is complete, when it’s time to stop adding overdubs and start mixing it?

It’s really just instinct. For me it always comes down to one simple question: “Does it sound any good?” Sometimes you run into situations when you suddenly think, “I’m not so sure this sounds good anymore.”

That’s when you realize that the last thing you added didn’t need to be there. “Less is more” sounds like a cliché, but it often is true, and it often takes a lot of effort to have less rather than more.

I actually spend more time pruning stuff down than adding things. Doing so can often require a musician to learn or evolve an altogether different part to be played, so that what was two tracks is now one track.

Every song is different, of course, but I’m always looking for ways to simplify and reduce.

I have one criteria that is probably my bottom line: is it embarrassing or not? If somebody is singing and it’s really out of tune, that to me would sound really embarrassing if you put it out on a record.

A guitar part could be equally embarrassing—the kind of thing you’d play when you were in your first band in school, when you were 13 or 14 and playing a lot of crap.

Something that goes back to the days when the guitar player was focusing so hard on getting the chord shape or string bend right that he couldn’t put any feeling into it.

Those moments are tough for me, because I find myself thinking, “Oh my god, what am I going to tell them?”

What do you tell them?

Well, I hope they’ll come to that conclusion themselves when they hear it played back. Still, I always subscribe to the idea that it’s not my record, it’s the artist’s record; I’m making it for them.

So all I can do is ask the artist, “Are you really happy with that? Or are you going to be embarrassed when you hear that in five years’ time?”

What happens if the artist is happy with a part he’s played but you feel strongly that it’s embarrassing?

I occasionally had that problem with Sting, who sometimes couldn’t be bothered, or thought what he’d done was good enough. Usually I’d just fix it when he wasn’t looking.

Of course, now in Pro Tools you can do things that were unimaginable years ago. I made a record not long ago with a singer who, frankly, was not on the ball—he’d often come in hung over or whatever.

We had the usual problem of time and budget, plus he was physically incapable of improving things sometimes. But somehow, by doing a lot of fiddling around and editing, I was able to make him sound really good.

The problem was, he thought that was all him! He thought he’d done a great job, when in reality what he’d done was quite embarrassing.

But if there’s a conflict with the artist, it’s like a conflict in any job or any aspect of life: you talk it through and either you come to a compromise or one person wins and gets their way.

People usually get over it, though. If I have a really strong feeling about something that the artist disagrees with, I’ll say, “Look, it’s your record, not mine; if you really want it to be like that, that’s fine… as long as it’s not embarrassing.” [laughs]

How do you feel the role of the producer has changed since you started making records?

The main role used to be quality control, but one of the worrying things about making records nowadays is that the concept of things sounding good rarely comes into it.

It used to be that you would run down to the record store to buy a particular new album because you knew it was going to be a work of art sonically; you’d race home and put it on the best stereo you could find and it was an amazing experience listening to it.

Sadly, nowadays, kids grow up listening to everything on earbuds. My daughter, who’s a teenager, once plugged her iPod into some little computer speakers I have and she said, “Dad, that sounds amazing!”

They were just tiny satellite speakers with a small subwoofer, but she was amazed . . . and the reason, I think, is that she had never heard bass before!

It’s almost a complete reverse evolution, really. If you look at video quality, things have evolved forward, from VHS to DVD to high-def.

But in the world of audio, it seems that things have gotten worse and worse: we’ve gone from vinyl to CD—and the early CDs sounded way worse than vinyl—and now we’ve gone to MP3s, which sound even worse than the earliest CDs.

Personally, I think the era of the disc is well and truly gone. Hopefully our file sizes will get bigger—meaning better quality audio—and so too will storage capacity.

I really hope that, as memory becomes cheaper and more prevalent, we’ll be able to restore the quality of audio.

Soon there will be massive flash drives with high bus speeds, and hopefully then we’ll be able to at least store good quality uncompressed audio. People won’t notice files that are ten times the size of MP3s if you actually have ten times the space to store them in.

Or perhaps there will be new forms of compression invented that will preserve full-quality audio. Or maybe we’ll all just be wired into a central server. The problem with that is, what happens when you lose service?

There will be caching schemes, I’m sure, and hopefully they will improve all the time as well. What lies ahead is exciting, and you can’t stay rooted in the past.

Another contributing factor to any perceived decline in quality is that budgets are shrinking, so people aren’t given adequate amounts of time to hone their sounds in a professional environment.

That’s true, and, as a producer, I find that very frustrating. These days, the budgets are so small that the only way you can make an album is to do it as quickly as you possibly can; otherwise somebody ends up not being paid.

As a result, there’s very little room for experimentation, so it’s very bad from an artistic point of view. And they’re cutting the budgets all the time— every day, there seems to be less and less available and more and more corners being cut.

Yet somehow you don’t ever hear about record company executives taking a cut in salary.

Still, I honestly don’t think it’s been economics that have been the sole downfall of record labels.

The problem is that, generally speaking, they have gotten themselves into an irreparable situation, and so they’ve become very adept at signing music that most people don’t want to listen to. That’s because most of today’s A&R people don’t come from a proper musical background.

They’re much more into trends rather than something being good. If something is on the front page of the newspapers, they want to sign it, and then all the other labels want to sign the same thing.

In fact, very often, labels sign artists just to stop other labels from getting them, not because they really believe in them. My daughter likes a lot of current music because she’s young, but she often asks me, “Why is it only old stuff that gets covered, or sampled?”

What do you think is the solution?

It’s a question of rejigging the model. The major labels still have huge overheads—huge offices in New York and LA, and big staffs to run.

But if you run a tighter ship and share the ownership of the product with the artist, if you don’t con them into thinking you’re going to be selling millions of records when you know you’re not, and if you keep the costs down, then the artist can make the same amount of money selling far fewer records.

That’s a model that a lot of people are starting to look into now.

Even in the old days, when a lot of records were being sold by people like Sting or Phil Collins, it was only because they were selling eight or nine million records that nobody was complaining.

The people associated with them were making good money—nowhere near the huge amounts of money the record labels were making, but good money—so you put up with it, just as you put up with the fact that you weren’t going to get paid anything from certain foreign territories because of bootlegging. You were just educated by the record labels into assuming this was normal.

But eventually, hopefully, those kinds of things will be policed properly, so that everyone gets paid what they’re owed.

In the old days, artists had to have a record deal because they needed that advance to afford to pay for expensive studio time and they needed the label to do marketing and promotion.

Today, people have the ability to do those things for themselves, and it has made a huge difference.

Ironically, in some ways it’s made it harder for an artist to gain recognition, because how do you get your stuff heard?

Suggested Listening:
The Police: Ghost in the Machine, A&M, 1981; Synchronicity, A&M, 1983
Genesis: Abacab, Atlantic, 1981; Genesis, Atlantic, 1983; Invisible Touch, Atlantic, 1986
Phil Collins: Face Value,Virgin, 1981; Hello, I Must Be Going!, Atlantic, 1982; No Jacket Required, Atlantic, 1985; But Seriously, Atlantic, 1989
Sting: Nothing Like the Sun, A&M, 1987; Ten Summoner’s Tales, A&M, 1993; Mercury Falling, A&M, 1996
Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel, Geffen, 1980
XTC: Black Sea, Geffen, 1980; English Settlement, Geffen, 1982

To acquire “Behind The Glass: Volume II” from Backbeat Books, click over to www.musicdispatch.com. NOTE: ProSoundWeb readers can enter promotional code NY9 when checking out to receive an additional 20% off the retail price plus free shipping (offer valid to U.S. residents, applies only to media mail shipping, additional charges may apply for expedited mailing services).

TransAudio Group Introduces The Lehmann Studio Cube Headphone Amplifier

TransAudio Group will introduce Lehmann’s new Studio Cube headphone amplifier at this year’s NAMM Show.

Lehmann Audio is out to reverse the state of headphone amplification in the pro audio industry, where manufacturers – even the really good ones – lavish attention on every nuance of the signal path except the headphone output.

The Studio Cube combines Lehmann’s headphone amplification with all of the functionality and features required for both studio and live applications and is poised to become the “darling” of the DAWS scene due to its isolation fidelity and accuracy.

Similar in spirit to the existing Lehmann Black Cube, the Studio Cube is smaller and linkable, allowing multiple units to daisy chain and easily accommodate the headphone count of any pro audio scenario.

Its two Neutrik ¼-inch TRS headphone outputs are universally suitable for all headphone types, and its stereo inputs are of the highest quality Neutrik XLR/TRS. A pair of TRS “thru” outputs enables the aforementioned linking.

“Norbert Lehmann has been producing audiophile-grade headphone amps for the hi-fi market for a long time, and the Black Cube and new Studio Cube bring that same remarkable performance to the pro audio market,” said Brad Lunde, president of TransAudio Group.

“It may come as a surprise to many in the pro audio industry that, even for high-end manufacturers, headphone amps are an afterthought. In contrast to the wishy-washy performance that most people assume is as good as it gets, Norbert’s designs are accurate, with honest mids and full, clean bass.”

“They will change the way you think about headphones.”

The Studio Cube is flexible and built with the highest quality materials. An input selector switches between mono and stereo source, and front-panel LEDs monitor input signal presence and overload for quick diagnostics.

The output is Class A and all units are crafted with selected components in Germany. Users may also purchase a microphone stand mount to attach the unit to a microphone stand or under a table.

Lehmann Audio Website

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Working At Success: Why Do Some - But Not Others - Rise Above In The Studio?

Have you ever wondered why some recording artists and producers are more successful in the studio at accomplishing their goals than other people who are equally or more musically talented?

As a recording engineer, here’s what I’ve noticed about successful people in the studio.

Vision
I’ve found successful people come in all personality types from the very shy and soft-spoken to the boisterous extrovert but they all share a common trait: they have a very specific “vision” of their songs and what they communicate and emote to the listener.

An artist’s middle-of-the-night epiphany about a lyric or melody or the concert audience’s reactions to a song all contribute to the formation of that vision.

Besides good songwriting and performance, the practical side of the vision for the producer and artist includes the process of getting the song finished and recorded in the studio hopefully communicating and emoting the vision to a CD-buying audience.

Part of the vision is a game plan—anything from a very strict production schedule to a more typical simple list of realistic goals to attain in the studio in a given day.

Sometimes an artist obsesses over the vision and the plan—is it any good or how can it be better?

I’ve never worked with anybody who had all the pieces of the “vision puzzle” in place when they came into the studio—it’s impossible. Besides, it’s generally good to leave room for experimentation and modification. A good vision is a strong musical outline written in pencil.

When I worked with Daryl Hall and John Oates, they had a very specific vision of the entire album and every individual song. They called it a “concept album” and wanted each song to pay ‘homage’ to their favorite R&B songs they grew up with.

Confident in their vision, they had the temerity to announce on the very first day of tracking that we would be recording the first hit single during that session! The song was fully arranged—all instrumental parts and every drum hit and hi-hat accent carefully notated.

All of the guitar and keyboard sounds were carefully worked out beforehand and they played a couple of old records for me as prototypes to follow when shaping the track’s overall sound.

They had this certain vision and never lost it through all the overdubs and final mix! That song we ended up recording three times to get it “right” and it turned out not to be a hit.

Nonetheless, their vision was for the whole album and another song, the third single released and a total surprise to us all, ended up a winning success for them.

Hard Work
The fact that Daryl and John went through re-recording their vision of the first hit single three times showed they were not afraid of a lot of hard work. Super hard work by everyone involved is one of the common denominators for all the great records I’ve worked on.

Great recordings of great performances come at the price of physical and mental labor—and for me anyway, there is not much luck involved except for my good fortune to be there and in record mode capturing it all.

A lot of the hard work does not pay off directly. Sometimes weeks of work go by on songs that end up being left off the album.

However, in the middle of all that seemingly waste of time and energy there was a take or a germ of an idea uncovered and recorded that ends up becoming something special.

Succeeding, at times, means frustration and digging a lot before you find a gem and sometimes, hard work is the only way you’ll do it.

Focus
Focus is the mental part of hard work. I have found the ability to focus for long time periods and avoiding distractions (that waste time) day after day on the pile of work in front of them is common amongst the successful people I’ve worked for.

Successful producers focus more on the most important parts of the recording process and a lot less on other areas. Delegation of less important jobs to others allows space and time for better focus by the core production team.

A good focusing ability is a real asset when doing final mixes. Good focus keeps the vision alive and on time and on budget.

Respect
Respect is easy. Treat everyone, from the studio gofer, the pizza man, the engineer, the producer, musicians, backing singers, the A&R guy, the manager, and the artist all the same—with the utmost of respect.

When I met Mick Jagger at the beginning of a tracking session I did for one of his solo albums, he repeated my first and last name as if to memorize it—at least for the duration of the day. I found him very respectful to me.

The whole level and vibe of the session was elevated from that point onward and we all had a great time.

Givers Not Takers
Another personality trait I’ve notice with a lot of successful people in the studio is that they are mostly givers and not takers. A giver gives of him/herself fully to the recording process and is willing to do and give almost anything to achieve his/hers and the artist’s vision.

So working long hours, being patient and helpful are all attributes of the giver. A giver contributes to the whole without necessarily expecting anything in return except a better record.

Givers love music and love working on it.

Barry Rudolph is a veteran L.A.-based recording engineer as well as a noted writer on recording topics. Be sure to visit his website

 
 
 
More Reviews & Articles By Barry Rudolph
The “Daryl Hall and John Oates” Album And The $300 Drum Sound
Five Creative Uses Of Loudspeakers That Can Enhance Recordings
The Tradecraft Of Recording Vocals, Part 3: Singer/Mic Positioning & Monitor Mixing
Studio Techniques To Get Great Sounding Vocals, Part 2: In The Control Room
Studio Techniques To Get Great Sounding Vocals
Studio Microphone Techniques To Get A Great Electric Guitar Sound
In-Depth Primer: A Wide Variety Of Microphone Techniques For Drums
Mounting The Insurmountable: The Tale Of A Project-Saving Monitoring Technique
Capturing The Right Feel & Sound: Rhythm Section Tracking In The Studio
Working At Success: Why Do Some - But Not Others - Rise Above In The Studio?
Working At Recording Success: Taking Elemental Steps Can Make All The Difference
Recording Tip: Successfully Dealing With A Dead Room

Outline GTO Line Array Debuts With International Adopters

The Outline GTO large format line array made the loudest “quiet” debut of any product in the company’s 37-year history at the Mile High Music Festival, August 14 and 15, 2010 in Denver, Colorado and with the recent Peter Gabriel “New Blood” tour.

PA provider, Dowlen Sound Inc. chose the GTO as their new large format line array as did the English sound company Britannia Row Productions.

Although the formal introduction was not planned till early 2011, the powerful speaker system was used for the first time at Colorado’s largest music festival, to kick off the Outline GTO early adopter’s pilot program.

Outline has equipped the GTO with more drivers than any other comparable large format line array - a total of 10 - beginning with two slot-loaded neodymium 15-inch woofers, four neodymium 8-inch midrange drivers, and four 3-inch high frequency compression drivers mounted to Outline’s proprietary DPRWG waveguide.

Weighing in at only 210 lbs (95.5Kgs) including integrated flying hardware, these components work together seamlessly to provide the highest SPL of any speaker in its class.

“Outline GTO continues to exceed our expectations,” said Eric Satre, Dowlen’s Sales Executive and director of the company’s operations at the Mile High festival. “The GTO has really established Outline as one of the top players in the large format line array market.”

“We have a lot experience working in the high altitude, low humidity, and high temperature conditions of the Rocky Mountains,” commented Dowlen Sound President Bret Dowlen.

“The GTO has output the likes of which we have never experienced before especially under these harsh conditions. We have since used the GTO multiple times at Red Rocks, large arenas and theaters with excellent results.”

“We are very excited about the future of Outline, and we are glad to be among the early adopters and key partners in bringing the GTO to the world.”

The Outline GTO made its heralded entry into the European PA community a few weeks later “across the pond”, as leading UK-based hire-company Britannia Row Productions elected to deploy their GTO for the final leg of the Peter Gabriel Tour, which concluded October 3rd.

“This tour was a wonderful proving ground for the GTO” said Bryan Grant MD and founding partner of Britannia Row Productions. “The system faithfully reproduced the complex orchestral arrangements of Peter Gabriel’s work in a variety of venues of different sizes and configurations.”

“Having had several years of experience already with Outline product, notably the Butterfly line array, we were confident that the Outline team would deliver a great new product, which they indeed did. We were very impressed with GTO’s performance straight out of the box.”

Special Event Services (SES) of has recently also their GTO rig and is ready to deploy it.

“We have been working behind the scenes for several years with Outline in the development of this speaker system,” says Jason Farah, SES Vice President.

“It’s a good feeling to see it come from concept to completion and know that we helped influence the creation of the product and the culture of the company. We were the first sound company in the US to take delivery of the Outline LAB 21 HS Subwoofer.”

“With the combination of the GTO and this sub, the two-year search for our next generation large format PA is over. This truly establishes Outline as a leading innovator in the professional PA market.”

“Outline North America, LLC was formed in January of 2009, as the US subsidiary of our 37-year old Italian company,” says Tom Bensen, vice president and director of operations for Outline North America, LLC.

“I am extremely pleased to see Outline firmly establishing itself at the top tier of this market, taking its place among well known, established quality competitors.”

“It is especially gratifying to see the brand flourish, despite this economic climate. I think 2011 will be the year the industry recognizes that now, it is the Italians’ turn.”

Outline Website

Mixing A Production With Ears In

This article is provided by ChurchTechArts.

 
Over on ChurchTechArts I’ve been talking quite a lot about how we (rather successfully) pulled off our Christmas production.

Rather than focus on a specific element of the production here, I’m going to talk about a technique I first tried during the production and plan on continuing to use.

Specifically, mixing FOH while wearing my IEMs (Ultimate Ears UE 7s) rather than listening to the speakers.

At first, this may sound crazy, but stick with me.

I had heard about the concept some time ago, but it never really made sense to me. After all, if we’re mixing live, it makes sense that we need to hear the live room.

It wasn’t until Kevin Sanchez was down at Coast Hills a few weeks ago mixing with his IEMs that I gave the technique any credit.

He mixed the entire rehearsal on his ears, and I didn’t even notice. In fact, if anything I noticed it sounded better than usual. When I went up to the tech booth for the service, I saw what he was doing. Again, I was skeptical, but kept an open mind.

The service sounded great. I was intrigued.

So when we got to the Christmas production, I thought it would be a good time to try it out. Part of my process involved multi-tracking the rehearsals, then playing back the tracks and refining the mix with my IEMs. I was surprised (pleasantly) when after spending a few passes of the song tweaking, I pulled my IEMs out, the mix in the house sounded great.

After that trial run, I mixed the dress rehearsal on ears. Well, technically, I mixed the music on ears. There were significant blocks of dialog that I mixed to the house PA. But each time the band fired up, I put my UE 7s back in and mixed away.

When I asked people how it sounded, the answer was always the same, “Great!” I went on to mix the musical portions of all 5 shows with my IEMs and I was again surprised that I’ve never received so many compliments on the mix, even from people who are really critical listeners.

As I pondered the results of this little test, I’ve come to a few conclusions. First, and this was borne out every time I mixed with the IEMs in, mixing with ears gives me much more information to work with.

All the details of the mix are immediately present and it’s very easy to hear things like spectral balance, panning and EQ. I was able to quickly discern subtle changes in the gate and comp settings for the drums, and get the vocals to band ratio spot on easily.

Second, the cleaner we can hear the output of the board, the better the sound coming out of the speakers. In live sound, there are all kinds of reflections, delays, and other acoustical anomalies that happen in any live space.

All that “noise” masks what’s really going on in the mix, making it tough to pull together a good one.

Removing one’s self from the acoustical environment enables us to hear clearly and put together a really good mix. In our room in particular, we have all kinds off issues with those gremlins.

Our FOH position is in a different zip code than where everyone else sits. In theory at least, if I get a great mix to the speakers, the result will sound better for the audience.

Third, I realized I suffered less ear fatigue and temporary threshold shift even after mixing 4 shows over two days than I normally do. Temporary threshold shift is a phenomenon that occurs when we are exposed to high SPL for extended periods of time.

Our ears compensate by “turning down the gain,” which makes us turn up the volume to achieve the same felt level. By mixing with IEMs, I actually kept my exposure level lower than the room.

It’s hard to measure, but I’ve been doing this long enough to have a good idea; whereas the room may have been in the mid to high 90’s during the big musical numbers, I was below 90 in my ears. That 5-10 dB over a few hours makes a difference.

Overlaying the 80 dB curve (blue) on the 100 dB curve (red)

This technique does not come without caveats, however. First, you have to pull the ears out once in a while to make sure what you’re doing is actually working. I did this a lot during the first two shows, and less as we went on.

Because it was the same show, I became more confident that what I was doing was working. Still, I checked often, and kept an eye on the real-time SPL meter and log at FOH to make sure I was over-driving the system. Using snapshots helps a lot, because it sets up a baseline mix and keeps levels consistent.

Second, because of the equal loudness contours, you have to adjust for different SPL levels. If the house is running at say, 95 dB SPL A, and you’re mixing with IEMS at roughly 85 dB SPL, that 10 dB difference will alter how we adjust tonality.

I’m currently exploring ways to compensate for this on the board (perhaps by setting up a dedicated “solo” bus that I can listen to that includes some EQ to compensate for the difference in volume. I’ll let you know what I discover.

Third, if you are using a ton of EQ on the outputs of the board to correct room anomalies, you have to adjust for that. We’ve been able to back off of the EQ on the desk, but we still have too much.

I need to clean some of that up in the processing next year. Also, it’s important to compensate for loud acoustical instruments like cymbals. If I turned the cymbals up in my ears to where I really wanted them, they would be tearing people’s heads off in the house because the live cymbals were already almost loud enough. Again, it’s important to pull out the ears and double check once in a while.

Finally, it’s good to have someone else there to listen to the mix and make sure it doesn’t get out of control. My ATD Isaiah was right next to me the entire night and I knew if I started getting too loud or running off the rails, he would nudge me and I could fix it.

I don’t yet know if I can categorically recommend this technique as something you have to try just yet; however, I do know I’ve been pleased with the results in my room, with my PA and my desk with my band.

Your mileage may vary. But it may be worth a shot.

Do you mix with ears in? Let me know in the comments below and happy mixing!

Mike Sessler is the Technical Director at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA. He has been involved in live production for over 20 years and is the author of the blog, Church Tech Arts . He also hosts a weekly podcast called Church Tech Weekly on the TechArtsNetwork.

Metric Halo Announces Pro Tools Compatibility

With the introduction of Pro Tools 9, Metric Halo’s entire line of high-end audio interfaces is now fully compatible and fully-integrated, providing hardware configuration that is both accessed and saved within the Pro Tools environment.

Metric Halo interfaces are available in a range of I/O counts, feature sets, and price points.

“Of course, Metric Halo was ready for Pro Tools 9 on day one,” said Allen Rowand, Metric Halo’s field operative, “All of our products feature fully supported low-latency CoreAudio drivers and an RTAS version of the unique ConsoleConnect plugin.”

ConsoleConnect provides direct access to Metric Halo’s MIO Console from within Pro Tools, allowing users to control the Metric Halo hardware, mixer, plugins, and monitor controller without leaving the Pro Tools environment.

Even better, ConsoleConnect stores and recalls a complete hardware configuration state with the Pro Tools session. No other third-party interface on the market does that.

In addition to functioning as a Pro Tools interface, Metric Halo hardware can simultaneously be used as a complete high-end audio mixer and monitoring system.

Although it may seem redundant within a Pro Tools rig, the Metric Halo 80-bit summing provides noticeably improved latency performance over Pro Tools Native alone. With a +DSP license, a Metric Halo interface becomes a sophisticated signal processor that is extremely useful in tracking, mixdown, and even live applications.

“We have developed a set of easy-to-use resources that will get you up and running with Pro Tools 9 and Metric Halo quickly,” said Rowand.

“By using the tips in these tutorials and this tech note, you can maximize your workflow and fully harness the power of your Metric Halo interface.”

Metric Halo Website

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Soundcraft Digital Consoles Used By Flyleaf For Their Current U.S. Tour

Platinum-selling rock band Flyleaf has been touring constantly in 2010, building upon the success of their Memento Mori and Flyleaf albums and hit songs like “Again,” “I’m So Sick” and “All Around Me.”

Now on the second leg of Flyleaf’s “Unite and Fight” tour, Rich Caldwell (front of house engineer) and Sean Patrick (monitor engineer) rely on Soundcraft Vi6 and Si3 digital mixing consoles, respectively.

“Earlier this year we were able to secure a production budget to carry consoles, so we started shopping for a desk to rent,” says Rich Caldwell, Flyleaf’s front of house engineer.

“We wanted to go analog at the time, but it’s just not practical for a multi-band bill and limited trailer space. After several lengthy conversations with Vince Kapchinski, the owner of Backstage Sound and Lighting [of Bryan, Texas], we decided to take out the Vi6.”

“He kept raving about how ‘analog’ the Vi6 digital sounded and insisted that we give it a try.” 

For the first leg of this tour, the Flyleaf crew used the Vi6 at monitor world.  “We really wanted the band to hear what we were spending their money on,” Caldwell notes.

“They are very frugal so it was important to us that they felt like they were getting their money’s worth. They immediately fell in love. It’s one thing for a bunch of engineers to geek-out about the minute differences in desks, but it was really rewarding when the band could really hear and ‘feel’ the difference that this console makes.”

“The desk just sounds real.”

“The Soundcraft definitely has a warmer tone,” says Sean Patrick, Flyleaf’s monitor engineer. “There is an ‘openness’ to the console that we haven’t found with other digitals. The mix is very reactive and gives you the feeling that all the energy they put into the performance comes out in the final mix.

”Plus, the onboard Lexicon reverbs are very realistic, so it allows me to build a big spatial environment in the in-ears without it sounding like I just dumped a bunch of reverb on the mix.”

“I really wanted to have the precision of building my show file on studio monitors before the tour started so I knew it was right from the beginning,” he says.

“Plus, we wanted to show the band a real return-on-investment by freeing them up from a traditional soundcheck and use that time to write and record on stage.”

This coincided with the band’s discussions with its record label about recording a live show for future DVD or CD release. “They originally wanted a recording truck or mobile setup to come out, but we felt confident that we could capture the audio ourselves and then just hand them a hard drive of the whole tour,” Caldwell says.

“Using existing budget, we purchased a Pro Tools HD rig and added a MADI-to-Digilink interface. That instantly turned the desk into a 64-track mobile studio with full virtual soundcheck capability. We hadn’t seen anyone else use this setup before and we were eager to take it for a test drive.”

“We captured a few shows at the end of the previous tour and then took the desk home during the break to start building FOH mixes from Pro Tools. The Vi6 went to FOH mix-ready without ever seeing a band member.”

For the second leg of the tour, Sean Patrick had to swap from the Vi6 to the Si3. “I figured out a way to bus the tracks out analog from the Vi6 directly into the Si3, so the day before we left for tour we sat both consoles next to each other at the shop and I built all my in-ear mixes.”

“Next time we can add a MADI line down the snake from FOH and hit both desks for virtual soundcheck simultaneously with only one Pro Tools computer. All we need to add to the Si3 would be the MADI option card. I was pleasantly surprised to hear no drop-off in the sound quality with the Si3 coming from the Vi6,” Patrick says.

“That is pretty amazing considering the little desk is about one-quarter of the price.”

Caldwell adds that virtual soundcheck has saved about two hours per day. “At the beginning of this tour it yielded an unexpected benefit—the band was able to write and record an entire EP on the Vi6/Pro Tools rig during the time previously allotted for soundcheck.”

“We were able to load up the producer’s [Mark Lewis] show file, have the band play their regular live rig and capture the whole performance on HD. He was floored at how well it worked and the band never got bogged down in technical delays. Almost everything on the EP was recorded on the Vi6.”

“It really has fantastic preamps and A/D-D/A converters. The EP will be released in December so you can listen for yourself.”

Soundcraft Website

Five Steps For Preparing To Mix

This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski.

 
Technical preparation is the most mundane of all the tasks.

So mundane, in fact, that many A-listers either hire someone or have their assistant do all of this work.

That being said, the technical prep may be the most important time you spend on some projects, because it’s where you tighten up the individual performances and take them to new level.

1) Make A Copy Of The Session
The first thing is to make a copy of your session and label it in such a fashion that you can tell what it’s for.

Something like “songname edits 4-4-11” or “songname voc comp” tells you exactly what’s happening at a glance. I like to put the date in the name as well.

If you have multiple versions of the session in one day, I’ll differentiate one from another with letters of the alphabet at the end like “songname edits 4-4-11a”, “songname edits 4-4-11b” and so on.

While you’re at it, make a copy of the session file on another hard drive, flash drive, online backup, or any place that you can easily grab it if for some reason you find the file you’re working on is suddenly corrupted.

2) Tweak The Timing
No matter how great the players on the session are, there’s always some portion of a player’s recording that doesn’t feel quite right.

The exception being that you have enough time to have the musician play their part until it’s perfect, or you punch in all the suspect parts as you go along.

Usually, the timing of the basic tracks will be tweaked right after your tracking session so you have a solid rhythm section to overdub against, but if you’ve not done that or you’re just now discovering some sections that don’t feel right (which happens a lot), prepare for the joys of slipping and sliding time.

Of course, if you’re using loops or MIDI instruments, you’ve probably quantized things to the track by now. If you haven’t, now’s the time.

3) Eliminate Any Noises
Now is the time to clean up each individual track. While the noises might not sound too bad with the rest of the track, after everything is mixed and mastered you’d be surprised how something that was buried can come to the forefront.

Also, by eliminating any extraneous noises, all the tracks magically sound distinct and uncluttered.

Trim the heads and tails: Trim all the extra record time at the beginning and end of each track, regardless of whether it was recorded during basics or overdubs. Add a fade-in and fade-out to eliminate any edit noise.

Crossfade your edits: One of the biggest problems for A-list mixers is when they get a session in that’s full of edits to make the track sound tight, but the edits click and pop because they don’t contain any cross-fades.

Even if you can’t hear a click or pop, it’s a good practice to have a short cross-fade on every edit to eliminate the possibility of an unwanted noise.

Delete extra notes from Midi tracks: Delete any extra “split” notes that were mistakenly played.

You might not hear them when all the instruments are playing, but just like the noise at the beginning of tracks, they have a tendency to come to the forefront after things get compressed.

4) Do Any Necessary Comping
Comping shouldn’t be left for mixing as it’s something that’s normally taken care of directly after an overdub session for either the vocal, guitar or anything else that required multiple takes.

That being said, if you still have some vocal or overdub comping to do, now’s the time.

5) Do Any Necessary Tuning
Inevitably there’s always a note that’s a bit sour and needs tuning.

Whether you use Autotune, Elastic Audio, or any other pitch correction plug-in, make sure that the timing isn’t thrown off when the note is shortened or lengthened.

Bobby Owsinski is an author, producer, music industry veteran and technical consultant who has written numerous books covering all aspects of audio recording. For more information be sure to check out his website and blog.

Wohler Monitoring Solutions Selected By Cablevisión Mexico For HD Signal Monitoring

Wohler Technologies has announced that Cablevisión Mexico has chosen a suite of Wohler’s advanced HD video monitoring equipment to monitor all of its outgoing HD signals.

Wohler’s RMT-170e-HD single-screen SD/HD LCD monitors offer the cable provider a compact and cost-effective monitoring solution, with industry-leading performance and a range of popular features such as multiple inputs, a waveform and vectorscope display, and eight channels of audio bar graph metering.

Additionally, Cablevisión Mexico is using Wohler’s RMT-200-HD monitors and Touch-It Digital touch-screen video switchers.

The RMT-200-HD is a low-cost in-rack HD/SD-SDI audio/video monitor, offering larger-format single-screen displays of 15-, 17-, and 20-inch sizes and standard features such as in-monitor level metering, selectable video waveform and vectorscope, and safe and title markers.

The Touch-It Digital offers unique multichannel image viewing and switching functionality in a smart design and at a list price far below the per-channel rate of many other multiview models.

The 3RU system features a high-resolution 7-inch widescreen LCD touch-screen on one side and a full-size target screen on the other, with HD/SD-SDI sources (NTSC or PAL autosensing) displayed as thumbnails on the touch-screen display.

Cablevisión Mexico is also using Wohler’s RM-4290W-HD low-cost, in-rack HD monitors, and Touch-it Plus units for multichannel CVBS analog video and audio signal monitoring.

“Cablevisión Mexico’s large installation of our HD video monitoring and switching solutions is an excellent example of Wohler’s market leadership in a region that is seeing explosive growth in HD content, transmissions, and service offerings,” said Kim Templeman-Holmes, Wohler’s EVP of global sales and marketing.

“The fact that Cablevisión, Mexico’s largest cable operator, has chosen Wohler is a powerful validation of our technology and solutions in Latin America.”

With headquarters in Mexico City, Cablevisión Mexico is a triple-play provider that offers cable television services to a wide area of viewers in the Mexican Federal District, including the municipalities of Atizapan, Coacalco, Cuautitlan Izcalli, Huixquilucan, Naucalpan, Nezahualcoyotl, Tlalnepantla, and Tultitlán.

Wohler Technologies Website

Church Sound Files: Evaluating Our Abilities And Starting Fresh In The New Year

I’m not rally a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions, primarily because when I make them they tend to last about 1 - 2 weeks. 

However I do like to take the opportunity at this time of year to re-evaluate, re-focus and re-energize what I am doing.

As I do this for 2011 and reflect upon over a quarter of a century of experience of doing live production in some fashion or another, I find a desire to return to the absolute basics. 

1. Just smile
No matter how frustrating, how intense or how upset I am at the time, just smile and walk away. 

Every time I don’t do this I end up regretting how I act and what I say in the heat of the moment.

If I smile, listen and then walk away, I have the opportunity and time to process the information and take some of the emotion out of the situation.

2. Admit my mistakes
Every time that something goes wrong and I try to pass the blame on to someone or something else I end up asking myself “why didn’t I just own up to it?” 

It can be difficult, because on one hand I want to be the leader, in charge, the one who makes thing happen. However, when things don’t go as planned, I don’t always want to be the leader and accept the responsibility.  I want to blame someone or something.

In the end, it’s always best to admit your mistakes.

3. Build others up…all of the time
I have this habit of avoiding confrontation. 

In doing this, I will sometimes not mention to a person that I am bothered by what they have done.  That alone isn’t good but it’s even worse if I were to go around and complain to someone else about what the person did to bother me. 

I see this happen very often and regrettably have participated in it many times.

4. Improve my craft
Musicians rehearse, they practice at home and then with others they are playing within advance of a Sunday morning service. 

What do I do to practice at my craft?

I do participate in some rehearsals but they are usually sound checks for the sound team and a quick run thru for the band. 

One thing I can do is to get the music in advance, and actually listen to it, critically.  I can listen and then plan and prepare as to how I can best reproduce what I am hearing.

5. Dive in and embrace digital
Okay, I admit it, I am a little intimidated by some of the digital consoles out there.

Part of the reason is that I still regularly mix on an analog Midas console so I have not had to mix on a ton of digital boards. 

The other part I hate to admit, but I like where I am at and haven’t embraced the change yet.  Who would have thought that the kid of 20 yrs. ago who fanatically embraced D.S.P. processing would be a little intimidated by a digital console?

There you have it, my five “New Years Resolutions” if you will for 2011. 

What are your goals for the coming year? Let me know in the comments below!

 
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.

Leon Russell Carries Heil Microphones On Elton John Tour

Leon Russell recently set out on a tour with Elton John in support of their album, “The Union.”

A full complement of Heil Sound microphones accompanied both Russell and his band; Jackie Wessel, bass, Chris Simmons, guitar, Brandon Holder, drums and Beau Charron, guitar and steel.

Guitar cabinets are mic’d with PR 30s and the drum kit uses an assortment from the Heil Sound HDK drum microphone kit.

All of the band members sing and PR 35s are used on vocals except for the drummer who uses the new Heil Sound PR 31BW.

The musical legend Leon Russell was the ultimate 70s go-to session musician he has written for and performed with Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison and countless others.
He also organized Joe Cocker’s famous “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour from which the film documentary earned him his first real mainstream notice.

Russell went on to release a slew of solo albums and became a self-described “road dog” playing a seemingly endless series of clubs and one-night stands.

As fate would have it, another musical legend, Elton John, who had been hugely influenced by Leon Russell’s music in his early days, contacted Leon with the idea of recording an album together. The album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, was released in October.

Ben Easley is Leon Russell’s FOH mixer and tour manager. Based in Nashville, where Leon now resides, he attended the summer NAMM show with Leon, which resulted in him taking a Heil PR 35 out on tour for his vocal.

Greg McVeigh, who handles artist relations for Heil, said, “At that time the album was still a work in progress and thoughts of Leon and Elton touring together in this big way fell into the ‘Wouldn’t that be cool?’ realm.”

“Little did I know that by late October Ben and I would be in serious discussions about supplying Heil mics for the entire band and in November they’d be on the road playing arenas.”

“The timing of this new album, the tour, and their use of Heil Sound mics couldn’t have been better.”

Heil Sound Website