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Chris Kathman, Phil Garfinkel, George Petersen
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It starts when the elevator doors open.
I walk out and there is JBL’s
David Scheirman, talking to Rafael Quintero, who is their
Intercontinental Sales Director, handling Canada and all the
countries south of the border. I haven’t had my coffee
yet! My camera is still packed away in my bag! But it is good
to see Mr.
Scheirman, one of our
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first PSW Live chat guests, and more recently,
the person who made it possible for me to spend an afternoon talking
to Stan Miller at a Neil Diamond show.
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Mackie SA 1232
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You will be reading my account of that
in the near future. I bid the men of JBL farewell, after a
quick bit of catching up, and hiked off in search of PSW editorial
director Keith Clark. We got some lattes and headed for the
Mackie/EAW
booth, to listen to some spiel about new products. The Mackie
active speakers are getting larger, such as the SA1232.
Also on display was the Fussion
3000, which normally is accompanied by two sub cabinets,
for dance clubs or regional touring.
We listened to Marcello Vercelli talk
about the loudspeakers, and then Ivan Schwartz held forth
on consoles. I spoke to him after he left the stage, and mentioned
that I had not known that their DFX consoles had built-in
effects. I knew that other companies had licensed effects
from established companies like Lexicon, but Mackie’s
EMAC
reverbs, delays, and other effects are designed by their in-house
Digital Group.
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Mackie’s Marcello Vercelli
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Up the aisle, I spotted the Disneyland
Resort’s Technical Director David
Hatmaker taking a look at the new Legend
3000 board from Midas, that features XL4
preamps. Mr. Hatmaker was very pleased with the numerous Venice
consoles that had been purchased and used at Disney. We talked
with Matt Larson, Concert Sound sales manager for the US for
Telex, which
is part of the Pro Audio Group with Midas, EV, Klark-Teknik,
Dynacord, and University Sound.
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Mackie’s Ivan
Schwartz
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I could tell that Matt really knew live
systems work, and asked him what his background was. Sure
enough, he explained that he used to work on tour for Prince,
and then I started dropping names like Cubby
Colby and Sal
Greco, and he lit right up. He even confessed to having
taken care of systems for MC Hammer! Matt explained how users
can download software, to preprogram show cues for the Heritage
and Legend desks.
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Bob Doyle of Midas, with Jon Monson
of Rat Sound
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Jon Monson, more familiarly known to
acquaintances of Rat Sound
as Jon Rat, showed up and talked at length to Midas’
Bob Doyle about the XL4 that Rat owns. Jon is also the co-author
of an article you will see on PSW in the very near future,
about the issues of using an American PA in Europe, as well
as the whole process of shipping it there.
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QSC’s Daniel Gallegos and
Laura Nakauchi
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At QSC,
I noticed that they are now publicizing the ACE composite
questions that were originally designed by a division of Sound
Image. Daniel Gallegos explained to me that this has been
a recent introduction and I mentioned that I have used the
wedges in concerts. Stagehands love them because they are
much easier to move around than wooden cabinets.
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One of my first stops at any tradeshow is to see Phil Garfinkel
and Cliff Castle at Audix.
These gentlemen are always fun to visit. Their SCX-25
condenser was hooked up to a listening station, and I found
it to sound really excellent, just talking into it with no EQ. If
I was in a studio and did some minor EQ on it, this mic would work
on a variety of sources.
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Audix’s mini condenser, the
Micro D
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The new Micro-D
mic was on display, Audix is going toe to toe with the
Shure
SM-98 here! Cliff explained to me that not only is the
Micro-D good for drum and percussion applications, but violinists
are actually using the optional lavalier clip, to attach it
to their shirts and it actually does a good job of picking
up their instruments from there. The Micro D is standard with
a hypercardioid capsule but a regular cardioid is also available.
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It was a pleasure to meet George Petersen, senior editor of MIX.
Like many others, I have been reading and enjoying their magazine
for many moons.
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Steve Woolley of Wharfedale
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To tell the truth, when Mel Lambert asked
me to stop by and listen to the new line of Wharfedale
speakers, I was pretty skeptical. I had some fuzzy memory
of the Wharfedale name from really old stereo magazines, I
could not imagine that they were doing anything valid or interesting
in sound reinforcement. I mean, these days, every time you
turn around, some brand is pumping out half-ass items in a
category completely outside their strong suit, there oughtta
be a law!
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Matt Larson of Telex, and the Midas
Legend
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But, I knew that Mel is a knowledgeable
guy (please check out his series
on digital audio workstations, in the PSW Recording section.)
So, I agreed to go to the Wharfedale press conference, and
listen to some program material. Wharfedale’s Steve Woolley
apologized for playing a Randy Travis hit, but whether you
love or hate that music, it was certainly very cleanly recorded,
and actually a good choice for a test CD to demo the speakers.
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It is nice to be able to say straightforwardly that for the prices
they are selling for, these speakers are just amazingly well-tuned.
I am going to seek an interview with their designer Steve Hewlett,
who spends 75% of his time in China, where the factories are located.
He has done a very impressive job with these boxes.
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Disney’s David Hatmaker checking
out the Midas Legend
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There are a few different lines, such
as the VS, Lix-C, and EVP-S, each of which, as I understand
it, has a choice of speakers with a 10”, 12” or
15” driver. The Twin 12 features a co-axial 12”
and is wedge shaped, to be used either as a monitor or as
a mains speaker on a stand, or flown. There are also sets
of accompanying subs, and some EQ’s, crossovers, and
amps. The Soundtracs Topaz consoles are now being sold under
the Wharfedale banner. The company is strongly oriented to
the gigging local engineer.
Well, tomorrow we are back to it. PSW
Lighting section editor Robert Chambers just drove down to
have dinner with Keith Clark and myself, we reviewed the year
just ended, and discussed
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our plans for the one we are moving into. I
seem to be safe so far, after the interestingly named “Terwabi”
beef patties with rice and vegetables, downstairs here at the Hilton.
It sounds like the name of a Jedi Knight, doesn’t it?
But, that is off topic! I promise to behave myself … tomorrow.
- Chris Kathman
- PSW Live section editor
- Anaheim, CA
- January 17th, 2002
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