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It’s always fun to run into Sam
Berkow, and this morning was no exception. Inside of ten minutes,
he had been flabbergasted that I had never met concert mixer David
Morgan, heartily recommended I go check out Steinberg’s Nuendo
software, described recording Wynton Marsalis live in New York,
and gave me a crash course in what a “method of convolution”
for DSP is, and various filtering techniques related to that. Method
of CONVOLUTION?! I went back and got a pastry to go with my coffee,
to chew that one over.
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DBX 160SL and 786
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Things were a little bit simpler over
at the JBL booth. Presentations
were given describing the new DBX
Blue Series 160 SL comp/limiter and 786 mic pre, JBL SoundFactor
speakers, and Lexicon
reverbs ranging from the $329 MPX 110 to the $15,000 960L.
I was howling when one of the presenters wittily made mention
of the fact that the SoundFactor speakers were NOT made in
“Third World hellholes!” The SoundFactor line includes
a 12” wedge, the SF12M. For mains, there are the SF15
with one 15”, and the SF25, with two. They both utilize
a new waveguide, the Progressive Transition model. Production
begins February 2002.
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Joe Arnaudon and Jim Matthews of Plus Four Marketing were lurking,
and they introduced me to Christopher Shuler of Public Address in
South Bend, Indiana, who I swapped a few tales with.
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Tom Der of Soundcraft
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After leaving JBL, I went to scope out
the new console from Soundcraft,
the MH4. Tom Der, national sales manager, took a moment to
show me around the desk, which has something that has been
sorely missed in a lot of the less-expensive Soundcraft desks
made in the last decade. You know what I’m talkin’
about. A PAD! Yes, the most beautiful number in the English
language, minus 20 dB!
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I have spent many shows fuming at channels overloading when a hot
input is driving at a “padless” preamp. Another nice feature
of the MH4 is a set of four stereo auxes at the bottom of each channel
strip, which would come in handy for sending to in-ear mixes.
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Minus 20 beautiful dB
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The
MH4 is designed to be used either at FOH, for monitors,
or a combination of both. There are a total of 16 auxes, and
corresponding color-coded 60 MM faders. The stereo auxes also
include four-band EQ. All the aux outputs can also feed the
matrix outs. The MH4 is a true LCR desk, and has a meter bridge
somewhat reminiscent of the Amek
Recall.
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stereo auxes, Soundcraft MH4
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There are eight meters which can be switched
to show either the eight mono auxes, the four stereo auxes,
or the eight matrix outputs. There are also eight VCA’s.
Each MH4 input strip can be individually removed, and does
not involve a ribbon connector underneath; rather, each one
seats into a motherboard.
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I ducked back into JBL land and revisited the Allen and Heath ML5000
console, which had really impressed me with its sound quality when
I mixed a show on it last summer. A&H’s Andy Rigby-Jones
normally specialises in DJ gear, but cheerfully explained to me
that the ML5000 did not borrow from the Series 5 Soundcraft design,
even though A&H had formerly also existed under the Harman banner.
I had been misinformed about that previously.
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C.K. and George Acuña,
Jr.
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At the Marshall booth, a long line existed
of people getting autographed calendars from company founder
Jim Marshall.
I was there to meet Ray Amico, who is one of the top tour
managers and mixers in America, and a mutual friend of PSW
contributor (and globe-trotting production manager) David
Norman. Ray was at NAMM escorting legendary Texas guitarist
Eric Johnson. We talked microphones for a while, and then
I was happy to be greeted by George Acuña, Jr., who
has his own backline company now, On-Stage Rentals of Azusa,
CA.
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In 1997, George was tech-ing a system for A-1 Audio, at the Palace
in Hollywood, when I went there with Cake, and I always remembered
how together he was. Summer 2000, I was tech-ing for Clair
Brothers at the Greek Theatre, and George showed up to do a
really excellent job at FOH for the rock-en-Español group
La Ley. That’s when I found out about his backline company,
and have recommended it to touring buddies since then. George currently
tours doing monitors for War.
I took a break to stop by Yamaha
, and go off-topic for a few minutes, while I enjoyed a piano performance
by Mike Garson.
I met Mike 20 years ago, when I first moved to Los Angeles, having
been very aware of his work with David Bowie. Since then, in addition
to his own creative composing and recording, he has done more touring
with not only Bowie, but the final stint of Smashing Pumpkins. It
was really great to get a couple minutes to chat with Mike, who
now sports the bald look, and actually looks younger than he did
in 1980! Cheers, maestro!
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Audio-Technica’s Michael
Edwards
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I have always been a huge fan of the
Audio-Technica
4033 condenser mic. As we know, it was originally introduced
as a studio mic, and wound up as overheads for big touring
acts, as well as in front of many guitar amps. I believe that
the tone of this mic is superior to many legendary vintage
studio mics, and when AT’s Michael Edwards showed me
the new handheld vocal version, the AE3300, I was very excited.
I can’t wait to hear one of these! I know that its cousin,
the AT 4054, is Peter Franco’s all-time personal favorite.
List price for the 3300 is $439. The AE 5400 will be replacing
the 4054, and it lists for $579. It features the 4050 capsule
and I imagine will be competing with the Neumann 105.
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Brooke Ramel at TC
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Speaking of Peter Franco, we will soon
be posting his review of the TC
Electronics M-One and D-Two units. I snapped a quick pic
of the lovely Brooke Ramel singing through the M-One at the
TC booth.
Beyerdynamic
has partnered with a company from Taiwan, MIPRO. I visited
with MIPRO’s Eugene Chen, and Beyer’s Robert Lowig.
They showed me the MIPRO ACT-707 Series of wireless microphone
systems.
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The ACT-707 has an interesting modular packaging,
with small receivers that can be used singly, in a dual rack, or
in a rack of four. The four-bangers can be racked up in sets of
16, or as many as 64. If a module goes down, you can hot-swap a
spare pack right into the slot where you pulled the bad one from.
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Robert Lowig, Beyerdynamic
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An accompanying software program for
PC’s is pretty trick, it scans the area for other RF
activity, so that you know where clear frequencies are.
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I ended up the day where I began, back at JBL.
I had passed Sam Berkow in an aisle and he urged me to go there
and find David Morgan. This morning, I had asked “who does
he mix?” and Sam looked at me like I was crazy. It turns out
David has just a few clients that I had vaguely heard of. They include
some chick named Bette Midler, this guy Paul Simon - I hear he has
a lot of potential – and a combo called Steely Dan. I don’t
know much, but some band named after a dildo in a William Burroughs
novel – they’re never going to be more than a cult act,
that’s for sure.
Right away, when I met David, I had a bone to pick with him. He
is five years older than me and he still has all his hair! Now,
you know that is just plain wrong. We had a good talk, about everything
from his days in Boston backing up Jamaican legend Toots Hibbert,
as part of a band called Alvin and the Hyltones, to the Clair I-4
line array, to how he uses Neve preamps for his kick, bass, and
star vocal channels going into a 4K.
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David Morgan and Mark Gander
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I photographed David and JBL’s Mark
Gander in front of a cross-sectioned VerTec
. You will also see a smiling Stan Miller there, who I discussed
the article I am working on about the Neil Diamond show I
watched Stan mix, on the Yamah PM1-D. Next week, I will go
to Yamaha’s two-day PM1-D training - I want to be a little
ahead of the curve when I go hands-on with one of them someday.
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While the whole world of NAMM is out drinking,
carousing and scaring
tourists at Disneyland, I sit here with my room service club sandwich,
ice
tea and peanut coleslaw, because bringing this news to you is more
important!
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Stanley R. Miller
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iI’m not alone, really – I
have an autographed full-color 8x10, courtesy of Gemini, of
someone named Lisa, who looks very nice in her studded bikini
and big hair. Lisa was still nice to me today, even though
I didn’t buy the $10 calendar featuring her and her friends.
There were only two left, I‘m sure she sold them.
Here’s to NAMM!
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