Founded in 1941 as the Plaza Movie Theater, this proud old theater has been a San Marcos landmark for decades, doing stints as a live theater, cinema, restaurant and live music venue. In 2008 the building shut down and began to further deteriorate, another classic example of urban neglect.
Earlier this year the grand old dame was rescued from neglect and, after a $2.4m restoration project, was reborn as the Texas Music Theater. The renovation included new flooring, new décor, and a state-of-the-art audio system including Aphex digital mic preamps and audio transport.
Rocky Giannetta, Principal of Roseville, CA-based Fault Line Consultants, was brought in to design the system, which includes six Aphex 188 eight-channel remote controlled mic preamps and a 1788A-RC remote control unit.
Gray Gregson, Head of Production/Film/Recording explains, “In designing our sound system, we needed a 3 way split to accommodate a FOH mix , a monitor mix and also be able to capture all 48 channels to a digital multitrack recorder. We wanted good sounding mic preamps and the Aphex microphone preamps came highly recommended.”
Audio transport is provided by four Aphex Anaconda 64-channel bi-directional digital snakes, connected to two 48-channel Yamaha M7CI digital consoles.
“We don’t use the microphone preamps in any of the consoles nor do we use the internal clocks in the consoles,” says Gregson. “We feel that by using the Aphex remote controlled mic pre’s and the external clock that comes from the Aphex Anaconds digital snake that our total sound system has been greatly improved.”
“We are thrilled with the way this works. We love the flexibility of the system too. The way it is designed allows us to accommodate any situation or configuration with ease.”
The system has been well received by staff and patrons alike, says Gregson.
“The Aphex mic pre’s sound great. They are clean as a whistle and when we take a live recording we’ve done here to the post production studio the results are phenomenal. We get great reviews from all the musicians that play the venue, as well as the patrons that attend our shows.”
