Audio Tech News

What to get a pro sound guy for christmas

Posted on December 20th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Take A Walk On The Live Side, You Might Not Care But We Do.

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Clive Young of Pro Sound News has written a great article on ‘What to get a pro sound guy for Christmas‘.

Here are my favourite two, so if anyone wants my address to send them to, email me.

Navigator Talking Translator: This iPod-sized gadget speaks more than 9,000 common phrases in 12 languages and translates over 30,000 words for you. Users can also save their 25 favorite sentences to memory–starting with “Where did I put my water purifier gizmo?”

PowerStation Cable Organizer: It’s the Roadie Law of Attrition; by the end of a tour, you’ve left behind the chargers for your cell phone, iPod, digital camera, razor, VMX 100-B earpiece and God knows what else in hotel rooms and backstage areas across the land. With this multi-charging container, your roadie pal can keep ‘em all tidily in one place (or conversely, lose them all at once).

But really, any of the items on his list will be fine, so don’t feel too pressured.

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Greg Thompson in the spotlight

Posted on December 17th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: In The Spotlight, Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans, Take A Walk On The Live Side.

Greg Thompson has been a pro audio engineer for about 15 years. He cites his first love as making rock records. He’s worked with artists like 50 Cent, Iggy Pop, Norah Jones, The Killers, Pink, Sherryl Crow, and more than a careers worth of others.

“I’m the chief engineer at Kampo in Greenwich Village. I work regularly as a crew member on ABC’s Good Morning America, on the Record Plant Remote truck, and I freelance when I can. I spent a long time at the now defunct NYC Hit Factory, but we don’t like to talk about that.”

Audiotechnews found Greg a funny, friendly and likeable guy, more than willing to share a few stories and some experience. So much so, that we took advantage of his good nature, got him drunk and REALLY got him talking.

(The drunk bit is not true).

Here’s some of what we spoke about. The rest of the interview is available to RSS subscribers.

ATN: You’ve worked with a massively eclectic array of artists now, but there must have been times in your career when you’ve thought ‘How am I meant to record this?’

So tell us about them!

“Well, I got to spend quite a few years assisting many other engineers at many levels of the industry so I got to see all sorts of methods used on all sorts of instruments for all sorts of genres. Many engineers brought an attitude of “this is the only way to record ________” and I sort of saw through their bull, because i’d seen plenty of situations where that method either didn’t work, or there was an alternate that worked just as well. I spent time with engineers who’d spend an hour on each instrument swapping mics out and wearing out musicians, and guys who got killer sounds in no time flat and worked seamlessly and invisibly with the flow of the musicians. I worked with guys who wouldn’t accept microphone substitutions when they were asking for some pretty esoteric mics in large numbers, and folks who could roll with the situation and whatever was available from the mic locker.”

“Many bands come through with a fixed touring setup that I can’t change much or the band will get cranky. Some bands will have mic endorsements and carry all their own mics and I have to deal with what they give me with minimal substitutions. More often than not, that leads to me having to deal with at least 1 element in the mix that is simply mic’ed with the wrong tool for the job.”

ATN: Have they become career highlights for you because you worked through and delivered a successful product?

“Mm.. Hard to pick any one particular band or situation. I’m always proud when I do something for a live show or something that’s meant to be short lived like a broadcast or webstream and winds up on an album, enshrined forever. Occasionally I’ll even get credited for it too. That’s happened several times, and I’ve only found out about most of those things by being vain and tossing my name in a search engine.”

“But lets see who some of the coolest bands were……”

Only for subscribers

ATN: Do you have any particular gear that you consider puts the ‘Greg Thompson stamp’ on things? Whether its a particular mic/pre-amp for a kick drum, outboard effects or plugins?

“No. I believe that gear comes in 2 types - priceless and worthless. An original C-12 or U-47 may be as close to “priceless” as microphones get, but if it starts crackling midway through a recording, then it has just become “worthless” to me. I’ll take 10 working SM-57s over 1 “touchy” U-47. Also, because I do a ton of live band on a stage or in the same room, I never get to use something like a 47 or a C-12 because their pickup pattern is too wide for me to get a usable vocal or acoustic guitar sound. So in that situation, mics like that are worthless to me.”

ATN: Going into it more - whats your ideal gear rider for a recording session?

“I never want to see a Beta 52 on bass drum.
You’d better have a damn good reason to be using a Neumann KMS 105 on vocals. That’s about it.
Both mics sound good on the right source in the right situation, but I’ve been hosed by those 2 mics more often than any other microphones combined.

ATN: What are you working on right now?

“Right now I’m doing mostly television work that’s pretty unglamorous, but pays the bills in between doing the big video shoots.”

ATN: Anything you’d like to work on/anyone you’d like to work with?

“I always joke that I’d like to work with Led Zeppelin or that whomever I may be working with sounds good, but they’re no Led Zeppelin, but I believe that you should never work with your idols if you want to keep them as idols. Because once you work with them, you’re exposed to their shortcomings and it ruins the illusion of what makes them your idol in the first place.”

ATN: What should we look out for of yours in 2008 then?

“Keep an eye open for things posted online from Clearchannel and AOL, as well as some indie band releases and the occasional band performance I mix on Good Morning America.”

ATN: Anything else to add?

“It’s a brave new world out there for folks working in audio. Anybody can afford the gear to record and mix the music, and so anybody does. Few musicians under 40 feel that they should pay to make an album, when they can do it themselves for free. Few labels feel they should have to pay anybody to record an album since the bands can do it themselves for free. Few people feel they should pay for music since they can download and share copies of it for free. The same 10 engineers have been mixing every album you hear on the radio and TV for the past 10 years and they’re not retiring anytime soon. I see advertisements for schools to teach you “the exciting career of audio engineering” and they pump out students by the hundreds every year. I don’t know how many folks breaking into the business are going to be able to do it for a living, so keep that in mind when you decide you want to take out a loan and open your own recording studio.”

I’m willing to bet there are dozens people out there who think they can do what I do faster and better and are willing to do it for half the price I charge. I have a wife and 2 kids to look after. I have bills to pay. I need to save up for my retirement and college for my kids. This isn’t the dream job they promise you in the ads for those recording schools, and if I’d put as much effort into selling life insurance or mutual funds as I had in working my way through the studio system, I’d have a heck of a lot more to show for it. I still enjoy going to work almost every day, and I look forward to pulling up the faders and seeing what cool things I can do. I’m not sure how many other people actually enjoy their job as much as I do.

The rest of the interview is available to RSS subscribers only (and there is some cracking stuff in there). Greg is an engineer after my own heart. Any type of live sound involves some sort of compromise in order to make the overall result the best it can be. Anyone who says otherwise….?

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NY Plans 200 Seat Theatre and Recording Studio

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Studio Shenanigans, Take A Walk On The Live Side.

A new 200-seat theater is planned for 192 Water St. in DUMBO, the former home of the East New York Fancy Basket Company

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports

The new owners, identified as DumboSpace LLC, plan to convert the ground floor and part of the lower level into a 200-seat theater; add a recording studio and gallery on the second floor; and create 10 condominium units on floors three through five.

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Eclipsed by a legend.

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Analogue Anarchy, Take A Walk On The Live Side, What's In With Outboard?.

Eclipse Sound & Light in Suffolk, UK has decided to become a player, as it’s just bought an Electro-Voice XLD compact line array system.  The speaker configuration consists of 12 XLD281 top boxes plus four XLC215 bass bins, powered by EV’s Tour Grade amps.

Eclipse have gone for a  48-channel Midas Legend L3000, so Audiotechnews would love to hire in the speakers, but will bring the desk himself, thanks very much.

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Big Mick storms the O2 Arena by using more than one fader

Posted on December 12th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Digital Demons, In The Spotlight, Take A Walk On The Live Side, What's In With Outboard?.

So Led Zeppelin’s reunion gig - did anyone here go? Are you “Big Mick” Hughes? Audiotechnews would love it if you were, you and your wife.

Robert Plant’s personal sound engineer, Roy Williams, was on the desk too! I suppose it was a case of one hand each on the desk, and the remaining digits meeting to form a bond of fear and mutual respect. Yes I mean holding hands.
Pro Sound News report this

As Big Mick admitted afterwards, “The pressure for this gig was definitely on!”

With that in mind, audio for the show was supplied by various UK-based sound rental companies, including Britannia Row and Major Tom Ltd., the latter of which brought an enormous Meyer Sound PA based around Milo and Mica loudspeakers, while the former had, among other gear, a Midas XL8 digital mixing system on hand for the FOH position and a Midas Heritage 3000 handling monitors at stage-side. Making an unofficial real-world debut, Klark Teknik’s DN9696 high resolution hard disk recorder was used to record the event for posterity.

To be fair, more than a few (reporters) remarked on rough spots in the mix early on, but The Independent, Billboard and Uncut all conceded that the sound was on track by the time “Black Dog,” the evening’s third number, began–and fans quoted in The Telegraph went so far as to call the evening’s audio “fabulous.”

“It was like a rollercoaster ride,” Big Mick laughed. “You had better hold on tight!”

Fantastic. Audiotechnews knew he wasn’t going to get tickets, so decided to forget all about it. All of a sudden, he wishes he’d had the kick drum fader, and maybe some toms.

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Trantec launch new wireless system

Posted on December 6th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Take A Walk On The Live Side.

This from UK Light and Sound

Since its Frankfurt launch earlier this year, the Trantec S5 UHF wireless microphone system has seen some constructive new updates, and is now shipping from its London headquarters. The system is available in two formats, allowing the customer to take advantage of the two price points on offer.

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Middle East gears up for major touring acts

Posted on December 3rd, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Take A Walk On The Live Side, You Might Not Care But We Do.

SLS Productions has have upped their game by welcoming what they claim to be the largest line-array system in the Middle East.

Audiotechnews imagines theJBL VerTec 4889 system was added to their inventory due to coming under fire for being heavily under-powered when it comes to major touring acts, as reported by Proaudiomiddleeast

Santana will act as the guinea pig for the system, presumably by way of apology for that facial hair.

Arabian Business reports:

We were considering investing in the 4889 cabinets, which are the largest in the VerTec range,” said Martin Luiz, MD of SLS.

Luiz said the company was currently scouting for larger warehouse premises, adding he was hopeful of securing a location early in the New Year.

I’ll let you know when they find a location. Anyone wanting a shed load of cheap taupaulin, you know who to ask…

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I’m a miserable cynic

Posted on November 27th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Analogue Anarchy, Audio Visual, Digital Demons, Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans, Take A Walk On The Live Side, What's In With Outboard?.

“Sound Pro Latin America is a new serious proposal, created by professionals, that has a main goal to educate on new technologies for professional audio, promoting y teaching technical knowledge (theory and practice) for professional growing” Technoprofile magazine reports

Now, even taking into consideration the language barrier - being the sensitive, fair and well meaning individual I am - this sounds like a load of rubbish.

I am of the view that it’s more fun to learn things yourself, as well as almost always being more productive. I have friends who can recite text book perfect theory of sound design, acoustic treatment techniques, reverb wave forms and anything else on the university course they wasted their time on.

They couldn’t work a PA though. In fact, one of them got a job at a venue and didn’t realise the subs were still switched off.

Anyway - my jaded and cynical attitude aside, here’s some more about this Latin American course, which some readers may find of use. And looking into it more - it’s feasible that it might possibly JUST be ok

EDUCATIVE PROPOSALS
In every event organized by Sound Pro Latin America an official AES attendance certificate will be provided.

Recording and mixing techniques:
-Digital audio
-MIDI
-Signals processing
-Wiring and connections on a studio
-Home studios acoustics
-Electronic and acoustic metering
-Audio electronics
Speaker: Carlos Gauvron

Musical production:
-Recording
-Mixing
-Musical production
-Artistic creativity
-Clinic on musical production
Speaker: Pedro Aznar

Mastering/Full DVD production:
-CD mastering
-Full DVD production
-CD and DVD mastering
-Full DVD production seminar
Speaker: Eng. Andres Mayo

Live sound:
-Sound and listening basis
-Consoles and signals processing
-Microphones and their frequency processing, dynamics and timing
-Speakers calibration and electro-acoustic control
-Design, use and setting of conventional systems
-Design, use and setting of linear systems
-Design, use and setting of sound reinforcement systems
-Advanced tools for electro-acoustic analysis
Speakers: Salvador Castaneda, Oscar Gamas

Live sound recording:
-Live recording, lay-out, logistics, synchronization, timing
-Mixing for radio and TV, their differences to musical production
-Levels, headroom and equalization control
-Production for analogue and digital broadcasting. Differences and considerations
-Examples in theory and practice of recordings made
Speaker: Martin Sznaider

Acoustic design:
-Acoustic design and setting for recording studios
-Problems and solutions
-Examples in the practice
-Presentation and description of several of the 400 projects made in Latin America
Speaker: Sergio Molho (WSDG)

Drums & Percussion:
-Clinic-Concert
-Workshop-Seminar
Speaker: Cristian Judurcha / Facundo Guevara

They haven’t got an English translation going yet on the official website, but if you don’t need one, click here

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Careful out there

Posted on November 27th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Take A Walk On The Live Side, You Might Not Care But We Do.

A word of warning for anyone gigging in South Africa. Watch your back!

28 Year Old Johan Engelbrecht - sound engineer to Shane McCallaghan - was robbed by six men outside a pub in Bloemfontein. He was stabbed four times and left for dead; fortunately being found and taken to hospital by a punter.

“Six men got out of the bakkie and ran towards me. I wanted to run away or jump over a wall, but they were too fast.”

“They surrounded me, searched my pockets and took R1 000 and my new cellphone. The next moment one of them stabbed me in the arm from behind. They threw me on the ground. I fought for my life. When I wanted to fight back, they stabbed me three times with a knife and screwdriver in the back,” he said.

Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa. The city’s Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning “place of cheetahs” although it’s poetically known as “the city of roses”.

Full story here

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Digico for President, please

Posted on November 26th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Digital Demons, Take A Walk On The Live Side, You Might Not Care But We Do.

OK, I admit I am to Digico D1 and D5 desks what the 12 year old ‘me’ was to Jet from Gladiators when she met me at a public appearance at Bruntingthorpe Air Base; star struck, in absolute awe, and systematically boxing above my weight, but SO damn ready to knock one out.

So it’s with little surprise that the geekier side of me wants to shout out when anyone mentions Digico desks. “I’ve used one, look at me”.

No change today, when I read that Trevor Gilligan - FoH Engineer for Maximo Park chose to use a D5.

LSI Online report

“I started using digital when working with Oasis,” he says. “And the D5 is still only digital console that I can walk up to and get a mix out of without having to open a manual or start making calls. The routing is so easy, whoever designed it got it spot on.”

My only advice is don’t plug a Sony Ericson in. They don’t like it, and it can make the phrase ‘Showstopper’ mean something bad.

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