DB Magazine 1991-01-02

76 Pages·4.4 MB·English

by  J.W. Davis & Company

serving: recording, broadcast and sound contracting fields
LAB REPORT:
MaGaziNe
Soundcraftsmen's Model PM860
Stereo Amplifier
THE ELECTRONIC COTTAGE
Promoting Your Studio
Guitar Synthesis and MIDI
A Guide to a Home Studio
The All -In -One Electronic Cottage
www.americanradiohistory.com
A few important words
about the new
40 Series:
A-T
AT4049
Tony Bongiovi
Omnidirectional
Power Station Capacitor
"The 4051 is a great mike,
especially for rock. It sounds
fat and you can bang away at it
with a lot of level without a
pad...for a rock studio like the
Power Station that's important. AT4051
When you put it on horns it f as Cardioid
Capacitor
a nice clean sound and it ho ds
the dynamics well...it's just an
excellent sounding mike :'
AT4053
Hypercardioid
David Cook Capacitor
Dreamland Studios
"...real nice top end and a
warm bottom end...very ver-
satile. didn't have to pile on a
I
lot of EQ to capture the air in
the studio...very present, very
natural sounding mikes :' Jeff Baxter Now it's your turn!
Producer /Artist Compare the new
Milan Bogdon
"If I'm not getting what want Audio Technica 4) Series against
Masterfonics I
from another microphone...I've the very best in your studio.
"The S/N ratio is superior to been putting up the 4051 and it Contact your A-T oro sound
some of the other mikes we nearly always does the job:' dealer today.
used. They're bright and clean
so we don't have to push the Mack Emerman
EQ. Superb mike...great for
Criteria Studio
vocals, overheads, snare,
toms, electric and acoustic "The response is very flat...it
holds the natural tonal qualities
guitar...it seems to work well
wherever we put it : even at high sound pressure
levels:'
audiotechnica.
Circle 10 on Reader Service Card 12(22 -6C)6o8m6m- 2e.6c0e 0DFriAde >, (S2t1o6w),6 O88H - 34745222 4
www.americanradiohistory.com
January- February 1991 Vol. 25, No.1
serving: recording, broadcast and sound contracting fields
THE SOUND CONTRACTING ENGINEER
8 Live Sound Reinforcement: Asia -Pacific 1990 by Ed Learned
An engineer's experience on the road and how he solved his
unique difficulties.
17 Breaking Into Concert Sound by Jim Paul
Maryland Sound in Los Angeles interviewed.
23 The Makings of an Engineer by Robyn Gately
Getting good live sound in all circumstances.
31 Audio for the Church by Brent Harshbarger
Digital audio.
33 Lab Report: Soundcraftsmen's PM860 Power Amplifier
by Len Feldman
See page 8 Big power in a smaller box.
THE RECORDING ENGINEER
38 Problem Solving at International Post by Toby Cohen
NSCA to PAL and back again? A piece of cake.
50 IIi -Fi to High Definition: Five Decades of Magnetic Tape
by Don Rushin
From the Magnetophone to Digital Videotape.
THE ELECTRONIC COTTAGE
28 Promoting Your Studio: Part I by John Barilla
PR savvy for the engineer/ owner.
See page 46 41 A Guide to a Home Studio by Bruce Bartlett
Everything you need to know to get started.
46 The All-In- One Electronic Cottage by Richard Del Maestro
A prominent artist's setup at home and how much he
depends on it professionally.
55 Musician's Notebook by Mark Maulucci
Guitar synthesis and MIDI.
ABOUT THE
COVER
DEPARTMENTS
Maryland Sour.d has an active 2 Calendar
operation in Southern California. 4 Letters
Our contributing edito4 Jim Paul, 6 Department of Correction and more
interviews three employees with
37 New Products
entry into live sound engineering as a
59 Index of 1990 Articles
focus. Our photo is of Maryland
Sound technician Bryan Nemecek as 62 Buyer's Guide: Studio Monitors and Performance Speakers
he works in their setup lab. See page 73 Classified
17 for the full fascinating interview. 74 People, Places, Happenings
www.americanradiohistory.com
basics, the workshop will concentrate
CALENDAR on the present evolving loudspeaker
designs.
Syn -Aud -Con has also announced
their 1991 schedule for their 2 -day
audio engineering seminars. The semi-
The UCLA Extension is offering nar schedule is: Jan. 31 -Feb. 1 in Or-
three courses during its winter quarter lando, FL;
that qualify for credit toward its Certif-
March 12 -13 in Anaheim, CA; and
icate Program in Electronic Music.
March 20 -21 in Seattle, WA.
"The Synchronization of Audio,
Video and Film Tèchnology for Musi- For more information, lease call
cians" will be discussed from 7 -10 p.m., [phone] or FAX [phone]. Editor /Publisher
Wednesday evenings, from Feb. 13- The Society of Motion Picture and
March 20. Jeff Rona,composer, author Television Engineers 25th Annual Larry Zide
and president of Musical Instrument Television Conference, which will
Digital Interface will conduct the class. focus on the evolutionary flow of tele- Associate Publisher
Fee is $225. vision technology from the past, Elaine Zide
"Electronic Music II: Introduction to through the present, and into the fu-
MIDI" will be taught 7 -10 p.m., ture, will be held Feb. 1-2 at the Westin Senior Editor
Wednesday evenings, Feb. 20 -March Hotel in the Renaissance Center in De-
27 by Lachlan Westfall, president of troit, MI. The conference theme is "A John Barilla
The International MIDI Association. Tèlevision Continuum- -1967- 2017."
Fee is $175. Concurrent with the conference will Assistant Editor
For more information on other be the Audio Engineering Society's 9th Caryn Shinske
courses, please call (213) 825 -9064. International Conference. SMPTE
The 1991 International Monitor and AES registrants will be able to at- Contributing Editors
AAlwl earndtsri ehsa sm iussstu heda vae bCeaelnl Fporor dEuncterdie osr. tfeonr do nsee srseigoinsst roaftifoenre dfe eb.y T bhoet hth gemroeu posf Bruce Bartlett
post- produced during the 1990 calen- the AES conference is "'Ièlevision Brian Battles
dar year. Individuals as well as compa- Sound Today and Tomorrow."
Drew Daniels
nies and corporations may submit Aone -day tutorial on Digital Record-
entries with no limit to the number of ing for Tèlevision will be held Jan. 31 Robyn Gately
entries from any source. Deadline for also at the Westin Hotel. Presentations
submissions is Jan. 15. will be made by experts from the re- Len Feldman
For more information on categories search, development, and engineering Shelley Herman
or entry forms, please call CeCe sectors of manufacturers, and from ex-
Lazarescu at (212) 629 -3266, or FAX perienced users of digital recorders. Brent Harshbarger
(212) 629 -3265. The price of entries, The tutorial will conclude with oppor- Randy Hoffner
regardless of length, is $105 for ITS tunities for one -on -one interviews with
Members, $135 for Non -ITS Members. the speakers and screenings of recent Jim Paul
productions made with digital record-
Synergetic Audio Concepts will
present a Loudspeaker Designer's ers. Graphics & Layout
Workshop from Feb. 7 -9 at the Ra- For more information on any of the Karen Cohn
mada Renaissance Hotel in Atlanta, conferences, please call (914) 761 -1100
GA. After an abbreviated review of the or FAX [phone].
BPA Audit applied for May 1989
db, The Sound Engineering Magazine(ISSN 0011.7145)
is published bhmonthly by Sagamore Publishing Com-
Sound. Technology. pany Inc. Entire contents copyright 1991 by Sagamore
Publishing Company Inc . 203 Commack Road, Suite
1010, Commack, NY 11725. Telephone. [phone].
db Magazine is published for individuals and firms in
professional audio recording, broadcast audio -visual,
sound reinforcement -contracting, consultants, video rec-
Nobody combines them better than Modular. ording, film sound. etc. Application for subscription
should be made on the subscription form in the rear of
each issue. Subscriptions are $15.00 per year ($28.00
In the 80's, people agreed that Joe's pCearn aydeaa)ra nodu tspidaey aUb leS . iPn oUss.Se ssfuionndss, . $S16in.0g0le pceor piyeesa ra rien
Sound & Salami made the best- sounding MODULAR $3.50 each Editorial, Publishing. and Sales offices are
speaker cabinets available. Now, Modular at 203 Commack Road. Suite 1010 Commack NY
11725. Second Class postage paid at Commack, NY
is making those same great products. 11725 and an additional mailing office Postmaster:
And, our new products and marketing Technologies Form 3579 should be sent to db Magazine, 203 Com-
mack Road, Suits 1010. Cammack. NY 11725.
programs will bring even more new Trademarked names are editorially used throughout
customers into your stores. this issue. Rather than place a trademark symbol next
to each occurance, we state that these names are used
only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the
trademark owner, and that there is no intention of trade-
mark infringement
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Free Catalog of
Iifessional LETTERS
r
SOUND recording
The Editor:
Your November/December issue
p & duplicating contained an extremely useful and
well -written article by Dan Rogers
on the subject of Speaker Angles, and
SUPPLIES I would like to compliment you on its
publication. This article, like its pre-
\ POLYLINE .w EMPTY decesso>; contains the type of infor-
REELS & BOXES mation that is pertinent and timely
in today's highly competitive field of
BLANKLOADED acoustical engineering.
;o.
CASSETTES We appreciate receiving articles
such as this that can provide immedi-
BOXES ately useful results, for any reader,
ALBUMS amateur as well as professional. My
LABELS staff and I thoroughly enjoyed this
series and look forward to actually
ACCA AMPEX applying this technology on a current
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or
rot< maxell Stan H. King, Executive vice presi-
tapes dent, Mackensen Corp.
Call Polyline
The Editor:
708/298-5300 Corp. Thank you for a great magazine. I
1233 Rand Road have enjoyed and benefitted from
8:30 am -5 pm Central Time Des Plaines. IL 60016 your magazine. I have only been run-
Circle 14 on Reader Service Card ning sound for a few years and have
much to learn. The articles are full of
valuable information -- step -by -step
instructions and diagrams allow me
to see practical applications for
equipment I have yet to experiment
with.
The column "Audio for the Church"
by Brent Harshbarger is very helpful
to me as I desire to increase my busi-
ness selling sound systems to
churches; I want to know as much as
I can to sell and install the most prac-
tical system.
Ed Learned's article "Higher
Ground" in the May /June issue was
great! Learning what the big guys
use and what they prefer helps me
decide what I need. I do not have the
SOUND ADVICE
opportunity to experiment, so I need
to have the gear and the knowledge
From The Magnetic Head Specialists to use it the first time out.
The experience I have is strength-
CD TRiEmSelTy OMRaEin tseingannacl ea mis pElitsusdeen tial. RecondEitiNoHneAdN aCnEd Atolpig neendd Hreesapdosn swei ll: ened, then expanded on, by your con -
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ELIMINATE tape /head generated shedding & build -up to these people. If you are still not
distortion STABILIZE tape -path tracking sure of my opinion of your magazine,
dim For the best sound, always- rely on the bes-t s ervice. I think it's great! In closing, I again
Head R-e placements Re-c onditioning Optical thank you for a great magazine.
Alignment Time Code Kits Alignment Tapes. Thank you for the time and effort you
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MAGNETIC SCIENCES Tel.: [phone] Telex: 325- 449 Fax: [phone] structive and informative.
Greg Miller
Owner, G.K. Audio
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Department of Correction and Other Things
In the November/December issue on page 61 an important digit got dropped.
The New Products listing of the Aphex Dominator II turned a real bargain into
a seemingly incredible one! TheDominator II has an Aphex list price of
$1,495.00. We left the "1" off. Did Aphex ever get calls!
We left out Packburn Electronics, Inc. from our Buyer's Guide on Noise Re-
duction Equipment. They make a line of noise supressors and are located at P.O.
Box 335, Dewitt, NY 13214. They'll be in next time we do Noise Reduction. Mea
Culpa.
Other Things
Janus, the Roman god that gave January its name is usually depicted with his two faces
looking at the same time ahead to the future and behind to still see the past.
db Magazine has been second to none in presenting the latest technology in a clear manner.
However, we also need to look back at our audio past in a new series called "Historical Per-
spectives" These will be pictures and text, sometimes full articles, sometimes just a picture or
text insertion. These historical perspectives are a part of our past, and it is a pleasure to pres-
ent them. The first of this series is on page 50.
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Live Sound ED LEARNED
Reinforcement: Asia-Pacific '90
it Y ASSOCIATION WITH THE USIA you might hear compositions by El- two tours. From a mixing perspec-
IVI (United States Information lington, Monk and Jobim at a Char- tive, the "threshold of hearing" re-
Agency) in the 80s was a fruitful one lie Byrd concert, you could also ex- quired by these musical opposites
for all concerned. As disseminator of pect to hear him play Vivaldi and dictated different methods of bal-
American culture to the world, USIA Villa- Lobos. ancing. SPL considerations figured
sponsors a wide variety of artistic The second tour, scheduled for into equipment planning, too: while
programs. Foremost among these mid -fall, featured Wayne Toups & the Charlie Byrd Trio used minimal
are overseas tours by musicians rep- Zydecajun, with whom I'd worked stage monitoring, Wayne Toups /-
resenting the many facets of Ameri- nationally and internationally (see Zydecajun called for a minimum of
can music. Regular readers of db db Magazine, Volume 22, No. 2, five rock -level monitor mixes.
Magazine the past six years may re- pis. 25 -31; No. 3, pgs. 25-30; No. 4, International touring, however,
call my articles about several of these pgs. 27 -32). Wayne is a master of the quite often reduces production con-
tours: I was involved in sound sys- Cajun diatonic accordion. Zydecajun siderations from "what I want" to
tem design and live sound mixing for is a blend of Cajun and Zydeco music "what I can get." If you must have a
12 different USIA -sponsored con- with a healthy dose of rock 'n' roll particular piece of equipment, you'd
cert tours during the last decade. thrown in. The new edition of better bring it with you, remember-
The importance of high -quality Zydecajun rocked harder than ever ing the prohibitive cost of getting it
sound systems and expert sound before-even the Cajun waltzes over there in the first place! Cost fac-
mixing to a successful musical per- were delivered with fire and a touch tors make size and weight considera-
formance is appreciated more today of stinging blues. tions just as important as brand
than ever before. My combination of The two proposed itineraries had preference and production desires. I
professional concert touring tech- some regional symmetry; while each had a weight limitation of 1,000 lbs.
niques and system design, coupled group had exclusive destinations to for the Charlie Byrd system and
with the experience gleaned from 18 tou>; Thailand, Singapore and the 1,250 lbs. for the Toups system.
years of mixing different styles of Philippines were due for visits by Cargo door clearance for the small-
music, conspired to create a new both. Wayne had requested my ser- est commercial airliner we'd see lim-
standard of excellence for USIA vices for his tour already, and as it ited case size to a maximum of 40 in.
touring sound quality and reliability. turned out, only 10 days separated in any two dimensions. I knew that,
The return on my invested efforts the two tours. Gerstein's question to with only a 250 lb. variance, most of
was substantial: I saw the world, me: would I mix sound for both the gear I could carry would have to
worked with some of America's fin- groups, and could I design a sound be applicable to both groups.
est musicians, and got paid for it! We system both groups could use? My last tour of the region, with the
exposed our foreign audiences to
Trans -continental airfare for equip- Benny Golson All-Stars in 1987 (see
many memorable performances,
ment and personnel was substantial db Magazine, Volume 22, No. 6,
and made many new friends. Little
wonder that both USIA/Arts Amer- on a tour of this sort; use of the same pgs. 36-42; Volume 23, No. 1, pgs. 44-
system and operator for both groups 52), proved we could find local PA
ica and I were eager to continue our
meant one less fare to pay in each di- systems sufficient for a jazz group,
working relationship into 1990. The
rection. What to do during my ten but what about Wayne's highly -am-
new decade began with the most am-
days off in Asia was another consid- plified Cajun/Zydeco rock?
bitious USIA touring package I'd
eration: my original idea was a re-
ever undertaken. I'd observed a trend towards more
turn to Bangkok after the Byrd tour,
high -quality, high -power systems in
Arts America Programmer Bev- enjoying a brief rest before Wayne this area, especially in the major
erly Gerstein called me in early Feb-. Toups/Zydecajun arrived to com- business centers of Singapore, Ma-
ruary, 1990, with news of two pro- mence their tour. After some deliber- nila and Bangkok. Even in provin-
posed tours of the Asia- Pacific ation, Arts America proposed an in- cial towns, a decent caliber MI (mu-
region. The first project, scheduled credible side trip: I would fly to the sical instrument) PA system was
for late summer/ early fall, involved Peoples Republic of China for a week usually available. Our logistical con-
guitarist Charlie Byrd and his trio. or so, and conduct a series of semi- straints limited options; we would
Charlie is well -known as both jazz nars on modern sound reinforce- have to take our chances with local
guitarist and exponent of Brazilian ment systems and mixing tech- house PA, which I felt would be ade-
music. Jazz fans remember the "Jazz niques. Two great bands and an quate in most cases. Wayne and his
Samba" album, which Charlie cut in opportunity to visit China? I ac- group accepted the obvious: some
1963 with Stan Getz that led to the cepted the offer immediately. nights would require major compro-
60's bossa -nova craze in the United The disparate nature of the two mises, and they agreed to deal with
States. But Charlie is also an excel- groups was the first thing I dealt whatever it took to make the house
co lent classical guitar playe4 so while with in designing sound for these sound happen.
www.americanradiohistory.com