Nathaniel Rateliff Covers the Earth with A&H
70-plus shows into their 2018 tour schedule, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats have had a dLive desk at stageside each night.
Tour Sound
QSC Hits the Road with McCartney MD Wix Wickens
QSC gear plays its part in the onstage rig of musical director Paul "Wix" Wickens.
Green Day Greets Buenos Aires with d&b
A brand-new d&b audiotechnik GSL System covered 37,000 screaming punk fans at Argentina's Estadio Velex Stadium.
Woodcock Packs Yamaha for Summer Tours
Yamaha's new Rivage PM7 will be used to mix Poison and Rob Zombie tours this summer.
Live Sound Showcase: The Tedeschi Trucks Band
By Clive Young. The Tedeschi Trucks Band typically plays 200 gigs a year, which keeps its audio team busy taming the stage volume of 12 people musically flooring it without an IEM in sight.
Cool Tools Track T-Mobile’s 600 MHz Coverage
By Steve Harvey. Crowdsourced data tools can help determine if you can still use that 600 MHz wireless mic system in a given area.
dLive Rolls with Million Dollar Quartet
Engineer Chris Wilson tackled FOH and monitors on the Allen & Heath desk.
Curbishley to Lead Solotech’s U.S. Rental Division
Curbishley's hire comes in advance of Solotech opening a new Los Angeles office.
‘La La Land’ Live Show Hits the Road
FOH engineer Troy Choi mixes live music to La La Land screenings around the world.
Live Sound Showcase: deadmau5
By Steve Harvey. Joel Zimmerman, known to EDM fans as deadmau5, presented his music orchestrated for strings, brass and woodwinds—but no percussion—at the Wiltern theater in Los Angeles in March.
First Public Yamaha Rivage PM7 Demos Announced
T.C. Furlong will host the Rivage PM7's public debut April 24-25 in Chicago.
Miking Guitars on Lana Del Rey’s LA to the Moon Tour
FOH engineer Kevin Madigan (David Gilmour, CSN&Y) talks capturing live guitars
RCF Hits the Road with Festival of Praise Tour
A slew of top Gospel stars are making the rounds with RCF in tow.
VER to Merge with Production Resource Group
VER enters Chapter 11 to facilitate merger with PRG
Live Sound Showcase: Gimmie A Beat—Inside Janet Jackson's Tour Sound
By Clive Young. Janet Jackson is still selling out arenas and making them dance, three decades into her career. Helping make that happen every night is FOH engineer Kyle Hamilton and his razor-sharp attention to detail.
Saving the Show: Live Audio Capture
By Clive Young. Live show recordings are a necessity for every artist. While most national touring artists playing theaters and arenas have recorded shows every night for years, the ability to do so has finally filtered down to more budget-aware house mix systems over time, putting the ability to record multitracks of an evening’s set within the reasonable economic reach of small venues and everyday performers.
DPA Captures Celine at Caesars
Celine Dion's shows have used a growing contingent of DPA Microphones since 2010.
Versteegt on Mixing Live Reggae and More
By Keith Young. Touring the world with Grammy-nominated reggae band SOJA, FOH engineer Michael Versteegt has discovered how to make the most of the mix and connect with crews overseas.
Snoop Dogg Prowls with Allen & Heath
Snoop Dogg has been touring with an Allen & Heath dLive system handling his monitors.
Live Sound Showcase: Touring with Tori Amos
By Steve Harvey. In December, Amos wrapped up the North American leg of her tour with three sold-out nights at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the latest dates on a world tour that began in Europe in September 2017, coincident with the release of her 15th studio album, "Native Invader." But as front-of-house engineer Mark Hawley observes, to call this the “latest” tour is something of a misnomer. “We really started 23 years ago,” he says. “She enjoys touring.”
Blondie Calls Up New Stage Monitors
The classic pop-punk band toured with the latest wedges from Clair Brothers.
Brown Note, d&b Avert Disaster for Gorillaz
Pre-tour gamble paid off for Gorillaz’s live audio team
Picking Charlie Puth’s PA
The young singing sensation finished a North American arena tour supported by Adamson systems.
Frahm Takes Stage Tec Desk on Tour
The composer/performer has kicked off a two-year tour with an Aurus platinum FOH console in tow.
Amplifiers Per Annum
By Al Fernald. Here are just a few of the amplifiers and related updates that have been introduced over the last 12 months.
Fun, Fun, Fun on Pet Sounds’ 50th Anniversary Tour
By Paroo Streich. Brian Wilson, the visionary behind The Beach Boys, is rolling his "Pet Sounds" 50th Anniversary Tour forward into 2018 with its final performances, and along for every stop of the journey is longtime production manager/FOH engineer Clint Boire.
Francis Takes On New Desk for Katy Perry
The FOH engineer behind GnR and Kanye West switched things up for his current jaunt supporting Katy Perry.
Winter Quiet No More for SR Providers
This time of year used to mean that things slowed down in the live sound sector—but the operative words there are “used to.”
Halsey's 'Fountain' Tour Flows with DPA
Halsey is using a DPA d:facto vocal microphone at every stop on her current world tour
Inside the Audio of The Killers World Tour
Capital Sound fielded a Martin Audio MLA system for the recent UK leg of the band's world tour.
MyMix Takes On Pete Tong at the Hollywood Bowl
By Steve Harvey. Musicians heard themselves on the complicated Pete Tong's Ibiza Classics tour via MyMix systems.
Monitoring Queens of the Stone Age at MSG
By Ian MacDonald. Engineer Spencer Jones handled monitors on QOTSA's fall tour, a run that found the band headlining New York City's Madison Square Garden arena for the first time.
Live Sound Showcase: Depeche Mode On Tour
By Clive Young. Depeche Mode's longtime audio team uses new and old technology to help convey the warmth and humanity in the band’s famously synthy sounds.
Run the Jewels Roll with Waves eMotion LV1 Mixer
FOH engineer Tomas Wolfe has been using a Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer to mix Run The Jewels’ tour.
Mixing the Holiday A Cappella Sounds of Pentatonix
Mark Woodcock uses a Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 console to handle the house mix for a acappella act Pentatonix.
Galaxy Rolls with Scovill on Petty Tour
Galaxy Hot Spot speakers were a key part of FOH engineer Robert Scovill's rig on the final Tom Petty tour.
Tears For Fears Squires A New PM10 On Tour
Monitor engineer George Squires has been using a Yamaha PM10 digital audio console on the road for the resurgent Tears For Fears.
Eight Plays, A Streak: Paul McCartney Tours NYC
By Clive Young. Go inside Paul McCartney’s recent mini-tour of New York City, where the rock legend and crew tackled eight sold-out shows, playing two nights a piece at Madison Square Garden; Brooklyn’s Barclays Center; across the Hudson River in Newark, NJ; and out on Long Island.
L-Acoustics Opens NYC Office
Aiming to underline its presence on the East Coast and also the Broadway theatrical market, L-Acoustics has opened a new office in midtown Manhattan, located within walking distance to Penn Station.
Stage Tec Mixes 4,000 Voices on Tour
Marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, “Luther,” a massive pop oratorio about the event toured Germany, with the last of 12 performances taking place on October 31 at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz-Arena with more than 11,000 spectators and a newly formed 4,000-singer choir. Berlin manufacturer Stage Tec was a sponsor of the entire tour, and providing three mixing consoles for the show.
Live Sound Showcase: Arcade Fire
By Lowell Greenblatt. While most tours are booked so that a production has time to find its groove before playing a high-profile New York gig, Arcade Fire’s Infinite Content tour hit Madison Square Garden only four shows into its North American run. Nonetheless, the shakedown period had gone well—a crucial fact, given that the band is carrying with it reportedly the largest AVB-based touring system yet assembled, fielded by audio provider Solotech (Montreal/Las Vegas).
$1B Growth in Pro Loudspeakers Predicted
UK analysts Futuresource Consulting predict the global pro loudspeaker market will hit $3.6 billion by 2021, fueled largely by increased demand for quality installed sound and investments from the commercial retail world in creating more enticing shopping environments.
Firehouse Fired Up About Dante AoIP
Firehouse Productions has been the audio provider for countless tours by Coldplay, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Sting and many others; shows for the likes of the NFL, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other organizations; and corporate events for Macy’s, Apple, Amazon and others. They’re all high-profile clients, but with that visibility comes increased pressure for its systems to work flawlessly. With that in mind, Firehouse has increasingly turned to Audinate’s Dante audio-over-IP networking for many of its clients when it creates audio systems with many moving parts.
Adamson Fills Stadium with Krystof
Prague’s Evzena Rosického Stadium recently sold out two shows by one of the country’s most popular acts, Krystof, as it celebrated its 25th anniversary. For the occasion, SR provider ZL Production fielded a sizable PA based around Adamson E-Series and S-Series loudspeakers.
FOH Stays Dry on Halsey Tour
Halsey has been making the rounds for the last month on her Hopeless Fountain Kingdom Tour with audio provided by Eighth Day Sound. One of the show’s key moments finds the singer and her dancers taking over a B-stage for two songs, and while that’s not unusual, the stage itself is. Filled with 20 gallons of water, the stage sprays liquid everywhere—including the FOH position.
Sheppell Brings DPA to Bon Jovi
FOH engineer Bill Sheppell used DPA d:facto vocal mics on the recent Bon Jovi tour as an experiment and ultimately opted to make them a permanent fixture. As a result, official live show recordings from the tour have captured that iconic voice closer to Sheppell’s intention: “Since using the d:facto, I have noticed that we are able to use less EQ than normal.”