New install for prestigious music school had to be “beyond reliable.”
It’s hard to imagine a room that sees (and hears) as much music variety as Berklee College of Music’s Performance Center. The space, the largest of five performance centers on campus, is host to at least 200 events a year, which cover everything from classical to electronica, jazz to hard rock, bluegrass to hip-hop, and even delves into the world of avant guard.
The Boston Globe calls the space “one of the premier venues for jazz and pop in the country,” so whatever is done to the 1,215-seat room has to be done well. After all, former students include such luminaries as Quincy Jones, Keith Jarrett, Steve Vai, Aimee Mann and Melissa Etheridge.
Another unusual aspect is that there are a lot of hands on deck — it’s all student run. This means that when it came time to upgrade the audio gear, in addition to being able to sound as worthy as the performing talent, it needed to be beyond reliable.
That’s a lot of pressure on the picking and installing of a new sound system — and the mission appears to have been accomplished.
“I think the sound system is incredible — it’s definitely what I’m most proud of,” beams Brad Berger, associate director of production, of the 16 M’elodie line array loudspeakers flown at the proscenium and four MJF-212A stage monitors on the floor.
A Lot of Different Speakers
Berger began his career doing “everything — designing the lights, being FOH, monitor engineer, even driving the truck” for a variety of bands in the early 1970s. A decade after he started that, he found himself at Berklee, and now for 26 years has seen and spearheaded many changes and updates. But he’s especially pleased about this one.
It’s a historic space dating back to 1915 when it was called the Fenway Theater, a vaudeville venue that quickly became a movie theater. Berklee bought it in 1972, and it was renovated to enlarge the stage. Today, half the events are performances by students; the other half are popular acts brought in by local promoters (most recently, Chuck Berry and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed at a special fundraiser).
“We had a Meyer sound system, the Legacy, which we installed in 1988,” Berger tells. “So, we had already been all Meyer for 20 years, and that it still sounded good, and the fact that we moved that old equipment over to another performance space to be used some more, says a lot.”
Not that Berger went into this with a closed mind.
“We brought in all kinds of stuff here to test. Sometimes we rented, sometimes we asked companies to come in and demo for us. We looked at a lot of different speakers, he says.
One thing he knew for sure was whatever got the nod would have to be line arrays. Because it is a narrow theatre (45’ wide, 120’ deep), finding the right fit for the best coverage was key, and for Berger, that meant a good line array. “I made up my mind when I first heard the M’elodies demoed in Nashville almost a year and a half ago,” he says. “I got to hear them with a lot of different styles of music — funk, rap, jazz, country — and that’s what we do here. So hearing the speakers with different live bands really won me over.” Helping also was the long relationship they’ve had with the company.
“The install went very well,” confirms Meyer’s Sandy Macdonald. “We originally did a full-on demonstration there with M’lodies and Brad was excited — he actually kind of drove this entire project through. In the end, the higher ups were ecstatic.”
The physical install went quickly, which Macdonald attributes to the MAPP-Online acoustical prediction program they use. “We used it to predetermine placement of speakers and the actual angles,” he explains. “After that, you go into the room, and you’re already 95% and just have to tweak the other 5%, usually with little or no additional EQing.”
Size isn’t everything, either. “These are diminutive little boxes — not the biggest in the world, but the sound produced from them is phenomenal. And we only used two subwoofers, which are under the stage, so that’s pretty impressive.” Also impressive is the amount of power and volume: “When demoing, we probably just got it up to just 35% to 45% — so there is enough power there to pin you up against the wall!” he laughs. “Suffice to say there is a lot of head room.”
(Fun fact: Macdonald himself is a Berklee alumni. The professional pianist hopes to play in the room himself someday…)
Teaching Tools
A prevailing consideration for every choice made is that, in essence, the performing arts center is also a teaching facility for students. Learning on a board that is widely used and accepted as opposed to learning on some piece of equipment that students will never see in the real world is critical to their educational development.
The board of choice is the Yamaha PM1D, which Berger is also happy with. He swapped out his Yamaha PM4000 for the digital unit two years ago. “Yamaha has been on the forefront of digital consoles, and they were hands down the most reliable. Even if I were purchasing one today, I’d probably still go with it. We have more than 100 touring shows come through here a year, and everyone has been comfortable with it.”
Budget restraints keep too much happening all at once. For instance, they are mostly sitting tight with their 20-year-old monitoring system, which is also Meyer gear. “But over the years we’ve upgraded, added different pieces. For instance, we did add four new MJF-212 High-Power Stage Monitors — you know, the ones Metalica use, although, we don’t usually do that kind of music!” he quips.
“The monitor board is the last piece that needs to be changed out, and I’d like to put something compatible to the PM1D — maybe the 5D or some smaller Yamaha unit.”
Mics are always an ongoing process too. It’s such an acoustically well-designed space, they don’t always need them (“you can whisper on stage and here it from every seat”). Mics are sometimes used on instrumental music, if only to add a little reverb. And they are used to record, of course. But they add about half a dozen new mics every year and now have around 250 in their arsenal. Most recently, they picked up some Shure KSM9s and AKG 45a reissues. Also added this round was a ClearCom intercom system with multiple stations for sound and lights.
“Just working with the budget was the biggest challenge,” Berger reflects. “Also, the theater structure is limiting. We’d like to have a little more room, but…”
Compromises and wish lists aside, it’s been a very satisfying experience for him. “The line system is everything we hoped it would be,” Berger says. “The coverage is phenomenal.”
Berklee Expands Recording Possibilities, too
For years, whenever Berklee wanted to film and record a concert event — which was often — the equipment would take up the back two rows of the precious few seats. A few years ago, they punched a whole in the wall and set up a control room in the room next door.
With this recent renovation, it’s been expanded into a full audio/video suite. Like everything else associated with the performance spaces, it’s all student run, and apparently run very well — they turn out DVDs of every event in a day. The DVDs are sold or given out, and more importantly, placed in the library so students can review past performances.
Reggie Lofton is the institution’s associate director of video services, and he says that while all the students who work at the facility initially have other goals, like becoming performing artists themselves, many of his ex-students have gone on to work for in various capabilities for companies like Vari-Light, Bandit, High End, and local companies. He says soon the audio/video suite will be capable of recording 48 multitracks locked up with Sony digital cameras for higher quality DVDs. “On a daily basis, we will be able to provide a higher quality mix, and soon we’ll be mixing 5.1 Surround Sound for that room,” he says.
