You know those old WWII movies where the hero is trying to make an escape from behind enemy lines, and some SS-type guys would always get on the train and walk down the aisle asking every one, “Your papers, please?” And then everyone would start digging for their official documents to prove they were not enemies of the state while our brave hero tried to figure a way out of the mess?
I couldn’t help but think about that every time I went in a door or up or down a staircase or escalator at the Anaheim Convention Center and was not able to pass without showing a photo ID… I mean, come on, what is this, the freakin’ airport? I have been in bars and brothels with less stringent security.
But we made it in, and, like our intrepid hero, got the goods. While NAMM is undeniably a “guitar show,” there were a number of significant pro audio announcements. As is our wont, we will organize this in signal chain order. As always, remember that this is a teaser. Just a few tidbits of info and then we’ll start road testing this stuff as soon as we can get our grimy little paws on it.
Mics
OK, it’s official — pretty much everyone now makes a USB mic which is never gonna be used on this end of the biz, so we won’t talk about it. The big stuff was packaging and a few wireless things On the affordable entry level, Line 6 showed their new wireless digital mic that, like the guitar stuff, operates in the 900mHz area, and I can personally testify to the lack of interference there. (I played a gig just before the show and we used 14 channels of wireless. All the mics and monitors were in the pro 500+ MHz while the guitars used the Line 6 stuff. We took constant RF hits all night on the mics and IEMs and not a single bit of even static on the guitars.) Still only five channels, but they tell me that is changing fast.
At the other end of the digital tip AKG intro’d the DMS digital wireless which is tunable across a 155 MHz band and has things like infrared setup links between the transmitter and receiver, the ability to run up to 100 channels at once, built-in dbx compression and a three-band EQ. It costs about four times what the Line 6 runs.
The other news of note was about drum mic kits. On the “I don’t care what it costs” end is the full kit from
Earthworks, which I’m sure sounds stunning, and actually costs less than I expected, about $11,000. They also had a very cool choir mic on a stick that could adjust height and angle easily to use for anything from acoustic guitar to bassoon.
Meanwhile, Bob Heil, who one person described as a human ping-pong ball in orange high-tops, had a drum mic kit that he actually—get this—consulted with drummers as he designed it. Some very ingenious mount stuff, it’s affordable and it’s red. Really looking forward to playing with these.
Also, it is unconfirmed but there is a rumor that EV will be releasing a low-cost version of the RE-20. Stay tuned.
Consoles
Presonus is shipping its StudioLive digital mixer. Small on inputs but big on features, this one is expressly designed to be equally at home in a small studio or on a small stage. And you can cascade two of them together for 32 inputs at a price that makes such an idea more than just wishful thinking.
Allen & Heath added two new members to the iLive T-series. These two new models, the T80 and T112, provide 32 and 48 mic input sections, respectively. The smallest iLive T80 system retails for about $15,000 and has plenty of assignable goodies on the desk like equalizers, effects, and dynamic processing assignable to input channels as auxes, groups, and masters. A beautiful digital interface for the analog-friendly/digital-shy console operator, and you can hide the manual and still come up to speed on these consoles quickly.
Processing
Outside of drive processing, which is increasingly becoming just a part of the power amp, the biggest, coolest piece of hardware was the TC Electronic VoiceLive 2. Remember when you could actually mold the sound of the vocal from FOH with the judicious use of EQ, compression and effects? Well, vocalists have decided that they want to be like guitar players and make those decisions their own bad selves. If they have to do it, thank whatever you hold as holy that it is a TC unit. That means it’s quiet, sounds good and the effects are lush and beautiful. So even if some bonehead singer kicks in a totally inappropriate vocal effect that you can’t control, at least the sound quality will be really really good.
Still in processing but no longer hardware, the whole world of plug-ins continues to increase in importance in the live audio world. Seeing this trend, Waves has gone beyond just putting together a package of plug-ins for live use and has actually created an entire division devoted just to live music. And they are working closely enough with Digidesign that if you rent a VENUE system and have the Waves plug-ins, you won’t have to worry about whether they are installed on the rental console. Using iLok and a Waves enabler will turn on the plug-ins you have bought and come pre-installed in the VENUE. Sweet.
AMPS
It is all about more power and less weight. At Peavey, The IPR amplifiers come in four power output ranges, and the choice of DSP preamps or not. These amplifiers are awesome in that the basic IPR 1600 weighs only 6 pounds in two rackspaces, and the rest of the models weigh not much more. This pays huge dividends, as the chassis is all aluminum, and the insides looks like a box of aluminum heatsink fins atop a circuit board. The switcher power supply a la the Pro200 series is married to a pair of Class D amplifier sections. And the same great Crest/Peavey design engineer, J.D. Bennet is the mastermind behind these amplifiers, which reassure any doubters.
Starting at the top, the IPR 6000 puts out 2000 watts per channel at 4 ohms and 3000 watts at 2 ohms, all with a MSRP of $799.99. If that does not motivate you, the IPR DSP 6000 costs $1,099.99 and includes full speaker processor sections like delay, parametric eq, crossovers, and security lockouts. The three other basic models are the IPR 4500 (1500w/ch @4-ohms), IPR 3000 (1000w/ch @4-ohms) and IPR 1600 (530w/ch @4-ohms). The basic IPR 1600 has a non DSP MSRP of $499.99 for bargain hunters. These amps will ship in volume in a couple months.
EV intro’d the Q series which match up nicely with their Tour X speakers. Class-H in a 2U design, the amp family features additional switchable LowPass Notch (LPN) filters, providing extra fundament and kick as well as protective low-cut when driving compact 12” or 15” full-range speaker cabinets without subwoofers. Four models ranging from 450 watts a side up to 1200.
Over in Harman-land, Crown Audio brought forth the XTi-6000 power amplifier with a nice 2100 watts per channel at 4-ohms. This should provide nice sub-woofer drive for those anklebiter/local soundcos with cost sensitivity (MAP $1,999). For the big soundcos, the I-Tech line gets a serious makeover called the I-Tech HD with the BSS Omni-Drive digital signal processing becoming the new preamp firmware.
The I-Tech HD line has three models, with the I-T5000 HD supplying 2500 watts per channel at 4 ohms. The I-T9000 HD supplies 3500 watts per channel at 4-ohms, and the I-T12000 HD knocks out 4500 watts per channel at 4 ohms.
Speakers
I thought the entire world had switched over to personal monitors, but judging by the number of new wedges, I must be wrong. QSC had a new concert-level beast and EAW intro’d the 15-inch version of its version of the Rat wedge. (Side note: we took an old Radian micro wedge on of the new EAW versions and the Radian replacement and put them side by side with the same processing and amps. Interesting. Details to follow soon.)
Speaking of speakers, it’s not gonna be part of your PA, but we have to acknowledge the coolness of the cabinets for the new TC Rebel 450 Bass amp. Loaded with either one normal and one co-axial Eminence driver in 10” and 12’ flavors the cabinets look exactly the same from the front and can mix and match and stack in any combination. The only difference between the two is that the cabinet for the 12’ is deeper. Very nice, well-thought-out design. We like that.
Once the signal is out of the box, you gotta be able to measure it. Phonic has made handheld measurement devices for a while now but the PAA6 ups the ante with every function you can imagine all accessed via a very cool LCD touch screen. Kind of like an iPod Touch just for audio guys. Sweet.
Back to wedge world for a moment, who else but radial could come up with the H-Amp box that taps into full-range wedge cabling (+/-1 contacts on NL4 interconnects) and provides a single headphone/personal monitor mix with level and tone controls for high-frequency smoothing? Wedges and PMs on the same stage? No problem.
Before we leave the land of speakers, Yorkville unexpectedly introduced a whole new brand of sound reinforcement gear called the VTC series. Not only are there nice line arrays, but a whole complement of coaxial stage monitors, compact power amplifiers, DSP speaker processors, subwoofers and rigging and aiming software. The high points are the Tom Danley designed EL210 line array cabinets with a pair of 10-inch low/mid drivers with another pair of compression drivers to round out the bandpass.
