Now that my son is a high school varsity wrestler I have the great opportunity to spend most of my weekends inside various gymnasiums and it was on one of these wrestling outings that I found myself in Hamburg Pennsylvania screaming and yelling just like one of the wrestling dads I vowed to never become.
In between matches one of the other fathers suggested we take a quick ride to the area’s largest attraction, the world famous sporting store Cabela’s. Not only is Cabela’s a huge store, but they are also a museum of sorts, with a huge selection of stuffed animals ranging from mountain goats and lions to elephants and rhinoceros all set in dioramas of their natural habitat.
Other than the American Museum of Natural History, I have not seen such a fine display of taxidermy skills anywhere—a very impressive exhibit indeed if you should like stuffed animals.
Speaking of museums….
I willingly accepted an assignment to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Manhattan to review the Sennheiser audio system for this magazine. Usually I hesitate to take these types of assignments because I am emotionally unstable and have the tendency to go off on a tangent and write a novella instead of an advertising blurb, but the new Sennheiser product aroused my curiosity as did the Annex itself.
Before setting us loose to roam the Annex with the PX-200 headset and a wireless guidePORT receiver the rep from Sennheiser gave us a little intro to the product that they were showcasing and told us that the unique system was developed specifically to bring the life and vitality of rock ‘n’ roll to the exhibit without the confusion of overlapping sound from conflicting audio sources. Apparently the multiple audio signals are sent to numerous RF transmitters with separate frequencies via an under-floor network. As one comes into the zone of each exhibit the music pertaining to that particular display plays through the headset of the user without any interference from other displays or patrons.
As it is I use the Sennheiser G2 in ear monitors for live work with great success so it came as no surprise that Sennheiser should produce a system for the museum that sounds great and responds well in such a diverse wireless situation. Other than a slight fade in and out while moving between exhibits the transition from one track to another was fairly seamless and there was no restriction in regard to the direction one could go as I randomly moved back and forth between displays. A volume control on the receiver allows the listeners to adjust the level of playback to their own taste and all in all Sennheiser accomplished what it set out to do.
Unfortunately, despite the great presentation on the part of Sennheiser and the museum, I still have a problem (I warned you earlier) with putting rock ‘n’ roll under glass in a museum. After all, in my mind, museums are for very old and/or dead things, not things such as rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, blues or hip hop which is still very much alive. The things that I think belong in a museum are stuffed animals as well as Roman, Egyptian and Greek architecture from thousands of years ago. Paintings belong in museums, but only from dead artists, otherwise they should go in a gallery.
Museum Ready
Though rock ‘n’ roll history is very much last century, I am still not at the point of categorizing the genre as a museum piece. In my feverish little mind I classify “museum ready” as at least 100 years old and not just last century. It dawned on me though as I walked through the Annex following the progression from “Blues” to “Soul” to “Rock and Roll” that if the first blues song was recorded in 1895 by George W. Johnson (according to African American historian Jessica McElrath) then the “Blues” is definitely museum ready. If a member of the band, such as Joe Strummer From the Clash, has died then I suppose he might be museum ready and, if the band is defunct, I unfortunately have to concede that they are then museum ready.
I strolled through the Annex using the latest technology to listen to archaic music such as The Clash, Hendrix, The Beatles and Elvis Presley while looking at the historic posters, clothing, guitars and film footage of each. Certain living stars such as Madonna, David Byrne, Prince and Bruce might be historically important, but are they museum ready? After all, their music is still viable and they are still around to perform and deliver it to their adoring fans. I suppose that Eddie Cochran’s jacket is museum ready as is any of Elvis’s clothing and guitars. John Lennon’s glasses fit the bill, as does David Byrne’s iconic broad shoulder suit. I guess I can accept a Hendrix live concert video as museum ready or even concert footage of James Brown, but I do have a problem (there it is again) because I have worked with and have done sound for many of these artists (not Elvis or Eddie Cochran) and that means I have to face the fact—I am old.
OK, so I’m old, it happens to everybody and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. I can still make use of modern technology and despite my growing despair I figure that as bleak as I was feeling I still did not have one foot in the grave. That’s when I saw it—the sign for The Bottom Line Cabaret—a Manhattan nightclub that rose to prominence in the 1970s and closed in 2003. In its day it was the place to play and thus, everybody played there. Even nobodies such as myself played there, but then again nobodies like me also did sound at The Bottom Line…and there it is—the first foot in the grave!
Damn! Now, not only am I old, but I’m also a leg away from being buried. Yet, there I was, still standing and not quite done in, until I saw the CBGB diorama that is made up to look like the inside of the now defunct legendary club. A couple of round tables with Budweiser bottles are placed in the exhibit so as to give the impression of one sitting and watching a show at the famous Bowery Mecca of rock. Though the display is nicely done it does remind me of seeing the stuffed animals at Cabela’s or the Museum of Natural History—a quaint keepsake of a moment that once existed, but has now receded into the annals of history.
A Familiar Mixing Console
The display is accompanied by a nice soundtrack, delivered by the latest technology, but the kicker is that smack dab in the middle of the display is the old CBGB mixing console and two decrepit speakers. A quaint reminiscent of the past to some, but upon closer inspection it dawned on me that I had mixed on that console and played through those speakers. I felt my other foot slip into the grave! “Now I’m not just old,” I thought, “I’m a f#*king museum piece!” Might as well just stuff me and put me on display behind a Soundcraft 800B console with a couple of Rane ME30B equalizers, a PCM42, an SPX90 and a couple of DBX 160 compressors. Just make sure that my hands are on the board, the curve on my EQ is not a “happy face” and the gain structure on the console is correct.
Also, for authenticity sake, please make sure that the cables in the back of the console are neatly run and patched correctly. Please do not forget that there should be a beer, a shot and pile of blow next to the mixing desk. If possible have the taxidermist make me look like I’m having a great time and I’m enjoying what I’m doing. If the exhibit is done to these specifications it should capture that moment in time perfectly. Title it, “Audio Engineer Mixing a Show, circa 1980.”
