Road Tests

Mid-priced, small-diaphragm condenser microphones are an essential part of the sound reinforcement industry. And with good reason, too. Housed in compact bodies, these offer wide-bandwidth, fast transient response that’s ideally suited for percussion, stringed instruments, piano and more. While these mics are available for a very wide range of budgets — from $50 to well over $1,000 — mid-priced entries, such as the Shure KSM137 and Audio-Technica’s AT4041 offer an excellent balance of price and performance — two more reasons why condensers with $300 retail tags are well-established in the live audio market.

I’ve been around for a while (a good while) and thought I had seen and heard everything, particularly in the area of microphones, where it seems every possible idea or new product concept has already been tried or taken. So earlier this year, when I heard that MXL microphones was launching a new guitar amp mic, my initial reaction was a resounding “Meh!” You see, I already have just about every conceivable transducer that could be used to capture guitar amps.

When it comes to selecting dynamic mics for live instrument miking, the choices are nearly endless. So earlier this year, when Audio-Technica unveiled its new AE2300 model, I must confess that initially I wasn’t overly excited about the concept. However, what quickly piqued my interest in the AE2300 was its onboard switchable low-pass filter.

There are hundreds of models of 12-inch two-way, speaker-on-a-stick P.A. enclosures on the market from scores of manufacturers. And with good reason — this particular format offers a great combination of full range response with enough oomph to handle applications ranging from bread-and-butter corporate gigs to smaller venue music reinforcement in clubs, houses of worship — you name it. Add in an external sub(s), and such systems easily handle larger venues, all from a compact, easy to use system.

Software-based mixers have come a long way in the last five years. The release of the iPad served to solidify what a lot of us knew was an inevitable trend in digital mixing: “surfaceless” mixing consoles. While writing this review and working with the Waves eMotion LV1, I reminisced about the first time I saw someone using Lake Contour with a wireless tablet, and I also thought about discussions I had with other audio engineers about touch screen mixing in the early 2000’s.

The world of wireless audio for live sound is tough, and truthfully, it’s not getting any easier, with ever-increasing RF traffic, fewer available UHF bands and the uncertainty of a spectra landscape that may (or may not) change at the whim of any future FCC rulings. Specifically designed to address those very issues is Lectrosonics’ Venue 2 Digital Hybrid Wireless modular receiver. Lectrosonics’ Digital Hybrid Wireless process delivers a wide 20 kHz audio bandwidth, compander-free audio and uses an analog FM carrier to transmit a specially encoded signal that delivers digital audio quality while remaining highly spectrum efficient.

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Over the past few years, 64 Audio (formerly 1964 Ears) has come on strong as a provider with a full line of IEM earpieces for musicians and audio professionals alike. The A Series offers a choice of eight designs from $599 to $1,999 made from your custom earmolds. The U Series (Universal fit) has models starting at $399 (for the dual-driver U2) and ranges up to the U12, which are $1,599.

Way back in 1998, I reviewed the R-121, the first microphone from a startup company called Royer Labs. This mic sparked a revival in ribbon mics that continues to this day, not only from Royer, but other manufacturers as well. But the R-121, and its patented (U.S. #6,434,252) proprietary offset ribbon technology with a pure aluminum ribbon and neodymium magnet structure proved to be a hit even to this day (and earning a Technical Grammy Award in 2013), offering a warm, smooth sound from a transducer that was more compact and rugged than previous ribbon designs.

A lot of what we do in sound reinforcement involves attempting to do what amounts to a seemingly impossible task. This may come in the form of mixing in some acoustically horrible environment with glass walls and marble floors. Another vexing issue comes when you need a long cable run of up to a half mile across rough terrain, crowds, a body of water, a stadium, an alligator pit or other obstacles — or simply do a gig in a museum, theme park, convention center or historic building/site, where extended cable runs are either impractical or simply prohibited.

Representing a significant departure from what the company has done over the past 10 years is the S21 — the latest offering from DiGiCo. In an effort to reach a new set of customers that can’t afford its higher-end desks, DiGiCo went back to the drawing board to create a console that they hope will redefine the industry’s expectations of what a sub-$10,000 console is capable of. My demo system consisted of an S21 surface in a custom road case, as well as a D-Rack for remote I/O and a Cat-5 snake for connecting the two together. In the time I spent with the S21, it was clear that DiGiCo has something new and special that isn’t just another digital console.