Road Tests

Proel is on of those nice Italian pro-audio companies that creates nice electronics and speakers, but gets very little notice in North America. So when I received a HPD3000 power amplifier for review, I had to hold my skeptic hat in my hands until I could see this quad channel power amplifier in action.

I don’t know what it is with me and my knack for finding the coolest and most obscure devices that actually work. Yes, I am flattering myself a little too much, seeing that this device has been around since the 1970s. The old timers (I’m not saying this as a jab but out of sincere respect for the wealth of knowledge that can only come with being old) are probably saying, “Silly youngster, I’ve been using one of those for years.”

Usually when I do a Road Test, the manufacturer ships the gear to me, I read the manuals, play with it a bit and take it out on a gig. With the KS Audio gear, the review process took on a slightly different scenario. I first got a call from my friend and editor Bill Evans, but instead of waiting for the gear, I was invited to a record release party where the KS Audio CPA self-powered compact line array was being used. Henry Strange (system engineer for KS Audio) and his crew had set up the line array and subs. I showed up a couple of hours before the show to check it out.

So, an affordable cardioid dynamic microphone with a step-up transformer that will give me all the benefits of a dynamic handheld, while delivering the detail and frequency range benefits of a condenser? We’ll see. A rugged offering from a well-respected name in professional audio that is tough enough to withstand the rigors of the road while equally adept and worthy in the best of studios? All while priced under $240? Let’s just say I had my doubts.

The dbx brand now offers the dB10 passive direct box and the dBb12 active direct box. While not compact at 5.82” x 5.44” x 2.20,” the direct boxes are similar in size to the higher quality direct box offerings and are fully featured for the variety of needs for both performers and sound people. I give kudos to dbx for using steel over aluminum to help block magnetic fields from penetration into the sensitive audio circuits. This is especially important as direct boxes are often mounted on instrument amplifiers, which have AC power transformers nearby.

(Ed. Note: We took a bit of a different approach on this one. Having fronted a horn band for more than 20 years, I am well-aware of the difficulty of making a good horn sound right in the system with the mics generally available on your typical house gig. It is why I carry my own horn mics on every gig where I am doing the muso thing. So, for this review, we put the mic in the hands of a top-notch sax player who knows his way around a console and then got some feedback from the sound guys on some of the gigs where he used it. Here is what they had to say.)

I first had a look at the IM8 at the 2008 winter NAMM show. John Schauer from Yamaha led me to the secret room where the not-yet-released board was waiting. Yamaha is not the only manufacturer that likes to keep their new products undercover until the moment of release. Just about every mixing console manufacturer conceals their new hardware until they are ready. Whatever the reasoning behind Yamaha's motives, John was definitely in secret-agent mode at NAMM. He told me that this console was designed with houses of worship in mind. It has enough bells and whistles to satisfy a variety of mixing demands and is still very simple to operate. However, as I looked over the board, I thought it would work well in an array of operations outside of worship.

The EV DC-One speaker processor is a long-awaited product that is huge in the value quotient (features and performance divided by cost to own). I took delivery of the DC-One and the first thing I noticed was the size of the unit. While it is the expected one-rackspace high, the 14 inches of depth is way beyond the usual amount for these processors. When I inquired about this, the designers uniformly said that customers complained about having to make patches to shallow depth processors when in a rack of full-size power amplifers. Given the go-ahead on depth the designers made good use of the space and concentrated on DSP features and budgets.

The topic of today’s discussion is the InnovaSON SY48. I’m going to preface this review with a blanket statement — this console is so deep that it will be impossible for me to write everything down without being too long-winded. With that said, let us dive in.

My first real speakers were Cerwin-Vega. I can't remember the model number, but I can tell you that they incorporated a 15-inch woofer and one high compression horn, and they put out plenty of bass frequency response for that design. When I first bought them I felt like I had finally entered the pro sound world. This really has nothing to do with my review, but I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I received them.

Finding dedicated monitor mix mixing consoles is getting more difficult as time goes by. Sure the new digital console offerings have reasonably good flexibility, and the higher-end analog consoles have enough auxiliary sends to get the job done. But what about the market that needs inexpensive and simple-to-use monitor mixing gear? With every musician stealing two mixes for stereo in-ear monitoring, where are you going to get a dozen aux sends per channel and enough channels to handle modern music bands? Well, Allen and Heath’s new MixWizard line has just expanded to solve this dilemma.