Unless you’re a sound technician, stage manager, or musician, chances are you’ve only seen a fraction of what’s Involved in making a live concert sound great. Those giant speakers you see sitting to the left and right of the musicians are just the last stop on a long, complicated journey from the microphones to your ear. In between lay miles upon miles of wires and cables, thousands of pounds of electronics and, smack in the middle of it all, at least one very frazzled sound engineer. It’s been that way for several decades. But today, advances in technology are changing the way finally live sound is done and, believe it or not, we have the iPad to thank for the revolution.
In order to appreciate the changes That have begun to take place in the live sound industry, it helps to understand what it’s looked like for the past 40 years. Here’s a watered-down version of what a typical live audio system looks like.
The old school
First, we have a mixing console. This complex board of ins, outs, buttons and dials is, more often than not, nowhere near the stage. Instead, the central command gets placed in a dark corner or cubby somewhere in the back of the room where nobody can see it. While this is great for the “Wizard of Oz” effect needed to pull off a great show, it means That all the sound signals have to travel some long distances; And that means cables – lots and lots of cables.
… Freedom from being tied down to one location and freedom from several hundred pounds of back breaking bulk.
Now imagine a stage has 15 microphones, each with cables That have to get to the mixing console on the opposite side of the room. To get there, they travel through a “snake” which is Essentially one big, thick cable with lots of smaller cables inside it. That snake has to be routed across the room in a way That does not get people tripping over it and spilling Their cocktails (or joints) on the floor – a Considerable challenge on its own.
From there, the signals need to travel back up the snake to the stage so they can be sent to speakers or amplifiers. Of course, the snake has just one “head,” so to speak, so from the head of the snake, and a bunch more cables have to be run.
Sounds confusing, does not it? Well, take that confusion and multiply it by a factor of five, because that’s how Involved it is for a sound engineer to deal with it all – somewhere between 20-50 connections to deal with on each side of That snake. But that’s just the beginning of a sound engineer’s woes.
Once all of the gear has been set up, and the sound engineer has to spend his or her time running back and forth between the stage and a mixing console That might as well be set up on the other side of town. And since what the mix sounds like in a dark corner That is nothing like the way it sounds to the other 96 percent of the room, the engineer needs ends up running all through the room as well, Which is both invasive and a hassle.
And if any of the musicians need help getting Their personal monitors (speakers) adjusted while the show is going, the engineer must either try to interpret a convoluted mess of unintelligible hand signals or run up to the stage and, you know, talk with the person. Then they run back, make an adjustment, and ultimately run back up to the stage to see if what they did worked. And that’s just one instance, this dance can go on all night long.
But now it does not have to.
The new school
Meet Brad Wager. At 29 years old, Brad already has 10 years of hard-earned professional sound engineering experience under his belt. And, as anyone who has worked with him will tell you, he is one of the best at what he does in the Pacific Northwest. Part of what makes him successful is his keen ear, but he also brings a fresh perspective, an open mind and some new tools into an industry Which has not seen much in the way of technological innovation for a long time. Brad’s the guy That mixes and records live sound with an iPad.
What will be like to breed a generation of people who’ve never touched an analog button In Their Life?
Brad’s worked hard to get here, and over the years his youthful resilience and tenacity have proven to be a benefit. He’s had to shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears as he’s Hauled thousands of pounds of gear around in a non-descript white van, LUGGED it through rain, snow and mud, and spent hours setting it all up, sometimes only to wind up getting berated by some clueless bass-playing-prima-donna who demands more cowbell In Their in-ear monitors as thanks for his efforts.
But aside from being naturally well-steeled against the physical and psychological challenges Involved with the live and recorded music scene, Brad’s relatively young age comes a significant advantage: he’s not afraid of new technology. Modern-day gadgets have begun to transform an industry That has more or less sat still for years. But where much of the old guard has been reluctant to warm up to these new approaches, Brad, in his drive to the things better and smarter than the next guy, has embraced them. When he heard that there were pro sound systems That would replace most of That mess and almost all of the hassle he’d been dealing with for the past nine years, he jumped right on it.
Work smarter, not harder
We caught up with Brad and his Wager Audio Services team at Jimmy Mak’s in Portland, Oregon where he was preparing to run sound for a 12-piece soul / funk band. We head upstairs to a sort of crow’s nest where the mixing console is located. The elevated cubby Provides a great bird’s eye view of the stage below, but from an acoustical and logistical Standpoint, it’s a complete nightmare.
“We’re in a bass trap. We’re in a horrible acoustic space up here, “remarks Wager. “In a perfect world, I would be at floor level where the rest of the people listening to the mix are, and I’d be a little off center. And that’s absolutely never an option. “
But then he whips out an iPad and flashes a smile like he’s got the entire room in the palm of his hands. In a way, he does.
“[This system] puts you wherever you want to be. If the trouble spot is the table in the corner, you can go to the table in the corner and see what they’re dealing with over there. “Wager then moves a virtual slider on his iPad and, behind him, the mixing console moves in perfect unison.
“In the old days, aside from having to carry heavy racks of equipment up a flight of stairs – large consoles, for instance – we now have smaller consoles, more processing capability and with recall so we can come back to this room every few months, dial it up, press it and you’re right back to where you were the last time you were here. “
The iPad is the most visible and recognizable component of Wager’s streamlined, next-generation sound system – and a critical one at that – but it is only one of several new pieces of technology that make his job easier and more effective. What the iPad controls and how it is able to control it is what gives Brad his freedom – freedom from being tied down to one location and freedom from several hundred pounds of back-breaking bulk.
For this show, Wager is using an Allen & Heath GLD-80 Digital Mixing Console with an Allen & Heath digital snake AR2412 module. To put things in perspective, the console at work weighs just 36lbs and is roughly 29 x 23 x 6.5 (W x D x H – in inches). The analog equivalent weighs 132 lbs. and measures 70 x 27 x 11 (W x D x H – in inches).
And that’s just the console. That Wager says if he used One of those old-school “snakes” We Mentioned Earlier, it would weigh in at 324 lbs. The module that lets him use CAT5 cable instead: 27 lbs. “Out Cat 5 reel is so easy to handle. You unroll as you go (only as much as you need), take [it] up into a scissorlift and fly over the ballroom floor in the airwall, track, etc.. It’s just plain awesome stuff. And, it’s cheap.
If you’re keeping up with the math, Those two digital components Wager save 400 lbs. worth of work almost every day. But the drastic difference in size and weight only tell part of the story.
“Occasionally, manufacturers of digital consoles will try to make a comparison about how much outboard gear it would take to offer the same processing power as Their digital console – the old” how many bowls of raisin bran would you have to eat ” analogy ‘, “says Wager. “And while this is a fair analogy as it does show how much is really in these things, the thought of having to accurately patch, troubleshoot and operate multiple racks of analog gear is completely unpractical and ridiculous. In short, GamePoint for the digital console manufacturers for putting together a surface That easily and seamlessly allows users to access an unbelievable array of processing in about half the space (width and height anyway) of the analog counterpart, and at 100lbs less. “
Circle back to the iPad, Which gives Wager and a graphic representation of everything on the console. It Connects to the console through your basic Wi-Fi router, so Wager can hit the bar and grab a beer while turning up the lead singer’s monitor. Or, if he’s got to hit the head, he can do so without worrying the band might wrap up the set suddenly without his being there to kill the microphones and queue some house music. Brad can move sliders, dials rotate, combine channels, add effects and trigger recordings with an iPad or iPhone.
All the cool kids are doing it …
So if this fancy new digital gear is so great-and it very clearly is – then why is not everyone doing this? Why in the world would you choose to stick with heavy, cumbersome, inconvenient and inefficient equipment? According to Wager, there are several excuses, but few actual Reasons.
“Cost used to be a factor … but that’s not so much the case anymore. When we founded this company in 2011, the two assets I knew we’d need on every show were a truck and a mixing console. Further, I knew that I was sick of hauling heavy processing racks up the stairs at the club. Also, our clients always seem to want to do some form of recording. So for us, the then fairly new Presonus StudioLive 24.4.2 console was an obvious choice. At the time, it had a MAP price of $ 3299, provided more processing than any analog system that I could put together for that amount of money, would record multi-track or ‘two-track’ and fit in the trunk of my car ! To boot, it could be run wirelessly from an iPad – a total breakthrough at that price-point. With the introduction of That product, the floodgates opened. Other manufacturers scrambled to offer the power, simplicity, wireless control, recording, etc., All at dropping price point s. Many new consoles, have come out since then from a multitude of manufacturers. So price, in my opinion … is not really a reasonable excuse. “
“The Only Factor That can be argued … is the test of time. However, how do you prove a negative? In all fairness, operating an expensive, computer-based system (the bridge with moving parts) out in a dusty field, loaded in an out of a truck, in the hot sun, frigid cold, wind, rain, humidity, etc.., Is a legitimate cause for concern for it’s more reliability – these are tough working conditions. Time will tell, but I have not personally experienced any issues or quirks in the field That would send me running back into the dark ages. “
“The only remaining hesitation I can see in moving forward is the classic fear of new technology. Though many of these systems are very intuitive and quick to learn, they can also be complex and difficult for an inexperienced user. I do not know … maybe they’re thinking, ‘if it is not broke do not fix it’? My intrigue lies in seeing what the ‘next generation’s’ experience will be like, as Likely they will never turn an analog knob. This dilemma has pretty much ruined the studio recording industry with laptop Producers That Do not have founded technical ability. “
Which begs the question: What will be like to breed a generation of people who’ve never touched an analog button In Their Life?
DT
Caleb is a professional musician, amateur chef and A / V electronics guru. Growing up, Caleb was the guy you would find in the garage tearing apart vintage electronics while other kids rode bikes or played football. His early immersion in consumer electronics has led to countless car stereo, home theater and live audio installations Which laid down the foundation for his current work as an A / V editor and reviewer at Digital Trends. Contact him on twitter (@ caleb_denison) or via email (cdenison@digitaltrends.com).
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