7TH ANNUAL CENTERSTAGE AWARDS—page 56 [ prosoundnews.com ] March 2008 news volume 30 prono. 3 sound Sliding Dollar, Silver Lining I How Sweet by Christopher Walsh pling of studio officials, European la- The New HQ Is NEW YORK, NY—While the weak dollar is bels, producers and artists are taking Sweetwater is now creating more headlines for its role in advantage of the growing disparity in fully occupying its the surging price of oil and other com- currency valuation by taking their proj- new $35 million modities, there appears to be a silver ects to studios in New York City. Like lining for some U.S.-based recording the planeloads of tourists crowding studios and engineers. The dollar’s sag- sidewalks and department stores here, ging value relative to many other cur- foreign artists are also delivering a time- headquarters, an rencies translates to substantial bar- ly boost to several American studios. LEED, environmen- gains for foreign-based artists planning The dollar’s value relative to the Eu- tally friendly a recording project. ro and the British Pound hit new lows design with ample GO WEST: Kanye West, who had a 2008-leading eight Grammy nomina- amenities for staff In particular, according to a sam- (continued on page 22) tions and took home four trophies, performs with the Audio-Technica and visitors. Artist Elite 5000 Series wireless system using the AEW-T5400 micro- —page 12 phone/transmitter at the 50th Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Premier Delivers Legislation Purports tech@psn fieldreport The Goods TRUE SYSTEMS P-SOLO, Matt Wallace, P-SOLO RIBBON owner of Premier Productions, has New Radio Royalties TRUE’s P-SOLO line performs sonically well above what adopted Barix IP- their price and physical size would suggest. Page 43 by Steve Harvey reverse a decades-old decision that has aving only recently narrowly sur- long kept the U.S. out of step with the vived a long-running battle with rest of the world, that of compensation H the Copyright Royalty Board over for the public performance of recorded based solutions to music webcasting fees that threatened works over the air. set up a radio net- to put even the largest internet broad- The fight is already acrimonious. In work and distrib- Hannah Keeps Rolling ute syndicated caster out of business, the radio industry response to bipartisan, bicameral legis- programming now faces another challenge to the bot- lation introduced at the end of Decem- by Clive Young for the “Best of Both Worlds” tour, the throughout the tom line. This time, the issue centers on ber that provides for the payment to NEW YORK, NY—”Hannah Montana” may production became a headline-grabbing upper Midwest. —page 37 the desire by record labels and artists to (continued on page 24) be a fictional character, but she’s made hit, playing sold-out shows and getting quite a splash in the real world. Since extended twice. When the tour Disney Channel’s teen sitcom of the wrapped up at the end of January, it had same name debuted two years ago this played 69 performances and banked month, the series has been a smash for upwards of $50 million in the process. the cable network, spawning high rat- Providing sound for the jaunt was ings and a number of platinum sound- Red Hook, NY-based Firehouse Produc- tracks. Last fall, however, when young tions, which already had some experi- singer/actress Miley Cyrus hit the road as ence touring with high-profile Disney both herself and her alter ego, Hannah, (continued on page 18) SMS Series The perfect blend of form and function: superior sonic performance delivered by groundbreaking Theta Technology™ combined with the ease and convenience of the proprietary Clip-Fit™ mount system defines the best commercial loudspeaker series in its class. Find out more about the SMS Series and Theta Technology at http://www.eaw.com/products/SMSSeries/ [18] by Vish Wadi, who first used a Venue on that Miley was hoping for, and Marty Gar- Shakira’s 2005-6 world tour. The FOH and cia’s team at Future Sonics delivered.” monitor setups were virtually identical, with The choice perhaps wasn’t that surpris- Hannah each engineer using stock plug-ins accord- ing—the star’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, is a ing to assistant system engineer Chris Rus- 15-year Future Sonics client. According to a so, who added that Wadi “uses one out- press report, the younger Cyrus was con- board compressor—a dbx 160—and the cerned about long-term hearing, stating, “I Montana whole band’s on ears.” wasn’t getting the sound that I wanted be- (continued from page 1) The personal monitor systems in ques- fore. Future Sonics has everything I want so tion were a slew of Future Sonics and We- that the music sounds really incredible on Channel franchises, having taken on the stone ear pieces, depending on the per- stage or just listening to my music player, “High School Musical: The Concert” tour former or band member’s personal and I don’t need to make it too loud.” Mon- last spring. For the Hannah Montana/Miley preference, and all wireless transmitters itors were additionally handled with Fire- Cyrus run, the company fielded a pair of were Sennheiser G2s, while hardwire sys- house’s proprietary F12 monitor wedges, Digidesign Venue consoles, with one used tems were based around Shure P6 HW IEM powered by Crown IT6000 amplifiers. by Simon Welch at FOH, while the other, packs. Cyrus herself was on Future Sonics If there was an audio problem plaguing used at the monitor position, was overseen ear buds; Wadi noted, “This is the sound the tour, it was the sound of thousands of Unlimited Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) belts away, while behind her, bassist Vashon Johnson plays through Sound Mogami Platinum Series cables. prepubescent girls screaming their lungs out; one news report noted that the audi- Quality ence alone had been measured at more than 110 dB. Going up against that kind of onslaught nightly was a sizable PA that, other than Firehouse’s own proprietary FF12 frontfills, was comprised entirely of L- Acoustics boxes and powered by Lab.grup- pen loudspeakers. Speaking at Nassau Coli- seum in Uniondale, NY, Russo offered, “Every venue is unique, so it never gets set up the same way twice, but today, we have 44 L-Acoustics V-Dosc, six dV-Dosc and 12 d&b B2 subs. They’re set up with three D5 hangs on each side of the stage to cover the audience at 270 degrees. Some days Dynamic we change it depending on the size of the Vocal venue and the shape, but that’s a pretty Microphone typical arrangement.” Load-in on the pro- duction usually ran about five hours, while D 5 – LESS FEEDBACK Laminate Varimotion capsule delivers load-out was understandably shorter: significantly more gain-before-feedback “Sound is in the truck in about an hour than any other mic in its class. and a half, and the whole show loads out at about two-and-a-half hours, depending on the venue.” A seven-piece band provided musical accompaniment, including bassist Vashon Johnson. Talking gear, Johnson mentioned he’d been using Mogami’s Platinum Series C5 cables, explaining, “I’ve been a big fan of Mogami cables for several years now; I use Condenser them in my home studio, and I’ve always Vocal been impressed that there’s no sound col- Microphone Aerosmith‘s oration whatsoever. I really wanted to bring C 5 – STUDIO-LIKE CLARITY Steven Tyler them on the road with me.” Patented condenser capsule delivers using his customized While the tour is over, this month found legendary AKG studio-quality sound, AKG WMS 4000 Cyrus hitting the Houston Rodeo and Live- now on stage. wireless with the stock Series at that city’s Reliant Stadium, D 5 capsule selling out the 73,000-plus-seat venue for WIRED & WIRELESS ADV 666 / 1 / E the second time in a year, though it was her fourth show in the area in the last 18 months. While there’s the slight business of a TV series and a feature film for the starlet to get back to, when there’s box-office business like that to be had, more concert date announcements can’t help but be on the horizon. Firehouse Productions www.firehouseproductions.com psn March 2008.