CX Magazine - The News Magazine for Entertainment Technology

Control Devices Audio specialise in high end studio gear. The RM30L is the first of a new range of microphones to bear the CDA badge.

Ribbon microphones were developed fairly early in the history of audio recording, and have remained largely unchanged ever since - there's only so many possibilities for improvement in something this simple. The ribbon is currently enjoying something of a resurgence, and most studios contain at least one.

The MW15 was everything I didn't expect it to be. It was bigger and heavier - upon removing it from the shipping carton I took a moment to pause and wonder why it was called a Microwedge. I soon found out...  

Following successes with the D-Show and Profile consoles Digidesign have recently released the SC-48. It's very similar in form and function to the Profile console, the key difference being that the I/O cards are on-board - so you don't need a remote rack. This makes it a direct competitor for Yamaha's successful M7CL.    

It was a sunny day outside the CX bunker when Peter Freedman from Event Electronics rolled through the front door, a pair of Event Opal monitors in hand. Well, half a pair, James Biddle from Event was carrying the other one. Th ey weigh a bit, and with good reason as it turns out.  

The things we require of equipment on live events are somewhat different from those of the domestic market. In the world of DVD players, it's taken a while but manufacturers have started to realise this and are taking steps to accommodate the needs of the professional forum. One such company is HHB - we took a look at the UDP-89 DVD player to see what's different about it.    

As the new kid on the block, High Definition video is still finding acceptance in the live event forum. Two things I picked up about HD the first time I found myself on such a gig, was that it was generally horrendously difficult and fantastically expensive. The Panasonic AG-HPX502EN is neither.  

Small and unassuming in appearance, the M-48 has two layers of eight rotary encoders with illuminated dials. The function of these encoders is controlled by illuminated buttons at the right hand side of the unit, while layer keys live to the left. The unit is based on 16 "encoder" channels - they're not just mic channels. Using the M-48 manager in the M-400 mixer, you can assign whatever you want to each encoder channel. It could be a single channel, it could be a sub-mix of multiple channels. You can do this separately for each M-48 in the system. 

Monitors have changed over the past few years. I learnt to EQ wedges using Aussie Monitor F300 boxes, which were good at the time but very much had their own “personality”. The trend lately seems to be to make monitors that just work well straight out of the box, and the DM28 is a good example of this.

Selecon, based in New Zealand, have been a consistently strong performer in the Australian market for a long time. The current series of 80V fixtures represents an exciting new approach to theatrical lighting. 

THE PACIFIC 

To those who remember its first appearance, it may come as a mild surprise to be reminded that Selecon’s Pacific is now over ten years old. Unfortunately, most of us have probably fared less well with age than the Pacific, which still presents as clever and innovative. One of the great joys about the Pacific range has always been the versatile and modular design that allows it to fit so many specs.

There’s a close relationship between a guitar rig and a PA system, according to Radial Engineering President Peter Janis. The Canadian firm build a very wide range of switchers and interfaces for pro audio and for guitarists. “Dumbass gear – dumbass is my middle name. This stuff is like a hammer or a saw, tools for the trade”, he says.

The product and the process

One of the key problems afflicting so many shows these days is that of excessive SPL. There are a couple of reasons this is so abundant, and some are more fixable than others. Science Boy takes a look at one of the ways the problem of excessively loud stages can be fixed.  

Putting a whole band on in-ear monitoring is a great way to reduce stage noise. So why don't we all do it? A variety of reasons exist, the primary ones being cost and human objection.