AudioMedia - January 2009 - (Page 71)

AMSR 01|09 > readily to touring artists, whether they want to use their own desks or not. But it’s not just a rock ‘n’ roll venue; I think that will become more apparent next year, even though it’s got the feel of a rock ‘n’ roll venue – albeit a very nice one.” Nice venue, nice city. A winning combination, surely? Sure. At time of writing, a quick glance at The Picture House website reveals bookings confirmed through to mid-April 2009 (when seminal space-rockers Hawkwind are coming to town). Yet that same website warns: “Due to the compact and historic nature of the centre of Edinburgh, this venue is strictly tip-and-go, and use of in-house production is required to minimise loading.” or something as simple as a vanload of backline, so a wide range of artists can quite easily fit into what we have here.” B ack To The Future Who better, then, to put this theory to the test than German proto-synthmeisters Tangerine Dream, amongst the first wave of established acts to step through The Picture House doors to play their first Edinburgh concert in 18 years on November 2. 64-year-old founder Edgar Froese certainly knows a thing or two about quality concert sound, having played some notable venues during his pioneering band’s 40-plus-year career, a career that saw them turn early on to Martin Audio to maatch their high expectations. “Martin, I guess, made the first exponential system, producing two things which were at the lower end of the bass,” recalls Froese, adding that Tangerine Dream’s then-trademark Moog modular synths were prone to kicking out some extreme low frequencies onstage at the time. “I’m not talking about subwoofers here – everybody knows what subwoofers are, but rather sharp, strong, and powerful bass, which is part of the normal bass structure; Martin came up with a very specific idea of building huge sidefills. I tell you, it was like having your home stereo speakers onstage! It was a unique sound – the combined sound of everything happening onstage, so we didn’t even have a FOH mixer, because it wasn’t needed! Whatever we heard from the sidefills on the left and the right was reproduced into the hall, so there couldn’t be anything wrong. It’s hard to imagine today, but it was perfect, because you could adjust the balance of your instruments onstage and hear it immediately, and the audience heard it, too. “Sidefills are still better than any stage or in-ear monitoring system, but they only make sense if they’re built for your own specific needs. They make sense if you’re touring a lot, but if you’re only playing a few gigs a year like we do now, then it’s a bit too expensive to spend about £80,000 or whatever for a proper stereo system onstage. Even today I sometimes wish that I could have some of that old equipment.” Today those mighty modular Moogs are also long gone; today Tangerine Dream is playing The Picture House with a more reliable, though no less cutting-edge selection of instrumentation at Froese’s disposal, including various plug-in synths displayed on large LCD screens for the audience’s benefit, together with more ‘conventional’ instrumentation professionally played by the considerably younger musicians – Thorsten Quaesching (keyboards), Iris Camaa (percussion, Codo drums, V-Drums), Linda Spa (saxophone, flute, keyboard), and Bernhard Beibl (electric and acoustic guitars) – augmenting the truly independent group’s guitar- and keyboard-playing sole survivor. R eady Steady R ock Any artists or representatives thereof possibly interested in including The Picture House in their touring itinerary are, likewise, catered for online with webpages listing production, sound, and lighting information. The chances are the sound reinforcement equipment on offer should more than do them justice: FOH speakers listed include 14x L-Acoustics ARCS (constant curvature line source), including flyware, plus six accompanying L-Acoustics 218 subwoofers, powered by six L-Acoustics LA48a and three Chevin Research A6000 power amps, and overseen by two XTA DP224 loudspeaker management systems. Similarly, FOH outboard is reasonably well catered for with a Klark Teknik DN360 graphic EQ sharing rackspace with two Klark Teknik SQ1D Square ONE eight-channel dynamics processors, two Yamaha SPX1000 digital multi-effects processors, and a TC Electronic D-Two multi-tap rhythm delay. Meanwhile, more outboard can be accessed ‘virtually’ via the venue’s desirable Digidesign VENUE D-Show Profile and Mix Rack combo, while a 40-channel Midas Heritage 1000 analogue console provides a more traditional FOH mixing alternative for anyone wishing to bypass Digidesign’s digital bells and whistles… A 32 mic input Midas Verona 320 analogue mixing desk capably handles monitor duties, with outbard from KT (four DN360s and another SQ1D Square ONE) and Yamaha (SPX990 digital multi-effects processor), and amps supplied by Dynacord (five CL 2000 2x 1000 Watts Linear Precision and three LX 1600 2x 800 Watts Switchmode Precision power amps). Other notable monitor equipment includes eight NuQ-15 full-range, two-way, switchable active/ passive loudspeaker systems, and three XD-252 switchable bi-amp/passive full-range loudspeakers from Turbosound. The microphone stock includes a healthy selection of (mainly) Shure stage mics, together with two Sennheiser MD421 dynamic microphones, and four Beyerdynamic M 88 TG dynamic microphones. Says Stout: “It’s very useful to have that quality of equipment in-house; it makes planning things a lot easier for artists coming here in terms of integrating what they’ve got on tour with them, but, importantly, the sound is excellent for this space and the acoustic that this space has.” Expanding the theme further still, Stout adds, “The idea is that we will make it easy for whatever artist to play here – whether that be a band that is touring with two or three buses and a truck, like The Picture House. “In the future, the normal situation a band will be faced with is that you move into a production-ready venue,” he predicts. “The facilities are there, and at the end of the day, it’s much easier for the venue and the band. You have less equipment, less expense, and, for the venue, it’s great to be able to say to a production manager or band manager, ‘Come on in; bring your backline, personal belongings, instruments – whatever you use, and it will fit.’ “The equipment is usually state-of-the-art, and it sounds good; the lighting is okay – not always what you want, but it saves a lot of money and energy for a mid-range band. Instead of having to hire five or six trucks, you just hire a nightrider [sleeper coach] and put your backline under the seats. That works pretty well wherever, and, I guess, is the future of performance structures up to three-, four- or five-thousand people. Above that, you’ll need extended forms of PA; but I love the production-ready philosophy. I love anything which makes life easier, to be honest. Life’s complicated enough in itself!” Sound-Linear Elektroakustik GmBH’s Kalle Hogrefe, acting as Tangerine Dream’s FOH Engineer on this particular UK outing, is possibly better positioned to comment on The Picture House sound. “The acoustic in The Forum was not as good as in here,” he begins, before adding: “The sound system here is okay; the desks are fine; the service guys are great.” Arguably a man of few words, then; yet you can’t say fairer than that, probably. On that very note, General Manager John Stout certainly doesn’t have grounds for complaint, concluding, “A lot of artists were just bypassing Edinburgh, because there were a couple of venues here half our size, then it’s twice the size; so a mid-scale venue was something that was definitely needed – hence the reaction has been extremely positive, but not just because we’re fulfilling a need. Across the board from journalists I know, artists that have played here, and the audiences, everybody has been incredibly positive so far, which is great.” ∫ I N F O R MAT I O N Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the forward-thinking Froese sees only sense in production-ready venues AUDIO MEDIA JANUARY 2008 Closing Comments A The Picture House, 31 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2DJ, UK E ++44 (0)131 221 2280 W www.mamagroup.co.uk/picturehouse/ 71 http://www.mamagroup.co.uk/picturehouse/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - January 2009

AudioMedia - January 2009 Contents Recording News Post News Broadcast News Geo Focus: India What's Up UK? Special Report: Pimp My Ride AKG C214 Sony Acid Pro 7.0 Final Cut: Mirror's Edge Opportunities in the Reality World She's Got the Look The X-Factor Sadie LRX2 Source Elements Source-Connect 3.1 Buying a Recorder In Control Product Sampler: Trade Shows Video Guide AMSR News Digico SD8 The Last Picture Show File Server

AudioMedia - January 2009

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