ProAudio Review - August 2008 - (Page 48)

LIVE | Feature WISH Continued From Page 46 FROM THE ROAD: ROAD WARRIOR WISH LIST By Tom Young As a front of house engineer with a touring act I would like to cover a wish list for FOH engineers. Some are realistic and some are probably not but here are several things I would hope for in our industry. One: For an engineer who has traveled for thirty years doing mostly fly dates it seems the hardest part of the work sometimes is just getting to the gig. Air travel is horrendous and on-time arrival is a term that is almost a joke. I started with Tony Bennett 15 years ago and we did 200 shows a year, all fly dates. I can’t even imagine being able to make those shows today with the amount of flights that are canceled. So I guess my wish here would be in this everadvancing digital age would be for us to enter the Star Trek age where we could just say ‘Beam me up Scotty’, and I would arrive at the next venue. Two: Why don’t digital consoles have CD players built into the control surface? For as long as I can remember, laptops have had a CD player incorporated into the hardware. Quickly they evolved to players/burners, but as of this date no manufacturer builds such a product into their control surface. So consequently, you must specify a playback rack on gigs so you can provide house music before the show. Three: Using digital consoles almost exclusively now, the question of word clock and sampling rates comes up all the time. In analog audio consoles there is very little structure in terms of time - it starts, it continues for a while, then it ends. It seems the best solution is to have a master external word clock source and set everything else to an external clock. I use Yamaha PM5D’s most frequently and some companies carry an external work clock and some use the internal clock in the console. There is definitely a difference in sound depending on the word clock or sampling rate. I wish there was more consistency between external equipment interfacing and the best sampling rates Detail Shot - Yamaha PM5D available. How often and quickly will this be changing where a piece will not be compatible as the speeds change and increase? Four: Again, using many sound companies each year I wish there was more consistency in how systems are set up and do we find a common way to set up systems in the digital world. We are still in the Beta vs. VHS stage of how to go about audio distribution. I understand there are WISH continues on page 54 ® 48 | ProAudio Review | August 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.berlinerusa.com http://www.berlinerusa.com http://www.proaudioreview.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - August 2008

ProAudio Review - August 2008 Contents Publisher's Page Broadcast News and New Products Yamaha Pocketrak 2G Olympus LS-10 Linear PCM Recorder Bench Test Marantz PMD620 Flash Recorder TASCAM DR-1 Portable Digital Recorder Tips From The Pros: Location/Production Audio Prosumer Portables in a Pro World Studio News and New Products Apogee Ensemble Solid State Logic Duende Mini FireWire DSP Live News and New Products Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing World Tour Behringer Eurolive B412DSP and B415DSP Active Loudspeakers Gear for FOH Engineers — A PAR Contributors’ Wish List Contracting News and New Products Buyer's Guide Single Slice

ProAudio Review - August 2008

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