Celestion — Phil'ed to bits

Celestion's Road Series loudspeakers are being put to the 'ultimate' test on tour with Essex trio, The Phil Hilbourne Band. Voted 1990 'Royal Standard' band of the year (whatever that means — perhaps they get to print a 'By royal appointment' badge on their next album), the group is currently completing its 10th Anniversary UK Tour appearing at 120 venues. The band's PA consists of R1520 and R1542. Phil Hilbourne says, "The system is great, the loudspeakers are easy to install and carry from one venue to the other. We play a variety of songs from blues to rock and needed a flexible, high performance PA system — Celestion's Road Series has proved to be exactly what we were looking for."

Celestion International. (Contact Details)

More Yamaha for Jones

RG Jones Sound Engineering of Wimbledon has taken delivery of its second Yamaha PM3500 live FOH console; a 48-channel frame with four stereo input modules. The console was supplied at the end of last year by LMC Audio Systems Ltd and immediately pressed into service for a major musical event. The 'Adiemus — Songs of Sanctuary' concert, at The Royal Albert Hall, was notable in that it just happened to be the very first live performance of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning album by Karl Jenkins. Those with fond memories of the '70s will remember Jenkins from Soft Machine, one of the seminal bands of that period whose music embraced a variety of styles from jazz to classical rock.

R G Jones has been a Yamaha user for over five years and the hire company works closely with LMC on many projects as John Carroll, Hire Department Co-ordinator explains: "We'd always received excellent service from our two ageing Yamaha PM3000s, but felt it was time to update and upgrade. Our first hands-on experience of the PM3500 came when LMC kindly loaned their sample to us which we used for Puccini's La Boheme at The Royal Albert Hall in February 1996, and that did it for us, we were sold!"

Yamaha-Kemble Music (Contact Details)

EV, big choir

The Mikam Sound are the first purchasers of Electro-Voice's new upgraded DeltaMax DMS speaker system in the British Isles. The Dublin-based company, who are already supplying their orignal DeltaMax rig for Riverdance, took delivery from UK distributor PAG Direct. Their new rig was on duty immediately for Eire's renowned Choir of a Thousand Voices, a two week extravaganza with a thousand children at The Point in Dublin.

Mick O'Gorman, Head of The Mikam Sound and an audio designer himself, explained what led him to order the system: "I was visiting Mark IV Pro Audio Group's facility in Buchanan, Michigan in May and heard the new DeltaMax DMS Series demonstrated. I was highly impressed by their excellent dispersion and output, coupled with particular smoothness in the critical vocal frequency range."

The rig consists of eight DeltaMax DMS 1152 speakers (a two-way 15-inch configuration) and four of the new DMC 1152x electronic controllers. Mikam have been using EV P1200 and P3000 amps to power the system.

PAG Direct. (Contact Details)

Simply the best?

Tina Turner's band was using the Telex professional UGH FMR-450G Series instrumental microphone on its worldwide Wildest Dream tour. The system included the WT-450G guitar transmitter and FMR-450G guitar receiver.

James Ralston and John Miles are the lead guitarists for the electrifying Tina Turner. For years, they had been using cables until they discovered the FMR-450G Series. Ralston and Miles concur that "the FMR-450G is not only cost-effective, but the most reliable wireless unit on the market. With the FMR-450G, you are getting quality equipment at a reasonable price. The unit's mid-range is incredible and the tones are very warm."

The guitarists started using the FMR-450G units in Sun City, South Africa in March during rehearsals for the tour and have been using them ever since. The tour's guitar tech, veteran Ross Ferguson, recommended that they use the Telex units. Ferguson recently toured with the Elton John band on its worldwide Made in America tour where bassist Bob Birch used the FMR-450B unit and guitarist John Jorgenson used the Telex 450G, as well as two 450L systems with mic instrument clips for his saxophone. "Bob and John were very happy with the Telex units, and for me, they were the only logical choice for this tour. The Telex FMR-450 is as true to a cable as you can get, plus the reliability of the unit is excellent."

Canadian Instrument. (Contact Details)

Cerwin Vega on a different plane

Pure Productions have used Cerwin Vega's Intense! Series, supplied by UK distributors Lamba Plc, to simulate the sound of jet engines in a British Airways roadshow promoted by Gatwick Airport. The 40 minute show is designed to promote Gatwick as a first class destination airport. The latest location was Helsinki, and in a re-creation of the original Earthquake sensation, pioneered by Cerwin Vega's legendary L-36, the new T-36, used in conjunction with the T250, formed a four stack system that the British Airport Authorities have found irresistible.

Explained Pure Productions Director Paul Kutchera: "They wanted a big sound, and as the video came up on screen so the sound system cut in to reinforce the roar of the jet engines. Gradually, the sound requirement has got bigger since we started doing these roadshows; we were running a 6k system in Helsinki." He added that while Pure have been taking this roadshow around the world for some time, they have only recently started using Cerwin Vega. "But the BAA liked it so much that they have now requested it for the remainder of the tour." he emphasised.

Lamba Plc. (Contact Details)

Soundcraft - unplug & play

The Soundcraft SM-24 console, introduced last Autumn, has received widespread acclaim for its performance at fixed installations and live events from Los Angeles to London. In fact, two of the consoles were recently used for stage monitoring during George Michael's MTV Unplugged concert, and another has been installed as part of an upgrade to the House of Blues, Los Angeles.

The George Michael MTV Unplugged session, which was also broadcast in early December, used two 40-channel Soundcraft SM24s linked to provide 72 channels of input, which subsequently fed 26 mix outs.

The Soundcraft SM24 console is designed to meet the high requirements of on-stage monitor sound. Aden Gregory, Monitor Engineer for the concert, affirmed the quality and versatility of the console. "The beauty of using the SM24s," he says, "was the ease of linking them, thanks to the 'intelligent-link' system. Also, the fact that there was no desk noise was particularly' important with the amount of in-ear monitoring we were running."

Soundcraft. (Contact Details)

Yamaha delivers messianic power

Over the last three months, we've all but used all the cheesy puns for our Jesus Christ Superstar stories, I'm hoping this will be our last one. This time Yamaha have a story to tell — the part they've played in making Sir Andrew a multi-trillionaire, thanks to their power amplification and digital EQ systems, installed by Theatre Projects. The impressive sound system, which has a total value of £750,000, was specified by Sound Designer Richard Ryan, whose other credits include Phantom of the Opera and By Jeeves.

Having stipulated the use of Yamaha H5000 power amps on many previous occasions, Ryan had no hesitation in utilising 60 of them this time around. "They're fast, quiet, and sonically transparent," he said, "and that's particularly important when you're looking to achieve a very natural sound to over 100 speaker systems strategically placed throughout the auditorium."

The sound system also makes extensive use of Yamaha processors, with 10 DEQ5 two-channel 30-band digital EQs and five YDP2006 Digital Parametric EQ units racked beneath the FOH console. A Macintosh Powerbook computer, using Yamaha's QS1 software, controls the YDP2006s through an IFU485 interface. Production Engineer, Mike Walker, is highly conversant with Yamaha system: "We used the QS1 programme on Oliver at The Palladium, and particularly liked the speed at which we could make changes to the system."

QS1 software is available in both MS-Windows and Macintosh versions and allows networks of up to 31 EQs — any combination of YDG2030s, YDP2006S, DEQ5/5E, and D2040 digital crossovers — to be configured and controlled from a single computer, via Yamaha's proprietary Y-485 serial control buss.

Yamaha-Kemble Music (UK) Ltd. (Contact Details)

Rockys packs punch for venues

Manchester pro audio dealer 'Rockys' have won the contract to supply Greenalls Plc brewery chain with complete HK Audio Sound Systems for their forthcoming 'Bandstand' live music venues. The specified systems include Linear Pro 24130 Drivers, HK2445T Target Mixing Consoles, plus VC2400 and VC 1200 HK Audio Power Amps, using Pro Control Modules and Dual Stereo Graphic EQs. The initial participating sites are in Blackpool, Manchester, and Liverpool. Rockys owner, Geoff Foster, will also provide sound engineers for the live gigs through his subsidiary PA company.

John Hornby Skewes & Co Ltd. (Contact Details)