Afternoons with Smart People

(Originally posted October 7, 2014)

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook then you may have seen that I went to two very cool events in the last few weeks.

On September 21st I spent that day in Tampa for the Tom Petty sound check event with Robert Scovill sponsored by Avid and EAW. Robert Scovill is one of the best live sound engineers in the business with almost 30 years experience and credits that include Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Matchbox Twenty, Prince, Rush and Def Leppard. It was very cool to see how Robert does his virtual sound check and system tuning. He also shared some of his mixing techniques and how he takes full advantage of the D-Show's Events List to automate certain tasks to mix more efficiently - invaluable information. Definitely has given me some tips and motivation to do better in my shows. We also got to see the S3L they have out on tour as well.

EAW's Anya system was the PA of choice which I did drool over a little bit. The Anya system sounds great! It utilizes the concept of Adaptive Performance by EAW. Basically the Anya system is pretty much a robot... at least that's how I think of it. Each Anya module has 22 independent transducers and an on-board power and processing unit with 22 channels of DSP and amplification for each transducer. The array hangs straight in a vertical line without any splay and with the software the modules adapt to the current venue by adjusting frequency response and coverage patterns. It's a robot. Here is what the inside of one looks like:

See, its a robot :)

Here are the rest of the pictures in Tampa.

I was also lucky enough to go to another cool event on October 2nd, this one with one of the top recording engineers in the business, Dave Way. Dave has been in the business for over 20 years and his credits include Pink, Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, Foo Fighters, Michael Jackson, Jane's Addiction and Prince. This event was sponsored by SSL and was hosted by Noisematch Studios in Miami. Dave shared some mix techniques and studio stories. He was very personable and took a lot of questions from the crowd. We got a look at the console he personally has in his studio, the SSL Matrix. The Matrix has analog inputs and it can also control your DAW. In the main control room at Noisematch they have a Duality which we were able to take a tour after our talk with Dave Way. Very cool event.

Here are some pictures:

Here are some links:

EAW Anya: eaw.com/portfolio_page/anya

Article about Anya via Pro Acoustics: www.proacousticsusa.com/blog/...

Avid D-Show: www.avid.com/US/products/d-show-system

Dave Way website: www.daveway.com

Noisematch Studios: noisematchstudios.com

More about SSL Matrix: www.solid-state-logic.com/music/matrix

More about SSL Duality: www.solid-state-logic.com/music/duality

Cheers!