Other Live

Thou shalt not kill. Unless thou referreth to stage volume. Mike Ward of Suncrest Christian Church uses amp modeling, direct boxes and smooth talk to keep both guitarists and parishioners happy.  

Have you ever wondered what Pikachu would look like if he were possessed by the dark lord Satan? Turns out, "a little like Hellraiser" is the answer. If you want to hear what he sounds like. . .  

What would a NAMM show be nowadays without a cornucopia of products that beg for the attention and the sweet embrace of your iPod. Dock it up with the new Numark iDeck and you'll be playing and recording audio and video to and fro!  

Will Markwardt talks more on The Absent Arch. How do you deal with a viola through a 4X10 live? Mr. Markward answers.  

When I first saw the headline "American DJ Flash Shot DMX," immediately logged on the RuffRidersFans.net to find out who this DJ Flash character was and why he'd have beef with my favorite, gruff-voiced MC. Fortunately, DMX is alive and well, and the American DJ Flash Shot DMX is an LED strobe effect that will leave me feeling no less disoriented than when I received the press release, I'm sure.  

Her first EP, Light is out and Calgary's Sora has some tips for other singers.  

I, for one, am no C-SPAN junkie; as far as I know, the senate could be voting on a line item that's calling for the requisitioning of my left lung under the auspices of "eminent domain," but if you're at all involved in the audio industry -- particularly if you work with wireless -- you'll want to be keeping up with all the DTV-shift-inspired UHF bandwidth reallocation malarkey.  

Without naming any names, Rob Fishman -- Technical Director at Old Town School Of Folk Music -- dishes on some of the best and worst-case scenarios he's had to contend with as the live engineer for the school's Gary And Laura Maurer Concert Hall.  

As technical director at Old Town School of Folk Music's Gary And Laura Maurer Concert Hall, Rob Fishman has mixed a bluegrass group of two-hundred. His preferred setup is single large diaphragm condenser, and musicians who know how to "work it."  

Lasers used to be pretty sweet, but somewhere along the way, someone ruined them and made them lame for everyone. Point in case, beamz Music Performance System, which ensures that all you need to play music is the ability to get in the way of a laser beam.  

Let's face it. In about five or ten years, Apple's handheld devices are going to be the only thing an individual needs to own to survive. Alesis is ready for that era with the Multiport, a standalone unit that records in stereo directly to iPod.  

The Alesis TransActive Mobile really makes transporting this portable, miniature PA system a breeze. In addition to its handle and wheels, a rechargeable battery allows for use anywhere, and an iPod dock seals the deal.  

When I get off of work, I usually go sit at home and listen to digital reverb by itself for a few hours before I go to sleep. SM Pro Audio's STAGE-BUDDY makes it possible for me to do this on headphones, too. I'm sure it can do a number of much less creepy things.  

A while back, at AES, we were custom fit for some in-ear monitors by Livewires. In this video, Bill shows us the finished product and talks about his impression of their impression of his ear.  

I'm not going to lie; it would be great if I had laser vision, but since I don't, I'm left struggling to see my pedal board in dark venues just like the rest of you. Mighty Bright's Pedal Board Light is a mighty bright idea to fend off the possibility of vision indecision in the dark.  

Brent Grey is Silverchair's front of house engineer and has traveled the world with the Aussie alt-rockers. He talks about the differences between their Australian arena tours compared to their U.S. tours and what challenges he faces.  

When the Crosstalk gang found out that J. Irving-Giles just picked up a Vocalist Live 4, they interrupted his open mic night practice session to tweak around with the parameters on the unit as he was prepping for the biggest show of his career.  

Experimental band Neptune's Mark Pearson goes deep into detail on his gear, mods, and technique. Not only do Electro-Harmonix and Studio Electronics figure into the mix, but Pearson also leans heavily on his own gearmaking skills to push Neptune's unique sound into the realm of the unknown.  

Though mainly behind the scenes at Decibel Festival, Cimmaron Corpe's work was heavily featured. He does the visuals for many bands, and Jason Donnelly takes a look at his setup where Cimarron is in control.

Cimarron...  

If you thought you had some horror stories from playing live, you should check this video out. Jesse Greist talks about performing live in Costa Rica where power outages are such a normal thing that he expects the power...  

Bob Lentini, as we noted in two previous articles on Las Vegas-based RML labs, has been working in audio since the early 1970s. He graduated from Drexel University and founded RML Labs in 1992 . One of the products he...  

When you take a look at the Roland FR-3 V-Accordion, the keyboard part of it may look familiar, but the rest is completely foreign to many musicians. That's why Rob Cruz walks us through a bit of what the accordion can...  

It's not too often that we get to see a fast fingered fiddler in action on Gearwire, so when we saw Jim Van Cleve of the Mashville Brigade playing his John Cooper fiddle, we had to talk to him about it. Jim introduces...  

Local virtual accordion player Rob Cruz shows us a little bit about what the Roland FR-3 V-Accordion does in comparison to a standard acoustic accordion. There are some key differences, but there are also a lot of ways...  

Being an accordion player isn't as easy as it looks, but having the Roland FR-3 V-Accordion makes it a whole lot easier. Chicago accordion player Rob Cruz talks about how a MIDI accordion solves volume issues that an acoustic...  

LEMUR's Eric Singer has more than just a penchant for making his musical bots. In fact, he has a separate category altogether for very innovative musical controllers he creates and calls "Trons." Here, we take our first...  

Violinist Mari Kimura used Cycling '74 Max/MSP to create a program which allowed her to play violin and have LEMUR's Guitar Bot analyze her parts in real time and play a duet with her. Little did Mari know that Guitar...  

In these days, musicians are heavily reliant on electricity to perform, but in the event of a power outage or some other such electrical disaster, the Lonesome Organist has a backup plan. Even without electricity, the...  

Eric Singer of LEMUR, League of Electric Musical Urban Robots, talks a bit about the motivation that helped spawn the Mod Bots. LEMUR doesn't try to make robots that play instruments like humans at all - logically, they...  

The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots is chock full of mind boggling things that go beyond your everyday band of robot instrumentalists. The Spintron actually uses cameras and mirrors to detect movement in order...