Bringing Columns To Light
This month in Real World Gear we look at loudspeaker columns. Since moving to Jacksonville, FL, I’ve been adopted by
their symphony orchestra, which does a handful of “run-outs”
each season. Last weekend we played a fundraiser on the lawn
of a country club in a 130-foot long tent. Guerilla production
often requires efficiency and minimalism. We used a modified
Decca tree with outriggers and spot microphones, an LS- 9 and four Bose Panaray 402
loudspeakers – two mains and two delays at
40 feet – to cover two dozen round tables.
We were pleasantly surprised at how well it
worked for our septuagenarian patrons.
No audio product enjoyed as much
notoriety as Shure’s ubiquitous Vocal Master. The VA300’s 66-inch length stacked
nicely in a Chevy Caprice station wagon
(or other land barge of the day) with the
back seats down, leaving room for a drum kit and a combo amp.
Sound guys in the ’70s with spare time and a screwdriver discovered four eights flanked by a 10-inch woofer at each end, all
wired in parallel for a nominal 16-ohm load rated for 100 watts
that its powered mixer barely produced. They offered 140-degree
horizontal dispersion that narrowed at higher frequencies. The
10-inch spacing of the six loudspeakers we now understand to
provide coupling up to about 650 Hz, so the abundance of low-mids that characterize the Vocal Master sound is no surprise.
Though frequency response was quoted as 50 to 10,000 Hz,
vocal mics with a “presence peak” were desirable and the most
exercised control on the mixer was its 10,000 Hz shelving treble
control. Shure’s VA305 dual tweeter pack accessory included a
5,000 Hz crossover and mounted on top of a VA300 column to
provide the last octave of HF response. Does anyone remember
the frequencies of the four yellow or orange “Anti-Feedback”
notch filters on the left? See the answer below... Be sure to check
out Vocal Master’s Facebook page.
Mark Frink
Associate Editor
mfrink@livesoundint.com
INS TALLA TION | CONCER T | THEA TER | CORPORA TE AV | WORSHIP | CLUB | RECORDING
THE JOURNAL FOR LIVE EVENT TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS
June2009|
www.prosoundweb.com|$10 INTERNATIONAL
RETROFIT INSTALL AT
TURNER
FIELD
ON THE COVER: Turner Field recently
installed 430 Danley loudspeakers that
were custom built for the stadium.
zH 551 dna 000, 1 ,002, 2 ,000, 5 :rewsnA
INTERNATIONAL
VOLUME 18 | NUMBER 6
Publisher Kevin McPherson kmcpherson@ehpub.com
Managing Editor Jeff MacKay jmackay@livesoundint.com
Associate Editor Mark Frink mfrink@livesoundint.com
Senior Technical Editor John Murray john@prosonicsolutions.com
Associate Technical Editor Pat Brown pbrown@synaudcon.com
Amplifier Editor Jeff Kuells proamps@usamedia.tv
History Editor Neil Shaw neil.s@menlozone.com
European Editor Andy Wood awood@livesoundint.com
German Editor Bernd Noack mail@bnoack.de
Korean Editor Hojoon Chang me@hojoonchang.com
Creative Director Alyssa M. Bradbury-Hills abradbury@ehpub.com
Art Director Katie Stockham kstockham@ehpub.com
Associate Art Director Dorian Gittlitz dgittlitz@ehpub.com
ProSound Web Editor Keith Clark kclark@prosoundweb.com
Webmaster Ernest Black ernie@livesoundint.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Divine, Doug Fowler, Charlie Hughes,
Mark Johnson, Bennett Prescott, Kevin Young
Live Sound International
111 Speen Street, Suite 200
Framingham, MA 01701
Phone: 415-742-0316
www.livesoundint.com
Jeff Turner Account Executive
415-455-8301 | Fax: 415-457-8309
jturner@livesoundint.com
Kathleen MacKay Account Executive
516-409-4693 kmackay@livesoundint.com
|
Mark Shemet Senior Online Sales Manager, ProSound Web.com
603-532-4608 | Fax: 603-532-5855
mshemet@prosoundweb.com
Manuela Rosengard Ad Production Director
508-663-1500 x226 | mrosengard@ehpub.com
Jeff Miller Ad Production Manager
508-663-1500 x253 jmiller@ehpub.com
|
Circulation and Customer Service inquiries should be made to:
Live Sound Customer Service
Ashley Moyes | EH Publishing
Phone: 866-891-7238
(Outside the U.S.: 508-663-1500 x294)
Fax: 508-663-1599
customerservice@livesoundint.com
111 Speen Street, Suite 200
Framingham, MA 01701
EDITORIAL AND READER SERVICE RELATED EMAIL ADDRESSES
Circulation & Subscriptions
circulation@livesoundint.com
Loading Dock Submissions
jmackay@livesoundint.com
World Wide Web Inquiries to
webmaster@livesoundint.com
Advertising Rate Information
adinfo@livesoundint.com
For article reprints, call Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295
