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Live audio equipment reviews, the latest information on what's hot and what's not in the world of pro audio. |
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Professional Audio Equipment Reviews |
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Select you review:- DBX Driverack PA & RTA Mic HK Actor Active Loudspeaker System Sennheiser e906 Guitar Cab Mic |
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Sennheiser e906 What sennheiser say: The
supercardioid e 906 instrument microphone was especially designed for
guitar amplifiers, but it is also an excellent choice for percussion and
brass instruments. What we say: We bought some of these at a pro audio show in London last year after previously hearing them in action with various metal bands on tour in the UK. We had previously been using SM57's for most guitar mic'ing requirements, pretty much industry standard with a well known and predictable sound. Price wise they are typically around twice the cost of an SM57 unless you pick them up at a show I got ours for £100 each. When I got my hands on the e906's I did notice quite a difference especially with the amount of presence boost you get with one of these, which on occasion can be very cutting depending on the style of guitar playing. Fortunately there is a small EQ switch on the side of the mic with three settings (boost, flat or cut) adjusting the amount of boost or cut around 4kHz. In practice even with the switch set to flat it seems to have more presence than a 57, which can be very useful especially if the guitar sound you are mic'ing up is a little muddy. Also sometimes if a guitarist is used to practising in a room with soft furnishings and then takes his amp to a live stage there can be excessive presence with his sound, not wanting to tell a guitarist how he should have his amp set up (reactions vary from "F**k off" to "do what you want so long as it sounds good") its easier just to put the switch in the desired position. In reality the EQ switch seems to sound more like 'lots of boost' 'a little boost' and 'flat' but if you are used to the sound of a 57 and you set the switch set to reduce the presence then you will notice a softer sound more suited to blues guitarists. One of the other advantages when compared to normal shaped mic's is as this has a flat body it is a lot less susceptible to being knocked out of position on stage. It fits snugly up to the guitar amp and has no protruding parts or cable sticking out for some one to trip over. For me personally I do like to use them with metal bands to give the guitars a real shredding sound, they are also useful for blues sounds as well, but for run of the mill rock bands I still like a 57 (you tend to get the occasional "that's not a 57" from some old school rock guitarists). As for other mic'ing applications I have used one to mic up an acoustic violin, with its supercardioid pick-up pattern it allows quite a lot of gain before feedback. Overall it gets an 8 out of 10 from me, its an excellent mic for guitars but it gets funny looks from some old school rock guitarists who prefer the SM57's. Click here for hire costs. Reviewed by Jon Knapp 23/01/2007 |
e906 Mic
e906 EQ switch |
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What first interested me about these systems was there easy of use and speed to set-up. So I arranged to demo a system and was so impressed that I brought one there and then! Since then I’ve used the system at over 300 events from 30 people at a small acoustic gigs to, on one occasion, 1500 people with a rock band at a church service in France! However, in general I find that this system is best suited for events with audience up to 200 for high volume events such as rock gigs. There are six cabinets that make up this system, two top cabs and four bass cabs. Each cab has its own onboard 400watt power amp making up a total system power of 2.4kW. However, it is not always necessary to use the whole rig and what really makes this system flexible is the fact that each cab will work alone without having to be connected to any of the other cabs. A full range / satellite switch on the top cabs allows them to cover the whole audible frequency spectrum without the need for separate bass cabs, this is useful for smaller events. In particular I have found a pair of top cabs in full range mode to be very effective for speech use at conferences. In addition the Actor system can also be doubled up with another Actor to make a 4.8kW system Despite its easy of use the Actor system is not without a useful range of facilities. Each cabinet features: A ground lift switch, A gain control, A paralleled output, A circuit breaker and a power cord cleat. Physically I have found that the cabs are a manageable box to handle and are even light weight enough to carry up stairs on your own. They load neatly into the back of a van and are not too difficult to stack up by yourself. The cabs seem to be fairly hard wearing and the use of HK’s soft cases prevents the paintwork from getting chipped in transit. One thing that makes the top cabs awkward is that they only have one carry candle which makes them difficult to lift. Another shortcoming, I feel, is the choice to use IEC rather that Powercon mains connectors. IEC connectors can be easily pulled out by mistake during a performance causing embarrassing loss of FOH, however, I confess that this has only ever happened to me once. Overall I have found that in four years of regular use the Actor system has never let me down and always does a fantastic job. The sound it produces is flat and smooth with plenty of warmth as well as sufficient low end punch, even mids and crisp highs. I am always particularly impressed by how easy it is to get the vocals to cut though on a mix with this system. In conclusion I think this is a great system for small to medium events and although they are not cheap the Actor is great value for money. This system will continue to be in regular use by Pro Live Audio.
Click here for hire costs.
Overall rating 9/10.
Reviewed by Simon Needle. 4/01/07 |
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We bought one of these a while ago to replace our old FOH EQ's, cross-overs & RTA, initially I was a bit sceptical of having all that crammed into one box, but as I got playing with it I discovered my fears to be unfounded. I did the usual thing most men do, took it out of the box plugged it in and started pressing buttons as instruction manuals are only for when things go wrong right? Err, well maybe not, so after reading the manual I soon started making programs for our different PA system configurations, to my surprise I found it very easy to use. Being a fan of all things analogue I'm not always keen on digital equipment with different menus and layers but I did find this very intuitive and easy to use. There are separate buttons for all of the different functions, EQ, Sub harmonic, Cross over, Feedback, Comp/Limiter & Delay etc. which make navigation easy. Once I had finished making a few different programs it was off on the road. |
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In practice I found this unit to be quite a valuable tool and it especially when EQing a room, the EQ wizard takes you through the steps with on screen instructions and normally within minutes the job is done. We have not used the sub harmonic synthesizer, its something that I personally don't think we will require as 99% of our work involves working with live acts, we are already using horn loaded 21" subs that are capable of very high output at low frequencies. I think it would be used more with DJ's or if you were struggling with your low end output but I'm not sure how much headroom this function could potentially use up. Likewise for the feedback eliminators, FOH feedback is not something we suffer with but it is a nice addition to the unit, it would however be very useful if you were using one of these units for active monitors. I can't say how the feedback eliminators perform as yet we have had no cause to use them. As for the other functions, the cross over is easy to set up with plenty of flexibility for different slopes/frequencies. The delay settings were easily altered with different options for distance and time. Sound wise I did not really notice a massive improvement from what we previously had, but I will say setting up time has been reduced. One of the other functions of this unit is the ability to select from different amplifier models and different loudspeaker enclosures when creating different programs, this is a great function if you own Crown Amplifiers and JBL loudspeakers but unfortunately these are not the worlds only manufacturers, it would be nice to be able to add different amplifiers and different loudspeakers as I am sure that not everyone will have a PA system comprised of components only from the Harman group of companies. Apart from that this unit gets the thumbs up from us, you will see them in use with all of our systems 6kW and above, we have also placed an order to upgrade our 4kW systems as well. Overall rating 9/10. Review by Jon Knapp. 08/06/06 |
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