I had the EXTREME pleasure of seeing Alan Steinberger play with The Chris Walden Big Band at Typhoon in Santa Monica last night. What a fantastic way to end a day. Thank you Alan for your invitation.

If you get a chance to see Alan play with this band you MUST. (Though, as you can see by the photo, they have him in a low lighting area so "seeing" him might be the wrong word).

Not only is Alan an L1 advocate, the restaurant is too. Ruben, the audio engineer at Typhoon, was enthusiastic about the results they have had with the two systems they are currently using in this less than acoustically friendly room.

Here's a photo of the better lit horn section. The L1 is hiding behind the trombone on the far right.

Thanks for the pics Mark. I'd love to see Alan with the big band...Ken Bausano's band too. Maybe at an upcoming L1 Conference.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the pictures.

To all - yes yes, if you ever get a chance to hear Alan play - definitely do it.

Also Mark,

Who is that at the top row, far left in the second picture?

quote:

Originally posted by Drumr:
Thanks for the pics Mark. I'd love to see Nathan sing with Alan with and the big band...Ken Bausano's band too. Maybe at an upcoming L1 Conference.

Pete, I took the liberty to correct a couple things in your post.

quote:

Originally posted by ST:
Who is that at the top row, far left in the second picture?

Unfortunately I did not get to meet the band members in the time I had, so I don't know. Who do you think it is?

Quite a night indeed. I'm so happy Mark and his wife were able to come.

Our audience included keyboardists Keith Emerson and Brian Auger, arranger Jeremy Lubbock, singer Christopher Cross, and several other of Hollywood's top studio professionals. Quite an elite turnout.

The trumpet player standing closest to bassist Kenny Wild is Jon Papenbrook. (He does look a bit like Ken Bausano in this shot, if that's what ST was driving at.)

I'm impressed with how skillfully Mark works the room. I got in barely ten words with him all night, but I saw several patrons clutching Bose business cards, and as we were packing up Ruben told me that Mark had given him a couple of L1 tips that he was anxious to try.

A successful gig on many levels!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Alan Steinberger,

quote:

I'm impressed with how skillfully Mark works the room.

Thanks Alan. It really isn't me - its the BOSE name that grants me access. I am simply fortunate enough to follow the great success that the engineers at Bose have created. Otherwise I'm just a musician stalker lurking where they congregate.

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Steinberger:
...
The trumpet player standing closest to bassist Kenny Wild is Jon Papenbrook. (He does look a bit like Ken Bausano in this shot, if that's what ST was driving at.)

...

It's snowing here today - and I'm driving as little as possible.

Yes - I was thinking of Ken Bausano. Thanks for exonerating the doubt in my fleeting memory.

Um, THE Keith Emerson and THE Christopher Cross?

Gulp.

So, ahem, how did it sound?

Ken

quote:

Originally posted by Ken-at-Bose:
Um, THE Keith Emerson and THE Christopher Cross?

Gulp.

So, ahem, how did it sound?

Ken

I had a walk around the venue and it sounded quite good almost everywhere. The far left back corner seemed to overemphasize the mid-bass and got a little muddy. The rest of the venue (where 98% of the patrons sat) was good. A big band can get LOUD and they did. The L1s provided support, allowing the tables at the rear of the room hear clearly and with presence, without taking the focus off the band.

The biggest beneficiaries of the L1s were Alan, on electronic keys, the soloists, when they leaned into the mics (SM57), and the bassist (who sounded and played GREAT).

I asked Ruben and he said that each L1s was receiving a discreet signal (L or R) according to mic placement on stage. He said he was thinking of getting two more L1s to increase the seperation, but I'm not sure where he'll have room to place them effectively without offsetting or splitting the band into more sections.

...Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Ken-at-Bose:
Um, THE Keith Emerson and THE Christopher Cross?

Them's the ones.

Keith sat in with another big band with whom I play for our Halloween show at Typhoon. Photo and his description here:

http://www.keithemerson.com/EmCounters/EmCounters-20071107.html

Thank you all for the nice comments about our gig. It was a lot of fun. As Mark pointed out, the room has its challenges, the acoustic circumstances are far from being ideal for big band concerts. The L1s worked great, even being used in this somewhat unorthodox way with a "FOH" console.

Hey Chris,

Thanks for posting and welcome to this community.

Can you tell us a little more about your big band and maybe about your other music projects?

What's the usual way you deploy the L1s with the big band?

Ken

Glad you joined us here, Chris. Welcome aboard!

Hey Chris,

Welcome to the forum and the L1 family.

Hi Ken, sure I can tell you a little bit more about my activities and the band and our use of the L1s.

I'm an arranger and composer, I score films and write big band arrangements for the likes of Michael Bolton, Paul Anka, Diana Krall, David Foster, etc. (Sorry for name-dropping...!)

But I also lead my own big band, we play at jazz venues in and around Los Angeles. Since it's not practical to mic the whole band for a small venue we only mic the singer, piano and the soloist (sax, trumpet, or trombone.) The rest of the band plays acoustically. The L1s are perfect for that kind of set-up since they blend nicely with the rest of the band that plays unamplified. That way we don't need monitors. In our current set-up we use 2 L1s. One for the piano and the singer and one for soloists. So far we had nothing but positive comments from the audience.

Chris, Ken B, Alan, All,

A few months ago I had my first experience using L1 systems with a big band, the Heritage Pops Orchestra from Western MA.

They were playing in our Corporate Center auditorium, a picture of which is shown here.

The band was pretty packed onto the stage. Here's how I set them up.

The lead vocalist is all the way to the right. The accordion player also sings, mostly harmony but a few tunes lead.

The vocals sounded great in the audience. In hindsight I don't think the mics for the soloists really worked. The soloists couldn't really get to the mics effectively and they were used to supporting the solists by using dynamics.

After the show, some of the brass guys said that they had a little trouble hearing the vocalist compared to their wedge monitor system that they own.

I was wondering how others have been supporting big bands. Would any of you be willing to describe that, perhaps using Sketcher?

I feel I have something to learn here.

With best regards,

Ken