By Clive Young. It helps any live sound engineer to have a resume with big name acts on it, but it helps even more if those artists come from different genres, since that indicates one very important trait: flexibility. Monitor engineer Ryan Cecil has one of those varied CVs, with his background including stints with everyone from Norah Jones to Maroon 5 to The Chieftains to his current big gig, the bombastic dance pop of Black Eyed Peas. Given that wide range, I asked him about what mics he tends to turn to, regardless of the act on stage.

By Frank Wells. In over two hours of drive time from Narita Airport to our initial destination, the bus never seemingly left city environs. The names of suburbs changed as we progressed, and the cityscape cycled between a variety of urban visages, but the greater Tokyo area stretched on. Where rural landscape appeared on the train ride return to the airport, it looked similar to the landscape of my native Tennessee, though the greenery covering rolling hills featured unfamiliar crops, an unfamiliar combination of tree types and towering stands of bamboo (Tennessee does share an abundance of kudzu vines in places, imported as erosion-controlling ground cover, though foolishly so as the kudzu is difficult to tame and can swallow whole trees).

By Clive Young. In the July issue of Pro Sound News, Craig Anderton wrote about smartphones, suggesting that they could eventually pave the way for a pro audio tablet computer. One of the inspirations that led to his theory was that he’d seen IK Multimedia demo its new AmpliTube iRig hardware and software, which turns an Apple iPhone or iPad into a guitar amp and stompbox simulator. As it happens, an iRig interface landed on my desk at PSN the other day, so let’s take it for a spin on an iPhone.

By Clive Young. The Zac Brown Band is on the concert trail, stumping for its sophomore album, You Get What You Give. While the shed tour is a victory lap of sorts for the Best New Artist Grammy winners for 2010, it also features a major debut, as it's the first US tour to use Martin Audio’s new Multicellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) system. Pro Sound News checked it out a mere five dates into the journey at the Comcast Theatre in Hartford, CT, and here’s some of what we saw.

By Clive Young. Dave Rat wears many hats—gear designer, consummate pro audio blogger, co-founder of Rat Sound—and he’s been known to mix a gig or two, such as Soundgarden’s by-all-reports-dynamite Lollapalooza reunion show, not to mention every Red Hot Chili Peppers tour in recent memory. Given his experience at getting pristine mixes out of acts that would be a muddy mess for others, I asked Dave what mics he tends to turn to in order to capture a band properly.

By Craig Anderton. There’s a lot of excitement about SuperSpeed USB 3.0, a full-duplex data transfer protocol. Regarding speed, we’re talking theoretical transfer rates of 10 times that of USB 2.0—4.8 Gigabits per second instead of 480 Megabits per second. (Of course, it takes a while for real-world specs to catch up with theoretical specs, but it’s happening.) And while on the surface that seems like “just another big improvement,” it’s going to be a game-changer for pro audio.

By Mel Lambert. Continuing a theme started with March’s on-line webinar, Part 2 of BluFocus’ presentation took the form of a series of detailed presentations that addressed a number of critical issues facing producers of 3D Blu-ray media. Organized by BluFocus and hosted at DTS' corporate HQ in Calabasas, CA, the invitation-only event attracted an audience of over 100 professionals drawn from the West Coast production community. With Blu-ray being touted as the most successful consumer media of all time – in terms of market penetration and number of available titles since is introduction – there is considerable interest in the potential offered by 3D Blu-ray within the pro-audio industry.

by Clive Young. As technology has improved and the music business has declined, many bands, including Kiss, have taken to offering well-recorded, instant “official bootlegs” that fans can purchase from the merch booth on the way out of the venue. The band sold instant USB stick bootlegs of its 2010 European tour and here’s two short documentaries that explore the audio gear used and signal path, not to mention the fringe benefits of being on the Kiss crew.

By Clive Young. Every month, we gather up all the “tweets” that we posted the previous month on our ever-flowing Twitter stream. Not only do they make for interesting reading, but you can tell a lot about what we’ve been up to—just take this collection of posts from July. First and foremost—we moved; secondly—man, did we cover a lot of shows. While troubled concert ticket sales have been a concern, we’ve also passed along some interesting profiles and cool deals, plus our managing editor, Fred Goodman, released his first rock video. So get a gander at these tweets (presented without our web headlines, which are also tweeted daily) and remember to follow us on Twitter at @prosoundnews.

By Clive Young. Robert Scovill’s a busy guy. Currently on the road mixing FOH once again for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, he’s best known as a six-time TEC Award winner with more than 3,000 live event mixing credits under his belt, including work with Matchbox Twenty, Prince, Rush, Def Leppard and Alice Cooper. When not behind the mixing desk, he serves as Senior Market Specialist for live sound for Avid, so like I said: busy guy. While he’s known for his pristine mixes, it’s no secret that every good mix starts with good mics, so I asked him what are some of his favorite ‘Go-To’ microphones.

By Clive Young. The Dave Matthews Band knows how to put on a show, and it’s always clear when they're locked into the moment on stage—just take bassist Stefan Lessard. He’ll stand back playing loose-limbed, deep in a groove, but at more aggressive moments, he might have one foot forward on that small, black ramp thing. At other times, he might stand on it like he’s riding a skateboard and…. Hey, wait a minute. What the heck is that thing anyway? Turns out it’s something you’ve never heard of before: the Fonz Foot Wedge.

By Frank Wells. When was the last time you bought an audio or video release on physical media? Or, perhaps a better question, when was the last time your kids or other young folks you know made such a purchase? Many of us were weaned on physical media, in my case from vinyl to tape to various round shiny discs, and we retain a nostalgic preference for owning something we can hold in our hand. The artwork and information on record jackets (and, though less satisfying, CD inserts) was a significant part of the experience. Those of us in the industry are still prone to want to see producer/engineer/studio credits, but that portion of the experience seems lost on the emerging consumer. Yet, despite our preferences, I’ve noticed that in a purely unscientific survey, even seasoned audio professionals are opting into the trends towards virtual media purchases.

By Clive Young. Crowded House closed out a sold-out, three-night stint at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on July 22 with a great show, capped off by the appearance of David Byrne, who sat in for raucous run-throughs of Talking Heads classics “Once In A Lifetime” and “Road To Nowhere.”

By Clive Young. A few weeks ago, Pro Sound News moved to new offices (28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016), as part of NewBay Media moving all its NYC-based concerns under one roof. Here’s a photo tour around our new neighborhood.

By Clive Young. There had never been anything quite like it—sure, there’d been George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh and the No Nukes shows of 1979, but this was something else entirely. It was the biggest charity concert of all-time, Live Aid, held July 13, 1985.

by Clive Young. Every month here at Pro Sound News, we summarize our previous month's Twitter posts so you can see what else we've been posting there besides our daily news stories. In June, there was everything from InfoComm 2010 coverage to photos of Eminem and Jay-Z rehearsing on a rooftop across the street from our office. In between, we linked to vuvuzela filters, mentioned bargains for software and audio organization memberships, and more. If you want to keep up with all this goodness in real-time, follow @prosoundnews on Twitter--you'll get our daily pro audio headlines and much more. In the meantime, here's everything we posted in June, minus the headlines:

By Mel Lambert. The benefit of using complementary control solutions was readily evident during production of Robert Rodriguez’ production, Predators. While compact control surfaces dramatically enhanced the creative options for its talented sound designers, assignable, large-format digital consoles enabled mixes started in one facility to be completed at another, with full compatibility between all mix-session data.

by Ilpo Martikainen and Will Eggleston. Ilpo Martikainen, CEO/co-founder at Genelec OY and Will Eggleston, Genelec US’s Marketing Director, discuss the creation of, and theory behind, the 8260A.

By Strother Bullins and Clive Young. Taking over from the unlamented Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ is a new edifice: New Meadowlands Stadium. Built next door within the Meadowlands Sports Complex, and completed in spring 2010, the 82,566-seat facility cost approximately $1.6 billion, making it the most expensive stadium ever constructed. Set to house both the New York Giants and Jets NFL football teams—not to mention the 2014 Super Bowl—the facility opened with a string of sold-out concerts by New Jersey’s own hard rock stalwarts, Bon Jovi. Because the band was the first act to play there, Pro Sound News talked with the band's longtime FOH man, Dave Eisenhauer, to find out what the venue’s like on the sound side.

Fred Goodman, managing editor for Pro Sound News and Pro Audio Review, recently released his latest album, The Last Days of Rock ’n’ Roll, with his band Fred and the Fredettes. Here's the video to his title track!