Chris Gibbons of SiriusXM (left) and CharterOak president Michael Deming in the SiriusXM studios.
CharterOak Acoustic Devices in Enfield, Connecticut, reports that the company recently delivered two SCL-1 Discrete Compressors to Sirius XM Radio in New York City to be used for the live music broadcast mix at Howard Stern’s 60th Birthday Bash. The event was held in the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center in New York City.
When Chris Gibbons, Senior Manager, Studio Operations for Sirius XM learned of the upcoming live broadcast, he knew he needed CharterOak’s SCL-1. Sirius XM has been a longtime end-user of the CharterOak SA538 microphone, capturing live vocals on a diverse list of artists, including John Legend, Elvis Costello and Emeli Sande. At the October 2013 AES Convention in New York, Gibbons discovered CharterOak’s SCL-1 at a demo on a noisy show floor.
For Stern’s birthday celebration broadcast, Gibbons would be sending two separate music mix feeds from the Manhattan Center’s Studio 7 down to the broadcast mix position in a green room off the stage: one for a “house band” using the studio’s Neve VR console, and another for the featured band performances using an Avid Profile desk. It was necessary to provide discrete feeds so that the person doing the final broadcast mix had control and could easily crossfade between them if necessary.
CharterOak president Michael Deming was the key person behind the development of the SCL-1 compressor, and personally delivered the SCL-1 units to the New York City sstudios and worked directly with Gibbons to set up the units two days before the show.
The show on January 31 included approximately 20 A-List artists who performed for Stern along with celebrities and some lucky fans. Artists included Adam Levine, Steven Tyler and Slash, Jon Mayer, Jewel, Rob Zombie, Jon Bon Jovi, Pat Monahan, and Dave Grohl, to name a few.
“All performances as well as the broadcast were mixed live from Manhattan Center’s Studio 7, which houses an array of leading brand outboard gear and a 96-channel Neve VR console,” Gibbons says. “Mixing a number of [differently styled] performances makes live sound for broadcast challenging. The CharterOak SCL-1s worked perfectly and the sound was spectacular.”
Gibbons adds that the SCL-1’s ability to control levels in a stealthy way, without compression artifacts, made the device a perfect choice for such a diverse list of artists. “The SCL1s were an invaluable asset in bringing to life, and balancing such a wide range of big-time performances for the biggest of all birthday bashes. Their transparency, depth and ease of use made them a true joy to work with and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again as my ‘go-to’ secret weapon!”
Find more information about the CharterOak SCL-1 Discrete Compressor Limiter.
