Originally a Universalist meeting house in 1832, the Stone Church in Newmarket, N.H., has played host to national and regional artists since the late ’60s. Major acts—such as Phish, Bonnie Raitt, Parliament-Funkadelic, Patty Larkin, Béla Fleck and Joan Osbourne—have all played the Stone Church stage.
After 35 years as a live sound venue, the Stone Church was closed in 2002 and then reopened in August of 2004 under new management. The three new co-owners chose to hire Dover, N.H.-based regional sound company L. Wynn Sound to come in and completely retrofit the venue’s aging P.A. system.
Tim Waterhouse, who co-owns L. Wynn Sound with John Woodman, made the decision to install a 24-channel Soundcraft LX7ii console to provide both the FOH and monitor mixes. Although Waterhouse had not previously used an LX7ii, he felt confident in the choice based on his satisfaction with other Soundcraft consoles. Says Waterhouse, “We’ve had a Spirit Live 42, Monitor2 and FX16 in our inventory for several years now and they’ve all performed well for us,” he says. “The Stone Church’s previous desk was a Live 42, so the engineers at the venue were familiar with the brand and equally happy with its reliability. Based on the Stone Church’s positive experience with their new LX7ii, we’ve added one to our inventory as well. It’s a great-sounding, high-quality board for the money.”
With the main performance and dining space complete, the club’s managing partners are now currently discussing transforming the building’s upstairs room into another live music room. “The space upstairs is even bigger than the main floor room and can probably accommodate up to 250 people,” Waterhouse notes. “When they decide to pursue the project, I’m thinking that Soundcraft’s new 8-bus GB8 would be perfect. I haven’t mixed on one yet, but, again, based on the Soundcraft name, we’ve recently purchased one to augment a concert series we’ve booked for the summer. We’re Soundcraft fans.”
For more information, please visit www.soundcraft.com.
