S&S Music Provides Sound Reinforcement at Henderson State University
S&S Music in Arkadelphia, Ark. recently provided “plug-and-plug” sound reinforcement for three music events at Henderson State University using its Dynacord Cobra rig for delivering wide, controlled coverage and full bandwidth clarity in a small footprint.
“We just did three big shows at Henderson,” said Stephen Gent of S&S Music. “The first show was simple—comedians. The second show was indie rockers Lucero. This show was set up outside and held in the evening. The Cobra-4 system shined as always; the sound was loud and clear with plenty of low-end punch—the band sounded great. The next show was NuFusion, a jazz band from the school. We used our Midas Verona [analog mixing console], KT [Klark Teknik] comps, EV [Electro-Voice] ZX monitors and EV mics along with the Cobra. That all adds up to a powerful, great sounding, reliable rig that fits in the back of a small truck.
“This concert was originally set for outside,” Gent continues. “The weather was the deciding factor to move the event inside. It was held inside a gymnasium that was built over 50 years ago. It would normally be very hard to get an overall balanced mix in there without being entirely too loud. That’s one of the key advantages with the Cobra-4: it allows me to get a nice comfortable SPL level at the mix position without blowing the heads off of the folks in the front row. This was especially true in this situation. And then you have the Midas factor. The Verona is such an easy board to use. Simple things like the size of the knobs and the way the feel when you turn them make a big difference, not to mention the sound quality.
“The same goes for our EV mics and wireless. We used an ND868 kick drum mic, four ND468 mics on the toms, and a nice old RE200 on the hi-hat. The aux percussion player wore an RE-2 wireless beltpack with an RE92Tx mic attached to his shirt. This picked up whatever instrument he happened to be playing and sounded good for all of them. One of the four vocalists used an RE-2 with an RE410 handheld; the other three vocalists used EV Co11 mics. The director spoke through an RE-2 with an ND767 head.
“We’ve been getting more and more calls to do larger shows,” Gent concludes. “Coming from a small town in Arkansas, people seem to expect that we’ll be bringing ‘box store’ or Internet-ordered gear to the venue. When we tell them we have a Midas console, all that doubt disappears. Now the Cobra-4 is getting the same kind of response—as soon as people hear it, they don’t forget the name!”
For more information, visit www.s-and-smusic.com, www.dynacord.com, www.electrovoice.com, www.klarkteknik.com and www.midasconsoles.com. Visit Henderson State University at www.hsu.edu.
