Why did the KF cross the road?

[Terry Fryar]

To get to a UX8800.....

Had a weekend show for country legend John Conlee for a crowd of 2.5 - 3K in a city park. Mostly sit down crowd that's over 50 years of age. However, all I brought for mains were 2 KF650's over 4 SB1000's per side (with some assorted front and side fills of course). Had plenty of sub room (hey...it's 70's country now!). Tops were close to limit, but I'm telling you....the KF series with that 8800 dsp is just amazing! Vocals were still intelligable to a gazebo about 250 to 300 feet away and things were pretty even tonally (for point source, that is!) as you moved around. I didn't have to do a lot on the mains eq at all.

This rig is actually our sidefill rig for the big rock system, but we like to use it for small town festivals. If you haven't used an old KF series cabinet with a UX8800 and a greybox, you at least need to try it once! I think some used 650's and an 8800 is hard to beat for a small durable rig that actually sounds pretty darn good! We had a SC48 at FOH and they were all on ears, so the stage volume was well controlled also. Their BE remarked on how good it sounded....can't beat that I guess!

/soapbox on/
On a side note...having done sound for many stars of yesterday...I really miss seeing "entertainers" in the young newcomers. These young-uns have *no* idea how it's really done! Yeh, they are "musicians", but you gotta take it up a notch to be an *entertainer*! Go see some of these older acts and see how you really work a crowd!!
/soapbox off/

 

[Jamin Lynch]

Re: Why did the KF cross the road?

John Conlee did a show down here a couple of months ago. Tim Weaver ran FOH. About 1000 people using an SRX rig. They brought their own pre rigged MixWiz rack with IEM's which made it simple. They were a bunch of real pros. Some of the older musicians are really easy to work with.

Are front fills "manatory" when using 2 KF's per side? How good is the coverage down front and center without front fills?

 

[Jeff Babcock]

Re: Why did the KF cross the road?

To get to a UX8800.....

I think some used 650's and an 8800 is hard to beat for a small durable rig that actually sounds pretty darn good!

I've been telling folks this for some time now. I sold off my 650/UX8800 rig to another member here, but do often miss it, in fact I rented it back last weekend. Very hard to beat as a HQ yet relatively inexpensive trap rig when looking at systems of that size.

 

[Bennett Prescott]

Re: Why did the KF cross the road?

Not only does it make the 650 and 850 sound fantastic, it makes them play very well with the bigger KF arrays (which are also tops for sound quality) both tonally and time wise. Saves me a heck of a lot of time integrating systems.

 

[Terry Fryar]

Re: Why did the KF cross the road?

John Conlee did a show down here a couple of months ago. Tim Weaver ran FOH. About 1000 people using an SRX rig. They brought their own pre rigged MixWiz rack with IEM's which made it simple. They were a bunch of real pros. Some of the older musicians are really easy to work with.

Are front fills "manatory" when using 2 KF's per side? How good is the coverage down front and center without front fills?

Not every time...but this show had people almost 180 degrees around the front of the stage running to about 15 feet behind the FOH stacks. Each 650 is only 60 degrees anyways. The front row was like 2 feet from the stage and since they were all on IEM, there were some small fills in the front center....and some waaay to the sides (even behind the 650 stack) to pick up the massive side crowd. We could have put 3 650's up I guess....but it wouldn't have covered the crowd "behind" the FOH stacks. All the fills were off matrix mixes, and it actually all sounded quite nice! You have to be very careful with horn loaded cabs and folks sitting close in lawn chairs for this type of show. You want even coverage at a moderate to low volume if possible.

I do agree about the older musicians being easier...man...we've had some fun with some of these guys! We did Joe Diffie once, and his boy is in his band. During soundcheck he sang this funny 4 minute song that sounded like one he's done a million times....it was hilarious! I asked the drummer about it and he said "no...he just made that up"....amazing! They also had an old H3K for monitors that was missing several channel strips. They had actually stored something inside the console (maybe tools/CD's??) where the missing strips were. I was like "why don't you fix those?". Their mon guy was like..."we're not gonna use em....plus it's a handy place to store so and so...". Man...good times!!

The professionalism these guys have just astounds me! Aside from their obvious musical skill, they know how to get it done right....night after night...regardless of the gear, the crowd, or the situation. Maybe we should require young musicians to tour a couple of weeks with the older crowd to see how it's done?
;-)

 

[Terry Fryar]

Re: Why did the KF cross the road?

I've been telling folks this for some time now. I sold off my 650/UX8800 rig to another member here, but do often miss it, in fact I rented it back last weekend. Very hard to beat as a HQ yet relatively inexpensive trap rig when looking at systems of that size.

Hey Jeff, your SC48 is kicking it fine these days....it's been FOH for some nationals lately and hasn't blinked once! Although I do have a funny story about that desk. So, we did Saving Abel at a town festival for about 7K folks, and Jon Martin (sorry Jon...I just gotta tell this!) was at FOH finishing up soundcheck and all was well. All of a sudden, he screams "I JUST LOST POWER!". Oh no....not again I think! I had just handed Jon a db meter and had turned around. Panic set in as I look at the desk...hmm...it's rebooting...crap...well, the UPS doesn't show any power loss..odd?? Then, I see the db meter stuffed in the gap behind the doghouse lid...in the center...right where the SC48 power button is! Whew! Removed the meter and all was well again!