A Prairie Home Companion

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:07 am

Went to see Altman's final creation A Prairie Home Companion the other day - it took a while to get on to the release circuit this side of the pond.

What a product placement ad for RE20s! There were rows of them.

Based on what I saw, I must seriously consider getting some RE20s for my live sound gigs. I'd love to have mics that adjusted themselves automatically to the correct height for every singer, and also didn't need a sound engineer to control anything.

Entertaining, if lightweight, film.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:33 am

It was an entertaining movie, and I try to catch the real thing every weekend. Live radio production is a lost art in the US, how much of it goes on in the UK?
I am a BIG fan of the RE-20, and I use a couple of them on live stages when I've got horns involved. They are so tight and punchy on transients, so clean on vocals, good on almost everything. And you can even pound nails with one if you have to! How expensive are they in the UK? How does that compare to the Sennheiser 441 or the Beyer M99?

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:51 am

Thanks to the BBC, we still have a lot of live radio music, both popular and classical. The showpiece has to be the 70-concert season of the Promenade Concerts (PROMs) every summer from the Royal Albert Hall in London. The variety of sounds on offer must make it one of the more enjoyable and challenging shifts for the sound engineers. I also enjoy the Christmas Eve carol service live from King's College Cambridge (which I think is carried on public radio in the US), and the relays from the various Folk Festivals around the country.

The RE20 can be got for about £330 ($650), but is not easy to find at that price. They occasionally come up on Ebay and attract lots of bids, going for at least £250 ($480). The Senn MD441 street price is rather more than the RE20, and the Beyer M99 a bit less.

I forgot to mention that I think that the movie sound guys at Hollywood have at last got the knack of representing what it's like to be a performer on a live stage. This came over in A Prairie Home Companion, but even more so in Walk the Line, which I saw before Christmas. Maybe what they've come to grips with is exploiting the surround sound possibilities opened up by digital projection from DVD.

We get an edited version of APHC on one of the sound-only channels of digital television, sent out at at a ridiculous hour of Sunday morning - but that's what minidisc decks with timers are meant for.

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:18 am

Thanks for the reply, Bos. You Brits have to pay a high price for mics there. I was in London many years ago (late 80s), and I remember seeing a Sennheiser MD421 in a local music store (new) going for what was around $150.00US, and Beyers were a steal there, too. I ended up picking up a pair of M500s for less than $350.00 for the PAIR! Things sure have changed! The reason that I mentioned the Beyer M99 is because I have found that it offers a good deal of the large diaphragm dynamic type
of performance, like the RE-20, but with the added bonus of a couple of voicing switches. Sure works nicely on bass instruments as well as vocals.

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 12:30 am

EV RE27's actually, I think judging by the still frame I saw.

More or less same thing as the RE20, other than the specs are better on the newer version.

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:30 am

APHC was here in Philadelphia back in January, doing their show live (or delayed?) from the Kimmel Center, but I was stuck working elsewhere. Bummer; I would have really liked to have seen the show live in person, esp after all these years.

I did see the movie and have mixed (albiet mainly GOOD) things to say about it. It was certainly a lot more interesting and entertaining than most of the junk out there. No car chases and no shootouts, but that "Angel of Death" was pretty bizarre. Thumbs Up

All in all a sweet presentation, though.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:24 am

Hey Boswell,

Sorry for being an ignorant Yank here, but re: the PROM concerts - is that the one that they end with Parry's "Jerusalem". "And did those feet in ancient time...." I had heard it referenced as the ending of the PROM concert and I didn't know what that meant. I assumed it had something to do with, uh, you know PROM???? Ya know, fancy dresses, tuxes, sex and puking as we understand it in the states - only I figured it must be a lot more civilized on that side of the Atlantic to end with "Jerusalem"

God save the king,

Phil

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:53 am

Hi Phil,

Yes, the "Last Night of the Proms" is a jingoistic extravaganza that is so steeped in tradition that they cannot bear to axe it. In my opinion, it degrades the other 70-odd concerts that precede it as part of the Proms season. On their own, each of these concerts would be a major musical event; taken together, they form a festival that has no rival anywhere. I feel sad that it is the Last Night's excesses that get screened around the world, while the extraordinary musical intensity of the rest of the season is almost completely ignored by the TV and radio programme schedulers outside the UK.

Just my 2d worth.
Boswell

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