Wavelenghts mentioned in recent Front of House magazine article
(Read the full article on their website, here)
Boston Nightspot Goes Digital with Allen & Heath GLD-80
Ned Devine’s Irish Pub is a meeting spot in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace that also draws a nighttime crowd with DJ and live music performances at its Parris lounge and nightclub. The venue recently upgraded from an Allen & Heath analog console (GL3300) to Allen & Heath’s digital GLD-80.
More details from Allen & Heath (www.allen-heath.com):
Located in the Quincy Market in Historic Faneuil Hall, Ned Devine’s bills itself as the “hottest nightlife venue in the center of Boston.” Also known as the Parris Nightclub, Ned Devine’s features high-energy DJs and live rock bands from all over the Northeast and also hosts comedy groups, private parties and special events. With its convenient location and variety of great entertainment, Ned Devine’s attracts a loyal crowd who enjoy its large, hardwood dance floor and high-output surround sound system, which was recently upgraded to an Allen and Heath GLD-80 Digital Mixer.
Tony Lentini, a 10-year veteran as Parris’ FOH mix engineer, says the previous mixer, an Allen and Heath GL3300 had served the club well. “It was a great analog mixer with excellent sound quality and plenty of mixing capabilities.” But Lentini was familiar with the advantages of digital mixing and looked forward to the day when the club would upgrade.
However, Lentini had worked with digital mixers in other facilities. “They can sound very ‘digital’,” he said, “and they can be pretty convoluted and non-intuitive when doing house and monitor mixes at the same time.”
Alan Redstone, owner of Wavelengths Pro Audio, understood these problems and recommended the Allen and Heath GLD-80. “The GLD preamps come from the analog GL Series and Allen and Heath has done a great job with their A/Ds (analog to digital converters) so we knew the mixer would sound good.” “Also,” Redstone continued, “the GLD-80 is very powerful but it’s straight forward and easy to learn.”
Lentini and Ned Devine’s took Redstone’s advice and purchased the GLD-80 from Wavelengths who installed and configured the mixer. “Now,” Lentini says, “I can save a ‘scene’ for each band that plays at the club.” “When they return,” he continues, “I’ve got their mix ready to go. And it’s easy to make updates when the band changes their set or adds a new instrument.”
Lentini appreciates the GLD’s simple but powerful routing capabilities. “The touch screen is awesome,” he says, “you’re right there.” Also, Lentini was able to take good advantage of the GLD’s versatile channel DSP, EQ and compression. “We replaced a whole rack of external DSP,” he says.
And, how’s the sound? “Vocals are more prominent and pronounced,” Lentini says, “and it’s easy to use the EQ to bring the vocals up front in the mix.” “The GLD-80 improved sound in the room by 30%,” Lentini continues, “even the servers and bouncers noticed the difference!”