LONG-TIME ENGINEER GODENZI CHOOSES A-NET FOR MONITOR SYSTEM

During his European Summer '04 tour, Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter James Taylor brought music to his fans in six countries with the help of Aviom. On stage with Taylor were world-class players Michael Landau (guitar), Jimmy Johnson (bass), Harvey Mason (drums), Andrea Zonn (violin and vocals) and Larry Goldings (keyboards).

Taylor's FOH engineer of 15 years, John Godenzi (pictured), designed a monitoring system for the band that uses Aviom's A-Net technology for all on-stage monitoring. Taylor, Johnson, Zonn and Mason used wireless in-ear systems while Landau and Goldings used wedge speakers. Both the guitar rig and the keyboard rig were set up on separate stereo wedge systems.

"This has turned out to be the perfect device for us," said Godenzi. "It has reduced the set-up time of our personal monitoring system and is an amazing facilitator for the way we work, especially overseas where we are using mostly local equipment. The physical set-up of the gear is incredibly straightforward."

The monitor system's audio was derived from a Yamaha DM1000 digital console on stage that was fitted with both an Aviom AN-16/i Input Module and an Aviom Y1 A-Net Output card. This allowed two separate sets of audio content to be delivered to the band members. The outputs of both modules went to A-16R rack-mounted Personal Mixers. Each performer had an A-16CS Control Surface at their location, which allowed them to control the audio mix in their A-16R remotely.

"The Aviom gear is a well-designed piece of equipment that works flawlessly," continued Godenzi. "The whole idea from our point of view is that, no matter where we are, we can preserve the environment for James and the band. With the use of self-monitoring and in-ear systems, we're minimising the disturbances to the musicians."

Taylor and Zonn each received a monitor mix that was connected via analogue cabling from the DM1000 to the AN-16/i Input Module. Their mixes consisted of Taylor's acoustic guitar and vocals, Zonn's violin and vocals, an overall stereo band mix and a stereo reverb return for each singer from the DM1000 internal effects processors. The band had a different set of channels, built from aux sends, direct outputs and bus sends on the Yamaha console. These signals were output via the Aviom Y1 A-Net Output card, which was plugged into the rear of the DM1000, to an A-16D Pro A-Net Distributor and then to the A-16R Personal Mixers.

"I spent a good deal of time prior to rehearsals figuring out exactly how I was going to configure and program the console, and how I was going to program the inputs that were ultimately going to be presented to each musician on stage," commented Godenzi. "I'm already working on the configuration process for when we expand next year from a six to a 12-piece band."

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