(L to R): Producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk, moderator Mr. Bonzai and singer-songwriter Joe Walsh of the Eagles in an exploration of the inception and creation of a great album, 1976’s historic “Hotel California,” during the TEC Tracks Sessions at Winter NAMM 2016. (Photo by Jesse Grant, Courtesy of NAMM)
Anaheim, CA (February 2016) — At this year’s winter NAMM Show, where thousands of audio industry professionals gather each year, “TEC Tracks” was introduced, which featured a variety of sessions with well-known musicians, engineers, producers, designers and other industry notables. The entire sound system for the TEC Tracks sessions was designed using QSC TouchMix Compact Digital Mixers as well as K Series and KW Series Loudspeakers.
“For TEC Tracks, my job was to design the sound systems to ensure that everything sounded great, especially for an event of this kind held for pros in the audio industry,” says Audio Supervisor Mark Frink.
The TEC Tracks sessions, held throughout the day for four days in three different rooms, featured panel style tracks, roundtable discussions, Q&A segments and musical performances. Among the most notable sessions was a panel moderated by Mr. Bonzai, featuring producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk and Joe Walsh of the Eagles in an exploration of the inception and creation of a great album, 1976’s historic “Hotel California.” In addition to having to meet the critical listening standards of such audio pros on the panels and in the audience, the challenge for Frink was in designing a system that could be used easily by the convention services staff.
“TouchMix made this whole thing work for us. As we did not know how skilled each operator would be in each of rooms, I was able to design the sound for each room, spend a little time in each adjusting the EQ, and then it was set. All the operators had to do was turn the channel on and off,” says Frink, Audio Supervisor for TEC Tracks. “TouchMix is a great product because it straddles the genre – it is a pro mixing board good enough for a professional project of any size, and it’s still easy for anyone to use.” It is a different product than we have ever seen before in this industry.”
Frink and his team used TouchMix Digital Compact mixers and a pair of KW 122s for each session room. For the large room, they also used a pair of K10s in the back for coverage, and another K10 as a floor monitor for performers.
The new sound system for TEC Tracks turned out so well that, according to Frink,
“At the end of the show, the convention services company told me that the TEC Tracks worked out so well they felt a need to upgrade their own equipment for the future” adding, “and they were of course, very interested in TouchMix and K Series.”
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