Artimus 1977 Personal Stage Monitor Sound System
Oct 20, 2019 12:05:58 GMT -5
blueridgemtnbird, okiestudent, and 1 more like this
Post by Forum Lord on Oct 20, 2019 12:05:58 GMT -5
I've always liked this photo since I first saw it years ago because it shows some important new developments for Artimus drum setup.
1)New drum riser. This was one heavy ass drum riser made in 2 parts that fit together side by side. In each corner was some stainless steel poles that drop down into some holes on each corner. These poles were for supporting Bose 901 commercial version speakers at the top of each pole for Artimus PERSONAL stage monitoring sound system designed just for him.
2)Behind Artimus you can see the mixing console that he used for his own personal stage monitoring sound system. This way Artimus got to mix the audio for his own speakers pointed directly at him from all sides, and he could not only control his own mix of instruments and vocals, but more importantly for Artimus he could control his own volume levels over all and for each instrument and vocal microphone.
The reason he did this was simple- for him to stay in time and in touch or synchronicity with rest of the band, he needed to hear certain things more so than others, and when you allow some engineer in a far off distant location to control that for him, invariably he did not get what he needed in his speakers to stay in tight with the rest of the band.
And you notice the mixing console is directly behind artimus so he could turn around to his right side and make instant level adjustments as needed throughout the show without having to try and send signals to the distant house or even side of stage monitor engineer which this band did not have in 77.
Artimus really wanted to do it himself. Very important to him.
This type of technology was just coming into existence in 1977, through the use of what is known commonly as a splitter snake. To get the microphone signals and hard wired keyboard signals from the stage to the front of house mixing console we use what is known as a snake. On stage is a patch box with numbered XLR mic inputs all of the stage mics are plugged into and often a couple of 1/4" line level inputs used for direct keyboard connections.
Newer developed and engineered snakes brought in the use of transformers inside the patch box which gave us sound guys ground loop isolation ability to prevent hum in the audio signals since the stage electrical ground potential is often different than FOH mixing console electrical ground potential and these differences in ground potentials had to be isolated from each other to prevent hum in audio signals.
Well given this development of isolation audio transformers installed into the patch boxes, one for each signal channel, this gave engineers an opportunity to add in additional windings within each transformer to provide a separate audio output or more than 2 if one purchased increasingly more advanced snakes, but the splitter snake as it came to be called not only sent a transformer isolated signal to FOH mixer, but it also had a completely separate transformer isolated output of each channel at the patch box itself which is where Artimus could pick up the audio signals which were routed directly into his own personal stage mixer for his own personal use any way he wanted to mix it WITHOUT any disturbance or changes to the signals going to main front of house eningeer mixing for crowd and other band members monitors.
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In the years after Skynyrd and this sound system in 1977 I have worked many shows with Artimus and I can tell you that if a sound engineer screws up the mix and sound going to Artimus speakers, and especially sends screeching feedback into Artimus ears WATCH OUT! I have seen that former Marine jump up from his drum seat and run to the engineer to work him over but good for the mistakes on sound. DO NOT mess up Artimus drum monitor mixes and levels!
So when I did sound engineering for some of his shows over the years I went in knowing this about him and so I kind of replicated this in a smaller package for him. I came up with his own self powered speaker usually placed on top of a mic stand that Artimus could put where ever he wanted it, and then I sent that speaker a line level signal with my monitor mix on it as prescribed by Artimus and then at his position behind the drums he could change the EQ and signal level as he wanted it or needed it.
This compromise worked well enough for what we did.
But when some distant engineer is in control of the signals and levels, invariably Artimus does not get what he needs and what he wants and for him to try and send communication signals to the sound engineer or engineers about this during a performance is almost impossible for him, so bringing that ability and control to his drum position became a necessary factor for him, and this image shows all of this quite clearly.
Artimus told me long ago when I showed this same photo to him, he is the one who told me the above with my own added in from the outside distant engineer perspective, but Artimus is the one who described to me his system and why he had it built like this for him.
He went on to say that during the short time he had use of this new drum riser and personal monitor sound system that it worked so well that the guitarists would come over to his riser during performances and actually listen to the overall band mix through his monitors rather than the front of stage wedge monitors in place for them.
A lot of people are not aware that in stage sound systems we run one main house signal for the entire concert hall, but signals sent back to the stage are broken down monitor by monitor and quite often each band member had their own separate mix for their own monitor line. And often as many as 8 separate mixes were routed back to the stage during a performance so each band member got to hear precisely which instrument(s) and vocal(s) they wanted to hear and at what mix and at what level they chose or needed so they could deliver their own performance in perfect synchronization with the rest of the band.
I helped Artimus set up this same drum riser in 1985 inside Allen Collins home studio on Jacobs Ave minus the Bose speakers which were long gone. We set up the drum riser and put the steel poles in their places and Artimus used it like that without the sound system. I can tell you each side of that drum riser was heavy as hell, probably 400 plus pound each side. Was not easy to lift or move around. Solid as hell and heavy as hell and I would not want to be the roadie who had to lug it in and out of concert venues every day and night. Hell no!
When I recorded Artimus, Leon, Allen, and others at Allen's studio in 1985 and 1986, on one recording I have to yet to let out, it had a young Van Zant on guitar and Leon on bass and Artimus on drums. Leon and Artimus locked into each other and just took off and left the kid in the dust, and I watched as Leon keeping his rhythm train going, he wanted to smoke a cigarette while playing and since everyone was just goofing off Leon could get away with it and he walked over to Artimus drum riser and placed the string side of his bass guitar up against the stainless steel pole to use it like a slide and he just kept on playing with one hand and used his left to smoke the cigarette while still playing. It was awesome to watch and listen to.
Maybe one day I will let that one out but the guitarist won't be happy about it if he is identified... cause he sucked on guitar. He was a just a kid going up with some real pro's who just took their rhythm train right on into much higher and faster levels than that kid could keep up with.
I doubt if Ronnie and other band members would have let Leon do that on stage with Skynyrd, but Leon could get away with it and no one would notice in the audio- he certainly would not be lacking there. Visually it was something else.
Oh, and FYI for the record- Ed White was NOT there and has no clue and should not be discussing things like this on his bullshit secret group! He is not qualified as having "been there" and does not have the recording nor any knowledge of it. So if he reads this and carries it to his secret facebook forum and spins it around differently be aware he is full of shit as he is with most of what he says.
It has been noticed by myself and others that what he says over on his secret facebook forum sounds like he is lifting it off of this forum and regurgitating it differently on his forum and throwing in his personal opinion on top of it to make it sound like he was all a part of it and in there and been there kind of thing which is all bullshit.
He is a new breed of rip off con artists using others to step on to do what he does online. Never seen anything like it before. Weird really! And hard to believe he actually has people who are listening and buying into it as if it were all true over there.