Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center’s Terrace Theater—a comedy haven since Richard Pryor: Live in Concert was filmed in 1979—recently went through an audio upgrade. Performers and audiences alike are now benefiting from the presence of a new pair of DiGiCo audio mixing consoles—a Quantum338 and Quantum225, both supplied by Huntington Beach-based dealer Apex Audio—at the venerable 3,000-seat venue, which opened in 1962.
Mike Glines, the center’s head audio tech, points to both the sound and then the workflow behind the choice of DiGiCo, calling it the, "easiest digital board I’ve ever had to learn.”
He has a long history with digital audio, participating in the decision to switch from tape to DAW as the recording medium of choice at Capitol Studios in Hollywood while on staff at the facility. He has also used a wide variety of digital mixing consoles, both in the studio and on the road with a host of artists, including a long globetrotting stint with Gary Numan. Glines put that hard-earned expertise to work when he designed his versatile new DiGiCo system for the Long Beach Terrace Theater.
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The custom installation is designed to accommodate any requirement, enabling visiting productions to use both DiGiCo consoles or simply integrate either the Quantum338 or a Quantum225. For instance, a touring band might have a front-of-house console but need a monitor desk, or vice versa, Glines pointed out. “So it’s a huge step up not only in fidelity, but also in flexibility,” he said. “I got Optocore for that reason, to interface with touring systems. We also got two SD-Racks and an SD-MiNi Rack that I use to feed my amps via AES. I love the fact that DiGiCo boards have DMI cards in the back, which you can swap in and out. I also got a Dante card, two input cards and two output cards, so I’ve got everything I need without even having to hook up a rack.”
The two new Quantum consoles are fully mobile, Glines continues. The Terrace Theater has first call on the consoles, he stresses, but they can alternatively be used at other locations within the center’s campus, such as the 13,000-plus-seat Long Beach Arena, Pacific Ballroom, or smaller Beverly O’Neill Theater. “Or you could take them outside for an event—wherever there is a need. I do the Long Beach Symphony Pops! series in the Arena, so I’ve used the DiGiCos for that.”
Glines has heard some people say that it’s difficult to learn how to operate a DiGiCo console, but nothing could be further from the truth, in his opinion. “The only different setup step with a DiGiCo is that you have to assign some faders to your surface. But if you know audio at all, it’s really easy: inputs at the top, outputs at the bottom, and everything else in the middle. You can just turn it on, plug a mic in and get sound out of it. Touch the screen and you see aux sends, EQ and compressors right in front of you. And with DiGiCo boards you can do everything imaginable, from live sound to recording to broadcast to theater.”
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For over four decades, David Wilcox, artistic director of the Long Beach Ballet, has staged a spectacular production of The Nutcracker with the Long Beach Ballet Orchestra at the Terrace Theater. The most recent string of performances of the holiday classic, Long Beach Ballet’s 42nd annual production, was Gline’s first since the new DiGiCo Quantum338 has been available at FOH. “It’s my favorite show so far, because I really got to use the DiGiCo so much,” he said.
Wilcox has always expected at least a stereo mix of the orchestra’s rehearsals, he continues, but in past years the recordings have been less than ideal. “They just didn’t sound great because I was cranking the PA with this delicate orchestra, so I was getting some bleed into the microphones. But this time, I was able to record 48 tracks straight to my laptop through the printer cable, which blew my mind. The DiGiCo Quantum Series has UB MADI built in, so I could just take a printer cable out to my old FireWire drive. I was blown away by how easy it was.”
