Ben Grossman Surrounds the Crows with Sounds of His Vielle À Roue Using H8000FW
(Press Release | Posted 2007-02-12)
Ben Grossman has built a successful career wowing audiences with his electroacoustic vielle à roue, or hurdy gurdy as it is also referred to. Most recently, Grossman took his style and sound on the road with BT and Trifon, as well as Thomas Dolby, to build what was a uniquely mesmerizing live performance that combined captivating visuals with live, 5.1 surround sound.
By augmenting each club system with rear speakers and a center cluster, and generating the whole show in surround sound, each performance offers a seemingly infinite number of sound textures depending on how each musician manipulates his or her instrument.
Throughout the tour, the group was constantly pushing the envelope for what is considered possible during live performances, building all of their material from the ground up in 5.1 surround sound. For Grossman, the tour was an opportunity to hone his vielle à roue skills while experimenting with new ideas, techniques and sounds alongside this group of sonic innovators. Grossman was able to do just that by incorporating a new Eventide H8000FW into his live rig. It gave him powerful, plug-and-play processing night-in and night-out while on stage performing.
“Before I upgraded to the H8000FW, I knew it was going to be pretty amazing. I really liked the H3000 because it had such a distinctive sound and a great interface. The H8000FW still has that sound, but at the same time, there are an unlimited number of possibilities for sound manipulation; sounds that could only come from an Eventide.”
“I’ve really been taking advantage of the dual-engine structure of the H8000FW,” said Grossman. “It gives me extreme quad and octal effects on the first engine. Then, I’m feeding that signal into the second engine to create a 5.1 reverb. On one level you’ve got a number of interesting things happening in quad, then, when you feed it into a reverb with channels being cross fed, it really brings the sound to life. With the H8000FW, I’ve been able to, in real time, create surround sound textures and atmospheres that are a huge part of our show. For such a computer-centric tour, it’s ironic to note that there are some things that can only be done with the H8000FW that is gorgeous, live surround sound design. It’s an amazing device.”
“But really, you should have seen BT and Thomas,” Grossman reflects. “Their jaws hit the floor about ten seconds after they heard me using the H8000FW!”
For more information on Ben Grossman, visit www.macrophone.org. For more information on the Eventide H8000FW, and all other Eventide products, visit Eventide.com
About Eventide
Founded in 1971 in New York City, Eventide is a leading developer and manufacturer of digital audio processing products for recording, broadcast, and live performance. Headquartered in Little Ferry, NJ, Eventide invented the H910, the first Harmonizer® effects processor in 1975, and introduced the H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer effects processor in 1988. Visit Eventide on the Web at www.eventide.com.
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