Stupid pricing - JUNE SALE starts Monday 1st June

Can't believe it's that time already! Doesn't seem so long ago that the skies were brighter, the days were warmer, and we'd never heard of a Stimulus Package. Well, we're doing out bit to take us back there. It's time for our Stupid Sale - the Famous Factory Sound June Clearance.
1 week only, Monday June 1st - Saturday June 6th 2009.
or until stock depletes, whichever comes first.

Now, if you've had any experience with Factory Sound, you'll already know that we pride ourselves on giving the best possible pricing all year round. BUT the first week of June is when we just go plain stupid. We've got the stock, we've got the knowledge - it's time to make the deal happen. If you need to get something done, we're going to make it work.

There are hundereds of microphone in stock, ready for clearance. Wired or wireless. Studio, live and special application. Whatever you need, we've got it.

This gear is priced so low that we simply cannot publish the prices. No exceptions. Don't call. Don't email. Just come in, or send a friend. It's the only way to get the most serious deals in Australia.

Our range of mixing consoles is huge - live or studio, big or small, digital or analogue, all with one thing in common - stupidly cheap for the 1st week of June.

The great wall of speakers is ready to go as well. Factory Sound is well-known around town as the specialists in live sound. We've got a huge range of speakers, and they don't stop at PA speakers. Studio monitors are also a specialty.

And DJ - we are home to Pioneer, Denon, Numark, Technics, Allen & Heath Xone:Series, Native Instruments...you get the picture.

Home studio - Digidesign, RME, MOTU, Presonus, Apple and more.

Signal Modifiers for PA use, installation or studio...

Plus lighting, stands, leads, cases. The list is huge.


Headphones, connectors, cable, DI boxes, every single item in the shop.

And just to prove that we really are this sale is stupid...here's last year's promo video. Just in case you didn't have enough to do with your day.



www.factorysound.com

StudioLive now in stock!

10 outta 15 ain't bad! To us it has felt like a long wait...but the highly anticipated StudioLive16.4.2 has finally arrived. And it's a perfect 10.

15 have landed in Australia, and we're rapt to know that 10 of those are (as at lunchtime today) sitting in stock ready for action. You can see more on the product here, or our orignal blog post here, or if you'd like to delve deeper - check out the Presonus StudioLive blog here.
Actually, that Presonus blog is pretty cool - you'll see both articles and youtube clips on how to use StudioLive for monitor mixing, FOH, and in the studio with Apple Logic.

and for a late-breaking news flash on expandability and connectivity, go here.

May 21st - Rode University
We had a great night. Here are some pics, and we've also put a highlights reel together for Factory Sound TV.

Above is the view from inside the fishbowl...where we had Event Opal monitors cranking. And below looking from the outside at the great spread of Rode microphones.


We had a terrific turnout, and all who came were rewarded with beer, nibblies, a free Rode PopShield, and the chance to ask as many questions to the experts as they needed.




Here's to the next chance for a gathering - any excuse will do.

Anyway, here's our YouTube clip from the night...


www.factorysound.com

PreSonus StudioLive

We had an entertaining visit this week from the brand new (soon-to-be released) PreSonus StudioLive16.4.2 digital console. After a quick introduction, we took it for a tour around the shop.

With a couple of firewire ports on board, StudioLive was looking comfortable, lounging on the couch in our monitor listening room. Being rackmountable and weighing in at just 10 kg, we figured StudioLive would be well suited to life on the road also.

Yep, we were right.

Then for the bench testing...we did some side-by-side (and back panel to back panel) comparisons against other 16 channel consoles we have in stock. StudioLive16.4.2 has all the ins and outs you'd normally see: 16x XLR inputs, 16x 1/4" Line inputs, 16x channel insert points. You also get direct outputs for channels 1-16 (via 2 x DB25).

Of course, the undeniable benefit of a digital mixer is the processing power on board, and StudioLive16.4.2 has got plenty for every in and out point of your mix, which leads us to...

Fat Channel
The control section of the mixer is very easy to get hands on. There's enough faders to do what you need quickly, and it's also super-simple to select the 'fat channel' control section for any of the inputs, aux sends, sub groups or master outputs. Fat Channel is the bright blue heart of the console., giving you instant access to all the controls you'd need.

Here's what Presonus have to say about their Fat Channel:
"...engaged by pressing any 'select' button, features extensive equalisation and dynamics available to every input channel, every aux output, every subgroup output, and main output. High pass filter, and four-band semi-parametric equalization algorithms are based on PreSonus’ custom-designed digital EyeQ™ equaliser, delivering extremely musical results. Also included in the Fat Channel are compressors, limiters and gates modeled after PreSonus’ award-winning ACP88 for complete dynamics control."


Did we mention 2 x dedicated internal effects...




Our new friend StudioLive16.4.2 even managed to time the visit to coincide with customers who ask all the right questions. Take John Hall for example... he's a regular user of Midas analogue and DiGiCo digital consoles, working as house engineer at Melbourne venues. No doubt he gets plenty of experience with other boards while touring Australia and US. For him, StudioLive was appealing as it offered a quick, portable (and well-priced) way of controlling a bunch of in-ear monitors for tours - especially doing festival shows where want to just patch in and get your ears going in next to no time.



It's settled then. Looks like StudioLive16.4.2 has got it's own spot at Factory Sound.

Stay tuned for further updates. If you simply can't wait, go here to download the brochure, or here to download the manual. Nice one PreSonus.

www.factorysound.com

3-day bargain-fest to finish 2008 in style!

December 29-31. It's our end of year bonanza!
By the end of today (assuming the planets align for us) you should have received an email with a hint of the stupid pricing we'll be putting on for the last 3 days of 2008. If you're not currently a Factory Sound InfoPool member, you'll just have to come in after Boxing Day and get stuck into the bargains!

As a little tease, here's a couple of prices:
Mann M21 Studio Condenser just $195 (RRP $695) - 45 only in stock, NO rainchecks.
JBL PRX518S Powered Subwoofer $1750 (RRP $3899) - 3 only in stock, NO rainchecks.
TC Electronic M350 Dual Engine Effects $299 (RRP $575) - 3 only in stock, NO rainchecks.

OK, you get the picture.
Get in quick, or the boat will set sail without you.
The usual disclaimers apply (see below).

And if we don't see you before the New Year arrives - warmest wishes for a lovely Christmas and New Year period.

RRP is the Recommended Retail Price, as suggested by the respective importer/wholesaler of each product. RRP does not reflect what price these models have been sold for in the past, or what price they will be sold for in the future at Factory Sound. RRP is listed here as guide. All other prices listed are the 3-day-sale special prices (valid until 31^st December 2008, or until stock items sold out - whichever comes first). No rainchecks available. Please note that whilst every effort has been made to ensure all information is correct, Factory Sound will not be held accountable for any errors within this post. No exceptions.

the fesitval of Behringer

It was twenty years ago today...
We were invited last Monday night to attend 'an evening with Uli Behringer', which was an intimate affair: a few Behringer dealers from the Southern states of Australia, together with the Behringer Australia team, and on his very first trip to Australia - Uli Behringer.

We expected to walk in to a Sgt Peppers theme, with cardboard cutouts of The Beatles playing Behringer guitars through Bugera amplifiers. However it was a rather chilled affair, and we were treated to a few cool ales and settled down to a relaxed session at a function room at Crown Casino (a short walk from our day at Factory Sound).

Uli hopped up onto stage, and sat down for a Parkinson-style session with Behringer Australia's GM, Michael Jago. Factory Sound was not only well represented with quite a few of us attending, but also very impressed. Uli is (in no particular order) relaxed, intelligent, passionate, charismatic and inspiring. We also got the feeling he is genuinely talented in many areas of audio, whether it is musically, or pro audio. This was indeed confirmed when he came to Factory Sound the following day.

We've no idea how he managed to end up at Factory Sound on the day of his 20th Anniversay (since Behringer began), but Uli spent quite a bit of time chewing the fat with us. It was in our speaker room, that we realised there is a reason why his company is 20yrs old and still rising. The reason is Uli. He has a firm grasp on not only what sounds good, but what is required both now and in the future for all things pro audio. We listened to every speaker in our room, and his face could not lie - Uli has never listened passively to anything in his life. Even when he is Salsa dancing, we're pretty sure he's going to be focussing on more than his feet and his partner.

Really hard to put into words how 'switched-on' Uli is. If you've got a spare 10 mins though, check out our video podcast interview (episode 21)that we did with Uli on the same day. We think it's the only time he's done it before, so we're thankful that he took the time during his hectic 20th Anniversary year to come in and share a beer and a few stories for Factory Sound TV.

JBL EON 500 series - the new generation

Now we know that the JBL faithful can be an excitable lot, perhaps not quite working up to a state like the mac-nerds when Mr Jobs gets up on stage...but nonetheless James B Lansing has by far the most famous three initials in the world of professional audio.

So with the recent (and highly anticipated....see, it's catching) release of the EON 500 series "the next generation" aka "the most powerful ever" we thought it was time to go All the way with JBL.

The 3 new models are: EON510, EON515 and EON518S. You can see the release we attended by viewing our Factory Sound TV podcast page (episode 20).


Back to the boxes: Both the EON510 (10" 280w) and the EON515 (15" 450w) have a super-sleek design, and not many kilos on board. They look to be set for a long life of typical audiovisual applications (plug a mic straight into the back, and also run the multimedia feed into the 2 x line inputs), plus quite at home doing month after month of gigs in pubs. Here's a closer look at the back panel of the EON515.


Now in stock, so come and check them out! We'll make sure you get looked after.

Great deals, bec$AUS we can!

If you've been looking for an upgrade to your PA system or a new addition to the studio, there has never been a better time...and it's most definitely a case of first in, best looked after.

Recently the wheels have fallen off our dollar, and most pro audio wholesalers have reacted by putting prices up. As more than casual observers, we are amazed at how quickly we've received TWO price rises (or one enormous one) from some of our suppliers.

In fairness to them, many pro audio importers had significantly lowered the Recommended Retail Price of many lines while the going was good, although the drop in prices seemed to take a lot longer (and less steep) than the recent rises, which have been quick and big.

So rather than reducing our stock levels and running lean...we went out and spent the last of our beer money buying as much stock as possible to ensure we can offer the best deals around. We figure that the summer festival season doesn't care about our $AUD, nor does the upgrade your studio needs. The only thing that gets affected by a big price rise is your bottom line - that is, unless you go for it while you can.

While we've got stock, take advantage because the deals simply cannot last. Once our stock is gone, we'll have to replace it with more expensive stock.

Brands we have really bought up big on include: RCF (the great wall of Art boxes), Allen & Heath (Zed mixers, Wizard Mixers and GL2400 series), DBX (comps, graphics and drive racks), Soundcraft (EPM & EFX series mixers), Avalon (heaps of the black VT-737SE), Shure Wireless (PGX / SLX) and Wired (SM series & Beta Series), Sennheiser (Evolution wirelss + e900 series vocal & instrument mics), Soundcards by Presonus & RME, plus heaps more.

Until the new prices have settled (around first week of November...though there's probably more grief to come), we've disabled many 'go' prices on our website. We will be looking after existing customers first. This means that if your name is not already on our database, you'll need to subscribe to get the best possible pricing.

Think of it as an early Christmas pressie ; )

a ZED for your studio

Delivered fresh in the last few days, the new A&H ZED R16 recording mixer has taken prime position on our mixer table right up the front of the showroom.

What is so interesting about Zed's new mixer? Only everything!

First of all, we'll call this model a '16 channel firewire recording mixer' which is a pretty good summary. Of course, having the firewire ports (and ADAT) on board, it means the R16 is most certainly capable of taking a bunch of microphones (16 channels worth), and including your gain & eq settings, resulting in 16 channels worth of 1's & 0's.

Or let's say you'd like to go the other way...using the console for a mixdown. Take your 16 channels worth of ADAT or Firewire, and bring them up on the board's analogue control channels. You'll have enough juice left for a L&R record path back to your computer. And you can also make full use of the handy transport buttons.

For more info, check out A&H's page on the R16, or come in and a have a look/feel for yourself. We're suitably impressed, and won't be surprised if you are too!

And just in case you've got nothing to do something specific to look for, here's a link to the great Zed range from A&H.

Audio milestones - just a few

We don't stop and sit down for too long at Factory Sound, and we've just realised that our original favourite Behringer product has turned 15. For anyone who doesn't remember, the old MDX8000 (multi-band compression) was a terrific studio tool that is almost un-findable thesedays. It was deleted by Behringer sometime in the 1990's...and there are never too many around for sale, but nontheless we remember you. Happy birthday Combinator!


If you stop and look back at the last 15 years of professional audio innovations and milestones, plenty has happened:
The home studio explosion - amazing how many musicians (and stand-alone engineers) have incredible studios in their own homes. The quality of gear versus cost is simply astounding. Besides, there's currently not enough enough spare water in Australia to justify digging up your backyard for a swimming pool...so spend your hard-earned on a studio!
The powered speaker revolution - we're now well-and-truly into the 2nd wave of powered speakers having paid for themselves several times over. Notables along the way included JBL Eons seemingly everywhere at the start, and then RCF Art300A going louder and harder to become a real alternative for many small bands. EV, FBT, JBL and RCF are all now so far ahead of where they started with powered boxes. Just look at JBL PRX series, or RCF TT series to see how much sound you can easily get from one little box!
Changing of the guard (effects) - About 10 years ago, just about any 'soundguy' could turn up to a gig in and around Melbourne (and probably anywhere else in the world), and know that they could pull up their favourite preset on the house SPX900 or SPX990 Yamaha. But then TC Electronic came out with the twin powers of M-One and D-Two, and it was all over. Within six months of their release in Australia, M-One had all but replaced SPX990 as the effect of choice for mid-level PA systems, and D-Two was a perfect companion. Of course now both TC Electronic and Lexicon are very popular for both live and studio applications.
Moving operations to China - We're sure that the Behringer motto was never 'Keeping the bastards honest' but that is what happened when the German company founded by Uli Behringer moved to China for its manufacturing.

We spoke with Behringer Australia's GM (Michael Jago) who has been with Behringer since it was first imported into Australia (originally through a company called Musiclink). He agreed that Behringer had driven the price quite seriously downwards, making it much easier to either make a start, or to simply get heaps more gear with your budget. "I have found our old (Music Link) 1999 catalogue....This product could be your story. The MX802A (pictured above) was $499 in the 1999 catalogue. Then when Behringer Australia started in 2002 it come down to $299.99. It's closest current day replacement would be the 1202. It has the 4 mic pre's and has a 2008 RRP of $159.99 Quite a price drop from $499 to $159 in 9 years. Young blokes today don't know how good they've got it"

That's quite true...and Behringer has had a far-reaching (positive) effect on our industry. It is without question that Behringer products offer maximum bang for buck. Manufacturers such as DBX have been kept honest by Behringer's pricing policy, and have since lowered prices to a level we would never have imagined 10 years ago. There are many manufacturers based in China, but only the ones who have invested time, energy (and lots of $$$) are consistently producing products for our market that just seem to work.

Have you seen this clip produced by Audio Technology magazine?


Watch part 2 here...

There have been so many other audio milestones: like Neutrik winning the connector armwrestle, Shure & Sennheiser going head-to-head and leaving the other live mics in their wake while doing it, the rise and rise of Rode microphones...

We'll come back to this one.

New blingCON from Neutrik

We've always trusted Neutrik for two things...connectors that 'sound' good (don't adversely affect the audio path), and connectors that are built like a brick dunny.
But now, seemingly after getting stars in their eyes courtesy a few too many nights watching Liechtenstein Idol, perhaps coupled with a nice bottle of Apfel Schnapps, Neutrik has come up with a way of helping stage performers not only sound great, but look the part too.

Introducing the crystalCON range of connectors (we thought they were going to call it blingCON).

The 3 members of the range are: NC3FXX-B-CRYSTAL for that special singer in your life, who would simply love to dazzle under the bright lights even more than usual, NC3MXX-B-CRYSTAL for the metro-audiovisuals among us who firmly (but not too firmly) believe that males should be allowed to dress as nicely as females, and lastly (yet, probably most importantly) the NP2X-B-CRYSTAL, just perfect for a lead guitar solo played with one foot on the wedge, with the beautiful crystals picking up and tossing in all directions the light coming from the guitarist follow-spot operator.
We're told that we're not allowed to supply NP2X-B-CRYSTAL to bass guitarists. Unless they can prove that they will be wearing a purple lycra jumpsuit with silver cape when they will be using the connector.

Seriously, if you need a new lead for your microphone or guitar...ask about having one of these sexy new connectors put on the relevant end. It may just be the extra conversation starter you need for those all important moments straight after the show....

No stopping this solder station

Just in time for the start of Spring, we've just received a desperately needed top-up of Solder Stations (and other goodies) from Weller.

Hayden is especially happy...we guess it's because, with these great-performing solder stations, he's hoping there will be a rush of DIY-techs ready to solder up their own leads. It's not that he doesn't love his work, there's just so much of it at the moment!
For tech's on the run, up ladders, or working in tricky spots - look no further than Weller's Pyro Pen, for 'wireless' (butane powered) soldering.

For even more tools, check out this part of our website. You won't find any leaf blowers or chainsaws, just a small gathering of very useful tools for studio maintenance, live sound repairs on the road, and general audiovisual tech work. Oh, and a set of metric or imperial hex-keys to re-tighten that bit of furniture that came flat-packed and is looking like it may end up back that way...

Behind Closed Doors: RCF staff training

As you would no doubt already know, we love it when friends drop in...especially with a killer spread of food, accompanied with a few bottles of Italian wine and beer. And that's exactly what happened last night...the 'RCF staff training' roadshow was in town.

So, after a red-hot go at finishing the fare, we headed into our speaker demo room for a bit of a chat. We had our camera rolling, but due to the highly confidential nature of our talk (or maybe just the crappy quality of our filming), the footage has been embargoed until further notice.

We learned about the rich history of RCF for Europe, around the world, and also specifically in Australia. And we also learned much about the future of RCF.

Talking about learning...we also had a look through the RCF ART Series Custom Shop, which has been designed to help corral the rudderless decision maker into the right direction. In our opinion, looking at any powered RCF ART series box is already a long jump in the right direction.

The night ended with a demonstration of the power-to-weight efficiency of the ART525A speaker, but you can imagine that when Tone & Ollie started going for gold in both the ART 'clean & jerk' (lifting onto a speaker stand) and 'snatch' (load into the back of the van) exhibition events, the night was all but over.

Just in time for a group hug in our new shirts.

Drawmer KickBox 4x4

We received something new from Drawmer in the shop last week. As anyone who's used any Drawmer gear since the early 80s will testify, they make great sounding gear that really delivers on the promise. This one's a little different to all that have gone before it... cause it's not the full 19 inches. But don't worry, 4x4 comes pre-packed inside its own 'road proof case' with detachable lid for 'unhindered access to all controls and connections'

The detail: portable 4 input/16 output active distribution amplifier. AKA mic and media splitter.

Of course, in typical Drawmer fashion...there's little extra than you'd get with the usual.

Each of the 4 channels has 66dB of gain (twist the pot), and an 8-segment LED ramp for metering. Select mic or line with a button, choose +48v via a button, and hit the 'listen' switch if you want.

Top left hand side of the 4x4 is a headphone output jack, with a level pot right next to it. With a decent pair of cans, you can effectively check how the incoming signal sounds. Then it's just up to the outputs...

4 outputs per channel, they're pairs of optionally selectable transformer isolated XLRs with LED status for transformer load. You can select a variety of input / output options:

• 4 x 1 in / 4 out
• 2 x 1 in / 8 out
• 1 in / 16 out
• 1 in / 12 out and 1 in / 4 out

The 4x4 from Drawmer is part of their new 'KickBox' series. Any thoughts on what's coming next? The great little 4x4 has a Recommended Retail Price of $2399, and as usual, introductory deals are there to be done! Now in stock.