50 l July 2014
www.psneurope.com
installation UNITED KINGDOM Ten years of pro audio (and only 23)
RoryAld Live founder Rory Alderson speaks to Murray Stassen about starting his own company and how he first became involved with audio engineering
AT ONLY 23 years old, Rory Alderson has already been working as a sound engineer for over a decade. The lad developed an interest in audio engineering whilst attending gigs with his parents’ band, the Blues Mothers. When he was 12, he was given the opportunity to do the sound for a Blues Mothers show when the sound engineer didn’t turn up, and since then has been forging a name for himself in the pro-audio industry. “It was a simple three mics, DI box and a couple of FOH boxes set-up,” says Alderson, discussing that first gig. “Over the years, I started making friends with a lot of band members. When I was 14, I was asked to engineer my first big event. It was a 19-piece Elvis tribute band using a Soundcraft board with an RCF FOH system.” Whilst still a teenager,
Alderson gained work experience at Ranscombe Studios, an analogue facility based in Rochester, Kent, and ended up being offered a full-time position there, where he stayed for two years. “It started off just weekends and school holidays but I was offered a full-time job once I completed my college course in sound engineering,” he says. After the two-year stint at Ranscombe Studios, Alderson worked as a freelance engineer and subsequently founded his own company, RoryAld Live. “I left Ranscombe Studios and went on to work freelance at John Oram’s Analogue Barn Recording Studios as a studio engineer. I worked at the Analogue Barn for a year, gaining more experience in studio work, as well as learning basic electronic skills by assisting with the build of consoles and outboard equipment, which was designed in-house.”
RoryAld Live owner and founder Rory Alderson
Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara near Gravesend in Kent, UK. Elaborating on the details of this project, Alderson explains that the company’s relationship with the temple began after he had been commissioned to do a few engineering jobs for weddings and New Year celebrations. “After the first event we were asked about replacing their existing sound system and installing a new permanent system that was more suitable for their needs. The new system required enough power to fill a room with capacity of up to 2,000 people and they also needed an output for recording feeds.”
“I met with Gary Jackson from Sound Technology when I was creating [the temple’s] quote. I knew that the Soundcraft Si Expression and digital stage box were the most appropriate choices for their needs,” he says. “Gary
“It wasn’t viable for me to keep spending out on hire costs, so I decided I needed to invest in my own equipment” Alderson on moving from freelance work to starting his own company
Alderson explains that he decided to start his own company because he was being offered freelance work but had to hire all the equipment each time. “It wasn’t viable for me to keep spending out on hire costs so I decided that I needed to invest in my own equipment,” he says. “When I passed my driving test, I decided to get my own PA system and start RoryAld Live. I bought a JBL PRX500 series, subs and tops, Shure microphones, a Mackie mixing console and some JBL wedges. As I’ve [started to get] more business over the
years, our stock has grown and developed.”
Founded in late 2007, RoryAld Live offers a range of services, from sound and lighting hire to production management and installations. “We are also able to provide staging and power distribution,” explains Alderson. “[The team consists of] myself and my partner, Hannah, who looks after all the administration side of the business [and] attend[s] a lot of the gigs as a crew member.” In addition to RoryAld Live, Alderson owns Patten Studios, a recording studio also located in Kent. The studio features a Mackie mixer and an assortment of AKG and Shure microphones. “We tend to have more live recording bookings, which has become even easier now we have installed a FireWire card in our Soundcraft SI console.” When asked if he prefers working live or in the studio, he states: “I enjoy both types of recording but enjoy the pressure aspect of live recordings.”
Alderson continues: “My favourite [pieces of kit] have got to be the Neumann U87 and Urei 1176.” The Urei 1176 Peak Limiter was a classic compressor introduced by Urei in 1968,
The Shri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend, Kent – one of the largest Sikh temples in the UK –where RoryAld Live installed a new sound system
Alderson at 17 years old in the control room at Ramscombe Studios
reissued by Universal Audio in 2000. “I used to use them at Ranscombe Studios and I haven’t found anything yet that gives as clear a sound on an acoustic guitar or vocals,” asserts Alderson. PSNEurope recently reported on an installation carried out by RoryAld Live in one of the largest Sikh temples in Europe, the Shri
set up a demonstration on the new JBL PrX400 series, powered by Crown amplifiers, and I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of sound they produced. They were exactly what the Sikh temple needed and I was able to fit them in to the budget.”
www.roryaldlive.com www.soundtech.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56