Kidz Gear Co-Sponsors Strider Cup World Championship for Children Around the World

San Francisco, CA, July 19, 2016— Kidz Gear™ www.GearForKidz.com, the award-winning Grown-up Performance, Built for Kids! brand, announced today that it is a co-sponsor of the 6th Annual Strider^® Cup World Championship for kids balance bike racing. Strider Bikes, the world’s leading manufacturer of children’s no-pedal balance bikes, will welcome over 500 1½ to 5 year old toddlers – some still in diapers – at the Strider Cup World Championship for balance bike racing, presented by FedEx, July 29-30 at Pier 35 in San Francisco, California.

 

Toddlers as young as 18 months old will put their bike skills to the test during these family-friendly races. The Strider Cup World Championship is co-sponsored by Kidz Gear, the leading provider of headphones for children, who is sponsoring the 4-year-old class. Additional sponsors include Golden Gate Urgent Car for the 2-year and under class, Yelp for the 3-year-old class, and Clover Stornetta Farms for the 5-year-old class.
 

Sennheiser Helps Train the Next Generation of Women in Audio with SoundGirls.org Camps

Old Lyme, Conn. July 19, 2016 – This summer, middle and high school aged girls have the opportunity to get hands-on training with professional audio gear at the SoundGirls.org Live Sound Camps. Audio specialist Sennheiser has joined in sponsoring these unique learning opportunities by providing 20 each of its professional HD 280 headphones and evolution series microphones for use during the workshops. Held four times over the summer in cities throughout the U.S., the Live Sound Camps provide an opportunity for girls to learn the basics of live audio from top professionals in the industry, covering topics from signal flow to microphone setup and mixing.

SoundGirls.org began three years ago following a panel hosted by Women's Audio Mission and Terri Winston at AES 2012 that acquainted some of the leading women in audio with one another, among them Karrie Keyes — known in the industry as the long-time monitor engineer for Pearl Jam. She and prominent front of house engineer Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, whose credits include Gwen Stefani, Jewel, and Ke$ha, founded SoundGirls.org to provide a way for women in audio to network, share ideas, and provide support.

Keyes says the camps help present opportunities for girls within the audio industry at an early age. “When I was young and interested in doing something in music, I didn’t have any support or guidance at school,” Keyes says. “I found it very much by accident. But having the kind of experience we’re able to provide at the SoundGirls.org camps gives girls a chance to experience some of the opportunities that exist in the sound world well beyond what they might be exposed to in school. ”

Keyes and her instructors believe having access to the best professional audio gear is a key part of the experience for the campers. “I have used Sennheiser microphones and wireless gear with Pearl Jam for years, so by using Sennheiser equipment for the camps I knew we were giving our campers a true taste of pro gear.”

The first of this year’s five-day camps took place in Modesto, California on June 20^th, followed by Nevada City, California, Wilmington, Delaware, and St. Louis, Missouri. The curriculum begins with a look at audio safety before campers progress to learning the elements of a console, microphone placement, stage plots, and input lists. “Each afternoon we have local youth bands coming in and we let the girls set them up with the gear, so it’s really hands-on.” The Sennheiser e835 microphone will serve as the perfect choice for vocal micking, offering consistent on and off-axis performance thanks to its uniform frequency pick-up pattern and minimal proximity effect. The HD 280 Pro headphones provide the perfect tool for honing in on the right sound for the mix, boasting excellent sound quality backed by strong isolation from external noise. “It’s exciting for them to get to use the pro-level gear, and they pick it up incredibly quickly,” Keyes says.

The week culminates in a full live show that the campers run on their own, featuring some the week’s locally sourced talent. “It’s always really inspiring to see how much knowledge they’ve retained from the week,” says Keyes. “In particular I love to see them hit a snag and then figure out the solution on their own using what they’ve learned.”

The support of Sennheiser is a key to help Keyes and her colleagues further the overall mission of SoundGirls.org. “We have been lucky at SoundGirls.org to be able to create a support network for women working in audio at all levels that has been going strong for three years,” she says. “Now in our second year of running camps for girls, we are excited to open up a world of possibilities for the next generation of women in audio, and we couldn’t do it without the help of sponsors like Sennheiser.”


Image captions:
1) Sennheiser is sponsoring the SoundGirls.org Live Sound camps, which provide an opportunity for middle and high school age girls to get hands on experience in the professional audio industry.

2) Sennheiser provided several of its e835 dynamic microphones to help campers capture detailed sound from local bands performing at the camps.

3) Campers using Sennheiser's HD 280 Pro headphones to hone in on just the right sound.

NAMM 2016: V-MODA

V-MODA make some exceptional headphones. This years highlight was the Crossfade Wirless model which fit very comfortably around the head and ears for a long period of time and provide pristine sound quality through a bluetooth connection. They can even be customized in outer appearance with your favorite artist's emblem or a dazzling gold plate.

NAMM 2016: Numark

Numark was featuring some new headphones, mixdecks, a dashboard, and turntables.

Their new Redwave Carbon professional mixing headphones were made for DJs with a high-quality full-range, swivel design, a comfortable protein-leather padding, a large 50mm driver, neo magnet and high-temp voice coil for optimal frequency response, and a detachable 1/4" adapter.

NAMM 2016: Mixars

Mixars, the only company that Serato has approved of and released a press release conjointly with, featured some of their new mixers, headphones, monitors, and turntables. 

The MXR-4 is the industry-standard sized four-channel mixer bringing all the advanced features to smaller sound systems, mobile DJ rigs, and home DJ setups. It features 4 stereo channels and a microphone input in a clear and intuitive layout with two master outputs, one balanced.





























The LTA, high torque scratch turntable, are a professional turntable made for scratch performance with its quaretz-controlled direct-drive motor and a 4.5KG motor.

VocoPro Launches New SilentSymphony Wireless Audio Broadcast and Headphone Systems

LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2016—For clubs and event planners wanting to host trendy “silent” disco or rave parties, VocoPro, a leader in wireless audio and karaoke technology systems, today introduced SilentSymphony, its latest all-in-one wireless headphone system.

NAMM 2016: Blue Microphones

Blue was introducing the new Lola headphones which fit firm and comfortably, emitting a very crisp sound while blocking out the surroundings. The Mo-Fi model has a built in amp allowing high-end reference monitor performance for your ears!

NAMM 2016: Harman Audio - AKG

Photo by Patrick Young

Harman had a large isolated area just outside of the Arena. All of their brand's new products were on display - new closed-back headphones from AKG, PA and stage monitor speakers from JBL, rackmoutable preamps, EQ's, and compressors from dbx, and a few new guitar pedals from DigiTech.

AKG

AKG added several new headphones to their line-up this year. The K52, K72, K92 closed-back studio headphone line is meant for live/session recording. They are also advertised as a mixing headphone, but at an entry level only. The AKG rep explained that most of the cost went into a high quality driver and that construction and parts costs were minimized. Don't expect these to be as rugged as more expensive models. These closed back models will be a better alternative to the traditional K240's if you are concerned with noise bleed getting picked up in your mics.

AKG also released the K182 which are designed for live applications like electronic drums and keyboard where more isolation may be necessary. Additionally, the K182 are designed to travel with a larger driver, more durable construction, fold-able ear cups, and a detachable cable.

Owning a pair of K702's and doing a significance amount of my sound design with them, I wanted to do some critical listening (well, as much as can be done in a noisy environment) of AKG's new, and existing headphone models. Below is a summary of my listening notes:

 

K812 - Deep sound stage, with a well balanced sound and more 'mature' bass. The cans themselves were fairly heavy and less stable on my head than I would have liked.

K712 - 2-3kHz bump, claps played nice and crisp on these. Certainly more bass than K702, but not necessarily in a desired punchy way.

K553 - Clean sound and tighter on the head, LOUD! with a defined low end

K182 - First impression was that the ear cups were too small for my head, but I grew to like these (in just 10 minutes). Good instrument separation, clean highs, but feels like it's pushing a little too hard. These would be a great set of headphone to pump up with - gym/sports, regardless of recording or performing.

K167DJ - good presence, low end and snug on the head. Exactly what you'd  need if you were in a noisy club.

K92 - muddy and missing that high end sparkle

K72 - good presence, clean snares and claps, overall my clear favorite out of K52, K72, K92

K52 - fairly tinny, some high end and bass.

[NOTE: please remember on the new K52, K72, K92 that I had just gotten done listening through headphones many times more expensive]

Photo by Patrick Young

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Name: Patrick Young of Speaker Feature Studios

Bio: Electrical Engineer and sole proprietor of Speaker Feature Studios, Patrick Young spends much of his free time designing software synthesizer patches and plugins for other artists and content creators. 

Links:

• speakerfeaturestudios.com
• soundcloud.com/speaker-feature