Jay-Z gets down with AKG

Worldwide - Despite announcing his retirement from touring and producing records more than two years ago, worldwide rap superstar Jay-Z has found it hard to sit on his laurels; he's been constantly busy in the studio, and this Autumn has seen him cris-crossing the globe on a massive world tour. And handling all of his on-stage vocals every night has been an AKG WMS 4000 wireless mic system, supplied by his tour production manager Bryon Tate, after the original mic system used on the tour proved unsatisfactory.

Like a lot of rappers, Jay-Z 'cups' the mic on stage, holding it close to the capsule. When using other mics, this resulted in a huge boost in mid-range response due to the microphones' natural proximity effect, but the effect was not as noticeable with the WMS 4000 system, and so it won the day. It is thought that Jay-Z made the switch to AKG after Kanye West noticed similar improvements when using a WMS 4000 system on his tour last year, for which Byron Tate was also production manager.

Jay-Z's world tour finished in Australia at the end of October. His new single, 'Show Me What You Got', is out now, with his new album, Kingdom Come, due on November 21st.

(Chris Henry)

Latest Issue. . .