May Issue - FOH Online

Mike Goodreau began his “life in
sound” as a drummer, and he
was also the guy smart enough
to acquire the P.A. for his fledgling rock
band. That happy circumstance put him
on the path to a thriving career as a sound
company owner and mix engineer who’s
served hundreds of events over the past
20-plus years.
“After our band broke up, one of the
guys asked to rent my P.A., and I proceeded
to make more money from that single
gig than I ever did playing the drums,”
Goodreau notes. “A light bulb went on
in my head, the
idea was formed,
and 23 years later,
here I am.”
Based in Middletown,
Conn.
(near Hartford),
Goodreau’s Ace
Audio has never
been the biggest
sound company
in the region through more than two decades
of service, but over that time a lot of
other audio enterprises have come and are
long gone. By taking a less glamorous path
of never promising a client anything that
can’t be delivered, Ace Audio is now being
rewarded in spades — business has never
been better, ground will soon be broken
on a new warehouse and shop, and there’s
been an investment in a new EAW line array
rig as well as other useful tools.
Goodreau is almost completely selftaught
regarding all things sound, starting
with some basics learned at the hand
of the system tech his band hired to support
their P.A. Ever since it became clear
that providing audio systems, support and
mixing would be his vocation, he’s made
it a habit to read anything relevant he
can get his hands on, and of course he’s
also learned a great deal at the perpetual
school of trial and error that’s the basis of
any well-rounded curriculum of pro audio
education.
In the early days of his fledgling enterprise,
Goodreau enjoyed the close proximity
of Snow Sound, one of the leading
sound reinforcement providers in the region.
“I guess you’d call it friendly competition.
Brad Snow (company owner at that
time) has always been a straight-up guy
and was quite helpful,” Goodreau says.
“Being a larger company, Snow got a lot of
the bigger jobs, while on the smaller ones,
I could be competitive on price due to less
overhead. But in reality, it always seemed
like we were helping each other out more
than competing head to head. That’s a
great way to do business.” (Snow Sound
was purchased by HB Group last year and
is now based in North Haven, Conn.)
18
Regional Slants
Mike Goodreau
MAY 2007
A
The Ace Audio approach is one of being
steady over the long haul, building one
customer at a time and working harder at
keeping that customer. Various marketing
approaches through the years, including
advertising in everything from cable TV to
the Yellow Pages, produced very few qualified
business leads.
“The only marketing that works, at
least in this area, is taking the P.A. out and
doing the best job every time, so that the
customer is happy while other potential
customers take notice and ask about our
services. That’s the best way I’ve found
to build sales
leads,” he explains.
“I remember
one company
here that was
headed by a guy
who was really
slick at market-
—Mike Goodreau ing, but his company
couldn’t
perform. So he’d
get a lot of good gigs and invariably blow
most of them, and I’d be there ready to
pick up the pieces. All that I promise is that
we’ll do our very best, and then make sure
we exceed that.”
The shortage of qualified help (system
techs and mix engineers) is regularly
confronted by sound companies large
and small, and its one of the biggest challenges
Ace Audio has faced over the years.
Count it as a primary reason Goodreau’s
wife Ellen has stepped up as an invaluable
system tech who can also, he adds, “move
gear around with the best of them.”
His primary labor pool is a group of
freelancers on call, always a fluid situation,
and when someone
proves their mettle
and gains experi-
“The only marketing that
works, at least in this area, is
taking the P.A. out and doing
the best job every time.”
ence, that person invariable
heads off to
the greener pastures
of full-time gigs at
venues like the always-busy
Mohegan
Sun hotel and casino
down the road. “I’ve
probably mentored
a dozen people over
the years, teaching
them the ropes, but
it inevitably creates a
Catch-22,” he says. “As
a small company, it’s
tough to be competitive
in terms of salary
and benefits, and
you can’t ever blame
someone for taking
a better offer. But it
leaves us short-hand-
ce Of Sound
Mike Goodreaus deals
a hot hand of audio By KeithClark
www.fohonline.com
ed at times in
terms of qualified
staffing.”
The key to
retaining these
folks, of course,
is growing the
business, and
indeed, prospects
in central
C o n n e c t i c u t
h a v e n e v e r
been brighter
for doing just
that. Ace Audio
started out primarily
serving
the needs of rock/pop acts, but that’s evolved,
with the company now working steadily
with nearby Wesleyan University as well as
civic organizations, corporate clients and
political fundraisers.
The local
jazz society is
also a big client,
along with a
host of festivals
and events like
fireworks shows
and “Taste Of”
fairs.
“In the past
10 years the live
music market
here has just
taken off, in
addition to becoming
much
more diverse. Towns like Berlin, with a
population of just 5,000 or so, now hosts
a blues festival, and we just worked a jazz
Continued on page 28
Mike Goodreau
Ace Audio’s EAW KF730 line array rig
deployed at the Strawberry Park
Bluegrass Festival in Preston, Conn.
GEAR
Over the years, Mike Goodreau has invested in a lot of sound reinforcement equipment. Here’s his list of favorite
pieces and what he says they’ve brought to the table.
Sabine Power-Q processor. “It’s versatile, fills a lot valuable needs. The delay function makes it my “EQ of choice”
for delays, the feedback eliminator works great for corporate speech-only applications, and the parametric EQ
with display curve and stereo link works for quite well for FOH.”
Allen & Heath GL Series console. “I’ve been an A&H user for more than 20 years. The GL Series is a perfect match
for our company, offering the right blend of features, light weight and affordability.”
EAW NT Series loudspeakers. “NT is something really special. The first time I heard these speakers, I had to have
them, and my six NT boxes have stayed busy almost non-stop since they arrived.”
Audioarts 4200 parametric EQ. “This piece was acquired in the early 80’s, and I love the big knobs and overall
sound quality. I learned how to equalize with it, and haven’t found anything since that I like more.”
Audix OM-5 microphones. “I’ve had a set of these for seven years and have no plans to replace them. They
sound so smooth, with excellent rejection, and have also held up to constant abuse without fail.”
dbx 4800 DriveRack processor. “It just does everything really well, and can run even our largest system by
itself. This is my first experience in controlling a system from a PC, and I’m getting great results.”