Latest news from Ofcom regarding Radio Spectrum for London 2012 Games

Ofcom have just released a Guide to the Radio Spectrum for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. The guide has useful information for those broadcasting outside London 2012 Games Venues. We would like to encourage all customers to apply as early as possible for a wireless licence this summer for both business as usual and Olympics related requirements.

Our applications team at Shure UK are more than happy to assist if you have any other questions, or you can simply go to the Shure Digital Switchover Resource Centre.

Shure & Audiojack launch Singing Competition

If you are a budding singer and you think you have got what it takes you might want to think about entering a new competition from Audiojack and Shure.

How to enter

Simply go to the competition entry page, download the tracks, practise singing, and then video yourself performing the song. One track has been created for a female singer, and one for a male singer. You will be able to download the playalong, the song lyrics and the chords from the entry page.

Don’t be afraid to be creative!

If you want to change the lyrics, add different rhythms, play additional instruments or anything else feel free to do so. Just remember that we are looking out for your voice so ensure that your voice can be clearly heard!

The Prizes

The finalists will all be invited to perform at Shure UK.  The winner will get to spend half a day with a Shure Engineer and pick their perfect mic and headphone after trying out a whole range of studio and live mics (to the value of £1000). They will then get to use their new mic at a studio session in a London studio.

The two runners up will get an Shure SM58 (the worlds biggest selling microphone) and a pair of   Shure SRH440 headphones.

You have from now until July 31 to get your entry online.

We wish you good luck!

Shure supports ICMP for Vocal Scholarship

The Institute of Contemporary Music, supported by Shure is happy to announce the winner of the 2012  Vocal Scholarship as Noomi Vainer.

Each finalist had an interview with a panel of judges followed by a five minute live performance with their fellow finalists and guests in the audience. Noomi impressed the judges with her passion and her ability to perform fearlessly with great conviction.
Head Judge on the day and Institute Vocal tutor David Combes had this to say:

‘There were a number of technically proficient singers in the scholarship finals and personally the thing that made Noomi stand out for me was that she seemed willing to take a risk with her vocal, even under the pressure of performing in front of an audience. The courage she showed in her delivery, combined with her obvious talent and a real passion for singing, is something we really appreciate in our students.’

Noomi will now receive a full scholarship onto the Institute’s Higher Diploma vocal course starting in September, worth £5,450.  We like to wish Noomi all the best!

Shure Drum Mastery 2012 Winner Announced

Our search for Europe’s top drummer (not currently earning a living from drumming!) started late last year, and after over 1 million web hits, several thousand playalong downloads & hundreds of entries we are proud to announce this years winner as Antonio De Marianis of Italy.

For those of you who are hearing about this for the first time, entrants had to submit a video of themselves playing to a playalong we created which involved drumming various different styles including jazz, rock and drum and bass. The 5 finalists were selected from a panel of judges and all got a trip to Iceland for a one day masterclass with Darren Ashford, followed by a live battle in a nightclub. The eventual winner was decided by a very trusty clapometer!

Here is an excellent video perfectly summarising the entire weekend and the final battle.

…Many congratulations to Antonio, who received a 5000 Euro voucher for Shure products

You can go to our Drum Mastery website to see the entry videos of the 5 finalists

 

A new use for the Shure 55SH, AKA The ‘Elvis’ Mic

If you were inspired by probably the worlds most recognisable, most iconic (and most copied) microphone you may consider buying one – to perform with, or even just to look at – let’s be honest, it is a beautiful design. In the past we have come across people with Shure tattoos, people who’ve buried, burned and used Shure microphones as hammers to test their durability….however, I don’t think anyone has ever gone to this length and built a custom built computer.

Click here to see the amazing lengths this gentleman went to in order to recreate the infamous Shure 55SH microphone in the form of a computer.

Shure supports The Music Producers Guild Awards 2012

The MPG is the first of its kind in the UK and aims to celebrate the often unknown heroes of music; from  music producers and engineers, to mixers and re-mixers.

Shure not only provide the awards themselves (a lovely limited edition gold version of our classic 55SH), but we also sponsor the Award for ‘Live Production of the Year’.  We’d like to send our congratulations to Radiohead who took the prize for the excellent ‘Live in Praha’, and fought off stiff competition from Jools Holland and The Who for their Live in Leeds/Hull production.

Full list of the 2012 Music Producers Guild Winners

The Shure Songwriting Award 2012, judged by Anna Calvi is now live…

Shure, in conjunction with The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance are delighted to announce the launch of the 2012 Shure Songwriting Award. Previous judges have included KT Tunstall, Amy McDonald, K.T. Tunstall, Paloma Faith and Everything Everything, and we are very pleased that Anna Calvi has agreed to judge this year.

Anna was included on BBC’s Sound of 2011 and gained critical acclaim for her poetic filled album A Velvet Wall of Sound, which  was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize  and a BRIT Award.

If you are a songwriter looking to make a career out of your talent, why not take part in this year’s award competition? First prize is a unique opportunity to attend, free of charge, the fantastic one-year Cert HE in Songwriting course at the Institute worth over £5,000!. This will obviously be accompanied by some Shure goodies!
To enter, all you have to do is upload an original song to the award website before 16th March 2012. You will then have four weeks to try and gain as many public votes as possible. Finally a combination of an expert panel of judges will select a top 8 and then Anna Calvi will be making her selection for this year’s winner!

Shure Drum Mastery finalists announced….

Those of you who have been following our Drum Mastery competition will be pleased to know that the finalists have just been announced. With 18 countries participating, almost a million page views, thousands of track downloads and hundreds of entries we’d like to thank everyone who entered, thought about entering (!), and everyone who voted.

The five finalists will be flown to Iceland in March for a masterclass with Darren Ashford, followed by a Drum Battle where they will all go head to head! View the entries from the five lucky finalists 

 

Shure wins a coveted TEC Award for the Beta 181

Shure are very proud to announce that we won a TEC Award for the Beta 181 microphone during the NAMM Show 2012. The TEC foundation awards companies for technical excellence in audio.

The Beta 181 is a multipurpose instrument microphone and can be used on a wide variety of applications including guitars, bass and drums (overheads and snares). The beauty of the Beta 181 microphone is there are a total of four different interchangeable capsules available (Cardioid, Super Cardioid, Bi-Directional and Omni-Directional, allowing you to change the capsule according to your application.

 

We have had amazing feedback for this microphone, with some of the current users including Pete townshend, Sinead O’Connor, Snow Patrol & Ziggy Marley.

 

Shure Montreux Jazz Festival Voice Competition now accepting entries…

The Montreux Jazz Festival was founded in 1967, and  has become an unmissable event for music fans around the world. Its stages have been graced by all of music’s greats, from Miles Davis to Ray Charles and from David Bowie to Prince.

The 10^th Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition is now accepting applications for entry. The competition provides aspiring jazz singers the opportunity to perform in front of a jury and international audience. In past years, famous artists such as Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau and Patti Austin presided over the jury.

The competition is open for all candidates born after January 1, 1977 who must submit their applications before March 1, 2012. Semi-finalists will compete against each other during the Montreux Jazz Festvial, taking place from June 29 – July 14, 2012. More information on the competition.

In addition to sponsoring the Montreux Jazz Voice Competition, Shure again supports the Montreux Jazz Festival as Official Technical Supplier of Microphones and Wireless Systems.