Knickerbocker owner to receive a Parnelli award

Stan Miller - Neil Diamond’s Longtime Sound Engineer Is Digital Sound Pioneer

   The Parnelli Awards Board of Directors announces that Stan Miller will receive the Parnelli Audio Innovator Award honoring his astonishing career in the live entertainment industry. Neil Diamond’s sound engineer since 1967, the technologically savvy innovator will be celebrated for his contributions at an awards ceremony in Orlando, November 20, 2009. Miller is an owner of the Kickerbocker Mansion, located in Big Bear Lake, California.

   “Stan wasn’t on the cutting edge, he was on the bleeding edge,” states Larry Italia of Yamaha Pro Audio, who Miller consulted with in developing digital audio technology. “He is fearless, has remarkable instincts, and possesses a wonderfully curious mind.”

   “Stanley had his own take on technology,” adds Patrick Stansfield, a Parnelli Honoree himself who worked with Miller for Diamond for many years. “He had his own personal way of doing things that marked him as different.”

   With Diamond, Miller designed the sound system and worked the sound console for all of his historic and record-breaking world tours. He was also behind the recording of one of Pop music’s greatest albums, Hot August Night, recorded at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in 1972. Miller has also worked with legends including John Denver, Johnny Cash, Sonny & Cher, and Bob Dylan, among others. He was audio designer/consultant for what the New York Times called “a milestone in rock’s history,” Pink Floyd’s The Wall – Live concert in 1981.

   His technical achievements are dazzling: He was one of the first to hang speakers, though a steel cable drum winch system of his own making; and he was the first to use multi-core snakes allowing for easier cable hook up. He was the first to dare to take a graphic EQ with third octave Altec passive filters on the road. In the 1970s and 1980s he was also an audio product manufacturer owning Stanal Sound, employing a large staff, and creating the high-powered high-end Stanley Screamers for Altec.  Later, he also consulted with the pro audio company JBL to create advanced speakers and rigging for touring as well.  He pioneered the used of fiberglass covering for road cases and loudspeakers to add roadworthyness and you will see many of these boxes still on the road today, 30-years later.

   Most of all, he is known for his pioneering work in digital audio. Early on he experimented with digital sound. His desire to recall specific audio settings lead him to take 14 small Yamaha digital sound consoles, figure out how to hook them together with a computer to suit the needs of arena concert touring – a groundbreaking feat. Miller developed a relationship with the company’s pro audio division that has lasted for 20 years, which lead to today’s PM1D and PM5D pro audio all digital consoles, some of the most popular and widely used consoles in the industry.

   Miller was the first to insist on digital remote control of systems, and helped pionee the technology that allowed him to set amps remotely. “It was unheard of at the time, but he got a pure digital signal going from the mic to the speakers,” Stansfield says. “And the thing you have to remember is he wasn’t experimenting with some small band, but with a legend who sold out arenas – and believe me, it caused a few nerve-racking moments on the road!”

   Recently he even achieved the unthinkable: He got the band to totally abandon their monitor speakers and on-stage amplifiers. “Entertainers did’t always understand that by getting rid of all the speakers on stage, you can dial the sound system to the environment better and easier, and achieve a better experience for the audience.” says Miller. “You begin to have real control over things.” The last two Diamond tours have been 100% digital. “I’ve always tried things throughout my career and that made it fun. Each time we get ready to go on a tour, each time we get ready to rehearse for a tour, I’m on the edge. I’m thinking out of the box and sometimes our on a limb with a saw next the trunk.”

   Miller was born in Lincoln, Neb. In High School Miller played trombone, but it would be the technical aspects of audio that would become his passion. Working with a music teacher he learned the basics of speaker building. Armed with two eight-inch Jenson Loud Speakers, two seven-watt Heathkit amps, and two RCA turntables, he would start on his professional sound career – as a DJ spinning records at local parties and school functions. In 1962 he opened a small commercial audio store designing sound systems. He would provide sound for acts like the Smother’s Brothers and the Carpenters when they toured the Midwest. In 1967 he found himself in Vermillion, S.D. working with a couple of acts including a young singer/songwriter out of New York named Neil Diamond. Forty-One years later, he is still with him, and in all that time has never missed a live show.

   Today, he lives in Big Bear, California with his life partner of 20-years, Thomas Bicanic (chef).  Together they manage their 12-room bed & breakfast and restaurant, Knickerbocker Mansion.   Stan has a daughter, son and three grandchildren.  “My children turned out to be an asset to society, in spite of me.” His daughter is executive director of a non-profit medical society and his son is an airline captain.

 “Stanley Miller has gone where no one has ever gone before, and the live event industry is better for it,” declares Terry Lowe, Parnelli Awards executive producer and publisher of live event magazines PLSN and FOH. “He is as well liked and admired as he is respected. We are honored to honor him with the live sound industry’s highest award.”

   Miller will receive his Parnelli Award at a gala dinner on November 20 in Orlando. For more information on the Parnellis, go to www.parnelliawards.com.

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