Matt Vivlamore

Originally from Lusby, MD

e-mail: MattViv@MeerkatSound.com

Cell Phone: 410-474-7053

AIM screen name: wVuViV30

Equipment Matt Viv typically uses: EV QRX212 mains over top of an Yorkville UCS1 powered buy all Crown XTi amps. Matt mixes on a Yamaha 01v96+ADA8000 for a total of 20 XLR inputs. The musicians get to hear thmeselves in a set of QSC HPR122i wedges and are lit up with a few LED cans from Irridant.

How did Matt get his start in Live Sound? ?

Matt Viv started out by going to college at West Virginia University in August 2001 as a Recreation, Parks, Tourism and Resources (RPTR) management major. During his attendance at WVU, he began his journey in live sound via a work study with WVU Arts & Entertainment. In August 2006, he graduated with a Bachelors of Science in RPTR and a love for managing sound production for live concerts.

He started working for WVU Arts and Entertainment in Feb 2002, the first show that he worked was with OutKast and 2 Skinnee J's as a stagehand by building and tearing down the event. At the end of the school year he was offered a position as an Audio Visual Technician.

Coming back in August 2002 as a new staff member and with a new boss, they let him loose on an older Peavey mix-head and a pair of Yamaha speakers, without any training of the equipment. Midway through the semester, the orginal boss left for another job, and a replacement was hired, Keith R. From then on, he trained Matt and opened up his eyes to a new level of sound reinforcement.

In August 2004, he learned everything about the PA systems that A&E had to offer. At this time he began training other new staff members on each of the PA systems that A&E owned. A&E had roughly 5 different PA systems; 2 house systems and 3 portable systems.

He also had a taste for large scale concerts and theater productions that were scheduled. During the majority of the time these shows consisted of full Line Array systems from EAW or JBL, with mixing consoles from Yamaha, Soundcraft and/or Midas.

A partial list of musicians and bands that he worked with while at college is below:

2002
OutKast and 2 Skinnee J's

2003
311
3 Doors Down, Default, Black Eye Peas, and Mississippi All Stars
Nickel Creek
John Mayer
County Crows and Sixpence None the Richer

2004
Fuel, Kayne West, Trapt, and Particle
John Mayer and Gustar
Lonestar
Matchbox 20 and The PushStars
DMX, Nas, Lil Kim, and Pitch Black

2005
Ludacris and Lil' Jon
Cypress Hill and OAR
Gavin DeGraw, Michael Tolcher
G.Love and the Special Sauce, and Slightly Stoopid
Doobie Brothers

2006
Brad Paisley

In the Summer of 2004, Matt started helping out a local band here in Southern Maryland called Anomaly. The band had an inadequate PA system for the last two years; they also tried renting a PA couple of times and gave up for two reasons:

1. Other companies wanted to charge a fortune for an OLD PA which wasn't sufficient for rock shows
2. Other companies owned the "best of the best," but the sound engineer didn't know what half of their rack gear was supposed to do. They bought it because the lights blinked and moved.

In the Summer of 2006, Matt decided that he was going to start his own sound company to give local bands an affordable rate without sacrificing sound quality. Since then the system has seen several changes to improve the sound quality.
In October 2008, Meerkat Sound was formed with the long time friends Matt Garrett and Justin Myles.

If you like what you see in the next few pages, don't hesitate to contact us! Also check our Myspace site out.