To fulfil the varied acoustic challenges of the different venues and get efficient sound coverage to the whole audience, Canegreen selected its Meyer Milo line array speaker system for the tour, for two main reasons. Firstly, the orchestral/acoustic nature of the band would benefit the system's frequency range and ability to recreate the sound with minimal colouration and distortion, and secondly, the dispersion characteristics of the cabinets meant it was a very adaptable system to cope with the range of venues.
The adaptability was highlighted when on the first night of the tour in Liverpool Royal Court Theatre, Canegreen's project leader Mike Savage flew three Milos each side of the stage, with a steep angle to project sound into the top balcony, with Meyer M2Ds and Meyer subs on the theatre floor covering the lower levels. The system had to be totally reconfigured the following night, when the production team arrived at the London Palladium and discovered the incumbent Chitty Chitty Bang Bang musical left them no hanging points and no room for subs due to orchestra pit. Mike worked with Divine Comedy's FOH sound engineer Adam Pendse and the venue's in-house staff and re-designed the system to ensure every member of the audience enjoyed good sound for the concert. To achieve this, four Milos were ground-stacked either side of the stage with Meyer M2Ds on top as backfills and Meyer UPA-1Ps in-filling for the front rows of the audience.
Pendse has been with the band for three years. He specc'd a Midas XL4 and controlled the whole system through a pair of networked soundwebs, running an Eventide 3000 for Hanlon's voice pair with of TC 2000 units to generate a range of effects, which Adam utilized liberally to accentuate the dynamics of the orchestra. He commented: "The band are playing some 'interesting' venues on this tour in quick succession, so the fact that the equipment is so good and Canegreen's crew can adapt the rig to get a great sound in any venue with minimal fuss has been very impressive. On the Palladium show, we not only had to redesign the system, we had to deal with setting up by 2.30pm to accommodate rehearsal for a film crew shooting a DVD for the tour, giving them an additional set of feeds, which the guys took in their stride.
Canegreen's Mike Savage was also monitor engineer, using a Midas Heritage 3000 to mix Hanlon and the 15-piece orchestra. A combination of proprietary Canegreen monitors and UPA-1Ps provided stage sound.
(Lee Baldock)
