Winger generally takes only a single L1 system on the road for his solo acoustic shows. But he actually has two complete systems because he is also using a stereo L1 rig as studio monitors at his private home-based facility in Nashville.
Winger has long used Bose QC15 headphones during the final stage of mixing. "The last three records I've made, I'll mix my album and then the final thing I do is listen in those headphones. You can go out and buy all kinds of reference monitors, but so far as I can tell these headphones are incredible in terms of just referencing a mix. If it's spanking in those headphones then I know I got it right," he says.
Back in the day Winger was also lead singer with The Alan Parsons Live Project and also played with artists such as Bob Dylan, Roger Daltrey, Mark Farner and Neal Schon. Following his hard-rocking days, Winger studied hard and grew into a respected classical music composer whose works have been performed by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Ballet.
After making friends with Bose personnel, he tried the L1 system and was blown away, he says. "I write a lot of classical music, so I wanted these for monitoring and for composing. I've got really good monitoring systems, extremely expensive stuff, but I prefer the Bose L1 system. It's just a clear, spatially correct, musical monitoring system."
Winger, who has had his score for choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's Ghosts programmed into the San Francisco Ballet's repertory for the past four years, says, "You can't touch the Bose L1 systems for classical music-nothing comes close." Next up is a metal album with the reformed Winger lineup. "We'll see how that goes; I'm sure the system is going to be great because the frequency response is so accurate."
On his solo acoustic shows, Winger typically travels light, carrying a single L1 Model II and a B2 Bass module and setting the system up behind him so that it serves as both a PA and monitor system. "It's really clean, it's super-loud and it doesn't hurt your ears because there's no distortion. And one unit is completely adequate for filling a 200- or 300-seat room. It's a great system."
He continues, "It's everything that you miss from a live PA; it sounds like a record. My acoustic thing is more like a rock thing. I don't use loops or anything, it's just me and a guitar, but it takes a lot of bass to drive it. I'll use a lot of low end-when I hit the guitar it's like a kick drum. This system is the best full-range system for a small acoustic show that I have seen, by far."
(Jim Evans)
