MLA delivers Wonderful Wonderful sound
- Details
Mixing at FOH was Kenny Kaiser, and alongside him experienced system tech Toby Donovan, arguably one of the most experienced MLA system techs in the world.
Promoting their fifth studio album Wonderful Wonderful, the band were playing through a familiar Martin Audio set-up comprising main hangs of 17 x MLA elements plus two MLD Downfills per side, with side hangs consisting of 12 x MLA plus one MLD Downfill per side. Also deployed were secondary side hangs of 10 x MLA Compact enclosures on each flank. This was to ensure that while the main side-hangs provided coverage up to around 8ft-12ft upstage of the downstage edge, the secondary hangs would infill the complete side stage seats with deluxe audio coverage.
As for the low frequencies, five MLX subwoofers were flown on each side at a 45° angle between the main and side-hangs, while a further 21 x MLX were set across the front, in spaced 7 x 3 array ground stacks, with the bottom enclosure reversed. Flying the subs at 45° ensured good low-end reinforcement round the sides and enabled Toby Donovan to keep the electronic dispersion of the sub array on the ground fairly narrow and the delay time short, thereby keeping the sound punchy.
To complete the coverage, six of Capital Sound’s Martin Audio DD12s were used as front-fills.
Through his work with American West Coast-based Delicate Productions, a long-term Martin Audio partner, Kenny Kaiser was entirely familiar with MLA, having also worked with earlier systems such as W8L Longbow.
“I first experienced MLA when I was tech’ing for Selena Gomez, her first tour of the States. We had MLA out and I really loved it. I then toured with a bunch of other people and it’s been awesome ever since.”
On this tour, says Kenny, “my main focus is clarity - and I mix tonality second. When we’ve had some challenges like at Glasgow Hydro or at Brixton academy, using ‘Hard avoid’ [in DISPLAY software] just cleaned everything up.”
Finally, Kenny was full of praise for the Capital Sound team. “They’ve been absolutely awesome, the crew has been fantastic, super professional but at the same time everyone gets to share a joke.”
(Jim Evans)
