For the Peppers' most recent album, Stadium Arcadium, Rat Sound chose to augment its L-Acoustics amplifier arsenal with the addition of two dozen more LA48s to drive the tour's V-Dosc and dV-Dosc rig.
"After the June 2004 European stadium tour with the Peppers, where we used nine local vendors for shows in a dozen countries, I was able to get a good idea of the similarities and differences between the three amp types used in Europe," says Rat. "Though the differences in audio were relatively subtle, our decision to use the LA48 amplifiers was ultimately based on the fact that they greatly reduced our overall touring weight without any sonic sacrifice whatsoever."
For the current Stadium Arcadium outing, these amplifiers are powering a highly original loudspeaker setup that doubles up on loudspeaker arrays. According to Rat, the main left and right FOH hang features "two bananas per side" four total arrays - each comprised of 12 to 15 V-Dosc over three dV- Dosc. Similarly, the far left and right side hangs are also doubled and consist of nine dV- Dosc per array.
Rat explains his design philosophy: "My goal was to do something special and unique with the sound for the entire show - not simply create an 'effect' that gets used once or twice. After successfully testing a theory on a small scale utilising home hi-fi gear, Pro Tools, and live Peppers multitrack recordings from the last tour, I chose to implement a plan that revolved around running dual V- Dosc /dV- Dosc arrays covering the same area per side yet feeding different signals through each.
"I have been running the bass and guitar into the outer hangs and dedicating the inner system to vocals, kick and snare with the rest of the drums and cymbals spread between. The concept started as a more tourable implementation of what the Grateful Dead was doing with the Wall of Sound. I originally was considering three clusters per side but found through testing that most of the advantages could be gained with two. It was the advent of line array systems that has opened the door for multiple systems to be hung side by side and cover the same area without blocking sight lines. The system configuration also, in some ways, resembles the practice of using separate vocal and instrument wedges in a monitor system, just that it is applied on a much larger scale. I have over four months of working with this configuration so far and the dramatic increase in clarity, headroom and control is truly exciting!"
With the assistance of system tech Nick the Fly and sound crew chief Lee Vaught, who optimise the rig for each venue using L-Acoustics' Soundvision design software, Rat continues to be impressed with the high level of consistency that the V- Dosc /dV- Dosc rig provides from night to night. "There are many systems out there that sound quite good, but I have yet to find one that gives me the same even and predictable venue coverage, solid reliability, availability, and terrific sound quality throughout the entire volume range as L-Acoustics," he says. "We first switched the Peppers over to V- Dosc from our own Rat Trap 5 system with the By The Way tour four years ago and I must say that, in all of my years of mixing, I've not met another rig that holds up as well on all levels as V- Dosc."
In addition to the V-/dV- Dosc boxes, Rat Sound is also using six of L-Acoustics' new 108P self-powered loudspeakers to cover the VIP risers on either side of the stage.
Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium tour kicked off this spring and has already been to Europe and the UK and is now making its way across North America, before heading back to Europe and onto Australia, Japan, southeast Asia, South America, and Mexico throughout most of next year. Rat Sound will be carrying the full production compl
