Martin recently stopped at the Arena Monterrey in Mexico's Nuevo Leon region, a 17,500-seat arena that plays host to over 150 sporting and cultural events annually. The venue is known for high-quality sound, courtesy of its Meyer Sound system, which is built around MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers Additional audio gear and assistance was provided by three of the country's leading rental companies, Musica Moderna, Audio Concepto and Azprotek.
The system's main cluster is comprised of 16 MILO cabinets and two MILO 120 high-power expanded coverage curvilinear array loudspeakers on each side of the stage, flown at a height of 16m (50ft). Flying beside the MILO arrays are seven M3D-Sub directional subwoofers per side, with eight 650-P high-power subwoofers on the ground.
Eight UPA-2P compact narrow coverage loudspeakers are positioned in front and on both sides of the stage for frontfill, with 10 M2D compact curvilinear array loudspeakers flown beside the M3D-Sub array for sidefill.
Speaker processing is provided by an LD-2 line driver and three LD-3 compensating line drivers, while a pair of CP-10 complementary phase parametric equalizers shape the sound to the room. A SIM audio analyzer, fed by a pair of B&K 4007 microphones, monitors system performance.
"In this venue, we had the opportunity to hang the arrays as high as we needed, and we used MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction software to determine the best possible configuration and positioning," explained Oscar Barrientos, technical seminar instructor at Meyer Sound Mexico, who helped set up the system. "We used the LD-3 and CP-10 processors to achieve the best frequency response. It's easy when you have a design before you arrive at the venue. MAPP Online is accurate and dependable, and it's a real time-saver. Martin's FOH engineer was very happy with the sound."
FOH engineer Carlos "Coco" Martinez mixes the eight-piece backup band of drums, percussion, guitar, bass, keys, horns and two singers on a pair of Yamaha PM5D digital consoles, presiding over a total of 76 input channels. As Martinez explains it, many of the album's songs were completely rearranged, in an effort to explore a variety of musical styles. "Due to the diversity of rhythms in the set, the musical director implemented a wide range of electronic pads and extra keyboards. The drummer and the percussionist have pads, the trombonist plays additional keyboards, and the sax player doubles on acoustic guitar."
Reproducing this big band is a big job, but Martinez finds MILO easily up to the task. "The MILOs really do sound great," Martinez remarks. "I heard stuff in the higher frequencies I had not heard before. And with the help of the LD-3, the audio quality remains consistent regardless of changes in temperature, humidity or SPL. That makes my job much easier."
Meyer Sound's main office and manufacturing facility are located in California, with field offices and authorized distributors located throughout the USA and around the world.
(Chris Henry)
