"Steely Dan places a premium on audio excellence, and there's no other speaker that can compete with the Milo by way of power or performance," says Thunder VP Paul Owen. "For an act with the sonic pedigree of Steely Dan, it's the gold standard."
Two side hangs of five M'elodie ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers augment the main arrays, with eight UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeakers covering front-fill. On stage are 18 of Meyer Sound's new MJF-212A high-power stage monitors and two UM-100P wide coverage stage monitors, along with a pair of 600-HP compact high-power subwoofers. A Galileo loudspeaker management system provides system processing and drive.
FOH engineer John Robins mixes the show on a Midas XL4 console. Systems engineer Keith Jex sets up loudspeaker deployment for each venue using MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction software, while systems tech George Chapman watches over the system with Meyer Sound's RMS remote monitoring system and SIM 3 audio analyser.
On stage, monitor engineer Peter Thompson has an easy time of it with his DiGiCo D1 console applying virtually no output processing to the monitor mixes. "It's nice to have stage monitors that sound like studio monitors," says Thompson. "I'm running all the mixes out of the D1 flat, other than some minor EQ adjustments I make to the vocal mixes during the show. The MJF-212A wedges make my job easy."
"Beyond making great-sounding speakers, Meyer Sound's approach to technology is ideally suited for touring," says Owen. "The self-powered design, the rigging schemes, technologies like MAPP Online Pro and SIM 3 - these things all make it easy for us to do what we're hired to do: provide great sound."
When Steely Dan crosses the Atlantic in July, European fans will get to hear the act through a Meyer Sound system, too, courtesy of UK-based rental company Major Tom.
(Jim Evans)
