"The MSL-3s had served us well since the mid-80s," says Larry Bryan, TPAC's chief audio engineer. "But we were ready to step into the 21st century with the latest Meyer Sound line array technology."
As typically deployed, the system comprises left and right flown arrays of 16 M'elodie loudspeakers each, plus six deck-stacked 700-HP subwoofers, eight MINA line array loudspeakers spaced across the stage lip as front-fill, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with a Galileo 616 processor for drive processing. The system was provided by Blackhawk Audio of nearby White House, Tenn., with sale facilitation by director Jamie Nixon and system tuning with the SIM 3 audio analyzer by CEO Rick Shimer.
To date, the system has been used for a variety of acts, ranging from a comedy show by Bill Maher and rehearsal sessions by country star Trace Adkins to concerts by bleeding-edge rockers Puscifer and pop-rock legends Journey. A true test of the system's moxie came when the Experience Hendrix Tour stopped at TPAC for an evening of tributes by musicians including Dweezil Zappa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Buddy Guy.
"We have a lot of guitars on this show," remarks the tour's FOH engineer, Sean Quackenbush, "and the M'elodie rig at TPAC made them all big and warm sounding. The boxes translated very well with what was coming off the stage and responded immediately to whatever I did with the console. As always, any day on a Meyer rig is a great day."
The new M'elodie system was added to Andrew Jackson Hall's existing complement of premium gear, which includes a Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound console, Shure ULX and Sennheiser 2000 Series wireless microphones, Avalon and Millennia Media preamps, and high-end microphones from Schoeps, Neumann, and Shure.
(Jim Evans)
