case studies - Martin Audio

CASE STUDIES
Touring
Unite Your Audience
The Martin Audio Experience
CASE STUDIES
Martin Audio
At Martin Audio we believe that uniting audiences with
exciting sound creates shared memories that sear into the
consciousness delivering more successful tours, events
and repeatedly packed venues.
We achieve this by an obsessive attention to detail on
the professional sound system’s acoustic performance,
frequently challenging convention and involving a
sophisticated mix of design, research, mathematical
modelling and software engineering, to deliver dynamic,
full-frequency sound right across the audience.
With over forty years of touring and installation expertise
to our name, Martin Audio offers a wide range of premium
professional loudspeakers so customers can be assured
of selecting the right system for their chosen application,
whether it’s a small scale installation or a festival for over
150,000 people.
Pink Floyd, Earls Court 1973
Touring
Martin Audio was founded to manufacture live performance
loudspeakers for the supergroups of the ‘70s, allowing
such bands as Pink Floyd, the Who and Supertramp to
play to larger audiences and be heard properly for the first
time. Since then, Martin Audio has earned a reputation for
supplying superb sound systems across the spectrum of
sound reinforcement.
Renowned for integrity in design, technical excellence
and longevity of its products, Martin Audio offers a
comprehensive range of touring speakers suitable for every
type of venue, uniting audiences in the process. Our award
winning MLA series offers the latest performance providing
the combination of superlative audience coverage and
consistency with direct control for hard cut-off areas and
reduction of noise pollution.
With a global network of committed MLA partners and a
proven track record, means whether it’s a local tour or a
world tour the quality, performance and support for the
system is assured.
Steely Dan’s Pursuit of Perfection with MLA
In the summer of 2014, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Walter
Becker and Donald Fagen took Steely Dan’s “Jamalot Ever
After” tour across the U.S. and, with OSA International, Inc.
providing Martin Audio’s Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array
(MLA) sound system.
Steely Dan has a reputation among audiophiles and
throughout Pro Audio for their fastidious attention to sound
production, so much so that many FOH engineers and
system techs use a Steely Dan track to tune a system. When
it comes to live sound, their expectations for the PA are no
less demanding.
Returning to mix Steely Dan is Mark Dowdle, whose extensive
credits include Elton John, Gloria Estefan, Fleetwood Mac,
Tina Turner and Jackson Brown, to name just a few. Last
year’s tour included a stop at Ravinia Festival in Chicago,
where Dowdle mixed on two 7-box MLA arrays, the first year
of a new OSA installation and the first new PA in a decade at
North America’s oldest music festival.
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CASE STUDIES
Steely Dan
Late last year, Steely Dan’s road manager, tour sound icon
Robert ‘Nitebob’ Czaykowski, introduced Walter Becker to
MLA at a demonstration at New York’s Manhattan Center,
where they were able to walk around and hear the evenness
of its response and coverage. Steely Dan often plays
theaters, where the mix position is usually at the back,
beneath a balcony. “I go out there every day and listen to
it; that’s part of my gig,” Czaykowski said. “What really
knocks me out about MLA is that you can really control it
so it’s not splattering off a back wall or cluttering up in the
lower balcony.”
Present also at the NYC demo was Jim Risgin, Vice
President for OSA –owners of the largest inventory of
MLA in North America. With offices in Chicago, Las Vegas
and now also Nashville, OSA have built an impressive
reputation and client list providing complete technical
services to some of the largest corporate, sporting events
and concert tours in the U.S. The NYC demo was followed
by extensive research from Mark Dowdle to confirm that
the system would deliver the desired performance, and as
a result Steely Dan added MLA to their tour.
Across the demanding 56-stop tour, MLA showed
its versatility, control and overall sound performance
credentials. Dowdle points out that the MLA provides
extremely even front-to-back SPL as well as evenness of
frequency response throughout the listening area. “The
coverage is very smooth, especially its shading,” he said.
“You can walk up on the PA in the front and it sounds just
like it does in the back of the room.”
Dowdle also mentions an improvement to the stereo
field. “Everything is more defined, so that automatically
translates into the stereo field being more discernable,” he
said. “MLA gives me dynamic range, clarity and definition
so that I’m able to position and layer sounds in the stereo
field which you can really hear where they all are.” He
adds that the MLA’s sound is extremely coherent and is
very responsive from a mixing standpoint. “You make a
small fader move and it’s immediately noticeable.”
Furthermore, Dowdle is surprised by the constant
comments from the audience. “I’ve been mixing for a long
time and usually nobody ever says anything. This particular
tour I’ve had more response from the audience than any
tour I’ve ever done in my entire career, and it’s always been
very positive and it’s always been very poignant. That’s in
large part because of MLA allowing me to get it exactly
how I want everywhere in the room.”
OSA crew chief and MLA system engineer Martyn ‘Ferrit’
Rowe is well known from his tenure at Martin Audio as
an MLA product specialist before leaving to work for OSA
as Director of Engineering. The Steely Dan tour travels in
two trucks, carrying consoles and backline (including a
Steinway grand) in one, and lights and PA in the second.
“We’re carrying 26 MLA and 2 MLD down-fills, as well as
18 MLA Compacts, plus 8 MLX subs and 6 W8LMD used
as front-fills,” Rowe explains.
The tour played Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena
and New Orleans’ UNO Lakefront Arena using the 14-box
MLA main arrays and 9-box MLA Compact side arrays that
they carry. “The LA Forum was the only venue on our 56show itinerary where we had to add PA,” said Mitchell
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CASE STUDIES
Mark Dowdle, FOH Engineer – Steely Dan
Keller, Steely Dan’s production manager for the fourth year
running. “It’s quite impressive that on a two truck tour we
can carry enough PA to do arenas.”
“This isn’t auto EQ, you still have control over all the
decisions that are being made, but the computer is doing
the heavy lifting for you.”
The rest of the itinerary ranged from sheds and theaters
to casinos. “The smallest venue was Humphrey’s in San
Diego, putting in two subwoofers and ground stacking
six MLA per side,” Rowe explains. “We recently did four
shows in a row with single point hangs using ten MLA
enclosures.”
So, coming full circle, what did Fagan and Becker make of
the sound quality? According to Dowdle, “Both have come
out into the audience on a number of occasions and have
always been positive with their feedback and what was
going on.
As well as MLA’s flexibility and scalability, Rowe is keen
to point out the simplicity of its operation. “It’s like fly by
wire; you tell it what you want and the software produces
a custom preset for your system and the room,” he said.
“More often than not Donald will come out and listen and
frequently comments, ‘It sounds great,’ which is probably
the highest compliment that I could ever receive in
my career.”
Steely Dan
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CASE STUDIES
Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire Tour With MLA
Chicago amd Earth, Wind & Fire Tour
Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire recently wrapped up
their co-headlining “Heart and Soul Tour 2015” of
amphitheaters, casinos and arenas with a Martin Audio
MLA system provided by Delicate Productions of LA and
San Francisco.
One of the main challenges for the tour besides scaling the
PA system for different venues was the fact that both bands
open and closed each show with “greatest hits” medleys
featuring 21 musicians and vocalists on stage at the same
time. With back-to-back hits such as Chicago’s “Free,”
“Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?,” “25 or 6 to
4” and EWF’s “September,” “Sing a Song” and “Shining
Star” for the closing medley, the audience was left with a
guaranteed nostalgic thrill ride as their show conclusion.
All well and good, but the crews were faced with the
challenge of finding and maintaining 47 clear active
channels of wireless for the musicians and vocalists during
the medleys plus mixing for both bands without too much
volume.
As Nate Lettus, FOH engineer for Chicago who had mixed
with a MLA Compact system on a previous tour explains,
“The biggest challenge for the medleys and the shows in
general is overall volume, trying to keep everything under
control. We have a lot of energy onstage and can end up
with a big powerful sound and these bands don’t sound
that good at really high volumes. I find my levels are pretty
consistent, especially with the Martin Audio MLA system.
“The boxes sound really smooth from bottom to top,” Nate
adds. “I’m actually rolling off some high end because
there’s so much of it, which is good because I’d rather
have more than less. We’ve got plenty of low-end with six
MLX subs per side that are tight and punchy. The show just
sounds so good and I’m barely doing anything, my inputs
are just high passed and my outputs are barely touched on
a day-to-day basis.”
Typically, the MLA setup for amphitheaters is either 12
or 14 MLA and 1 MLD (downfill) cabinets per side with 6
to 8 MLA Compacts for outfills and side hangs. Six MLX
subs per side are ground-stacked on the floor or the stage
depending on space in the venue or sightlines. For the
arenas, the system included 16 MLA per side, a side hang
of 12 MLA Compact and a 270 degree hang of 10 MLA
Compact.
This tour was the first time Earth Wind & Fire’s FOH Terry
“TJ” Jackson mixed with the MLA system. “The first day I
heard the system it sounded really clean with a lot of high
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CASE STUDIES
where FOH is mixing louder than normal and we’re getting
a lot of crowd noise or the room is naturally loud. The sound
can get messy really quickly. Using the full MLA system
greatly improved rejection on stage, especially from the
sub-bass, which is a huge deal with Chicago because it’s
hard for the horn players to find their pitch when there’s a
lot of sound washing up on stage. They feel they have to
play over it which often causes more problems.”
In addition to the MLA system, DiGiCo SD10 (Nate) and
Soundcraft Vi6 (“TJ”) consoles were used for FOH. For
monitors, Scott combined a DiGiCo SD10 with Sennheiser
G3 in-ear wireless and Shure SR4D wireless systems while
Terrence used a DiGiCo SD5 with Sennheiser G3 in-ear
systems.
Asked about the delicate wireless balancing act Scott
explains, “I’m self taught and have my own way of getting
the job done, but in this day and age with the FCC buying
up all the frequencies, it’s getting really hard to find and
maintain clear channels. In the world of monitors Terrence
and I live in, that’s the hardest part of the job.”
end,” he points out. “A high fidelity type sound, which
I really like. It’s easy to get the vocal out which is very
important. I would definitely recommend the speakers
without question. They’re very controllable and sound
really good, I’d put them on the rider.”
Considering the problems Chicago’s Monitors Engineer
Scott Koopman and his EWF counterpart Terrence
Chism had coordinating and mixing close to 50 wireless
frequencies and controlling ambient noise on stage, the
MLA system was a welcome addition.
“You’ve got a lot of microphones on stage with the potential
to pick up ambience,” says Scott, “especially in a venue
Summing up about the system, Delicate MLA Audio Tech
Kyle Anderson concludes, “MLA is a great sounding box
right off the bat and makes a lot of things easier. It does
the processing for me, so once I get my angles, set it
up and do my optimization, it pretty much sounds good
everywhere in the room. I’ll still do some time aligning and
adjust a few EQ settings for the room in the software. But
once you put that stuff in, everywhere you tell it to sound
good will sound good.
“Here’s a good example of how the software can help
out. There was a top tier for the Pepsi Center at the side
hang which we hadn’t expected to be sold so we didn’t
cover that zone. But when I found out that the ticket sales
grew, we were able to splay the coverage upwards for that
whole area just by using the DSP and software as the show
was happening. You can’t really do that with any other
speaker that I’ve used. It’s a real advantage to change the
coverage quickly without changing the angles on the boxes
or redeploying the speakers.”
Chicago amd Earth, Wind & Fire Tour
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CASE STUDIES
Avett Brothers Triumph at Red Rocks With MLA
Red Rocks Amphotheatre, Colorado
Currently touring the US with a Martin Audio MLA
loudspeaker system provided by SES (Special Event
Services) of Winston Salem, NC and Nashville, TN, the Avett
Brothers recently sold out three nights at the challenging
Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.
Commenting about the different venues on this tour, SES
Vice President Jeff Cranfill says, “This time of year, it’s
everything from large format sheds like Red Rocks to
smaller theaters and, as we move into the fall and winter,
arenas. When it comes to the Avett Brothers, you name it
and they play it.”
Formed in Concord, North Carolina in the late 90s by
brothers Scott (banjo) and Seth Avett (guitars), the band
also includes Bob Crawford (double bass) and Joe Kwon
(cello), with Mike Marsh (drums), Tania Elizabeth (violin)
and Paul Defiglia (keyboards) as touring members of the
band.
An eclectic mix of bluegrass, country, punk, pop melodies,
folk, rock, honky-tonk and ragtime, the Avett Brothers
are hard to categorize, but are generally defined as
“Americana.” A popular mainstay on the touring and
festival circuit, they’ve produced chart albums that include
I and Love and You (2009), The Carpenter (2012) and
Magpie and the Dandelion (2013).
The Avett’s encompass an unusually wide dynamic range
during a typical performance, which adds to the challenge
of adapting to different venues throughout the tour.
As SES System Engineer Andrew Steelman points out,
“They’re not a highly compressed band that lives in a
pocket during the show. They go from very loud, aggressive,
in your face rock, to acoustic guitars, banjos, a cello, violin
and small high fidelity stringed ensembles. In terms of
dynamics, it’s a constant rise and a fall, and then another
rise and a fall, and you’re on the edge of your seat the
entire show.”
Because MLA has smaller format compression drivers, the
system offers the engineer a more neutral canvas that’s
very responsive to the smallest EQ changes, making it a
perfect partner for the dynamics of the band.
The Martin Audio MLA system has proved pivotal in coping
with the specific challenges that Red Rocks presents.
Known for the short distance from FOH to the PA and a
limited trim height to the top of the system, Red Rocks
also has an audience area extends out roughly 300 ft. from
the front of the stage with a 105 ft. vertical climb to the
top seats about 60 ft. above the roof of the venue.
Detailing the challenges, Steelman points out, “You’re so
close to the PA at Red Rocks that sometimes when you
make changes to correct the sound at FOH, where there
is usually a lot of high end and low mids coming off the
system, it can have an adverse effect at the top of the
hill. Also, you’re at much higher altitudes where there’s
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CASE STUDIES
less dense air for sound to travel through and you’re very
susceptible to winds blowing through the audio at the top
of the venue.
“With MLA, we were able to walk the show at the highest
seats and see that the people were enjoying the show and
they were as engaged as those down in front, even in the
quieter moments, which really made me satisfied with
the system’s performance. MLA covered every seat in the
venue and helped us accomplish what we needed to in
that environment, which is to have an Avett Brothers show
translate to every seat in the house. I’d have to say it was
one of the best sounding shows I’ve heard at Red Rocks.”
us is that the system can scale from a large amphitheater
like Red Rocks down to a small theater and still maintain
that performance level with high quality audio and the
ability to put the sound where it needs to be. Regardless of
where the band is performing, MLA keeps the coverage so
consistent and non-intrusive on the stage that they don’t
even notice the difference.
For the three sold-out shows at Red Rocks, SES deployed
16 MLA and two MLD (Downfill) enclosures with 6 groundstacked MLX subs per side.
“Ultimately, the sound quality at Red Rocks was great for
the band at all three sold out nights. The same goes for
Sturgill Simpson who opened on Saturday night. As far as
country music goes, he’s definitely one of the new country
pioneers out there whose music and style of playing is a
perfect fit for the Avetts with a wide range of dynamics
that translated extremely well throughout the venue and
fully engaged the audience from the front seats to the back
seats.”
Expanding from Red Rocks to MLA’s overall benefits during
the tour, Cranfill adds, “It goes without saying that Martin
Audio speakers sound good. What’s especially useful for
In addition to MLA, MLA Compact were used for outfills
in several venues: “It’s really good how you can get both
systems to voice well with each other,” Andrew explains.
Red Rocks Amphotheatre, Colorado
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CASE STUDIES
“You can go back and forth seamlessly between the
two systems and sometimes it’s very difficult to discern
whether you’re listening to MLA or the MLA Compact.
“Mixing consoles for the tour included a pair of Midas
PRO6’s with DL371 DSP racks and a DL431 24-channel
5-way mic splitter. The two consoles have their own head
amp control via a digital split and the combination of the
MLA and Midas consoles is like a match made in heaven.
“The control we have with MLA is especially helpful in
situations where we’ve been in civic centers with lots
of concrete and metal surfaces,” Steelman concludes.
“When a band’s dynamics rises and falls as much as The
Avett’s, having MLA be able to project at long distance and
eliminate some of those surfaces is as simple as going into
the software and getting rid of it with a few keystrokes. It’s
quite a nice tool to have in the arsenal without having to
sacrifice something somewhere else.”
Justin Glanville, the Avett’s FOH Engineer, feels “the
MLA’s strengths really show up in large areas where there’s
a long throw, like Red Rocks, the Brooklyn Bowl or the
Garden In Boston. It’s still really clear up top and seems to
be very steerable for the Systems Engineer, which is great
in those spaces because you’ve got to reach every seat so
that everyone can feel the show.
“The system has smooth, warm quality that works well with
the band. An Avett Brothers show is acoustic instruments
for the most part, there are a few songs with electric guitars
but it’s mostly an upright bass, cello, fiddle, banjo and an
acoustic guitar. It needs that warmth.”
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CASE STUDIES
MLA Provides Swansong for Manilow’s One Last Tour
Barry Manilow ‘One Last Tour’ Concert
How does a world-class front-of-house engineer support
a megastar who is very particular about every aspect of
music production in making his grand exit to touring a
success?
Barry Manilow is back on the road for ‘One Last Tour,’ and
this time he really means it. Veteran live sound engineer
Ken Newman, who began working with Manilow in
1992, is mixing with a Martin Audio MLA system for the
first time, engineered by Delicate Productions crew chief
Phil Reynolds.
Manilow had 25 consecutive Top 40 hits between 1975
and 1983 and worldwide sales of over 80 million albums
over his four-decade career. Last year’s My Dream Duets
debuted at No. 4, making it his 15th Top 10 album.
Meanwhile, Ken Newman has worked with everyone from
Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli, Engelbert Humperdinck,
and Paul Anka, and ‘One Last Tour’ represents a unique
combination of best practices he’s built for Barry Manilow
over the last 23 years.
In 1991 when Newman was between mixing gigs, A-1
Audio sent him out as system tech for several of Manilow’s
‘Showstoppers’ shows, with Paul Dalen mixing. When his
‘Greatest Hits’ tour was organised the following year and
Dalen declined, he suggested they have Newman mix, and
the rest, as they say, is history.
For Manilow’s 2015 final arena outing, Newman decided
to make the change to Martin Audio’s MLA system.
Delicate Productions provided the system, which
consisted of 11 MLA per side with one MLD downfill
cabinet. Side hangs were a dozen MLA Compact per side.
Three MLX dual 18-inch subwoofers per side were used in
a cardioid configuration. Front fills were W8LM Mini line
array enclosures. The switch to MLA, however, was not
taken lightly.
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CASE STUDIES
Newman picks up the story, “I first heard about Martin
Audio’s MLA from my friend Harold Blumberg, who had
used it on a number of corporate events. Then I heard from
various other industry heavyweights that I should check it
out, so I attended a seminar at last fall’s AES Convention in
Los Angeles called ‘Not Your Father’s Line Array’ focusing
on the new digitally-steerable line arrays, and learned
about the virtues of Martin Audio’s MLA, which sounded
like just the thing for Barry Manilow’s show. I told Barry
about these cool, new speakers and he said, ‘I trust you!’”
According to Newman, “The biggest challenge on the
Manilow show has always been gain-before-feedback on
Barry’s vocal mic, because he’s not comfortable putting
the mic close to his mouth, and he’s not the loudest singer
I’ve ever worked with. Those factors, combined with his
desire for every aspect of his dense arrangements to be
heard by his audience while keeping his vocal well on
top of the mix, combine to make gain on his vocal mic a
constant challenge.
A final show is scheduled for June 17 — on his 72nd
birthday — at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where
Manilow grew up; so that should be quite the event and
Newman is excited, “I look forward to MLA doing its thing
and bringing the happiness of Barry Manilow to all the
audience members equally!”
Delicate Productions president Jason Alt adds, “It’s a
real privilege to be a part of Barry Manilow’s ‘One Last
Tour.’ I worked as a system tech with Ken on Manilow at
A-1 Audio, and I know MLA gives him exactly what he
has always wanted out of a system: great sound, accurate
representation of the music, and what only MLA can deliver,
control of a system that adapts to the environment.”
“Barry also frequently talks about how the entire audience
should hear everything, with no one being offended by the
show being overly loud, but at the same time by the show
being loud enough to be exciting and moving. So I guess
you’d call that the challenge of even coverage.”
MLA is a powerful marriage of loudspeakers and software,
where transducers are individually driven and optimised
to deliver the summation of crystal clear sound at the
audience’s ears, ensuring even and smooth coverage
across the entire audience.
“The MLA system allows me to spend less time walking
the room because I have confidence that coverage is
uniform throughout,” continues Newman. “That allows me
to concentrate on my main job, which is mixing the show
and making sure the mix is everything Barry wants it to be.
“MLA doesn’t need much in the way of tuning, because
we’ve already entered our target curve into the system’s
software. Optimisation mainly consists of adjusting the
delay times of the side hangs, subwoofers and front fills. It
can be done in as little as 15 minutes.
“With MLA, the level from the front to the rear of the seating
area changes considerably less than with a traditional
speaker system, and the tonal quality is significantly more
uniform. Those are two of the main aspects of MLA that
I really love! Knowing that I’m not scorching people in
front of me with up to 10 dB more level than at the mix
position is very comforting. And knowing that people in the
cheap seats are getting the whole mix and at a comfortable
listening level is so great!”
Having worked with MLA for a number of shows, Newman
really noticed the superiority of MLA when playing one
venue where they had a large [industry-leading] house
system, remarking, “While it wasn’t hard to make the
show sound good, it definitely sounded different. Having
become accustomed to the MLA system, it simply wasn’t
the same even coverage throughout the venue that MLA is
able to achieve.”
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CASE STUDIES
The Killers World Tour with MLA
The Killers
The Killers Battle Born World Tour presented a series of
challenges given the breadth of different venues across
the globe. The need to provide consistent coverage in
radically different venues ranging from Stadiums to midsized arenas to small theatres, casinos and ballrooms,
would test the MLA system to its limits while requiring
careful coordination between different MLA partners.
Thankfully, the tour was well received by enthusiastic fans
and media, earning praise from Rolling Stone magazine for
its “thunderous, meaty sound”, and FOH engineer, James
Gebhard, exultant in praise, “As far as I’m concerned,
Martin Audio has reinvented the wheel in terms of PA
design with MLA, it’s just unbelievable.”
Delicate Productions shared responsibility with Capital
Sound, making a seamless transition in terms of coverage,
audio quality and impact. Asked if the systems were
similar, Killers Front of House Engineer James Gebhard
said, “Absolutely identical. Capital and Delicate worked
really well hand in hand. We did some fine-tuning of the
system in the UK and Capital communicated directly
with Delicate about the details so they could be set up
exactly the same. It was a very quick transition from one
to the other.”
Despite a long association with both Capital Sound and
Martin Audio PA systems, dating back to The Strokes, it
was never a given that Manchester-based sound engineer
James Gebhard would automatically select the new awardwinning MLA loudspeaker array as top of his tour rider for
the Killers Battle Born world tour.
Seeking a flagship system for the tour Gebhard still needed
reassurance about the merits of Martin Audio’s groundbreaking technology when Delicate took the unusual step
of flying him out to LA — believing that once he had heard
it (and tried it for himself), any alternatives would be
rendered obsolete.
“Delicate flew me out for some hands-on experience and
fired up a seven box hang with 12 subs in their back yard.
I did the virtual soundcheck, revised my show file and
couldn’t believe how clear and precise it sounded. With
MLA you could hear every nuance. From that point it was
hands down a winner for me,” said James.
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CASE STUDIES
This was corroborated when he moved onto Indianapolis
to hear the system in action with the Zac Brown Band and
meet PA tech Preston Soper — an MLA devotee since first
setting his hands on SES’s MLA system more than three
years ago.
feature. “We played around with it a lot during rehearsals
in Vegas,” he recalls. “We were in a sound room with
very reflective back walls and ceilings so we set it up
in there, put on the hard avoids and it made the room
sound incredible.”
“With Preston I had the freedom to walk the gig right to
the barrier at the back, and there was no phase shifting
whatsoever. Everywhere I went the sound was exactly the
same. Initially you would think, ‘Well why wouldn’t it be?’
But I have never heard anything like that before. It’s like
an audio guy’s dream. You don’t have to start making
compromises or second-guessing yourself, searching for
holes in the coverage between PA points or the back and
front of the room. You can’t believe it actually does what is
says it does. It completely sold me on the system.”
This came further into its own playing The Killers biggest
ever show at Wembley Stadium. Using Martin Audio’s
Display 2.1 software all reflections or echo within the bowl
were cancelled. “We used the ‘hard avoid’ setting to notch
out the scoreboard and stage slapback, as some of the
band are still on monitors rather than in-ears. It was only
when we took the ‘hard avoid’ off that we realised just how
much slapback there was and how much we had done to
minimise this.”
James Gebhard added, “I wanted the best provider
of that system and having been with Cap since 2001
they immediately made the decision to buy MLA. For a
service provider to say ‘if that’s what you want’, knowing
that it would require a huge financial commitment, was
just amazing. It speaks volumes about the relationship
we have.”
In just a year working with the system James Gebhard
already has the swagger to describe MLA as “virtually a
plug and play system” such is his confidence.
And as for the support he receives, he is unequivocal in
saying, “It’s the guys behind it that makes this work. The
infrastructure between Martin Audio, Capital and Delicate
makes my life very easy. It’s been an absolute dream, they
give amazing tour support.”
The result was identical MLA systems waiting on both
sides of the Atlantic, assuring a seamless transition in
terms of coverage, audio quality and impact.
The sound engineer recalled the first time he actually took
charge of the system. “It was in the two-week production
rehearsal with the Killers in Las Vegas — and it sounded
fantastic. Even the management commented because they
were interested in the sound. I have been with them for
nine years but if I make a suggestion they want the full
justification as to why I have changed, and what advantages
it would bring. During rehearsals they said the band had
never sounded so good and production manager Michael
Oberg was delighted with the decision to go forward with
this system.”
The touring setup included 14 MLA cabinets and two
MLD down fill cabinets per side for the main PA; 12 MLA
cabinets per side for the side hangs; 20 MLX subwoofers
ground-stacked in a cardioid broadside array in front of
the stage along with four MLX flown per side to fill in those
areas. I10 Martin Audio W8LC cabinets along the stage
edge are used for in fill.
MLA’s scalability also proved to be very useful for this
tour, especially given the radical differences in sizes from
venue to venue. As Gebhard points out, “With typical line
arrays, you work an artificial X amount of boxes per side
to do an arena, but because of what MLA does with all
the steering, you can use less boxes for the venue. It all
depends on how you predict the room, what you want to do
and what the software comes up with. Whether it’s smaller
or larger room, you could almost use the same amount of
boxes, which definitely makes MLA a very scalable system.
And the sound was literally identical everywhere we went,
every day, regardless of the type or size of the room.
It was fantastic. “
Another useful aspect for Gebhard was MLA’s Hard Avoid
13
CASE STUDIES
Have a Nice Day with Stereophonics and MLA
Although starting out more than 20 years ago in the
Welsh village of Cwmaman, it wasn’t until 1996 that
Stereophonics secured management, a record deal (with
V2) and embarked on a world tour in support of their first
album Word Gets Around.
Enter front of house sound engineer Dave Roden, sound
rental company, Capital Sound Hire and Martin Audio.
That three-way relationship with the band has remained
intact from day one. Seventeen years on, Kelly Jones and
Co. have just completed another successful arena tour to
give some exposure to the recent album, Graffiti On The
Train, as well as old back catalogue favourites like Dakota.
Roden retains a fierce loyalty towards Capital Sound and
has never been let down by their recommendations. “I
started with the old [Martin Audio] F2,” he remembers
fondly, “and then moved on to Wavefront technology, the
W8L Longbow and LC line arrays — and now I’m using
MLA.” This tour also boasted a number of Stereos crew
veterans — none more so than Harm Schopman, Dave
Roden’s previous system tech, who this time around took
on the role of crew chief, leaving Toby Donovan to fill the
breach.
“I’ve worked with all the major systems but trusted Cap’s
MLA suggestion instinctively,” said the sound engineer.
“All the conversations were encouraging and although
other systems were available, I sensed that the multiple
benefits this product was potentially offering were very
exciting — and as soon as I heard it I knew I had made the
correct decision. Following a very successful tour, that’s
now been unquestionably proven.”
Another who backed the decision from the outset was
band manager Dan Garnett. “He was also very enthusiastic
about the improvements that MLA could bring to the audio
and so the deal was done,” reports Roden.
However, with production rehearsals looming, he took the
precaution of assessing MLA first hand, when the Killers
played the Cardiff Motorpoint — and was impressed with
what he heard. Toby Donovan also partly had that Killers
tour to thank — for he was able to borrow the MLA O2
room predictions taken by their system tech at the time,
Mark Edwards. “Although I did a complete remeasure I
found he was spot on and I used that for creating my 2D
vertical slice.”
Dave Roden knows the value of having experienced
wingmen like Harm and Toby alongside. “The three of
us have worked together successfully many times before
and it’s very much a team approach, leaving me to just
make any slight adjustments I think are necessary for that
particular venue. I owe the consistently high standards we
achieved on this tour mostly to them.”
Stereophonics
For the closing night of the tour at O2 Arena, the scalable
MLA system was rigged 16 x MLA and 2 x MLD Downfills
per side for the main hangs and 13 MLA and I x MLD for
outfills. Subs comprised 14 MLX in a broadside castellated
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CASE STUDIES
sub array, while a further 12 x W8LM Mini Line
Arrays, arranged in six stacks, provided infills.
As for monitors, Adam Zindani and Richard Jones
used a pair of Martin Audio’s classic LE700, while
Kelly Jones relied on two pairs of LE700 — one
pair in front and one pair behind. The side-fills
consist of a Martin Audio 218 and W8C per side
(while a separate 218 was deployed as Jamie
Morrison’s drum sub.
But the real differentiator for the ‘stereosonics’
team was the sub array — with those 14 MLX subs
in landscape formation (nine at the bottom, five
reverse facing on the top). “Because it’s a cardioid
pattern, this really helps the rear rejection,” notes
Harm.
The fact that Toby Donovan doesn’t have to
undertake manual zoning or climb up the back
of the room with measurement mics do much to
reduce the time required to optimise the system.
“This system improves upon the limitations of the
typical zoned approach to line array optimization
and avoids the use of presets. Instead it relies on
accurate predictive modelling,” he confirms.
For Dave Roden, the deployment of MLA meant
a remarkable consistency in room coverage and
pattern control. But his real epiphany took place
at Leeds’ First Direct Arena. “Nothing has been as
impressive as I heard that night at Leeds, where due
to the architecture and other installed obstacles, it
would be extremely challenging to focus the long
throw section of a conventional system at the top
of the highest tier because you need so much uptilt. But with MLA’s facility to electronically extend
the vertical coverage, we were able to hit every
seat in the house to an astonishing degree.”
And as for the sub array, Dave Roden shares his
system tech’s view that it sounds “amazing”. He
explains, “I like to mix from the centre and with
the castellated cardioid array I know I can walk
anywhere and it will sound identical to my mix
position. It’s also helped enormously with keeping
the low end on stage controlled, which for this
band is a must. They’ve been particularly happy
with the results we’ve achieved on this tour.”
Mixing on an Avid Profile (with a fairly flat EQ)
the average Leq at FOH was generally around 100101dBA. “The variation was -3dB at the furthest
audience points,” he noted.
Summing up MLA, he concludes, “This system is
the best thing I have heard, it’s as simple as that.
I have used all the other systems — and all of
them can sound brilliant too — but it’s the extra
facilities that the others don’t have that makes
this what it is.
“The difference between MLA and a conventional
line array is that this
Dave Roden, FOH Engineer – Stereophonics
15
CASE STUDIES
Black Crowes Take On the Best Sounding System
Black Crowes
In 2013, the Black Crowes celebrated a successful tour of
outdoor venues with a joyous December concert finale at
the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.
Like the tour, the concert featured the Tedeschi Trucks
band and The London Souls, with Delicate Productions
of San Francisco supporting with a Martin Audio MLA
loudspeaker system.
According to Smoother Smyth of Delicate, the tour
included sheds ranging from 3,000 to 18,000-capacity
with Black Crowes FOH Engineer Bob Coke “over the moon
about the MLA system.” Setup for the tour included 11
MLA and one MLD (downfill) per side, 8 MLA Compact per
side, and 12 ground-stacked MLX subwoofers.
After the initial summer tour, the Black Crowes continued
to tour using local promoter-supplied systems in the fall.
But because Delicate and Martin Audio MLA had worked
out so well for the band during the summer, the Crowes
decided to bring both back for the finale.
The challenge for Delicate was to completely rebuild the
disassembled system from scratch so that it was identical
to the original touring rig and get it up to San Francisco
for an 8:00am load-in and 2:00pm soundcheck with no
rehearsal time. As Smoother concluded, “It required a
maximum effort on our part, but was well worth it because
we were getting a lot of comments the next day about how
amazing it sounded. The Graham auditorium is known as a
very lively room and MLA allowed us to contain and control
the audio really well. It turned out to be a slam-dunk.”
Bob Coke, contacted in France where he lives and works,
also had positive comments: “I was initially skeptical
about the MLA system. But during my first experience
with the MLA Compact at a circular bull fighting arena
in the south of France––an acoustically difficult venue––I
was truly amazed by the sound quality, color and coverage.
An hour before doors we were told that certain sections of
the seated area would be vacant. The system tech, Andy
Davies, reprogrammed the venue coverage to exclude
that section in five minutes. I walked the section and was
amazed to hear the difference. It’s what convinced me
that the theory behind the MLA system was accurate and
reliable. To be able to reprogram where the sound is being
16
CASE STUDIES
sent in a venue without having to physically change how
the system is flown is quite remarkable.
“We were touring with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and The
London Souls,” Bob continues. ”Each band had their own
FOH engineer with different criteria for the system color,
but the three of us agreed that the system sounded great.
In the mornings, when we were loading in the system, we
would quite often hear from the local crews or local sound
technicians that the MLA was the best sounding system
they had yet heard in their venue. For the size and punch
it can’t be beat. It’s also easy to set up and take down.”
Asked about mixing the final concert, he concludes,
“The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium is a really decent
7000-seater. I mixed the band for their final show LOUD––
louder than the first two acts and the system as well as the
venue behaved really well acoustically at that level. I was
impressed by the sound of the Tedeschi Trucks band and
London Souls, and how sweet the system sounded at their
levels. There were a lot of people who stopped by after the
show to pay tribute to the sound. The best compliment is
when people talk about how great the show was––it’s a sign
I’ve done my job well and that people have experienced the
music in a direct way without having it ‘filtered’ through a
bad sounding system or being distracted by room acoustics
or a bad mix.”
Bob Coke, FOH Engineer – Black Crowes
17
CASE STUDIES
MLA Reinforces Jolin Tsai 2015 Play World Tour
Jolin Tsai 2015 Play Word Tour
Pop Queen Jolin Tsai’s new album PLAY was given the
highest accolade by the Chinese music industry in 2015,
winning Best Mandarin Album at The 26th Annual Pop
Music Awards. Soon after, her PLAY World Tour began and
immediately became one of the hottest events of this year.
After a highly successful 3-day debut finished in Taipei
Arena, the tour ventured into Chinese mainland.
The production for the tour spared no effort. Concert
directors Travis and Stacyz, having previously worked with
Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga, were brought in to make
an unprecedented world class audio-visual feast. In every
respect, from sound, lighting, and stage design, to band,
choreography, costumes and make-up, the production
brought in the best teams from all over the world. Together
with classic songs accumulated during her 20 years career,
the Jolin Tsai tour would give her fans the most impressive
experience to date.
MSI Japan, the company in charge of the sound
engineering of this tour, is one the most respected sound
companies in Asia. From 1998, the company introduced
L-Acoustics V-DOSC, d&b J-Series and L-Acoustics K-1
systems to the Japanese performing market, but, in 2011,
MSI approached Martin Audio, and introduced MLA (Multi
Cellular Loud Speaker Array) to Japan after learning about
the system’s ground-breaking technology.
In early 2012, MLA made its Japanese debut at the Tokyo
Dome for a TVXQ concert, in front of a 55,000 strong
audience. For the first time in Tokyo Dome’s history, MLA
made it unnecessary to set up additional delay towers,
which not only improved sightlines it also added capacity
and enabled more ticket sales. Impressively too, was that
the sound comfortably reached the top floor grandstand,
150 meters away and throughout the arena, both the SPL
and response were incredibly consistent at every position.
Not surprisingly, the success of that concert led to MSI’s
decision to fully expand Martin Audio MLA system as their
main live sound system and to date they have purchased
over 600 MLA speakers.
With its premier status riding high, MLA was chosen for
Jolin’s 2015 Play World Tour. With more than 30 years
of live sound mixing experience, the FOH engineer for
the tour was Mr. Yukihiko Soga. Renounced for his work
on concerts and tours including Faye Wang, May-Day,
Sandy Lam, Sun Nan and many other superstars, Mr. Soka
explained why MLA was selected:
“In my experience, all other array systems encounter
problems with sound consistency both within a venue and
on every stop of a tour. Given this tour was going to have
so many different types of venues in quick succession, the
time required to set up, configure and test a traditional
array would not have been possible and so would have
impacted the quality of the tour.
“The unique optimizing software provided with MLA and
the multi cellular array design itself has perfectly solved
the problems of consistent sound and system design.
This means our mixing output can be delivered to every
corner of the audience area with amazing accuracy and
consistency, which was totally unimaginable before.”
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CASE STUDIES
The 2nd stop of mainland China was at Beijing Capital
Gymnasium and represented the greatest sound challenge
of the tour. Built during the 1960s it has undertaken both
large scale live shows and sporting events. But in 2008, just
before the Beijing Olympic Games, the Capital Gymnasium
was reconstructed to accommodate audiences of 17,500
and since then has been well known for the challenges
of sound design and acoustics for live shows. Couple this
with a tour production that has a four sided stage facing
out to grandstands on all sides, it was required that the
sound should reach the audience in various directions with
constant SPL and coverage. In addition, the main mixing
area was less than 10 meters away from the stage, which
placed a great challenge to the rigging and testing of the
whole PA system. Finally, there was a lot of time spent on
the production of the stage itself with all its special effects
and mechanical moving parts, that naturally meant there
was even less time for the rigging and testing of the sound
system.
The easy, fast setup and testing of the MLA system
showed its clear advantage in the face of such adversity,
as MLA system engineer, Yasuhiko Watanabe, explains:
“Traditional array design would have meant predicting a
result first, and then making tweaks in the software, and
then having to wait for the software to carry out another
scheme, and so on again. The repeated process wasted
much time and the system engineer would lose patience.
But MLA Display software just reverses the sequence. You
start with what you want to achieve and the software works
backwards to calculate automatically what combination
of enclosures and DSP parameters for each individual
acoustic cell delivers the desired outcome. As mixing
engineers and system engineers, we only need to consider
the artistic results, and leave the technical details to the
computer. This is a great innovation of workflow, and is a
blessing for system engineers and mixing engineers.”
Mr. Soka added, “The intelligent optimization process
evaluates configurations of candidate arrays against
various target functions – such as frequency response,
flatness, and sound leakage into non-audience areas.
With the powerful calculating capability, we can retain
full control over the house curves and remain the ultimate
judge of sound quality.”
The sound design consisted of an array of 11 MLA and 1
MLD (for down fill) on each flank of the 2 sides of the stage
facing the wider grandstand, plus an array consisting of 9
MLAs on each flank of the 2 sides of the stage facing the
narrower grandstand. There were also 3 MLX sub speakers
on each flank on every side of the stage.
Along with Mr. Soka and Mr. Watanabe, other crew included
Mr. Hitoshi Adachi who was in charge of the monitor mix,
and Mr. Lu Guohao from MSI Japan Taiwan providing
support for artists and stage sound. Due to the importance
of this tour, Mr. Shuzo Fujii, the chairman and founder of
MSI, and Mr. Motoshige Nishio, the general manager of
MSI, would both accompany the tour throughout but it was
also the opportunity for them to develop a new alliance.
As Mr. Nishio explains, “MSI will keep expanding business
in Asia, especially in China, since the performing market
in China is going so well the future is limitless. So for this
reason, MSI has formed a strategic alliance with Pacific
Budee, and both sides will promote the famous Martin
Audio system together, since MLA has become the new
standard of portable PA system in the world.”
Pacific Budee is the distributor for Martin Audio in both
live sound and commercial projects in China, Hong Kong
and Macao. With extensive experience of deploying MLA
at Shanghai Jazz festival, Beijing Strawberry Festival,
Changyang Modern Sky Festival and many other large
scale domestic festivals, Pacific Budee also provided
several experienced technical engineers for the Jolin Tsai
tour in Beijing, including Mr. Xu Xuan.
On the night of the actual performance, stunning lights,
stage animatronics and special effects, constantly
changing costumes and makeup along with 5 mini films
ensured the fans were enthralled and entertained. Jolin
Tsai was on terrific form, particularly her performance
of the Queen of the Night Aria from Mozart’s The Magic
Flute, which demonstrated her well controlled singing
skill and highlighted the clarity and fidelity of MLA. Given
the concert repertoire also consisted of all manners of
music genre, ranging from EDM, rock and love songs,
MLA’s versatility was also clearly on show. From the
fans to the crew, everyone was in agreement it was an
unforgettable night.
19
CASE STUDIES
Martin Audio MLA on Tour with Kraftklub
KraftKlub
Berlin-based technical service provider Complete Audio
has been touring with five piece Chemnitz band Kraftklub
since February. At the centre of the PA system is the rental
company’s breakthrough Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array
(MLA) from Martin Audio.
The In Schwarz Tour 2015 was launched initially in Austria
and Switzerland, building up to 5,000-12,000 capacity
venues in Germany by the end of March. Comments from
the band and the audience, coupled with posts on social
networking sites, indicate that the tour has already been a
great success and acoustically has left no wish unfulfilled.
Kraftklub has followed the platinum-selling album
Mit K and successful club tour with the In Schwarz
second album — which sets a new milestone in the young
band’s career. The blend of indie beats, punk rock and
rap with the thoughtful German lyrics has attracted fans
across all genres.
Therefore, it was important for the production to reproduce
the high-energy performance, and Complete Audio MD
André Rauhut knew these requirements were best served
by the Martin Audio MLA. His objective was to use a
scalable sound system that would fit all venue sizes.
Nils Uhthoff, Complete Audio’s system engineer, explains
the concept: “For the action-packed show and the
powerful sound of Kraftklub we are using a 20-box Martin
Audio MLA system and four MLD Downfills, which are an
important part of the MLA system.” The two downfills,
which are hung at the base, increase the efficiency of the
entire multi-cellular array set-up because they can provide
up to 15m throw in the region of the first rows.
Providing LF extension are 14 Martin Audio MLX subs.
Any delay positions and necessary outfills are handled
by up to a further 20 MLA Compact elements with an
easy and barely audible transition to achieve perfect
EQ optimisation.
“With the Martin Audio DISPLAY 2 software, I can change
the angle of the PA in each venue as necessary, to achieve
the best audio for the audience,“ continues Uhthoff. “The
software supports me perfectly in every hall calculation.
At Complete Audio we have challenged ourselves on this
tour to ensure every note is right — and the Martin Audio
MLA technology fulfils that goal perfectly.”
Furthermore, Nils Uhthoff states: “Those who know
Kraftklub’s music regonise that the guys are rocking the
venue from the start with full-on sound.
20
CASE STUDIES
FOH engineer Nico Lindner mixes the sound on two Midas
Pro 2 consoles ensuring the lyrics are heard despite the
feverish noise and singing of the audience. The second
mixing desk is in a support capacity, for use as necessary,
because in the past many a beer mug has strayed in the
FOH area!”
Monitor engineer Kai Gerner works on a Yamaha QL5,
mixing Shure IEMs. But Complete Audio have also supplied
10 Martin Audio LE1500 stage wedges as well as a Martin
Audio – WS218X drum fill.
Uhthoff and PA colleagues, Thomas Birnbaum and
Martin Eckert, have made a detailed plan of how the PA
components can be removed as quickly as possibly after
the show.
In order save time and have a stable transport device for
the MLA frames, a special case has been developed with
Complete Audio, containing either two MLA frames or a
mix of one and an MLA Compact frame. Particularly in
large halls where the Martin Audio MLA Compact is used
as an outfill array, this solution proves to be particularly
effective. “This prevents uneven load distribution, which
makes a half-empty case tilt and tip when travelling over
longer distances.
21
CASE STUDIES
MLA Compact Tops Joe Satriani’s Rider
Joe Satriani (Photograph by Christie Goodwin)
For the UK and German dates on his current world tour
the international guitar legend that is Joe Satriani used a
Martin Audio MLA Compact PA system for the first time.
FOH engineer Russell Giroux was introduced to the
remarkable properties of the MLA through Martin Audio’s
US tech support specialist Jim Jorgenson. “Jim got me out
to a demo in the US and I was really impressed by what
I heard” said Russ. “I jumped at the chance to use the
system through Capital Sound for the UK dates and the
results have been stunning.”
Russ was supported on the UK leg by Toby Donovan
acting as Capital Sound’s system tech for the tour. “We
were carrying 12 MLA Compacts per side flown off of a
single point per side. Where rigging points were restricted
the array was light enough that we were able to share the
front truss with lighting so we could get the rig up even
in difficult venues. The system has been great and a real
problem solver for us, no matter how awkward the venue
we’ve had the same great results over and over again
even in the smallest shows where we ground stacked. For
a system tech this is the perfect system as it gives you
exactly what you ask of it every day.”
Commenting on his first experience using the MLA
Compact Russ was extremely enthusiastic. “This show is
all about clarity and power and this rig has it all. The way
the system has adapted to each different venue and kept
a great tonal balance for me is very cool. I had no doubt
about putting this system at the top of my rider and getting
it straight in for the German dates.”
22
CASE STUDIES
Billy Talent Discovering the Power of MLA
Billy Talent (Photograph by Dustin Rabin Photography)
Canadian “melodic punk rockers” Billy Talent recently
wrapped up an arena tour in their home country with
Delicate Productions providing the main PA, which
consisted of Martin Audio’s MLA system, and the band’s
long-time collaborators Metal Works in charge of monitors
and FOH.
The main PA was comprised of 14 Martin Audio MLA
cabinets and one MLD (downfill) flown on each side of
the stage with 12 W8LC per side for left and right side
PA, 12 MLX subs floor-stacked and eight W8LM cabinets
along the downstage edge for in-fill/out-fill. Martin Audio
MA 4.2 amplifiers were used to power the side and infill/
outfill systems.
Asked about MLA’s performance during the tour, Al Woods,
Audio crew chief, said, “The MLA is a fabulous system,
super easy to fly and extremely powerful. It sounds great
and amazingly even throughout the venue. We get so
used to other systems tailing off in bigger venues, but
this fella’ never ceased to surprise.”
23
CASE STUDIES
Products Featured
MLA
MLA Compact
Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array
Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array
www.martin-audio.com/products/MLA.asp
www.martin-audio.com/products/MLA Compact.asp
MLD
DSX
Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Downfill
Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Sub-bass
www.martin-audio.com/products/MLD.asp
www.martin-audio.com/products/DSX-F.asp
MLX
W8LC
Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Sub-bass
Compact, high performance three-way line array enclosure
www.martin-audio.com/products/MLX.asp
www.martin-audio.com/products/W8LC.asp
MSX
Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Sub-bass
www.martin-audio.com/products/MSX.asp
This is just a small selection from a wealth of examples from around the
world that you can find out more about by visiting www.martin-audio.com
Martin Audio Ltd
Century Point, Halifax Road, High Wycombe
Buckinghamshire HP12 3SL, England
www.martin-audio.com
Telephone: +44 (0) 1494 535 312
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1494 438 669
Email: [email protected]