Barenaked Ladies Tour North America with Full Meyer Sound M3D Line Array and M3D-Subs
| |||||||
| IMAGES
|
On July 12, the Toronto-based alternative-pop band Barenaked Ladies started their Summer 2001 tour in their home town, beginning a six-week trek across the US and Canada that will cover 28 cities. Band members Jim Creeggan (bass), Tyler Stewart (drums), Steven Page (guitars and vocals), Ed Robertson (guitars and vocals), and Kevin Hearn (keyboards) will be rocking audiences with tunes from their latest album "Maroon," as well as hits from previous outings like their 1998 quadruple-platinum album "Stunt." BNL has been touring with Meyer Sound systems for two years, ever since pro-audio rental company Westsun Jason Sound purchased a complete self-powered system for their Summer '99 tour. In addition, several of the production crew have returned this year from last year's tour, including Front-of-house Manager Robin Billinton and Audio Crew Manager Mike Smeaton. A newcomer to this year's tour is Meyer Sound's M3D Line Array Loudspeaker, featuring BroadbandQ technology. BroadbandQ yields tight directional control of both vertical and horizontal coverage over the full audio frequency range. The technology integrates high- and low-frequency design elements that deliver uniform, distortion-free performance from 35 Hz all the way up to 18 kHz. The companion M3D-Subs add low-frequency power and extend system response down to 30 Hz. BNL's touring rig, also provided by Westsun Jason Sound, consists of ten M3D Line Array Loudspeakers and six M3D-Subwoofers per side, plus three MSL-4s for midfill and two MSL-4s for sidefill on each side. It is almost exactly the same setup used by the company for a tour by Dido earlier in the summer. There is one significant addition on the Barenaked Ladies tour, however: the M3D-Subs, which were not available when Dido's tour began. The addition of the M3D-Subs gave Dave Lawler, sound designer and SIM Engineer for both tours, an opportunity to do a comparison. "When we did the transition to the M3D-Subs at the beginning of the Ladies' tour, it happened to be in the same venue where we had done the measurements for the other subwoofers we had been using. That gave us some hard data about the delays needed for each of the subs, leading us to some pretty obvious conclusions. The M3D-Subs were a marked improvement. "The monitor mixer, who was sitting maybe 15 feet behind the array, was in heaven, because he wasn't hearing all that low-frequency thump from the subs," Lawler remarked. "And at times, the guitar player was just 2 feet behind them, and he wasn't getting hit with the lows either. "At first, we thought because of the wavelength of the low frequencies, you'd have to be at least 20 feet upstage, far away from the back of the subwoofers, before you'd notice any low-end cancellation. But you can stand right behind the M3D-Subs and it's really quiet. They've definitely exceeded my expectations." With the M3D system serving six different bands during the two tours, Lawler had the opportunity to hear it handle a variety of musical genres. "It's a very versatile system. It's got lots of power, great coverage, and bandwidth to take you anywhere you want to go. It's a canvas to paint on however you want." August, 2001 |
FEATURED PRODUCTS |
