Meyer Sound News : MILO Lauded by Symphony Mixers on Both US Coasts

MILO Lauded by Symphony Mixers on Both US Coasts

"I've heard the orchestra many times in the concert hall with no reinforcement," he says, "and it was amazing to hear that same intimate sound while outside on large, wide-open New England greens."

- Joe Miko,
FOH, New Haven Symphony Orchestra

Meyer Sound's MILO high-power curvilinear array has won a strong vote of confidence from the FOH mixers for two symphony orchestras on opposite coasts, in San Francisco and in New Haven, Connecticut.

"I had never mixed on anything that smooth, and with that much dynamic range and fidelity," remarks Hal Soogian, head audio engineer for McCune Audio/Video and mixer of the San Francisco Symphony's outdoor series for 26 years. "Key people from the symphony management agreed. They don't want to do any more outdoor concerts without it." Back East, Joe Miko expresses similar delight with his experience mixing the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. "I've heard the orchestra many times in the concert hall with no reinforcement," he says, "and it was amazing to hear that same intimate sound while outside on large, wide-open New England greens."

Soogian's first outing with MILO came on July 4 when the San Francisco Symphony presented its annual holiday spectacular concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in nearby Mountain View. An audience of 14,000 gathered to hear a program of all-American classics, with the 90-piece orchestra carried out to the crowd by a McCune-supplied MILO system comprising (per side) two M3D-Sub directional subwoofers, six MILO cabinets, and two CQ-1 front fills, all flown from the venue's rigging points. "It's not that the Shoreline shows didn't sound good before," says Soogian, who has mixed the annual holiday event on many prior occasions. "But never before had I mixed on anything with that amount of fidelity, and with such ample power reserves. I didn't have to keep pushing the system up, and I never had to fight the electronics. The very soft passages were wonderful, and then when it got loud – well, I never had the trumpets biting me in the ear, for example. The system basically acted invisibly."

Out in New Haven, Joe Miko was working with a smaller orchestra and audiences ranging from 2,500 to 7,000, but he did have the pleasure of mixing a full summer series of seven concerts at five different outdoor venues in and around New Haven. This system, provided by One Dream Sound of New York, comprised four MILO cabinets per side stacked on top of two M3D-Subs, with the arrays normally raised on temporary scaffolding. Four UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers supplied front fill. "MILO works exceptionally well for this kind of music," sums up Miko. "It reproduces the nuances wonderfully. People in the audience have come up to me and told me that they noticed a difference this year, saying that it sounds much better. They didn't know what made they difference, but they certainly noticed."

Krista Johnson, operations manager for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, was similarly impressed by what she heard. "It was fantastic," she says. "It's the first time that the orchestra sounded naturally 'symphonic' in an outdoor venue. Sometimes orchestras can sound tinny outside, but this summer our orchestra sounded just like it does in our home concert hall."

Both Joe Miko and Hal Soogian cited the cardioid low-frequency pattern of the MILO/M3D-Sub as a key factor in their ability to effortlessly create a transparent mix. "With so little coming off the back, it allows a whole new approach to mixing," comments Soogian. "In other situations, you might have to notch something out to get a bit more gain, but you don't have to do that with the MILOs. The amazing front-to-back ratio allows you more freedom to develop a natural, transparent mix. For example, there was one point in rehearsals when you could hear the wind noises on the reeds. Somebody from the symphony came up to me and asked, 'What's that sound?' I pointed out that it was the oboe and flute players taking a breath. It was pretty phenomenal to say the least."

Joe Miko was similarly impressed by his rig's ability to throw bass to the back of the audience while keeping the stage quiet. "The system was throwing very well past the mix position but the bass was very well contained near the stage. There was very little blowback and, believe me, the musicians would be the first to notice. But the low end continued accurately well beyond where I was, which I thought was pretty amazing."

Back in California, the final payoff for McCune's new MILO rig came when the show was over, according to Soogian. "The whole rig just popped down. We put it on the rollers and pinned it out, quick and easy. We got out of Shoreline forty minutes earlier than usual, which saved the producer money on another hour of double time for all those people."

Finally, for the Shoreline concert, Meyer Sound brought out one of the first production units of the new LD-3 air attenuation compensating line driver. "It acted invisibly, and certainly enhanced my ability to keep the PA sounding the same from a very hot afternoon through a cool evening," says Soogian. "We decided to buy it on the spot."

August, 2003