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Whether touring with the four other members of his band or performing with fellow guitarist Tim Reynolds, alternative rock musician Dave Matthews relies on Meyer Sound to carry his music to every seat in the house. Matthews, whose debut album, Under The Table And Dreaming, went triple-platinum and earned two Grammy nominations for the single, "What Would You Say," has been using Meyer systems for many years.
Matthews' first Meyer system was a large MSL-3-based system designed by his front-of-house mixer, Jeff Thomas, and San Rafael-based UltraSound, a company well known for providing sound systems for the Grateful Dead. UltraSound provided Matthews with this first all-Meyer system, which featured 64 MSL-3s.
I really liked the system based on the MSL-3," recalls Thomas. "It was clean and very powerful and gave us the flexibility we needed at that stage in the band's career."
When the Dave Matthews Band reached the upper-echelons of the charts in 1996 with hits like "What Would You Say" and "The Best of What's Around," Thomas turned to Ultra-Sound to create a system better suited for the large venues the band was booking. With Ultra-Sound's Don Pearson and Account Representative Derrick Featherstone, Thomas designed a new system based on more powerful loudspeakers, the MSL-10 and the 650-R2.
The new Meyer system features two rows of four MSL-10 cabinets, each flown as a side cluster. Below each cluster hangs a row of MSL-2 cabinets positioned for downfill coverage. Eight 650-R2 subwoofers are mounted in an in-line array on the floor around the stage. When the venue calls for expanding this 180-degree system to a full 360-degree system, 40 Meyer MSL-3 cabinets are added as wrap-around fills.
At the front of house, Thomas listens to shows with a pair of HD-1 powered reference monitors. "The HD-1 gives me the equivalent of a studio-type speaker in a live sound environment," he says. "This is a serious advantage when you're trying to make the system as articulate as possible."
On stage, Matthews uses three Meyer Stealth USM-1 wedges, two of which he controls himself. The remaining wedge is controlled by monitor mixer Ian Kuhn, who also controls a pair of CQ-2s and a USW-1 subwoofer used by the band's drummer, Carter Beauford.
Both Kuhn and Thomas are self-described "addicts" for Meyer Sound's SIM¨ System II. Kuhn uses SIM throughout performances to fine tune the monitor system on stage. He also uses SIM for microphone comparisons. "We use it every two weeks to check the band's primary mics. It keeps our confidence level in the equipment very high."
Working with a local Chicago engineer, Kuhn has even been using SIM System II to check and calibrate the band's in-ear monitors. "We place a very small microphone into the ear canal along with an in-ear monitor and then check the monitor's response with pink noise," he explains. "It gives us an incredibly accurate - down to 1/24th of an octave resolution - representation of how well the monitors are working. You see peaks you never heard before."
Thomas is equipped with his own SIM system at front-of-house. "We EQ every speaker every day," he says, "Nothing ever goes unchecked. I've become a real slave to the SIM System. What sets it apart is that it was definitely designed around live use applications. It's less cumbersome to use than the other systems out there, yet gives you the same amount of information and does so in a way that's easier to use."
After the band's tour ended in December, Dave Matthews toured for six weeks with guitarist Tim Reynolds, performing acoustic duets. For this tour, Matthews and Reynolds used a modified version of the band's touring rig, with 16 MSL-3s, 8 MSL-2s, and 6 650-R2s.
Thomas says he's pleased with all the Meyer systems he's worked with. Whether he is mixing in a club or an arena, Thomas says he can count on Meyer to provide sound that is "articulate, transparent, and just like you were in the studio."
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