By Mike Rafone

In support of her album, ‘Drag,’ chanteuse k.d.lang recently finished a whirlwind four-month tour of North America and Australia that began last September at Portland Oregon’s Rose Garden Arena and ended with a week at Sydney’s new Star City Casino in their 2000-seat Lyric Theater. FOH engineer and production manager Grant McAree is in his 14th year at the helm, during which time he has faithfully used Meyer speakers for her show. Sound was again provided by A-1 Audio of Hollywood for the American leg of the tour, and Australian production was provided by Jands Production Services. Both companies also worked on 1995’s world-wide 120-show ‘All You Can Eat’ tour and are Meyer dealers.
Besides a lower row of MSL-4 speakers, the previous tour relied on a design that included MSL-5 and DS-2 speakers for the main arrays. This time out the system was almost entirely MSL-4s, while still using MSL-2 and UPA speakers for under-hung down fills and for audience fills at the proscenium on top of the 650 subs. One consideration for this change was the move to an acoustic orchestration to reflect the sound of her new album, and lang affectionately nick-named her band of crack studio musicians the Melotonins.
The other factor was the interest in fitting sound, lights and band gear all into a single trailer for the North American run. This was no easy task considering the elaborate lighting design by Brent ‘Ski’ Lipp, which included dozens of Cyberlight and Studio Color moving lights by High End Systems, plus a set decorated with copious amounts of red velour drape. “The truck was stuffed and within a ton of its legal weight,” McAree comments. “The space and weight saved by the omission of amp racks for the PA made all the difference.” McAree also uses Meyer HD-1 high definition monitors on the meter bridge of his console for near-field reference listening.
Monitor chores were performed by Mark Frink, replacing UltimateEar IEM designer Jerry Harvey, who was under contract to Englebert Humperdink during that period. Because of the band’s acoustic orientation, the move was made back to wedges. A-1 Audio supplied eight mixes of UM wedges for the five musicians and two back-up singers, with a single wedge used for lang under the foot of the piano to fill in from behind. “The UM floor monitors provided me with an excellent foundation and I received numerous compliments from the band,” Frink points out.
After initially trying MSL-2 speakers for side-fills, the move was made to MSL-4s, as they made a better match to the sound of the main system and provided tighter pattern control. “By using MSL-4s for both mains and side-fills we, as an audio team, were able to provide lang with a unified system where the sound on stage could be seamlessly integrated with what was going on in the house,” he explains. The daily routine included placing a SIM mic downstage-center to listen to the combined effect of both systems from lang’s perspective. “The days of making EQ adjustments by ear alone are numbered,” Frink adds. “Tuning monitors without FFT analysis is like wearing sunglasses at night.”
System engineer on the audio team was SIM ninja Jamie Anderson. In addition to alignment and equalization of the rig, daily responsibilities included flying and assembling the PA. A-1 Audio’s system included an elaborate eight-zone drive rack that included 3 BSS TCS-804 delays, 8 channels of VariCurve with the remote controller, plus the multichannel SIM II machine. This was the only rack brought to Australia since it was easier to bring than to duplicate. “The VariCurve’s linking of channels, memories and ease of use were all benefits,” Anderson notes, “however sometimes the filters are not wide enough and, unlike the CP-10, their width narrows at more extreme cuts.” The stereo system’s control was split into two rows of MSL-4s, plus a row of under-hung down-fills below. UPMs were used on the seventh zone for front-fill speakers. An eighth zone was available for patching into house speakers as necessary, typically installed under-balcony systems.
Following the eight equalizers was a Meyer Sound LD-1A line driver. “Its high-pass and array filters save several bands of EQ on the VariCurves,” Anderson notes. “Also, using the LD-1A for speaker muting can be quicker for turning branches on and off than doing it from the SIM.” Anderson usually had an hour or less each day to align and EQ the PA. “The ease with which we were able to assemble the MSL-4 arrays often bought us the time needed to SIM the system.”
McAree elected to mix the PA with a stereo mix, but run the sub-woofers from an auxiliary send on the console. A BSS FDS-355 Compact OmniDrive was used as 3 by 5 matrix for the incoming mix. The first two inputs to the OmniDrive were the stereo mix, which was routed to the stereo mains, mono front-fill and the zone 8 branch. The OmniDrive’s third input was the sub-woofer send which was sent to their amp racks on stage via one of the delays, with each side on an independent delay tap. In the amp rack each sub-woofer had its own delay to allow incremental delay tapering on individual subs. “Careful adjustment of the sub’s delays allowed us to steer the low end for more even coverage and reduce buildup in the center of the hall,” Anderson explains.
One unique aspect of the drive rack’s design was the inclusion of a Meyer Sound VX-1 Stereo Equalizer placed across the entire mix. “The VX-1 was used to gently contour the response of the system and less EQ was required at the VariCurves,” McAree comments. “The gain control on the VX-1 also allows for quick overall gain adjustment.” While McAree had his own graphic equalizer in his effects racks to allow him to quickly make overall mix adjustments to the PA, this was done in a coordinated fashion with Anderson. These adjustments were often backed out of the graphic and transferred to the equalizers in the drive rack under Anderson’s supervision.
The last piece in the drive rack was a custom six-pole, triple-throw switch that allows him to move the eighth SIM branch from the often unused Zone 8 to instead look at one side of either the VX-1 or McAree’s graphic. “This allows the SIM operator to look at the mix engineer’s EQ and quickly move those changes into his world,” Anderson notes. “Every zone had independent control of EQ, delay and muting, plus there was the ability to look at the big picture from both sides of the fence.”
Everyone on the team agrees that it was the best tour they’d done yet, and credits Meyer Sound products and support with making it a rewarding experience.

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