Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

It got a bit hectic during load out for me. The word came through that a hard drive with the Lyon, France show needs to ship to Los Angeles, ASAP! First I capture the Pro Tools rig before it is buried in the truck. I set it aside and go seek out a Euro to US power transformer only to find the Pro Tools rig hijacked towards the truck. I set down the heavy transformer, chase down the PT rig, come back and oh no, the transformer is gone. Argh. Mark gave me a hand, we located the transformer, an outlet, set up the PT rig and sat there for 25 minutes while the show copied onto another drive, packed it all up and got it onto a truck without screwing things up too much.

Found a tower near the hotel with a pretty bird on top

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Subwoofers and Sub Cannons

I have settled on three variations on a basic sub layout. The goal it to achieve adequate side coverage in arenas out to 135 degrees off of center. In order to achieve this in the limited space available while also present a functional layout, I am implementing a 'shotgun' configuration utilizing time delayed, spaced sub blocks that also double as stage wings. The stage is 5.5 feet high and the stacked subs are 5 feet, so with two 4 foot by 8 foot risers strapped to the side subs, the subs effectively add stable stage width.

Configuration "Narrow" has what we call the "sub canons" facing forward and they are delayed to form a cardiod pattern that then combines with the front line subs.

Configuration "Wide" rotates the cardiod cannons 90 degrees to face the sides of the venue increasing the potential output to the sides.

Configuration "Medium" has the canons facing forward like Narrow with the difference being that the outside subs are delayed 4 feet. The distance of the delay is based on the acoustic centers of the enclosure to the next forward facing row in. This creates a moderate increase in side level over the Narrow setup.

By altering the levels of the various sub clusters, we are able to optimize the low frequency coverage to the venue. All this looks good on paper but the reality is that sub woofer coverage inside complex enclosed venues is only partially predictable. The reality is that we gain more control than a conventional setup it is far from a perfect science and wandering and listening and adjusting is the only way to dial it in. It is still a work in progress but so far we have exceeded the coverage consistency that I have seen other large scale tours achieve.

 

Dave Rat

IWBLBISYILML!