For me, it was initially difficult to grasp how the two 15” rear-firing cardioid speakers work to counteract the racket we are all used to hearing off the back of most concert arrays. It helped when Dave described the rearward speakers as a whole different system that is “looking” at the front and compensating with non-linear crossover curves.

The back speakers are phase aligned with what can only be called a “wacky” relationship to the front speakers. They are also working with time relationships, to neutralize the radiant junk sound. Gradually, I started to see that what is being emitted by the back speakers is not related to music in any way, and it is definitely not a simple polarity-reversed version of what the front is aiming at the audience. It is a puzzle piece that interacts with and cancels out the sound waves that otherwise randomly resonate from the back of the cabinet.

Robin Billington

John Meyer worked on several previous Meyer Sound projects that helped set the stage for the M3D’s cardioid feature. The Cirque du Soleil had been set up outdoors in Costa Mesa, and the city authorities were ready to shut it down. High-volume explosions and booms in the soundtrack were just carrying too far. The solution was to bring in Meyer DS-2 mid-bass speakers, placed outside the circus tent, and work with delays to steer the offending sound into a nearby parking lot. Dave compared the process to working with polarity changing and time delaying to reduce an annoying frequency bump from side-fills that sometimes occurs in the center of a stage. Instead, the adjustments create a “null,” and lower the standing wave.

For the BNL shows, 22 speaker zones were being addressed by three BSS Soundwebs. Crew chief for FOH was Mike Smeaton, previously from Auckland NZ’s Oceana Sound, who had been originally trained on SIM by Bob McCarthy, one of its inventors. BNL house mixer Robin Billington welcomed me to front of house, where Dave pointed out the Innova SON digital console, and also the total lack of graphic EQ’s.

BNL had used Meyer systems from Westsun Jason for their last two tours, in 1999 and 2000, a mixture of MSL-6 and MSL-4 cabinets. Even then, Dave told me, they had gotten away from using graphics. All EQ is done within the BSS Vari-curves.

Also up at the FOH tent was the Meyer “RMS” (Remote Monitoring System), which can track the status of up to 120 self-powered loudspeakers at once. It keeps an eye on watts, heat, and output voltage of the amps, and even controls muting, all through a simple XLR connection into each cabinet.

When the show fired up, I was stunned at what a powerhouse big-stage act the Barenaked Ladies have become. My only reference was a show they played about seven years ago in a 600 seat club that I worked in, that Robin and I maaaayybe vaguely remember each other from. At that time, they were charming, but had not developed the musical focus that they showed in Irvine. It was easier six years ago to see that they had started out as street buskers. Now they are a competitive, raging concert attraction, with a string of hit singles, and Robin Billington does them proud out front.

BNL FOH Rack

There are very few effects in the rack. Dave Lawler had joked with me about that earlier, saying that this rack is what you might find in a really nicely equipped club, and it’s true. Robin’s mix is all about vocal intelligibility and faithful translation of the superb musicianship that his guys onstage are delivering. I had earlier remarked on the beautiful vintage guitars and basses racked up in the wings, and Robin had said about the band that “they’re not afraid to spend money.” Certainly this tour could have found cheaper PA’s to rent – but their concern is to bring state of the art sound to their audience.

I don’t work for Meyer, I paid for my own pizza. But the M3D is one of the best sounding systems I have ever heard. Coverage, clarity, it’s all there.

Many of us these days talk about the fact that excellence exists on many continents. As a touring mixer, am I going to get upset if I am handed an EAW 900 rig, a D&B system, Nexo, VerTec, Rat or VDOSC? Of course not. I am going to get busy working with the crew and the drive rack and work to make the thing sound like I want it to.

It comes down to affiliations and teams. Meyer did not start doing this five or ten years ago. They have been at it for a long time, and have plowed a lot of the money they earned back into R&D, and it shows. They also collected people like Dave Lawler and Mike Smeaton along the way, without which you would just have a truckload of black boxes with steel frames. The brains guiding the process each day on site are a huge part of why those BNL fans could hear their favorite band the way they did.

Dave mentioned a phrase I liked, he’s not sure whether he or Jerry Harvey, or someone else, came up with it originally. But it has to do with their work being a question of replacing the “acoustics of assumption” with the “acoustics of reality.”

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