Board tape – EC

For me, going to see the Eric Clapton show at Staples Center in L.A. marked thirty years since a bunch of my high school buddies and I had gone to see him rock the Baltimore Civic Center with Cream, in 1971. Of course, this time around I wasn’t just a punter anymore, I was a punter with a camera, a business card and a working knowledge of mixing shows, after 18 years of doing so myself.

Earlier in the year, I had looked at the EAW 900 series cabinets at Spectrum Sound in Nashville, when Spectrum was confirming the Clapton tour, that was also using the 900 boxes in Europe, owned by Concert Sound UK. Spectrum owner Ken Porter sat down with me and explained how each 900 cabinet could be EQ’ed and time aligned differently, for the purposes of steering the sound to fill every area of a given venue.

The basic boxes are the same size, for ease of arraying, and differ in how they are loaded. Also, boxes with the same drivers may be treated differently by the DSP, to shape the waveforms and send them in different directions. When Ken Berger and I walked the room at Staples, we went up to almost directly under the front edge of the flown array and could still hear CD playback quite clearly. I would have to say that the downfill boxes are pretty amazing that way.

There were also a few KF750 boxes at each corner of the stage, to address people on the floor and lower raked seating. Additionally, sets of Turbosound frontfills were spaced every so often along the front row of the barricade, as center fill for the people seated in the first few rows.

Robert Collins, FOH

Out at FOH, Robert Collins’ gear was pretty straightforward, starring the Midas XL4, and separate computers running the Meyer SIM analysis, and BSS Soundweb system control. A rack of Mackie HDR24/96 recorders were taking direct channel outs from the console, and the night we saw the show, a concert video was being shot.

Curtis Flatt of Spectrum ruled calmly over the FOH real estate and dealt firmly with camera crews asking to set up right in front of the position, and venue personnel wanting to place signs there, directing people to numbered seating sections. Some things never change!

Yamaha’s newest modelling reverb, the RCS Rev 1, occupied a place of honor in the EFX rack, and Curtis had high praise for its sound. A remote for it lived atop the rack, along with one for the TC Electronics M1000. I hate to admit it, but I never knew that XTA made graphic EQ’s, until I saw my first one at this show, strapped across the L/R mix.