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Thursday, July 22, 2010

All Access: A Look At Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy Tour

For a tour of this magnitude, carrying double the PA is double the fun in Uruguay.

Guns N’ Roses recently brought the ongoing Chinese Democracy tour to Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay, drawing an enthusiastic crowd estimated at more than 30,000 people that were well-served by a widespread sound reinforcement system.

Three of the region’s sound companies united for this large-scale undertaking, including Leggio Sonido, Marti Audio, and Compañía Uruguaya de Sonido, who pooled a significant amount of audio equipment together for one of the most notable rock concerts to hit Montevideo in recent memory.

The outdoor concert had the crowd was situated on the stadium’s soccer field playing surface, in an area about 350 feet wide by 300 feet long.

A second coverage area was elevated about 65 feet, on an incline of 35 degrees in regard to the ground level.

The stage rested in a lateral position, facing 300 feet across the distance of the second level.

“This event was complicated by a variety of technical coordination issues, structural conditions that weren’t anticipated, and heavy rain throughout the setup period,” reports Ariel Marti, director of Marti Audio.

“Everything from stage rigging and alignment issues to having too little time for setup made this one of the most difficult projects I’ve encountered.”

The main PA system covering this immense space consisted of two distinct loudspeaker setups - one for the instruments and the other dedicated solely to the voice of GN’R lead vocalist Axl Rose.

The vocal system incorporated 16 D.A.S. Audio Aero 50 large-format, 3-way line array modules, flown eight per side to the left and right of the front stage at a height of approximately 30 feet.

These were flanked by the instrument system’s 32 Aero 50 modules,  each made up of 16 elements flown at a height of about 40 feet.

“There were a number of serious obstacles, but thanks to its controlled dispersion characteristics, along with the ease of handling and cabling, the Aero 50 system enabled us to pull everything together,” notes Jorge Leggio, director of Leggio Sonido.

All of these loudspeakers were powered by Lab.gruppen FP 10000Q 4-channel amplifiers, housed with several Lab.gruppen Lake digital processors that were outfitted with remote touch-panel control of all parameters.

Further bolstering the vocal system were an additional eight Aero 12A self-powered, 2-way modules positioned over the center of the stage and flown at a height of 36 feet.

From the ground, plenty of low-end was supplied by 64 D.A.S. LX-218 subwoofers, each incorporating dual 18-inch long excursion, neodymium transducers in a front-loaded, bass-reflex configuration.

These were divided at 32 per side, driven by Lab.gruppen FP13000 amplifiers.

The deep and wide coverage area also dictated support from four delay towers, spread approximately equidistant at a distance of about 150 feet from the stage. 

Two of these towers, immediately behind the centrally located house mix position, each offered 16 D.A.S. Aero 38 self-powered modules.

The other two towers, split out to the sides, offered 8-box Aero 38 arrays, driven by Crest Audio amplifiers. All of the delay loudspeakers were also included in the Lake DSP control and processing network.

Stage monitoring was headed by a Yamaha PM5D console for several mixes to 10 D.A.S. SML12A 12-inch self-powered (biamped) monitor wedges distributed around the stage. Additional monitoring gear as well as microphones travel with the band.

Veteran engineer Andy Meyer chose an Avid VENUE D-Show console for his front of house mix.

“It’s a big band - three guitars, two keyboards, bass, drums and vocals - and that means not just plenty of inputs, but lots of challenges in terms of just getting everything to sit right in the mix,” Meyer explains.

“Setting up different panning and EQ settings in scenes throughout the course of a song allows me to create different imaging and tonality for greater impact,” he continues.

“It makes the vocals and solos stand out to really create a better mix.”

The snapshot automation of VENUE is also a big plus, with Meyer noting he has close to 240 scenes throughout an average show. In fact, he connected a footswitch to advance through scenes.

“It works great for freeing up my hands, although I realized after the show that I was standing on one leg for three hours.”

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