SR/Live Sun, November 23, 2008

Early this year Caesar’s Colosseum underwent extensive renovations to eliminate its raked stage and to reconfigure its Meyer Sound system. Originally built for Celine’s show in 2003 – which played its 717th and final show last December – the 4,000-seat venue underwent a facelift to accommodate Bette Midler’s “The Showgirl Must Go On,” as well as Cher’s May debut, allowing for a seamless transition for all the resident performers who include Elton John and Jerry Seinfeld. “We had to create a system to accommodate all four artists,” says Colosseum Audio Head Dave Torti, who also serves as System Engineer. Francois Desjardin, who is Celine’s System Engineer and mixed her Colosseum show the last few months, aided in the renovation.

The transition from the column of MSL-4s covering the farthest seats to the left and right 8-box M3D arrays has been improved. The center vocal channel is now twin 11-box MICA arrays. The height of the system was originally determined by the sightlines from the balcony to the enormous rear video wall. Six 120-degree MILOs have been added pointing almost straight down and fourteen MM-4 front fills are delayed to bring the image down.

Three Galileo 616 processors provide system drive and optimization. Twin flown 6-box columns of M3D-Sub directional subwoofers supplement the M3Ds, while twin 4-box deck-stacked USW-1P subs continue to provide additional low end. Over four dozen UPA-1P and UPM-1P speakers continue to be employed for surround effects.
At the heart of the system is an SSL MT Plus console at FOH with 96 channels on two layers. David Morgan, who splits his time with James Taylor this year, calls the MT+ “lush and rich” although it is a control surface more at home in a studio or a remote production truck. It required some creative adapting for use as a live console.

For effects Morgan employs a Lexicon 960 for Bette’s vocal and for percussion, a TC Electronic M6000 configured as four stereo machines for piano, guitars, horn doubler and horn reverb, two Eventide Eclipse are used as micro-pitch shifters on Bette and the background vocals, and a TC M4000 for EMT “droid” emulation on drums.

For vocals Morgan relies on Shure’s new KSM9, which he had a hand in developing, set to hyper-cardioid and used with their UHF-R wireless. There are times when DPA headset mics keeps hands free and the show moving, like mermaid Delores Delargo’s wheelchair ballet and alter ego Sophie Tucker’s ribald jokes. She is joined onstage by a trio of backup singers called the Harlettes, and a 13-piece band that includes the six-piece “Fat City Horns” who use nine wired mics (three woodwinds double on flute), plus six wireless.

Morgan uses four inputs for Music Director Bette Sussman’s closed-lid 9-foot Steinway. Shure KSM-44s are positioned one over the low and mid string crossover with a clamp on the frame, and the other near the second smallest hole at the bend in the piano. The third is an AMT M40 at the toe. Finally he uses a Barcus Berry CS-4000 going across the grain in another hole for highs. This approach allows Morgan to deconstruct the closed-lid piano sounds and build its open-lid image, the hardest of live sound tasks.

Joe Menges, from Clair Brothers, mixed the 13-piece band’s monitors on a PM1D located on the second floor, while Brian Hendry (with Tom Petty) mixes monitors for Bette on a Midas Heritage 3000 with a 16-channel XL3 extender from downstage right to ensure sightlines, relying on flown 6-box Meyer Melody sidefills whose coverage overlaps 10 feet past center-stage.