Sound Image (Escondido, CA & Nashville) provided Harman’s JBL Professional VTX line arrays and Crown Audio I-Tech HD Series amplifiers for the latest tour by legends Crosby, Stills and Nash, noted for their distinctive blend of vocal harmonies and hybrid folk-rock musical style.
Specifically, Sound Image deployed a combination of V20 line array elements and S25 suspendable, cardioid-arrayable subwoofers at each stop on the tour.
“Typical CSN concert venues vary between sheds in the summer and theaters with a balcony,” notes Gary Sanguinet of Sound Image’s touring division. “Based on the size of the theater, on each side of the stage we hung a split array of six V20 loudspeakers, one or two S25 subs, and six more V20 boxes on the bottom of each hang, and then placed anywhere from six to eight additional S25 subs on the ground for additional low-frequency reinforcement.”
All loudspeakers and subwoofers were driven with 48 Crown I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers, with the recent tour marking the first time Sanguinet and Sound Image front of house engineer Kevin Madigan used the VTX line arrays and JBL HiQnet Performance Manager setup and system calibration software. For the first few tour dates Sanguinet and Madigan worked with Paul Bauman and Eric Friedlander of JBL to dial in and finalize some of the system’s settings.
“The I-Tech HD Series amps have internal processing and presets that are specifically designed for use with JBL VTX line arrays and I have to say the amps work really well with these boxes,” notes Sanguinet, who’s worked with CSN for five years. “It took us a couple of shows to dial in the ‘comfortable’ EQ settings but once we did we found we had to change the settings very little from room to room and they were pretty minor changes at that.”
The group’s emphasis on vocals required a coherent system that has wide, even, linear frequency response with the ability to deliver clean, punchy vocals. “CSN’s vocals are iconic at this point. Other people could try to sing those notes but only CSN sound like they do, so the harmonies are CSN’s signature and they dictate how the system has to sound,” Madigan says.
“The definition and detail are really impressive and bring out the character and distinctive timbre of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s voices to a degree I’ve never heard before in a live sound situation,” he continues. “With the vocal blend so predominantly important, the clarity and intelligibility of this system was a huge part of the success we had on this tour.”
For Madigan it’s ultimately not just about having a “good ear” – he feels that in order to mix Crosby, Stills and Nash properly the person behind the board has to be aware of the musical heritage of the group, what they expect and what their fans expect. “The vocals are far and away the most important part of mixing the show and take the majority of my attention. Everything else is built around that. Having a PA that’s perfectly tuned and exceptional sounding makes mixing much easier. The ability of the Crown I-Tech HD amps to be optimized with the VTX arrays gives me the assurance that the system is always working at optimum performance.”
He concludes, “We’re giving Crosby, Stills and Nash and their audiences the best sound I’ve ever heard from a live sound rig. For a vocally-oriented group like CSN, the clarity and natural, effortless quality this system provides is a match made in heaven.”
JBL Professional
Crown Audio
Harman Professional
Sound Image
