Martin Audio MLA multicellular loudspeaker arrays supported the main stage artists at the annual Festival Coolritiba in Curitiba, Brazil for headliners that included Marisa Monte, Sandy, Mano Brown, and Gilberto Gil.
The influence of Monte’s sound engineer, Daniel Carvalho, brought about the change from the originally specified festival system. He had been piloting the mix on the singer’s Portas tour through an MLA rig provided by rental company Gabisom, with Coolritiba part of the 100-show schedule where Monte was top of the bill.
Carvalho reports: “The festival had requested [another brand], but since we were headliners, and they were renting from Gabisom as well, we asked if they could switch to MLA for the festival.” And so they shipped out the boxes to complement the touring rig. “For many [engineers], it was their first time with Martin Audio, and all techs loved the sound,” he continues. The rap guys didn’t ask for additional subs, and the promoter himself said he wants the same setup for next year. Everybody agreed that it was the best sound ever heard at the site, including the Gabisom crew.”
Maycon Mendes, the mix engineer for Sandy, adds, “Every time I use Martin Audio, I am impressed with the clarity of the highs, the definition of transients, and the coverage are impressive, and my master equalizer remains flat. So, it’s just happiness all around.”
Carvalho has been handling Monte’s live mix since 2015 and was a studio engineer before that, during which time he he’s become an eight-time Latin Grammy Award winner as a mastering engineer and mixer.He first encountered MLA when mixing a band at Rock in Rio in 2015.
“Someone from Martin Audio showed me the DISPLAY software and introduced me to the system,” he notes. “When the Portas tour came around, I told Gabi from Gabisom that I would love to try the Martin Audio system. It was love at first hear. At a stadium in Belo Horizonte, Marisa’s manager came to front-of-house and asked, ‘What happened today? The voice is so clear.’ I told him it was our new PA, and he said, ‘Ok, let’s use this one from now on.’”
At Coolritiba, where a crowd of around 20,000 fans assembled, the main PA was rigged as an L/C/R system with 15 MLA and a single MLD downfill at the base of each hang. Outfills comprised seven MLA plus an MLD downfill; there was a delay fill of six further MLA, with six MLA Compact as frontfills. The rig, which Carvalho also helped design, incorporated an array of 32 MLX subwoofers arranged in castellated broadside configuration.
