Pitbull took to the road beginning last August with his “I Feel Good” concert tour joined by special guest Iggy Azalea, with New York- and Miami-based Technical Arts Group (TAG) providing production support and equipment that included d&b audiotechnik KSL loudspeakers for main sound reinforcement joined by a range of supporting components from the company.
“We are a d&b audiotechnik house, so the decision really came between deploying GSL or KSL for the tour,” states Jimmy Ibanez, systems designer, Technical Arts Group. “Will Madera, front of house engineer, is a big fan of the KSL system and with my experience as his system engineer on past tours, I was extremely confident that KSL would fit his mixing style well.
“With the nature of shed tours, we were able to build a package that fit comfortably on one truck and that could deploy extremely fast,” he continues. “The first few weeks of the tour have really proven how versatile the system is, and Will has been able to trust the consistency of the rig day to day.”
“Before the tour I’ve had plenty of opportunities to mix on KSL systems and have had great success,” Madera adds. “So, when Jimmy joined TAG and offered the KSL rig for the tour, there wasn’t much to think about. KSL fits my style of mixing in so many ways. The lows and low-mids are extremely smooth. That’s really the glue that helped me bring out the detail in my mix on this tour.”
KSL modules incorporate two 10-inch front-facing LF drivers combine with an additional 8-inch side-firing drivers for a driver area of over 12 inches in a designe intended to enhance forward output while ddecreasing output in the rear. Y-Series and V- loudspeaker systems complement the tour’s KSL arrays for fill applications.
Specifically, the system utilized 12 KSL8 over four KSL12 modules per side and six SL-GSUB subwoofers on the ground per side, joined by eight Y12 and two Y10p to handle front fill as well as four V8 for side fill. In addition, the stage was outfitted with 14 M12 monitor wedges, and all loudspeakers are driven by 18 D80 (SL) and 14 D80 (SR) amplifiers.
Ibanez notes that d&b ArrayCalc and R1 remote processing played a key role in system preparation for every show on the tour. ArrayCalc is a toolbox for tasks associated with acoustic design, performance prediction, alignment, rigging and safety parameters, while R1 Remote presents a d&b system graphically, channel by channel, loudspeaker by loudspeaker, group by group, with faders and buttons arranged as required.
