Nick Conti, sound engineer and owner of Tonetronix in Hubbard, OH says he’s found a way to be ready for many challenges his company faces with one strategic piece of equipment, an FBT MUSE 210LA line array.
For the past 20 years, Tonetronix has been serving customers in metro locations that include Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and over time, has deployed a lot of gear before focusing on MUSE.
“What we were going for was to get one box for all occasions,“ Conti explains. “We’re not really using the line array in the true sense of how it was intended to be used – instead of combining multiple units, we’re usually putting just one on each side of a room – but we can still adapt those single boxes to any of the various clubs we work in.”
Specifically, Conti says MUSE is solving problems that are specific to small and mid-sized nightclubs, including the many bodies that are often packed into a small space.
“When you have a lot of bodies that are closer to your speaker system,” he says, “there’s a lot of obstruction to the sound. Years ago, we used to have to build our own cabinets in a horizontal fashion, with the drivers and horns high above people’s heads so we wouldn’t lose the high-end or the mid-range. But with the FBT MUSE, it’s already a horizontal cabinet, so you get a modular, high mid-pack over people’s heads and, as people walk through the venue, you don’t have obstruction to the frequencies that would normally be blocked by those obstacles.”
From odd spaces to metal ceilings, he says that the modules’ controlled patterns allow the sound to travel throughout a room without reflecting off of problem surfaces or causing frequency interaction. Power efficiency is another advantage he cites.
“There are a lot of other brands out there with low power consumption,” Conti says. “But you don’t get the same power out of them that you get with FBT. It’s a really efficient amplifier, and the sound stays very clean.”