Metallica and Meyer Sound: a tandem of power, uniformity and audio quality

An innovative professional audio technology, with Meyer Sound systems as a base, and singular suspended projection cubes have focused the staging of Metallica concerts in Spain.

A complex and large audio montage, composed of more than 176 sound boxes and 84 manufacturer's subwoofers Meyer Sound, has been the technology used by the Thrash American metal Metallica in their concerts in Spain. Digital AV, through the distributor RMS Pro Audio of this manufacturer in the Spanish market, has been able to verify the power and effectiveness of this sound deployment in one of the concerts offered at WizInk Center in Madrid.

At the helm of this audio engineering project is 'Big Mick' Hughes, Metallica engineer for over thirty years, and responsible for the configuration for the rectangular stage of a speaker system of the LEO range of Meyer Sound, which are combined as a novelty with very low frequency VFC control elements from the manufacturer, in TM Array configuration.

the 84 1100-LFC low frequency control units are used as "a sound effect", in combination with the visual, to generate an explosion-like experience, as a wave that makes you feel and vibrate the body, and both the ears", explain from the technical team of the band, thanks to its ability to reproduce a wide range of bass with maximum definition and in a complex circular configuration.

The TM Array configuration is structured with forty 1100-LFC systems arranged in four arrays flown or suspended in the trush over the place occupied by the battery on the stage by Lars Ulrich, thus achieving a uniform pattern, in donut shape, of propagation of the sound of low frequencies to the public that is in the stands.

In addition, working in a circle requires precise control, and in this sense LEO systems are very controlled at low frequencies; since it is easier for the technician to handle the problems that arise with the room environment generated by the rest of the array elements heading in other directions. "Thanks to its phase coherence, you get better penetration into the room and avoid low-medium frequencies, extending to the back and side".

Metallica tours feature their own on-stage monitor system, which typically includes Meyer Sound MJF-210 systems. There is only one aspect to this technological uniformity that Big Mick' Hughes has maintained for years., mixing the live shows on a digital table Midas XL8, with DPA d microphones:vote 4099 on the drums of Lars Ulrich, and supercardiode dynamic models Shure super 55 for James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, to interpret with maximum power in decibels Masters Of Puppets or Nothing Else Matters.

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