ON THE ROAD: AC/DC
Below: Brian Johnson and the classic logo on the big screens. Bottom: Angus! Angus! The guitar hero’s scissor lift sequence — one of many show highlights.
absorbed into Clair’s inventory when Witz’s the P3000 amps. Clair’s own PA elements underneath your bed, put them on and thought,
company was acquired by the Lititz, PA sound are handled by the company’s iO system ‘ah...that’s better’!
rental giant. management. “On the front end, we have a “This is what I started with but a lot of
Witz continues to work within the Clair Dolby Lake for EQ distribution and delay,” added younger engineers have grown up on PM1Ds
organisation and was consulted on the design Dixon. “I have two outputs for X-Array, two for and other digital consoles, so they’d be
of the AC/DC system which, overall, carries a i-4, two for subs and two for the front fills.” understandably nervous about suddenly being
staggering 96 X-Array cabinets driven by EV “The guys like the look of a big rock’n’roll PA faced with a very manual, analogue alternative
P3000 amplifiers. and it gives me a lot of baffle area,” said Pab. that requires you them to turn real pots and
There are three versions of the full size boxes “Line arrays are great and we’ve played through switches,” continued Pab, who turned 50 last
that appear in each of the main two left/right them before, but they didn’t want the thin month.
clusters: a hi-mid pack and a low cabinet pencil look and it doesn’t suit them. AC/DC are “For me, the Pro 40 is a very simple desk
with two 18” woofers, arranged vertically in known for their big sound and it’s their culture. that does what you ask of it and it’s like an old
repeating columns, and a side column of full “The X-Array sounds really good and Dave friend.”
range boxes which has one 18”, one 12” driver Dixon’s a phenomenal system engineer. He’s What prompted this antiquated choice in the
and a horn, that is positioned at the side of the worked with me on AC/DC and other projects in first place? “It was my idea,” said Pab. “I knew
cluster for short-throw. the past and between the two of us we get the this would be an analogue main mix and the XL4
System engineer Dave Dixon explained the best out of it.” would have been another choice but the band
other elements of the rig. “On the bottom of and I work with an old Neve console in their
each cluster are half-size X-Array boxes with GOLD STANDARD MIX studio, and I thought about what the live version
the same hi-mid/low configuration. Then, at Pab’s move back into the unforgiving world of a Neve would be. The older Pro 40 was the
each side, we have a line array hang of Clair i-4 of analogue with the Midas Pro 40 surely left obvious solution and I happened to know where
[now i-5] flown high up to cater for 270° arena him without the comfort zone afforded to him there was one that had a lot of history.
audience, and there are Clair P2s for front fill. by the instant recall facilities of the Digidesign “Tim Boyle, Pete Cornell and I spent many
These are driven by Crown Macrotech 3600VZs Venue he had been using for McCartney’s most hours at Concert Sound, restoring it with a
and QSC Powerlight 9.0s. recent live work. Q-Tip, wiping away the years of dirt. We had
“There are two lines of 16 EAW SB1000 subs “Actually, I think this is the comfort zone,” he access to lots of spare parts and modules and
on the floor under the stage, powered by Lab. said, pointing towards the Pro 40’s long control made the best we could out of what we had.
gruppen fP6400s. It’s not usually a preferred surface, hand-built by Midas circa 1985 and I’ve actually used this desk many times.
Clair box, but that’s a Pab decision based on his owned by Concert Sound — now also part of “It was built for Concert Sound, probably for
experience of working with Concert Sound.” the Clair empire. Dire Straits with [the late] Pete Grainger at the
The X-Array elements are controlled by “This feels like an old pair of slippers that controls. Concert Sound and Midas would have
XTA processors which share rack space with you haven’t worn for years, but have just found worked closely on what they needed, listening
36 • TPi MARCH 09 TPi MARCH 09 • 37
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