Friday, September 17, 2021
Meyer Sound Resumes The "Long Strange Trip" With Dead & Company 2021 Tour
ProSoundWeb: Dead & Company’s shed and stadium tour is rolling into autumn, with more than 30 concerts scheduled between the August 16 launch in Raleigh, NC and the grand finale on Halloween weekend, and following a decades-long tradition established by the Grateful Dead, this latest iteration of the legendary jam band is touring with audio production anchored by Meyer Sound LEO line arrays and additional components provided by UltraSound.
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I never thought about how running sound from the FOH position could be a hazard for COVID purposes, but I’m very impressed by how Meyer Sound planned to mitigate it. Mixing from backstage is usually detrimental to the audio quality, so by replicating the FOH sound through a monitoring station out front and matching the frequency response to a PA set backstage, it seems possible that an engineer could mix from backstage. I’m very curious to see how much this technology could be extended. If the engineer doesn’t have to be in the front of house, could they theoretically be anywhere? I don’t know how that would work with network latency and routing, but nonetheless it’s interesting to see this idea being developed and executed. It’s also interesting to see how this system of mixing could, in theory, give a better mix quality. As it’s described in the article, by mixing in a separate space, the engineer can mix the sound as purely as they can without wind, noise, or other natural interference. While this structure is neat, I think doing it for this purpose takes away from the element of live mixing being live and in the space. If the audience is hearing all this noise, wouldn’t you want the mix to account for that as well?
I am really excited about this. My dad is a HUGE Deadhead and raised me listening to them. We bonded over talking about the Wall of Sound and the famous dead shows and his experience. One of my goals is to someday be able to take him to another show as my mother decided that she has listened to enough jam bands for a life time. The production department has always and will always be incredible at a Dead show without being ostentatious or pompous. I remember watching Grateful Dead documentaries with my dad at a young age and seeing those Roadies climbing up scaffolding with no safety gear in place to construct the Wall of Sound which I deeply credit with both my love for theatre production as well as safety, my nine year old self was convinced they were going to fall and die on video. I may not be the most well versed on sound technology but just the idea of this makes me want to be. It makes me so happy that the tour is still going through and old Deadheads like my dad get to listen to them live again. And I am especially happy that the sound, which is obviously integral to a concert, will live up to their good memories.
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