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THE AUDIO system used by John Legend and his 11-piece band for a performance at The O2 (cap. 21,000) in London, as part of the multi-artiste BluesFest event, needed to adapt to the acoustics of a reduced auditorium, with the “horse-shoe” seats on the rear of Level 4 excluded from the mix.
Both the front-of-house (FOH) and monitor engineers for the show declared themselves impressed by the Martin Audio MLA system installed by Capital Sound for the event.
According to FOH engineer Paul Klimson, “The MLA was forward sounding. It sounded like we were at an outdoor festival and all the energy was coming out of the front of the array, with very little spill off the back.”
Because of the clean sound, he was able to do away with some processing and EQ effects he had used in past shows.
“It felt like a clean slate,” he continues. “The low-end down front was not oppressive, but still translated well in the back and upper bowl. There was great transition from mains to side hangs and up to the top seats. Our monitor engineer, Jon Ostrin said it was a great show from the stage as well.”
To manage the reduced upper tier seating plan, Capital focused the main hangs on the lower bowl and increased the size of the side hangs. Eleven MLA and two MLD Downfills were deployed each side as the main hang, with 16 MLX subs arranged in a cardioid broadside array.
