As long-term recording and live engineer for Nitin Sawhney, David McEwan saw a performance of work from his forthcoming Dystopian Dream album at the Royal Albert Hall as a perfect opportunity to build on his experience of Martin Audio’s MLA loudspeaker system at the Glastonbury Festival.
McEwan approached RG Jones Sound Engineering MD, John Carroll, and the system was made available within the production budget.
With the British Indian musician, orchestral composer and producer spanning a variety of different musical genres, the concert gave the system an unusually wide spread of sounds and voices to accommodate. While he performed on guitars and piano, the ensemble featured many vocalists of different tongues as well as Björk percussionist and hang player, Manu Delago, and Soumik Datta on the 19-stringed sarod. The band also included two cellists, tablas and drums, and four singers lined up across the stage including flute player, Ashwin Srinivasan.
Fellow sound engineer Steve Watson (who sadly died in 2013) had introduced David McEwan to RG Jones and the MLA: ‘I built up a good relationship over the years and had been badgering them to let me have MLA for the Royal Albert Hall. I wondered what it would sound like after using it at Glastonbury – and it sounded amazing. It produced great imaging – there was a real presence about the vocals wherever you stood – and that’s an important part of the show. In terms of PA’s is clearly the next step up.’
The system comprised 16 MLA elements per side with nine W8LM Mini (and two W8LMD Downfills) per side and further W8LM/W8LMD used as front and in fill. Eight Martin Audio WLX subs were recessed under the stage in a splayed broadside cardioid array to create the required curve.
McEwan’s system tech was Marty Beath, who a week previously had helped optimise the MLA system used for the Invictus Games Closing Concert. As production/soundcheck time at the Royal Albert Hall was compromised, Beath was able to draw on existing presets, previously used by MLA tech Mark Edwards, enabling them to notch out sound spillage at the stage and up to the top tribune, where there was no audience.
Supporting the production was RG Jones’ Jack Bowcher, who has worked many times with McEwan, and was in charge of the stage. He, too, knew the rig would be rock solid: ‘MLA again produced amazing clarity – particularly at front of house – which was impressive considering the nature of the event. The detail you could hear in the vocals was just unbelievable.’
‘This is one of my favourite experiences,’ says McEwan. ‘Everyone seemed delighted with the sound and I will want to use MLA wherever I can.’
