Having recently completed her first full production headline tour, American singer-songwriter and musician Sara Bareilles is set to score a new theatre musical, record a studio album.
The tour took her across the US, and then to Australia, New Zealand and several Asian cities. Trey Smith, who has worked with her since 2008, was particular in his choice of audio system: ‘Bobby George at Spectrum talked me into taking a d&b audiotechnik V-Series system,’ he explains. ‘I spoke to a couple of sound engineer friends of mine to get some alternate opinions – everyone just raved about it. It proved perfect for the type of rooms we’d be playing, a mix of indoor theatres and outdoor sheds; anything from four to ten thousand people.
‘In my early days as her sound engineer we were touring bus and trailer, so Spectrum might just provide a simple console package. They did that for a long time; started with a [Avid] Profile, in-ear systems and a few d&b M4 wedges. It was six years till we carried full production on the 2014 Little Black Dress tour…’
‘This might have been her first full production outing, but it was big; with video elements and a beautiful stage set,’ Smith says. ‘I’d mixed a one-off show at the Greek in LA with V-Series the previous summer, so I had some first hand experience of its physical size and power and I knew it could deliver to the bigger places. That said, I can only emphasise the impact the new D80 amplifier from d&b has had on the system: It’s night and day as far as performance is concerned; night and day.’
Typically, Smith flew LR V8 arrays with the wider 120° horizontal V12 cabinets at the bottom. ‘At the biggest we flew six V-Subs per side as well, and where possible had a twelve cabinet J-Sub array across the front of stage on the floor. Sara is not the Foo Fighters when it comes to low end, but she is dabbling in some tracks, an 808 drum sample for example, and I like to mix big and round so we do need that weight in the low end. Those cardioid subs are great, Sara likes to pull her ear buds in and out depending on how she’s feeling on stage and what song she is singing, that’s why we also have d&b M4 wedges at all her singing positions: not having that low end throwing back on stage is a big help. Plus the directivity we could achieve with the sub arc was amazing. At the Mann Center in Philly we played the Skyline stage to seven thousand people on the lawn. The furthest audience was maybe 300 feet and the system threw way back.
‘My system tech from Spectrum was Chris Michaelessi – my first time working with him, and he did a first class job,’ adds Smith. ‘Whenever there were difficult situations we’d talk and he’d find a way to give me the platform I needed. And fast too, ArrayCalc to R1 Remote network, and then export all the settings right into the D80s the moment they were switched on. I could be up and running in no time; that speed is a bonus when you encounter a tricky room. When you work with a vocal range as astonishing as Sara’s you want to reveal every detail, the voicing of the V-Series is so clear I was never struggling whatever the venue.’
