Adlib supplied an L-Acoustics PA for US pop-punk band All Time Low, for their
recent Back to The Future Hearts UK Tour, plus a support package for Special
Guests Maryland Rock Band Good Charlotte, back after a long hiatus.
The PA system technician for Adlib was Alan Harrison, working alongside Adlib’s
Hassane Es Siahi, with Jay Petch looking after monitor world. An experienced and
enthusiastic crew, who all worked closely with All Time Low engineers Phil Gornell
(FOH) and Ricky Fernandez (monitors) plus Good Charlotte’s Jim Carmichael at FOH
and Chris Cotten on monitors. Against The Current was the other support act.
The standard PA set up was 14 x K1 elements per side with four KARA downs, with
12 x K2s for the side hangs.
A dispersed sub array would typically comprise six SB28s at the stage right and left
corers on the floor, and between four and eight more subs stacked in twos across
the front of the stage, depending on the room size and stage-width.
Two stacks of KARA front fills were utilized. As the stage set was designed with a
central thrust, these were positioned on top of the mid front-stage subs in the pit.
Four ARCS2s a side provided in-and-out fills at the downstage corners radiating out
to the sides beneath the main hangs.
The subs were arranged for even dispersion. Alan was particularly keen to cover
the hardcore fan areas either side of the thrust near to the front of the stage with
sub … ensuring those congregated in these positions received the full-on low end
experience characteristic of All Time Low’s raucous rocky sound.
With that in mind, there was much emphasis on the general bass elements kicked
out by the K1. The sub array was run more as an effect via a separate send from
Alan’s control rack which was available for Phil to dial-in to the mix at appropriate
moments, adding weight as needed.
The K2 side hangs were ideal because their 12 inch drivers retain the overall sonic
clarity without adding additional mid or low end muddiness, instead boosting weight
to the sound around the sides of the room.
The main system was driven by LA8 amps, with two dollies each side containing 14
amps for the K1, plus another rack of 6 a side to drive the side hangs.
Phil’s console of choice was a Midas PRO2 on which he used all the on-boards plus a
Waves MaxxBass unit and a mix bus compressor.
Adlib provided a KT-DN9650 Network Bridge to record the show via Dante to Phil’s
laptop, and this was used daily for the virtual sound-check.
One of Adlib’s standard LM44 / LM26 processing racks was at the hub of the system
for zoning and control, and the amps ran via an L-Acoustics Network Manager. Alan
used a combination of SMAART and SysTune for balancing.
Ricky Fernandez specified the stage system which included another Midas PRO2
console through which All Time Low ran their own Sennheiser G3 IEMs and their
own touring mics and cables, fed via an Adlib line system. Adlib supplied a couple
of SB28 subs for low end atmospherics onstage.