LOS ANGELES – UK rental company Major Tom Ltd. is supporting Usher's OMG Tour with an all-Meyer Sound package built around 72 MILO line array loudspeakers and 40 700-HP subwoofers. The FOH engineer for the tour, touching ground at more than 50 large venues across North America, Europe and Australia, is Tim Colvard.
"My approach with all mixing projects is to have the vocals on top, clean and clear. Once that's established, proper placement of the instrumentation is my next goal," said Colvard. "I try to take the whole set list into consideration to set up the dynamic structure. When the MILO system is properly set up, it is a very transparent and responsive system."
The system for each arena is configured from a touring inventory that also includes UPJ-1P VariO and M'elodie line array loudspeakers, all tied together by a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors.
"I've used many different systems and Meyer is the one, for me, with the best vocal clarity," said Major Tom's David "Digga" Vinnicombe, who was the system tech for the U.S. leg. Bjoern Seelander handles the European dates.
At monitor world, Major Tom's Simon Kemp hovers over an Avid VENUE Profile console, which feeds 20 Meyer Sound MJF-212A stage monitors. "I have hardly any EQ on the MJFs," said Kemp. "They sound fantastic straight out of the box." The foldback system also includes JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers.
The Usher "OMG Tour" gear list includes a DiGiCo SD7 FOH console, API compressors, and Avalon 737 channel strips. Usher's vocals are heard via a custom Crown C113a headset via Shure UHF-R wireless and a custom Shure KSM-9 handheld. For the 27 shows in North America, Major Tom received equipment support from Thunder Audio of Livonia, Mich. Brian Thorene is monitor tech. Jack Dunnett and David Litchfield Klann are audio system techs.
Major Tom was invited by Usher's management to bid on audio production based on the success of other tours with Meyer Sound MILO systems. "It's much like systems we've taken out on other arena tours," noted Major Tom's Chris Marsh, "except for quite a few more subs."
Other productions that have been supported by Major Tom include Rod Stewart, Donny Osmond, Prince, the Led Zeppelin reunion concert at the O2 arena, as well as Lionel Richie, Jeff Beck, Andrea Bocelli and more.
For more information, please visit www.meyersound.com.
