Biggest Rig

[Professor Thump]

Okay... Enough small talk about small rigs like KHorns and Cornwall Horns. I mean make up your mind. Is it in the corner or on the wall? I have an hankering for something much bigger. A really big rig. I am thinking more like 500,000 Watts of pure power like Pink Floyd did in 1994 or this picture of the Greatful Dead's rig. How many speakers can you stack? Lets see the pictures of your favorite...

BIG RIGS!

Photo courtesy of Richard Pechner Photography

[Professor Thump]

It started much like this with the Beatles in 1964.

[Professor Thump]

The crowds got larger and so did the PA's.

[Professor Thump]

Who wouldn't want to jam on this!

[Professor Thump]

Come on John. You are cool and all that but did you really need to have four EV horns point blank at your head? No wonder your eye sight was blurry with those SPL levels on stage. But I bet it was fun while it lasted.

[colterphoto1]

Need a shot of the Beates Shea Stadium with those Shure Vocal Master 'towers' aimed up at the audience about 200 yards away!

Phil Lesh uses a tri-amped stage rig for his bass. Chris Squire runs the two low strings straight to amps without much processing, two high strings go through a bunch of envelope followers and flangers before hitting the cones.

I liked Yes's 4 way Clair Brothers rigs before all the line array stuff took hold. Nothing like big boxes stacked up on stage or flown!

M

[colterphoto1]

2x18, 4x10, 2 horns, two slot tweeties

[colterphoto1]

here's one for ya- Yes Tormato Tour - "in the round'. where ya gonna put the sound system? Above the lighting rig, that's where!

[colterphoto1]

Link to CLAIR BROTHERS history on their web site

[bhendrix]

Great stuff, Mark!!

Where are the pics of the largest all-Klipsch PA??

[colterphoto1]

white house lawn

[colterphoto1]

The Pink Floyd Ummagumma rig

Peter Watts (Road Manager) Interview

By F. Torker

Interviewed:

Peter Watts - Peter

On the back cover of Ummagumma is a striking picture of
Pink Floyd's sound gear. Standing nonchalantly amongst the
speakers is Mr. Peter Watts, Pink Floyd's redoubtable road
manager. I spoke to him the day after one of their recent
gigs. It is 5 p.m., Sunday afternoon, May 1973.

Frank: How old are you Pete?

Peter: Twenty-seven.

Frank: What's the official title of your job?

Peter: Road Manager.

Frank: What does that entail?

Peter: It entails being in charge of getting everything
together for them so that all they have to do is just walk
on stage and play.

Frank: How long have you been doing that?

Peter: Ten years.I was with The Pretty Things for about four
years...I started with the Floyd six months before
Dave Gilmour.

Frank: What does your job involve?

Peter: Well...I'm mainly into sound, so I have to get
together all their sound equipment. A lot of it I've built
myself. I sort of ran around and picked people's brains and
put stuff together the best I could. Also when we're on the
road, I make sure everything they want is together, like the
stage is right and the power is right,and so on. Like when
we did a twelve day tour I had to go around five days
before hand and go to each one of those places we're going
to play in, and just spend the day there talking to the
promoter, the hall manager, and all the electrical heads of
departments, going over our rider and all the things that
we specify, making sure that they're all organized.

Frank: What happens on a typical touring day?

Peter: The trucks usually hit the hall about ten in the
morning and we catch a plane to meet the trucks and then it
takes all day from ten to four to set the equipment up, at
least! So the whole day is just spent making sure all the
equipment is working and the band usually come in about
four for a sound check.

Frank: What is the structure of their sound system?

Peter: On stage Rick's keyboards and stack, Dave's guitar
stack, Nick's drums and Roger's bass gear. At this moment
they just use that as a sort of on stage sound which is all
carefully miked; and we've got a P.A. and a mixing console
which we have in the audience, and also a quadraphonic
set up around the house...

Frank: Is the quad directly connected to the Floyd?

Peter: The quad system is in addition to the P.A. and is set up
behind the stage, at the back of the hall and to the right and
left, so the people sitting in the center round about the
mixer get a quadraphonic picture of the sound, like for the
tape effects. Also on the mixer you can punch in, say Dave's
guitar solo into quad, and pan it around on a joystick and
send it round and round the hall - like when Roger does that
scream in "Careful With That Axe" you can sort of fade
it into quad and have it bombard you from all sides.

Frank: Is the P.A. a specific set of equipment?

Peter: Our P.A. isn't something you can just go in a shop
and say "I wanna buy a P.A., John" and come out with that.
Our P.A. has developed with the Floyd the way their music's
developed.

It's just basically amplifiers, speakers, horn units and high
pressure units that we all put together - what I'm trying to
do is reproduce the sound that you get at home with a good
hi-fi system in the hall right, with the mixer so you can have
complete control of the sound they're making on stage...
The mikes, which are standard, on stage, they all come up
a multi-core cable to the mixer and that piece of equipment
is specially made for the Floyd - they said what was
needed; we had an ordinary mixer but after a few years
I chopped it all up and rebuilt it.

Frank: What is the P.A.'s amplification?

[Mr. Jenner shows Frank a photograph]

Peter: That's half the amplifiers we use on the P.A. - that's
6 Phase Linear 700s,right, an electronic cross over,and a
compressor and we use all that each side of the stage to
drive the main P.A. At the mixer we use 4 Phase Linear 400s
and 2 Phase Linear 700s to drive the quad system.

Frank: What about their personal stacks?

Peter: Dave plays through a couple of Hi Watt 100s that
drive an ordinary traditional 4x12 speaker which is
essentially just a 'monitor' for him on stage, although in
fact Dave plays very loud. His main power comes through
the P.A. as it does for the others. Roger has 2x100 Hi Watt
amps driving 2 bass reflex speakers the same as in P.A.
and two high frequency horn units on the top.

All Rick's keyboards go through another mixer which he
also sends through the P.A., or through his Leslies. Nick
doesn't have a monitor because he plays loud enough for
himself and the others to hear.

Frank: And the mixer?

Peter: Sound travels up the multi-core cable plugged into
the back of the mixer and it comes up on a fader like in a
recording studio, and you can equalize the sound that
comes through the microphones and make it treble, bass or
whatever; you can also have echo, and control the volume
through the P.A.i.e. you do all the instruments on different
faders - like Nick's drum kit, there are ten different mikes
and you set the drum balance and send the whole thing
through another fader, and the vocals are the same,
another sub group. In effect you've got someone sitting in
front of this giant stereo just doing a mix of the band live.
The guy who does it is the guy who did their last album -
instead of doing it bit by bit as in a studio he does it "live".

Frank: What speakers do you have for the P.A.?

Peter: On each side we are using nine bass bins for
reproducing any bass sound between forty cycles to about
eight hundred. Then we've got thirty horn units both sides
some of which are mid range and some are higher range.
I've put these units together using a number of makes -
Electrovoice equipment(bass range)JBL equipment
(treble range)Vitavox equipment(mid range) - They're
just brand components which I've used and put together
for what I think is the best hi-fi.

Frank: So, the sound travels from...

Peter: All the mikes pick up the signal and send it down the
multi-core on a balanced line to be amplified by the mixer
which is like a giant pre-amp - then you send it out on faders
down another multi-core which is a stage return which then
goes to an electronic cross over unit which splits the signal
three ways and sends it to the brass section of amplifiers,
and the treble section and the mid range section of
amplifiers. From the amplifiers they go three ways right to
the bass units, the treble units and the mid range units.
It's all split up and goes to the different sections.

Frank: This for every single bit of sound put out by the
band and from tapes?

Peter: Yeah!

Frank: Is that why it's so clear?

Peter: Well...yes - but it's just part of a lot of things put
together over the years...trying to get all parts better,
trying, in effect to get a studio effect in a hall!

Later on two further points were made clear: -

1. The cross over system ensures that the right sound (bass,

(treble or mid range)goes to the right speaker. Thus each

speaker is used efficiently and does not try to reproduce

sounds for which it is not specifically equipped.

2. The nearer you are to the maximum noise output the

more you are likely to distort(just try turning your amp or

player full on). The Floyd have enough amplification not

to have to 'overload' their speakers even at their

loudest.

Pete assessed his role in the Floyd as reproducing to the
very best of his ability the sounds that the band want in a
way that can reach a large audience. I feel that it may be
more than this. His contribution to the sound apparatus is a
necessary part of Floyd music. The way the music is
reproduced has itself an influence on the subsequent
writing and desired 'quality' of the sound job.
Somebody else could do this job, but then perhaps Floyd
music wouldn't sound as it does.

Road Crew

Peter Watts

: Road Manager

Arthur Max

: Lighting and Effects

Graeme Fleming

: Lighting Technician

Paul Padun

: Lighting Technician - on tour only

Chris Adamson

: Sets up and maintains stage equipment

Mick 'The Pole' Kluczynski

: General Factotum,

Tape Operator, Drum Kit, Quad

Alan Parsons

: On tour mixer - Recording Engineer for albums

Robbie Williams

: Stage Crew

Bobby Richardson

: Stage Crew

On Tour

:

Trucking Crew:

Four drivers and two forty-foot

Trailer Tractors

At Gig

: 2 fork lift drivers, 6 stage hands, 2 electricians,

2 soundmen, 8 follow spot operators, 1 house electrician

[colterphoto1]

Dave Gilmour of the Pink Floyd.

Not even Mick Kluczynski could catch him out. "Dave's ears are
phenomenal. The band's backline inventory consisted of anything up to
10 Hiwatt amps, and at the end of 1974, all of Dave's were modified
to have a mixed bright and normal high gain input. They were
identical, but he had his favorites. I would set up his rack, and he
would have three amps in a line (including one spare), with two
Binson echo units on the top. He would come in and do a quick check,
and say, 'I don't like that amp, can you change it?' I'd take the amp
across the stage, walk around the back and set the same one back up,
but Dave always sussed me! He was frightening! He would be able to
stand on stage with two single 12-inch wedges in front of him and
four 4 by 12-inch cabs behind him, all driven from two Hiwatt 100
Watt amps. I couldn't walk into that field, it was too intense. But
he'd call me over and say, 'One of the speakers is out in the stage
left PA.' I'd say, 'F**k off, Dave!' But I'd check and sure enough,
he'd be right, but I never understood how he could tell."

[colterphoto1]

MIX magazine Jan 1999

."Memphis, TN's Orpheum Theatre took delivery of a new
Klipsch Professional loudspeaker system"

[Professor Thump]

I looked but could not find a picture of the Shure stacks from hell.

So in retrospect here is a keen picture of the Troggs kids! Don't you think their striped suits are just neato!

[colterphoto1]

mmm vocalmaster mmm

[Professor Thump]

There are those who claim that Deep Purple was regarded as the "loudest band" in concert. But I would imagine several bands made this claim. I know the the WHO was incredibly loud on stage. Now all they can hear is the ringing in their ears.

I remember that in the early 90's Pink Floyd did a concert with 500 KW stack. Does that ring a bell?

But maybe the most significant contribution to SPL is by Nigel Turfnel from "Spinal Tap" whose Marshall amp "goes to eleven".

[Professor Thump]

This was my first vocal monitor when I was in high school. An Electro-Voice CDP-850T. You may recognize it from MASH the TV show. My parents had a dance band for 30 some years called "Marv and the Misty's" and they used this for the mains with a Bogen tube amp for the PA. They actually work quite well. Very efficient, full range and portable. They are very durable also. I wonder if he still has them.

BTW... my father played the brass instruments and my mother the electric bass.

[Professor Thump]

Speaking of paging reflects horns... now this is a vocal monitor!


Not!

[Professor Thump]

This backline could use some straightening out...