JESSE CLEGG TOURS WITH MLA MINI

South African singer songwriter, Jesse Clegg recently completed his traditional national December acoustic tour — and has found a perfect solution for a versatile PA rig in Martin Audio’s MLA Mini.

The system was introduced to him by Audiosure, Martin Audio’s South African distributor, with whom he has enjoyed a close relationship in recent years, since they first introduced him to a mixing desk. When he and long-term sound engineer, Verny Scholtz, saw the need for a compact, portable, high quality PA Audiosure jumped in.

In fact Alison Taman, General Manager of Audiosure, knew right away that Martin Audio’s MLA Mini would be a perfect fit for Jesse’s tour. The locations ranged from open-air botanical gardens to intimate lounges and only the MLA has the power, control and portability to pull off every situation without compromise. “As the distributors for Martin Audio in South Africa, we are thrilled that a prestigious brand and high-end audio system such as this was experienced by music lovers around the country, allowing them to enjoy a world-class talent like Jesse with such sound quality and detail at a live show,” she concluded.

Jesse, who has been following in the footsteps of famous father Johnny, and is well on the way to conquering North America after a string of top ten hits in his native country, said that where possible he always looks to avoid house systems and use his own production.

“I’ve never seen anything like this system before."

“Last year we had challenges when using another PA system,” he admits.

And with club and venue sizes varying between 500-1000 capacity, working with either a three or four piece acoustic band, the Platinum-selling recording artist says it was important that production could reduce sound check times and revert to saved presets, with no variables. “Audiosure arranged a shootout between different systems, and MLA won,” he remembers.

Jesse was soon in production with a powerful package comprising four MLA Mini cabinets per side over a single MSX sub.

“We found the system had a lot of headroom and the volume was impressive. The crew has been able to rig it and derig it quickly which is a further bonus, while in terms of its cutting edge technology, the fact that it has incredibly intricate control parameters is another advantage.”

In particular he says the way they have been able to shape the sound to the physics of the venue has been “fantastic”.

“I’ve never seen anything like this system before,” he concludes.

Photography by Dani Cooperman.