TECHNOTRIX SUPPORTS G-EAZY WITH MLA

Chicago's Technotrix Inc. deployed a Martin Audio MLA system for the Midwest portion of the G-Eazy Spring 2016 "When It's Dark Out" tour.

G-Eazy, the popular rapper, songwriter and record producer from Oakland, California, has two successful albums, These Things Happen and When It's Dark Out, and has toured extensively with stops at music festivals like Lollapalooza, Electric Forest, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Austin City Limits, and Made in America.

For their portion of the tour, Technotrix deployed 14 MLA per side with 18 MLX subs––typically in cardioid stacks of three––ground stacked in front of the stage and 10 W8LC per side for off hangs. They also had 4 W8LC for front fill on top of the subs, and 4 Martin Audio XD12 for spot fill at stage left and right to cover the guest areas just offstage. In addition to the audio, they also provided lighting and custom-fabricated scenery and signs.

Off hangs and front fill were powered by Lab Gruppen PLM amps and system control was provided by a mixture of Merlin and Lake processing.

According to Technotrix Audio Manager Brent Bernhardt, 'we covered the near Midwest-Bloomington, IL where the tour did three days of rehearsals, Madison, WI and Fargo, ND. G-Eazy was supported by a DJ and a drummer, who were positioned above the artist on top of the building scenery.

'The MLA system performed really well,' Brent adds. 'Their FOH Engineer Bill Fegley usually specs 24 subs with other systems and was worried when he only saw 18 MLX, but his worries were quickly put aside. He really loved mixing with MLA and didn't want to switch PA systems after our portion of the tour.

'I particularly like MLA for the time it saves when hanging the PA and optimizing the system via software. Everything is so close to show-ready from the get-go that there are only some minor adjustments to be made.

For the low end, which was critical for this artist, Brent explains that 'the cardioid subs worked really well in some of the venues, and we also did traditional all forward facing deployment.'

'The coverage and control with MLA are really exceptional. We had a couple of venues where we were able to turn off the ceiling with Hard Avoid and it dramatically improved the quality by eliminating the reflections coming down from above.'