INDUSTRY NEWS
Copyright Lighting&Sound
America January 2015
http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
Redeeming Souls…Loudly:
On Tour with Judas Priest
“It’s a loud, in-your-face sound and that’s what I’m trying to
recreate with the PA—the band is pretty adamant that they
want it to be loud, but they don’t want it to be painful,” says
sound engineer and production manager Martin Walker. The
band is the legendary Judas Priest. “They want the PA to
have headroom, for it not to be louder, but to be crystalclear, musical, and loud. And that’s what I try to do.”
Walker, who has been with Judas Priest for the past 15
years, has been a consistent Meyer Sound client. “For the
past six or eight years, I have been using the Meyer MILO
system, which was great, but I must admit, we really did not
have the headroom that was needed,” he says.
When it was time for the band to go out this past fall, he
says, “I was reluctant to take the Milo out again, because I
was struggling with the headroom, and didn’t want my guys
to be fixing drivers at the end of the day.”
Meyer introduced Walker to the new LEO and LYON systems at a demo in Amsterdam. He explains, “The Leo system has been good. There’s been a learning curve. You
can’t just jump in the driving seat; you need to learn the
intricacies of it and what it’s capable of and not capable of.”
Speaking of the Leo and the Milo systems, Walker says,
“There’s the physical difference of size and weight. With the
Leo, they’ve taken Milo and improved on the amplifiers,
drivers, and electronics to give it more headroom. They’ve
also given it a bit more clarity, certainly loads more power,
and loads more throw as well. It gives you that feeling that
you’re very close to the band, audio-wise; even when you’re
in the back of the arena in the high seats, the sound image
is right in front of you.”
Physically, Milo is different than Leo: the former is 54"
wide x 14.47" high x 22" deep, while the latter is 44.42"
wide x 17.85" high x 23" deep. Leo weighs in at 265lb, while
the Milo is 235lb.
Inside the cabinet, Milo has three sets of drivers. For the
low/mid frequencies, there are two 12" cone drivers with
neodymium magnets; the mid highs have one 4" compression driver while the very high-frequencies use three 2"
compression drivers. Operating frequency response is from
60Hz – 18kHz.
Leo has two sets of drivers: For the low frequencies,
there are two 15" long-excursion cone drivers, while for the
high-frequencies there are two 4" compression drivers.
Operating frequency response is 55Hz – 16kHz. Walker has
14 Leos per side in his arena configuration: “For this band,
Leo is the best PA I’ve used yet. It is the one that has taken
the least effort to get to the result I need.”
16 • January 2015 • Lighting&Sound America
The tour plays a variety of venues, so Walker also has a
theatre system, comprised of Lyon cabinets, which he also
uses as side hangs for his arena show. “Lyon is a physically
smaller box,” he says. “It’s aimed at smaller venues, where
you are limited with how much weight you can hang, but
essentially the components are similar.” There are 14 Lyons
per side, as well as four per side under the main hang. Six
Meyer M’elodies provide in-fill on each side in arenas.
There are also nine Meyer 1100 subs per side. “To be
honest,” Walker says, “they are so good that even in arenas
I’ve only been putting six per side. I used to use nine per
side of [Meyer 700-HPs], which were really great. But these
1100s are so powerful. I often had to push the 700s, and
wished I had another three per side. Now I put nine per side
of the 1100s, and six of them stay in the truck every day.”
Walker credits Meyer for the change. “They listened to the
engineers that have used them consistently and have acted
on them—they’ve concentrated on making a more solid
box, they put new drivers and amps in the box, and they’ve
fine-tuned it to make it so much more powerful.”
At the front of house, Walker uses a DiGiCo SD7 console: “I like the sound of it, and I don’t push it to its limits, I
use it in an analog style. As a result, I’ve had very, very few
issues with it.”
He adds, “I have no plug-ins, no Waves. To me, it is
another thing to introduce into the chain that might go
wrong. When computers go wrong, it’s not a quick fix, and I
think that people who pay good money to see the show
don’t want to sit down and wait while some guy fixes his
computer.”
Walker does use some of the SD7’s many features: “I
use the gates and compressors on the desk; they’re a simple piece of gear, and I’m not opposed to that.”
A critical piece of outboard gear is the TC Electronics D2
delay. “The entire show is reliant on a delay. That’s the
sound that they want to put across. It’s a simple unit to use,
it’s programmable, and you can put presets in there. I have
one for Rob [Halford’s] vocal, and a spare as a backup.”
Also used are two SPX 990s—one for vocal effects and one
for reverb—a SPX 2000 for snare reverb and an Avalon 737
compressor for Halford’s vocals.
The show’s audio vendor is UK’s Major Tom. Walker
explains, “It’s a family company, run by Lars Brogaard, the
production and sound guy for Rod Stewart. There’s no big
money, there’s no corporate company, it’s just him. He’s
very personable, and he has enough equipment to do huge
shows and multiple arena tours. He does it in a family way,
so he can compete with the biggest companies like Clair
Bros. and Eighth Day Sound.”
Walker adds, “I’ve gotten great support from Lars and
Major Tom; I’ve gotten great support from Shure mics, I get
great support from DiGiCo, and Meyer, and so as a production manager and a sound engineer, I feel that I am in the
best hands in the industry really.”
Judas Priest recently concluded the first leg of the
Redeemer of Souls Tour. In February, the band travels to
the Pacific Rim, and expects to be back in the US this summer.—Sharon Stancavage
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