on to a bunch of other projects . Then along came the Antifractal Tour the next year , and he actually personally reached out to me and was like , ‘ Hey , we would love for you to come work again ’. And yeah , that ’ s what led to this tour – and this one is a little bit bigger .”
Elaborating on his professional relationship with Subtronics , Matthews fondly calls it “ unprofessional ” due to their friendship . “ I would call him a great friend and a really , really talented guy . I think with the first tour , he kind of learned to trust me , and I noticed that after a while , we weren ’ t really doing like crazy sound checks ; he would basically just go and like , try out a new song that he wrote that day . I got along well with his whole team — the tour manager and his manager as well — and really got along with him as a person as well . He ’ s a very easygoing guy . That ’ s the other thing that really helps , you know , and then we both have a lot of similar interests . Certainly in music , I think we really bonded over being massive fans of Amon Tobin and kind of more experimental stuff like Noisia , and then he and I are really into sort of the older early U . K . dubstep stuff as well .”
As FOH / A1 , Matthews ’ duties include deciding where the rigging points go and how many speakers to use at each venue , as well as mixing the show . “ It ’ s my job to sort of know where to get the volume to ,” he explains . “ We ’ re touring with a Digico SD9 , so that ’ s quite awesome . It sounds great and they ’ re just very solid boards . Then just as a precaution , I actually connected an older analog console as well , so if anything was to actually happen with the SD9 , not that it ever did , but we would essentially [ be back up ] within a minute by plugging in the outputs to the PA right into this backup board . I ’ ve been on other tours where I ’ ve run into difficulties with consoles or , you know , the console kind of craps out . My job is to come up with the remedies and make sure that if , you know , the worst-case scenario happens , we ’ re able to very quickly solve it . That ’ s kind of the main thing there for sure .”
While Subtronics isn ’ t the first EDM artist to headline the Kia Forum , selling out the venue ( which was constructed in 1967 and was previously known as The Forum ), marks a major landmark in dubstep and EDM culture .
As system tech for the Kia Forum show , Aaron “ Zipper ” Zuber was flown into Los Angeles specifically for this date . Very passionate about the electronic music scene and with over 20 years of experience as a DJ and over 10 as an FOH engineer , Zuber is currently FOH engineer for Liquid Stranger and Svdden Death / Voyd as well as a member of the sound teams for Shambhala ’ s Village Stage , the Basspod at EDC Las Vegas , and annual Wakaan Festival , among others .
Being a big fidelity enthusiast , Zuber admits that arenas can pose a challenge . “ I think that once you get to a certain size of room , it just sounds so splashy , and there ’ s so much reverb around that it can really compromise the sound , in my opinion . But the Kia Forum sounded great . I was super happy with it . Bass music is very demanding on a sound system ; you really need a lot of power to create the experience people are hoping for and planning such a massive event , we knew we were going to have to bring our best .
“ We went with 40 PK Sound Trinity Black for the main L / R hangs and split 24 PK T10s for L / R outfill . Kia Forum is a big room and an advantage I really appreciate with these PK Trinity boxes is the integrated robotics giving us the ability to manipulate both the vertical splay with 0.1-degree resolution and the horizontal coverage in five-degree increments from 60-120 degrees while they ’ re flown in the air — without lowering them , changing any pins , or even touching them at all . Predictions are useful , and PK ’ s new . dynamics software is amazing in that regard , but when you ’ re onsite
READERS CLICK HERE
tuning a rig , nothing beats being able to walk around the room and really listen to your coverage while making changes on the fly to ensure you ’ re hitting everywhere you need to be without wasting any energy .”
The PK Sound system , as with the rest of the audio production technologies for the Antifractal Tour , were supplied by Southern California ’ s BNE Productions . As a Member of the PK Alliance , BNE augmented its T10 robotic system with the large-format Trinity Black elements from a nearby Alliance Hub to properly cover the venue and deliver the full impact of this milestone show .
If you ’ ve ever been to a dubstep event , you know bass is crucial , and Zuber had to make sure that all 17,500 revelers felt the low end — even the fans at back of the upper bowl . “ We dropped 30 PK T218 subs on the ground
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 27