in a block across the front , with an additional six T218 flown per side ,” he explains . “ These 4000-watt 2 x 18 ” cabinets are my favourite on the market because of how powerful and responsive they are . Bass music often has an impressive and quickly fluctuating dynamic range , and the subs being able to react to those peaks and valleys more accurately really adds to the impact of the low end that is so critical in this music style .”
“ Honestly , it was amazing ,” enthuses Matthews . “ I would say that for such a huge room , it sounded great – and I didn ’ t expect that in these bigger stadiums and venues [ where ] there ’ s so much delay and reverb in them naturally . I was kind of pleasantly surprised with Kia Forum , certainly once we got the audience in there . But the other thing is the [ T218 ] subs are just monsters , like it is just unbelievable what these things can do . I almost don ’ t know how they ’ re doing it ; it ’ s as if there ’ s a sub harmonic going on . So that whatever you send those subs , there ’ s always something going on in the 20 or 30 Hz range and they ’ re just so powerful . There were venues on this tour where I actually had to hold back quite a bit . And also , for the first time in my life , some venues in America that we went to were quite older buildings that actually gave me a C weight limit , which was really interesting .”
Of course , any tour or event poses its challenges and for Matthews , the Antifractal Tour has proven no exception . This tour in particular has a lot of rigging considerations as well as other components like a substantial video wall .
“ A lot of times , I wouldn ’ t be able to set up our [ audio ] equipment right away ,” he explains . “ I would have to wait until the other guys were ready or the rigging was finished . There were a couple of venues where we wouldn ’ t be able to actually fly the PA or roll in the subs at all because they would often fork everything onto the deck , so there were some challenges there . And it basically made that we could only do a certain amount of work . And then at the very last minute , we would connect everything , boom , everything would work . That ’ s where the PK system ’ s robotic articulation proved incredibly valuable – getting everything configured and acoustically pristine in just a few minutes .”
With the sell-out show at the Kia Forum ( which also featured Virtual Riot , Must Die !, Leotrix , HOL ! and SweetTooth ) and the tour in general getting positive reviews , Matthews says that his work on the tour is a proud feather in his cap .
“ It ’ s a big step in my career as a sound tech , so I ’ m very proud of that . And getting to this level , it ’ s a bit funny when people talk about doing sound for a dubstep electronic artist . You know , a lot of older sound guys are like , ‘ Well , what the hell are you doing ? It ’ s just two channels .’ So really your job is to get that volume and tonality right . And I ’ m really paying a lot of attention to the audience ... because dubstep fans , they want it so loud anyway . That ’ s also the artist himself ;
28 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
RUAIRI MATTHEWS – FOH ENGINEER / A1
AARON ZUBER – SYSTEMS TECH