MONITOR ENGINEER SARNE THOROGOOD AT HIS MIDAS PRO X
“We’ve got a total of 56 K1s in the air.
There are 14 on each hang, main and sides,
with K2s underneath. The main hang only
has four downfills and the side has six, be-
cause in places like this, where you’ve got a
lot of elevation, you need the spread to get
it from the top to bottom, so it’s a bit of a
longer hang on the side. For the rear hangs,
we’ve got 12 K2s,” says FOH Technician and
Audio Crew Chief Terence Hulkes ahead of
the band’s Toronto show at the Air Canada
Centre (ACC) on June 11 th .
Providing the significant amount of
low end in Depeche Mode’s sound are 12
flown L-Acoustics KS28 subs per side, plus
another nine on the ground. The rig is all
powered by L-Acoustics LA12X amplifica-
tion with Lake LM44 processing.
“It’s just nice to have [subs] up in the
air because it means you can turn it up a bit
more without blowing people away in the
front row,” adds Hulkes. “[The ground subs]
run at a lot lower level and the real body of
it comes out of the air, so they run at a lot
lower levels to be a bit smoother down the
front to just fill in the holes.”
One notable feature is the decision to
fly the KS28s rather than L-Acoustics’ K1-SB
subs, which was a specific request of King’s.
“I actually really like it,” affirms Hulkes. “But if
you see on other tours, they generally end
up with the K1-SBs up there in the air. It’s
very rare that people actually fly [the KS28s],
but I think it works.”
Whether in arenas or stadiums, the
team opted for the exact same L-Acoustics
K Series configuration on every show. The
only difference is the rear hangs weren’t
needed in stadiums because the sold seats
didn’t extend past the stage. “It can project
an extremely long distance, further than I’ve
heard other systems do, but still maintain a
really good balance,” notes Hulkes. “It’s got
so much power, essentially, that you end
up in places like [the ACC] taking a lot of it
away. But obviously you need it for when
you go outside in the stadiums. You need
everything you can get out of it and you
can really turn it up and you know it’s going
to do that job. You’re never worried that it is
not going to get to the back of where you
point it.”
“The K system is great and its throw is
amazing, which I know from doing these
same venues for years with different PAs,”
adds King. “We started with V-DOSC, and
then you go to K1 and you’re like, ‘OK, I can
hear it at the back now. That’s great.’ It does
have a significantly longer throw than a lot
of boxes. It’s great outdoors as well, when
you