AUDIO SYSTEM
Main Stage PA:
16 x Meyer Sound LEO-M
2 x Meyer Sound LYON-M
14 x Meyer Sound LYON-W
Main Side PA:
6 x Meyer Sound LYON-M
22 x Meyer Sound LYON-W
Main Subs:
12 x Meyer Sound 1100LFC
Main Front Fills:
8 x Meyer Sound MINA
2 x Meyer Sound JM1P
4 x Meyer Sound 900 LFC
Subs
B-Stage Mains:
10 x Meyer Sound LEO-M
12 x Meyer Sound MICA
B-Stage Side/Rear:
44 x Meyer Sound MICA
B-Stage Subs:
12 x Meyer Sound 700HP Apple Mac Mini w/Rational
Acoustics Smaart 8
B-Stage Front Fills:
7 x Meyer Sound MINA
2 x Meyer Sound 900LFC MONITORS
FOH
Monitor Consoles:
2 x Digico SD7 Quantum
3 x Digico SD Racks
Console:
SSL Live 500 Outboard:
2 x Lexicon PCM92
Outboard Gear:
Focusrite RedNet A8R
Focusrite RedNet MP8R
RME HDSP3 MADI FX
w/ Waves Tracks Live
UAD Live Rack w/
Ultimate Bundle Monitors:
15 x Meyer Sound MJF210
PA Control:
Meyer Sound Galileo Galaxy
816 AES
7 x Meyer Sound Galaxy
816 Array Processors
4 x Luminex GigaCore 16XT
for example, who have a lot of pressure in
their ears and heads when they play and sub-
sequently want more high-end for reference.
He’s running individual mixes for each
of the 16 horn players, individual mixes for
the three background singers, and then
provides two general mixes for the string
section since they typically want to hear
their collective output.
Mixes for every musician onstage are
delivered via Ultimate Ears UE-11 IEMs on
a Shure PSM 1000 Series wireless set-up;
however, Bublé augments his reference with
a complement of 15 Meyer MJF210 wedges
in various positions on the two stages.
“The main vocal is the money channel,
so it needs to be nice and loud, deep, and
strong,” Depratto says about the in-ear/
wedge combo, noting they’ve opted for
the perforated shells on Bublé’s earpieces to
give him more from the wedges and crowd.
“Compared to most vocalists, Michael relies a
lot on what he feels and not just necessarily
AUDIO CREW
Audio Production
Provider: Solotech
FOH Engineer: Craig Doubet
Systems Engineer/Crew Chief:
Jon Trudeau
Monitor Engineers: Marc Depratto;
Louis-Philippe Maziade
Audio Techs: Charles Deziel; Francis
Lussier; Sebastien Richard; Jeremy Walls
Production Manager/Solotech VP
Touring: Dean Roney
Side Fills:
4 x Meyer Sound JM1P
IEMs:
Ultimate Ears UE-11
IEM Hardware:
Shure PSM1000
(20 channels)
2 x Shure P9HW hardwired
Bodypack Receiver
8 x Albatros Audio PH9B
Headphone Amp
RF Mics:
6 x Shure Axient Digital
AD2G57 w/DPA 4018S
Capsule
10 x Shure AD1G57
Bodypack
4 x Sennheiser SKM6000
Digital 6000 w/Neumann
KK204 Capsule
RF Rack:
Shure AXT600 & AXT620
Spectrum Managers
Shure UA845UW Splitter
3 x ASUS AC3200 Router
Shure Axient Digital AD4Q
2 x Sennheiser EM6000
10 x Shure P10TG10 IEM
Transmitter
what he hears.” Subsequently, the wedges
go quite loud. “When I talk into them, it
feels like I’m mixing a rock band,” he adds
with a chuckle.
The hybrid set-up is relatively new to
him. “I’ve mixed IEMs for a lot of jazz musicians,
and in a lot of cases, it’s the opposite approach
– very precise, very quiet, with everything in
its place and really active mixing with little
bumps here and there. This was a big change
because Michael is very energetic onstage.”
Circling back to the B-stage portion
of the show and Bublé’s transition on the
thrust and gangway, Depratto says the
new PA design pays dividends from his per-
spective, too. “When he was singing into a
super-hot mic in front of a 40-ft. line array,
we were getting major slapback. For me, it’s
a game-changer that he’s never standing
in front of the active PA, so pretty much all
of those issues go away. It’s a big relief and
makes it easier to do a good job.”
The fact that this core group of engineers
have plenty of experience working to-
gether is a major advantage for a tour of
this scale and complexity. Of course, that’s
compounded by the fact that there’s a new
group of musicians on stage in each city.
In total, the production is carrying 20
trucks – overseen by Production Manager
and Solotech VP of Touring Dean Roney,
whose work with Bublé goes back to 2005 –
and audio accounts for a big chunk of that.
“Our bit is 14 separate speaker hangs, two
stages to mic and outfit with monitoring,
and 38 people onstage,” says Doubet. “I’m
usually tuning the system right up until the
4 p.m. string rehearsal – sometimes even
Mics:
17 x DPA 4099
20 x DPA 4060
2 x Shure Beta 52
6 x Shure SM58
2 x Shure KSM32
2 x Sennheiser e901
4 x Sennheiser e904
2 x Sennheiser MKH4116
10 x Neumann KM184
2 x Audix i5
4 x AKG C419
AMT ERTS
2 x Schertler DYN-G-P48
Pickup
DIs:
4 x Radial Engineering PZ-DI
5 x Radial Engineering J48
8 x Radial Engineering JDI
Intercom:
Riedel Artist 64 System
w/ 16 x Bolero Unit
during.” That leads into soundchecks for
Bublé and the band, and then, often, more
string rehearsal. “It usually goes until 6 p.m.,
which leaves very little time before doors!”
Getting everything in place for those
4 p.m. rehearsals is admittedly a challenge,
but at this point, the crew is operating like
a well-oiled machine. Depratto has devel-
oped a system for building onstage as levels
become available while Maziade assembles
monitor world. Solotech’s Charles Deziel
handles all of the under-stage patching, and
techs Francis Lussier, Sebastien Richard, and
Jeremy Walls round out the audio crew.
The tour doesn’t carry a mic splitter;
instead, the subsnakes plug directly into the
SSL ML32.32 MADI analog stage boxes, from
which a passive split relays signals to the
Digico SD Racks for monitors. That means
only one of the monitor consoles needs to
line-check, leaving Doubet and the other
monitor engineer free to handle PA tuning,
IEM and wedge tuning, and so on.
“Working such a big gig, you need peo-
ple that you trust and can rely on – where
you don’t have to think about covering your
six,” Depratto offers. “Everybody chips in a lit-
tle bit and it makes for a smooth experience.”
That’s been the case since Doubet and
his collaborators at Solotech and Meyer
Sound first started sharing ideas about the
unique system design for An Evening with
Michael Bublé – one that, along with a crack
team of dedicated professionals, has helped
the artist create the closest, most intimate
connections with an audience so far.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of
Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 33