THE
ULTIMATE
RIG
On Bryan Adams’ The Ultimate Tour
D&B J-SERIES & V-SERIES PA SYSTEM ON
BRYAN ADAMS’ THE ULTIMATE TOUR
By Andrew King
At
this point, a Bryan
Adams tour runs like
a finely-tuned ma-
chine. Throughout
his nearly 40-year
solo career, the icon-
ic Canadian artist has performed countless
shows in countless venues the world over
and earned hordes of fans along the way.
A typical show these days is basically
a steady parade of hits – particularly on the
ongoing Ultimate Tour, supporting Adams’
sixth and latest compilation album, Ultimate.
The certified classics are plentiful, from the
high-energy rockers like “Run to You” and
“Summer of ‘69” to ballads like “Heaven” and
“(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” and it’s a
team of trusted collaborators that ensure
those hits are delivered in their purest pos-
sible form, sonically speaking, night in and
night out.
Longtime monitor engineer Rob Neva-
lainen, longer-time FOH engineer Jody Per-
pick, and systems tech Cole Perpick recently
32 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND
spoke with Professional Sound about their
experiences on the extensive global run.
In addition to mixing monitors for Adams
and his band for nearly 20 years, Nevalainen
also owns B.C.-based production rental com-
pany Gearforce, which supplies the audio
systems for all of the artist’s North American
dates. On The Ultimate Tour, that includes a
pair of North American legs between runs in
Europe, Oceania, and Asia.
As has been the case for several past
outings, The Ultimate Tour employs a sub-
stantial d&b audiotechnik system, this time
comprised of a combination of large-format
J-Series and medium-sized V-Series three-
way line array systems.
“One thing we really like about the d&b
systems are that the boxes are all voiced the
same, so when you scale up and down be-
tween the different series, you still maintain
that d&b sound,” Nevalainen offers.
Scalability has long been a concern for
Bryan Adams shows, considering the wide
range of regions and venues a tour might
take him. As Gearforce systems tech Cole
Perpick explains, “This system gives us a lot
of versatility, especially in North America,
where we might go from a 7,000-8,000-seat
arena, and then hit an NHL-sized arena the
next night. It gives us the flexibility of always
having enough output, but a box that’s not
too heavy where we might be restricted on
how many cabinets we can hang. The J and V
combination gives us coverage we’re happy
with in all kinds of different rooms.”
As for the overall design, it’s comprised
of J-Series cabinets for the main arrays, V-Se-
ries for side fills, and a combination of flown
and stacked subs.
“We’re flying the J-Subs behind the
mains and towing them out about 45 de-
grees,” Cole explains. “The idea is to take away
a bit of the power alley from just left-rights in
the air, and it puts a bit of energy around the
side for bigger rooms where we’ll often have
a 270-degree configuration.”
Cabinet size and array length were a