The current Maroon 5 V Tour is show-casing something special outside ofthe talents of the band. Longtimefront-of-house sound engineer JimEbdon is using EAW’s new Anya PA,provided by Mike Sprague andEscondido, California-based SoundImage, as part of his system. “It’salways a risky move taking out a newpiece of equipment, especially asound system, but I think we pulled itoff and I’m now very happy with theresult,” Ebdon says.
Anya is, according to Ebdon,“almost a smart PA. I think this is theway forward with loudspeaker tech-nology.” He likens it to the arrival of L-Acoustics V-DOSC back in the day.“When the V-DOSC first came out,everyone was skeptical but it wasquite amazing. I think what EAW hascreated could perhaps be the start ofthe future of sound systems.”
EAW Resolution 2 software is usedfor room modeling, prediction, and PAcontrol; for Maroon 5, it’s in the handsof system engineer Andrew Dowling.“The Resolution software is still in itsinfancy, and the EAW team has beenresponsive to what issues I havefound and has made it substantiallybetter than when I started,” he says.“The software has had rock-solidfunctionality in relation to the directivi-ty. They have been adding new fea-tures to the modeling side of the soft-ware. The real-time control is the partthat I still see a need for growth in—itdoes what it needs to but was a littleclunky for me.”
For Anya, failure is not an option,however. Dowling notes, “The systemmonitors all the drivers. If I lose a driv-
Copyright Lighting&Sound America May 2015 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
er or an amp in one of the speakers, I can let the directivityrecalculate without the broken component. If a power sup-ply, amp, or driver fails during the show, it can be dealt withwithout landing the PA or sending someone in the air.”
As Dowling notes, the amplifiers are built into the cabi-nets adding to the overall weight. “They’re not outrageouslyheavy [they come in at 286lb], and we never experience anyproblems on a daily basis with weight in the major arenasaround North America,” he says. Having amps inside thecabinets provides another benefit: “There are no long cableruns for the amps. We get terrible dampening factors, levelattenuation, invalid limiter settings, and less fidelity when Ihave to run 150' or 175' speaker cables, as are required formodern large arena tours.”
As for coverage within the arena, Ebdon is having stellarresults. “The SPL is amazing; the speaker coverage isincredible throughout the arena. It’s very even and it’s a veryexciting PA to mix on.”
On the road, the Anya has altered the way things aredone to some extent. Dowling explains, “We can fly the sys-tem before the model is done, because we don’t need anyangles. The system is floated to just off the ground and thenI go through and verify the analog signal—there’s no morecomponent testing. I then let the computer figure the direc-tivity. Once that is done, I take a few measurements to verifythe start and end of coverage. I don’t need to spend time
aligning the three columns or doing measurements for frontversus back frequency response and SPL. It took a while formy fellow production crew to get used to the work flow—they see me working on a computer for a longer time, butspending less time running around making noise. After theyadjusted to seeing me on the computer and realized that’show the system works, they’re fine with it.”
The main hangs are comprised of 12 Anya cabinets oneach side with two further columns or eight each to coverthe sides. Ebdon explains, “It’s a lot smaller than a conven-tional line array. We can cover 270° in an arena with a verysmall tight footprint. The Anya hangs in a dead straight col-umn, which is also very sexy and unique.”
Ebdon also uses 11 EAW 2001 dual 21" subs. Heexplains, “They are ground-stacked left and right, and pro-vide enough liquid juice for the low end for me, and they’revery complimentary to the Anya.”
At the front of house, Ebdon is on a DiGiCo SD7 console.“The SD7 with the Waves package; it’s been my console ofchoice since it came out,” he says. He’s running dualengines, a primary and a backup. “I only run Waves on oneengine; I disable it on the second engine, and it’s rock-solid,” he asserts.
Waves is also an integral part of his setup at the front ofhouse: “They just introduced the dbx compressors, whichI’ve been using. I am a big fan of the SSL G-Master bus
INDUSTRY NEWS
compressor and channel EQ, and thenew Waves H-Reverb hybrid reverbthat I’ve been Beta-testing soundsfantastic.” As for the H-Reverb, henotes, “I’ve been using it in the studioas well; there’s not much to test, it’sjust building presets and making itwork. It’s the best reverb they’vecome out with.” At press time, the unitis noted on the Waves website, buthas not been officially released yet.
When asked about microphones hehas chosen for the band, Ebdonreplies with a chuckle, “Shiny expen-sive ones.” Lead vocalist Adam Levineis on a very faithful Shure SM58 wire-less system. “We’ve tried other things,and we keep going back to that,because it suits his voice. He occa-sionally drops them, so we have plen-ty of spares and, overall, they’re quiterobust.” He also has Royer R-121s onthe guitars and a new, lesser-known,mic on the guitar amps: the TUL G12.Ebdon notes, “They’re definitely good-sounding guitar mics, they’re not par-ticularly expensive, and they look kindof retro.”
Maroon 5 has wrapped its USdates; the band moves into Europe forMay and June, then heads to thePacific Rim.—Sharon Stancavage
