Ricky Martin came to Australia recently, leaving jelly-kneed women(and certain men) piling up in drooling heaps in his wake. Rob‘Cubby’ Colby is probably the best FOH engineer in the world toensure 10,000 people a night got their hips swivelling. ChristopherHolder experiences ‘la vida loca’.

Rob ‘Cubby’ Colby is not a man who’s risen to the top of the livesound heap by big-noting himself. It’s harder to recall a morehumble, unassuming guy. Not to say he hasn’t a lot to bragabout. When you’ve got performing leviathans like Prince andPhil Collins/Genesis on your CV you know Cubby’s done a lotright to be so high up in anyone’s unofficial international front ofhouse engineer ‘Top 10’.

When I discovered that Cubby was doing sound for Ricky Martin, I have toadmit, it made me rethink my preconceptions of the latin teenie-crooner. Thismust be a serious tour!

And it is. Ricky and his entourage are serious about the sound and givingtheir audience value for money. There’s no skimping on the gear and themusicians. If they can employ a musician to tickle a bell-tree or whack a woodblock, they’ve done it – barely a sample to be found.

While in Australia the production availed themselves of Jands ProductionServices and their brand new L-Acoustics V-DOSC system. I was able to catch

up with Cubby for a chat about the improvements in live sound andthe techniques that take advantage of those improvements.

Cubby had a few things to get off his chest as well, whichmakes for some interesting reading!

Christopher Holder: I was surprised to see thatRicky had brought the best part of the Rio

Carnavale on the road. This is a full-

Ricky MartinLive

on ‘Mambo King’ ensemble isn’t it?Cubby Colby: Initially I was very surprised as well.Certainly the integrity of the music is all live. Admittedlythere’s a smattering of sampled drums, but even those aretriggered live by the drummer, there’s no sequencedmaterial. We’ve got three live horn players, percussionists,even a sitar player!CH: So is there a click track?CC: There is a click track but just to establish the meterof the tune, which the drummer follows and then the clickdisappears. It’s certainly not triggering SMPTE timecode,and it’s not triggering anything video-wise. That’s all donemanually.CH: I know you’ve done a number of Latin Billboard

Award nights, but did a big latin ensemble like thispresent you with a few surprises?CC: Latin music, as a rule, is very busy in terms of per-cussion, piano, brass, and has a solid drummer, and basslines. The challenge is to keep everything in perspective.You have to ensure the drums don’t become predominantand get in the way of all the percussion – you need lots ofspace left to flesh out that percussion. But what’s interest-ing about Ricky Martin is that his music borrows muchfrom the latin influences but there’s a lot of conventionalrock’n’roll going on as well. For example, Livin’ La VidaLoca has a latin feel to it but it’s not straight out latin stuff,whereas Maria Maria is more pure latin and requires a lotmore attention to the percussion. For example, in Maria

Edward Shirley Staging were contracted toprovide the staging for the Colonial Stadiumshow in Melbourne. Iain Barclay explainssome of the unusual demands of theconcert:

“I think what soon became apparent was thiswas a very large scale show, definitely thebiggest tour in the world at that time. The rigwas huge, there was 36,156kg hanging fromthe roof of the stage, then added to that weremoving set pieces weighing a good twotonnes in total. This weight presented realproblems in itself. Colonial Stadium, as withother world class venues such as theAmsterdam Arena, is structured such that

the car park is built underneath the surfaceplaying area where the concert was sitting.(Itwould not be cost effective to build a carpark that is strong enough to hold up theoccasional Ricky Martin show when it isperfectly fine the rest of the time.) By far themost efficient way of solving the problem wasto get ESS in when they needed to backprop. We had to go in to the carpark anderect eight blocks of scaffolds to relieve theexcess stresses – basically we were keepingthe stage from falling into the carpark!

“Also, given this was the first V-DOSC tourwe’ve seen in Australia and the huge RickyMartin Rig we needed to tailor the staging

accordingly to its demands. We changed theshape of the roof from the regular ESS 24m by18m dimensions to 24m by 24m, a 33 percentincrease – but still supported on only fourtowers which enabled vastly improved sightlines.

“I should add that despite the extra materialsand extra workload we were able to meet theschedule. The stage was up and ready in two12 hour shifts and then cleared the morningafter by 11:30.”

Edward Shirley Staging Australia: (02) 96669566

Ricky Martin Staging at Colonial Stadium.

33

Latin leviathan: The Ricky Martin rig weighed in at a hefty 36 tonnes. Note the two V-DOSC arrays.

Maria there’s a little bell sound that plays a syncopatedrhythm, that’s what the dance step is based on, so you’vegot to keep things out of the way so it can be heard. Ifthose little latin punctuations get swamped, it wouldbecome a straight 2/4 meter.CH: Is there anything more to it technically thankeeping your fingers on the faders?CC: Technically, it is about balancing.CH: But what about panning and effects, do you usequite a bit of that to create more space in the mix?CC: Certainly. And this is something that the V-DOSC rigallows you to do more than in the past. For example, if Ihad all the percussion laying on top of all the drumscoming down the centre, along with the bass and all thekeys, well, I’d be up against it. So, if the keyboards arepositioned stage right, then that’s where my panning’sgoing to be – not full right, but more like 2 o’clock on thepan pot – that way you have a sense of hearing them inperspective. The same goes for the guitar players; I matchtheir position on the stage. No instrumentalist is up themiddle unless they’re taking a solo. So you’re creating aleft, right and centre depth, with bass, kick drum, snaredrum and Ricky’s vocal being right in front.CH: I noticed the horns really have some width in themix, how do you achieve that?CC: I’ve always used a certain technique with live horns: Ipan them hard left, and feed an aux bus into anythingbetween a 25ms and 40ms delay, which is panned hardright. So you get a really wide horn sound. It’s not delayedenough to detract from hearing it properly, but enough togive this big sound, which makes such an impact whenyou hear it. There are three horn guys up there trying tobe heard over all this low end, low mid, and midrangeinformation, and this technique does the trick!CH: What about the V-DOSC, is it the way of thefuture?CC: I think it is. I’m most impressed. Everyone has had a

really good go at their own proprietary sound systems:the Prism system, Clair’s S4 the P4, the EAW stuff, theMeyer rigs, the EV X-Array – it’s all been very good. Butthis has been the most impressive set up that I’ve walkedup to and enjoyed mixing on. Even just for that vocallow/mid to midrange clarity that really comes to you –you don’t have to work hard at getting it there. Andbecause there’s such an even coverage. You’ve got the twocolumns giving 180 degree coverage, and it’s so seamlesstop to bottom.CH: Does that translate to being quite an easy systemto consistently get sounding good in any shape room?CC: When I set up a rig, I don’t do a lot of hunting andpecking in the graphic stuff – with anybody’s PA I just tryand get the most out of it, and get the funny room char-acteristics out of the system if I have to. But the V-DOSCstuff is just instantaneous. You turn it on, (I have my ownvocal mic I use and I have a couple of reference tracks Ilisten to), and it’s just all there, right off the bat.Compared to the American or the European V-DOSCshows, the Australian gigs just mean a different serialnumber on the back of the box. Similarly, I’ve heard themwith Crown amps, I’ve heard them with Crest, and theCamco amp, I’ve heard them with the L-Acoustics amp –and they’ve all sounded very good. I’ve gone from indoorarenas of 20k, to big domes of 30k to outdoors that were40k, and I’ve only needed to adding delays.CH: Do you hang additional arrays to use as yourdelays or conventional stacks?CC: For all of the inner coverage, the first 20k people Iuse the main arrays. Then mostly I’ve used another threearrays to address the remainder of the audience. I’ll flythe delay arrays inverted behind the FOH mix tower.CH: Inverted?CC: Yeah. You can take the V-DOSC fly bar and you invertit, so you get the opposite shaped arc to what you’d haveon the main arrays. That way you get a more even

“I’m so against all this ‘lights/videoversus audio’ lop-sided budgetnightmare. I’m over it. Ricky Martin is,Phil Collins is, any one I have anythingto do with just won’t put up with thesort of inequality we’re often seeing. Noone goes home humming the lights.They get excited about the music, firstand foremost. If the budget is lop sidedand the bean counters say, “we justcan’t afford that Cubby”, I’m not evengoing there. That’s not a place for meto be, because I’m the mixer and I wantthe best sound I can manage tomuster. Sure, I want it to be a goodshow for everybody involved, but Idon’t want it so that it’s absolutely lop-sided… it’s pathetic. ‘No were notgoing to carry PA because we’recarrying video.’ F#@k that, I’m notgoing there. And neither is the artist. Sowho’s making that decision? I know it’s

not the artist. So why did we spend somuch time getting the music togetherand going into production rehearsals?It’s not to rehearse where the artist isgoing to be standing on stage for thevideo guys to get it right.

“I’m not trying to be offensive to thosedepartments – I think all departmentsmake it be a good show – but at timesI get so discouraged that the budgetshave been so drastically different. If yousaid you wanted to try somethingspecial, or that you needed extra stufffor a bigger venue: ‘No no, we’realready over budget.’ There’ssomething really wrong there. Anyway,you throw your weight around, you getthe extra delays, and the next morningyou read in the papers: ‘thankgoodness for the delays because myseat was so far up in the air I can’t

imagine what it would be like withoutthe delays.’ Or there’s been otherreviews: ‘My seat was actually behindthe stage, and it was the best sound I’dever heard, even better than what I’veheard in front of the stage at a concert.’

“You have to go around and wave thesereviews in people’s faces, ‘see, it wasworth every penny!’. You’ve got to usethose comments to your advantage;you’ve got to let them know it’s worth it.Unfortunately if the bean counters getaway with it once, they’ll get away withit again – you have to set a precedentright up front.

“Fortunately, the acts I’ve worked within the last 20 years care so much aboutthe music, they understand the reasonsfor why you want that extra equipment.Others aren’t so lucky.”

Audio Pros unite! Cubby rails against lop-sided touring budgets.

34

coverage across the outer audience – you don’t need to hit the people somuch right under the delay arrays because they’re already getting quite alot from the FOH arrays.

So we put 10 foot high scaffold behind the mix position and we puttwo arrays up on the sides and point them to the corners, and put athird one in the middle, all at different delay times. It’s all mono backthere, but the audience are getting their stereo effects from the main PA.

Then we’ll place probably four subs on the ground underneath thedelays, it’s great.CH: Traditionally, those people covered by delay towers aren’tgetting the full whack are they?CC: That’s right and we like to get those back corners rocking. Thedelays aren’t there as a subtlety thing, for getting the voice there – wecan get the whole music mix right to the back of the audience, so whynot do it? Ricky likes his audience up and dancing. The Sydneyaudience was great because it’s a vocal audience. As soon as heappears at the opening of the show, they stretch their vocal chords, it’sexciting. And I’ve got plenty of horse power to get over that roar if Iwant to, but I don’t. I don’t drown the audience out, I let them be thelevel arbiter – they’re the rev limiter on the PA system if you like.CH: You mentioned the clarity of the V-DOSC earlier, does thatallow you to think more creatively?CC: If you start having fun with a new PA it does get your creativejuices flowing. For example, currently I’m doing something with an 11second reverb. At the end of a drum break I create my own reversereverb on the snare. I can bring that in and out when I want to make itseem like it moves over the audience’s head. Using the autopanner onthe percussion pads makes it sound like it’s almost moving back andforth. For instance, on the Cure tour (using a Britannia Row-suppliedTurbosound rig) we had a breaking glass effect, and some nights itwould be magical. The autopanner captured the glass and it almostsounded like it landed at your feet. That sort of effect isn’t possiblewithout good stereo imaging.CH: Is a system like the V-DOSC a bit disarming to those new to it,or can you just rock up and get the most from it.CC: I think it is going to allow more comfort to anyone walking up it withno prior line array experience. It’s a really natural sounding vocal, whichis half the struggle. People who have been mixing a while have no troublegetting a fairly decent drum sound and keyboards sound etc., but it’salways been the vocal intelligibility that’s been lacking in the perfor-mance. “It was great, it sounded really good, but if only the voice couldhave been just a little bit louder it would have been perfect.” This soundsystem aids in that area. And, if you have enough time during productionrehearsals, you can be more creative with stereo effects, and you canminimise things that are distracting to the mix. Which, again, is largelydown to not having to fight to get the vocal up over everything else.

I can tell you, I’ve used several different vocal mics with Ricky andgetting that killer vocal sound isn’t so much down to the mic – it’sbeen about acoustically fighting the properties of the boxes. Tradition-ally they’ve had too much coming off the back, too much coming offthe sides. I’d say one of the greatest things about this PA is how littlelevel is coming off the back of the box. In-ear guys just love thosequiet stages.CH: With cleaner stages offering more FOH options, do you see thetype of equipment changing in the live arena. Will your outboardracks begin to resemble a recording studio’s racks a bit more?CC: I don’t necessarily think so. Reliability is paramount in touring andreliability is going to be the over-riding factor. A system like V-DOSCmakes everything you’ve used in the past just work better. For example,

36

Yamaha Music Australia

PO Box 268 South Melbourne Vic 3205

Toll Free: 1800 331 130

or visit us at www.yamaha.com.au

Email:

aust_pasupport@infomta.post.yamaha.co.jp

ABN 84 004 259 527

AW4416 and the full range ofYamaha Digital Products areavailable at these PremiumYamaha Dealers

ACTPro Audio 02 6249 7766Better Music 02 6282 3199

NSWSound on Stage 02 9281 0077Sound Devices 02 9283 2077Turramurra 02 9449 8487Hutchings 02 9387 5011

VICSoundcorp 03 9488 1555

Warehouse Sound 03 9417 4866

Manny’s Fitzroy 03 9416 1564

Manny’s Prahran 03 9529 7241

SADerringers 08 8371 1884

WAMusic Park 08 9470 1020

QLDMusiclab 07 3252 2188Brisbane Sound 07 3257 1040Buzz Music Cairns 07 4051 9666

for a while there, when Iwas using other systemsin Asia, I was doubtingmy kick drum mic. Iwas changing micsaround, thinking it’dgone bad – maybe myinput’s gone downbecause it’s been hittingkick drum for the last11 months, maybe theop amps are just a bittired of 40Hz pumpingaway. But it wasn’t anyof that. As soon as I gotback onto the V-DOSCsystem it was like ahhh,no problem.

So, I think people willcontinue to use thesame bits and pieces. Ithink what eventually

will happen is we’regoing to have more

consoles where the guts of it will be on stage and thedesk will be a control surface – a digital controlledanalogue board.

I personally own an Amek RN Recall [the model withRupert Neve-designed modules], and I’m really happywith it. But I’ve worked on the Harrison/Showco Show-Console about six times at different awards shows, andit’s fantastic. It’s user friendly, sounds great, all the on-board processing is great, 80 inputs on a small frame…

It’s more expensive to rent, but I’m not going to workingwith any acts that don’t realise the importance of thoseadded benefits.CH: So you see the console as being an area of realdevelopment in the future?CC: Absolutely. Automation has been a great improve-ment in the past and I can only see that going further. Forexample, I couldn’t live without my Midi control – stuffcomes on when it’s supposed and stuff goes off when it’ssupposed to. I’m not one for big flying fader moves but Iuse fader automation to embellish and hone what I’ve got,to ensure I’ve got those moves for next time. Thatmarriage between console and outboard really startedwith the Midas XL3. I remember being on a Phil Collinstour years ago when I first enjoyed the benefits. Havingthe moving faders, having the setup, and the position, soat the beginning of songs things are there dynamicallyand can be recalled. I want to continue down those lineseven further.CH: People want that big live experience but they alsowant to relive the music they’re hearing on their hi-fi aswell. That’s got to be a consideration.CC: And now it’s easier to get to the point where you’renearer the album production in live sound reinforcement.You need tools to aid you in that, and that’s going to bethrough automation. With automation you can punchthrough and load cue scenes. You’ll still be mixing, but ifyou want dramatic effects to happen you can load themas a scene, and pop it in. You might be changing therouting to effects, going into different boxes momentari-ly, and then instantly changing back. Mixes arebecoming more dramatic, and I envisage that onlyhappening more.

Christopher Holder: Last issue we told readershow a line source array works [‘Line ArraysExplained’ AudioTechnology Issue 11], but I’dlike to get some more nitty gritty V-DOSC detailfrom you Paul. First up, how does the DOSCwaveguide actually work?

Paul Bauman: As your readers will be awarefrom reading that article, to get speakers tocouple, the components need to be locatedwith a separation of less than half the wave-length at the highest frequency of theiroperating bandwidth. This is fairly easy toaccomplish at mid and low frequencies butbecause it’s physically impossible to get theacoustic centres of two HF drivers that closetogether, L-ACOUSTICS designed an acousticlens which produces a flat radiating ribbon ofsound, allowing the high end to coupleproperly. We use a conventional HF driver, butattached it to a waveguide that manipulatesthe path lengths of the sound produced by theHF driver, so they all arrive at the exit pointsimultaneously.

CH: Hmmm. Keep going, I may get this in aminute!

PB: Think about it like this: if you theoreticallydivide the circular opening of the V-DOSCcompression driver into a series of infinitely

small point sources and look at all the possiblepath lengths from the exit of the compressiondriver to the rectangular exit of the DOSC lens,you’ll find they’re all the same length. So thelens is like a time alignment plug or an acoustictransformer – it’s effectively transforming acircle into a rectangle. This lens’ shape looks alittle like an axe or tomahawk head, but it’sactually a unique geometrical shape – it’s theonly shape that’ll do that transformation andthat’s why it can be patented. So if you look atconventional horns – a conical or a constantdirectivity horn – just from a simple path lengthanalysis you can see there’s curvature associ-ated with the wavefront radiated by the horn[not all the path lengths are the same from thedriver to the exit of the horn]. And that’s at onefrequency alone. Since individual polarpatterns of conventional horns vary withfrequency, the curvature of the wavefront isalso changing with frequency. So a verticalcolumn of those horns is not going to couple inthe same way as our DOSC waveguide. That’swhy we say a line array could be anything con-figured in a vertical column, but a line ‘source’array is something that’s coupling properly inthe high end and approximating a line source.Once we start talking about variable curvatureline source arrays and matching the coverage

of the system and SPL distribution to theaudience geometry, then we’re talking aboutWavefront Sculpture Technology (WST).

CH: One outstanding feature of V-DOSC is thestereo imaging and coverage. Even if you’rewell out of the arrays 90 degree horizontalcoverage you can be enjoying good stereoimaging. How do you explain that?

PB: First up, the coplanar symmetry of thedesign of each V-DOSC element accounts forwhy you get an even and phase coherentsignal across the whole horizontal coverage ofthe array. Any line array which doesn’t havethat symmetry won’t enjoy that sort of unifor-mity. Secondly, the 90 degree horizontalcoverage is defined by the –6dB point, andthat coverage is very stable from 630Hz to18kHz. In fact, if you looked at the polarpatterns of a V-DOSC element you’d find thateach frequency plot would virtually overlayeach other. So if we take an average of theindividual polar plots (which we call an iso-contour or constant SPL contour) we can lookat the coverage of two left/right arrays, and getan idea of the stereo imaging from the overlapbetween them. We can play around with thepan of the two arrays to get a bigger or smallerstereo zone. But bear in mind, we’re talking

L-ACOUSTICS’ Technical Support Manager, Paul Bauman, gives Christopher Holder some V-DOSC nitty gritty.

AT

38

Ricky Martin’s FOH engineer, Rob ‘Cubby’ Colby.

about the –6dB contours, so even if I’m over to one sideactually on axis to one of the arrays (and I’m not inside theoverlap stereo zone), I’m still getting energy from the otherarray at a reduced level. And, because you’ve got twoextremely coherent sources, you’ve got a good chance ofgetting decent stereo imaging. In fact, most people say theimpression is of sitting in front of nearfield monitors.

I think the final factor is due to the very well-controlled verticaldirectivity of V-DOSC, which means you can ensure you’renot shooting energy into the roof or against the walls. Thisreduces unnecessary reverberation in the room and thusextends the critical distance, which increases intelligibility andgives more people stereo over greater distances.

Another trick we do to provide even more of the audience witha stereo image is to introduce off-stage fill arrays. With fourarrays we can cross pan left and right, so you have stereoimaging for more of the audience while also increasing theoverall horizontal coverage of the entire system.

CH: When I first saw and heard a VDOSC system it occurredto me that with all this amazing innovation and engineering itseemed a little shabby using conventional ground-stackedsubs.

PB: Getting the subs right is one of my pet projects, and, in abig way, is the missing piece of the puzzle. V-DOSC has gotthe mids and highs very right. So that means if the subs arenot being married to the lows of the V-DOSC (in terms of pro-cessing or in terms of your sub arraying techniques), it willperhaps tend to stand out more than with a conventionalsystem. But in our training sessions we spend a lot of time onsub woofer arraying techniques. More and more people areflying the subs, which I think is a very good solution – flyingsubs beside V-DOSC, or even on either side of the array tomaintain the coplanar symmetry.

CH: How does flying them in that manner maintain thecoplanar symmetry?

PB: If we fly the subs close enough to the array, i.e. within halfa wavelength over their operating bandwidth, they’ll coupleproperly to the low end of the V-DOSC, and act as anextension of the system to improve the low end impact.Obviously a sub in isolation is basically omnidirectional. Butanytime something is stacked big in one direction youintroduce pattern control in that dimension. So, in the case of

a vertical line of subs, they’ll be omnidirectional horizontally,but vertically they’ll give some pattern control – which can bea good thing if you want a long throw section in outdoor situ-ations.

On the other hand if you have a horizontal line array of subson the floor, horizontally it’ll start to narrow while vertically it isomni. This is a better thing indoors, to get energy up to theback of the venue, meanwhile electronic arc processing canthen help to open up the horizontal buildup of the central lobe.It’s been a very active R&D area for us and we’ve developedsome software tools and new theories on sub array modelling.

CH: Any other innovations on the horizon? For example, a V-DOSC element is really quite heavy, any plans for using othermaterials?

PB: Well, there’s two ways to have panel damping – stiffnessor mass. As far as damping properties go, Baltic birch is areference in this industry, that’s what we use and you can’tmake that wood any lighter. We’ve already reduced systemsize by at least half versus most conventional systems interms of cabinet count so you’re already saving substantiallyon trucking. Years ago, L-ACOUSTICS was one of the first inthis industry to introduce a subwoofer utilising honeycombsandwich construction and carbon fibre technology, but atthat time the impact resistance was not sufficient. Of coursewe’ll consider new generation materials but it is also importantto keep in mind that V-DOSC is a constantly evolving productand system – whether it is amplification, processing, con-struction quality, variety of presets, technical support, training,modeling tools or rigging. We rely on real world experienceand feedback from our V-DOSC Network Partners andCertified V-DOSC Engineers. In addition, L-ACOUSTICSmaintains a dry hire system out of our factory in France andactively participates in the network rental business, so wehave direct feedback from the field as to what does anddoesn’t work, what holds up, etc. As for other innovations, ofcourse we have numerous irons in the fire that I’m excitedabout and would love to fill you in on, but you seem like a nicebloke and I’d hate to have to kill you afterwards!

CH: Most kind.