Project Description
American electronic duo Odesza is supporting their A Moment Apart album with a world tour in 2017. When they were presented with the opportunity to use an L-ISA Live sound system for their stop in Santa Barbara, CA, the band and their production team didn’t hesitate. They were enthusiastic about offering their fans an immersive and memorable experience.
Sound Design Solution
On this arena tour leg with audiences ranging from 3,000 to 10,000, L-Acoustics’ Certified Provider Clearwing was deploying a main K2 (or K1/K2 for larger venues) system with KS28 subwoofers. A classic sound design at the Santa Barbara Bowl would have typically called for a left-right configuration of 12 K2 per side plus front-fills and subs.
However on this special occasion, the L-ISA application team and Odesza’s FOH engineer Patrick Hutchinson created an L-ISA Focus configuration (patent pending) consisting of a scene system with three speaker groups of eight K2 plus two groups of 12 Kara, completed by an extension system with two groups of eight Kara along with front-fills and a flown central subwoofer configuration.
This new implementation principle combined with the L-ISA Controller and Processor delivered an unprecedented live experience with source separation, low end coherency and homogeneity wide soundscape like never experienced before.
Setup
L-ISA Design
L/R Design
Technical Information
| Type | 4500 pax Outdoor amphitheatre |
|---|---|
| Venue | 60m deep x 70m wide (at the back) |
| Stage | 19m wide x 1.1m high |
Constraints
| Top max trim height | 10.7m (above floor) |
|---|---|
| Min trim height | 7m (above floor) |
| Max weight | 7.8m (per hang) |
Sound Design Target
| Program type | Electronic Music |
|---|---|
| SPL max average | >= 108 dBA |
| SPL profile | 1 dB / 10 m |
| Frequency contour | 8 – 10 dB (@ 100hz) |
Mapping
L-ISA Design
L/R Design
L/R Coverage
L-ISA Coverage
Hearing our music played back in the L‑ISA studio, it was immediately apparent that the system had a natural and multi-dimensional feel. I knew right away that we had to try it on our tour. We’re always pushing to produce the best experience for our fans, and this technology lets us deliver our show the way it was intended to be heard. The show in Santa Barbara was incredible and we were proud to be part of L‑ISA’s launch here in North America.
Odesza’s Clayton Knight
Using the L-ISA processor was a seamless transition from the traditional systems. Once all the MADI outputs were patched into the L‑ISA processor mixing became a natural environment in which each channel represented its own space within the mix. Suddenly placement of the instruments became more like life resulting in an immersive matrix of sound which I have never experienced before.
In addition to the immersive sound I noticed that all of the instrument nuances finally started to present themselves much clearer than ever before. This in return allowed for the entire mix to translate the artists’ emotion while becoming fully immersive and containing tremendous amounts of depth and clarity. Great work L‑Acoustics!
Patrick Hutchinson, Odesza’s FOH engineer