MC2 POWER TURBO ASPECT FOR MAGIC NUMBERS
23/03/2006

One of the ‘bands of the moment’, the Magic Numbers are currently circuiting the globe promoting their eponymous album. Between stints in Japan and Europe/USA, the band briefly touched down on British soil in mid-February for a handful of shows, with Britannia Row’s recently-delivered Turbosound Aspect system ensuring that audiences had the ultimate aural experience.

“I took some of the first Aspect boxes of out on Natasha Bedingfield’s first UK tour. They hadn’t built the 18s then, but it was great to hear the system,” says Brit Row system tech Anthony King. “It’s very easy to rig. The flying hardware is lovely. It’s all on the side of the box - you just need four chains at the top to hang it, which means it’s a quick in and a quick out.”

The British dates kicked off at London’s Brixton Academy, where the Aspect loudspeaker system comprised flown arrays of TA-890Hs and TA-890Ls and ground stacks of TA-890Ls and TSW-218s, along with QLight TQ-440SPs for fill. The system ran off two amp racks per side, with the lows powered by Turbosound badged MC2 T45 amplifiers and the highs by T25s, an increasingly popular choice for the touring market due to their lightweight and high power output.

Two XTA DP428s were employed for system control, providing King with all the flexibility he requires. “We’re using all eight bands. We have the main hangs on the first five outputs and then the infills on the last two,” says Anthony. “One of the nice things about this system is that there’s no major EQ-ing needed. The system pretty much runs flat, all we did was trim back the 15s a bit. The crossover was fairly flat as well. It’s not like some systems where you have to do crazy things with the DSP.”

Stage monitoring was via Turbosound TFM-450 high performance wedges, with a Qlight TQ-425SP subwoofer for drums and Floodlight cabinets for sidefills.

Front of House engineer Jo Harling, who has been with the band for just over a year, used a Yamaha PM5D for mixing along with a couple of Summit DCL 200 Compressor Limiters and his own Amek pre amp for vocals. “It’s exciting to be involved in a loudspeaker system that’s so new,” he says. “The system sounds good. The drums are punchy, the subs sound really good and there’s no problem with headroom.”

“The performance of the Aspect system has been beyond all our expectations,” added Brit Row’s Roly Oliver. “It has a natural sound and in Brixton Academy - a venue renowned for its unforgiving acoustics - it sounded absolutely amazing. And that’s without any processing EQ.”

He added: “With a relatively small system, we were able to get perfect coverage without any unwanted reflections. Aspect's flexibility will undoubtedly enhance our ability to put on a great show in any situation.”

 

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