Tracy Chapman gets the butterflies_

The famous folk-rock singer/songwriter’s top-grade sound comes across thanks to Outlinearray

Brescia, 14th July 2009 – Piazza della Loggia packed with a warm gratified audience was the perfect setting for the show by Tracy Chapman, the famous US singer/songwriter with a poetic intimate character.

The reproduction of her intense voice, along with her acoustic guitar, the bongos and that combination of warm sounds for which Tracy has been admired for over twenty years, was achieved thanks also to Outline Butterfly: a loudspeaker system that in itself is light-weight and compact (34 kg and 70x60x24cm), but in the case of Piazza della Loggia was made up of just 14+14 Hi-Pack units per side (each equipped with four 8” woofers  and a 3” compression driver).

The bottom end was reproduced by 7+7 Outline Victor Live subs (2x18” – 110x55x60cm and 78 kg) and LAB 21 infra-subs (just two units positioned in the centre): all the cabinets were laid out in a cardioid configuration, to keep the stage clear of excessive low frequencies. Four Outline Micra II enclosures, installed in the edge of the stage, were used as front-fill systems, for the benefit of the front rows of the audience.

Also to ensure the audio chain the utmost efficiency, the amplification of the signals – fed from a Digidesign console – was entrusted to Outline T7 units: these power amplifiers are also ultra-light (12 kg) and compact (each requires just one standard 19” rack unit of space – a feature no other unit on the world market is able to offer).

Cipiesse Produzioni per lo Spettacolo (http://www.cipiesse-bs.it/) – the owner of the Outlinearray system – was the Brescia rental firm handling the entire operation.

Marco Riva, head of Cipiesse and production manager, comments: “The set-up of the equipment necessary for an event of this level was carried out in record time and extremely professionally; but the audio, for which we once again received congratulations from the artist’s (talented) FOH engineer, was particularly worthy of mention.”

Giancarlo Paladini, free-lance system engineer working on behalf of Cipiesse, commented: “What the arrays fed out was so exact that the concert seemed to ‘breathe’ – I mean it was utmost simplicity, harmony and pure listening pleasure. After the first fifteen minutes, such a great entente had been created between Chapman and the audience that it was necessary to remind oneself that there was amplification involved (the rig was also almost invisible to the eye…).

There was a limpid clarity on the mid-high frequencies and warmth on the low ones, which were powerful and solid, full-bodied but also will controlled.

The small number of Hi-Packs fielded didn’t stop us from working with a considerable safety margin, since the rig was running at 50% of its potential. The great resolution in the ‘body’ of the sound gave the (rare) sensation of being almost able to ”touch” the music (it’s hard to explain): rather like being in the warm welcoming lounge of one’s home, acoustically perfect and filled with great music – fed out by a very expensive high-end system…in actual fact, we were in a square 90 metres long and 40 wide, all perfectly covered right to the last rows – no peaks or gaps at any frequency – and with an (undistorted) sound pressure of up to 130 decibels…we think that achieving all these factors all at once isn't something that happens every day. Careful placement of the subs (with a cardioid configuration) enabled us to keep the stage free of infra-low frequencies - a benefit for the artists and the show itself.”