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March has seen an Aspect® system given its sternest road test yet, with Florida-based heavy metallers Trivium
taking Turbosound's modular point-source loudspeakers across the UK and Ireland on a 16-date tour. Due to ticket demand, the tour had to be rapidly upgraded from club to theatre-sized venues - and sound company ESS knew that Aspect was the perfect choice.
One of the many advantages that Aspect offers is its compact size. But considering that Trivium is a heavy metal band whose fans demand live sound to be very powerful and intense its ability to deliver great power and clarity from such a small footprint makes Aspect the ideal system.
The Manchester Apollo was the biggest venue on the tour, yet the system for this 3500 capacity venue comprised just three TA-880H mid/highs, six TA-880L 2 x 15" bass cabs and two TSW-218 double 18" subs per side, augmented (for the Manchester gig only) by four flown TA-890H's per side to cover the balcony.
Because of the style of music, the system features a higher ratio of bass cabinets than ESS would normally tour with, but with absolutely no compromise on the effectiveness of the mids and highs.
"This is our third tour with Aspect, but it's our first with this kind of intensity of music," says ESS's Phil McDaniel. "The efficiency of the mid/highs is stunning. The quality of sound is excellent, there's plenty of headroom and the system is coping with the demands of the music quite easily.
"Indeed, the system has such good clarity that you often don't realise quite how loud it is."
The Aspect system's coverage has also impressed the sound team, especially as people often expect what they are going to hear on the basis of current trends. Phil continues: "People sometimes come in with their 'line array ears' on and are surprised at how tightly controlled the dispersion is, they're really impressed.
"Aspect has been a major help with a tour like this, which is playing in widely differing venues," he says. "The controlled dispersion of sound helps naturally bad sounding venues from the soundcheck onwards, ensuring that the band and audience are happy. Both the band and the sound guys - Rob Helig on FOH and Darren Connor on monitors - are really pleased with the sound of the rig."
Dan Orton from Turbosound concurs, adding: "Most of the tour ESS has been using just eight Aspect trap tops and the coverage is great, considering how small the PA is. I am really pleased with how clean the system sounds and how well it copes with heavy guitar music of this kind. With only two amp racks we are happily getting 107dB at the desk with 3 or 4dB left."
Encouraged by the experience with Trivium and also that Dave Gilmour is currently on tour with an Aspect system, how does Phil McDaniel view the future
relationship between ESS and Aspect?
"We need a flexible system, something that will tick all the boxes and also sounds great," he says. "Aspect is undoubtedly one that seems closest to that ideal."
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