Professional Sound - February 2021 | Page 27

With the ability to accommodate 200-plus vehicles that are each parked 7 ft . apart in a checkerboard pattern , it offers an incredible view of the city ’ s downtown skyline behind its 238-ft . stage . There are three large LED screens to help see the artists , and the entire experience is made contactless , including the ability to buy concessions and merchandise online and have it delivered to the car . It certainly offers a great way to make the best of a bad situation .
And so , this is where dvsn found themselves in August 2020 , with five instantlysold-out hometown shows , followed by a pair of encore shows added in October due to demand .
Behind the monitor console for all of these shows was our friend Melvin Godfrey , who offered to share his experience leading up to and during dvsn ’ s celebrated shows in this unique environment . So , with that , I ’ m turning the mic over to Melvin …
The view from Melvin ’ s desk
It ’ s been a very different year for most people in the live touring industry because of the COVID-19 pandemic . I was spending the summer at home in Toronto , which is pretty rare but also pretty great despite the circumstances , when I got a call from dvsn ’ s manager asking if I was available to do a drive-in show . I ’ m definitely the type of person who always keeps myself busy — and I honestly work on music every day — but yes , of course I was available to do this show ! I was so excited to do a live show again , it had been a real hot minute ! I couldn ’ t wait for the familiar feeling of standing at the console , hands on the faders ( real faders , not just a mouse or trackpad clicking around in Pro Tools ), waiting in anticipation of that first note to drop at the top of show .
I got the call in late July and the first show was scheduled for Aug . 7 , 2020 at the new CityView Drive-In stage in Toronto . As soon as it went on sale it sold out , so they added a date , or two , and next thing you knew we were doing five sold-out shows in a row . Then , two more sold-out encore shows were added for October 2020 .
We were fortunate enough to still have the time to book rehearsals at the Sony Sound Stage in Toronto . I was stoked for this because the last show we did was on a Digico SD12 and we were switching consoles for this string of shows , so all of my monitor mixes had to be flipped from the SD12 to an
Avid Venue S6L . Obviously , it ’ s much better to have rehearsal time to listen to the flipped mixes rather than standing on a stage in sound check hoping they translate , forcing you to quickly make any necessary changes .
As the shows approached there were so many unknowns , not least of which was , what was the vibe going to be like ? I ’ d never done one of these drive-in shows before , nor had the band or most of the crew . We didn ’ t even know if fans would be stuck in their cars or would they be able to participate in the show ? Windows down or windows up ? What happens during the singalong songs — dead silence ? Would there be a PA or nothing but car stereos ? Everyone was so used to doing shows with an audience to connect with .
The energy from a PA system combined with the energy and participation from a crowd of human beings is pretty much what makes live music so exciting . But as it turns out , the vibe was actually killer ! The concert goers were allowed to back their vehicles into their designated parking spaces so that they could tailgate and take in the experience like it was meant to be taken in . Since the cars were spaced out in such a strategic way , the fans were able to dance along to the show behind their backed-up vehicles , just as long as they stayed in their socially distant parking spaces .
One of the funny things to get used to was the sound of the horns . You know when you go to a show and hear people cheering and applauding in between songs ? Well , that didn ’ t exactly happen the same way at the drive-in shows . Instead , everyone laid on their horns like it was rush hour in downtown Manhattan or something . I don ’ t think anyone has ever been happier to hear so many car horns honking at one time . At least this time around they were celebratory honks rather than crazed , road-raging , impatient honks .
The main PA configuration for these shows was fairly simple in that we had a left-right hang and sub array in front of the stage . We didn ’ t end up using front fill speakers , as the layout of the audience area
didn ’ t require it . Our sub array consisted of four cardioid pods , with d & b audiotechnik B22s facing forward and B2s facing the rear . All subs , including the B22s , were being driven by B2 amp presets . Even though we gave up a little efficiency by running the B22 boxes as B2s , the system maintained plenty of headroom . All d & b components were driven by d & b D80 amplifiers and utilized their built-in processing with the use of d & b ’ s R1 Remote software .
Due to the dimensions and location of the parking lot in which the drive-in was located , propagation control was a huge priority . Our goal was to contain the audience experience to our bubble , with minimal spill over to the residential and commercial areas surrounding us . Being outside and directly on the water can make this difficult , especially with weather and wind conditions changing constantly . That ’ s where proper design and having control of the system processing at FOH is critical . We can make adjustments to the system as weather conditions change throughout the day or night . We intentionally designed our sub configuration to have quite a tight control pattern to accommodate the longbut-narrow parking lot , while the cardioid aspect of the system limited low-frequency energy from spilling off the stage and travelling across the harbour behind us .
Both the PA and FM systems were driven from the Avid S6L at FOH via matrixes . Because of the length of the parking lot ,
PHOTO : JEREMIE NGANDU
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