Ôðåíê Çàïïà - Turbosound Aspect (àíãë. âàðèàíò íîâîñòè)

The current line-up of Dweezil Zappa, Scheila Gonzalez, Pete Griffin, Billy Hulting, Jamie Kine, Ben Thomas, Joe Travers, and Chris Norton has toured the ZPZ show - a tribute to Frank's amazingly prolific output of over 60 albums performed in exacting detail - around the world for several years now and continue to do so on a fairly regular basis, bringing the intricate delights of his unique musical styles to many die-hard Zappa fans, and this show brought the current 13-date European tour to a triumphant and emphatic end although also sadly marking the departure of bassist Pete Griffin.

Mansfield-based ESS were contracted to supply audio for the UK dates, in the shape of a Turbosound Aspect system. The band and crew were relaxed and on top form for this last show of the tour at the Brighton Dome, with the iconic venue providing the perfect surroundings for ESS's Aspect rig to get to grips with the band's extraordinarily complex arrangements and the room's conducive acoustics.

ESS systems tech Andy Hague explains his preference for deploying a point source system in a theatre-style venue like Brighton. The Dome, which seats approximately 2,000 people, is typical of a huge number of UK venues whose origins date back to the late 19th century in that it features a balcony, which of course lends the room its intimate atmosphere. And it's well known that squirting a PA with continuous vertical coverage at such a large, potentially reflective surface can end in tears. "My approach is to try to point audio specifically where it's needed to deliver just the right amount of energy, and try not to over-excite the room with unwanted reflections - what we're actually trying to do is what the Americans like to call sound reinforcement."

Hague describes the Aspect setup: "We're flying four TA-890 high packs a side off a two-wide bar, and ground-stacked we've got four high packs and five low packs. Three low packs in a vertical column on the outside and two lows underneath so we get the height and required vertical spread from the high packs without being visually obtrusive. Granted it's not an optimum configuration of low packs from a coupling point of view, but by subtle use of the gain controls we can achieve what we want to do. In Brighton this configuration totally minimised sightline issues.

"The flown TA-890H boxes are splayed at 25 degrees and the high packs on the ground are tilted down and up to give the right vertical coverage. For front fills we have TQ-440s and for outer fills again TQ-440s. Everything is run left / right because there is some fairly major stereo panning on this show. It's all on XTA processing and MC2 amplifiers."

Front of house engineer Glynn Wood, who is full time with Dweezil Zappa and also lists Vanessa Mae as a long-term account, is no stranger to Turbosound. "I've been using Turbosound boxes for pretty much as long as they've been around so I knew they would be fine even though I'd only come across Aspect once before. The TMS-3 remains a good sounding box, as does Flashlight and Floodlight, and I'm happy to walk into a gig and see Turbosound in the air or on the floor. Of course all PAs sound different, and Flashlight sounds different to Aspect which sounds different to TMS-3s, but what Turbosound has is a sound that will cut cleanly and not abrasively - sometimes it's so clean you don't realise just how loud it is. I rather like that and it's no small wonder that Pink Floyd used Turbosound for so many years.

"I had used the Aspect system once before in Philadelphia in December last year and I was rather intrigued by these rather strange shaped boxes. I like the throw of the Aspect boxes, they do seem to go for quite a distance and with some judicious graphics I can make them sound very clear and articulate. With Andy as my system tech - a man who knows the system infinitely better than I - we were able on this tour to get it sounding as I would like it every day with relative ease. The rig can give a lot of bass/low mid energy which I prefer to reduce, particularly because we have a lot of vocals with ZPZ, eight in fact. I also am a Waves plug in endorser and used the excellent Q10 Paragraphic EQ which is truly superb for system EQ, it's incredibly smooth and a little dip with one of those seems to be equal to a much bigger lump with other EQ's. I find the Aspect boxes to be a little fierce around the 8kHz area and the Q10 deals with that remarkably well, but they can be very smooth, very clean and can project vocals very well even in a busy mix."

The tour kicked off at the Barbican in York - not everybody's idea of the perfect venue - and culminated at the Brighton Dome, where expectations were high and the mood was good. Both Wood and Hague found the room very much to their liking. "I have to say the job they did on refurbishing the Dome was wonderful," says Wood. "It's the first time I've been back in here since the early 80s with Sister Sledge, when I seem to recall it being fairly horrible. Now it's one of the best sounding rooms I've had the pleasure of mixing in even though it is round."

"When you come into a venue like this with a PA that has fixed dispersion in both planes you're going to struggle to keep it off the balcony and the unsold seat areas," comments Hague. "And that's exactly why Aspect works so well in here. I'm a great believer in horses for courses, and in these theatre-style venues I know that all I have to do is point and shoot into the specific areas where I want to throw audio. Aspect is extremely adaptable in that respect and in these venues it really works. With all the flexibility that Aspect offers I can have the PA sounding pretty much any way the engineers want.

"We're getting a lot of praise for the bottom end on this tour. But you don't have to put a lot of gear in here; I've done the room before, for Robert Cray we had only one sub, four low packs and four high packs a side and it was plenty. We've done very big rooms with only two Aspect high packs a side, the tight vertical dispersion allowing you to squirt sound under the balcony. The sheer output of these boxes gives great dynamic system performance - and you don't realise how loud it is, because it's so clean."

Wood is also a fan of the TSW-218 subs. "With the low/low mid energy in the system being a little strong for my taste I had the bass boxes turned pretty low and then used the subs to give the real low end some space," he says. "I found that the kick and bass guitar sounded much cleaner by doing this".

With no wedges on stage Wood is glad of the chance to let the PA do its job. "When ZPZ first started back in 2006 there were 24 2x15 wedges on stage complete with side and drum fills," he explains. "Altogether it was around 106db A-weighted at FOH with the PA off. Turning the PA on didn't really make it any louder, so the move to in-ear monitors in 2007 was a fantastic step up to sonic excellence."

He admits that it's a major challenge to get so many instruments and voices to sound clear and articulate all at the same time, but the passion is evident: "What's not to like about mixing the best band in the known universe? The stunning musicianship of Dweezil and the band and the enormous wealth of Frank's material make for a heady musical confection that's hard not to love. Aspect really does project vocals very well and with something as wordy as Frank's music you need all the help you can get. It's very open in the midrange.

"My approach is judicious use of compression and to try to create space around it. Virtually every Frank Zappa tune is complex and I spend a lot of time before going out on tour learning the tunes we're going to play and what takes the lead role at any particular time. I then make show notes and try to stick to them until I'm completely familiar with how the tune should sound. I also record the show every day, and then Dweezil and I will go over it to fine tune arrangements.

"ESS did a terrific job on this tour," he concludes. "Andy and monitor tech Andy were both top notch and I would happily tour with them again. We had a good time. When we tour with ZPZ it's a hard slog - we do two and a half hour shows and have very few days off - but we do it because we love it, and it's always fun bringing Frank's music to existing fans and also a new generation of kids who want something more than the dreadful tedium of current pop music."

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