Back in mid-July, when EDM masters Slander announced their upcoming debut studio album would be called Thrive, their fans surely considered it a fitting title.
After all, the heralded DJ duo of Derek Andersen and Scott Land had been riding a cosmic trajectory through 2022 on the back of their searing live sets and signature brand of pop-laced bass music, which appeals to its growing base of loyal followers. They sold out their first-ever arena headlining shows — a back-to-back engagement at Long Beach Arena in their native SoCal — in addition to top billings at major festivals and a string of monster singles that contributed to nearly 300 million streams this year on Spotify alone.
Dropping in late September, the Thrive album propelled Slander to a new plateau of success, as evidenced by the size and stature of the venues comprising the Thrive Tour’s 30 North American stops. It also seemed fitting that the duo’s production package for the trek included a PK Sound Trinity Black robotic line source system that, like the album itself, has a sound quality that can range from pristine to powerful. Los Angeles-based BNE Productions is providing the audio system.
“Slander’s music is always so well produced and mastered, so it really shines through on the PK system,” begins Rory Stewart, the duo’s FOH engineer for the tour, and that’s especially the case with the 10 tracks comprising Thrive. “The vocals, the melodic breakdowns, the bass drops — the Trinity Black and T10 array elements sound incredible and deliver the full impact of everything with transparency, power, and headroom to spare.”
The System
Beyond the purity of its “out-of-the-box” performance, though, the Trinity Series’ patented multi-axis coverage capabilities brought additional acoustic and operational benefits to the tour.
Variable robotic actuation lets users manipulate a vertical line source to an unparalleled 0.1° of resolution and adjust the horizontal coverage of each individual module from 60 to 120 degrees in a range of symmetric and asymmetric configurations. This technology enables precisely tapered arrays that can avoid reflective obstacles, minimize noise pollution, and significantly expand stereo imaging for much of the audience.
“The ability to tailor the PK system’s output to each specific venue was a huge advantage,” emphasizes Stewart, who also served as systems engineer. “We can basically focus all of the energy on the audience, where it belongs, and away from any objects or surfaces that are going to compromise the sound. Being able to adjust my vertical and horizontal dispersion in real-time with the system in the air also saves a ton of time, which can come at a premium when you’re on the road.”
BNE Productions, a PK Alliance Member, supplied its T10 medium-format robotic system and T218 intelligent subwoofers for the trek, augmented by large-format Trinity Black robotic elements from the Alliance’s dry-hire rental inventory for an easily scalable system with a consistent global voicing thanks to the Trinity Series’ latest V4 DSP presets.
That scalability, coupled with the PK Alliance’s global standardization for both Member and dry-hire Hub systems, was a key consideration for the Thrive tour, considering the wide range of venues on the routing.
For example, Stewart’s design for larger venues like Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO entailed main arrays of 12 Trinity Black elements over four T10 downfills per side with flown sub arrays of 12 T218s each, whereas the deployment for Seattle’s WAMU Theatre comprised smaller main arrays of seven Trinity Black elements per side over two T10 downfills, but included T10 arrays for outfills and a groundstacked T218 sub wall. In both cases, Stewart was able to consistently deliver the enveloping experience the Slander faithful have come to expect.
Stewart drew every venue on the tour in advance using PK’s incoming .dynamics software platform, which unites every stage of the modern live sound workflow in a single application. “Using .dynamics, I could dial in a system well in advance and, having both Trinity Black and T10 available, was never constrained in mechanically optimizing the design for each room,” he explains.
Once he was onsite, Stewart could conduct real-world laser measurements, load his simulation, make any necessary adjustments, and then robotically articulate his system into its optimal configuration.
He recalls one instance where the venue’s available CAD files weren’t very thorough. “So being able to walk in, take some measurements of anything in the building that was missing from the CAD files, and then adjust the system in the air as needed saved me a lot of time — which I didn’t have a lot of that day.”
The FOH Position
The tour’s FOH setup was relatively straightforward, with Stewart mixing on a DiGiCo SD9 connected to a D-Rack onstage. “I’m a big fan of the DiGiCo desks,” he shares. “Again, Slander’s tracks are really well produced, and I think the transparency of these consoles does them justice.” Stewart was also mixing the DJ monitors — three T10 elements atop a T218 subwoofer on each side of the booth — from FOH, and notes the setup is quite conducive to the duo’s preference for a bass- and mid-heavy reference mix.
Along with Slander’s Thrive tour, BNE productions, which joined the PK Alliance in 2022, is now making T10 and Trinity Black robotic systems available to others in the southern California region and beyond. Recent BNE projects getting a PK Sound boost include Subtronics’ Fractal tour and EDM events including the Lightning in a Bottle Festival, Project Z: Origins and Nocturnal Wonderland.
Stewart voices appreciation for the opportunity to collaborate with BNE’s staff, production manager Matt Bevis and the entire crew. He also emphasizes that PK Sound’s reputation for pure-but-punchy reinforcement made for an easy choice, and reinforces the synergy between Slander’s pristine compositions and PK’s pure, uncompromised acoustic performance.
“The material just sounds so good through this system,” Stewart says. “Dealing with some of the house rigs we played on in between our production dates was pretty much a constant reminder of how good the output and clarity of a Trinity Series system actually is,” he adds — and that’s goes double for his clients, who, following the success of the Thrive tour and its namesake album, are poised to reach new heights in 2023.
CREW
- Sound Company: BNE Productions
- FOH/Monitor/Systems Engineer: Rory Stewart
- Assistant Systems Techs: Ruairi Matthews, Nick Kasubinski, Austin Perkins, Michelle Strahm (at different shows)
P.A. GEAR (number varies by venue)
- Mains: PK Sound Trinity Black
- Downfills/Sidefills: PK Sound T10
- Subs: PK Sound T218
- Front Fills: PK Sound T10
FOH/MON GEAR
- FOH/Monitor Console: DiGiCo SD9
- Stagebox: DiGiCo D-Rack
- DJ Monitors: (3) PK Sound T10 and T218 sub/side
