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Turbosound’s New NuQs Give Fratellis The DPs
Releasing what is arguably the most irritatingly catchy song of the decade, in the form of Chelsea Dagger, has certainly done Glasgow’s Brit Award-winning The Fratellis no harm at all.
Since releasing their debut album Costello Music last autumn, the band has been hard at work promoting it with live dates. Helping them on their way has been Turbosound, whose brand new NuQ loudspeakers played a major part in the band’s recent UK tour.
Comprising 12 dates in Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and London, SSE supplied the tour’s audio requirements with Turbosound veterans Britannia Row supplying the monitor system, including Turbosound NuQ-15s, self-powered TA-500DP Aspect Wides and, in Glasgow and London, self-powered NuQ-12DPs.
The Fratellis like the sound levels on stage to be relatively high, so one three-way TA-500DP was used each side of the stage as a sidefill, along with nine 15” 2-way bi-amped NuQ-15s on the stage as wedge monitors - three pairs across the front, one each side of the drummer and one by bass guitarist Barry Fratelli’s backline equipment.
“Turbosound’s development director Dominic Harter suggested I try the NuQ-15s, partly because they have similar performance to the TFM-450s but are a little lighter,” says the band’s monitor engineer Antony King. “And the band really liked them. What I like is the fact that you can move away from them, but you can still hear that they’re there - the sound doesn’t just disappear as it does with many monitors. They’re perfect for theatre-sized venues and I’ll certainly be specifying them for the next tour.”
One huge advantage of the NuQ range is the digital power (DP) option. Every model in the range is available either as a passive/bi-amped unit, or digitally self-powered comprising an integrated ultra-lightweight Class D amp module offering better than 90% efficiency.
Full networking capability is available via a BvNet daisy-chain network topology using the intuitive TurboDrive™ software to enable control and monitoring of system parameters. This allows the creation of a network of NuQ loudspeaker systems - passive, self-powered or both - with user control from a PC.
For the Glasgow and London dates of the Fratellis tour, a brass trio was added and here a pair of NuQ-12DP series monitors was added to the rig. This not only gave the NuQ12-DPs a thorough workout in an environment with high sound levels, but also allowed Antony to use the software for control and discover for himself the huge advantages of the system.
“I was surprised at how well they performed,” he says. “When I first saw them I thought 15s would be required, but the 12s acquitted themselves very well. The software also works well and it looks cool. Plus they certainly impressed the chicks!”
“This tour provided another pre-launch workout in our ongoing field testing of NuQ,” adds Dominic. “It was crucial for Turbosound to prove the flexibility of the NuQ range when used in stage monitoring applications. We’re really pleased with the results and the reaction from the band and engineers alike. We’re looking forward to future tours with them.”
8th May 2007
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