Rüfüs du Sol Live: GSL is an 8th Day Wonder

It was quite the homecoming. World-beating Australian dance music act, Rüfüs du Sol, completed their world tour in Australia late 2022. AudioTechnology magazine caught up with the audio crew in Melbourne at the Showgrounds.

8th Day Sound’s Simon Farrell talks us through the PA package.

“We’re using d&b GSL for the main hangs. The hangs are 18 deep on the mains, 12 deep on the outfills. Each hang has some GSL12 at the bottom to get a little bit more coverage down there. Then we’ve got a sub arc array across the front comprising 20 x d&b SL subs (10 stacks of two) and four d&b J Infra on the outsides — two at the time. We’re running d&b V8s for the front fill. For this date we’re running four delay towers, with 12 x J8s per tower. The whole system’s running d&b’s Array Processing.

“d&b’s SL boxes work amazing well outdoors — they’re extremely directional, so you don’t hear anything on stage and you can keep the sound away from places that don’t want to hear the gig.

“The other thing about KSL or GSL product is the HF seems to stay coherent even in windy conditions. Don’t ask me how that works — physics is physics but the highs don’t get washed away in the wind as much. My guess is there’s some proprietary magic going on in the array processing.

“We deployed our first KSL system on Australia Day, 2019, at the Sydney Opera House steps and it’s been a real game changer. The pattern control keeps the residents happy, but tonally the SL series, especially in the vocal range, is just so sweet — the vocal clarity is just so much better, even compared to the likes of the J Series. It’s just far more present — with J Series you’d have to do a little bit of massaging in your EQ around your hi/mids to get the vocals to pop through. I very rarely have to do anything like that with an SL system.”

The monitor engineer, James Gueness, reiterated just how good it was working with d&b’s SL series.

“The band is very particular and they’ve got really good ears. So I’m just trying to deliver consistently good results and keep them happy — like any good monitor engineer!

“Stage spill from the PA is minimal. I was only just having a conversation up on the centre riser and it was at a normal speaking voice, while the d&b GSL PA was going full tilt. It’s amazing. It’s nice and clean and allows me to give the band something like a studio mix — that’s the sort of clarity and separation we’re talking about. For indoor shows, it’s a little tougher, you notice the difference and it’s not as quiet.”

Read the full story here: https://www.audiotechnology.com/features/rufus-du-sol-live.