Framingham, MA (June 5, 2017)—Everyone knows absence makes the heart grow fonder, but who knew it applied to PA systems? Switchfoot’s live sound engineer/road manager, Ryan Nichols, looked back on this year’s “Looking for America” tour, and realized, “I was reflecting on my favorite shows on the tour and 90 percent of those were when we were using the Bose system. It’s an easy rig to mix on—‘easy’ being that I know what I’m looking for in terms of the sound…this is a great sounding P.A.”
The Bose system in question was the Bose Professional ShowMatch DeltaQ array loudspeaker system, which the band used on select dates of the tour. The ShowMatch system takes design concepts from the proven RoomMatch system, reconfiguring the array elements for the rigors of the road. Individual array modules can be field-configured for a variety of dispersion characteristics to suit a given application, including asymmetrical horizontal patterns.
“They’ve done a really great job with it,” said Nichols. “I like the way the box sounds, the tuning is really nice and it definitely has the SPL. Your cymbals sound nice and clear, your vocals are right there, your guitars have some nice bite and some body, the bass sits in a nice place, and the drums have punch and body. It’s easy to rig, easy to hang and it covers the room really well. I love mixing on it.
“Furthermore, you want every single person in the room to get the best show; there’s a guy over there, and you want him to hear the same show as the guy over there, or the guy down there in the front, and that’s what the ShowMatch system accomplishes. I can say the Bose ShowMatch rig is already on my rider.”
