Volbeat Flies Around Europe with Coda AIRLINE

Volbeat Flies Around Europe With Coda AIRLINE Wednesday 05. February 2014 16:22

Danish band Volbeat spent much of 2013 touring the world to promote their latest album Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies. A run of European arena shows in October and November was the first major tour on which the band used a Coda Audio system. Front of House engineer Mads Mikkelsen pronounced himself very pleased.

Mads has been the band's FOH engineer for eight years and first used Coda's AIRLINE LA12 on a club tour earlier in the year. DPA SoundCo had tried to get me on Coda for a long time, he says. Previously I'd always used a different system, but I agreed to take a Coda rig out on a 1000-2000 seater Danish tour, just for the super-dedicated fans. I was really surprised, it responded exactly how I wanted it to. I was really switched on to Coda from that point onwards.

DPA SoundCo project manager Ulrik Rasmussen explains why the rental company originally invested in Coda.

We're the kind of company that never stops searching for the right equipment. We were looking for something that had something that other systems were lacking, he says. We found that Coda systems have some major advantages - they don't run out of energy and there is no distortion, compared to other systems. We thought Why not take something that we believe in and make other people believe in it, instead of taking something else and then have to convince ourselves that it's good enough?'

The rigging system is also very impressive. It's fast, safe and really easy to use. Generally, you can rig it with one person, which means we save time and money. It's also easy to teach new people how to work with it.

Venues for the Volbeat arena shows ranged between 8000-17000 capacity, so DPA SoundCo supplied a system which combined Coda's AIRLILNE LA12 and ViRAY systems. 36-40 AIRLINE LA12 cabinets were flown as the main PA, with 16-24 more for outfills and 16 more for delays, depending on the venue size. Eight Coda ViRAY units were flown as a centre cluster, with 12 ViRAY for nearfill and 12 more as sidefills. For the low end, 24 SC3-F sensor-controlled bass extenders were flown behind the main PA for the low-mids, plus 24 ground stacked SC8 subs, four SCV-F bass extenders and four SCP subs.

Something we really like about Coda is that you can scale the system down for smaller shows and scale it up for bigger shows, says Ulrik. With a lot of other manufacturers you end up having to buy separate big and small systems, whereas with this you just buy one and you can do everything.

As a band specialising in rock music, guitars are inevitably to the fore. Mads finds that the AIRLINE LA12 cabinets are ideal for delivering high quality guitar sound, without the detail being lost in a wash of distortion.

This band is really diverse, some songs are really extreme and others are a lot softer, so the system has to cope with that, he says. The guitars need a lot of that low-mid that 12 inch loudspeakers produce. The AIRLINE LA12 is ideal because you get a very clear guitar sound without it getting harsh. I always try to mix shows so you don't get that annoying ringing sound. It's very easy on this system because you can really open it up to make it sound and feel loud, but it doesn't hurt your ears.

Mads is well aware of the old sound engineer's adage that it's a job well done if the public says nothing, but it has been a different matter when it comes to fellow engineers.

When it comes to audiences, you've done a good job if you're not noticed, he smiles. But other engineers have said they can hear things in the music through this system that they haven't heard before, even in the studio. I have had a lot of positive comments from fellow audio professionals on this tour.

Ulrik concurs, adding, We've done a lot of big artists with Coda systems - The Script, Elton John, Sting, to name a few. What was really good with Elton and Sting was that their engineers like their systems and don't like to talk too much about others. But in both cases their reactions were genuinely Wow, this is really something'.

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