Iron Maiden Faces the Final Frontier with Flown EAW

ML Executives has successfully completed Iron Maiden's Final Frontier world tour, having provided sound reinforcement for the summer festival season followed by UK arena dates, culminating in two nights at London's O2 Arena.

Gary Marks' long-standing production company has been servicing the British metal band for the past ten of its 36 years on the road. Once again the heavy reinforcement artillery was provided by an EAW KF760 line array system, with the new SB1002 subs flown for the first time.

The band had turned to EAW -- and ML Executives -- when its long-serving sound engineer Doug Hall originally set his sights on upgrading to line array technology. In the meantime, ML had remained brand-loyal to EAW, having been the first UK customer for the company's classic KF850 many years before. "Although the band had reviewed several other line arrays, they specifically came to us because we already had the new KF760 line array -- and that's why we have continued to develop the inventory," says Marks.

In fact they have amassed a large fleet of 72 KF760s as well as 24 KF761 downfills, 24 of the new SB1002 subwoofers, and 16 BH760 subs -- essential for the outdoor season when much larger site coverage is required for audiences up to 80,000.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Doug Hall has worked extensively in the high-octane genre, with bands such as Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. And with 32 years' experience of piloting Iron Maiden's mix under his belt, he knew exactly what he was looking for. Of the systems he reviewed, "some were too polite or created too much backwash ... others simply ran out of gas in he low-mids.

"Then I came across the KF760 after being introduced to it by Moray McMillin on the Deep Purple tour. All frequencies are horn loaded and near enough the same compression and dispersion angle and everything runs out about the same, with consistent throw of the horn.

"As for the SB1002s I wanted a full-range sound to be heard upstairs and the subs to be overlapping with the horn-loaded BH760 ground stacks down to around 40Hz, without hurting people."

The story of this tour was really about the SB1002. When they were introduced, Marks decided to sell his previous generation (SB1000) direct radiating subs, knowing that their successors would be capable of going up in the air (the rigging system accommodates flown arrays of up to twelve SB1002 units); this would also offer good vertical directivity and minimize the 'bleed-back' effect. "By being able to fly the new subs, with the upgraded driver and flyware, meant we could deliver a full-range system to anywhere in the venue -- which we had been unable to do with the old ground-stacked SB1000's."

At the same time, Hall was keen to retain the horn-loaded BH760 to provide some physical stage energy and presence. "With two 12in, very long horns this delivers a tight and punchy sound. There's very little splash-back back onto the artists but at the same time the band did need to feel some of the physical energy." Without the bleed-back Hall was able to put any feed (such as kick drum) through the BH760, as it is so directional.

Thus the rig at the O2 Arena for the final two nights comprised 15 KF760 and three KF761 (per side) - plus the 12 flown SB1002s -- with a further 12 x KF760 providing the outfills on each wing. The ground stacks were formed from eight BH760 enclosures per side.

Another advocate of this design principle is line array systems engineer Mike Hackman. He worked closely with Hall, producing rigging plot predictions (via the EAW Resolution software) to optimize the low-frequency consistency, and at the same time protect against the risk of sub-bass bleed-back.

He also runs SMAART v6 for his alignment. "Using the presets we've tailored over the past eight years makes the response more predictable.

"With a ten or 12-box line in the air we get a lot of vertical cancellation and we can deliver a punchy sound."

Hackman, too, knows the KF760 has the right sonic personality to suit the band -- particularly in the midrange and HF. "Some systems can sound too polite but this provides the power and separation for the three guitars -- it's a more open and powerful sound, and of course delivers plenty of SPL with no problems at all."

The system tech, who has toured consistently with the band for the last eight years, believes that flown subs represent the way forward for tour production: "With health and safety legislation becoming so stringent it will gradually become more difficult to put big stacks on the ground." Meanwhile, down at the stage, Steve Smith was looking after the monitor mix, while other members of the Iron Maiden sound crew included Ian Walsh (monitor tech), Pat Fisher and Richard Trow (line array techs), while production manager for the tour was Patrick Ledwith.