Nashville, TN (July 7, 2017)—Nashville-based Morris Light & Sound provided audio for four stages at this year’s CMA Festival, serving up Nexo STM line arrays, Yamaha consoles, monitors and more for the four-day festival.
Morris engineers used Nexo’s proprietary NS1 software to design and model Nexo STM systems for the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage, the Cracker Barrel Country Roads Stage, the Music City Stage and the Durango Music Spot. John Mills, senior audio engineer at Morris, configured the system throughout the week, measuring the seating areas and size of the space for each of the four stages, using NS1 to predict the performance of the system and Nexo Nemo2 software for monitoring and control of the system.
“The guys at Morris had a solid file built ahead of time on the Yamaha PM10, and after getting my bearings of the desk’s layout, it was smooth sailing,” said David Loy, front of house engineer for artist Kane Brown said. “Personally, I appreciated several features: the console’s expanded channel section was a familiar sight for my eyes and extremely helpful. Having every controllable parameter of a channel just an arm’s reach away was perfect for the festival situation where speed was key. Using the Rupert Neve Designs Silk, I dialed in the Blue Silk transformer on my drums and bass while adding the Red Silk circuit on my guitars and Kane’s vocal. Immediately, the harmonic relationship between my kick and bass was so smooth. My lead vocal shined and was just how I needed Kane’s voice to sound. Since he jumps so much between his baritone to tenor ranges, the Red Silk circuit really helped emphasize some of those characteristics of his voice at all times that I would typically have to get with EQ. But instead with the PM10, I was able to get those aspects just with one knob. It was stellar.”
Morris provided audio for acts like Old Dominion, Michael Ray and Eli Young Band on the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage with Yamaha PM10s, CL5s and CL3 desks using two RPio-622 stage racks at front of house. Four Rio3224-D stage boxes were used at monitors. The Nexo rig consisted of 42 STM M46 boxes, 42 B112 subs, 32 S118 subs, six PS10R2s, 4 PS15s, 12 Nuar amp racks, and 16 45 N12 wedges.
Meanwhile, the Cracker Barrel Country Roads Stage at Ascend Amphitheater featured artists like RaeLynn, Hunter Hayes and Dan + Shay. The Morris set up included two Yamaha PM10s and two RPio622s at front of house with two CL5s and two Rio3224-Ds at monitors, and a Yamaha CL1 used as a production console at front of house. The Nexo rig consisted of 24 STM M46 main modules, 24 B112 bass modules, four M28 Omni modules, four S118 sub modules flown on top of the array, 10 Nuar amp racks, six PS10s, 16 RS18 subs, and 16 45 N12 wedges.
The acoustic-oriented Durango Music Spot saw Morris provided two Yamaha M7CL consoles along with 16 Nexo STM M28 Omni module line array speakers, four RS118 subs, and two PS10 speakers. Lastly, Martina McBride, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers, along with other artists performed on the CMA Close Up Stage via two Yamaha QL5s and one M7CL Digital Audio Console, 24 Nexo M28 Omni modules, six RS118 subs, and two PS10 speakers.
Morris Light & Sound
www.experiencemorris.com
Yamaha and NEXO
www.yamahaproaudio.com
