It was extremely difficult to get a ticket for Prince’s “Welcome 2 America” tour, what with announcing show dates just a few days before an actual gig. And that quick turnaround was also laid in the laps of sound reinforcement provider Rat Sound, or as sound company president Dave Rat says, “Rat got a call on the Thursday and by Sunday we had three semi-trucks of prepped gear headed to Oakland [Calif.] for a 2 a.m. load in.” Since the, the company has supplied the sound system for Prince, including his 21-night run at the Los Angeles Forum.
The system comprises six hangs of 10 L-Acoustics K1 in the round, with 42 dV-DOSCs and 40 SB28 subs powered by L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers. Front-of-house engineer Majid Malki (pictured) and monitor engineer Fred Lucas both man a Midas Heritage 3000. The rest of the crew includes production manager Chris Reynolds and system techs Ronnie Kimball, Milk Arnold, George Squires, Tommy “LBC” Caraisco, Taka Nakai, Manny Perez, Roz Jones, Phil Reynolds, Tim Engwall and Peter Baigent.
