PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Clyne Media
Tel: (615) 662-1616
Fax: (615) 662-1636FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DAVE RAT AND RAT SOUND TAKE XTA DP448 ON A
WORLD TOUR WITH RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS— DP448 controls all the speakers in Rat Sound’s elaborate and innovative sound system assembled for the band’s 2006-2007 world tour —
NSCA EXPO, ORLANDO, FL — Following the recent use of XTA gear on major tours including Foo Fighters, Weezer, Maroon 5, Jack Johnson and Pearl Jam, XTA is pleased to report that the DP448 Audio Management System is also working its magic on the amazing Red Hot Chili Peppers world tour. The DP448 is being used as the main speaker control system for all of the loudspeakers in Rat Sound’s unique system configuration, devised by company Owner and FOH Mixer for the Chili Peppers, Dave Rat.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the leading rock acts in history. The band was ranked #30 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Since 1984, they have sold approximately 60 million records. They also hold the record for most #1 modern rock hits with 10, and most weeks spent atop that chart, at 74. Dave Rat founded Rat Sound in 1980 as a unique and innovative sound system design and rental company. Since then, Rat Sound has grown into a major force in live touring sound, providing state-of-the-art systems for artists including Black Flag, Weezer, Maroon 5, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, My Chemical Romance, AFI, the Taste of Chaos tour, and of course, the Chili Peppers, with whom Rat Sound has had a 16-year-long relationship.
The system Rat Sound provides for the Chili Peppers’ world tour incorporates dual stereo main V-DOSC line arrays. This unique setup allows one stereo system to be dedicated to bass, guitar and toms while the other system carries vocals, kick and snare. The result is tremendous gains in clarity and headroom. Dave Rat notes, “The concept is an effective and tour-able refinement of what the Grateful Dead created with the Wall of Sound. The advent of modern day line arrays has made it possible to [tour] venues with multiple systems. Monitor engineers have been doing something similar for years when implementing separate instrument and vocal wedges to gain clarity by reducing the intermodulation distortion caused by the speaker; I am just doing it on a much larger scale.”
He chose the XTA DP448 units to manage this innovative speaker configuration. “After considerable testing and analysis of available digital system processors, Rat Sound has selected XTA’s DP448 as the processor of choice,” continues Rat. “Sound quality, size, cost and industry reputation were just a few of the many factors taken into account. The Chili Peppers’ tour has a fairly demanding setup involving dual front of house PA systems, underhangs, side wrap systems and five subwoofer sends. The 448's allow us to utilize one compact central rack that houses six 448's, occupying a mere six rack spaces that processes the entire arena rig. Over the years I have mixed on V-DOSC rigs processed by XTA and all the other L-ACOUSTICS approved processors numerous times; I personally prefer the way the XTA-processed V-DOSC rigs sound.”
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XTA is a British manufacturer of signal processing equipment for the live sound, permanent installation, broadcasting, and recording markets, and is exclusively distributed in the U.S. by Group One Ltd. of Farmingdale, New York. Group One is also the exclusive U.S. distributor for Blue Sky International, Celestion Professional Products, MC2 Audio Ltd. and a number of prominent lighting products.
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—For more information on the complete range of XTA products, contact Sue Adamson,
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