Happy days are here again: Barbra Streisand with GSL.
In early August, Barbra Streisand, one of the best-selling singer/songwriters of all time, performed two phenomenal shows with the big sister of the SL-Series at Madison Square Garden in New York City the United Center in Chicago.
From Q to GSL
d&b partner Carlton Audio Services (Miami, FL), along with Clair Global (Lititz, PA), has provided audio production for Barbra Streisand for the past thirteen years. “d&b audiotechnik became a part of the design in 2007 when the late Bruce Jackson asked me to provide a solution to the VIP seating on an outdoor European tour, and so I chose the best in d&b loudspeaker systems available at that time,” stated sound designer and front of house engineer Christopher Carlton. “I chose the lightweight d&b Q1 system that was flown as center fill. To this day, we continue to use d&b V-Series for all delays and fill areas, including Barbra's side fill monitors.”
Carlton took over the reins full time as both sound designer and front of house engineer after the passing of Jackson, Streisand’s long-time front of house engineer, in 2011.
“We have used delay loudspeaker systems for every Barbra arena tour since 1994,” said Carlton. Recently, the production team asked if these could be eliminated because of logistics. With the development of the d&b SL-Series GSL system and the application of ArrayProcessing, all models showed very good coverage without the use of delay arrays. KM Productions of New York City provided the main arrays, consisting of sixteen boxes per side of GSL8 and GSL12 and a horizontal ground array of SL-SUBs, for the two August shows. Carlton’s company, Carlton Audio Services, supplemented with d&b J-Series and V-Series for 180˚ and 270˚ systems, center fill, and side fill monitors. d&b D80 amplifiers powered the entire system, utilizing ArrayProcessing on all flown arrays.
A hit with the artist
Support from a 14-piece band including drums, percussion, bass, guitar, saxophone, flute, three keyboardists, pianist, three violinists, viola, and cello; and three background vocalists completed the legend’s ensemble.
“The GSL is a very smooth and warm sounding system,” noted Carlton. “Both shows went very well; Barbra was really happy with what she was hearing back on the stage. She doesn’t use in-ear monitors so the mix between stage monitors and what comes back off of the PA is very important for her. She complimented me from the stage during sound check and thanked the entire audio team during the shows.”
