dbx PUTS THE DRIVE(RACK) INTO B.B. KING’S NEW NASHVILLE CLUB
Jun 1, 2004 12:00 PM
NASHVILLE — The latest edition of B.B. King’s club chain is nearing its one-year anniversary. The Nashville club opened last fall on Second Avenue South, the city’s main entertainment strip, with a performance by the blues master himself, who was celebrating his recent 78th birthday.
The club’s sound system is composed almost exclusively of Harman International products. According to David Wilkerson — system designer, installer, and owner of Techstar Services — that decision was based on his confidence in the reliability of the individual Harman brands, plus the benefits of using a single-source supplier. The components include two Soundcraft Series II consoles, eight JBL ASB-6118 subs, four JBL AM-4215 mains, four JBL AM-4215 delay speakers, eight JBL Control 29AV delay speakers, two JBL Control 30AV delay speakers, four JBL Control 28 delay speakers, eight Crown CL-4 amplifiers (mains, delays), five Crown XLS-604 amplifiers (secondary delays), three dbx DriveRack 260s, two dbx Quad gates, six dbx 266XL processors, and four dbx 231 stereo ⅓-octave EQs. All monitors are JBL, as well. The club has two levels, each with its own stage, and the sound systems are parallel designs for upstairs and downstairs.
DRIVE(RACK), HE SAID
Wilkerson asserts that the star of the show (besides B.B., of course) is dbx’s DriveRack 260 system processor, which the installer describes as “the Swiss Army knife of installed audio.” He explains, “The dbx is the heart and soul of the system. I would’ve had to use multiple processors to accomplish what these sound systems needed, but I was able to do it all using the DriveRack 260.”
Specifically, Wilkerson says, the long and narrow shape of the main rooms on each level (as with many of the 19th-century buildings on the block, one end opens onto Second Avenue and the other onto First Avenue, overlooking the Cumberland River) dictated delay systems, with one pair positioned 55 feet from the stage (at the Second Avenue end) and another pair 55 feet past that, plus others in the three side and rear zoned rooms off the main level. “The decision by club owner Tommy Peters was to have the kind of coverage that was consistent and even end to end, which meant going to significantly greater expense, to his credit,” Wilkerson notes. “They didn’t want to blow away anyone near the stage and at the same time wanted those in the back of the room to be able to hear well and experience the vibe. We achieved that using the DriveRack system.” A pair of DriveRack 260 units controls the delays and limiting in both systems. “The 260s are easy to use for house and visiting engineers,” says Wilkerson, who encountered the DriveRack system during a particularly challenging club date with country artist Restless Heart, for whom he also mixes FOH. “The 260 saved my life that night and I’ve been using them ever since.” Wilkerson cites the ability to be able to monitor in real time on the system’s integrated RTA analyzer. “Whatever the vocal microphone of the night is, you can plug it into the 260’s mic input and immediately make it sound like it’s the microphone designed for the system. Club owners also like the ease with which they can adjust the sound according to the shifting size of the crowd as the night goes on.” Wilkerson also points out that the 260’s Advanced Feedback Suppression (AFS™) algorithm is perfectly suited for difficult or odd acoustical spaces such as this one. Furthermore, the 260 features functions including auto gain control, de-essing, subharmonic synthesis, ducking, gating, compression, and notch filtering, all of which he says he uses liberally. “That’s why I like the 260 so much,” Wilkerson says. “I get complete functionality in a single system.”
