MONTEVIDEO, URAGUAY—On March 18, the legendary hard rock band Guns N’ Roses brought their Chinese Democracy tour to the Centenario Stadium. Performing to an enthusiastic crowd estimated at more than 30,000 people, the outdoor concert employed a sophisticated sound reinforcement setup that consisted of a large quantity of Aero Series 2 and Aero loudspeaker models from the catalog of D.A.S. Audio.
The legendary hard rock band Guns N’ Roses brought their Chinese Democracy tour to the Centenario Stadium using D.A.S. line arrays.
Three sound service companies united for this massive undertaking: Leggio Sonido (directed by Jorge Leggio), Ariel Marti’s Marti Audio, and Victor Lampariello’s Compañía Uruguaya de Sonido. Together, these three firms pooled a massive amount of equipment together and pulled off one of the most memorable hard rock concerts to hit Montevideo in quite some time.
Jorge Leggio, director of Leggio Sonido, discusses the nature of the setup. “This was an outdoor concert where the crowd was situated on the soccer field, in an area about 100 wide meters by 85 meters long,” he explains. “There was also a second area, which was elevated 20 meters high with an incline of 35 degrees in regard to the ground. The stage was used in a lateral position facing 85 meters across the distance of the second level.”
The main PA system actually consisted of two distinct loudspeaker setups — one for the instruments and a second system dedicated solely to lead vocalist Axel Rose’s voice. The “instrument” system was built using 32 D.A.S. Audio Aero 50 large format, 3-way line array modules — flown 16 elements per side at a height of 12 meters. These loudspeakers were driven by Lab Gruppen FP 10,000Q power amps, with loudspeaker management tasks handled by a Lake processor. The “vocal” system used another 16 Aero 50s — flown eight per side at a height of 10 meters. These were accompanied by an additional eight Aero 12A powered, 2-way loudspeaker systems that were positioned over the center of the stage and flown at a height of 12 meters.
For those in search of low end “oomph,” the Guns N’ Roses concert was the place to be. A whopping 64 D.A.S. Audio LX-218 high performance subwoofers — each incorporating dual D.A.S. 18LXN long excursion, neodymium transducers in a front loaded, bass reflex configuration — provided low end support. These sub bass enclosures were deployed 32 units per side.
Ariel Marti, director of Marti Audio, reports there were a number of serious challenges on this project — any one of which could easily have brought the entire event to its knees. “This event was complicated by a variety of technical coordination issues, structural conditions that weren’t anticipated, and heavy rain throughout the setup period, Marti reports. “Everything from stage rigging and alignment issues to having too little time for set up made this one of the most difficult projects I’ve encountered. Thanks to the efficiency, build quality, integrated flyware, and power of the D.A.S. Audio Aero 50s, the end result was extremely positive and that is, ultimately, what matters. As has happened so many times before, the D.A.S. Audio system was able to overcome the problems frequently encountered in touring sound work.”
