Touring systems
Touring sound systems have to be powerful and versatile enough to cover
many different rooms, often being of many different sizes and shapes. They
also need to use "field-replaceable" components such as speakers, horns,
and fuses, which are easily accessible for repairs during a tour. Tour
sound systems are often designed with substantial redundancy features, so
that in the event of equipment failure or amplifier overheating, the
system will continue to function. Touring systems for acts performing for
crowds of a few thousand people and up are typically set up and operated
by a team of technicians and engineers that travel with the talent to
every show.
It is not uncommon for mainstream acts that are going to perform in mid to
large venues during their tour to schedule one to two weeks of tech
rehearsal with the entire concert system and production staff at hand.
This allows the audio and lighting engineers to become familiar with the
show and establish presets on their digital equipment for each part of the
show, if needed. Many modern musical groups work with their Front of House
and Monitor Mixing Engineers during this time to establish what their
general idea is of how the show should sound, both for themselves on stage
and for the audience. This often involves programming different effects
and signal processing for use on specific songs in an attempt to make the
songs sound somewhat similar to the studio versions. To manage a show with
a lot of these types of changes, the mixing engineers for the show often
choose to use a digital mixing
console so that they can recall
these many settings in between each song. This time is also used by the
system technicians to get familiar with the specific combination of gear
that is going to be used on the tour and how it acoustically responds
during the show. These technicians remain busy during the show, making
sure the SR system is operating properly and that the system is tuned
correctly, as the acoustic response of a room will respond differently
throughout the day depending on the temperature, humidity, and number of
people in the room.
Weekend band PA systems are a niche market for touring SR gear. Weekend
bands need systems that are small enough to fit into a minivan or a car
trunk, and yet powerful enough to give adequate and even sound dispersion
and vocal intelligibility in a noisy club or bar. As well, the systems
need to be easy and quick to set up. Sound reinforcement companies have
responded to this demand by offering equipment that fulfills multiple
roles, such as powered mixers (a mixer with an integrated power amplifier
and effects) and powered subwoofers (a subwoofer with an integrated power
amplifier and crossover). These products minimize the amount of wiring
connections that bands have to make to set up the system. Some subwoofers
have speaker mounts built into the top, so that they can double as a base
for the stand-mounted full-range PA speaker cabinets.