Part of the South African live music industry’s moves to re-establish itself from the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic is support for up-and-coming artists to return to the stage. A recent four-date tour of the Western Cape saw Prosound act as the PA sponsor for Julanie J.

Prosound provided Stage-Tech MD, JP Chetty – who served as audio and tech engineer for the tour - with a Meyer Sound system with the versatility to handle the different venues, while also being robust enough to handle four back-to-back performances. ‘Not a lot of people in South Africa tour with Meyer, but it is robust, I know first-hand that this PA does really well on tour,’ Chetty says.

‘We took the PA out and did four shows in four days and there was not a single issue with it. We worked very different venues from rooms of 100-200 people to outside, which Meyer has not been associated with traditionally in South Africa, but it worked well for every setting. It’s exactly the same sound, it just gets bigger.’

The tour stopped off at the Jamrock Theatre in Brackenfell, Klienmond Central Café, Die Bordienghuis Theatre in Wellington and Sumsare Wyn Plaas in Robertson. For each venue Chetty used a pair of Meyer Sound Ultra X 40 tops with low end reinforcement from a pair of 750 LFC subs.

‘The nice thing about it is that it wasn’t massive rooms so the PA became immersive,’ Chetty reflects. ‘You’re sitting in the room, you close your eyes and it’s like you’ve got headphones on. That’s the magic of Meyer, you can scale it up or scale it down and it’s super versatile.’

The tour received praise, with the Meyer Sound portable PA earning some genuine compliments: ‘The owner of the farm for the outside gig said “I listen with a very critical ear, I know good sound and this is the best sound I’ve ever heard”,’ Chetty reports. ‘It was just two tops and two subs and we filled his whole field up, it was absolutely beautiful. His wife is a singer, so it was a very good compliment.’

While the sound system received a lot of plaudits, it was actually the joy of bringing live music to people once again that proved to be the highlight of the tour for Chetty. ‘Julanie’s music is doing really well on radio – there’s a lot of sing-a-long Afrikaans songs so the crowds really enjoyed it,’ he says. ‘When people are in there and enjoying the music, there is this peace that sits in the room. I hadn’t experienced that pre-Covid, only now. We only get to appreciate what it is to be together because we were forced to be apart. We are hosting that experience and enabling it with things like sound, light and staging.’

‘Meyer Sound has developed a reputation in South Africa for creating superb installed solutions for churches and theatres, but the same gear has also been used for some of the world’s biggest tours,’ adds Prosound’s Justin Acres. ‘Tours like Julanie J’s show that the powered solutions from Meyer Sound can deliver perfect sound day after day no matter what the venue is. A well-mixed show on a high-quality sound system will always lead to a good experience for the audience. We hope that tours like this will encourage people to get back out there and remember what it is like to experience live music as part of a crowd again.’

More: www.prosound.co.za