Following his late-2023 European dates with a string of shows across the US, Country music superstar Luke Combs will be on the road through to October 2024. The loudspeaker technology supporting the Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old tour continues unchanged, with SES of Mocksville, North Carolina, providing a stadium-filling Outline system, combining flagship GTO line array enclosures with GTO-Low, Mantas 28, GTO C-12, LAB21-HS subs and LIPF-082s elements.
As last year, the venues require 220° coverage due to the size of the crowds. The sound system is correspondingly configures as a main left/right with LL/RR arrays, and then out fill LLL/RRR arrays beyond them to deliver the required horizontal and vertical dispersion. FOH system control is via two Outline Newton FPGA processors.
One of the few changes to the current part of the tour is the Saturday support acts, providing the opportunity for some new FOH engineers to explore the power and finesse of Outline’s equipment and SES’ clever system design. Chris Miller mixes FOH for singer/songwriter Mitchell Tenpenny.
‘I was excited at the idea of doing a large tour on GTO Outline,’ he says. ‘ I had a bit of experience on the GTO C-12 in some venues, most memorably Summit Music Hall in Denver. I’d always had awesome shows there, so I was excited to hear how my mix would translate on a system as big as what Luke Combs is carrying.
‘I’m honestly blown away at the clarity and impact of the Outline. What Jason, Joey, and the SES team have been able to do with it has been pretty amazing. Even in rooms that are famously difficult to mix in, like the Alamodome for example, it’s big and flattering and clear. It moves a ton of air without sacrificing articulation.
‘Every show, I put up a virtual soundcheck with zero corrective system EQ on my end, and it rocks. All the impact and gas you could want. The vocals are clear and forward with enough space and headroom to make the band bus hit as hard as I want it to. Best part is it doesn’t have to be loud to accomplish those things. I’ve been sitting at 96-to-97dBA for over a minute every show. GTO Outline absolutely belongs at the top of the list of A level large-format PAs.’
Joe Lefebvre remains in place as SES’ System Engineer on the tour, and he is presently a man happy in his work: ‘I don’t have a whole lot to add to the comments I previously made about the rig, but I will say I remain just as pleased with the system overall. The PA has been outstanding in all aspects; the coverage, reliability and tonal response of Outline’s GTO is just fantastic.
‘The firmware updates Outline has released for Armonía+ have really helped enhance network connectivity and quality of life when dealing with managing the system. The Outline TTM12K4 amplifiers continue to be rock solid and I truly am amazed at their efficiency.’
More: www.outline.it
