Halsey’s “For My Last Trick” tour, in support of her acclaimed fifth album The Great Impersonator, combined Broadway-style theatrics, automated prop sets, a giant LED wall, a pyro package, and more beneath an Art Deco-inspired false proscenium. The selected audio system needed to provide exceptional sound to match the high quality of the production on all thirty stops of the coast-to-coast amphitheater tour, Halsey’s highest-selling one to date.
Preserving the importance of the audio while maintaining the singular vision that Halsey and her team had for the creative production elements was the balancing act put forth on “For My Last Trick.” The chosen PA needed to be crystal-clear with ample output for a show that spanned genres almost as frequently as it changed out the dramatic scenic elements. The production team desired the audio system to be flexible to preserve essential sightlines for the visual features the performances offered.
Clair Global deployed the PA, which typically consisted of sixteen CO12 left-right on the main hangs and an additional 14 on either side hang. Nine Cohesion CP218 II+ were flown on either side, usually behind the mains, with another dozen on the ground. Atop each ground-stack of subwoofers, a Cohesion CF28 was placed, with two more on the stage, for front fill. Using new amplifier technology and simulation software from Cohesion, the audio team produced exceptional sound for jam-packed shows night after night.
The amplifiers improved transient response, low-end punch, clarity, and depth, while also reducing the EQ needed on the arrays and highlighting the sonic quality of the front fills, which were “absolutely in phase with the mains and the low-mids,” according to SE Mike Grabarczyk. The team used innovative simulation software for confident prediction, and highly accurate toolsets facilitated efficient system deployment and tuning. On the production side, the efficient Cohesion system was lightweight and flexible in its rigging capabilities to keep audiences’ sightlines, and the efficienct form-factor meant the PA could fit into one truck.
“People don’t know what the CO12 is like with the new amps: way less EQ, so much smoother, sounds brand-new. You feel it in terms of transient response, depth, and clarity. It’s been pretty awesome.”
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