Camarillo, Calif. – July 12, 2016 – For the The Red Hot Chili Peppers, embarking on a massive world tour meant harnessing the power of a cutting edge monitoring system to ensure confident performances in venues around the world. The audio experts at Rat Sound Systems, Inc. chose to utilize their unique and versatile new Rat Sound SuperWedge monitors to deliver detailed, highly customizable audio to the band. To take full advantage of the SuperWedge’s features, Dave Rat of Rat Sound turned to the exceptional clarity and routing capabilities of Powersoft’s X4 power amplifiers. When Red Hot Chili Peppers monitor engineer Mark Vanderwall subsequently requested X4 amplifiers to drive the EAW MicroWedge 12’s that comprised the rest of the monitor system, the tour officially had an all-X4 monitor power section, delivering incredible output and performance in two compact racks.

Powersoft X4 Amp Unlocks the Power of the SuperWedge

Rat Sound’s SuperWedge features four independent speakers, accommodating all four inputs from the X4 amplifier. Rat Sound engineers were able to utilize the Powersoft X4’s flexible routing capabilities, configurable within its powerful Armonía software, to enable multiple output configurations for the SuperWedges to tailor their output to The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ on-stage needs. For bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith, the X4 drives SuperWedges containing a pair of 12” speakers, a 10” speaker, and a 2” speaker. “Utilizing input 1 on the X4 sends signal to all four speakers, while using Armonía to separate frequencies between 40Hz and 80Hz into one 12”, 40Hz and 250Hz into the other, and 250Hz to 20kHz in to the 10” and 2” speakers,” explains Dave Rat. “This results in a 4 way wedge that reduces comb filtering interference in the 80 to 250 region that occurs when both 12’s reproduce this frequencies.” Input 2 on the X4 allows the SuperWedge to function as a conventional tri-amp wedge, using one 12” speaker plus the 10” and 2” speakers. Input 3 outputs to only the 40Hz to 80Hz 12”, enabling direct control of sub frequencies exclusively. Each X4 was able to drive a pair of SuperWedges with plenty of headroom thanks to its 3000 watts of power per channel at 4 ohms.

Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer’s SuperWedges have one of their 12” speakers replaced with a 12” Celestion guitar speaker. With the X4’s routing, these can deliver either a standard triamp wedge configuration on input 1, or use input 2 to deliver full-range output to the guitar speaker only. Using an emulated output on the guitar rig, this allows Klinghoffer to hear a guitar sound that is extremely close in tone to the sound of his amplifier. As Klinghoffer’s monitor wedges, operating in stereo, are driven by one X4 each.

Big Options in a Small Package

Red Hot Chili Peppers monitor engineer Mark Vanderwall was so impressed with the performance of the Powersoft X4 with the Rat Sound SuperWedges during early tests that he requested X4 amplifiers to drive the rest of the monitoring system, which includes EAW MicroWedge 12s, dual drum thumpers, a drum sub, two Rat Sound L-wedges, and side fills. This ensured Powersoft’s pristine clarity and reliable performance across the board. Due to their remarkably small 1RU footprint, the 10 X4s that comprised the final system were easily fit in two custom-panelled racks designed by Jon Monson, head of touring at Rat Sound, which fit directly under Vanderwall’s console. “It’s hard to imagine that each of these racks can hold 120,000 watts of 4 ohm power with twenty-four inputs and twenty-four outputs,” Rat says. “Not to mention providing five high-quality limiters per output.”

Reliability That Scales

To accommodate a demanding large-scale international tour such as this, reliability and efficiency were key factors. “We feel very confident in the integrity of this setup thanks to using Powersoft across the board,” Rat says. “The systems have been running exactly as planned and we even included a backup X4 in each rack pre-loaded with all of the necessary configurations to replace any other X4 in the rack for added redundancy.” Rat Sound assembled two identical stand-alone monitoring systems for the tour, allowing the tour’s engineers to “leapfrog,” getting one system up and running at the next venue while the other runs the show at the current location. Rat Sound was pleased to acquire the full complement of 20 X4s necessary to facilitate both systems knowing that they will remain a valuable asset for countless future tours. “Powersoft’s X series amplifiers and our Rat Sound SuperWedges makes for an incredible team,” Rat says. “Together they are capable of delivering unprecedented audio quality and flexibility and are sure to the meet the needs of the most discerning artists and monitor engineers in the business.”