Morris Takes CMA Fest to the Next Level with Yamaha PM10s and NEXO STMs

	John Mills, Morris, with the Yamaha PM10

Amidst capacity crowds and sold out shows, Morris Light & Sound (Nashville) supplied the 2017 CMA Festival's 46-year event with a NEXO STM Line Array, Yamaha consoles, monitors, and top-notch engineers for four different stages. The equipment was a vital part of offering more than 167 hours of music from 350+ artists and over 1,100 musicians throughout the course of the four-day festival.

Morris engineers used NEXO's proprietary NS1 software to design and model NEXO STM systems for the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage, the Cracker Barrel Country Roads Stage, the Music City Stage, and the Durango Music Spot. NS1 allowed Morris to precisely draw all venue listening planes and design the best possible systems for each stage.

John Mills, senior audio engineer at Morris configured the system throughout the week, measuring the seating areas and size of the space for each of the four stages. "For each stage where STM was deployed, we 3D modeled the area and used NS1 to predict the performance of the system," Mills states. Morris also used the new NEXO NEMO2 software for monitoring and control of the system. This allowed each system engineer to have complete control and monitoring of amplifier channels in the system. "I received many great comments about the amazing sound of the new Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 digital audio console and, as expected, many engineers were stunned by the clarity of the STM."

"The guys at Morris had a solid file built ahead of time on the Yamaha PM10, and after getting my bearings of the desk's layout, it was smooth sailing," said David Loy, front of house engineer for artist Kane Brown said. "Personally, I appreciated several features: the console's expanded channel section was a familiar sight for my eyes and extremely helpful. Having every controllable parameter of a channel just an arm's reach away was perfect for the festival situation where speed was key. Using the Rupert Neve Designs SILK, I dialed in the Blue SILK transformer on my drums and bass while adding the Red SILK circuit on my guitars and Kane's vocal. Immediately, the harmonic relationship between my kick and bass was so smooth. My lead vocal shined and just how I needed Kane's voice to sound. Since he jumps so much between his baritone to tenor ranges, the Red SILK circuit really helped emphasize some of those characteristics of his voice at all times that I would typically have to get with EQ. But instead with the PM10, I was able to get those aspects just with one knob. It was stellar."

Between the massive amount of people at the festival, the pristine NEXO and Yamaha equipment, and the careful planning done by the Morris engineers, the four stages were hugely successful. "Mixing on a Yamaha PM10 with its fantastic workflow and ease of configuring allows for a stress-free experience for a new user as well as experienced engineers," says David Haskell, president of Morris. "We are glad to support CMA at such an amazing festival and look forward to next year."

At the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage, Morris provided audio for acts like Old Dominion, Michael Ray, and Eli Young Band with Yamaha PM10s, CL5s, and CL3 desks using two RPio-622 stage racks at front of house. Four Rio3224-D stage boxes were used at monitors. The NEXO rig consisted of 42 STM M46 boxes, 42 B112 subs, 32 S118 subs, six PS10R2s, four PS15s, 12 Nuar amp racks, and 16 45 N12 wedges.

The Cracker Barrel Country Roads Stage at Ascend Amphitheater featured artists like RaeLynn, Hunter Hayes, and Dan + Shay. The Morris set up included two Yamaha PM10s and two RPio622s at front of house with two CL5s and two Rio3224-Ds at monitors, and a Yamaha CL1 used as a production console at front of house. The NEXO rig consisted of 24 STM M46 main modules, 24 B112 bass modules, four M28 Omni modules, four S118 sub modules flown on top of the array, 10 Nuar amp racks, six PS10s, 16 RS18 subs, and 16 45 N12 wedges.

At the Durango Music Spot which is an acoustic stage located inside the XFINITY Fan Fair X that hosted rising starts and legendary song writers like Stella Parton and Moore & Moore, Morris provided two Yamaha M7CL consoles along with 16 NEXO STM M28 Omni module line array speakers, four RS118 subs, and two PS10 speakers.

Martina McBride, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers, along with other artists performed on the CMA Close Up Stage and featured two Yamaha QL5s and one M7CL Digital Audio Console, 24 NEXO M28 Omni modules, six RS118 subs, and two PS10 speakers.