Following the completion of his From Here To Now To You tour in 2013-2014, Jack
Johnson has only played a handful of shows over the past three years. However, with
his new album, All The Light Above It Too, slated to drop in early September, the
former professional surfer-turned-singer/songwriter, actor and activist recently
returned to the road with his band—and Rat Sound’s L-Acoustics K1/K2 system—to
preview his upcoming material.

Like many of Rat’s satisfied clients, Johnson has enjoyed a long history with the
Camarillo-based sound company, which has reinforced all of his tours since 2000. The
2013-2014 trek carried a Kara-based loudspeaker system that was ideal for the more
intimate theatres and performing arts venues on that run. This latest tour stopped at
much larger spaces—including California’s 17 500-seat Hollywood Bowl and
Washington’s 22 000-seat Gorge Amphitheater on its collective four-week journey—all
of which were completely sold out, making K1/K2 the obvious choice.

“This system has been the perfect size for the tour,’ says Rat Sound System Tech and
Crew Chief Bjarne Hemmingsen, who was tasked with designing the loudspeaker
model in L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software each morning. “The show sits at around
94dbA with some very soft delicate parts, and K1/K2 is great at providing even
coverage throughout each venue while still keeping a full sound at the very back.’

The tour’s standard loudspeaker array configuration consisted of a dozen K1 plus four
Kara downs flown per side. These were flanked by far left and right hangs of up to 12
K2. Four more Kara spread out across the stage lip handled frontfill, while six ARCS II
enclosures—horizontally arrayed in threes on each side of the stage—delivered outfill.
Eight SB28 subs per side, groundstacked in two stacks of four, delivered the robust
low end, and all systems were powered and processed by LA8 amplified controllers.

“I appreciate that I can easily configure this system in so many different ways to
perfectly suit each venue,’ Hemmingsen adds. “For venues that don’t require side
arrays but are still quite wide, we used four K1 paired with eight to 12 K2 for the
mains—or sometimes just the K2s alone for even smaller venues. Being able to
control the horizontal HF with K2 solves a lot of reflection issues, especially for the
side arrays. Its ability to cover 70 degrees and keep the HF off the walls helps a lot –
and the results that I get in Soundvision are always spot on.’

“This system has a great, full, natural sound with a very controlled low end and
requires almost no EQ. Jack covers a lot of musical genres with his set—from folk and
reggae to pop and rock—and each variation of the L-Acoustics system worked well
with them all.’

The system that Rat Sound carried remained unchanged between the two trips and
was skillfully steered by Michael Pollock, Johnson’s FOH engineer for the past 17
years. Key additional audio crew members included monitor engineer Casey McDaniel,
as well as Rat Sound PA tech Mike Gazdziak and monitor tech Kyle Rogan.