MIDAS’ flagship console, the PRO X, was put to use as America’s largest pops
orchestra, The Philly POPS, opened festivities for Wawa Welcome America,
Philadelphia’s citywide Fourth of July celebrations. The 65-piece Philly POPS is the
largest pops orchestra in the United States which boasts a repertoire of songs from
colonial times up through today’s chart toppers.
Against the dramatic backdrop of Independence Hall, the POPS performed a lively
score of well-known tunes to the town’s crowd, which gathered for one of the main
highlights of the week-long patriotic festival.
Andre Houser, chief engineer of Houser Audio, has overseen the sound design and
served as FOH engineer for The Philly POPS over the last eight years as the
orchestra has grown to serve an audience of over 100,000 per year.
Houser on using the PRO X for The Philly POPS: “The MIDAS PRO X is the perfect
solution for the Philly POPS. In choosing a console I looked at preamps, input count,
and functionality. The PRO X gives me a great preamp that makes the strings very
warm and lush and gives an unamplified feel to the orchestra. The 168 inputs allows
me to touch every instrument, and the functionality lets me get to any one of those
168 inputs quickly. It was the natural choice.’
