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Montreux Grooves on Meyer Sound
The Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) is one of the world's most prestigious music events. Now well into its fourth decade, the MJF spans two weeks of Montreux's glamour-filled calendar every summer with performances by the world's finest international artists. Jazz, funk, rock and pop legends — from McCoy Tyner to Alice Cooper to Zap Mama — troop across the stages of the three main auditoriums, while a warren of smaller clubs and bars keeps the groove going well into the night. And everywhere one looks are found Meyer Sound loudspeakers handling the critical task of sound reinforcement. For the last 19 years, Meyer Sound has been the official sound sponsor of the festival, often taking the opportunity to provide the event with the company's latest products and innovations. This year, artists performing at three of the 39th annual MJF's venues were treated to systems using the new MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker. Other venues (all told, there are about 15 venues supplied with Meyer Sound systems) employed the popular MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker, 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofer, and numerous other Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers. Montreux 2005 hosted 240,000 visitors listening to over 200 artists over the festival's 16-day July run. Most of the crowds attended shows in the festival's main venues (listed in size order): Auditorium Stravinski, the adjacent Miles Davis Hall (both located within the Montreux Convention & Exhibition Centre) and the Casino Barrière. Marc de Fouquières of French rental company Dispatch acts as system technician for the sound systems at the request of Niveau 2 Mediasystems, the festival's main audio supplier. De Fouquières enjoys handling the changes in the festival and its sound systems from year to year. "Stravinski (Auditorium) was something of a challenge," de Fouquières comments, "because we wanted to change the existing design of eight M3Ds (line array loudspeakers) and 12 M2Ds (compact curvilinear array loudspeakers) — although that was very efficient — for a simpler and even more efficient system of 20 MILOs. "Since the M3D-Sub (directional subwoofer) is cardioid and the hall is very reverberant, we decided to use a delay alignment for the subs, achieving almost the same pattern using eight 700-HPs as we had previously with six M3D-Subs," he details. "The larger angular splay steps available on the MILO rigging allowed us to avoid spilling HF energy onto the balcony front. Meanwhile a central cluster of four MICAs handled the downfill coverage, and four M1Ds (ultra-compact curvilinear array loudspeakers) spaced across the front of the stage catered to the first two rows of seating. An LD-3 compensating line driver did the air absorption compensation EQ, allowing the use of a single general stereo EQ for tuning the whole system." In the Miles Davis Hall, last year's configuration of MILO cabinets and 650-P high-power subwoofers was replaced by 16 MICA loudspeakers and eight 700-HP subwoofers. "Users liked the system," says de Fouquières, "and it proved the ability of MICA to satisfy those applications where reduced cost, weight or size is required." The system in the Casino Barrière was based on eight M2D compact curvilinear array loudspeakers and four M2D-Sub compact subwoofers, filled out with UM-1P narrow coverage stage monitors, USW-1P compact subwoofers, UPA-1P compact wide coverage, UPA-2P compact narrow coverage and UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage loudspeakers. Next to the Congress Centre, at the western edge of the festival site, is the outdoor Parc Vernex stage, one of three locations where the Montreux Jazz Under the Stars competitions took place. The Parc Vernex judges — and audiences — made their decisions based on what they heard through the 12 MICA units, four 700-HP subs, and complement of UPA-2P loudspeakers servicing the stage, with UM-1P monitors for the performers onstage and an LD-3 line driver carrying out system drive duties. The Jazz Café grooved the nights away with CQ-1 wide coverage main loudspeakers, UPA-1P, UPA-2P, UM-1P, and 650-P units, plus CP-10 complementary phase parametric equalizers and an LD-1A line driver. Even the press area sported UPM-1P units and UMS-1P ultra-compact subwoofers. The large range of artists, venues, and sound systems makes the festival an excellent showcase for audio professionals wanting to evaluate Meyer Sound systems working under highly revealing circumstances. Meyer Sound invited a diverse assortment of guests to check out the festival's sound, including sound designers Nick Lidster, Rory Madden, Mick Potter and Paul Gatehouse; Simon Wingfield, head of sound at London's Barbican Concert Hall; Paul "Pab" Boothroyd, FOH engineer for Paul McCartney, AC/DC and others; Barry Young, head of sound at Dunfermline, Scotland's Carnegie Hall (which recently installed a new Meyer Sound system); Dave Shadoan of Sound Image in the U.S.; and Gaby van Amerongen and Sander Koers of Dutch Generations Light and Sound. "The positive comments from those that came to the festival have been overwhelming," exults Meyer Sound's Roger Harpum. "During the David Sanborn show in the Stravinski, Jon Lewis said to me, 'It's so transparent you forget you're listening to a system,' and Nick Lidster and Rory Madden told me the MICA systems were the most natural they'd ever heard! Veteran U.S. engineer Paul Mitchell was at the festival handling both production management and FOH duties for pianist Joe Sample and his guest vocalist Randy Crawford. Having many times mixed saxophonist David Sanborn at the festival, Mitchell put this year's experience in context. "It sounds great this year, but, then, it sounds great every year," said Mitchell while taking a breather in the cool, dark expanse of the Auditorium, "I've been a huge fan of Meyer Sound all through my career, and for the last 20 years I've been doing jazz and visiting Montreux regularly. I know that when I come here I don't even have to ask (about the quality of the sound system). "The thing with jazz is that you can't change any sound: each instrument is what it is," Mitchell continues. "This appearance by Joe Sample is a simple, honest jazz trio. It's a matter of true sound reinforcement: the sound system is chiefly for the vocals (Sample's trio was augmented by the vocals of special guest Randy Crawford) and just a little for the instruments, as required by their natural dynamics. In here, the transparency of the system is what it's all about, especially for my band. The center cluster can even have just the vocal in it. No one's going to say there's too much vocal with this kind of an act — you want to hear every breath, every lip-smack, every nuance of this voice. And that's why it sounds so good in here: you can." Young found the trip from Scotland worthwhile just for the opportunity to check out the Meyer Sound systems in actual use. "It was incredible; I was absolutely blown away," he marvels. "I knew MILO's reputation, but MICA was just amazing. The biggest thing for me was the clarity. My style as an engineer is to have the vocals very up-front – it's a style that seems to get me regular employment! And that's exactly what Meyer Sound gives me." But it was Boothroyd who seemed to best sum up the mood of the many professional visitors as he headed home from Montreux. "Hearing the range of Meyer Sound products deal with all the forms of input that were thrown at them was enlightening and interesting indeed. I was very impressed." Listening to Boothroyd, it sounds like he could hardly have been more impressed. "The David Sanborn performance in the Auditorium Stravinski which was amplified through the MILO line array system, was actually considered by myself and other companions as one of the most impressive sounding shows we had listened to, ever! So congratulations, and thanks again to Meyer Sound." September, 2005 |
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