FESTIVAL FOCUS
Not only was Tempany looking after FOH during the festival, but he also got a chance to mix on the system for those bands without engineers. “I particularly enjoyed mixing a band from the Congo called Fulu Miziki Kolektiv. They made all their instruments in the loading bay from recycled plastic containers, 100mm drainpipe and flip-flops. When I told their manager about Soundscape, he was very encouraging to make it as ‘spatially interesting’ as possible. It turned out great. If I can mix a band who built their obscure instruments in the car park, and have a good result, then anyone can do it!” Speaking more generally, TPi asked if Tempany thought it was likely to see other similar immersive setups at festivals in the future. “Yes, this is definitely where I see it going,” he enthused. “Having a specialist stage at a festival with this installed is something I can see working at other events. At WOMAD, we consistently had audience members commenting on how much they enjoyed being in the tent. A lot of them were very astute to the movement and panning. Others just thought it sounded great, without articulating why.” He did however predict there might be some resistance from some engineers to fully embrace the system thinking it might be difficult to convert their current mixes to the Soundscape workflow. “However, the fact is the process of converting an existing mix into object-based showfiles is easy,” he commented. “You can keep your normal left and right assignments, but the feed to the PA is done from post fade direct outs from each channel instead. “A lot of
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“At WOMAD, we consistently had audience members commenting on how much they enjoyed being in the tent. A lot of them were very astute to the movement and panning. Others just thought it sounded great, without articulating why.” FOH Engineer, Gavin Tempany
engineers will find it a bit disconcerting there is no L/R bus – especially given the festival protocol of only being able to soundcheck on headphones – but it works very well to just make a master or band VCA, and use that for volume trim or control, as you don’t get traditional bus-based compression or EQ.” As for mixing on Soundscape, Tempany described it as “just the same as usual”. He continued: “As long as the routing is taken care of, it is just like mixing on a big
‘stereo’ rig, but with the added advantage that you have all the space and height in the mix that you normally have to work for. “It’s a lot like transitioning from stereo mixing to surround mixing of music in a studio. Things find their own space much easier with less manipulation, and if you want to spin things around, you can do that as an added dimension for performances.” www.womad.co.uk www.dbsoundscape.com