LONDON — Audio specialist Encore has installed a new d&b J-Series sound system into the revamped Fridge, a venue in London’s Brixton area once known for a décor including junkyard ice boxes and fake dead cats. The venue is now serving as a laboratory of sorts for students enrolled in the Alchemea College of Audio Engineering’s four-month Live Sound Diploma course.
Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington, the venue’s original creators, teamed up with Alchemea for the project. Sound engineer Alan “Big Nobby” Hopkinson and Alchemea’s Neil Pickles sought a system that would meet the needs of both the students and the pros with a blend of classic and digital gear.
“We have always found that students like to learn the basic concepts on analog consoles, where everything is laid out in front of you and not in hidden sub menus,” said Pickles. “Once they have grasped these key concepts, the transition to digital seems to be so much smoother.”
“This Encore PA design will enable them to learn on the industry standard traditional equipment, like the Midas XL3, which they will still encounter for some years as working engineers in addition to the latest technology, digital consoles, amps and line arrays with delays,” said Encore’s John Tinline. “Apart from that, there is no use turning out sound engineers who have only worked on one level of kit — the system had to sound fantastic, be appropriate for the room and come in on budget. That’s why Big Nobby came to us.”
Hopkinson, who had used d&b J-Series gear while touring with Tool, specified that gear for the Fridge. He also wanted to ensure that promoters, artists and engineers would be happy with the house system in the venue, which cannot accommodate flown PA systems.
The inability to support a flown system also posed a challenge to Encore after it had won its competitive bid to upgrade the sound system. The solution, for the most part, was ground-stacked gear, carefully placed.
There are three J8 elements, one B2 and two J-SUBS per side, with another pair of J8s per side to cover the balcony area, located 10 feet above the stage level on a scaffolding gantry.
Alchemea supplied the DigiDesign Profile console that controls FOH, assisting the students with their digital education and incorporating a Pro Tools HD system for recording and “Virtual Soundcheck” playback. Onstage, the school wanted a high profile analog console, preferably a Midas XL3.
Although these have become hard to find, Encore had extracted one from The Forum a while back, which Tinline decided to fully service and keep at the warehouse “just in case.” (Encore also has XL3 in constant use for the Prodigy’s monitors).
“This was totally serendipitous circumstances,” said Tinline, “Normally we would specify a digital console for an installation like this, but it was obviously all meant to happen!”
Outboards for the XL3 include 10 channels of Klark Teknik DN360 graphic equalizers, four dbx 160 compressors, four channels of Drawmer ds201 gates, a Yamaha SPX990 and a Lexicon PCM70 reverb.
“This is a very smart move to teach sound engineering students about what they will come up against in the real world, when they are doing club tours and the like,” said Tinline. “A lot of so-called ‘technical education’ overlooks facts like this.”
For the monitor system, Encore has also supplied 10 d&b Max wedges and a package of mics and stands, including Shure, AKG, Beyer and Sennheiser. These were chosen, once again, for the benefit of both the students and visiting bands.
