For 41 years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has been drawing a phenomenal array of artists from all corners of the world and all over the musical map. For nearly three weeks every summer, the festival presents a diverse roster of musicians spanning jazz, rock, blues, world beat and more. With two main halls and several smaller stages, the logistics of staging a festival of this magnitude are challenging. FOH spoke with several visiting engineers, as well as the festival’s sound coordinator Pierre-André Aebischer of Niveau2, the soundco for the festival, to get a sense of what it takes to put the show together every year.
Matthew Mannase, FOH, and Tony Luna, ME for Rufus Wainwright
FOH: Have you played the festival before?
This is our first time here.
First impressions?
MM: It’s a very civilized festival. At most of the summer festivals, like Glastonbury or Roskilde, I’m used to about two feet more mud and 40,000 more people between me and where I’m trying to get to. The logistics here are very well organized.
From a technical perspective, this is a great place to do a show. There’s clearly a lot of attention paid to system design, and the room is surprisingly flat; I didn’t need to tweak the EQ at all. I quite like the sound of the MICA array. I’ve been mixing on a Digico D1, so the VENUE console was a bit of a last-minute surprise, particularly since we only got the briefest of line checks. But the systems tech and the in-house crew were brilliant, and we had everything sorted pretty quickly.
TL: Festivals can be pretty stressful. Things are rarely on schedule, and there’s usually just enough time to do a line check and rush through dinner before downbeat. It’s a welcome change to do a show where most of the setup and technical issues have been taken care of. The systems are tuned and the equipment is excellent. The local crew here is totally professional, and I can concentrate on my job.
MM: It’s also great that Meyer, Shure and Digidesign have a presence here: people like Buford Jones, Rob Scoville, Paul Giansante. It’s a chance to see familiar faces, talk shop and relax a bit.
Michael Briggs, FOH, George Benson and Al Jarreau
FOH: Have you played the festival before?
MB: I’ve been here eight times over the past 14 years, mostly with Jarreau and a couple of times with David Sanborn. I know George has played the Festival 15 or so times, but this is my first time here with him. I love coming here. We’re on the road for most of the year: South Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia in the fall, then on to the Americas, but this is always one of the high points of the tour.
You’re touring with one band, but two headliners. Does that make for a very long night?
It used to be longer. We originally toured with separate bands for Al and George, as well as an opening act, Raul Midon, an incredible guitarist/vocalist. I was mixing them all on a Digico D5, which was all we carried for FOH. It made for a pretty long day! This year, we decided to streamline the tour; we’ve combined the bands, and we’re carrying a lot less gear and personnel. I’m only carrying a single rack that holds a BSS901, Aphex 661 and a Schubert parametric EQ a la Gamble, mainly for Jarreau.
So you’re using a different house system every night?
For this leg of the tour, yes. We’ve been using the local P.A. du jour, and I get a new system every day to deal with. Working with the latest, and sometimes repairing the oldest technologies on a daily basis has made me a better engineer over the years. It’s a pleasure to come here and know I’m working with a MILO rig in a great-sounding room with a professional staff. I was walking the room during sound check, and I noticed it didn’t get louder as I walked forward. The level and the coverage were smooth and totally consistent everywhere in the room.
Also, the VENUE has become my favorite digital console. I love being able to configure things exactly the way I want them. The preamps are the best available in a digital console, and I can actually use all the onboard gates and compressors because they sound great, not to mention a long list of fantastic Pro Tools plug-ins.
What is it that makes Montreux stand out for you in such a long string of dates?
I always look forward to coming here because it’s like a sanctuary. I’m surrounded by professionals, some of the best in the industry. I can talk gear, get questions answered, get things fixed if I need to. All this on the beautiful shores of Lake Geneva.
But more important, I know things have been taken care of, and I can devote my full attention to doing my job. I can walk in knowing we’ve got a great sounding room and a great vibe; how can you have anything but a great show in a place like this? In the words of an Argentinean drummer friend of mine, “Montreux, what a country!”
Pierre-André Aebischer, sound coordinator, Montreux Jazz Festival
FOH: You have a few long-standing relationships with audio manufacturers.
PA: We’ve worked with Meyer Sound for 21 years and with Shure for 14. We started working officially with Digidesign when the VENUE was introduced, though the relationship goes back further.
Do you have a standing system design, or does it change every year?
The festival is always changing and evolving, and we’re constantly refining our technologies and logistics. We look at the design of each venue every year, and as new equipment becomes available, we find ways to employ it.
What’s involved in the planning process?
When we’re putting together the show every year, we work with our systems designer, Martin Reich, and the people from Meyer Sound to spec out the audio systems, taking into account any changes in the acoustics of the venues, the availability of new products and any feedback from previous shows. They also meet with the Digidesign people to discuss the mixing console needs and with the Shure people to talk about microphones and wireless needs.
Then each venue is modeled using MAPP Online Pro to create a detailed layout of the systems, including the placement and angles of the speakers and predictions of the array coverage. Once we draw up an inventory, we source the equipment via several regional rental companies. We have long-term relationships with these partners as well; we know who’s strong in what areas and who has what inventory.
Then when setup is completed on location, we bring in the SIM 3 system to fine-tune the rigs, using the Galileo for processing.
What kind of challenges do the rooms present?
Stravinsky Auditorium, our main venue, is always a challenge. It was designed as a classical hall, with a reverb time of several seconds, and we try to take that down to about one second. The acoustic treatment was proposed by John Meyer and was designed and implemented by the company that originally built the room’s acoustics.
The sound regulations in Switzerland are also a big challenge, and we have to constantly pay close attention to our levels. The Meyer line arrays help a lot because we can achieve a very even coverage with them, and the Galileo processors, with their considerable processing power and multiple I/O, enable us to distribute the sound, time align, filter and EQ the systems neatly and efficiently.
The festival has a reputation for showcasing a lot of cutting-edge equipment.
Many of our partners like to showcase new products here because it offers such a wide range of music and conditions. Meyer Sound has shown a lot of their loudspeakers here, including the MILO, MICA and M’elodie arrays, and their MJF-212 monitor, which is named for the festival. Shure has debuted wireless systems and microphones here, and of course, Digidesign brought in the VENUE console when it was first introduced.
How has the VENUE influenced production?
The VENUE has reduced the amount of outboard gear we need, which has enabled us to reduce the overall footprint of the FOH areas. It’s also streamlined the live recording process and made it easier to link directly with the production trucks. A lot of visiting engineers really love it because they can just bring a USB drive and dump their settings, and even their personal plug-ins, into the desk, which saves a lot of setup time.
You also do full video production?
Both main halls are equipped for five or six camera HD shoots, with one main camera, a couple of booms and two or three on stage. We send live video, along with direct multichannel feed, to two dedicated production trucks in the basement parking area.
We’ve worked with the Voyager trucks for many years, but this year, one of their trucks caught fire only two weeks before the start of the festival, so we had to make some last-minute decisions. We brought in two expanding trucks and had acoustical engineers using Meyer’s SIM 3 system and spreadsheets to design and create accurate mix rooms. We used two identical trucks so we could duplicate the arrangement precisely.
The editing suites are running pretty much all day. Most of the shows are edited and archived. Eagle Vision releases them as part of the Live at Montreux series of DVDs.
You were holding shows at the Casino again for several years, but you’ve stopped that this year. Why?
The Casino is where the festival began and, of course, it’s been made famous by the song “Smoke on the Water.” It was nice doing shows there again from a historical perspective, but it’s about one kilometer from the Convention Centre, through some pretty crowded streets, and the logistics were pretty challenging. Claude (Nobs) usually introduces the acts on the main stages, and he had to ride on the back of the technical director’s motorcycle to get from one place to the other. It was a lot of running around for the technical staff as well.
