SCOTLAND – ADLIB Audio supplied sound for two stages at the successful T In the Park 2008 festival, staged at Kinross, Scotland; the King Tuts Wah Wah Stage and Slam Stage. Slam Stage’s massive V-shaped dance-orientated tent had a capacity of 20,000. Its shape and scale presented some interesting challenges for ADLIB Crew Chief Hassane Essiahi and his team who worked closely with Sound Engineer Dave Pringle to ensure that all the bands and DJs had the requisite levels of energy and volume to make it rock.
The 40-meter-wide stage – with DJ platform in front – was located at the middle point of the V, leaving large sections towards the edges of the tent needing to be covered. This was achieved with the installation of two delay stacks per side.
They chose to use a JBL VerTec system, all ground stacked, with the main stage stacks containing six VT4889 elements a side, augmented with two 4889 per side at the edges of the stage, plus AA FD2 infills along the stage lip. For subs, there were eight VT 4880As per side. The four delays comprised three Nexo Alpha S2 subs, three B1 bass and six M3 tops per stack.
Fundamental to getting the sound spot-on in this tent was time aligning all the subs (main system and delays) to work together, starting with those in front of the DJ platform. Once this was in place, the system didn’t need to be over-cranked to get sufficient SPLs, energy and sonic vibes into the space.
The FOH console was a Soundcraft Series 5, chosen as an industry standard festival desk with plenty of inputs with which the majority of engineers are familiar and comfortable. The system was controlled via Dolby Lake processors, giving individual control for each zone via a wireless tablet, which is extremely handy for EQ’ing and time alignment from different positions.
Compression included dbx 160As and Avalon 737s, the latter a hot favorite with DJ’s for its warm, natural sound.
The VerTec amps were a combination of Camco (for the HF) and Crown ITECH 8000s for the subs, and the NEXO delays were driven with Camco V6 and Crown 5002VZs. A standard ADLIB FX rack at FOH was available for all to use, containing, a Lexicon PCM 70, Yamaha SPX 990 and 2000s and Eventide H3000 harmoniser, which is always a big hit with bands.
Monitors comprised a Midas XL3 console with XTA graphics and ADLIB MP3 wedges. The DJ riser monitors were MP3s combined with two L-ACOUSTICS dVSUB, and side fills were a single stack of NEXO Alpha per side.
The crew were Otto Kroymann who babysat monitors and Mike Flaherty and Tom Cunningham making up the team.
The Slam sound was a great success, “We were under a lot of pressure,” says Hassane, “It was the first time we’d done this stage, and the idiosyncratic shape of the tent involved some lateral thinking. We had a great team and everyone worked hard to ensure the two show days went like clockwork.”
Across site at the King Tut’s Wah Wah tent, Richie Nicholson worked with his team of Steve “Patto” Pattison (FOH), Kenny Perrin (monitors), Laura Davis and Kenny Kristiansen.
They also installed a VerTec system – eight VT4889s per side flown off a ground supported trussing system, plus another two 4889 elements per side on top of ADLIB subs at the FOH position for delays, shooting the sound down this very long tent. The stage subs were eight ground stacked JBL VT4880As, and ADLIB FD2 speakers were used for infills and outfills onstage. The VerTec was powered by Camco amps and the subs by Crown ITECH 8000s.
The FOH console was a Midas H3000, chosen as a feature-packed, top level desk that’s familiar to everyone. They were dealing with up to 10 bands a day, the majority of which brought their own engineers. The FOH outboard rack contained a TC 2000 multi effects, a PCM 81 reverb, 2 x Yamaha SPX 2000, a TC D2 delay and a TC2290 delay.
Compression was a mix of dbx 160As and 1066s with Avalon 737s and control was by two Dolby Lake processors, again controlled via wireless tablet remote.
Onstage was another Midas XL3 monitor desk, which was on the majority of the band specs, and ADLIB also supplied a Yamaha PM5D for The Pogues.
Wedges were again MP3s. ideal because of their high power and low profile, and the drum subs on this stage were two ADLIB single 18-inch speakers, providing plenty of oomph in that area! Side fills were again Nexo Alpha.
ADLIB ran two full mic and cable systems to ensure speedy changovers including a wide selection of standard mics from Shure, AKG, Sennheiser, etc.
Everything went smoothly in here as well, along with the general relaxed and upbeat vibe of the festival, hailed as one of the best Ts in its 15-year history, which also saw it blessed with good weather. Nicholson comments, “It was very hard work, but also great fun with lots of excellent bands.”
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For more information, please visit www.adlibaudio.co.uk.
