AMP Festival, Wolfville, NS

The sound setup for the AMP festival has been developed over the last two years (2007/08) and is based on the organizers experience of recording a total of four shows for the purpose of commercial CD and DVD reproduction. The setup is also based on Night Kitchen experience, where we’ve presented hundreds of performers in rapid succession at the AMP Festival venue.

Goals

The sound setup for the AMP festival attempts to achieve the following goals:

1. Changeover from one performer to the next is instantaneous, and will cause NO delay between performers. The audience patience must not be abused!
2. All performances will be recorded using a digital multi-track recording system.
3. Provide all performers with the exact same performing conditions.
4. Cost efficiency

Overview

• From the Audience’s point of view the sound experience will be extremely similar to the Night Kitchen events. Performers appear on stage, grab their instruments, position themselves in front of a few microphones, and “do their thing”. The acoustic sound will be only slightly amplified via two main PA speakers.
• Performers do NOT touch or position microphones. Their only means of influencing the sound (mix) is by positioning themselves appropriately in relation to microphones, which are completely IMMOBILE.
• The sound mix AND recording levels are set during a systems check prior to the Festival. Neither Amplification levels nor recording levels will change throughout the entire festival.

Microphone Setup

• There will be a total of 8 condenser microphones on stage.These 8 signals are sent via 8 channel snake to the sound cubicle at the rear of the audience seating area.
• Two mix-down signals (left and right) are sent from the sound cubicle back to two self-powered PA speakers, positioned on the extreme left and right at the front of the stage
• 3 (of those 8 ) condenser microphone will be arranged in a semi-circle (with 3 feet radius), front and center of the stage, at almost 7 feet above stage level.
• Another 3 condenser microphones will be arranged in a concentric semi-circle, with only 15 inches of a radius, at only 3 feet above stage level.
• 2 additional condenser microphones will be placed further back on stage, not amplified via the PA system, but recorded to the multitrack recording system. They are meant for use with the resident Piano and for percussion instruments.

Recording Setup and Formats

• Each microphone on stage will be recorded to a separate one-channel (mono) *.wav (Windows PCM) file, likely at 41.1 or 48 kHz, either 16 or 24bit per digital sample.
• The initial system check will set digital recording levels for all microphones to an average of -20dB and compress all input exceeding that level by a ratio of 1:3
• On the recording device the performances prior to intermission are captured independently from the performances after intermission. There will be two separate audio data sets for every ticketed event (concert)
• It is those half-show audio data sets that will be distributed to those artists who performed in that part of the show. The data set will be no larger than 4.5 Gigabytes and fit nicely on the latest generation USB-2 memory sticks as well as a standard DVD-R.

Specific Topics and Clarifications

Drums Kits: Are NOT recommended, since this is an acoustic-music festval. The issue is: There are only room microphones (condensers), no DI boxes and no monitor wedges and no dynamic microphones. human voices will not be amplified to raise their volume level above drum kits. A drum kit would have to be played very, very softly to not overpower acoustic instruments and voices.

Setup Time and Sound Check: The performer place all instruments on the back half of the stage prior to audience admission. When a performance starts (the MC pronounces the performers name), the performers has approximately 30 seconds or less to enter the stage, grab their instrument, position themselves optimally in relation to the room microphones, and begin their performance.