Glastonbury 2007!

As the Glastonbury Festival continues to grow, so does the contribution to the sound made by XTA processors, which this year were a feature of many of the audio systems on site. The dance music side of the festival is also expanding and the main dance arena (the East Dance Stage) was one of the focal points, with high profile artists including Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox and Mark Ronson.

Audile of Manchester provided a Funktion-One PA system, comprising Resolution 5s and F221 subs, with a range of XTA units including two DP448s at front of house, with a DP324 SiDD inserted over the left and right channels being utilized for system EQ. A GQ600 graphic was also inserted at FOH for guest engineers to get their hands on. To keep the DJ’s under control a D2 was set to work which helped to get levels consistent across the whole audio spectrum with the varying material being supplied by the DJ’s.

Long-time XTA user Jon Burton mixed two sets in the East Dance Stage during the festival, notably pop singer Mika and Pendulum Live - the more ‘traditional’ live performance mode of Australian DJ/electronica group Pendulum. “In addition to what was in the Audile system, I used a range of C2 compressors and G2 gates on both the Mika and Pendulum sets,” says Jon - adding with a grin, “But that could be because Phil from XTA was standing next to me and bullied me into it!”

“Seriously,” he continues. “I have used a range of XTA equipment for years. I’ve always been a big fan of SiDD, although Glastonbury was the first time I had used the G2s for a while.”

On Mika’s set, Jon used five G2 gates and C2 compressors on guitar, bass, acoustic guitar and vocals, while on the Pendulum Live set he used five G2s and eight C2s, including frequency-conscious compression.

 

“I was using the frequency conscious compression in order to get the maximum amount of loudness out of system, due to the noise restrictions on site,” says Jon. “It worked very well, because the noise levels were measured on an A-weighting scale, which means the mid and high peaks have a disproportionate effect on the level readings.

“By having the sub-bass at a decent level and using the C2s to really hammer just the big mid- and high peaks, the perceived loudness of the show was quite high. Getting it to sound dynamic and powerful, while maintaining low noise levels, was a juggling act but, given the restrictions we were working within, I was pleased with the result.”

As a pop vocal act, Mika’s set demanded a different audio discipline [use the OFF switch - web ed.], but Jon’s careful control with the XTA processors ensured that the subtleties and dynamics of Mika’s music were allowed to shine through on a system that was optimised for thudding bass. “Mika was hard work,” he says. “It was set up as a dance system, so it made it more difficult. It was quite a challenge to get the sound right straight away, but the control afforded by the C2s and G2s meant that within two or three songs I was happy.”

One audio company that had virtually its entire stock of XTA processors on site was South West Group. “We had tons of it!” smiles the company’s Mark Bott. On the John Peel Stage eight XTA DP224s and two XTA DP226s were used for FoH and monitor control, with four G2s, four C2s and two DP324 SiDDs also at FoH.