The 34th New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, known as “JazzFest,” relied on a pair of Audient Aztec analog live sound mixingconsoles for FOH duties at the indoor evening concert series held atthe Municipal Auditorium in downtown New Orleans and in the RhodesGospel Tent at the Louisiana Heritage Fair at the FairgroundsRacecourse.
At the auditorium, local equipment provider Pyramid AudioProductions supplied the concert sound system for a schedule thatincluded Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan and Widespread Panic.Pyramid FOH engineer James Burgoyne said that while the main touringacts were largely carrying their own equipment, the opening acts, whichincluded John Hiatt and The Goners and Lucinda Williams used theAztec.
The 48-channel Aztec in the gospel tent was worked by FOH engineerChris Brown. Brown, whose Sound Chek Music supplied the entire soundsystem for the venue, said, “This is combat audio at its finest. We’reset up on a concrete floor with a plastic tent in 100-degreetemperatures with 100-percent humidity.” The Rhodes Gospel Tentfeatured nearly 80 acts in just eight days, with 10 acts going onstagebetween 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. “Those acts will range from a four- orfive-person vocal group to a 100-plus-person choir with eight or ninesoloists up-front. So the set change is a very quick, controlledmadness.”
For more on the consoles, visit www.audiotoys.com.
