Amadeus, Solid State Logic and Sonic Emotion offer listeners a Hi-Fi sound experience live outside in an historic square featuring international jazz greats Kelvin JONES, Thomas DUTRONC and Michel LEGRAND —
The event featured Amadeus‘ PMX, DIVA and MAESTRO speaker systems, delivering a Hi-Fi sound to the outdoor audience who enjoyed internationally renowned jazz artists Kelvin JONES, Thomas DUTRONC and Michel LEGRAND. This is the third year for the Palais en Jazz event and the sold out crowd enjoyed every minute of the music performances, responding with enthusiastic applause throughout the evening. The event was co-sponsored by Amadeus, Solid State Logic and Sonic Emotion and produced by ROCKSQUARE, a French production company.
Philippe GUERINET, Director of International Sales for SSL and CEO of SSL France, said about the event, “True to the high quality standard of the ‘Palais en Jazz’ event, the synergy between high-end digital equipment worked to the fullest extent possible, whether it was the digital SSL, Sonic Emotion’s Wave 1 processor or Amadeus’s DIVA sound reinforcement system. The whole system was easily and quickly set up by the technical staff, in spite of very challenging weather conditions.”
“With partners of such quality as Amadeus and Sonic Emotion, and the support of excellent technicians, we knew that a exceptional technical event was to come, on top of an exceptional musical event. The performances by the musicians on stage allowed us to appreciate the musical excellence of the digital chain set up for the occasion, as well as its reliability, in view of the exacting operating conditions imposed by the weather,” explains Philippe GUERINET.
Offering some background on the new SSL Live console, Philippe GUERINET adds, “From the onset, the SSL Live L500 console caused an exceptional stir, whether in France or abroad. As soon as the system became available, it was adopted by major tours: Peter GABRIEL, Carlos SANTANA, and in France by Christophe MAÉ, Amel BENT and Chinese Man. In parallel to these achievements on the touring side, prominent fixed installations such as the Théâtre National du Quartz and INA, have also adopted the SSL L500.”
“Based on sound field control with its foundation of wave field synthesis, the 3D sound created from Sonic Emotion’s technology allows the professional venue and sound designer the ability to create a natural 3D sound field using a limited number of loudspeakers, or as many as 64, to provide listeners with an experience of a ‘sweet spot’ that expands across the entire room, no matter where listeners are positioned,” adds Etienne CORTEEL.
One of the finest specimens of France’s architectural heritage and the former residence of the kings of France, and emperors Napoleon and Napoleon III, the Imperial Palace Compiègne hosts the ‘Palais en Jazz’ festival every year, on the last week-end of June. Initiated in 2012 by Emmanuel STARCKY, director of the national museums and the estates of the Compiègne and Blérancourt castles, along with and producers Hugo BRUGIERE and Gaetan BYK, from ROCKSQUARE, Palais en Jazz was born of a common ambition to blend times and cultures and eliminate the boundaries between them.
“Our goal was to create a popular event that would bring alive modern music in a historical setting ordinarily very removed from the genre,” says Emmanuel STARCKY, Director of the National Museums and the estates of the Compiègne and Blérancourt castles. Following in the footsteps of Manu KATCHÉ, China MOSES, Kyle EASTWOOD, Dee Dee BRIDGEWATER, Dominique FILLON and Peter CINCOTTTI, who performed in past year’s events, this year Palais en Jazz presented French singer and musician Thomas DUTRONC, and Michel LEGRAND, a pianist, singer, author, producer and famed composer of hundreds of film scores, songs, operas and cult jazz albums.
Describing his initial experience at the Palais en Jazz event, FOH engineer Emmanuel FEYRABEND (who has mixed Brad SCOTT, Veronique SANSON, Claude NOUGARO, Mylene FARMER, Johnny HALLYDAY, Florent PAGNY… and many others) recalls, “When I arrived on site, I was introduced to the WFS process by Arnault DAMIEN from Euphonia. He had been charged by the festival to implement this arrangement, in connection with the standard Amadeus-built system, designed by Michel DELUC. There was little time to do the Michel LEGRAND Trio sound-check. It was pouring rain, and the ‘horizontal’ system was shielded from the rain. Given the time constraints, I opted for safety and focused on the vertical DIVA XL system.”
“After the sound check, with engineers Arnault DAMIEN and Lucas HOURDIN from Juke Box Limited, we decided to feed the WFS system with post-fader stems from all instruments and voices. Arnault was able to deliver to each and every listener an identical spatial imaging of the show! It was just staggering. The FOH system simply disappeared in terms of where the sound sources originated. Of course, the very subtle characteristics and the natural color of the Amadeus system were essential that night in achieving this compelling sonic image. The combination of Amadeus, WFS and SSL Live was fantastic. My only desire would be to work with the same arrangement again, as soon as possible,” said Emmanuel FEYRABEND, obviously having enjoyed the working with the sound system. “It’s an experience that’s halfway between the power of a sound reinforcement system and the subtlety of the best Hi-Fi loudspeakers. Strange, and incredibly good at the same time.”
Emmanuel FEYRABEND is currently in residence as an engineer at Paris’ Studios de la Chine, which features acoustic design and custom mains speakers by Amadeus, and he equates his experiences both in the studio and live in a similar fashion which is quite unique in the sound reinforcement industry, “Color, perfect stereo imaging and low-end detail spring to mind when I’m lucky enough to work with Amadeus systems. The Studio de la Chine is an outstanding achievement in terms of acoustics. The marriage between Amadeus and acoustics, devised by Michel DELUC, is a noteworthy accomplishment.”
For more information on Amadeus please visit www.amadeusaudio.fr and Solid State Logic at www2.solidstatelogic.com and Sonic Emotion at www2.sonicemotion.com
About Amadeus
Amadeus develops, manufactures and sells a wide range of high-end sound reinforcement loudspeakers, studio monitors and various signal processing interfaces that combine its own custom innovative technology with stylish design, for the professional audio industry. Created in 1992 from the collaboration between the French designer Bernard BYK and the scientist and musician Michel DELUC, the Amadeus brand has grown to become a leading supplier of high-end audio solutions and services for theaters, opera houses, museums, recording studios, research centers and touring concert sound rental operations. All development and product manufacturing is centralized in Amadeus headquarters in France, with field offices and authorized distributors located in Europe, Asia and UAE.
Contact Amadeus at [email protected] or visit http://www.amadeusaudio.fr
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