Spanish party brand Elrow, made its debut in Wales with the Singer Morning dance event, held in the grounds of Glamorgan Cricket Club’s Sophia Gardens to a capacity 6,500 dance fans.
Providing the sound system for headliners Eats Everything and Patrick Topping on was James Jewry from Soundteks, who brought in Manchester-based VME and its Martin Audio MLA and MLA Compact loudspeaker arrays. Jewry designed and specified the MLA system on behalf of the dance giant Elrow, based on the city centre location of the site.
Nine elements of MLA (and an MLD Downfill) were flown on either side of the stage, with 16 MLX subwoofers set across the front in a broadside cardioid array, 11 front-facing and five rear. Six MLA Compact were used as front fills to complete the system. For the subwoofer design, VME Head of Sound Mark Cleator explains: ‘James designed the sub configuration taking inspiration from the Main Stage MLX set-up at Glastonbury, and followed that example. It worked extremely well and the promoters were over the moon.’
Cleator himself system engineered MLA, while Jewry mixed at FOH: ‘In many ways it was a dream job,’ Cleator says. ‘No rigging issues and although we had strict offsite limitations of 65dB(A) we were able to run at 94dB(A) within the main area during the headline set by attenuating any problematic off-site frequencies. We used the Hard Avoid behind the arrays in the Martin Audio software to bring the focus forward and bamboozled people at how quiet it was behind the stage.’
Martin Audio’s smaller MLA Compact also made an appearance in the DJ booth, where three MLA Compact and a pair of DSX subs were stationed.
Jewry used a Midas Pro 1 for mixing: ‘With the right sounding desk in front, the MLA comes to life. Its resolution and control are phenomenal. It amazes me what I can get out of it before we hit off site issues. It’s vital that I can give everyone across the site the same experience, on these events atmosphere is everything. The MLA does that and more each time I use it – and it just gets better.’
The Elrow Town daytime party concept, already used for major shows in Valencia and Poble Espanyol in Barcelona, now adds Wales to its portfolio.
More: www.martin-audio.com
