Singing in the rain
Published: ASIA
The Midi Festival was back in Beijing after a one year hiatus with a stellar line-up of local and international talent. But as the rain came down on the final evening, preparation proved to be the key as Nick Cherry discovers
China’s longest-running and indeed largest outdoor rock music event, The Midi Festival, was back in Beijing this year following its temporary relocation last year to Zhenjiang, and was welcomed by record crowds. Four days of perfect weather gave way to thunderstorms on the final night, disabling nearly all the sound and lighting systems. However, some local knowledge and forward thinking from Nexo’s man in Beijing saved the day and produced an unusual and memorable finale.
This year, Midi Productions organised a stellar line-up including Carsick Cars, Tang Dynasty, He Yong, Stalingrad Cowgirls, Gammalux and hundreds of other Chinese and international bands. They played on four stages in Haidian Park, near the Summer Palace of Beijing’s past Emperors, with more than 20,000 people attending on each of the four days, attracted to the parkland with its market-style stalls and colourful tents, dazzling in the sunshine.
Originally developed by the Midi School of Music in Beijing as a live platform for its students, it has grown into a major showcase for young talent as well as some of China’s most established and successful bands.
This year, Midi Productions collaborated closely with Nexo Concert Systems in Asia, which provided the PA systems for the festival’s main stage. The event was project-managed by Scott Mason, Nexo’s latest recruit but an experienced concert-sound engineer who is also a Beijing resident. Mr Mason was accompanied by Taylents Lam from Top Plot International, Nexo’s distributor in China, which delivered a Geo D line array system for the event.
Mr Mason designed, tuned and aligned the Geo D main PA for Jack Guo, audio production manager for Midi Productions and one of China’s leading FOH engineers. ‘It's great to have Scott taking care of the main stage,’ says Mr Guo, ‘it freed me up to concentrate on organising the other three stages. The Geo D PA sounded great and was very easy to mix on and get a sound quickly, which is really helpful on multi band festivals where visiting engineers only have 40 minutes to get their mix together.’
Janne Vuori, FOH engineer for Finland-based band Stalingrad Cowgirls, was also pleased with the system. ‘When I turned up today at the festival and saw that the PA was a Nexo, I was relieved. We use Nexo a lot in Finland and I love it. This system sounds great and I am very happy, even jetlagged I got a great mix!’
For the main system, 32 Geo D cardioid cabinets were used in active mode, accompanied by 18 CD18 subs, powered by 12 NXAMP 4x4 amplifiers with built-in processors and management system. According to Mr Mason, the PA ran for five days, for 12 hours a day, without a problem.
‘It can all be controlled from my laptop at FOH, using the EtherSound network system,’ Mr Mason explains. ‘You just dial in the cabinet family and configuration you are using and hey presto, all the power matching, impedance, sense and protection is done for you by the amps. It’s so easy and works so well. You could run the entire 32-box line array with as few as four amplifiers in passive mode.’
A front-centre fill arrangement deployed four of Nexo’s RS15 subs in cardioid mode with six Geo S1210 12-inch cabinets in a point-source arc. ‘The S1210s did an awesome job of front fill in this configuration. They give a smooth phaseless arc of sound right across the front of the stage that tonally sounds very similar to the main PA, and, when stepped back in time to the stage and PA alignment, it blends perfectly. Having a centre cluster of subs in front of your main vocal mic normally wouldn’t be a good idea, but with the RS cardioid subs, just 1m of space is all you need between the front mic line and the front/centre fill subs for the audience: There is almost no bass going on to stage and therefore nothing annoying going into the mics.’
For monitoring, Top Plot was able to produce 20 of the brand-new PS15-R2 cabinets, a recently launched update of the 15-inch monitor, running with two RS15 cardioid subs and two S1230 12-inch full range cabinets per side.
‘Having cardioid equipment on stage is great for controlling the stage sound, especially with the subs, and the PS15 R2 monitors sounded smooth and tight,’ Mr Mason continues, ‘cardioid technology is perfect for multi stage festivals because so much less interference spreads to the other stages; with the usual omnidirectional systems sound goes all over the place and spreads to the other stages. With this setup you can position the stages closer together, meaning you need less total area for the festival. Not only does this save money, but it creates a more intimate atmosphere.’
Four days of perfect weather proved too good to be true. Fortunately, Mr Mason lives in Beijing and had local knowledge of weather patterns. Together with Top Plot’s Taylents Lam, he prepared the PA, amplifiers and power supplies for heavy weather. When it struck, just as the final headline acts were about to play, the storms took out all the PA systems, lighting systems and stages – leaving only the Geo D on the main stage still working.
‘Taylents and I placed the amps deep under the stage with all the power distribution for the PA off the ground; we also had covers on standby and in position for the line array and subs, so when the bad weather hit us, we just shut down until it passed and the system fired straight back up again.’
Organisers tried to close the event early, but the crowd was reluctant to go home with their headline band Carsick Cars standing on the stage. ‘This was no way to finish a festival,’ says Mr Mason. ‘To their disbelief, we powered up the system and suggested they go for it, much to the roaring approval of the crowd!’
Drums and acoustic guitars were quickly miked up, and Carsick Cars played a semi-acoustic set to a crowd bathed in moonlight. With no stage lighting, the finale of the festival took on a Woodstock-like quality, with candles, lighters and torches illuminating the musicians as they played an unforgettable last show.
Midi Productions director ShanWei paid tribute to the team. ‘Having Nexo, Scott and Taylents provide this level of support gave us the high quality of sound the festival needs and raised the profile of our event. They have a lot of experience in live sound, so we are very happy to have Nexo with us for the Midi Festival, and hope to work together on more events in the future.’