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Klang powers Grafa’s first fully immersive 360-degree concert in Bulgaria

Bulgarian artist Grafa achieved a national first in Arena 8888 Sofia with a fully immersive concert in the round. Monitor engineer Boris Yanakiev used DMI-Klang with his DiGiCo Quantum 338 to deliver spatialised immersive monitor mixes for the entire band, with each musician utilising a Klang:Kontroller on stage. The concert at the 15,000-capacity arena was preceded by two weeks of rehearsals.

“Using Klang was a new experience for many of the musicians involved”, says Yanakiev. “Having the Klang:Kontrollers really helped the performers to connect with the technology, the interface felt familiar to them and the physical touch was reassuring.” The 40-metre stage with a 360° audience created major audio challenges, including imaging issues and latency, which can make the mixes muddy and confusing. Avoiding these detrimental effects was essential to ensure the best possible experience for the artists.

“The band were used to both wedges and in-ears, so wedges could have been an option”, explains Yanakiev. “But in a large arena many monitors on stage can start messing with the whole sound as they need to be quite loud. This starts to interfere with the PA which, when it is 360 degrees, with a lot more speakers and in a boomy arena, is going to be a big problem.”

“Klang made everything much smoother”, he continues. “It’s easy to work with because the interface is very simple. I can just explain which fader is for their voice, which is for the guitar etc, so everyone has the opportunity to control their mix, or if they are happy for me to control it, then I can mix it for them.” With Klang:Kontrollers, Yanakiev had the option to control the mixes on his DiGiCo Quantum 338 or give the artists the freedom to experiment. Due to the rehearsal period, there was plenty of time for them to explore the new possibilities.

Grafa’s band included nine additional musicians: drums, bass, guitar, two keyboards, a wind player, and three backing singers. “The show ran exactly as it did in the rehearsals”, says Yanakiev. “Being part of a groundbreaking production is a great experience. We all felt this way, and Grafa was very pleased to have achieved his goal. Everything was as he hoped it would be.”

“I had time to prepare before rehearsals, and I could do much of my work in the offline editor”, he adds. “I named all my channels and patches, so it was plug-and-play in the venue. I’m very happy with how everything turned out.”

(Photo: Klang:Technologies)

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