Rock am Fichtenwald 2012

From pop hits and classical music to techno and live hiphop to rock festivals – as main PA, sidefi ll, drumfi ll and monitoring, the systems were put through their paces on the road under tough, real-life conditions.

One of these events was this year's “Rock am Fichtenwald“ festival in the Swabian town of Vöhringen, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. A lot of national and international bands and artists like Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, J.B.O, Freiwild, Clawfinger, Dog Eat Dog and many others were already performing here. This time the line-up was no less high-class: H- Blockx, Subway To Sally, Heaven Shall Burn and Exilia (just to mention a few) were doing thehonours in this year.

“Despite hot acts we wish to preserve the special flair of this event, something that also the bands confi rm us time and again. Of course, we were already thinking about going big, but then decided against it“, say the arts directors of the organiser.

From the technical viewpoint, the festival has been in trusted hands for years and shines with many technical goodies. The lighting is state-of-the-art, generously sized FOH and monitoring places plus a perfectly matched PA system form a solid basis. However, things are by no means easy for the techs. The festival takes place in a tent, so the flying heights for sound and light are limited.

Moreover, the stage show is completely rebuilt for almost every band. While one band is still playing, the backline, stage risers for the drummer, pyro effects and a lot of specifi c periphery already stand by on wheels for the next band.

After the SW18 subwoofers from ProAudio Technology, supported by the DELTA14.4-DSP system amplifi ers, had already convinced as a cardioid bass array last year, this time the system was completed with the corresponding HT16 horntops and MT12 multi-purpose loudspeakers for the nearfi eld. In total 24 SW18 subwoofers were used as a cardioid bass array for the main PA plus eight HT16 tops and two MT12 multi-purpose loudspeakers.

“It is indeed amazing what the subs and tops can unleash in a pack.“ The system delivers an outstanding dynamic over the entire frequency range without ever sounding stressed. The fact that we only needed three DELTA14.4-DSP amps for the whole PA system including nearfield, is almost miraculous and caps it all off“, says the system engineer at the venue.