HERE COMES LE SON

Since it first showed up on the map of downtown Montréal in 1884, the building that currently houses the city’s popular live venue, Métropolis, has been reinvented almost as often as Madonna.

    First used as a skating rink, it was reborn several times as a theatre, a porn cinema and disco before its acquisition in 1997 by Équipe Spectra who turned it into one of Canada’s leading concert venues and lured live greats to its stage, including David Bowie, Beck, Green Day, the White Stripes, Björk, Ben Harper and Coldplay, as well as hosting popular TV show, La Fureur.

    On April 29, Métropolis opened its doors to a unique cross-market event — Sennheiser SoundFEST 08 — which drew an audience of fans and professionals from the worlds of pro audio, MI and video gaming for an energetic evening of entertainment, socialising and product familiarisation, hosted by Sennheiser Canada and guest presenter celebrity NASCAR driver Alex ‘Tag’ Tagliani.

    Thanks to a superb promotional drive by Sennheiser Canada’s marketing director Anne Joyce and media agent Catherine Villeneuve, the free-to-attend event was greeted by a positive response on the night, as the 2,300-capacity venue throbbed to the sounds of leading regional artists assembled by Sennheiser Canada’s artist relations manager for Quebec, Christian Isaac.

    The acts included The Porn Flakes, Andrée Waters, Richard Petit, Alfa Rococo, Anik Jean, Duke Squad, Kevin Parent, Kain, Stefie Shock, Sylvain Cossette, Crest of Honor, Ian Kelly, Sens, Vulgaires Machins and promising young band Grand Life, who sounded as if they’d eaten Noel Gallagher’s songbook for breakfast and added a powerful French-Canadian twist.

    The idea for the event came from Jean Langlais who, for the past 15 years, has been the president of Sennheiser Canada, the country’s distribution channel for InnovaSon, L-Acoustics, XTA, MC2, Kling & Freitag and Klein Hummel, as well as Neumann and Sennheiser microphones and wireless systems.

    He explained how SoundFEST came together: “For the last few years, we’ve been travelling the country and getting closer to musicians, artists and engineers at after-show ‘kitchen parties’. We started a concept called the Sennheiser Lounge — an event that started at midnight and ended at 8am — where artists could relax and jam together after gigs. This didn’t exist in Quebec, so we thought we should do something to fix that.

    “The SoundFEST concept had been developing in my mind for a while, but the catalyst was when InnovaSon launched the latest version of their Sy80 console and Métropolis upgraded its inventory by purchasing two of them in February. Being located in central Montréal, close to our offices, it was an ideal venue for us — not only is it one of the best venues of its size in North America, it’s also a great showcase for InnovaSon, L-Acoustics and some of our other brands.”
    
SUPPORT
Upon invitation to the event, there was unanimous wave of support from technicians and artists who agreed to perform on the main stage and upstairs in the more intimate Savoy Lounge, occupied during the afternoon by an InnovaSon technical seminar.

    Complementing the music were eight busy kiosks fitted with Xbox 360s and Wii stations as another attraction for the audience, who had numerous chances throughout the evening to win prizes from the Sennheiser ‘merch’ booth — I can now personally vouch for the quality of Sennheiser’s VMX 100 Bluetooth headset!]

    Sennheiser Canada has a healthy relationship with the giant Montréal-headquartered video games developer, Ubisoft, and it was through the Sennheiser Communications division — provider of the kiosks’ gaming headsets — that Ubisoft was invited to take part, install the kiosks, and promote its new games such as ‘Assassin’s Creed’.

    “Figuring that many video game fans are also music lovers, SoundFEST has been designed to entertain a wide range of people,” said Langlais, who takes pride in his company’s representation of a top end pro audio portfolio. “It helps us provide a great solution to customers who are looking to buy the best from one source. Pretty much all our brands feature in the Métropolis’ permanent installation, and so SoundFEST is a perfect event to hear them all perform.”

    Sennheiser Canada is one of InnovaSon’s longest-serving distributors in the world. I asked Langlais how the two companies joined forces. “A friend of mine who was touring the world turned me on to InnovaSon around the same time he introduced me to L-Acoustics,” he said.

    “I really liked what I saw, and when the theatre musical Notre Dame de Paris came to Canada with InnovaSon consoles and L-Acoustics loudspeakers on the spec, we were ready to support both brands very passionately and it all came from there.

    “From that time, I’ve always believed in InnovaSon’s products. Their consoles are small, quick and easy to operate, and I think digital should be that way. Judging by the testimonials from engineers visiting Métropolis, they all seem to feel the same and are very happy with the consoles.”

MONK-EY BUSINESS
Scanning Métropolis’ technical spec, one quickly realises that quality is paramount when it comes to providing the resources for great shows. The industry-standard lighting rig, for example, features Martin MAC 500s, ETC dimmers, Robert Juliat followspots, and conventional fixtures by the boatload, all controlled by grandMA and ETC desks.

    Métropolis’ chief FOH sound engineer, the simply-named Monk, toured for 12 years before becoming part of the venue’s team in 1997 as a stage hand. Since then, he’s seen every permutation of live act possible.

    He commented: “In 1998, when I took over as sound engineer, Métropolis stopped renting complete systems and invested in its first installation with a Yamaha PM3000 console and 16 Clair Brothers S4 cabinets. The only things we’d rent were monitor systems according to incoming bands’ specs.

    “Things have changed a lot — around 10 years ago, a lot of bands would bring their complete productions in, with consoles, racks and stacks... the lot. I guess the touring market isn’t the same anymore at this level, because more demand is placed on the venue to provide an installed system of very high quality and reduce load-in time to the minimum.”

    Just over six years ago, Monk initiated the first major upgrade when he purchased InnovaSon’s then flagship Grand Live digital console. “I’d seen it before and I thought it sounded really great, with an easy-to-use control surface and superb, kicking pre-amps that make a lot of sense. I had it here on trial for about seven weeks to see how it’d go down with visiting engineers, and the response was very positive, despite digital still being a new thing for many of them. It was a big decision, but we ended up buying a pair of them and never looked back.

    “It kind of brought me back to life because I had to spend a lot of time familiarising engineers with the boards, but that became less of a requirement as more and more engineers got into digital. It’s now a piece of cake and most of them can easily work the desks out for themselves.”

    Monk was keen to replace the Grand Lives for the newer Sy80s as soon as the desk was launched, but he was cautious to wait for the very latest version — featuring the FM-8VB effects plug-in card — before committing to purchase. “I’d heard so much about the new plug-ins that I had to have the complete new package. The desks arrived at the end of February and were put to work for the first time on Wyclef Jean’s show.”

    The dV-DOSC system came in around the same time as the Grand Live desks, said Monk. “We considered VerTec and a whole bunch of other options, but the Sennheiser people really got our attention with the L-Acoustics demo, coupled with the use of XTA processors. It was another great decision to go with dV-DOSC — it felt like we had the best of everything — especially as it can be put up or dismantled in 10% of the time that the S4 took.

    “Of course, we have Sennheiser mics, too. As we have a sponsorship deal, we get updated every time new models come out, but I also have a selection of Shures, AKGs and EVs [and Klark Teknik DIs] in case bands have a different preference. It’s pretty unheard of for a rock venue of this size to own over 100 microphones!”

    Also on the audio crew is head monitor engineer Fabian Minez who started two years ago as the ‘patch guy’. “It’s like a school here,” commented Monk. “You come, you learn and make connections, and you either take the knowledge out on the road or develop your career further here, as I did. With all the great equipment we have at our disposal, people tend to stick around.”

    Sticking around at Métropolis is something Jean Langlais also has on his mind, following the smoothly-run SoundFEST. Such was its success that the ultra-hospitable Langlais hopes to develop it as an annual event.

    “SoundFEST far surpassed my expectations — I’m thrilled,” he said, with a wide grin. “But it would not have been possible without the valued relationships that we share with our artists, celebrities, media, dealers and business partners, so I thank them all for their support.

    “Maybe we’ll bring it back next year as a charity fund-raising weekender and encourage even greater socialising between customers, dealers and our own staff. I’ll get back to you on that!”

TPi
www.sennheiser.ca www.innovason.com www.metropolismontreal.ca