EMTEC recommended a considerable amount of structural work to be undertaken to dampen the sound, whist CP Sound worked on improving and controlling the venue's internal audio and simultaneously eliminating areas of spillage. "There are always several lateral approaches to solving noise pollution," explains Pattenden "Not necessarily the obvious ones either. Our ideas for Great Eastern relied as much on installing good quality audio kit that doesn't distort or need to be overdriven as it did on sound limiters!"
He started with putting new JBL Control 29 speakers into downstairs area plus two JBL SB2 subs under the DJ booth. They then specified RSE amplifiers and new crossovers, and also re-kitted the DJ booth from scratch. Pattenden chose the JBL Control 29 AV1 - the latest model - because it has a "lovely quality of sound". He says he uses JBL enclosures on many of his audio projects because of the breadth and dynamics of the range.
Changing the amplifiers was also a key to controlling the sound. CP has put in four new RSE amps - three PFX 625s and one PFX 500, both with clip control. These are the high quality, specialist amps that CP Sound has adopted as standard components for all its projects over the last five years. EMTEC's Mike Roberts required certain frequencies to be eliminated from the soundfield for the structural dampening to work. This could only be achieved by changing the amps and upping the audio quality to the point where the errant frequencies could be identified and then removed.
Pattenden also specified a Cloud CX163 as the preamp controller, a DBX dual 31-band graphic to control the downstairs sound and an electronic crossover. For the DJ booth, CP put in a Denon DND4000 twin CD player, two Technics 1210 dex, a Citronic mixer. "All standard good quality elements" says Pattenden. To finish off, there are three AVC2 limiters - one for the upstairs sound, one for downstairs and one for the DJ monitor. To contain the fluctuations in sound volume between different music sources, Pattenden has also put in 3 AVC2 to control sound upstairs downstairs and the DJ monitor.
(Lee Baldock)
