Frances Strachan, Hideaway's creator and owner, comments, "You can't separate a successful live music venue from the quality of its sound system. By its nature, our clientele is discerning and musically literate, and is quick to criticise any perceived shortcomings. Our new system has been extremely well received, and we are getting numerous compliments about the quality and clarity. When the band's good, and the system sounds right, people just sit-back and enjoy - reinforcing our image as an important new venue with a relaxed ambience, and one that's capable of showcasing the best talent around."
The Hideaway's upgraded sound system is helping to fuel its reputation, and is receiving praise from performers and audiences alike. When the club first opened it did experience some criticism of its original system, which did not prove ideal for live music. As an interim measure, Cliff Scott re-positioned the existing speakers and applied some additional BSS 966 EQs, while researching a more permanent solution that inevitably involved upgrading the loudspeakers and amplifiers.
Scott, who specialises in jazz, reports, "My original intention was to use d&b audiotechnik E9 loudspeakers, together with d&b Ci subs, as I've had excellent results with this combination before, particularly for the Hideaway's mix of material. I've been a fan of d&b audiotechnik speakers for many years, and love their sound - especially for live jazz. They deliver the clarity and accuracy that jazz aficionados tend to demand.
"Tom Byrne at Orbital kindly lent me some Ci90s to try out in situ but, because of the club's relatively low ceiling height, these could only be mounted horizontally. And as you can't rotate the horns on this model, we couldn't easily achieve the necessary dispersion angles. I went back to Orbital, and the suggestion was to try out both the E12 and E8 systems. The E12s came out as favourites and, to make quite sure, Tom let me take some away to compare with the Ci90s back in the club.
"Being new to the E12s, I had initially been a little sceptical, but they were a revelation - very good in the room, with their rotatable horn enabling a perfect set-up. They deliver exactly the performance improvements that the club needed, and are sufficiently small and discrete not to block the audience's view of the stage."
The new loudspeakers are driven by just two d&b audiotechnik D6 power amplifiers, with one unit driving the main stereo pair of E12s, and the other driving the third E12 and the in-fill E0s. The system is mixed via an Allen & Heath GL2400 console, which also generates four stage mixes, typically used at fairly low level, for musicians that require monitoring. Two BSS 966 dual EQs were installed to adjust the monitor feeds.
(Jim Evans)
