Sauna is unusual in many ways, not least because it's staged downtown, at the heart of Finland's second city, Tampere. As such there is no muddy field to negotiate, and no associated peripheral events like circus performers or Reki readers. It also means a strict 10:00pm curfew, which considering it's still broad daylight here at this time of year, makes for a well-behaved if somewhat bizarre metal fest' atmosphere.
"It also meant loading the backline on stage in the middle of the day, no sound check before the show at all, and straight into it after a brief line check." How did this feel for a top-of-the-bill act? "Pretty good actually", said Quimby. "These guys - Akun Tehdas - have done a great job." Akun Tehdas is a full service rental house based in Tampere, providing for this event all lighting, sound, staging, rigging and the roof.
What did Quimby think of the physically tiny d&b PA? Had he seen the number of Subs beneath the stage? "I can't say enough about this PA, it sounded really good, not distant at all. I love d&b." I was beginning to suspecta set-up, having been invited here by Soundata, Finland's d&b dealer; it just wouldn't do to have a Finnish d&b love fest' - not for a heavy metal band. Was he being paid, I asked? "Oh no, I use d&b all the time back in the States. We use Eighth Day Sound, an excellent service provider; they introduced me to the d&b Q System for our last tour there."
And the subs? "I did also get to listen to the Cardioid Sub array", a typically wacky d&b solution to the directivity of low-end devices. "It was at a training seminar EDS ran, but actually we didn't get to use them on the US tour - we were just playing smaller venues - so today is my fist time."
Was he worried, considering this is a power rock band, that removing most of the low end from behind the front edge of stage might unnerve the band? "That's the only downfall with that cardioid idea, I did think about that, but besides the Q-subs there are B2s in cardioid array here, and they aren't as efficiently directive as the Q Subs in that department. Besides, with Q7s and Q subs for side-fills there was plenty of low-end up there for the band. In fact, the band don't have a loud monitor mix; I know, hard to imagine. Mainly it's drums to keep them in time, and vocals."
And the 24 Marshall cabinets stacked three-high, 12 per side of the drum kit - wasn't he in danger of always mixing in the tight beam from these guitar speakers? "Actually only four per side are live; at a festival like this it's not a problem, the last show was two nights at a big 1,500 capacity club in Norway, there I was about 10m from the stage and I was getting 104dB at the desk with the PA off - not great. Luckily for me, the singer has a very powerful voice: he might grunt a bit, but capture is not a problem."
Quimby mixes from a Midas H3000. "Sure, no problem for me, we're actually carrying an XL4. Normally we'd get our control and monitors from Wigwam in Europe, them being EDS's regular support over here, but they were all out of consoles, so too the guys at SSE and Brit Row, I guess things are going really well in the UK right now?" The desk eventually came from Skan - a new company to Quimby, "but everything's just fine," he adds.Anything about the day that's gone really well? "What impressed me most is these E3s and Subs the Akun Tehdas guys ha
