The sound system on the main stage has grown as well. Musicians were self-amplified the first year. In the nine years that followed, FOH engineer Mike Bruce evolved his system to keep pace with the size of the crowd and the technical sophistication of the performing bands. The main stage at this year's Jazz in the Valley boasted 15,000 Watts and digital signal processing from Symetrix' Integrator Series - the Deuce 722.
Bruce replaced six rack spaces of analogue processing with the 2-input/2-output Deuce 722, which sat between his 24-channel Soundcraft console and a bank of Crown Macrotech amps. He used his laptop and Symetrix software to design a straightforward chain of processes, including EQs, a compressor, a limiter, and a de-esser.
Bruce reported that the sound was noticeably better this year. "Great sound on an outdoor stage is a combination of 10 different things, not the least of which is weather," he says. "So I can't give all the credit to the Symetrix Deuce 722. But it was obvious to me that the 722 cleaned up a lot of the muck that was so characteristic of the old analogue rack. On top of the great sound, the 722 was a lot easier to get up and running. I'm used to twisting a lot of knobs, but just a few mouse clicks did the trick."
(Jim Evans)
