KLANG:fabrik for Brussels Jazz Orchestra
05-01-2024The Cultural Centre in Hasselt (CCHA) recently played host to a stunning retrospective of the last 30 years of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, BJO 30. The permanent 17-strong BJO line-up was supplemented by 13 guest artists across the six featured programs in a superbly varied show that lasted nearly three hours.
Early adopters
Concert and touring specialists MONO were responsible for engineering the event – and they opted to use the KLANG:fabrik immersive IEM systems for the best possible artist experience. “At MONO we were early adopters of KLANG IEM systems especially once the DiGiCo integration came along – we just needed to find the right project,” says MONO’s lead monitor engineer, Stijn Declerq. “When BJO asked us to provide IEM mixes for one of their events a few years ago, KLANG was a no brainer for us – it performs at its best with a lot of acoustic inputs (trumpets, trombones, saxes, solo instruments, bass guitars, vocals and a lot of keyboards). To be able to create a mix in which you can position everything (and jazz artists are notoriously finicky about their mixes) to provide beautifully balanced, non-fatiguing sound to the ears is very satisfying.”
Naturally, when MONO were asked to engineer for BJOs 30th anniversary show at CCHA, KLANG:fabrik was an integral part of their toolbox. “It was a difficult decision to select for which musicians we’d use KLANG as there were over 80 inputs on ten IEM outputs,” recalls MONO’s Bart Lebegge. “In the end we opted to provide 5 IEM mixes with 40 channels each for the rhythm section (drums & bass) keyboards, the extra bassist and Singer Mo – we consciously chose to provide one less KLANG mix than we could have done so that more channels were available to create the necessary space in the existing mixes.”
By going for 40 channels in KLANG, MONO were able to create an open, calm yet detailed balance for this extremely dense program. Musicians could hear the details and accents they expected throughout the concert without being overwhelmed – which would not have been achievable with a standard stereo mix.
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