The Canadian dates saw Warped 2007 partner with Union Label Group, a Montreal-based punk record label, who sponsored their own Union Label stage in order to showcase Canadian punk and ska bands. Union Label turned to Sennheiser Canada, long-time distributors of InnovaSON consoles in Canada, for technical support and advice in setting up the stage. Sennheiser Canada's Vaino Gennaro, after discussions with well-known Montreal sound engineer Kevin Holland and representatives from Union Label, decided on a 2 x Sy48 configuration to handle FoH and monitors in conjunction with a PC loaded with an LX6464ES sound card from Digigram for live recording purposes.
"We have always been extremely supportive of the music industry here in Canada, working with local bands and young sound engineers," noted Gennaro. "Our aim is to grow with them, support them with training and provide every opportunity we can to let them use our gear, so we were delighted to be involved with the Warped Tour as it's a great showcase event for all sorts of reasons."
Kevin Holland, who is the resident monitor engineer at one of Montreal's hottest live music venues, the Metropolis, and who was responsible for the Union Stage during the event, agreed. "We decided on InnjovaSON consoles because of their user-friendliness and their reliability," he observed. "The desks were running continuously in difficult outdoor conditions (heat, dust, even rain at one point) from noon to 8pm with bands changing over every 30 minutes. Failure was not an option! The endless possibilities for scene storage and recall of band mixes at the touch of a button made for smooth and easy transitions between sets, and hassle-free, great-sounding mixes throughout."
He adds, "I also have to say that I was blown away by the recording possibilities offered by the combination of the LX6464ES card and the InnovasonN console. The built-in EtherSound connectivity capabilities of the Sy48 enabled us to record 64 tracks of studio-quality audio onto a PC running Samplitude software via a single Cat 5 cable - how cool is that?"
(Jim Evans)
