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Audio Inc. Supports Saratoga Jazz Festival With Yamaha Digital Consoles

RIVAGE PM10 for the Main stage, dual M7CLs handled the Gazebo stage

The 40th annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, held in late June at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), featured more than 20 top jazz artists performing at the amphitheatre Main stage as well as the Gazebo stage, with the event’s long-time sound reinforcement supplier Audio Incorporated (Roselle Park, NJ) providing Yamaha digital consoles for both stages.

Specifically, the Main stage was served by a RIVAGE PM10 console, while two Yamaha M7CLs handled the Gazebo stage.

“It’s so interesting to get feedback from the various artist engineers when they stand behind a console they have had very little time on or have never used before,” states Mike Sinclair, VP/wwner, Audio Incorporated. “The PM10 is one mighty top-of-the-line console with all the bells and whistles that Yamaha and Rupert Neve Designs could imagine for the flagship board.

“The console represents the first time Rupert Neve Designs has attempted to design effects for a digital console that closely represent the analog sounds they are so famous for, primarily with the addition of transformer emulation and SILK processing,” Sinclair continues. “SILK enables engineers to choose between two different kinds of pre-amp emulation: Blue for more percussive and power, and Red for smoothness and voice sparkle. Either choice comes with a control to adjust the amount of texture you want at the input. Nothing else on the market sounds like this and represents the heart and soul of the RIVAGE mixing experience.”

A sample of Main stage acts this year included the Dave Stryker Quartet (FOH mix by Sinclair; Jean-Luc Ponty: The Atlantic Years (FOH mix by Glenn Kern); Jazz100 featuring Danilo Perez (FOH mix by David Rosenspire); and Dee Dee Bridgewater (FOH mix by Sinclair).

“I like the Yamaha PM10 transformer and SILK,” notes David Rosenspire FOH engineer. “It adds depth and definition, and the console is easy to use because of the familiar Yamaha layout.”

Gazebo stage acts included the Dave Stryker Quartet and Blind Boy Paxton, Adam O’Farrill Quartet, Aruan Ortiz Trio — all mixed by Frank Egan of Audio Inc. — as well as the Gypsy Kings, mixed by Jerome Favrot Maes and John Nave, who brought in a Yamaha CL5.

“I love the Yamaha CL5 because I can find a console anywhere in the world,” Favrot Maes says. “It always works and sounds great.”

Yamaha Pro Audio
Audio Incorporated

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