The recent 2011 XPoNential Music Festival sponsored by Subaru and presented by U Penn Philadelphia-based public radio station WXPN was served by the audio production services of Bauder Audio Systems (Horsham, PA), who provided a range of NEXO loudspeakers and amplifiers as well as Yamaha consoles.
The low key, three-day July festival held at Camden Waterfront’s Wiggins Park focused on highlighting talented musicians from the greater Philadelphia area, as well as national artists who have strong ties to the radio station and its programming such as Emmylou Harris, Keb’ Mo’, Citizen Cope, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Smithereens, Ben Folds, Booker T, and many more.
The festival took place on two stages: one nestled next to a local marina, the other overlooking the Delaware River as well as the Philadelphia skyline.
The 4,000-plus concertgoers at the main stage heard 15 bands through a 22-box NEXO GEO S1210 line array set joined by two GEO S1230s, ten RS18 Ray Subs, PS15 and PS10 R2s loudspeakers that supplied front fill and out fill, and eight NXAMP 4×4 amplifiers. A Yamaha PM5D console was brought in for monitors, and a 02R96 was used for the broadcast mix.
For the side stage musical acts, Bauder brought in 14 NEXO GEO S805s along with two GEO S830s, 12 CD12s, eight Yamaha PC9501N amplifiers, and four NEXO NX242 processors. A Yamaha PM5D was used to mix front of house, with an M7CL-48 at the monitor mix position and an M7CL-48ES for the broadcast mix.
“I really love the S12 rig for a festival like this,” states Brian Andrews, front of house engineer/system tech at Bauder. It goes up easily and is very light, which the whole crew appreciates. Between the prediction tools in NS-1 and the EtherSound control of the NXAmps, I’m never surprised or confused by anything the PA is doing and I can even power the whole thing down safely from my laptop in case of weather emergencies.”
Andrews said the XpoNential Festival is very eclectic, and mixing on the NEXO S12s was a dream for the variety of artists that came through. “I had lots of compliments and no complaints from band engineers, says Andrews. Several of them were adamant about saving their console file because they thought it was one of the best mixes they had on that tour, which is rare for a festival with no sound checks. The GEO S12 is one of the few systems where I feel like minor EQ and reverb tweaks really shine through and make mixing fun instead of feeling like you’re just fixing things during the whole set.”
“I absolutely love these subs,” he adds. “For all the previous years we did the festival without NEXO, we were required to bring three to four times as many subs and I don’t think we matched the coverage or bass response I got from ten RS18s used this year.”
