The big day arrived. Ewetho and I have worked all summer for this event, a town party and benefit in Glenview, IL. We went in with 2 OTop15’s with melded array, 2 Otop15’s with Flat array, 4 Titan48’s 25”wide with V-Plate and 2 Wedge Horn 10’s all powered on 2 Crown XTi400’s for the tops and subs and a Crown XTi1000 for the wedges and fueled by a 8Kw generator. I will sum up as best as possible otherwise this post will be too verbose:
1. MY BFM CABS KICKED ASS! A touch of back story here. I was originally going to be the only stage until one of the bands decided they needed their own stage and sound guy. So from that point it was game on. All of you following the T48s and Gig From Hell post know what we went through and IT WAS WORTH EVERY BIT OF IT. My BFM was rig about ½ miles away from the “professional” sound guy with $20,000.00+ of Meyer Audio gear. 4 Meyer CQ-1’s and 2 Meyer 700HP’s. In between us was the fair concourse with inflatable slides and jumping rigs for the kids, food court, car show, bungee jump, dunk tank and other booths. The BFM rig could be heard top to bottom from the other stage. The opposing sound crew did at least one drive-by to check out my stage as I did theirs. I went to introduce myself and was met with could stares. My first act was still performing when the first act began performing on the other stage. My people tell me that in order to hear the other stage well one needed to be within 400 feet and even then the BFM rig was still pounding away from behind. FYI, from my position I NEVER heard the other stage EVER even after my rig was powered down.
2. I did stay around to hear this Meyer gear. I never would have set it up the way it was done. Maybe it was how it was set but when a band was playing on it all that was prominent was the midrange. The highs and lows were very weak. Every once in a while I heard some bass and there was some thump in the kick but you needed to try to heard it.
3. My premier band found they had a new problem. Our PA was so present and clear and had such good throw that no one needed to come to the stage to hear. They just stayed at the booths that interested them and listened. I had many complements that the PA sounded like a really big HiFi. No one complained about volume or harshness (a concern of the promoter). We had people at our stage but it wasn’t until the other stage fired up that we got a crowd. I wonder why that happened?
4. We did a nice outdoor gig for 1200 people on $7000.00 worth of gear; 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 2 stage monitors, ½ rack of effects, 3 crown amps, and a 16Ch Yamaha USB mixer and handily outperformed a full rack (6’) of gear, a full 32Ch workstation, and at least twice the investment in cabs. NICE!!!!
5. They are sending me another check! A tip if you will!!! I got an email from the organizer who told me that there were many compliments on the sound and she collected tips and is sending a check. I HAVE NEVER EVER BEFORE RECEIVED A TIP!!!!!!!!!!!
6. THANKS TO: Bill Fitzmaurice, Leland Crooks, Netwerks, DJ Spaz, Ewetho, and everyone else here on the forums for you help and insight. This is your triumph as well.
7. I did have a wedgehorn issue that I will post on my Wedgehorn10 review
This will be my first outdoor show with BFM gear. I will be bringing 6 OTop15's 6 (or as many as I can build between now and then) Titan 48's Wedgehorn 10's and a rack of Crown XTi's as well as misc ouboard gear. You are all welcome. I will post exact location in the weeks to come are feel free to PM me. DJ Spaz and Netwerks I want to see you there!
OK, OK, Y'al just calm down. I intend to take plenty of photos and video but come on down as my guest and see them first hand!
Semi-retired: Former Australia and New Zealand Authorised BFM cab builder.
