The annual two-day Kappa FuturFestival electronic music festival in Turin attracts more than 40,000 fans to a disused warehouse in Parco Dora. This year, they were here to see the likes of Gandalf, Monika Kruse, Sam Paganini and Solomun, and treated to a sound system provided by Rome-based Loud Professional.
According to Loud Professional founder Valerio Cherubini, Kappa is the best Electro Music Festival in Italy and one of the five most important summer festivals in Europe: ‘The location inside Parco Dora is absolutely unique as is the atmosphere created at sunset after the sun goes down,’ he says. ‘The crowd is really warm, and into their music.
‘Every type of electro music is played on the three different stages each with its own speciality. Each DJ’s live set is accompanied by the best sound and lighting technologies in a powerful mix.
The Main Stage sound was designed by Michele Azzimonti using a Loud Professional VH Layer horn-loaded line array for the main system, with monitors, subs, point-source front fill and delays. The main flown PA comprised 28 VH Layer212H (14 elements per side), with the 40 VH Sub121H hybrid subs stacked at the front of the stage in an end-fire configuration (ten stacks of four units each). For the delays, 12 VH Layer112H and six VH Sub218R, reflex-loaded subs were used.
Driving the system were a pair of Powersoft X8 amplifiers on the stage for the DJ booth, with a further pair of Powersoft K10 and four K6 for front fill.
Use of the X8 on the DJ booth monitors was particularly important: ‘We also run our own system with these amplifiers,’ Cherubini explains. ‘Every DJ will ask for something different but for sure they want listening music at very high levels with the best quality. DJs from all over the world produce tracks in their studios and need to be able to listen accurately. The sound of X Series and Loud Pro, combined together, is so powerful, smooth, precise and never aggressive, that it allows them to experience clarity as never before. It is far more accurate than the previous system used.’
The onboard DSP also provides opportunities to manage every kind of sound reinforcement system: ‘Armonía Pro Audio Suite, the networking dialogue software, is simple to use and everything you need is immediately under control,’ he says.
The amplification was located downstage, and connected to the LAN via a laptop. At FOH, sound engineer Francesco Scotti was piloting an Avid Venue SC48 (and also running monitors along with Michele Azzimonti). System Tech was David Mandaradoni. ‘It was a great gig from beginning to end,’ he says. ‘Armonia helped us a lot to manage the DJ monitors from FOH, as we didn’t have a dedicated monitor console on stage. All the amplifiers ran without problems in a difficult situation, as the weather was so hot, and the music ran for 12 hours non-stop.’
‘The system was really powerful and well defined, and everyone appreciated the depth of the bass combined with the punch, the great impact and clarity of the mid-tops,’ adds Cherubini. ‘We measured peaks of 112dBA at 50m, and we never ran the sound system at maximum power or over 50 per cent of its capacity.
‘The organisers were also delighted with the functionality of the sound system as were the crowds – someone wrote that, for the first time, Kappa had a sound system worthy of respect.’
