Headlining an open-air event in Hannover, German singer, songwriter and musician Peter Fox presented a danceable mix of dancehall, hip-hop, Afrobeat and R&B. Around 20,000 music fans assembled at the NDR 2 Plaza Festival in September the final concert of the Love Songs tour in Hannover, where Fox used an SKM 6000 handheld transmitter with an MD 9235 capsule – which he uses at all his gigs – as did co-front man Benji Asare.

Five handheld transmitters and a spare were used by the two lead vocalists and their guests. Five EM 6000 two-channel receivers communicated with the WSM software via a Cat5 network cable. To ensure reliable reception, two Sennheiser A 2003-UHF passive directional antennas were strategically positioned at the sides of the stage.

‘For larger festivals, it’s common practice to be sent a table of wireless frequencies in advance that has been calculated for the conditions at the venue,’ explains monitor mixer René Köpke. ‘We did one of the shows in pouring rain, and the capsules of the handheld transmitters got wet but I always have enough replacements with me, and I was able to dry the microphone heads after the show. I got some salt from the catering people and put little bags of salt in the microphone drawer. When I tried the capsules out a few days later, they were working perfectly again.’

The stage side fills and wedges were primarily used to deliver sound for the numerous dancers, while monitoring for the musicians was provided by wired (drums, keyboards, DJ) and wireless in-ear systems. The Sennheiser 2000 series beltpacks received their signals from two A 5000-CP circularly polarised antennas. The monitor position and other areas at the back of the stage that were not directly covered by these antennas were covered via an A 1031-UHF omnidirectional antenna. Köpke ensured he had sufficient bodypack receivers available to equip any guests taking part in the shows at short notice or to quickly provide the musicians with a replacement if the need arose.

Fox’s current line-up includes drummer Jay Cobain, for whom the production team chose a variety of microphones from Sennheiser and Neumann. The bass drum used a Sennheiser e 901 condenser boundary microphone with a half-cardioid pick-up pattern and a e 902 dynamic microphone with a cardioid pick-up pattern for lows.

‘I don’t actually need the boundary mic for my monitor mix, but our FOH mixer, Guido Craveiro, likes to use it to emphasise the attack components of the kick,’ Köpke says. The snare positioned to the left of the drummer was miked with a Sennheiser e 905, while the hi-hats and cymbals had a Neumann KM 140 (KM 100 output stage with AK 40 cardioid capsule).

To allow the musicians on stage to communicate with each other, five dynamic e 935 vocal microphones with Optogate PB-05E plug-in modules (with infrared sensors that switch the microphones off when not in use) were deployed. ‘These are all talkback microphones,’ Köpke says. ‘Our Musical Director, Moses Yoofee, can speak to all the musicians from his position at the keyboards and can count in certain parts or pass on information. Only the vocalists were excluded from the talkback at their own request.’

Fox previously performed at the Expo Plaza in 2009, and his 2023 performance was a continuation of that. In addition to tracks from the 2008 cult album Stadtaffe, he performed individual songs from the band Seeed and from the current album Love Songs, which topped the charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland straight after its release.

The final concert of the Love Songs tour was marked not only by its music, but also by the action on stage. Around 50 dancers made a major contribution with their club vibes and uncomplicated choreography.

‘Fifteen years after the release of Stadtaffe, Peter Fox’s Love Songs tour has been a resounding success,’ says Thomas Holz, Sennheiser Relations Manager. ‘Seeed, Pierre Baigorry and his Dancehall Caballeros have been relying on wired and wireless Sennheiser microphones and in-ear solutions for many years. And for his solo project under the stage name Peter Fox, audio products from Sennheiser play a key role in providing outstandingly good live sound.’

More: www.sennheiser.com