Pulling in a congregation in the region of 700,000, The Experience is an interdenominational gospel concert held in Lagos that counts itself among the largest music events on the planet

The latest event was the ninth edition of the gathering, with performances from some of the world’s biggest gospel stars – Israel Houghton, Donnie McClurkin, Micah Stampley and Don Moen among them. Nigerian and African acts also took part, including Frank Edwards, Freke, Onos and Sinach. DPA microphones were also a essential part of the event, serving both percussion and worship duties with a set of d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones on the main drums to ensure that the rythms weren’t lost in the celebrations.

The DPA mics for the occasion were specified by Steve Davies, MD of London-based event production specialist, Subfrantic. He used his own stock of d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones, which were supplied by DPA’s UK distributor Sound Network. ‘My involvement with The Experience began in 2013,’ he recalls. ‘I was brought in following a long professional relationship with House on the Rock, the church responsible for organising the event. My initial role was to approve the specification of the FOH PA and supply a team to mix the stage and handle changeovers, but very quickly looking after FOH was added to that job, too.’

Davies adds that the two main issues with sourcing equipment in Nigeria are reliability and supply: ‘Even if you’re lucky enough to find the equipment that you’re after, the hot and humid conditions that it is used and stored in means a lot of it will have suffered greatly before you get to use it,’ he says.

Experience 8 had seen Davies and his team short of key pieces of equipment, so for the latest event they took some crucial components with them, including the ten d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones used to mic the main drum kit: ‘The results spoke for themselves,’ he reports. ‘The microphones worked perfectly and had no problem coping with the heat and humidity. They were also small enough to be easy to transport and we were very glad to have them on site.’

Davies adds that it was great to be able to bring the reliability and sonic excellence that DPA is renowned for to an event of this importance, especially on something as essential as the drum kit: ‘If we find ourselves out there again for The Experience 10, then we plan to take a lot more DPA kit with us,’ he says, ‘especially d:facto Vocal Microphone heads to go on the main vocals.’

See also:
Outline shares The Experience in Africa

More: www.subfrantic.com
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