Inspired by American blues festivals – where audiences traditionally enjoy a diet music with a side order of ribs – Ribs&Blues takes place each year in the Dutch town of Raalte. This year’s event saw an eclectic mix of blues, roots and rock acts mixed using a Yamaha Rivage PM10 system.
The free festival attracts more than 45,000 people, with an international line-up including blues legend Walter Trout, Golden Earring, the Beach Boys, Michelle David & The Gospel Sessions, the Red Devils and Barrelhouse appearing this year. Since 2011 the festival has featured a second stage, but it was the 15 acts on the on the main stage whose FOH engineers had the benefit of the Rivage PM10.
Technical production for the main stage was handled by Focus Amsterdam, with the audio equipment provided by leading European rental house RentAll. Resident Focus Amsterdam engineer Gijs Schouten was present throughout the festival to mix the bands that did not come with their own engineer and to show the system to those who had not used it before.
Schouten has extensive experience with Rivage PM10 and observed how simple it made band changeovers at what was a very challenging event: ‘There was no time for soundchecks – as soon as one band finished, their equipment was removed, the next band’s gear set up and they performed straight away,’ he says. ‘It had the potential to cause many sound problems, but the easy, fast access and setup of Rivage PM10 meant that we encountered no issues. It was highly appreciated by the many visiting engineers.’
Two engineers using Rivage PM10 for the first time were industry veteran Phil Caseberry, mixing Walter Trout, and Jurre Wieman of The Bimhuis, Amsterdam, who was mixing Michelle David & The Gospel Sessions. Schouten had a short time to show them over the control surface, but the user-friendliness of Rivage PM10 meant it was easily enough time for them to get a great mix for their respective artists.
‘I found it very easy to find my way around the system and we enjoyed a great-sounding show,’ Wieman says. Caseberry agrees, adding ‘It is a very straightforward system to mix on and the workflow, facilities and audio quality really benefit a show like this, even with the very short time that Gijs had to familiarise us with it.’
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