This region is not known for its locally-grown music talent.
Aside from the Arabic music scene, there are a handful of local bands coming
out of cities like Dubai but compared to major
music producing areas like the UK
or North America, we’ve got a long way to go.
But things are starting to change. Dubai’s long-standing live music hub, aptly
named The Music Room, has been around for years but has recently undergone a
major transformation with the aim to increase not only the level of artists it
can book, but the technical quality of shows the venue hosts.
Dubai-based sound system and acoustic consultant Michael H.
Weckesser has worked with The Music Room to make this happen. “I joined the
project in the early stages, when the owner of the Majestic Hotel,
Alex Economides, was preparing himself to transform the old, established
event venue of the Music Room into the 21st century.”
Before arriving in Dubai in
1997, Weckesser was a consultancy engineer in Germany
for 10 years and has been involved in the broadcasting, mixing and event
industry in Europe for 25 years.
He says plans to create a space that could host a varied and
busy programme including DJ’s, bands and solo artists included architectural
and equipment upgrades but that all this was nothing without ensuring better
room acoustics and sound quality.
“We needed to transform this place into a great acoustic
environment not just for the bands onstage but also the audience listening to
it. It’s one big room and we’re tried to ensure that the performers feel right
in the middle of what’s going on. If they don’t have this feeling then the
atmosphere is lost.”
In-house sound engineer Tariq Al-Hassan, who joined The
Music Room just months ago, describes the new set up as “intimate” without
being too small. It’s immediately clear how passionate he is about his job when
talks about his new role in that enviable way someone does when they can’t
believe they get paid to do something they love. “It’s the perfect job for me.
I get to mix bands every day and what we’re doing with the place is giving me
great experience.” Originally from the UK, Al-Hassan previously worked on
race-course gigs with the likes of Girls Aloud and Westlife.
Weckesser says a focus on sound absorption on stage has been
key in getting the best out of performers. “We wanted to make the stage as
quite as possible in terms of monitoring and room acoustics, so that we’re not
destroying or spoiling the original sound they’re producing which we then pick
up with our mic’ing. We then came up with the solution to put massive absorbers
up in the stage area so that sound energy would be used up and not reflected,”
he says.
Twenty to 25 centimetres of mineral fibre absorbers cover
the ceiling and full rear wall of the stage, which absorb a full bandwidth of
frequencies. “Overall, the result for the musicians on stage is that they hear
what they are doing and not what the stage is reflecting and bringing back to
them,” explains Weckesser.
Al-Hassan agrees. “It used to be gypsum; it reflected
everything and completely spoilt the sound. Now, I’ve had numerous drummers
come up to me and say, I can hear absolutely everything.”
Architectural changes to the stage have seen it cut from
three to two levels and lowered to be closer to the audience, helping to create
that “intimate” atmosphere that Al-Hassan describes. The width has also been
extended and a dedicated technical area added to the side. Plans to change the
ceiling layout are also underway. “We’re in the process of making the ceiling
absorbent as well so the sound energy will disappear and not impact negatively
on the room acoustics,” explains Weckesser. “We want to make it so that if we
have to work with sound reflections, they will be useful.”
When it came to the venue’s sound system, he says quality
and flexibility were key, proudly announcing that the Alcons Audio line array
system that has been installed is the first in the UAE. “The special line array
approach of Alcons is that they use ribbon high-frequency drivers, which don’t
create distortion the louder they go. It just gets louder, and louder and you
want to keep making it louder because it sounds so good.”
Al-Hassan says the clean, crisp sound was initially unusual
territory for him but that he was soon won over by its lack of limits. “I try
to get a bit of that rock n’ roll concert distortion sometimes but all I hear
is clarity, whatever is coming out. You
can really tell when a performer messes up too, which can be a good or a bad
thing but the quality of acts here is really improving,” he says, explaining
that regular act Marwan and the Mojos really “show off this system”.
H.Weckesser agrees that the increase in sound quality is
pushing some of the venue’s performers to the next level in their game. “The
new audio is really bringing the performers into a whole gig. They get the
overall feeling of what’s going on on a real PA system, and that’s what makes
it so wonderful. It really goes along with the concept of having one space with
the musicians in the middle of it,” he says.
“Performers tell me, we played here a year ago and I could
not stop asking the sound engineer for more monitors, more support, and now,
they feel really comfortable on stage and it really improves the quality of
their performance. Especially on vocals, you can see them performing
differently as they are so aware of how they are singing,” says Al-Hassan. He
describes the system as “fantastically flexible” in keeping up with his job
that sees him mix rock, jazz, rock fusion and acoustic performances within the
space of a week.
Weckesser jokes that his German heritage played a part when
it came to choosing microphones on stage. “I’m German, so why not go with
German mics?” he asks.
He says the mic’ing of the drum-kit has undergone a
“complete transformation” thanks to the Sennheiser 900 series range of
products. “We were in a semi-professional mic’ing state here previously and
with our focus now of getting high quality pick up, we wanted to go with the
performance, reliability and pick-up pattern of Sennheiser,” he says, adding
that as in a recording environment, the snare is picked up with two
microphones.
“The vocal mics are Shure as they’re standard, useful,
reliable stage mics. We chose Sennheisser wireless mics with the high-class 395
capsule – a wireless condenser, meaning that the performers are very aware of
what they’re doing because they’re so precise.”
Controlling the entire system is a Digidesign Venue SC48
Digital Mixer that Al-Hassan often controls wirelessly via his laptop. “The
wireless remote control of the mixer means I can be on stage or in the middle
or the room mixing the artists. Communication-wise, it’s great when you’re
trying to get a sound on stage.”
And he says the mixer is proving a real time saver when it
comes to sound-checks. “I can record a sound-check, the band can go away and I
can then mix it and then they come back and it’s just a bit of tweeking on
stage and front of house. And most of it is already set up – I don’t have to
necessarily check each line because the drum mics are set up, the guitar is
already mic’ed so it’s then just a matter of getting their vocals right on
stage.”
Given the busy and changing schedule of the venue, they have
opted to retain stage wedges as the monitoring system of choice but Weckesser
says he hasn’t ruled out looking at in-ears in the future, especially as the
venue looks to boost it’s position as a recording facility.
“If performers want to rehearse with in-ear monitors we can
supply them and if they want to do a live recording, we can switch from stage
monitors to in-ears which will increase the quality of the recording,” he says.
With the Venue SC48, The Music Room is capable of recording
up to 18 discrete tracks of audio, live or otherwise. These recordings are
pre-fader – completely dry, raw audio, which Al-Hassan says enables him to “mix
flexibly and professionally; and any overdubbing or extra tracks can be
recorded in house during the day.”
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