Location: a huge ranch outside of Cali, Colombia. Occasion: a massive outdoor dance event starring DJ Carl Cox, world innovator in creating propulsive audio environments.

No question that the technology had to be far beyond the bleeding edge to match Cox’s creativity and the challenge of ensuring a total audio club experience outdoors in the Colombia countryside. Staged by Colombia’s Mission Productions, owner of close to 400 assorted Martin Line Arrays and W8 variants, the event was breaking new ground in terms of new ways to manipulate sound with the TiMax ImageMaker16 audio imaging matrix, essentially a surround processor that doesn’t require programme information to be pre-programmed on a disk.

Austen Derek of Aurateq Systems in New York, and Dave Haydon of Out Board in London (TiMax), surpassed the challenge with an eight-channel surround system consisting of 32 Martin Audio Wavefront 8 Compacts in eight stacks, and 64 WSX subs arranged in four blocks at the corners of the site. The W8Cs were processed by XTA, with TiMax used to create all-round L/R images for the main mix with eight surround images and a ‘scatter-delay’ synthetic image for overhead effects.

The two stacks per side of the site (four total) were divided into two channels each for delay imaging purposes. Thus the entire set-up was controlled by 12 channels of TiMax plus two channels for front and rear subs, which in the end were all left undelayed.

Maximum stereo coverage was achieved with Martin W8C’s assigned as alternate Left/Right pairs across the front and down the sides and rear of the site, ensuring any two adjacent stacks were providing a stereo mix. TiMax was used to add subtle rotating mix effects, triggered from a MIDI keyboard at various breakdown sections of the mix, while the system was left to just run in solid multichannel stereo for the main beat content. The smooth dispersion characteristics of the W8C’s provided a broad spatial mix across the site, greatly enhancing the immersive imaging and definition of the TiMax audio animations.

To open his set, TiMax ‘flew in’ Carl Cox with a helicopter sample which literally shuddered around the site, followed by the artist rising slowly out of the stage on a scissor lift. The gig itself totally rocked the house, or as Austen put it, “We annihilated ‘em” — with Cox first coming on for two hours, and staying for over four, spinning deep hardcore till dawn to over 5,000 manic revelers.

Back home in New York, Derek and partner Rachel Stires run Aurateq Systems, a multifaceted design, installation and production company. Martin Audio’s leading tour products dealer worldwide, Aurateq was originally formed in the 80s, creating sound systems for concerts and clubs like the Sound Factory, New York’s Roxy, and Ministry of Sound in London.

In the early 90s, an opportunity arose to produce large-scale outdoor dance events in South America featuring US and European DJs, creating grand-scale outdoor events for Mission Productions, a Colombian/American company, which owned the leading club in Cali.

Martin Audio has been a staple for Derek and Aurateq Systems for a long time. “I love the sound of the boxes. A lot of engineers and production people down in South America say, ‘Oh, they have that typical Brit sound…’. Sometimes it takes a while for them to get comfortable — but now these guys are flipping out about how great they sound.

“Also the Martin W8L is the fastest flying Line Array sound system without a whole bunch of gadgets you need to keep track of. Everything is self-contained.”
Aurateq will continue to collaborate with Mission Productions on all types of large scale live tours through Colombia and other Latin American countries.