The Sound Of Silence with KLANG:fabrik and over 1000 Headphones

German band Adulescens performs silent headphone concert for a huge festival crowd in 3D binaural audio.

Especially during the open air season in summer, many small festivals in residential areas have the same problem: after 10 PM they need to turn down the PA just when the vibe gets good. This is where silent concerts offer an interesting alternative, allowing bands and DJs to play throughout the night without any loud, intrusive PA.
After touring smaller clubs with silent concerts for quite some time – read blog post for details – the gig at Marienplatzfest in Stuttgart meant bringing the concept of the band’s silent concerts to a larger scale with over 1000 pairs of wireless headphones.

In this video interview, Tour Manager and FOH Engineer Tobias Raunigk explains why and how he creates the 3D FOH mix using KLANG:fabrik.

“This really was the next step of the silent concert idea for all of us,” says Raunigk. “You could see some people were a bit skeptical at first listening to a festival gig with headphones but as soon as they put the headphones on they started to dive into the ocean of sound, smiling and dancing. I’m pretty sure we will see these kind of concerts more often in the future.”

To fully take advantage of the technical possibilities with headphones, Raunigk and the band teamed up with KLANG:technologies to deliver a binaural 3D listening experience not possible with conventional stereo headphone mixes or PA sound.

„We wanted to deliver something special as the next step up from silent discos in stereo,“ explains Raunigk. „With KLANG:fabrik you can create a 3D mix for the audience that sounds like you’re on stage inbetween the musicians and not just standing in front of the stage. You’re surrounded by music – and that is really impressive.“

With KLANG:fabrik you can create an immersive 3D audio mix for the audience that sounds like you’re on stage inbetween the musicians.

The great sound, the simplicity of the system and the way it integrates into existing setups is what convinced Raunigk from the start.

“The signals on stage are fed into the Dante network and send over to my Allen & Heath GLD-80 at FOH and then as direct outs via Dante to the KLANG:fabrik,” explains Raunigk. “I use two MIDI layers on the GLD-80 to do the headphone mix in the KLANG:fabrik since I prefer mixing with physical faders. I like easy tools for creating and mixing sounds and KLANG:fabrik is so fast and intuitive to work with.”