KLANG powers Grafa’s first truly immersive 360-degree concert in Bulgaria

Legendary Bulgarian artist Grafa achieved a national first in Arena 8888 Sofia with a fully immersive concert in the round. Monitor Engineer Boris Yanakiev used DMI-KLANG with his DiGiCo Quantum 338 to deliver spatialised immersive monitor mixes for the entire band, with each musician utilising a KLANG:kontroller on stage. It was a night to remember and, with two weeks of production rehearsals, Yanakiev had more than enough time to really refine his mixes. 

“Using KLANG was a new experience for many of the musicians involved,” he explains. “Having the :kontrollers really helped the performers to connect with the technology, the interface felt familiar to them and the physical touch was reassuring.”

Grafa has performed on a large scale since the age of ten. Born to a musical family, he has been selling out stadium shows ever since. The 15,000-capacity Arena 888 Sofia is the perfect space to attempt his greatest challenge to date: designing the perfect immersive sound experience for his dedicated audience. 

A 40 metre stage with a 360˚  audience creates major audio challenges. These include imaging issues and latency, which can make the mixes muddy and confusing. Avoiding this detrimental effect is essential to ensure the best possible experience for the artists. 

“The band were used to both wedges and in-ears, so wedges could have been an option. But in a large arena many monitors on stage can start messing with the whole sound as they need to be quite loud,” Yanakiev continues.  “This starts to interfere with the PA which, when it is 360 degrees, with a lot more speakers and in a boomy arena, is going to be a big problem! KLANG made everything much smoother. It’s easy to work with because the interface is very simple. I can just explain which fader is for their voice, which is for the guitar etc, so everyone has the opportunity to control their mix, or if they are happy for me to control it, then I can mix it for them.”

Getting the artist monitoring exactly right was critical, especially for a first-of-its-kind production, but Yanakiev already trusted KLANG and knew it would be the ideal solution. Being the first time that many of the musicians had used KLANG, making sure they were comfortable and confident was just as important as the final result. 

With KLANG:kontrollers, Yanakiev had the option to control the mixes on his DiGiCo Quantum 338 or give the artists the freedom to experiment. Thanks to the rehearsal period, there was plenty of time for them to get enjoy the new possibilities.

“KLANG made my life easier, but it made the artist’s job easier, too!” he says. “Despite it being their first time, the comments were all really positive. They felt like the system was the missing piece of their sound puzzle. It was the first time they could hear everything clearly and it really opened up their mix. Having the :kontrollers gave them the option to play with KLANG themselves and that really helped, too.”

Grafa’s band included nine additional musicians: drums, bass, guitar, two keyboards, a wind player, and three backing singers. Setting up the system could not have been easier. During rehearsals, not only could Yanakiev refine his mixes, the connection and deployment of the KLANG:kontrollers took just seconds. With power and data supplied over a single Ethernet cable, the :kontrollers are quick and easy to start up, plus the DiGiCo integration makes everything a breeze.

“It’s very easy. The :kontrollers are powered over Ethernet, so you just have a network switch, and then you run a cable to each one of them,” he continues. “The show ran exactly as it did in the rehearsals. It’s simple to take the whole setup to a bigger stage. Being part of a ground breaking production is a great experience. We all felt this way, and Grafa was very pleased to have achieved his goal of perfection. Everything was as he hoped it would be.”

When full concentration is required, listening fatigue can be even more noticeable, but with KLANG, the spatialised sound helps reduce tiredness, meaning artists and engineers can listen for longer, often at noticeably lower volumes. As Yanakiev concludes, the benefits of a KLANG system allowed him to concentrate fully on creating the best possible environment for his artists. From speedy setup, to the ease of control, he says he could not have done the show without KLANG.

“The whole setup was very easy, I had time to prepare before rehearsals, and I could do much of my work in the offline editor. I named all my channels and patches, so it was plug-and-play in the venue, the workflow is very smooth,” he finishes. “When you’re using stereo, the stereo image gets filled up really quickly, but when you have spatial mix in KLANG, there is so much space. This means the whole mix can be quieter. The band experienced this for the first time and mentioned it straight away; even with long rehearsals, they said their ears were not as tired and they could still hear everything clearly at lower levels! It was exciting to be part of such a new show, and having enough preparation time really helped. I’m very happy with how everything turned out.”