AUDIO
“The sound for Sanctuary had to match the artistic scope,” says Randell Lamontagne, who led audio for Sanctuary.
Lamontagne, who says his “pursuit of audio has led me throughout the country,” originally moved to the Bay Area after bringing his personal sound system to the Santa Barbara festival Lucidity in 2012. After Lucidity, he was unable to go home to Colorado because his “box truck couldn’t make it back over the pass.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Massive Sound for Massive Scope
“The sound had to match the scope. Sanctuary is massive,” says Lamontagne. “It was a challenge to get a sound system big enough to cover that space, yet also clean and well-tuned enough that it doesn’t hurt. In a lot of art cars, the sound is immense but can also be painful. A lot of people at Burning Man don’t seem to mind — they don’t even use earplugs! They seem to have a fun time being shredded by these massive rigs. But I wanted beauty. I wanted the performing artists to have the experience of stepping out of their sound studio and then finding that the sound in their studio was what came out of Sanctuary’s rig.”
Of course, he adds, the sound quality intended for listeners on the playa isn’t exactly like studio sound: “There’s a bit of extra bass.”
Building for aural beauty was hard, and camouflaging it was even harder. The creators “didn’t want Sanctuary to look like a big stage with a pile of speakers, but wanted the art to speak for itself,” Lamontagne explains. “It took forethought to ensure the sound system disappears and isn’t the focal point of the piece. After all, big speakers are just that. They are huge! ”
Fortunately, there was enough time to think it through in advance. “Sanctuary was the first Burning Man art project I’ve done where I had a lot of lead time,” says Lamontagne. “I actually got to try different parts in the shop ahead of time, and to test different scenarios. For example, since it’s in an art car, I knew it would travel and bump around a lot.”
As a result of the lead time, “we only had two tech problems the whole time we were out there on playa” — which was a huge relief. In comparison, during other years he’s attended Burning Man with other projects, Lamontagne ruefully admits that being on the playa felt like “a full-time job.”
Technical Details
Sanctuary entered Burning Man as a Tier III sound car, the highest sound rating available at the event. Chase Putnam, the construction lead, made sure that “we played by the rules and kept our SPL to 110dB at 100 feet.”
Still, as Putnam puts it, “everyone felt plenty of impact nevertheless. The natural sound [of the Danley speakers] — no shrill high end or warped mid-range — gave the folks who were listening to the music everything they needed, but still allowed other folks to have intelligible conversations without screaming.”
(2) 18,000W Danley Jericho J1-94 Full Stack Cabinets
(2) 8,000W Danley TH-812 Subwoofers
(2) 3,400W Danley BC-218 Subwoofers
(2) 1,400W Danley SH46 Compact Horns
(8) Danley DNA20-K4 Pro Dante Amplifiers
