Cornwall, October 2018 – Multiple platinum selling artist Paloma Faith recently drew a record attendance at The Wyldes, a festival site in Cornwall with a reputation for bringing some of contemporary music’s biggest stars to the South West of England. Touring in support of her recent number one album, The Architect, Faith performed through an Electro-Voice X-Line Advance X2 line array system, prompting renowned front of house engineer Andy Williamson to describe himself as “very impressed”.
Offering a warm welcome to crowds and crew alike, The Wyldes is a family-owned and run independent site that has grown in just 12 years from a 250-person private party into the only permanently licenced 10,000-capacity outdoor venue in the region. Throughout that time, regional events company NUB Sound has matched the growing audiences with increasingly substantial front of house set-ups.
As Paloma Faith delivered the biggest turnout yet for The Wyldes, NUB Sound responded by providing a comprehensive Electro-Voice X-Line Advance X2 system for the main stage. Two arrays were flown in a left-right configuration with nine enclosures per side: six X2-212/90 tops and three X2-212/120 down fills. Low-end was courtesy of 12 X12-128 dual 18-inch subwoofers, positioned six per side with two in cardioid mode and four front facing.
Electro-Voice could also be heard on the second stage, where a flown left-right set-up of eight per-side XLE181 compact line array elements were accompanied by two QRX 218S subs per side. All power was via Electro-Voice TG7 amplifiers.
“The Wydles is one of our best clients, they put on several festivals every year and the site is just magnificent,” said Paul Caboche, a partner in NUB Sound and the owner of rental company Stage Sound. “The X2 system fulfils all of our needs here. It goes up incredibly easily and it’s very quick to get a sound – it sounds great straight of the box.”
“The site’s real challenge is its expansiveness – we’re in an orchard and there are trees for miles,” adds NUB Sound Project Manager, Josh Small. “Choosing the best speaker system for the job is so important. We only use equipment we can trust because our reputation is staked on it. I really like the EV X2 system; it’s a really smart, modern solution.”
Lee Ellis, Co-Director of The Wydles, agrees: “When you step up to this kind of large scale show, the tech spec has to be absolutely first class – we can’t have anything let us down. The EV system is first class. It’s crystal clear and we’re very happy.”
Finally, Andy Williamson, front of house engineer for Paloma Faith, reflected on his first X-Line Advance experience: “At first when you see a compact box you expect it to sound small but this one has definitely surprised me. Right out of the box it sounded great and with very little EQ it was a joy. It’s the sort of system a production manager will love because it’s compact so it’ll fit in the truck and take up no space. I’d be more than happy to use this again. It sounds lovely. It’s a winner.”