The first festival week is already over. Time to look back 
This year the weather here in Montreux is quite unsettled, a mix of sun and rain.
Monday (07/02): Alabama Shakes and Alanis Morissette performed at Stravinski. I spent the afternoon walking around the festival and watching a few soundchecks. As usual I loaned some additional mics plus some IEM Systems but also had the chance to place some VP89 shotgun mics at the Stravinski stage for some atmo recordings. We also welcomed a very regular guest of the festival, Pat Metheny, who played at Miles Davis. Very nice guy.
Pat Metheny, me, Claude Nobs
Tuesday (07/03): Jamie N. Commons and Katie Melua at Stravinski, Paco De Lucia at Miles Davis. But first of all the winners of last year’s Shure Jazz Voice Competition had the opportunity to show their skills. This is something very cool – all Voice Competition winners get the chance to perform at the following festival.
Something I like very much in general is the volume level in Switzerland, the sound level mustn’t exceed 100 dB(A). Nevertheless the concerts never appear to be too quiet. Especially at Stravinski, the sound is really good.
Wednesday (07/04): Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Bombay Bicycle Club at Stravinski. Was too monotonous (at least for me), apart from some Oasis classics. In Miles Davis we had Woodkid and Lana Del Rey. The hall was fully packed and the air was extremely warm and muggy. On Wednesday we had also some guests around at Montreux (customers, dealers, consultants, integrators). One important part of their visit is an exclusive backstage tour, of course! So I show the guests the festival ground and sometimes we even have the chance to see some soundchecks.
Wednesday was the most hectic day so far. All bands performing at Stravinski and Miles Davis came with their own backlines and wireless systems. And they worked in the same band as our systems on the stages. So I had to adjust a majority of our frequencies. With our Shure Axient Wireless System being used at Stravinski – no big deal At Miles Davis we use UHF-R, there it took me a little bit longer as you have to sync the transmitters manually with the receivers. However it was done relatively quick and all systems ran dependably. Round midnight I joined some Shure colleagues to watch a jam session taking place at the foyer of the Miles Davis Hall and to have a few drinks.
Axient and PSM 1000 racks @ Stravinski
Thursday (07/05): Erykah Badu on stage at the Auditorium Stravinski. Very cool. I even installed a receiver plus a little active speaker in my office to listen to the audio signals.
