STURGIS, S.D. — The Buffalo Chip Music Festival held annually at South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally poses unique challenges to any sound company. “As well as thunderous applause,” says Steve Cross, Kid Rock’s FOH mixer, “the bikers will rev their engines in appreciation.” Sure Sound & Lighting, old hands with the festival, showcased the new Renkus-Heinz VerSys VLX3 line arrays for the main stage area, powered by Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q amplifiers with built-in Dolby Lake processing.
“The VLX3 arrays fly very easily and, with external amps, the load-in was a lot easier,” says Grant Stramel, Sure Sound’s lead system engineer. “Last year we used the self-powered Renkus-Heinz STLA/9 line array. But, with the type of weather we get here in Sturgis, when it rains it’s a major advantage to simply throw a tarpaulin over a rack of amps than climb the array and cover the [integrated] amplifiers.”
Comments from visiting sound engineers during the Buffalo Chip’s Sturgis Rally were enthusiastic. “The high-end from the VLX3 line array was very accurate,” says Greg Price, who mixed FOH for ZZ Top. “And I never ran out of headroom.”
”I was extremely happy with the new Renkus-Heinz VLX3 systems, which offered outstanding vocal clarity,” comments Randy Meullier, who handled FOH for Alice Cooper. “Our audience know Alice’s lyrics very well; we had no trouble putting the vocals where we wanted them.”
“Being an old-school guitar band, Foghat needs a lot of mid-range presence to relay that sound of wide-open Marshalls,” says Carl Devino, was mixed FOH for the band. “I've always been a big fan of Renkus-Heinz’ horns; they are accurate and very smooth sounding. We had a hectic day [at Sturgis] with little time to set up the system. The PA rig was real smooth even with no adjustments. We were very happy with the experience.”
A total of 24 VLX3 cabinets were arrayed 12 left and 12 right of the stage, with four self-powered STLA/9 cabinets per side for left and left outfills, three PN102 cabinets for front-fills and two PN102s to cover a special VIP Area.
“VLX3 is acoustically the same as the STXLA/9, but now features an updated compression driver with a titanium-nitrite diaphragm; the pair of 12-inch drivers now feature neodymium rather than ceramic magnets for lighter weight and easier transport.” The three-way VLX3 cabinets also feature Renkus-Heinz’ co-entrant technology for the mid/high components.
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