WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA — Arguably the planet’s most iconic live rock music venue, the Whisky a Go Go in North Hollywood, CA opened in 1964 and was the launching pad for bands such as The Doors, The Byrds, Steppenwolf, Van Halen, No Doubt and many others. Even Led Zeppelin made its U.S. debut there. These days, The Whisky is no less influential, with established artists like Kiss, Mötley Crüe and Slash kicking off world tours by first playing to intimate audiences at the club.
Now with a newly installed P.A. from RCF, the Whisky reasserts itself as the world’s preeminent rock club. Its previous system was both outdated and created sightline issues. “The old system hung very low, and if you were upstairs, you literally lost two sides of the stage,” explains RCF’s Tarik Solangi. “It really killed the sightlines.”
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The solution came in the form of RCF’s HDL 30-A active line array modules, a compact bi-amped system designed for medium-to-large venues. “The 30-A is such a great, musical, rock and roll box,” Solangi notes, “and with a minimal number of boxes per side, we’d really be able to increase the sightlines.”
The Whisky’s senior engineer Eddie Oertell, who has been with the club on-and-off for more than 30 years, felt the HDL 30-A’s low profile was a big selling point. “Anywhere in the club, you can see the stage now,” he concurs, “and everyone is excited about that.”
Ryan Ainsworth, who’s been engineering at The Whisky for the past six years, was impressed by the HDL 30-As, both with the improved sightlines, but also due to their sonic properties. “We had a monstrous point-source system that took up a ton of space and ruined the intimate experience of the club,” he explains. “The little HDL 30-A boxes directly compete with the much larger previous system. That most surprised me —those HDL 30-As put out massive sound.”
Oertell, Ainsworth and Leonard Contreras shuffle mixing responsibilities at The Whisky with their bread-and-butter road gigs. Oertell is mostly with GWAR, but also mixes FOH for Slipknot, Anthrax, Ronnie Spector and POD. Ainsworth handles FOH for Butcher Babies and occasionally fills in for Oertell with GWAR. Contreras has served as FOH/monitors engineer with System of a Down, Slayer, Los Lobos and Stone Sour to name a few. All seemed amazed at Solangi’s ability to quickly assess the venue. “Tarik came down and gave me his opinion on what would be right for the room,” recalls Oertell, “It only took him about ten minutes. His vision for it was unbelievable.”
To clean up the low-end, Solangi suggested placing RCF’s SUB 9006-AS active, high-powered subwoofers under the stage in a cardioid configuration. “This helps take that energy and directs it out into the crowd instead of letting it swell up under the stage,” notes Ainsworth. “Now, the low-end is rounder and fatter,” Oertell added. “I was blown away by the clarity and tightness of the low-end — it’s pretty impressive.”
Solangi and his RCF team worked with the Whisky’s in-house team, as well as RCF’s pro partner Above The Ground Productions on the install, which took one mere day. RCF’s Steven Cochran tuned/aligned the system using network-controlled RDNET software. And given the levels that most bands play at, RCF’s TT45-CXA wedge monitors were added to even out the stage volume. “The monitors are very in your face and punchy and let the musicians hear themselves better on stage without having to crank the volume,” explains Ainsworth.
Oertell notes that with the system installed, the room still sounds like The Whisky. “It’s a good sounding room, especially for rock bands. It has a natural ambience and the RCF solution enhances that.”
Ainsworth says all the engineers coming through the Whisky now are completely blown away. “The room sounds amazing, and that’s what we strive for — to have every engineer that comes through walk away with a good feeling, and it’s all due to RCF.”
For more info, visit www.RCF.it.
