Italy - Founded in the early 80s, Elio e Le Storie Tese (which translates roughly to "Elio and the Tense Situations") is an Italian pop/rock band that evolved from the underground Zappa-esque "Rock demenziale" scene of the late 70s.
Their music is a blend of different genres, where cheeky and often insolent lyrics contrast sharply with complex musical arrangements: Elio e le Storie Tese are widely considered to be amongst the best musicians in Italy.
Claudio Scavazza is the P.A. technician on Elio's latest tour, Enlarge . . ..
Claudio has been working with Elio and the audio rental company Sonique - who provide the systems for the tour - for many years. During this time he has witnessed the evolution of Sonique's JBL Vertec system which was recently beefed up with the addition of Powersoft K Series amplifiers.
"Up until recently the system was powered by 20 amplifiers, distributed over 6 rack cases, weighing a total of 616 Kg (1358 lbs). Now that Sonique has switched over to Powersoft, the whole system can be driven with only 10 amplifiers comprised of six K10 DSP+AESOP and four K3 DSP+AESOP - in a total of 2 rack cases weighing only 104 Kg (229 Lbs). We are enthusiastic to say the least. The system is now more powerful, more defined, more compact and 83% lighter."
"All of the amplifiers feature the onboard DSP," Claudio continues, "allowing us to process the whole system with Powersoft's Armonia software. Using presets developed by Mario Di Cola from Audio Lab Systems, I can say without a doubt that I've never heard a Vertec system sound this good."
"As well as a marked improvement in the sound quality, the power consumption has been dramatically reduced," he concludes. "For this tour, this means fewer cables and smaller power boxes, however I have worked with Sonique on some permanent installations where reduced electricity bills are a lot more noticeable and appreciated."
"The introduction of Powersoft amplifiers made the system smaller, lighter and it made the JBL speakers sound great. The noticeable increased sonic performance went alongside a decreased energy consumption. It really seems that despite the name of the tour, shrinking is the way to go!"
