With the advancement of stage monitoring technology over the past few years, there has been a groundswell of churches adopting the use of in-ear monitoring (IEM) for their worship teams. As has been touted by the industry, the benefits and uses of IEMs are pretty simplistic in nature. Primarily, they allow for the reduction of stage volume (easing issues leading to feedback and poor house mixes) as well as allowing the tailoring of monitor mixes to the needs of the individual artist. At this point, IEM’s are coming closer and closer to being standard equipment in churches, since they provide answers to issues that were previously difficult to address.
If your worship team feels disconnected from the environment and each other, the Fabrik is very effective in bringing back a more natural feel for what is around you.
However, this is not to say that IEM’s are without their drawbacks. The most common complaint I hear is that users feel disconnected from each other, the audience, and the space itself. It’s almost as if the listening experience is flattened out, removing much of the excitement and closeness that the performers would traditionally share. As you would surmise, removing some of this experience can really impact an artist’s confidence and hinder their ability to fully engage the moment. From an audio perspective, these complaints make sense in that IEM’s effectively collapse a fully immersive audio environment into a simple stereo field where all of the sources are placed on a common plane that runs through your ears. While we have gotten good at adding room mics and putting together ear mixes that help compensate, there really hasn’t been a solid industry-wide approach at making this simple stereo representation feel a bit more natural. A Novel, Personal Approach Klang Technologies, a German company with products distributed in the U.S. by Group One, which also distributes Digico, Avolites and other brands, however, is having a
go at it with a family of products that attempts to address this issue. In a nutshell, Klang applies sophisticated DSP algorithms to incoming audio signals to mimic what those signals would sound like if they had a spatial component that was more complex than just “right” or “left.” In essence, adding a “fore” and “aft” component. As an example, if you are standing on stage and your guitarist is on the backline to the left, the Klang system can process the guitar signal so that it sounds to you like it is behind you and to the left, whereas traditional IEM systems simply place the guitar to your left. Another example would be modifying the audio signals from a set of stereo room mics so that they sound as if they are coming from in front of you, where the congregation is sitting. Note that the orientation is fixed and it will not move around as you turn your head, though Klang has said it is working on an upcoming capability to allow for that.
The experience was more authentic and real-to-life than what a stereo-only representation provides.
For this review we looked at the KLANG:fabrik, the larger and more capable unit Klang offers, which can process up to 16 IEM mixes at a time, based upon configuration. The Fabrik is effectively a DSP unit that acts as a mixer and a signal processor rolled into one. A virtual mixer allows users to mix the levels of various inputs, control their locations “in space,” and do some minor processing, such as equalization. Control of the unit is provided via the freely downloadable KLANG:app, which supports both flavors of mobile platforms (Android & iOS), as well as both Windows and Mac platforms. It should be interesting to note that the app also has a demo mode that allows it to demonstrate the DSP capability directly on your control platform with a supplied track, albeit the effect and control capability is not as robust as with the actual KLANG devices.
Product Specifics
The Fabrik has a multitude of I/O options. All audio inputs are digital, with the choice of Dante, AES67, MADI, or ADAT. Mix outputs can also be the same: Dante, AES67, MADI, or ADAT formats. The unit also has 16 balanced analog outputs, supporting up to eight of the allowable 16 mixes. The unit can also be used as a router since it allows you to forward digital inputs to its digital outputs without doing any of the IEM-based processing. System setup was fairly straightforward, with all of the documentation being online and written in a generally easy to understand manner.
KLANG’s technology goes a long way in bringing back some of the presence & emotion that artists associate with live performances.
However, we recommend reading through it closely because there are some details that can be a bit obscure. I struggled for an hour or two to get things working properly until I found a short section in the manual that alerted me to a Dante setting I had not correctly set. Set up can take a bit of time due to the plentiful connectivity and routing options. Additionally, the unit allows for the naming and coloring of each input, their filter (EQ) settings, and the creation of channel groups as you see fit. Much of this configuration can be done on an individual basis for each of the IEM users.
Thankfully, Klang has done a good job in allowing most of these parameters to be copied across users, saving some of that effort in cases where there is little variance. The app provides users a very simple mixer with level meters, as well as a special page that allows them to specify where to place the audio sources they are listening to. The screen shows the silhouette of a head (viewed from above) and a list of icons that represent the channels feeding your mix. To place the bass “behind” you, you simply grab the bass icon and move it behind the head on the screen. To place the previously discussed guitarist to the backline, you simply grab the icon and move it behind and to the left of the head. To place something dead center in front of you, you grab its icon and move it to the center and in front of the head. It’s a very intuitive control.
Personal Impressions
Plugging into the Fabrik, I was curious as to how well the DSP would be able to convince my brain that I was hearing something larger than just a stereo field. In short, my experience was that the Fabrik provided a sense of space that was much more open and engaging. The experience was more authentic and real-to-life than what a stereo-only representation provides. When turning the DSP on, it was actually pretty amazing how much the soundstage opened up. Placing left and right room mics forward of my position made the room feel even larger. Localization and separation were improved for the individual signals, with the biggest improvement being experienced with a drum kit. Turning on the DSP was like someone picked the kit up and moved it to the rear where I had placed it. Other instruments like bass, etc., were also moved to the areas requested, though not always quite as definitively.
… it was actually pretty amazing how much the soundstage opened up.
Overall, the separation of instruments was very much improved, and though I couldn’t always close my eyes and exactly point to the new location of an instrument (the processing seemed to provide a better effect when placing sources behind as opposed to in front), it was an overall more exciting experience. KLANG’s technology goes a long way in bringing back some of the presence and emotion that artists associate with live performances. The unit was tested with both headphones and custom IEM’s, with the latter providing a more compelling experience. This would seem to make sense since some of the processing involved can be subtle. One thing to note is that the unit, in working its magic, will somewhat change the tonal character of the material in order to simulate its location in space. This will result in some level of interaction with any EQ that you have applied to the signal. The company notes that the changes in tonal characteristics are part of how the brain actually “processes” the audio. Another point to note is that the unit does not have all the traditional audio processing capability (parametric EQ, compression, etc.) that might be used on an IEM system, especially ones that have dedicated monitor consoles with operators. For this type of environment, you will likely need to feed the Fabrik with signals that have been pre-processed further upstream. Overall, this capability is quite effective in opening up the sound stage of a good IEM mix. It provides a much better separation of monitored sources and was very effective in bringing back a more natural feel for what is around you. If you find that your worship team feels disconnected from the environment and each other, check out the Fabrik--it might be exactly what you need.
