Despacio: The 50,000-watt sound system

[Cupe]

"With most gigs, people are turned toward the DJs looking at what you are doing. It becomes a performance," explains 2ManyDJs' David Dewaele. "With Despacio, the sound is the star. In Manchester, people didn't want to take pictures with the DJs, but with the stacks."

The stacks in question are the seven 3.5-meter-tall speaker stacks that make up a monster, 50,000-watt sound system called Despacio. It was designed by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, along with legendary audio engineer John Klett and mashup masters 2ManyDJs (David and his brother Stephen Dewaele). After two years of development, Despacio made its debut over three nights in Manchester's New Century Hall in July. In December, the team is bringing the ten-tonne system to London's Hammersmith Town Hall.

The idea for Despacio—which means slow in Spanish—was initially to create a night in Ibiza with a beautiful sound system, where DJs could play the sort of music they don't normally have the opportunity to play. And everything had to be vinyl.

"We wanted to take records and slow them down, taking 45s and playing them at 33. It gives another quality to music; it's swampy and sexy," Dewaele says, adding that it was in line with the New Beatmusic trend that emerged in Belgium in the 80s. They wanted to showcase an eclectic mix of music, combining new wave, pop, and flamenco that would embody the "true" Balearic spirit.

Meanwhile, Murphy had been bouncing ideas off John Klett. Klett had been friends with Murphy since the mid-90s and had helped to build the studio for Murphy's record label, DFA Records.

The audiophiles had been texting each other about the relative benefits of two different models of Klipsch speakers: the Cornwall versus LaScala. Murphy had sent over the most recent LCD Soundsystem record, which Klett was playing "really loud" through the Cornwalls he had in his kitchen. Murphy wished he had a pair; Klett told him the record would sound better on LaScalas.

This time-shifted geek-out carried on for a few months until Klett received a message from Murphy. He was thinking about building a big stack of speakers, alluding back to the Klipsch conversation. They could search for second-hand kit on eBay which Klett could recondition. Amp-wise, they wanted to use McIntosh, famed for supplying amps to Woodstock and the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound". "McIntosh used to be in a lot of recording studios and they still make the amps in the same way," Klett told Wired.co.uk.

Klett started to sketch out some designs, referencing the sound system installed at New York clubParadise Garage, which operated in the 70s. It was important to use vintage techniques.

All parties involved had a shared appreciation for analogue technology. "We use almost ancient techniques, which would be very strange for a 17-year-old kid who makes techno on a laptop," explains Dewaele, "We might be working for two weeks on a kick-drum. I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in James' studio or ours that is younger than 1984."

"We've all come to terms with fact that 80 percent of the work is in the details, which probably make no difference for anyone else," he adds.

Full story: http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/12 ... diophiles/