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DENVER, CO (March 13, 2003) -- Church attendance is way up in Denver, Colorado -- but it's not religion that is being practiced, it's dance moves. The Church, one of the city's premier nightspots, recently performed a major upgrade to the sound and lighting systems on all three of its dancefloors, replacing the existing desks with Allen & Heath Xone Series professional club mixers in the process. And just for good measure, sister club Vinyl, located just a block away, also upgraded with the installation of a further three Xone Series mixers.
Tim Hannum of Diavolo Systems in Houston, TX was contracted to perform the refurbishment. Head of sound Mike McCray and club promoter Brad Roulier of Together Productions recommended that the existing mixers at both venues be replaced with Allen & Heath equipment. Hannum says he had no argument with that request: "I use Allen & Heath mixers in pretty much all my installs. It's my board of choice."
The Church features an impressive main dancefloor that still retains many of the features of the 100-year-old former house of worship, including stone walls, high arched ceilings, and stained glass windows. Owned by Regas Christou, the visionary behind a growing empire of family-owned restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, including Vinyl, in a four-block area between Broadway and Lincoln Street in Denver's Capitol Hill district, The Church is a super-club that attracts the world's top DJs. Between them, over the last few years, The Church and Vinyl have featured D:Fuse, Deepsky, Deep Dish, Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold, Richie Hawtin, and Paul van Dyk, to name but a handful.
McCray and the technical crew installed an Allen & Heath Xone:62 mixer in the main room at The Church. The professional club mixer provides six dual stereo channels plus VCF filters and a powerful four-band EQ section that puts it head and shoulders above the competition.
"The fact that the Allen & Heath has the filters on it is a huge benefit. The filters are really clean," enthuses McCray. "The inputs and outputs are really nice, and it's really flexible and fits in with any system that I can imagine. I've been a DJ for 13 years, so I know both sides, mixing and working with the consoles as well as installing them. That was one of the only mixers that I felt comfortable putting in with that system."
McCray continues, "They're phenomenal mixers and exceptionally clean. I can't say enough about their sound quality. That really is their biggest selling point for me. The guys obviously put a lot of time and effort into designing them and building them. There was a major, noticeable difference when we put the Allen & Heaths in, especially at Vinyl. The sound quality was vastly different and much better sounding."
Hannum comments, "In The Church there are two other rooms with smaller Allen & Heath mixers. One is half dance, half live show, and the other, in the basement, basically plays retro 80s music and progressive." Both rooms feature Allen & Heath Xone:32 mixers, smaller desks that support three dual stereo channels, with a tap-programmable low frequency oscillator and VCF filters with preset store and recall.
Diavolo Systems completely upgraded the sound system at The Church. "We gutted the original three-year-old system and, with Denver's audio guru Mike McCray, designed a custom, four-corner speaker stack system using a four-way JBL AE Line system, which is very dance-specific," reports Hannum The system also incorporates large subwoofers and is controlled by a BSS ProSys PS-8810 system processor. "To top it all off, we wanted the cleanest possible signal, which meant using Allen & Heath mixers."
At Vinyl, he continues, "They have three main dancefloors, with three levels of dancing, and they're building a fourth. Every floor is totally different and each floor is fairly big. It holds a couple of thousand people." Two Allen & Heath Xone:62 mixers and a Xone:32 were installed in the upgrade.
"The Xone:62 made a difference that you could definitely notice," observes promoter Roulier of the upgrade in Vinyl's main room. "Downstairs we have a pretty big system, almost the same system as on the main floor, and we do drum 'n' bass there. It really made a nice difference there, too."
Roulier reveals that Allen & Heath's top of the line Xone:V6 rotary club mixer, which features tube preamplifiers, may be joining the roster of desks at the clubs. "We just had Paul van Dyk here last week. He really likes rotary mixers. I want to get my hands on a V6, in case we have someone like Carl Cox or Paul van Dyk again."
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