‘It’s quite magical’: FFA founder Dave Millard on Funktion-One’s Farr Festival performance
Funktion-One systems were used across the Hertfordshire festival.
Dave Millard, founder and owner of Full Fat Audio (FFA) has praised the performance of Funktion-One’s loudspeakers at last month’s Farr Festival.
Located in the Hertfordshire countryside, the electronic music festival saw Funktion-One systems deployed across the site.
Millard has been an intrinsic part of the event since istarted nearly a decade ago. In addition to running FFA, he holds a sizeable stock of Funktion-One loudspeakers, which he pairs with his own amps to create sound systems that are suited to Farr’s bespoke aesthetic. Working with supplier support from Zion Audio, Millard used this Funktion-One/FFA pairing to produce systems for all five of the festival’s stages and spaces.
“I’ve been using Funktion-one since about 2001,” said Millard. “I was using Tony Andrews and John Newsham’s designs when it was Turbosound. It’s just something that appeals to me – it’s something that I get.”
The first of these stages to be encountered by festivalgoers was the House of Dinosaurs. Here comedy, games, yoga and spiritual well being could be practiced and enjoyed, as music was delivered by two Funktion-One Res 2s, a pair of F115 bass enclosures and two BR218 bass reflex speakers. These were powered by FFA-8004 and FFA-10000 amps and controlled by NST Audio D48S matrix processors that feature DSP capability.
Over at the festival’s most experimental stage, Campfire Headphase, a programme curated by Inverted Audio magazine was delivered via eight Funktion-One F1201 loudspeakers – four at the stage and two pairs of delays. Bass came from four BR121 and six BR118 bass reflex speakers. Power was supplied by FFA-8004 and FFA-10000 amps, with NST Audio D48S provided the processing.
DJ Mr G hosted a new stage tucked away in the woods: the Smirnoff sponsored Ma Dahu’s. Four Funktion-One Evo 7EH speakers, six Evo 6SH speakers and 12 F215 Mk2 bass enclosures were joined by 16 of Funktion-One’s ground-breaking new bass enclosure – the F124. PSM318 DJ monitors onstage completed the package, with FFA-8004 and FFA-10000 amps and NST D48S processors ensure a high fidelity audio chain.
Millard said: “Mr G specifically wanted the biggest and baddest bass. The F124s give such depth to the bass – it’s such an abundant sound that’s so immense but not aggressive. The tonality of it is such a pleasure to use and you put it under any other Funktion-One speakers and it just sounds so natural and powerful. It’s quite magical.”
For The Shack, located deep in the site’s woodlands, audio comprised eight Evo 7EH speakers, six F215 Mk2 bass enclosures, 12 BR121 bass reflex speakers, four Evo 6SH and four AX88 for fills, and two PSM318 DJ monitors. Power and control came from FFA-8004 and FFA-10000 amps, alongside NST D48S processing.
At Adventures in Success, a non-stop party that runs from Thursday through to the early hours of Sunday morning, the system comprised four Funktion-One Evo 6EH speakers, four F215 Mk2 bass enclosures, 12 BR121 bass reflex speakers, F101 fills, and a PSM118 with BR118 combo for DJ monitors comprise the audio. FFA-8004 and FFA-10000 amps and NST D48S processing.
Millard added: “By using end fire bass and bass beam width control, we could control the low frequencies successfully without compromising the crowd experience. The use of point source with very precise vertical and horizontal control is all part of our system spec. The bleed between the stages was minimal, which meant they could be enjoyed independently.”
Source: mi-pro.co.uk
