For 40 years, the global disc jockey and electronic dance music community has flocked to southern Florida for Winter Music Conference (WMC), which now kicks off Miami Music Week (MMW), hoping to catch the latest on rising artists, the best labels, hottest venues, coolest trends, and most innovative tech. This year, the most buzz-worthy contender in that latter category was L-Acoustics DJ, which was seen and heard in action from March 25 to 27 at the Beatport Live pool party series on the Kimpton EPIC Hotel’s rooftop deck overlooking Biscayne Bay.
As the first spatial audio system built specifically for DJs, the new technology uses proprietary machine learning to separate a track’s stems and distribute them across a multi-speaker array, placing individual elements around the venue in real time. The result moves the DJ mix from stereo playback into three-dimensional sound design.
The loudspeaker complement for WMC’s official, three-day pool party series—a label showcase for Mood Child, Rekids, and Hot Creations x Three Six Zero Recordings—featured left and right main arrays each comprised of three L-Acoustics A15, with tight and solid low-end reinforcement delivered by four KS28 subs. Seven pairings of Syva colinear source systems and Syva Low subs served as surrounds, while a quartet of coaxial X12 enclosures plus a pair of SB18 subs provided monitoring for the artists, who were able to spatially mix their sets via an L-Acoustics DJ Controller and control app, all powered by an L-ISA Processor II…