It’s a huge surprise. The Art Nouveau charm is all that remains of this historical home of the French cancan, boxing, theatre, operetta and striptease, and which later on saw a parade of international music stars welcomed in the heart of the capital for memorable shows.
Some of those shows are unforgettable for the people living nearby, as well, because SPL “has its reasons of which reason knows nothing”.
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The auditorium viewed from the stage with the FoH on the floor, a slightly elevated bar and, above it, the famous VIP balcony, with its wrought-iron banisters and railings. At the far left of the balcony, we can guess, is the hazer – not very discreet because of the fan, but the location is optimal.
From left to right: Joe Addington, one of the two general managers (together with Sylvain Gilbert, not pictured), Julien Depardieu, Christelle Gioanni and Abel Nahmias.
The two owners, Julien Labrousse and Abel Nahmias, who already owned the adjacent Trianon, have razed everything to the ground and poured in two and a half years of work and 8 million euros to rebuild to current standards a genuine concert hall with VIP balcony and elevated bar, and a standing capacity of 1390 plus another 200, once an additional emergency exit has been completed. It’s an awesome rock venue and an elegant one at the same time.
Our visit was guided with great enthusiasm (under the sign of Ableton on the day of our visit…) by Cristelle Gioanni, the venue’s Operations Manager, by Abel Nahmias, co-owner, and Julien Depardieu, who is responsible for the audio. A big thanks to all three of them for their hospitality and their time.
SLU : Why was it necessary to rebuild everything after the fire in 2011?
The old structure during the demolition. Behind the crane is the location of its future stage and, farther behind and perpendicularly oriented, the Trianon.
Abel Nahmias : The steel structure had been heated and was no longer sound; it was necessary to redo everything.
We therefore adopted the artistic standards of the epoch, but not necessarily in the same way, because the room has evolved quite a bit during its existence and rebuilding it in the same way would have made no sense. We have prioritized durability, solidity and soundproofing, which means that the visible structure is now practically a decoration. There is still load-bearing metal left, but it is integrated into the walls.
The new structure being constructed, the blackened walls having been the subject of extensive shoring during the renovation.
SLU : Does the soundproofing allow full concert operations?
Abel Nahmias : Yes, absolutely. Our acoustic panels are 80 cm thick. Sound leaks are a thing of the past.
Everything was razed to the ground, excavated to allow for a movable stage and rebuilt like new. The Élysée Montmartre is a three-year-old venue with a 210-year history!
A cross-sectional view of the staircase and foyer.
We also used this opportunity to exchange some floor space on the ground floor for some on the first floor with the corner shopkeeper. On the first floor we now have a room with windows overlooking Boulevard de Rochechouart.
The well-known staircase that gives access to the room from the street has also been widened, made less steep by adding a landing in the middle, and covered with the same wood that adorns the room. It’s not scary anymore (laughs!).
The room is far from being finished: now the ballet of the systems begins. The subs are positioned in front of the stage, whereas today they are “hung” under the stage and appear when it is raised.
SLU : The venue is rented fully equipped. How did you choose the system?
Abel Nahmias : This choice was one of the starting points. It was selected between many brands and after listening to them. It is important to note that we are already using d&b at the Trianon and we are very happy with it.
As the V was the winner of this listening comparison, we equipped ourselves with it and then started the tedious phase of improving the sound quality in the room, in particular by treating the walls.
SLU : You sort of worked in reverse…
Abel Nahmias : In a way. We started without having finished all the acoustic studies.
We received recommendations and we followed them during the construction phase, but not so much in terms of treating the room and the pit, which meant that we had a learning curve and adaptation that lasted two years (smiles).
The stage-left V array, 6 x V8 and 2 x V12. You can see a second hoist motor in the background, which was used for inconclusive tests of flown subs.
The room has been specifically treated with panels that blend in well with the decor and have significantly improved the sound. The stage is on lifts and has three levels designed to store the seats of the room. It was also treated with rockwool, suspended as a bass trap to reduce the resonance.
Cristelle Gioanni : We didn’t have the seats at first, and that made the pit very resonant.
Abel Nahmias : The telescopic stage is very convenient and speeds up the load-in and build process, but in a room the size of ours, it is not ideal from an acoustic point of view unless you treat the empty volume below it.
SLU : Has the system been moved?
Julien Depardieu : It certainly has! Initially it was flown from the outermost I-beams and it was too open. Other beams were welded in to bring it closer to the center and it was also lowered. At the same time, we finished installing the acoustic absorbers, which reduced the RT to an average of 1.3 s where it had originally been almost 3 s.
The ceiling panels were also modified and divided into four staggered elements, two of which were centered at 500 Hz – the resonant frequency of the room – before they were made to appear uniform with fabric. The other panels on the walls offer full-range damping. After having reduced the reverb time, the system was again refocused to improve the image on the floor and to reduce the excitement of the rosette on the balcony.
Currently, the top enclosure is licking the feet of the VIPs (laughs), but we are planning to bring in a pair of Y10Ps to liven up this balcony a little. We do get some sound, but the idea is to redefine it a little.
A view of the room and the acoustic paneling that follows the shape of the moldings of the walls and ceiling.
Abel Nahmias : When rebuilding the hall, we wanted to have the versatility of the Trianon, where the seating comes out of the floor. The acoustical engineer who worked on the Elysée did his analysis with seats that never existed because we made the choice to have everyone standing. The second reason for which we took time to optimize the acoustics was that we wanted to have patina on the walls like at Les Bouffes du Nord and this aesthetic choice hampered the treatment that, by definition, is applied to the walls.
A cable trench in the floor is revealed under trapdoors. This connects the FoH location to the monitor location and, on the left, to the technical room/power distribution.
SLU : With all this done, the hall seems to be in good shape. The system is on hoists, so is it possible for a production to bring its own PA?
Julien Depardieu : The motors are still there because we are looking for the ideal position and height – and it also makes maintenance easier – but we could actually just rig it on slings.
Cristelle Gioanni : We do our best to avoid changes, which are rarely requested of us and which we reject.
Julien Depardieu : Yesterday a band arrived with its own PA. When the sound team got in and saw what we had, they left their system on the truck (laughs).
SLU : So the venue enables operation in accordance with the standards of the new 2017 decree: Leq 102 dB(A) and 118 dB(C) at 15 minutes?
Cristelle Gioanni : Absolutely: we no longer have any sound leakage and of course our system is perfectly capable of meeting these sound specifications.
In the technical room, below the d&b amplifier rack, we find the core of the AMIX SNA50-3R measurement, limitation and level recording system.
Abel Nahmias : We may have struggled a little bit between decor and acoustics, but as far as the isolation of the room is concerned, we set the bar very high from the beginning. The era of 95 dBA is a thing of the past. There are no limitations during the day or at night.
Julien Depardieu : We invested in a pair of SL-Subs to supplement the V-Subs and repeated measurements of sound leaks to the outside that turned out to be negative.
It is isolated even in the infra-bass band. Nothing leaks out of the room, nor from room to room, since the two are connected and, if we wanted to go even further, we could do so because the openings between the rooms are not especially sonorous.
SLU : Are you measuring just the system?
Julien Depardieu : Oh no, I add the sides and the eight wedges Even using just a CD, it adds a lot of pressure and it more closely reflects the operational reality of the venue.
Sound choices
The amplifiers for the main and sub systems, D80 and a D20.
SLU : Let’s talk a little bit about technology, starting with sound.
Julien Depardieu : The system is the d&b V Series with eight heads per side: 6 x V8 plus 2 x V12. The two V12s are low enough to dispense with lip-fills. The subs are of two types: 12 V-Subs configured 2 x 6, plus two SL-Subs at the ends provide a typical bass reinforcement for electronic music.
The system is processed using Array Processing. The in-fills, or lip-fills if you play with crashes, are 2 x Y10P. The monitors include twelve Max2 wedges, a B6 subwoofer for drummers and the sides/DJ monitors are 4 x V-Sub and 2 x V7P.
The amplification of the system is located in our technical/distro room, along with the stage racks, dimmers and various patch bays.
We can provide two Midas Pro2 consoles with two DL431s and, for each console, one DL155 with 8 ins and 8 outs for the FoH and one DL151 with 24 outputs for the monitors. The monitor amps are in a mobile rack near the console.
The stage in the process of being set up. The mother grid and a truss are lowered. You can see the main system and the two sides made up of V-Sub and V7P. The black part of the floor corresponds to the retractable area of the stage.
SLU : The DL431s are ideal house equipment, even for possible recording…
Julien Depardieu : These are great products. We have a shared stagebox, but with true separate gains because at the heart of this stagebox there are three preamps behind each input socket. Another advantage is that we only have to do a line check from FoH or monitor world. If it works for one, it will naturally work for the other.
The two DL431s: English sound as well as a Swiss army knife – nothing European, but probably the best way to share very good sound between the front-of-house, the stage and a third freeloader, who is usually in a big van.
SLU : Not a lot of effects, then?
Julien Depardieu : No, the vast majority of artists arrive with complete racks, but we do have enough microphones to be able to mic up two complete bands. These are standard kits, and we keep lots of DI boxes, because we are asked for them quite often. On the other hand, we do not have any radio systems, those go into the extras when we are asked for them.
SLU : What about the settings of the Array Processing?
Julien Depardieu : Very light. The response curve is smoothed and this improves the low-midrange and adds uniformity in the output. When we provide a shoot analysis of the room it is, however, without AP, and we also have a preset where it is disabled for technicians who ask us, at the same time keeping the subs in phase. We can thus compare with and without but, objectively, no one has ever asked us to bypass the AP. We also have three presets that compensate for small temperature and humidity differences but which are minimal, as the air conditioning is very efficient.
The AP is flat but not only, the SPL is held within a 6 dB envelope between the front and back of the room.
The rack on the stage dedicated to connections and routing between FoH, stage and the technical room.
SLU : How many lines do you have running to the system?
Julien Depardieu : We have 24 AES pairs that go from the FoH to the monitor position through the technical room. So I can separate the left/right, subs, front-fills and, if necessary – and when it is up and running – the balcony delay. The AES lines allow the intercom to pass through with the returns. Finally, because it happens in some events, we can mix the FoH from the stage.
SLU : You also run RJ45?
Julien Depardieu : Yes, of course. There are two networks that go to the stageboxes, two for the stage and one last line to the amps for the R1. For any further requirements, we have a cable trench that crosses the room and is accessible through hatches in the floor. As a last resort we have a snake with 48 analog pairs (laughs)… it has been used twice!
SLU : 30 meters long… it still works ;0)
Julien Depardieu : It’s important to have it when welcoming a band. Once we had an analog console, while the other time the sound engineer wanted to place his stageboxes at FoH…
SLU : And for the monitors?
It might be the effect of the elevator, but the spirits are high!
Julien Depardieu : Our moving stage is well equipped: we have bypasses between two hatches that bring in power, 48 microphone lines, four monitor lines in two points (all our wedges are passive), and two NL4 lines, mainly for the sides.
At stage-left, the loading area is also on elevators. This makes it easier to clear the stage and stow cases, by rolling them directly from the stage, since it rises, if necessary, to the same height.
Another new feature of the new Élysée Montmartre is a freight elevator that connects with the Boulevard de Rochechouart and a 20 meter parking bay in front of the entrance to accommodate trucks or buses.
This makes life a lot easier, especially since the Trianon has no freight elevators, so the rear access that connects the two rooms is vital to them. Before that, it caused traffic jams!
Under the stage: subs and endless screws…
We descend into the space under the stage to admire the solutions that have been implemented to absorb as much energy as possible, and to get a breathtaking view of the subs and screws. Particularly the endless screws, the subs are mounted high and are difficult to access.
The metal frame in which a sort of freight elevator slides. The top of the frame forms the stage and below it are two levels, one supporting the subs and the second one filled with absorber panels above and below.
SLU : How do you combine the different types of subs?
Julien Depardieu : In Array Calc it is possible to simulate first a sub arc, which we have here, but also in combination with different models of subs and check immediately for possible interferences. We started by aligning the twelve V-Subs in an arc and quickly we switched to 6 x 2 by stacking them. We gain in front, in the back and with quite a bit of impact. We were at 0 with the system, and since then we’ve been at -6 dB.
The SL-GSub at stage left mounted on one side, which corresponds approximately to two stacked V-Subs. The wood above it is none other than the floor of the stage.
We still lacked a little energy in the infra range to meet the demands of modern music, because the V-Sub cuts off around 40 Hz. It generates a lot of energy between 60 Hz and 80 Hz, but we lose some of it because of the pit, so we added the two SL-Subs. This solved the problem and also lengthened the arc.
SLU : What is the spacing between the stacks?
Julien Depardieu : The acoustic centers are spaced 1.60 m apart to maintain as much control as possible around 100 Hz. We did a lot of tests with Pierrot (Pierre Scalco, d&b audiotechnik France), including putting the subs on the outside and flying them, but this is how we get the best results. The Arc opens at 65° but I have a second preset available at 80° to reduce the hot spot a little bit at the FoH position and avoid provoking excessive desire to correct it.
SLU : Did the absorbers improve the bass performance?
Julien Depardieu : Yes, even if it’s difficult to quantify, because the height of the stage changes at the request of each production, and a sub, even a cardioid, also radiates above and below… and we have 14 of two different types. But it’s gotten better!
A view of the mixed array of subs with the very nice infra “tongue” at 40 Hz and the equally nice distribution at 80 Hz.
Getting back to the FoH: “Moldings, parquet flooring, mantelpiece”
SLU : With the subs “flown” under the moving stage, what do you do those few times that you work with the stage flush on the floor?
Julien Depardieu : That’s very rare. I use the four V-Subs that we have for the sides. And it lacks a bit of bass.(laughs)
SLU : Where are the cross-over points between the heads and subs?
The current equalization of the main system. We say “current” because, by definition, this can change. This corresponds to a concert-level operation.
Julien Depardieu : The Vs are full-range. The V-Subs are cut at 100 Hz and the SL-Subs are in Infra mode. We have attenuated somewhat around the cross-over frequency between the heads and subs and worked quite a bit around the 500 Hz and 560 Hz to eliminate what was still bothersome, despite the effective work of the panels, but we leave it to the discretion of the sound engineers that come for the rest of the spectrum. In our opinion, the system works well this way. The measurement microphone doesn’t do everything, it has to please your ears, too.
SLU : How much access do you give to the one-shot technicians?
Julien Depardieu : Total. The system is open and we are here to help them. I have seen some strange corrections being made because the level was not taken into account. What can be pleasant at 85 dB is no longer pleasant at 100 dB, and we are here to explain that to engineers who don’t know the room. We were recently asked to change the SL-Sub to 0 dB, but when the room was full we went back to -3 dB, which we believe is the right ratio.
The official measurement microphone placed inside an arch in order to provide readings close to reality without being overly influenced by the audience. An offset adds a few dB, making it difficult to find a place in the room where you can obtain a higher pressure from the system. An offset could be a little too prudent.
SLU : Do you have a sound level meter with recording feature?
Julien Depardieu : Yes, and we are very careful to ensure that the 102/118 dB Leq at 15 minutes standard is respected. In a room like ours and with a modern and well-calibrated system, it’s more than enough.
The 3 dB less is no problem, especially since the 15-minute integration offers a lot of flexibility. You just have to learn to work differently. That being said, the measuring equipment would also have to store an output from the console in order to be able to discriminate between the pressure measured at the system and, for example, in the audience.
I don’t like pictures. Oh yes, you do, you’ll see…
SLU : How did you get into the sound team at the Elysée?
Julien Depardieu : I don’t come from very far away: from the Trianon! When Gregory Bertrand launched the project, as he did with the Trianon, he involved me in the installation and then the operation to manage the teams and equipment.
I also tour quite a lot, except this year, when I’ve been dedicating myself more to the Elysée. In all, there are six of us involved in the audio, but we worked a little more with Yann Lemetre and the d&b teams to finalize the layout of the room and the system settings.
That said, we rotate and alternate in turns between assistance, FoH and monitors. This ensures that we are up to date with the changes that have taken place in the room and that we have a full understanding of each position.
Julien, on the right, with the sound engineer for Tété on the road with his Yamaha console, his effects rack and his stage rack. The house Midas is in place in case of need and receives an AES output from the Yamaha.
We leave Julien in the hands of the team of Tété, who will be performing the evening of our visit, an opportunity to appreciate the courtesy, availability and competence of the lighting, sound and management teams at the Élysée Montmartre.
They work quickly, efficiently and with a smile. That same evening, we witnessed part of his show, unfortunately compromised by a recalcitrant pedal on his guitar and a tangle of cables, causing Tété to lose contact with his audience. The little we got to hear breathed quality, while the coverage of both the heads and subs is wide and consistent.
Tété in the middle of the show in front of his audience.
We came back a few days later for a very DJ-driven Craig David show, to catch a load of German bass in our bellies. Mission accomplished. The V fits like a glove to this room and, despite the absence of the two SL- Subs that departed in the wait for the “official” pair to be delivered in mid-June, the pressure and the impact in the low frequencies left little to criticize.
An uncalibrated measurement from which one should only consider the tendency. There is plenty under the stage despite the fact that the 12 V-Subs were not being assisted by the two GL-Subs on the day we were there.
There is energy to spare, as well as the famous bass that makes your pants vibrate with synth notes between 40 Hz and 65 Hz, right in the area where the V-Sub strolls along, fit as a German fiddle.
This is also a positive testament to the calibration and mechanical deployment of the system. The punch is practically omnipresent and you have to get really close to the stage to get out of the coverage of the V and V-Subs; everywhere else the pressure is very consistent.
The room is clean and the headroom is more than generous when you look at this measurement, taken on the fly during a song, admittedly, it’s particularly busy.
Craig David during his “set”, alone with an Ableton setup disguised as a DJ deck.
Élysée Montmartre has now returned to dance and offers a professional space at the foot of the Montmartre hill, equipped down to the smallest details and loaded with charm. 1400 standing capacity – that’s 2800 ears and delighted eyes just a few meters from the artists and the bars. It’s a refreshing change from the big black venues….
Further information can be found at the following links:
A list of artists (amongst many others) who played this venue over the past decades :
David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, White stripes,Red Hot Chili Peppers,Dead Can Dance, Mark Ronson, Arctic Monkeys, Fela Kuti,Rachid Taha, Public Enemy, Suprême NTM,Wu Tang Clan, Missy Elliott, Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, 2 Many Dj’s, James Holden, Ramones,Iron Maiden,Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Fela Kuti, Rachid Taha, Daft Punk, 2 Many Dj’s, Craig David, James Holden…
The team
Owners – Managers: Abel Nahmias – Julien Labrousse
Sound team: Julien Depardieu, Yann Lemetre
General Management Team: Joe Addington, Sylvain Gilbert
Director of Operations: Cristelle Gioanni
Technical Manager: Jerome Colautti
Sound Manager: Julien Depardieu
Lighting Manager: Stéphane Sarlat
