Basswatch at Macadam

Combeuil Audio Recommends the Basswatch Limiter

Founded in 2013, Combeuil Audio, based in Nantes, has made a name for itself in the sound equipment rental business across western France and beyond, providing services for festivals such as Astropolis (Brittany), Days (Nantes), Delta Festival (Marseille), and Electrobeach Music Festival (Le Barcarès). Combeuil Audio also handles sound system installations for new venues, bars, and clubs. “I work particularly with Macadam, an electronic club with a capacity of 500. It has become the go-to club in Nantes,” explains Guillaume Combeuil, manager of Combeuil Audio. “Since there isn’t a full-time sound technician, I visit every two or three weeks to check the sound equipment I’ve installed and carry out maintenance. To maintain consistent sound levels during events, I also installed a Leveliza limiter from RC Audio.”

However, despite the sound level controller, Guillaume noticed bass overloads. “After talking with Chris Hawkes from Solution One, he recommended another limiter, the Basswatch, also from RC Audio. It pairs with the Leveliza. The Basswatch is a low-frequency limiter, especially effective on genres like bass music, dubstep, and modern deep techno. It subtly reduces the bass by one to three decibels without causing any abrupt changes or noticeable dips and peaks. It’s very smooth because the limiter’s response time is quite slow. I’ve had it installed at Macadam for a year now, and it’s always on: it’s an excellent bass limiter for a club.”

Guillaume also appreciates another feature of the RC Audio Basswatch limiter: “It’s a simple, easy-to-use product that can be secured: I can remove the front buttons, so no one can tamper with the settings. This is perfect for a club like Macadam, where I only stop by occasionally. Since it suits me so well, I’m considering purchasing a second Basswatch limiter for smaller events where there isn’t always a sound engineer on hand to monitor each stage.”The Macadam club is located down in Chantenay, an industrial area close to Nantes city centre. From the outdoor, it's a creepy hangar, bursting with techno music, all night long and even days... Created by Androgyne collective, this commercial nightclub was turned into a raw berlinesque club in 2017, becoming one of the best venue in western France for electronic music.