The University Interscholastic League (UIL), which runs The State Mariachi Festival in Texas, hired the live sound experts at Hermes Music of Pharr, Texas, and used Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers, subwoofers, and amplification/DSP for the event.
“The State Mariachi Festival is still in the pilot phase of what UIL hopes to grow into a bigger event, with officially-sanctioned awards to the winning schools,” explained Ed Zamorano, director of educational/governmental sales at Hermes Music. “We’ve worked with the UIL on other projects in the past, and they have always been more than happy with the quality of our service. In a nutshell, we make events look and sound great, with zero hassle for our clients. At the State Mariachi Festival, we provided sound for seventy mariachi groups in two days of competition at Southwest High School in San Antonio. All told, there were over 1,500 people in attendance over the duration.”
Hermes Music used a simple stereo hang of Danley SM-80 full-range loudspeakers, Danley TH-118 subwoofers, and a single four-channel, 20,000-Watt Danley DNA 20k4 Pro amplifier. Zamorano used the amp’s onboard DSP and custom Danley presets to provide the final tweaks. A Midas M32 console completed the system.
“Everyone, and perhaps most importantly, the organizer of the event for UIL, was thrilled with the way the festival sounded,” Zamorano said. “I’ll take some credit, but I also think the Danley gear served as the excellent starting point. Danley’s point-source sound quality is honest and musical. Mariachi has naturally-great sounding instrumentation, so mixing on the Danleys was a lot like mixing on big studio monitors. I had a lot of fun, and the students appreciated the professionalism of the event!”
