Today’s concert tours are captivated by the advantages digital consoles offer, and tour production must be lightweight and efficient to take on the current economy.
Though many high-profile tours still fill arenas, a second tier is defined by the capacity of a 53-foot trailer, growing and shrinking to fit each venue by picking up local equipment.
While digital consoles can also be sourced locally and loaded with a file in seconds, tour engineers often prefer to carry their own for the comfort factor.
The use of layers allows control of ever larger channel counts with fewer faders on smaller desks.
Smaller footprints free up more space in the truck for T-shirts and lights, as well as at the mix position for additional patrons or the all-important video director.
Onboard effects and processing keeps the entire mix “in the box,” and this also allows engineers to easily jump to a duplicate desk by just emailing a file when necessary.
Modern digital consoles are easily interfaced with digital recording systems and virtual soundcheck - the ability to play back a previous show’s tracks through the console prior to the band’s arrival - is quickly becoming a favored practice.
The next hot option is likely an iPad app. Here’s a look at digital console applications on some of this summer’s tours.
Tony Luna | Justin Bieber’s “My World”
Teen sensation Justin Bieber has been playing sold-out arenas all year, with Tony Luna mixing monitors on a DiGiCo SD8-24, a 24-fader version of the SD8. Luna uses almost all of the console’s 60 inputs, which can be either stereo or mono.
Like DiGiCo’s other SD consoles, input channels can be configured with a spare input for fast changeovers, while reducing channel count. Multiple channels can also share the same spare mic, whether hard-wired or wireless.
The SD8 has eight channels of 4-band dynamic EQ, which the bigger SD7 console has on every channel. Luna says the dynamic EQ helps with sibilance, but is mostly needed when Bieber gets too close to screaming girls.
Besides the main LCR mix bus, the SD8 has 24 mixes that can be either stereo or mono. Everyone is on stereo IEM except dancers who listen to kick, snare, hat and Bieber’s vocal through the sidefills.
The SD8’s two banks of 12 faders each have four layers and channels can be freely assigned. Luna assigns drums, bass and keys, guitars and vocal inputs to their own layer on the left, but Bieber’s vocal is assigned to every layer so it’s always available. The right bank’s layers are assigned wireless and wired IEM outputs, wedges and effects, plus a separate page for talkback inputs.
Randy Lane “American Idols LIVE! 2010” Randy Lane went directly from the last date of Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood’s “Play On” spring tour to the first show of “American Idols LIVE! 2010” tour, which kicked off July 1 in Detroit. It stops at 34 arenas and 10 sheds across North America.
Lane’s tour credits include James Taylor, Julio Iglesias and Three Doors Down, all mixed on a Yamaha PM5D, and he was the first to take a DSP5D on tour with Dream Theater. The PM5DEX is a PM5D whose inputs are doubled with a 10 rack-space DSP5D to add 48 mono and 4 stereo channels plus 8 more effects engines, without increasing the console’s footprint.
The two layers of the control surface accommodate drums and guitars, and the keyboards and intro tracks, respectively. There are 34 guitars backstage, as most of this year’s finalists were guitarists.
The additional DSP5D inputs accommodate the 10 lead vocals plus backing vocals, with this third layer accessed by a User Defined Key and its effects engines used as 16 VCA modeled “Compressor 260” inserts on vocal channels.
The PM5D’s effects are shared across all the inputs with cascaded auxiliary buses. Lane uses the Rev-X reverb algorithms, with Rev-X Room on drums, a small Rev-X Plate on some vocals and a Rev-X Hall with pre-delay for ballads. An analog-style “Compressor 276” stereo insert is on the drum sub-group.
The PM5D is fitted with MY16 MADI cards, and Lane records 64 channels to Stienberg Nuendo on a Dell laptop via an RME MADIface, clocked with an Apogee Big Ben that allows him to perform a virtual soundcheck.
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Steve Pattison | Ellie Goulding’s “Lights”
Steve Pattison is busy splitting time between mixing monitors for 2010 BRIT Award Critic’s Choice winner Ellie Goulding as well as mixing mains for UK-based Danish pop band Alphabeat, both on Allen & Heath iLive digital consoles.
Goulding opened for John Mayer’s UK shows and is on a run of European festivals this summer.
Pattison also uses an iDR 48 MixRack with an R72 control surface for a half dozen Sennheiser IEMs and a wedge for Goulding’s guitarist, who doubles on bass, and the rest of her band consists of a drummer and keyboard player.
Pattison employs all eight iLive “Rack-Extra” stereo effects, which he points out are “great sounding.”
He adds that he looks at the R72 as a very big mouse, and that since the mix engine resides in the MixRack, the console retains iLive’s 64-by-32 architecture associated with the larger control surfaces.
He supplements the control surface with a wireless touch-screen laptop, which provides the ability to talk to artists on stage during soundcheck while modifying their mixes, and it also allows him to move around the venue during a show rather than being trapped at a
mix position.
Pattison typically patches all of his inputs one-to-one, but adds that anything can go anywhere and color coding input and output channels is visually helpful. He typically uses the R72 with inputs on the left bank of 8 faders and masters on the right bank of 4, but spends most of his time mixing from the Editor software over WiFi.
He adds that in the Editor, he assigns each musician their own fader bank, and instantly brings up their mix by clicking on its tab. In fact, he can even mix without the surface, allowing him to strike the R72 before the last song ends.
Paul “Pab” Boothroyd | Paul McCartney’s “Up and Coming”
Pab Boothroyd has been mixing for Paul McCartney for more than two decades, with another notable mixing credit being a long association with AC/DC. He first used an Avid digital console on McCartney’s fall 2005 “US” tour, and switched to the newer Profile control surface for last year’s “Summer Live” tour.
Boothroyd’s 96-channel Avid Profile is substantially smaller than his previous pair of Midas XL4 consoles and associated outboard gear, reducing the mix position’s footprint. He relies on the Avid Profile stock processing, using minor compression on drums and bass and a Sonnox Oxford’s EQ plug-in for McCartney’s vocal. A Pro Tools HD recording system archives every show as well as offering a virtual soundcheck when needed, though McCartney often provides generous hour-long soundchecks.
McCartney’s set typically consists of 30 songs played, including two 3-song encores, and though most of the set stays intact from one show to the next, inevitably there are a few changes, either last minute or on the fly. “The Profile allows me to save snapshots for the entire set,” Boothroyd says. “Typically I get the set list just before the show begins, so I’m able to pull up each mix as we go and just fine tune it.” Karrie Keyes
Pearl Jam’s | “Backspacer”
Pearl Jam played 11 European festivals over three weeks following eleven U.S. arena shows in May, with Karrie Keys mixing monitors on a Midas PRO6 after recently switching from a Midas Heritage 3000. Almost all 32 outputs of the PRO6 are occupied, as several of the band and tech crew augment their stereo in-ear mixes with a proliferation of various wedges and sidefills.
“I really love that the matrixes are actually just another set of outputs,” she says. “I have the in-ears on the matrixes and my wedges and sidefills on the aux sends.”
Keyes uses the VCAs to control the inputs from each musician, with the POP groups providing quick access to inputs she needs to adjust for each song. Each of the six POP groups loads a predetermined set of channels onto the faders, bringing the channels of interest to the surface at once.
Besides the POP groups, another feature that Keyes favors is the Area B section on the right side that allows her system tech to independently access additional inputs and mixes when there are guest musicians, or a horn or string section.
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Steve Emler | Tesla’s “Forever More”
Steve Emler has been mixing Tesla for 15 years, and this summer, they’re supporting the Scorpions farewell tour as well as playing a mix of festivals, fairs and theatres.
Emler’s InnovaSon Sy48 digital console replaced a 700-pound Crest V12 and a double-wide 22-space outboard rack.
For effects he relies on InnovaSon’s FM-8VB plug-in effects module, which provides 8 mono or stereo quadeffects engines with algorithms from VB-Audio, including reverb, multi-tap delay and chorus.
He easily manages his numerous inputs with the console’s layer-less “SmartFAD” flexible VCA system for managing multiple inputs with minimal faders.
His first six faders are his SmartFader deployment area, with channel one starting on his seventh fader.
A fader can be assigned to control two or more inputs, spilling them into the SmaartFAD zone.
In this way, one fader controls both kick drum inputs, another both snares, a third all six toms and a fourth all four cymbal mics – like VCAs that replace a number of input faders.
Emler records every show on a rackmount PC with an EtherSound card by taking a split from his InnovaSon stage rack. He uses these tracks for a virtual soundcheck, and checks previous recordings on Tannoy nearfield monitors.
These recordings provided the material for Tesla’s recent “Alive in Europe” CD when the tracks were discovered to sound better than the leading multi-track recording solution they were using.
Bryan Farina | New York Voices
Bryan Farina has been mixing the New York Voices for three years, mostly on a Roland M-400 V-Mixer.
The vocal quartet has a performance style most often compared to Manhattan Transfer, with live performance formats varying from being backed by a trio, a big band, or a symphony orchestra for “pops” concerts.
Farina connects a pair of Roland S-1608 stage boxes to his V-Mixer’s two REAC inputs using Cat5 cable, and on symphony shows he frees up stage inputs by locating his wireless mics at the mix position and using the additional XLRs on the back of the console.
He often mixes floor monitors from out front by double assigning vocal inputs to a second set of channels. The console has a custom layer that allows assignment of inputs to faders in any order.
Farina adds that the new version of the firmware allows use of 8-band parametric EQ instead of 31-band graphics on the outputs. For effects on vocal, he enjoys the “Warm Hall” based on Roland’s SRV-2000 reverb unit.
He also uses a phasing effect for a Queen number performed in symphony shows. Farina adds that he’s looking forward to the new M-300 that will let him record WAV files to USB thumb drives and will be small enough to carry as excess baggage on his next European trip.
Robin Billinton | Barenaked Ladies’ “All in Good Time”
Barenaked Ladies played a mix of sheds and theatres this summer, followed by a UK trip in September, with Robin Billinton choosing a Soundcraft Vi6 console as his house console.
Though he wouldn’t have a problem using the Vi4, which is a foot shorter with 8 fewer faders, he says that most sound companies have opted for the larger console.
The Vi6’s right bank of 8 faders can be assigned to any 8 inputs, and Billinton fits the rest of the inputs on the first 24, while switching the right bank between keyboards and vocals.
He started using the Vi6 four years ago after trying other digital consoles and adds that “the Vi6’s ease of use is remarkable compared to other desks.”
For effects Billinton simply relies on the 8 Lexicon multi-effects in the DSP FX card in the Vi6 local rack, which he uses for his reverbs, delays and flanging effects and are easily edited on the Vistonics II screen.
The DSP FX card also provides BSS third-octave graphic EQs for every bus output, and they’re called up to the first 30 faders on the desk with the press of a button.
Steve Law | Keith Urban’s “Summer Lovin”
Steve Law has been with Keith Urban for 24 years, with this year’s “Summer Lovin” tour playing a number of festivals and fairs, plus supporting a few Eagles shows with the Dixie Chicks.
An early adopter, Law mixes Urban with a Studer Vista 5 SR digital mixing console, chosen for its sound quality, ease-of-use and reliability.
“The Vistonics user interface is the best in the industry,” Law states. “There’s nothing worse than hunting through a menu of operations while trying to keep up with the artist.”
“Instead, with the Vista 5 SR, it’s so good to have real knobs right beside each function, which makes the console more hands-on and more tactile,” he explains.
Building on the successes of previous Vista consoles in broadcast and install markets, the Vista 5 SR’s Vistonics control surface - instrumentation that combines screens and controls - is at a steeper angle to improve view-ability when standing in broad daylight.
The Vista SR Series also has more cooling fans, brighter LEDs and employs flash memory instead of hard disks. The Vista 5 SR is offered in a standard configuration of 84 mono and 20 stereo channels.
Mark Frink is Editorial Director of Live Sound International.
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