Travis front of house engineer Jon Lewis notes that the Allen & Heath dLive S Class digital mixing system has become his mixer of choice following several months of extensive touring by the Scottish rock band.
Travis embarked on a European tour in May 2016 to promote its new album, Everything At Once. The tour was followed by dates on the worldwide festival circuit, finishing in December with a run of arena gigs back in the UK.
“I was very excited about getting to take the dLive out on tour,” explains Lewis. “The first thing I noticed about the dLive is the quality of the pre-amps. Travis use a lot of acoustic guitars throughout the set, both 6-string and 12-string, and with the dLive preamps the amount of detail and warmth you get is incredible. It really allows you to push certain instruments in a mix that you couldn’t do with a lesser quality preamp.”
Lewis specified a S7000 surface with DM48 MixRack, supplied by PA company SSE for the UK and European tour dates, and hiring dLive from various companies on Allen & Heath’s worldwide rental network for the festival and LATAM dates.
“The surface is also so easy to navigate. The Travis show is extremely dynamic, and I need to be able to move a lot of faders along with gate thresholds, etc., as quickly as possible,” Lewis adds. “The dLive allows me to do this, especially the custom assignable rotaries next to the processing screen. The onboard dynamic EQ is also fantastic, and really allows you to get a vocal right up there in the mix while not sounding too harsh.
“As a touring console the dLive is my ‘go to’ weapon,” he concludes. “It’s so flexible, sounds great and you’re able to get excellent results very quickly.”
