Australian born bass player, Andy The Kid (ATK) has upgrade his equipment with Allen & Heath‘s Qu-Pac digital mixer, for his solo tour to promote his new album Linchpin. It is something he wasn’t able to do when he was a band member of Static-X.
“With Static-X we just didn’t have the budget to send a big monitoring rig to other countries. The weight and size of the equipment made it a huge barrier for us to get overseas. However, now on my solo tour, I will be traveling with my Qu-Pac that allows me to go anywhere on the planet because of how compact it is. It makes a world of difference,” said ATK.
When touring begins ATK doesn’t plan on bringing a bass or guitar rig because he will be running the instruments directly into the Qu-Pac. “The Qu-Pac has made all of these touring opportunities a lot more realistic and affordable. I am really excited about it,” he said.
ATK enjoys many features of the Qu-Pac. Not only did he mention that he likes the compact desk/rack mount format, the 16-mic/line inputs (expandable to 32 via dSNAKE), but he is also pleased with the onboard effects. “Allen & Heath has a really nice stored library of onboard effects. I don’t have to mess with the compression on the bass.”
ATK recommends that other live bands use the Qu-Pac for touring purposes. “It is extremely user-friendly from a consumer’s point of view. You don’t have to have a degree from the Musicians Institute or 50 years of touring experience to be able to operate this digital mixer, that’s huge to me,”
The album, Linchpin, has a rock vibe with pop sensibilities added to the mix. ATK worked on this project with his favourite producers and musicians. He wants the album to be a tribute to his former band mate from Static-X, Wayne Static. “Wayne’s passing last year was a tragedy and it hit everybody really hard. I’m hoping to honour him through this project.”