Danish singer-songwriter Mads Langer, well known for his guitar-based ballads, utilized DiGiCo SD11 consoles and Neumann digital microphones during his end-of-year European tour.
Sound company for the tour was Victory Tour Production, a long-term DiGiCo rental house. Victory Tour Productions provided a pair of SD11s and shared SD racks for the tour purchased via DiGiCo’s Danish distributor Soundware. DiGiCo supplied the AES42 interfaces.
“We wanted to use Neumann digital microphones and DiGiCo is one of only two manufacturers who currently offer the right interface, allowing us to have digital audio all the way from the microphone capsules to the loudspeakers,” says Front of House engineer Jacob Navne.
“We were on a very tight budget and I needed something with a small footprint, as we were playing small venues in some of the territories where Mads is still to become a chart artist. I opted for the SD11 as it is incredibly handy and affordable.”
The setup included 27 inputs – 16 from the digital microphones, plus a number of digital AES3 lines. The only analogue feeds were from two acoustic guitars and a ukulele.
“I mixed the show dynamically, going with the songs, the mood of the band and the capabilities of the room,” says Jacob. “We were playing in anything from 300-capacity venues, to some holding over 2000, so the PA and acoustics were very different from day to day. The system was very clear and transparent – they were great-sounding shows, even in small venues.
“It was also very easy to set up, I didn’t have to do a lot of EQ or processing of the channels. I would just turn it up, tweak it a bit and it would sound really good.”
As well as the house sound, Jacob was responsible for the band’s monitor mixes, which the SD11 helped him to do in an innovative way.
“We had no monitor engineer on the tour, so I made a rough mix for every musician at the three day production rehearsal and used the Macro buttons on the SD11 to make a button for every band member with his name on,” he says. “When the button was pressed, the faders would flip to his Aux send. This made it very easy to tweak the monitor mixes and still concentrate on a great FoH sound.
“I like the fact that the most of the things I need to do in a live sound situation are available directly on the control surface with a button or knob and is visible on the large screen area – there is no need to flip through menus or turn a value wheel on a small screen. For this tour the size of the SD11 was perfect!”
