Long-time front of house engineer Rob “R/T” Thomas of R/T Audio, who’s worked in the live sound realm for the past 40 years in delivering mixes for rock and pop groups such as Third Eye Blind, Train, Sia, Weezer and others, has recently toured with both cello-driven Finnish symphonic metal band Apocalyptica and legacy LA rockers W.A.S.P. utilizing Midas HD96 consoles acquired through AVL Media Group and RPM Dynamics.
Thomas began his career working with large-format analog consoles and as such has developed his craft by chasing gear that gives him control over what he calls “the weight” of the mix, explaining, “As an audio engineer I have a love and nostalgia for the analog world — the kind of color and detail that the gear of that era gave you control over. Modern digital consoles give you more options, but the challenge is always finding ones that do that without sacrificing that ‘weight’ in the sound that you can feel in the room.”
Midas consoles have set the tone for his preferred workflow and sound since the beginning of his career, describing them as an “aspirational brand” that engineers like himself were worked their way up to. He began working with the HD96 when it was first announced, which led him to contacting AVL Media Group and Jim Roese of RPM Dynamics. “AVL and Jim have been great megaphones for the Midas platform and very easy to reach and communicate with,” Thomas says. “While other brands were hit by the Covid stall, they were able to provide me with the setup that I started using with Apocalyptica. I was immediately hooked.”
Although both Apocalyptica and W.A.S.P. traffic in heavy music, the sonic requirements are quite different. “With W.A.S.P. you have that classic heavy metal show — massive amplifiers, lots of side fills, a real fun, old school vibe,” Thomas notes. “Apocalyptica offers a more unique challenge in that you are making a trio of cellos sound like a wall of guitars. Those instruments give you much more dynamic range and frequency content which can be difficult to mix properly.”
“Knowing that and knowing the diversity of venues I’m hitting with both, I knew that I needed a setup that could serve all of these needs while still being scalable.” Thomas leased a Midas Control Package from Roese through RPM Dynamics that consisted of a Midas HD96 for front of house, and either a Pro Series [Apocalyptica tour] or M32 [W.A.S.P. tour] for stage monitoring. The flexibility in the monitor console was enhanced via the Midas DL231 mic splitting preamps that allowed each side of the splitter to have true analog gain staging and a 96k sample rate convertible to 48k for each side of the splitter.
“It was a very powerful package that was easy to tour with and easy to teach to people who weren’t familiar with them,” Thomas says. “Everything was perfect right out of the box and it really does make me smile to do mixes like these on a Midas console again.
“Seeing AVL get involved has really helped Midas to get its brand back, and the fact that I’ve barely had to call them for service since I’ve started using the HD96 speaks volumes to Midas’s quality and consistency,” he concludes. “At the end of the day, Midas is still that trophy brand for a lot of people — myself included. It’s great to see that legacy continue.”
