Grammy-nominated Australian electronic dance music trio Rüfüs Du Sol recently returned to the road following a 12-month hiatus with two sold-out shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado in preparation for a string of U.S. festival and tour dates later this year, with James Gueness, the band’s longtime monitor engineer, taking the opportunity to reconfigure his setup, replacing a collection of outboard equipment with three Solid State Logic Fusion stereo analog outboard processors driven from an SSL Live L550 digital console.
Gueness, who signed-on with Rüfüs Du Sol at the beginning of 2015 having previously worked for audio rental and installed sound company Audio Technik in Perth, Western Australia, states, “Many digital consoles haven’t really sounded the best. They have nothing to them; they’re vanilla sounding.” As a result, he’s often carried a rack or two of outboard equipment, including plugin platforms, to get the sounds he’s seeking.
Out on tour now, he says, “I don’t use any plugins. Everything I use is on the Live console. So that whole rack of stuff has gone out the window,” apart from a couple of reverb units.
Bringing added flavor to Gueness’s monitor mixes are the Fusion analog processors, one across the Live console’s outputs to each of the three Rüfüs Du Sol band members’ in-ear monitors. The Live L550 console and Fusion processors are being provided by Clair Global’s Eighth Day Sound division.
In the past, Gueness needed a stack of compressors, limiters, de-essers, EQs and source enhancers to achieve the results he wanted on his vocal chains, and now he notes that almost everything he needs is in the Fusion processors. “Just give me a console that sounds good from input to output then I’ll add some things for flavor,” he says. “Those Fusions have been a game-changer for me.”
In particular, he adds, “The Violet EQ sounds awesome.” The two-band EQ adds low-end weight and high-end sheen to any mix bus. Gueness also appreciates the HF Compressor section, which smooths high-end harshness with a tape-like high-frequency roll off. “The HF Compressor really tightens the top end. Then you can squish it down and make it usable,” he says. “Fusion allows me to get back everything that I’ve lost in the summing of the outputs; I get space, depth and width back.”
He had left a source enhancer in his outboard rack for the band’s recent return to live performances at Red Rocks. “But now SSL has put the Sourcer in the plugin list you have so much more control. You can change the speed setting, and the high-pass and low-pass filters are invaluable — it’s not reacting on stuff you don’t want it to react on,” he says. “So the onboard Sourcerer has taken the place of the outboard unit.”
On previous tours he also used to carry four outboard stereo bus compressors for his main in-ear mixes. “Now I’ve gotten rid of those. With the G Compressor onboard the Live console I don’t need outboard compressors.”
The improvement in quality and character was noticeable when he implemented the new monitor setup, Gueness reports. “The band all said, ‘Wow, this sounds really good.’ And I can now hear things in the set that I’ve heard before but that weren’t that apparent. It’s so subtle, too, and nice and easy on the ears. There’s nothing abrasive. None of the processing on the Fusion is aggressive.” But while it may be subtle, he says, it’s very effective — and essential: “If you take it away, you have to put it back.”
The band is sending 64 inputs to front-of-house and monitors. Gueness adds a handful of extra inputs then generates nearly two dozen outputs to the band, technical crew, video, automation and other destinations. “Some of the output side is the most complicated, getting certain things to video and lighting,” he says. “It’s very specific, so I have to tailor my outputs for that.”
Beginning in September, Rüfüs Du Sol will play a series of U.S. festival dates, including Bonnaroo, Governor’s Ball, Austin City Limits and Outside Lands. Then, in November, they embark on a North American Fall tour that includes two more shows at Red Rocks and stops in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Houston.
