Singer, songwriter and musician Paul Weller is back on the road in support of his latest album, Saturn’s Pattern, with monitor engineer Samuel Manigley utilizing a Harman Soundcraft Vi6 digital console supplied by SSE Hire.
Weller’s current touring band is comprised of six musicians in total (including Weller), with a second drum kit having been added to the instrumentation in January.
“Paul Weller’s concerts are sensational, and he has such a varied back catalog of songs, from great guitar tracks like ‘Peacock Suit’ to beautiful piano-driven tunes like ‘You Do Something to Me’,” Manigley notes.
Along with the Vi6, Manigley has a 64-channel Soundcraft Vi Stagebox, plus a Compact Stagebox for additional inputs. “It’s 64 inputs just from the band on stage so we needed some extra room and the Stageboxes have worked out great,” he says.
Manigley became familiar with the Vi Series consoles last year while mixing monitors for Courtney Love’s academy tour, citing features such as the Vistonics II control interface and FaderGlow fader illumination technology.
“We used in-house consoles everywhere we played and a lot of these academies had Vi4 or Vi6 desks,” Manigley adds. “The ease of use with those desks is incredible and the way they’re laid out, you see exactly what you need right in front of you. So I pushed hard for us to get a Vi6 for this tour.”
“The Vi consoles give you everything you need in a digital desk, but they also hold massive analog principle—everything is in a linear format and very intuitive,” he concludes. “I’m hoping to be able to use a Vi3000 later this year and as much as I love the Vi6, I know the (new) Vi3000 will be even better.”