Steve Pattison | Ellie Goulding’s “Lights”
Steve Pattison is busy splitting time between mixing monitors for 2010 BRIT Award Critic’s Choice winner Ellie Goulding as well as mixing mains for UK-based Danish pop band Alphabeat, both on Allen & Heath iLive digital consoles.
Goulding opened for John Mayer’s UK shows and is on a run of European festivals this summer.
Pattison also uses an iDR 48 MixRack with an R72 control surface for a half dozen Sennheiser IEMs and a wedge for Goulding’s guitarist, who doubles on bass, and the rest of her band consists of a drummer and keyboard player.
Pattison employs all eight iLive “Rack-Extra” stereo effects, which he points out are “great sounding.”
He adds that he looks at the R72 as a very big mouse, and that since the mix engine resides in the MixRack, the console retains iLive’s 64-by-32 architecture associated with the larger control surfaces.
He supplements the control surface with a wireless touch-screen laptop, which provides the ability to talk to artists on stage during soundcheck while modifying their mixes, and it also allows him to move around the venue during a show rather than being trapped at a
mix position.
Pattison typically patches all of his inputs one-to-one, but adds that anything can go anywhere and color coding input and output channels is visually helpful. He typically uses the R72 with inputs on the left bank of 8 faders and masters on the right bank of 4, but spends most of his time mixing from the Editor software over WiFi.
He adds that in the Editor, he assigns each musician their own fader bank, and instantly brings up their mix by clicking on its tab. In fact, he can even mix without the surface, allowing him to strike the R72 before the last song ends.
Paul “Pab” Boothroyd | Paul McCartney’s “Up and Coming”
Pab Boothroyd has been mixing for Paul McCartney for more than two decades, with another notable mixing credit being a long association with AC/DC. He first used an Avid digital console on McCartney’s fall 2005 “US” tour, and switched to the newer Profile control surface for last year’s “Summer Live” tour.
Boothroyd’s 96-channel Avid Profile is substantially smaller than his previous pair of Midas XL4 consoles and associated outboard gear, reducing the mix position’s footprint. He relies on the Avid Profile stock processing, using minor compression on drums and bass and a Sonnox Oxford’s EQ plug-in for McCartney’s vocal. A Pro Tools HD recording system archives every show as well as offering a virtual soundcheck when needed, though McCartney often provides generous hour-long soundchecks.
McCartney’s set typically consists of 30 songs played, including two 3-song encores, and though most of the set stays intact from one show to the next, inevitably there are a few changes, either last minute or on the fly. “The Profile allows me to save snapshots for the entire set,” Boothroyd says. “Typically I get the set list just before the show begins, so I’m able to pull up each mix as we go and just fine tune it.” Karrie Keyes
Pearl Jam’s | “Backspacer”
Pearl Jam played 11 European festivals over three weeks following eleven U.S. arena shows in May, with Karrie Keys mixing monitors on a Midas PRO6 after recently switching from a Midas Heritage 3000. Almost all 32 outputs of the PRO6 are occupied, as several of the band and tech crew augment their stereo in-ear mixes with a proliferation of various wedges and sidefills.
“I really love that the matrixes are actually just another set of outputs,” she says. “I have the in-ears on the matrixes and my wedges and sidefills on the aux sends.”
Keyes uses the VCAs to control the inputs from each musician, with the POP groups providing quick access to inputs she needs to adjust for each song. Each of the six POP groups loads a predetermined set of channels onto the faders, bringing the channels of interest to the surface at once.
Besides the POP groups, another feature that Keyes favors is the Area B section on the right side that allows her system tech to independently access additional inputs and mixes when there are guest musicians, or a horn or string section.
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