Peter Gabriel recently completed his first live tour in six years, covering Europe and North America in support his latest album, “i/o,” with both legs carrying Solid State Logic Live mixing consoles, including an L550 Plus at front of house, another L550 Plus for band monitors and an L650 for Gabriel’s monitors, plus a compact SSL SiX to mix his keyboards, all supplied by Britannia Row Productions.
Gabriel has a long-standing association with SSL. His personal production spaces and at Real World Studios in Bath, England — a commercial complex he owns — he has installed several of the company’s large-format studio consoles. And since their introduction, he’s employed SSL Live consoles throughout his tours.
“Interestingly, I was the first person to use the SSL Live desk on his tour,” reports veteran monitor engineer Dee Miller, who has been working with Gabriel since the end of the ‘Growing Up Tour’ in 2003. “I’ve been using the SSL Live desk since its inception. I’m extremely comfortable with it and I find it very easy to navigate,” adding, “It absolutely sounds stunning. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best sounding desk in the world. It’s the only desk I use now.”
Miller, set to mark 40 years on the road in 2024, has spent the last two decades collaborating with Robert Plant. Additionally, he had a long history with Jeff Beck and has worked with artists such as The Who and Diana Ross. On “i/o – The Tour” he typically created 14 stereo in-ear mixes for the nine musicians and crew plus one for any potential musical guests.
Richard Sharratt, who has been Gabriel’s front-of-house engineer since 2010’s “New Blood Tour,” used a variety of consoles before SSL Live was introduced, including with other artists and clients for whom he has worked. “You’re conscious of the differences when you use a different desk and you come back to SSL,” he says. “The SSL Live has just got that lovely warmth, that analog thing. It sounds open and clear and just generally better, and we have more room for everything in the mix. I love the layout of the L550 Plus. You can reach everything easily.”
He used four Bricasti and the internal revebs on the tour: “The internal effects are really good on the SSL. Peter’s vocals are a challenge because they are just so dynamic and because of his style of singing. I use the de-esser and multiband comp, a fair amount of inserted 10- band EQ and also more EQ to just tweak his mic to get more gain before feedback. But none of the compressors are working too hard.”
The tour’s production setup included 128 of MADI recording, Sharratt reports: “Peter insists on recording soundcheck at shows whenever he’s on stage.” Those recordings are a core part of Gabriel’s longtime creative workflow, both on the road and in the studio, where he records every musical idea for potential future compositions, sometimes pulling them from the archives many years later. For his FOH mixing purposes, Sharratt adds, “The band inputs are within the first 96.”
Gabriel’s song presentations range from a solo vocal accompanied by a piano to a full-on band performance with the musicians firing on all cylinders. To handle the transition from one song to the next, Sharratt typically uses a single automation scene snapshot to set his mix up for the next number. “I don’t have scenes within a song but it’s a good starting point. The scene fires MIDI to the Bricastis and changes all the internal effects, EQs and the VCA layout, so I can have different things in front of me for different songs.”
Miller uses the SSL Lives internal processing and scenes in preference to any outboard equipment. “I never use any outboard. Everything internal is fine for me, and I love everything on it. I love the reverbs. I only use a couple of small reverbs for a couple of members of the band, so I don’t need anything outboard. Plus, you’ve got SSL compressors on there. What else do you need? It’s the industry standard in the studio.”
