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Monitor engineer Julian Higareda mixing LÉON on an Allen & Heath dLive C3500 control surface.

Swedish Singer/Songwriter LÉON Tours With Allen & Heath dLive

Front of house engineer Clint Rowland employing a compact CTi1500 surface while monitor engineer Julian Higareda is on a C3500 surface, and both are utilizing CDM MixRacks.


The current concert tour by Swedish singer/songwriter LÉON sees both front of house engineer Clint Rowland and monitor engineer Julian Higareda employing Allen & Heath dLive control surfaces joined by CDM MixRacks.

“I wanted to streamline our setup, and avoid the complications of an analog split,” explains Rowland, who’s setup includes a dLive CTi1500 19-inch rack-mountable control surface along with a CDM32 MixRack for FOH, and he adds that the smaller footprint of the CTi1500 hasn’t been an obstacle in mixing a large-scale tour. “I have all my groups and DCAs on the top layer. If I need to adjust an individual channel, I can always bank down and tweak parameters as needed.”

Next to the stage, Higareda is working with a dLive C3500 surface and a CDM48 Mix Rack, which fed back to Rowland via a digital Dante split. “We used the same Dante network to patch in our wireless mics and for our FOH/Monitor split,” Higareda notes. “Having that Dante versatility and simple integration was a big deal for us on this tour.”

Both point out that the dLive’s DYN8 engine, which includes a multiband compressor and dynamic EQ, came in handy during LÉON’s performances. “It’s just a game-changer,” says Rowland. “Especially with the way LÉON sings – she uses her entire range and she uses it differently from song to song. I used to be constantly adjusting the EQ and dynamics for each song, but the dLive did all that work for me.” All dLive systems can support up to 64 instances of DYN8, inserted on input or mix channels.

For quickly recalling settings, Higareda made use of the fully granular scene controls on dLive. “I loved how easy it was to build scenes and change them so quickly. I didn’t have to dig in to make updates, I could do that in real time with the built-in Update function.”

“We continue to see hip uses of CTi1500 around the world,” says Allen & Heath USA marketing director Jeff Hawley. “In this case Clint and Julian not only designed a system around meeting the basic needs of the tour, but also around the musical needs of the artist. Being able to put dLive to work in taming and enhancing vocal dynamics, achieving an optimal song-to-song mix balance, setting up scenes to consistently manage those changes night after night… really cool.” 

For future tours, Rowland wants to expand on his dLive system with some additional components. “The goal is to dig in deeper and maybe take advantage of some DX or DT stateboxes for additional I/O” he concludes. “This system has made me look like a rock star, and it’s made things more convenient on all fronts. This is how we’re rolling from now on.”

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