American heavy rock band UnderOath, currently on a headlining tour across the U.S. along with opening acts Periphery and Loathe, is being supported by engineer JJ Revell utililzing the Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing platform.
Revell, who has worked with the group since 2019 and also serves as production manager, is delivering mixes on a compact dLive C1500 control surface, with a small-format DM0 MixRack to handle the 128 channels of processing and a GX4816 stagebox. The DM0 connects via the proprietary multichannel gigaACE protocol to a separate DM48 MixRack near the stage, which allows for a more simple digital split with a second C1500 surface handling monitor mixes.
“I love the dLive series,” states Revell, who downsized from a larger S5000 surface he employed on the band’s previous tour. “I like how modular it is and the ability to use any size control surface with any MixRack. It’s just so easy.” The smaller C1500, which fits into a standard 19-inch rackmount case, proves advantageous when UnderOath books fly dates in other continents., he adds. “We’ve done Australia, Europe, and soon South America – it’s great that I can bring my console on the plane with me and have that consistency wherever we go.”
Revell also points to the way dLive handles UnderOath’s style of music. “Obviously the band is pretty heavy, so it’s good to know that I can still get great sound even when I hit the console with a really powerful signal,” adding that he makes full use of the internal channel processing: “Our drummer is one of the vocalists, which creates a lot of issues since you have to pick out the vocals you want without picking up all the surrounding drum sounds. The Source Expander is phenomenal for helping with that and not making the opening and closing of the drum gates audible. It’s great that I don’t have to bring along an external plugin server to get access to that functionality.”
He employs a full palette of effects to emulate the band’s studio recordings. “When I was building the show file, I set up 16 FX buses,” he exlains. “I use chorus, reverb, and saturator for guitars. I also have reverb, chorus and two different delays for vocal channels. Sometimes I’ll add some saturation for the bass as well. Having all of these effects built-in allows me to be creative, and I can use the mixer as an instrument – because I’m performing, too!”
Despite the second console for monitors, the band doesn’t tour with a dedicated monitor engineer for its IEM mixes. “It’s basically set it and forget it,” Revell concludes. “The band members are not picky and we usually get it dialed in before the show so we don’t need to make further adjustments. It makes it really easy for me.”
Following the U.S. UnderOath will fly to Europe for a festival at the end of May.
