Currently between its US and European legs, Australian surf/roots artist Xavier Rudd's Koonyum Sun world tour is maintining its use of an Innovason Eclipse digital mixing console for monitor duties.
The tour takes the UK, North America, Australia and Europe, with the European and US legs of the tour handled by Concert Sound Clair and Clair Brothers – both of which have provided an Eclipse console. When the tour returns to Europe in November, it will use a pair of Eclipses from Concert Sound supplied by Red Square Audio.
‘The first thing to say about Eclipse is that it has proven to be both reliable and stable,’ says Production Manager Simon Skeet, who started off using the Eclipse on monitors before handing over to engineer Lenny Goncharov. ‘From an operational point of view, the flexibility of the control surface and the ability to configure it however you like enables me to mix on a layout that I’m comfortable with, and the smooth encoders and faders are a pleasure to use. Sonically the board sounds very good indeed, and the onboard effects engines are truly impressive.’
Goncharov took over from Skeet on monitors for the US leg found the desk’s recording facility a valuable feature: ‘It is such a timesaver, especially during – or rather prior to – soundchecking,’ he says. ‘With MARS – which is really easy to use, by the way – I can get most of the sound check done before the guys even show up, and when they are here, it’s just a question of fine-tuning. It’s much quicker than a traditional sound check. That makes me happy, and the band even happier. I also love that once programmed, the Eclipse is incredibly fast access, especially for monitors.’
‘I’m looking forward to the new version Nova 2.0 software,’ adds Skeet. ‘The updates and new features will make the console even nicer to use, and more importantly, easy to set up. Hopefully by the time we get back to Europe we’ll get two consoles both running on Nova 2.0 – then we’ll really be cooking with gas!’
More: www.innovason.com
