British metalcore act Architects recently completed a UK and European tour supporting their latest studio release Holy Hell, accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive system. The tour included some of the band’s largest headline shows to date – finishing off at the SSE Arena in Wembley, London to an audience of 12,500 fans.
‘After touring with a variety of consoles over the last few years, I decided to make the switch to dLive after having them recommended to me by fellow users Ben Hammond and Jared Daly’, says FOH engineer, Jonny Burgan. ‘I am a big fan of how modular the dLive systems are, being able to scale down surface size without sacrificing audio quality and compromising on processing power is something that not enough manufacturers have tried to address, yet Allen & Heath have managed to perfect it.’
Supplied by SSE Audio, the band’s full set-up comprises two dLive S5000 surfaces and two DM64 MixRacks, handling all FOH and monitor duties. Tom Pickett (SSE) comments, ‘I’ve been looking after Jonny and Architects since 2016 and I’ve known Dan Williams (monitor engineer) since working with him on Neck Deep, again starting in 2016. So, to see the two of them come together on the same gig, using the same board was great to be a part of.’
All FOH I/O is managed by a DX32 Expander, fitted with both analogue and digital output cards, which feeds the system inputs via AES with redundant analogue connections also present. ‘Having the ability to use up to 64 instances of Dyn8 has meant that I’ve been able to reduce the amount of processing done outside of the dLive system,’ Burgan says. ‘Plug-ins that I would have needed to use with other systems are now no longer a necessity to mix, allowing me to focus on the show rather than extra outboard.’
Both DM64 MixRacks are fitted with a Dante card used for recording and virtual soundcheck, while the FOH system is further fitted with a Waves 3 card used for a few select plug-ins. ‘Having 16 FX slots built in is a huge bonus, as it’s easy to throw in additional effects when needed without having to reconfigure the whole show file,’ Burgan says. ‘I also love the flexibility of the systems I/O and routing, including its great virtual soundcheck mode.’
‘I chose dLive for its flexibility, I/O count and routing options,’ monitor engineer, Dan Williams adds. ‘I first used dLive as a FOH console on a US tour and absolutely loved its well thought out design and ease of use. When it came to choosing a console for the Architects gig, dLive was the obvious choice.’
The tour also featured a dLive system for the support acts, Beartooth and Polaris. Architects are set to head out to the US and Canada throughout April and May before returning to Europe in time for the coming festival season.
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