Following a 12-month hiatus, electronic dance music trio Rüfüs Du Sol recently returned to the road with two sold-out shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado in preparation for a string of US festival and tour dates later in 2021. James Gueness, the band’s long-time monitor engineer, took the opportunity to reconfigure his set-up, extensive outboard equipment with three Solid State Logic Fusion analogue outboard processors driven from an SSL Live L550 mixing console.

Gueness, who signed-on with the Australian trio in 2015 having previously worked for audio rental and installed sound company Audio Technik in Perth, has strongly-held opinions of digital desks. ‘Many digital consoles haven’t really sounded the best,’ he says. ‘They have nothing to them; they’re vanilla sounding.’

As a result, he has often carried a rack or two of outboard, including plug-in platforms, to get the sounds that he’s needed. But where engineers often have to insert plug-ins on every channel to get the console to sound right, that’s not the case with the SSL Live: ‘I don’t need to make the Live console sound good,’ he says. ‘You see the Solid State Logic name and you know it’s going to sound pretty cool – and it does. It sounds like you would expect.’

‘SSL, with the Live console, started in the spot where all the other manufacturers have to catch up,’ adds. ‘It’s clean and transparent, then you keep winding the gain knob and think, “wow, this sounds really cool”. I’m really excited to see where it’s going to go from here.

Presently, apart from a couple of reverb units, he is not using any plug-ins: ‘Everything I use is on the Live console,’ he confirms. ‘So that whole rack of stuff has gone out the window,’

Addng colour to Gueness’ monitor mixes are three SSL Fusion analogue processors, one across the console’s outputs to each of the band members’ in-ear monitors – the console and processors being provided by Clair Global’s Eighth Day Sound division.

Fusion offers a set of six tools that add character to stereo stems. In the past, Gueness needed a stack of compressors, limiters, de-essers, EQs and source enhancers to achieve the results he wanted on his vocal chains. Now, almost everything he needs is in the Fusion processors. ‘Just give me a console that sounds good from input to output, then I’ll add some things for flavour,’ he says. ‘Those Fusions have been a game-changer for me.’

In particular, he says tat the Violet EQ ‘sounds awesome’. The two-band EQ adds low-end weight and high-end sheen to any mix bus. Gueness also appreciates the HF Compressor section, which smooths high-end harshness with a tape-like high-frequency roll off. ‘The HF Compressor really tightens the top end. Then you can squish it down and make it usable,’ he says. ‘Fusion allows me to get back everything that I’ve lost in the summing of the outputs; I get space, depth and width back.’

Initially, Gueness was not entirely sure how the Fusion processors would perform for his application. ‘I had watched a bunch of videos on it and read some reviews, but I wasn’t sure how it was going to go for live and using it for monitors. I was really surprised; they’ve done everything I expected them to do. Those things are awesome, and I’m so glad I have them.’

He had left a source enhancer in his outboard rack for the band’s recent return to live performances at Red Rocks. ‘But now SSL has put the Sourcer in the plug-in list you have so much more control. You can change the speed setting, and the high-pass and low-pass filters are invaluable – it’s not reacting on stuff you don’t want it to react on,’ he says. ‘So the onboard Sourcerer has taken the place of the outboard unit.’

On previous tours, he also carried four outboard stereo bus compressors for main ear mixes. ‘Now I’ve gotten rid of those. With the G Compressor onboard the Live console I don’t need outboard compressors.’

The improvement in quality and character was immediately noticeable when he implemented the new monitor set-up: ‘The band all said, “Wow, this sounds really good”. And I can now hear things in the set that I’ve heard before but that weren’t that apparent. It’s so subtle, too, and nice and easy on the ears. There’s nothing abrasive. None of the processing on the Fusion is aggressive.’ But while it may be subtle, he says, it’s very effective – and essential: ‘If you take it away, you have to put it back.’

The band are sending 64 inputs to FOH and monitors, Gueness says. He adds a handful of extra inputs then generates nearly two dozen outputs to the band, technical crew, video, automation and other destinations.

‘Some of the output side is the most complicated, getting certain things to video and lighting,’ he says. ‘It’s very specific, so I have to tailor my outputs for that.’ The only thing wrong with the three Fusion processors he has out on tour is that he would ideally like to have four.

Beginning in September, Rüfüs Du Sol will play a series of U.S. festival dates, including Bonnaroo, Governor’s Ball, Austin City Limits and Outside Lands. Then, in November, they embark on a North American tour with two shows at Red Rocks, and stops in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Houston.