After a challenging three-year delay due to lockdowns and rescheduling, English Goth rockers The Mission successfully concluded a 33-date tour of European with support from four-piece English/German band Wires & Lights for many of the shows. The tour set-up included two Allen & Heath dLive S5000 consoles for FOH and monitors, along with a DM64 MixRack provided by TDA Germany.
Marek Komenda (FOH for The Mission), Thomas Neidhardt (FOH for Wires & Lights) and Mission monitor engineer Pavol ‘Pogy’ Pogany delivered unparalleled sound at sold-out venues. ‘Mixing on the dLive was very comfortable,’ says Neidhardt, a seasoned tour veteran who grew up with Allen & Heath ML series mixers. ‘The Deep plug-ins are brilliant, and I love the analogue characteristics of the Bucket Brigade Delay. Everyone appreciated the flexibility and power of the dLive, which was indispensable for this production, as we had two complete backlines set up on stage.’
Neidhardt also took care of mixing monitor wedges from FOH for the support band, along with several IEMs. ‘Despite the lack of production rehearsals, by the third night, I was completely flowing through the mixes with ease, and soundcheck readiness happened very fast with this dLive configuration.’ He comments.
Komenda incorporated extra outboard gear to ensure The Mission’s characteristic sound but also used Deep plug-ins, such as the Dual Threshold Expander, Dynamic EQ and the newer Bus compressor.
The dLive DM64 is the largest MixRack in the dLive range, providing 64 XLR mic/line inputs and 32 XLR line outputs plus three 128-channel audio networking slots. As with all dLive MixRacks, the it offers 128 input processing channels and 64 mix outputs with a configurable 64-bus architecture and super low 0.7ms latency, plus access to Allen & Heath’s Deep models of studio hardware units. The dLive S5000 is a 28-fader control surface with dual 12-inch touchscreens, 26 assignable SoftKeys and six assignable Rotaries. The Surface’s fully customisable layout enables engineers to build a workflow that reflects their mixing style.
The tour’s sound success was largely attributed to the convenience of the S5000 mixing surfaces and the dLive system allowing seamless switching between bands and recalling custom Scenes. ‘The decision to have the dLive S5000s on this tour was definitely the right choice,’ the team concludes.
More: www.allen-heath.com
